According to Osho, the boat reaches the other shore the moment you awaken—because there is no other shore. The ‘boat’ is awareness, not a vehicle in space or time. When mind’s chatter ceases and you are silently present here-now, this very shore is the other shore. No journey, no elsewhere; awaken amidst life.
There’s nowhere to go—just wake up right now, and you’re already where you want to be.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
When does the boat reach the other shore?
Deva Vigyan, there is no other shore, this is the only shore there is. And it is not a question of reaching somewhere else, it is a question of awakening here and now. It is never there, it is always here; it is never then, it is always now. This moment contains the totality of reality. The boat I am talking about is not really a boat. I am talking about becoming aware. Man has fallen asleep -- man is already where he needs to be, where he is meant to be. Man is in paradise. The garden of Eden has never been left, nobody can expel you from it. But you can fall asleep, and you can start dreaming a thousand and one things. Then those dreams become your reality, and the reality fades far away, becomes unreal. You need not go anywhere. Meditation is neither a journey in…
Asked by Dharma Bharati: Osho, my taste for the world is fading, and a sadness has come. It feels as if this shore of life is slipping from my hands, and I have not even glimpsed the other shore. Loneliness frightens me, and I clutch at this shore again. Osho, what should I do? How do I reach there?
Buddha said, “Anand, don’t be angry. I understand their secret, because I am doing the same. There is no village ahead. They are kind; they don’t say ‘You won’t arrive.’ They say, ‘Keep going, keep going,’ so you don’t collapse with exhaustion, don’t stop in sorrow, don’t fall into despair. They aren’t lying; they are keeping your courage alive by saying, ‘Just about two miles… almost there.’ This is the method of the Buddhas. They always say: ‘There is the other shore. You don’t see it; I do. Come, come.’ First, the initial shore drops away. When it does, naturally you ask even more urgently, ‘Where is the second?’ And the awakened ones say, ‘Just about two miles…’ Gradually they bring you to the place where you yourself see: there is neither a first shore nor a second shore. The very idea of arrival is meaningless.” Life is an endless…
Osho, with a foot in two boats, how will one ever cross the river!
Within you there are two brains. The left brain is different, the right brain is different. You can check this with scientists now. When you lie on one side, one hemisphere works. When you lie on the other side, the other hemisphere works. Each dreams differently. When you breathe through one nostril, one hemisphere functions; when the breath shifts to the other nostril, the other hemisphere begins to function. Therefore within you great transformations of thoughts and moods keep happening. In a moment you appear cheerful, in a moment you become angry; your hemispheres are switching. About every forty minutes, when your breath shifts from one nostril to the other, notice: your mood-state also changes. This goes on twenty-four hours. At night too, when you change sides, your mood-state changes. So the old sannyas was like changing sides in sleep. The sleep continues; only the dream changes. Naturally, a man…
Beloved master, how can I go to the other shore when I am trying to be herenow? It is a mess in my mind when I think of that, but somewhere in my heart I feel a kind of rest.
That's what a metaphor is: a dialogue which is done in whispers, a dialogue which is done in a poetic way; not prose, not clear-cut, not mathematical -- vague, mysterious. You cannot attack reality; you can only persuade, you can seduce reality. It is a love affair, not a rape. That's where religion and science are different. Science is a kind of rape on reality. It tries to snatch truth from reality forcibly, violently; hence it destroys the natural equilibrium, the natural balance. It destroys ecology, it destroys the harmony, the accord of existence. It IS a rape, because science speaks in the language of conquest. Religion is a love affair, it is not a rape. Religion woos reality, persuades, slowly slowly, in a very indirect way. One has to be exquisitely graceful, hence these metaphors. "The other shore" is a beautiful metaphor, but let me remind you: this is…
Somebody once in a while dares to come in and is shocked why he has missed for so many years. He may even be living in Poona, he may be passing the gate every day, but just to be associated is dangerous because these people in the Buddha Auditorium don't belong to any religion, don't belong to any nation, don't belong to any stupid ideas of inequality. Here nobody is a man or a woman, nobody is rich or poor. Everybody is in the same boat making every effort to reach to the other shore. And the other shore is not far away. It needs only a little meditativeness, a little silence. We are touching the other shore every night. It has to be touched many times before you become acquainted with the new space, the new world.