According to Osho, the seeker’s mountain tale reveals the chasm between our projections and reality: mistaking a skull for a crystal bowl mirrors how we live in illusions. Recognizing this and laughing at one’s own stupidity becomes a liberating breakthrough—the shift from darkness to light. The lesson: watch the mind’s projections, stop blaming others, drop make‑ups and hallucinations, and live with what is.
We often imagine things nicer than they are; when we notice our own make‑believe and can laugh at it, we wake up to reality.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, I WAS BORN IN THE MOUNTAINS, AND THROUGHOUT MY CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH I WAS PULLED TO EXPLORE, CLIMB, OR JUST SIT ON THE PEAKS, ON THE STEEP WALLS, OR BY THE SIDE OF A GLACIER STREAM. I LIVED IN THE MOUNTAINS, AND THEY FED ME, LIKE A MOTHER, WITH SOMETHING VERY PRECIOUS. SOMEWHERE I READ THAT THE MOUNTAINS, THE HIGH, SNOW-CAPPED PEAKS ARE THE VERY ESSENCE OF BUDDHA. OSHO, THE BEAUTY THAT SURROUNDS YOU, THE COOL BREEZE THAT HOVERS AROUND YOU, IS LIKE THE ONE COMING FROM THE HIGHEST, THE WILDEST PEAK IN THE WORLD. I'VE BEEN WITH YOU FOR SEVEN YEARS, AND IN THIS LAST PERIOD OF TIME I FELT THAT I WAS PASSING THROUGH THE SAME PASTURES, THE SAME PLAINS I REMEMBER LEAVING FOR THE HEIGHTS SEVEN YEARS AGO.
Osho, where to go—we can’t see! We set out but there is no path! What are we seeking—we’ve no idea! We keep weaving dreams, breath by breath.
All peace, meditation—forgotten. Such bad company!” Religious leaders give blessings at marriages. Whenever there is a wedding, the guru blesses. It is a whole conspiracy. He blesses: “Live long, may your sorrows end now.” Three months later the young man returns: “Master, we don’t want to live long! Take back your blessing! And what was that you said—that now our sorrows will end—what did it mean? I wasn’t suffering before!” The priest said, “Child, I didn’t say which end. Sorrows have two ends. One where they begin, and one where they end. Two extremities. I never said which end had come. Now you know which end arrived.” And the priest said, “Don’t worry—however soon you die, it will feel as if you lived for ages.” For a married man, life feels long indeed. It just doesn’t pass. He devises ways to kill time—playing cards, reciting ballads of Alha-Udal, as if…
Question: First question: Osho, Searching for you I have wandered who knows where. Neither heaven says a word, nor does hell open its gate. I look into every eye, feeling for your picture, and I have wandered who knows where. Are these just the gaps between breaths, or only distances upon distances? You too say nothing—your lips never open. How long must I keep walking, groping about in everyone’s heart? Where are you and where am I? Searching for you I have wandered who knows where. I could not meet you on the earth, nor could I fix your address in the sky. I searched everywhere for you and yet did not find you. Now, in searching, I set out after myself—who knows where I strayed. Ah, what is this? Your address is found: your image in my eyes, like musk that dwells within the deer.
Osho, on 21-3-80 at about eight in the evening, I was in Bombay. During meditation the body collapsed; my glasses and mala broke, and when I came to, it was nine o’clock. I don’t know what happened in between, or how it happened. Beloved Master, please be compassionate and say something to guide me.
Mulla Nasruddin got up one night and jabbed his wife—“Quick, bring my glasses!” She didn’t know what was going on—a thief in the house? She ran and brought the glasses. Mulla quickly put them on and lay flat on his back, eyes closed. The wife said, “What’s the matter? What’s going on? Are you in your senses? Why call for glasses in the middle of the night?” “Shut up,” he said, “don’t mess it up! I’m seeing a very beautiful dream. It was looking a little hazy, so I thought I’d call for my glasses.” But then even the haziness didn’t appear; he squinted hard, changed sides, and began to get angry with his wife: “Wretch, you messed it up! If only you had kept quiet! You spoiled everything.” The wife is not at fault. No one is at fault. In this world we keep throwing blame on others. Do…
The official, riko, once asked nansen to explain to him the old problem of the goose in the bottle. "if a man puts a gosling into a bottle," said riko, "and feeds him until he is full grown, how can the man get the goose out without killing it or breaking the bottle?" nansen gave a great clap with his hands and shouted, "riko!" "yes, master," said the official with a start. "see," said nansen, "the goose is out!"
To carry fantasies about the future is a problem. A passport is not such a burden. To think about tomorrow and to go and book a ticket is not a problem. These are factual things, ordinary, practical things. But to think that tomorrow you will be happy, not today, that tomorrow you will love, not today, that tomorrow you will sing, not today, is dangerous -- because tomorrow never comes. Again when it comes, it will be today, and your old habit will say, "Tomorrow I will be happy." Tomorrow again and again, you will be happy, and you will never be happy. What I am saying is psychological future has to be dropped. The ordinary future is okay, it is not a problem at all. The fifth layer consists of conditionings. You have been conditioned -- Hindu, Mohammedan, Jaina, Buddhist, English, German, Indian -- these layers are there. Start…