According to Osho, consciousness has no source; it is the source and substance of existence—another, more scientific name for God. Everything, even matter, is condensed consciousness. You cannot go beyond it; it has always been. To know this, don’t debate endlessly—meditate. As awareness awakens, questions dissolve and you recognize yourself as consciousness itself.
Consciousness is the basic stuff of everything and has no beginning—find it by quieting your mind in meditation.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, what is the source of your infinite spring of giving?
Beware! While the time is there, give, give as much as you can, give whatsoever you can. Sing a song, share a joke, dance! Give whatsoever you can give. It costs you nothing, but it will bring you more and more joys. Existence goes on repaying you tremendously. Whatsoever you give to existence, it returns a thousandfold; it comes back to you. You give one flower, and a thousand flowers shower on you. Don't be clingers. If you really want to be rich, if you want to have an enriched inner world, then learn the art of giving. THOSE WHO DARE GIVE NOTHING ARE LEFT WITH LESS THAN NOTHING; DEAR HEART, YOU GIVE ME EVERYTHING, WHICH LEAVES YOU MORE THAN EVERYTHING -- THOUGH THOSE WHO DARE GIVE NOTHING MIGHT JUDGE IT LEFT YOU NOTHING. GIVING YOU EVERYTHING, I TOO, WHO ONCE HAD NOTHING, AM LEFT WITH MORE THAN EVERYTHING AS…
Osho, is consciousness not matter?
No—no. In fact, if you understand what I mean: as I just said, there is something—when it is aroused it is called mind; when unaroused it is called soul. There is such a something; something is—there is no need for a name. Call it Brahman if you like, or call it something else—it makes no difference, because the trouble begins the moment you give it a name. There is something that appears to us in two forms—conscious and unconscious. There is a state where it is absolutely vibrationless; there it seems unconscious, it seems material. And there is another of its modes where it is filled with perfect vibration; there it appears conscious, it appears as consciousness. These are two different aspects of the same thing, two functions of the same reality. The conscious and the unconscious are not matter; rather, they are two functions of one and the same…
Beloved Osho, when I was a student at a japanese buddhist university I heard the word consciousness. Beloved Osho, what does it mean?
Kranti Satbodha, consciousness you already have, but only in a very small proportion. It is just like an iceberg -- one tenth is above water and the rest is under water. Just a little bit is conscious in you. I am saying something and you are listening to it; without consciousness it is not possible. These pillars of Chuang Tzu Auditorium are not listening -- they don't have consciousness. But we are aware only of a very small piece of consciousness. Meditation is the whole science of bringing more and more consciousness out of darkness. The only way is to be as conscious as possible twenty-four hours a day. Sitting, sit consciously, not like a mechanical robot; walking, walk consciously, alert to each movement; listening, listen more and more consciously, so that each word comes to you in its crystal clear purity, its definitiveness. While listening, be silent, so that…
Osho, before discussing the process of entering a conscious death, I would like to ask: what is the difference between stupor and awakening? What do we call the state of unconsciousness? In other words, in wakefulness and in unconsciousness, what is the state of the jivatma’s consciousness?
Religion is a search for attention; so, in their own way, are gambling, battle, hunting. The man who enters the forest to hunt a lion is also seeking attention; so is the yogi in a cave striving at the ajna chakra. The search may be noble or ignoble, desirable or undesirable, successful or futile—but the underlying hunger is one. Attention means: the knowing power within me becomes fully manifest—no part left potential or dormant. Whatever capacity to know I carry turns from potential into actual. In the moment a person is fully awake, in that very moment he fully is. Awakening and being happen together. Think of a seed: the tree is hidden in the seed, but only potentially. The seed can die without becoming a tree; the tree is not a necessity, only a possibility. When the tree manifests, it is the seed in its expressed form. Sleep is…
Osho, in the thought-free state you describe, consciousness would have to be passive in its very being. So if the conscious mind becomes completely thoughtless and inactive, what difference remains between that and inert existence? When there is nothing to do and mere being is the goal, is there any difference between such a state and dead stillness? What purpose could the existence of consciousness have for us? Please explain the difference between the existence of a wooden chair and a thought-free, inactive human existence.
Then Huxley wrote that that day it occurred to him: LSD itself does nothing; it is a consciousness-expanding drug. For a few moments your awareness expands a little. And with just that small expansion, the chair became alive! So Huxley wrote, “Now I can believe those who looked at a stone and bowed as if before God; their consciousness must have had some other expansion.” He also wrote, “Now I can believe someone like Van Gogh, who painted a chair.” Why paint a chair? Can you imagine sitting down to paint and choosing a chair? And a unique painter like Van Gogh labors for months to paint a chair—must he be mad? Is a chair worth painting? But Huxley said that until then he had never understood why Van Gogh painted a chair; then he understood Van Gogh must have seen this chair in another moment of consciousness, which he…