What should I do to understand your teachings?

Osho, when you sit silently, that silence doesn’t come within our grasp. But when you begin to speak, a glimpse of silence appears between two sentences, between two words. Yet in becoming so absorbed in understanding the meaning of your speech, that silence keeps slipping away. So please explain: when we listen, how should we listen to you?

It will be so—naturally. When I sit utterly silent, you are not able to sit silent; inside you the stream of thoughts flows, an undercurrent keeps moving—you start talking to yourself. The habit of inner talking has become so deep, so carved in stone, that not even for a moment do you find rest within. If I sit completely silent, you will simply forget me. Your inner stream becomes active, your old habit seizes you, you get absorbed in inner conversation. It’s a monologue—you speak alone, yet you do speak. Then even my silence is hard for you to see, because we can only see that which has its opposite as a background. A psychologist once did an experiment at a university. On a large black blackboard he drew a tiny white dot and asked the students, “What do you see?” Not one of them saw the big blackboard; all…

Question: Second question: Osho, I don’t understand what you say. What should I do? Both are unwise. Both were in a hurry. There’s no hurry to be for or against. Patience is needed. The art of listening comes only to the patient. Listen in stillness, in silence. Listen just to listen—“for now, let me simply hear.” Listen as you would to the roar of the ocean, the rumble of thunder. At such a time you don’t think, Is it right or wrong? Does it conform to the Vedas? Are the verses of the Quran for or against this mountain stream? You must have heard the story. Three pundits finished their studies in Kashi and set out for home. They halted in a forest at night. In the morning, hungry, they decided to cook. One was a botanist. “You go buy the vegetables; who better than you to choose?

Beloved Osho, when you sit silently, we are not able to tune into that silence. But when you are speaking, we are able to get some glimpses of the silence between the words, between the sentences. But it is so tempting to listen to the meaning of your words, that this silence keeps slipping from our hands. So could you please explain to us how we should listen to you.

If you listen to your own advice, you will pay attention to the words. If you listen to my advice, don't bother about the words, just attend to the silence, because whatever I am saying is not in the words but in the silences. What I want to point out to you is not in the lines but in between the lines where there is space. And if I am using words at all, it is just like using the blackboard so that you can see the white dot. It is just to show you the white dot -- the blackboard as such has no meaning of its own. So when you are listening to me, don't bother yourself searching for the meaning; meaning will manifest itself out of the empty spaces, you will find the meaning in the silences. Listen to the words, but catch the silences. It is…

How can I understand that which you really want to convey?

There are three ways. One is the most usual and the most superficial -- through the words. It is very fragmentary, and there is more possibility of misunderstanding me than understanding me. Language is not adequate. There are things which go beyond it. But that is the usual. That's what we have been trained for -- we understand only words. And we know that when I use a word and you hear it, you hear the word but you don't hear my meaning. My meaning is left behind. The word goes like an empty shell and you put your meaning into it. Meaning will be yours. So that is not the right way. To begin with, okay, but to cling to it is not going to lead you anywhere very deep. The young vicar and his bride had just undressed and were ready to taste the fruits of love. But…

Osho, what you say I neither understand nor even hear. What should I do?

No. People come wanting everyone else to change; the whole world should change. “Let me remain as I am; let the world change to suit me. Let me remain as I am; let the world adjust to me, accommodate me.” Then you won’t hear me. The world will not become as you like; it cannot. You will have to awaken. There are things to which you must become aligned. There are things that are adverse and will remain adverse—you must accept their adversity. And favorable and unfavorable—both are small matters. Beyond both lies another realm—that is what I’m pointing to. You must learn to rise beyond both favor and disfavor; you must transcend both. That transcendence is meditation. That state beyond duality—where one rises above pleasure and pain, above illness and health, above body and mind—that state beyond duality is my message. Call it meditation—the inner aspect is meditation; the…