According to Osho, the simplicity and innocence of consciousness is the no-mind state: a present-centered awareness free of memory, imagination, worry and ego. Remaining in the middle - neither past nor future - one meets "what is," the ever-present divine. In this meditative innocence, mind becomes a useful servant, not the master, and the whole procession of inner conflicts subsides into clear, effortless being.
It means just being here now, not lost in yesterday or tomorrow, letting thoughts be tools while your quiet awareness leads.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you always praise a simple, innocent consciousness. What is this simplicity, this innocence?
The man said, “Then send me to the Indian one; I don’t want the German.” That difference was enough. The Germans refined it further—they read your scriptures and perfected them. German intellect knows how to refine things, arrange them, run everything by the clock. Even in the ashram I have given the electricity work to Haridas—a German sannyasin. However many times Pune’s electricity fails, the ashram’s does not. Let Pune fail, but not the ashram. Haridas takes great care; he has arranged everything—automatic generators: the moment the power fails, they kick in; you can’t even tell there was a failure. Where has this been learned? This much evil in the world—your saints had already arranged for it in the scriptures. Hell for others, heaven for themselves. These are not marks of simple-hearted people. A simple person—why would he think of hell and heaven? He has no such notions, no such…
What is innocence? Does being innocent require one to live a simple life?
Jaina saints live naked; their requirements are almost nil. Living a naked life in a cave, in a primitive way, they seem to be very nonpossessive. But that is only the appearance. Deep down they are hankering for heaven, deep down they are greedy. Deep down they are thinking that nobody is more humble, more pious than they are. Deep down they think of you as sinners and themselves as saints. This is a very complex situation. This is a fight with themselves. They have divided themselves into two: the higher and the lower. Even in the body they have a division: the higher part and the lower part. Above the sexual organs the body is higher, below the sexual organs it is lower -- as if the body were divided anywhere! These stupid people should know that the body is one. The blood circulates continuously from the feet to…
Osho, the path of simplicity is the second one. What is it?
The first path is to try to be simple, to make an effort, to practice it. Cultivated simplicity is always false. Because to practice, by its very meaning, is to practice against your own mind; otherwise, what is the practice against? If being naked is blissful for me, I will not call it practice. If wearing clothes is blissful for me and then I start practicing being naked, will nakedness be a “practice”? And if being naked is simply blissful—if wearing clothes never gave me the joy that comes from being naked—then no one would call it a practice. It is my joy. We practice only that which is contrary to us; practice means repression. Practice is inevitably repression. And wherever effort is required, against whom is that effort made—against oneself? No effort made against oneself can ever win. How could it win? Who would win? How can I win…
Are mind and consciousness two separate things or is the silent mind (or the concentrated mind) what is called 'consciousness'?
IT DEPENDS. IT DEPENDS ON YOUR DEFINITION. But to me, mind is that part which has been given to you. It is not yours. Mind means the borrowed, mind means the cultivated, mind means that which the society has penetrated into you. It is not you. Consciousness is your nature; mind is just the circumference created by the society around you, the culture, your education. Mind means the conditioning. You can have a Hindu mind, but you cannot have a Hindu consciousness. You can have a Christian mind, but you can't have a Christian consciousness. Consciousness is one; it is not divisible. Minds are many because societies are many; cultures, religions are many. Each culture, each society, creates a different mind. Mind is a social by-product. And unless this mind dissolves, you cannot go within; you cannot know what is really your nature, what is authentically your existence, your consciousness.…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, CAN INNOCENCE BE AWARE OF ITSELF? Maneesha, innocence cannot be aware of itself. The moment it is aware of itself, it is no longer innocent; corruption has already entered in, the ego has started forming itself. Innocence does not know that it is innocent. Innocence simply knows, "I don't know." But it is not aware that this is called "innocence"; the moment it becomes aware, suddenly it is lost. Hence those who are aware of their innocence are the greatest egoists in the world. The ego has such subtle ways, that it goes on coming from the back door... you may throw it out from the front door, and it will come from the back door again. And each time it will come in such a way that you cannot hear its footsteps.