According to Osho, 'This is this' proclaims tantra’s here-now nonduality: the ordinary 'this' is all, already divine; 'that' and 'Brahma' are included within it. Hence no higher/lower or near/far split—world and Brahma are one. Stop searching in distant ideals; turn to the intimate present, where the master and the sacred appear as the utterly ordinary.
Everything right here and now—even the most ordinary—already holds God, so stop looking somewhere else.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
While `this is this' also includes `this is that,' and `that is brahma,' how is it that the sutra emphasizes only `this is this'?
Tantra says THIS not THAT, particularly in this technique. There are techniques in which THAT is discussed, but THIS is most tantric -- this, here and now, the most intimate. Your wife, your husband, THIS, your friend, the beggar, may be the master. But you are not looking at THIS; you are looking at THAT, there, somewhere in the clouds. You cannot even conceive that near you can be that quality of being. You cannot conceive; because you think you already know the near, so you search for it far away. You already feel that you know THIS, so now the only thing to be found is THAT. This is not true. You don't know THIS, you don't know the near. The near is as unknown as the far away. Have a look around you. You are not acquainted with anybody. You don't have any knowledge of anybody. Do you…
It is in the beginning, in the middle, and the end; yet end and beginning are nowhere else.
ALL THOSE WITH MINDS DELUDED BY INTERPRETATIVE THOUGHTS ARE IN TWO MINDS AND SO DISCUSS NOTHINGNESS AND COMPASSION AS TWO THINGS. BEES KNOW THAT IN FLOWERS HONEY CAN BE FOUND. THAT SAMSARA AND NIRVANA ARE NOT TWO HOW WILL THE DELUDED EVER UNDERSTAND? WHEN THE DELUDED IN A MIRROR LOOK THEY SEE A FACE, NOT A REFLECTION. SO THE MIND THAT HAS TRUTH DENIED RELIES ON THAT WHICH IS NOT TRUE. THOUGH THE FRAGRANCE OF A FLOWER CANNOT BE TOUCHED, 'TIS ALL PERVASIVE AND AT ONCE PERCEPTIBLE. SO BY UNPATTERNED BEING-IN-SELF RECOGNIZE THE ROUND OF MYSTIC CIRCLES. Tantra is NOT ordinary indulgence: it is extraordinary indulgence. It is not ordinary indulgence because it indulges in God Himself. But, Tantra says, it is through the small things of life that you have the taste. There are no big things in life; everything is small. The small thing becomes big and great…
Invocation
BRAHMAN IS WELL KNOWN BY THE NAME TATVANAM -- THAT -- SO IT IS TO BE MEDITATED UPON AS TATVANAM -- THAT. ALL BEINGS LOVE HIM WHO KNOW BRAHMAN AS SUCH. "SIR, TEACH ME THE UPANISHAD." "THE UPANISHAD HAS BEEN IMPARTED TO YOU. WE HAVE, VERILY, IMPARTED TO YOU THE UPANISHAD RELATING TO BRAHMAN." OF THE UPANISHAD, TAPAS -- AUSTERITIES; DAMAN -- SELF-RESTRAINT; AND KARMA -- DEDICATED WORK; FORM THE SUPPORT. THE VEDAS ARE ITS LIMBS, AND TRUTH ITS ABODE. ONE WHO REALIZES IT -- KNOWLEDGE OF BRAHMAN -- THUS DESTROYS SIN AND IS WELL ESTABLISHED IN BRAHMAN, THE INFINITE, THE BLISSFUL AND THE HIGHEST. So whatsoever is the case, if you can feel it is so and nothing else is possible, then that which is possible happens. It is always happening -- that which is possible. And that which is impossible is never happening. And if you start asking…
The one who has the attribute of being the embodiment of maya, illusion, who is the source of the universe, who has the characteristics of omniscience etcetera, and is the embodiment of indirectness, multiplicity and truth etcetera, is known by the word tat -- 'that'. The one who seems to be in support of the 'I' as an experience as well as a word and who is experienced as separate from the conscience, is called by the word tvam -- 'thou'. There are two attributes: maya, illusion, to the universal soul, and avidya, ignorance, to the embodied soul. On abandoning the two, what is seen is the per
During the first world war hundreds of thousands of people were killed. During the first two to three years of the postwar period, the birth-rate of boys noticeably increased and that of the girls decreased. Later on the ratio of their birth-rates settled down to normal. This triggered some thinking. The same thing repeated itself again after the second world war. Then it was realized that nature keeps on balancing the opposites from within. You need never think that some day on this earth there will be only light and no darkness. This cannot happen. Darkness and light will always remain balanced. The discovery of anti-matter is based on this same principle that the world is a balance of opposites. So if there is matter, what is opposite to it? And the concept of the physicists is very complex. For example, if a stone is kept on a table, it…
These four (truth, knowledge, infinity and bliss) are the characteristics, and that which is changeless, in spite of symbolic objects like space, time, et cetera, is called tat or that, which is the equivalent of paramatma or the supreme self.
Then there are so-called teachers who will say, "Be humble. Be egoless" -- and then we begin to cultivate humility. With the ego on the throne, we begin to cultivate humility; then the ego takes on the garb of humility. And really, it is difficult to find a more egoist person than the so-called humble one. So what to do now? I feel it as a necessity: ego has to be developed. As far as the child is concerned, ego has to be developed -- it is a necessary evil. It has to be developed, but a moment comes where it becomes useless. The moment you are mature, the moment you are conscious, the moment you are alert, grown-up, you need not have the ego -- you can step beyond it. One has to be on the step of the ego, and then one has to step out of it.…