What is the significance of daydreaming about enlightenment?

I have taken lately to daydreaming about enlightenment -- even more delicious than love and fame. Have you any comment to make about daydreaming?

When you fall in love with a woman or a man, what are you doing exactly? You were carrying a dream inside you; now suddenly the woman functions as a screen -- you project your dream on her. You start feeling, "My dream is fulfilled." The woman projects her dream on you; you function as a screen, and she feels her dream is fulfilled. If you go on dreaming, some day or other you will find a screen, somebody will become a screen, and your dream will be fulfilled. But Enlightenment is not a dream. It is a dropping of all dreams. So please don't dream about Enlightenment. Love is possible through dreaming in fact, it is possible only through dreaming. Fame is possible through dreaming -- in fact, it is only possible through dreaming, it happens ONLY to dreamers. But Enlightenment is not possible through dreaming -- the very…

Osho, what is the most significant thing about enlightenment?

People want definite answers to believe in: this way or that. Either be a Catholic or be a communist, but be clear. People want clarity because they are so confused, and this man brings all these seven categories; now their confusion is worse, they are even more confounded. First you were at least aware that you were confused. Now you will not be aware to which category you belong: yes, no, yes -- no both, neither yes nor no, or indescribable. Mahavira could not create a world religion for the simple reason that perhaps he had the deepest penetration into reality. If you ask about his enlightenment, he will answer in seven sentences. You will not be able to come to any conclusion -- and I feel this is something tremendously valuable. Why this urge to come to a conclusion? If existence is a continuum, an ongoing process -- never…

Is it possible to become enlightened in a dream?

Not only possible -- whenever it happens, it always happens in a dream. Whatsoever you think is your waking consciousness, that too is not waking; that too is dreaming. While sitting here in front of me, do you think you are awake? I don't see it. I can hear your snore. And if you listen minutely, you will be able to hear it yourself: a deep snoring inside, a deep sleep -- and dreams and dreams. In sleep, only dreams can happen. That's what we have been insisting in this country continuously: that your world is illusory, it is MAYA. When Shankara says the world is MAYA, he's not talking about HIS world. He's talking about YOUR world. Because in sleep, how can you know that which is real? The sleep distorts. A totally different world is created by sleep: a world of dream. Whatsoever you call your life is…

"does an enlightened person ever dream? Can you tell us something about the quality and nature of an enlightened person's sleep?"

No, an enlightened person cannot dream. And if you like dreams very much, never become enlightened. Beware! Dreaming is part of sleep. The first thing is that for dreaming to happen you have to move into sleep. For ordinary dreams you have to move into sleep. In sleep you become unconscious. When you are unconscious, dreams can happen. They happen only in your unconsciousness. An enlightened person is conscious even while asleep. He cannot become unconscious. Even if you give him an anaesthetic -- chloroform or something like that -- only his periphery goes to sleep. He remains conscious; his consciousness cannot be disturbed. Krishna says in the Gita that while everyone is asleep the yogi is awake. It is not that yogis are not going to sleep in the night; they also sleep, but their sleep has a different quality. Only their bodies sleep, and then their sleep is…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, BEFORE SEEKING YOU'VE INDICATED YOU WANT ME TO INSTRUCT YOU BY LETTER IN THE DIRECT ESSENTIALS. THIS VERY THOUGHT OF SEEKING INSTRUCTION IN THE DIRECT ESSENTIALS HAS ALREADY STUCK YOUR HEAD INTO A BOWL OF GLUE. THOUGH I SHOULDN'T ADD ANOTHER LAYER OF FROST TO THE SNOW, NEVERTHELESS WHERE THERE'S A QUESTION IT SHOULDN'T GO UNANSWERED. I ASK YOU TO ABANDON AT ONCE ALL THE JOY YOU'VE EVER FELT IN READING THE WORDS OF THE SCRIPTURES YOURSELF OR WHEN BEING AROUSED AND INSTRUCTED BY OTHERS. BE TOTALLY WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING, AS BEFORE, LIKE A THREE-YEAR-OLD CHILD. THOUGH THE INNATE CONSCIOUSNESS IS THERE, IT DOESN'T OPERATE. THEN CONTEMPLATE WHAT'S THERE BEFORE THE THOUGHT OF SEEKING THE DIRECT ESSENTIALS ARISES: OBSERVE AND OBSERVE.