According to Osho, the observed arises from the observer’s own unconsciousness: maya, like a dream, is a projection born from sleep, slumber, and repression. When awareness is absent, the mind decorates lies that appear true; when awareness dawns, the projection withdraws. Thus, your experiences reveal your inner state, not objective reality.
What you see is like a dream you’re making while half-asleep; wake up and it fades.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
The observer is not the observed -- then where does the observed spring from? And what about our continual projections? Is it all illusion? And yet, can't the nature of the illusion throw light on its creator-observer?
When the meeting was over he would stand up, say a word of farewell and thanks, and go his way. Nobody knew anything about him, though when he first appeared there were rumors that he was great saint. For a long time the other guests thought that he must indeed be a man of sanctity and knowledge and they looked forward to the time when he might impart some of his wisdom to them. Some of them even boasted of his attendance at their meetings to their friends, hinting at the special distinction which they felt in his presence. Gradually, however, because they could feel no relationship with this man developing, the guests came to suspect that he was an imitator, perhaps a fraud Several of them felt uncomfortable in his presence. He seemed to do nothing to harmonize himself with the atmosphere, and didn't even contribute a proverb to…
That which is beginningless and yet which ends, which is neither being nor non-being and which in itself is seen as the purest of energies is called maya or the magical world. It cannot be described in any other way except this.
THIS MAYA IS IGNORANCE-LIKE, PETTY AND UNREAL, BUT IS SEEN BY THE DELUDED PERSONS AS REAL AT ALL TIMES -- PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. THEREFORE TO SAY THAT IT IS SUCH CANNOT EXPLAIN ITS REAL CHARACTER. Now, the enquiry goes into MAYA. After brahman, it must be discussed. By maya is meant something which IS and yet IS NOT, which appears to be -- the appearance. Things as they appear to us are not as they are. Immanuel Kant says somewhere that we cannot know the thing in itself; a thing cannot be known in itself. Whatsoever we know about a thing is a projection; it is a contribution, we have contributed something to it. When you fall in love with someone, it is your projection. You contribute to your beloved, to your lover, something -- you give something, and then you are impressed by your own contribution. This is…
The self, deluded by maya, identifies with the body and does all actions. In the waking
STATES IT IS HE, THE SAME SELF, WHO FINDS GRATIFICATION THROUGH THE VARIOUS OBJECTS OF ENJOYMENT, SUCH AS WOMEN, FOOD, WINE, ET CETERA. IN THE DREAM STATE THAT VERY SAME INDIVIDUALIZED EGO EXPERIENCES PLEASURE AND PAIN IN A FIELD OF EXPERIENCES CREATED BY ITS OWN MAYA, THE LEAST APPREHENSIVE OF REALITY. DURING THE STATE OF PROFOUND SLEEP, WHEN EVERYTHING IS MERGED, IT IS OVERPOWERED BY TAMAS, INERTIA, AND EXPERIENCES IT AS As we live, as we are, it is a deep hypnosis. Whatsoever we feel, whatsoever we think, is based on hypnotic projections. In some face I see beauty; that beauty doesn't belong to the face, because someone else may not feel it as beautiful at all. It belongs to my projection. When I say some face is beautiful, I am projecting something from me; and the face is just a screen, because someone else may see the face as…
You sit in a cinema; you never look back. What would you see—there is nothing to see! Everything happens on the screen: color, form, song, music flow across it. The interesting thing is that nothing happens on the screen; the screen is empty. Only a web of light and shade is thrown. The screen itself is empty; everything happens behind—where the projector is. “Projector” is a good word. What we call “superimposed” or “imagined” is what English calls “projection.” The projector is behind; it throws images onto the screen. And on the screen—where nothing is—everything appears. Where it appears, it is not; and where it is, you sit with your back turned, not seeing. A snake appears on the rope; the rope is only playing the role of the screen and my mind is projecting—throwing the shadow of a snake on the rope.
Beloved Osho, it seems as if everything I perceive in or out of meditation is my own creation or projection. I can't distinguish between what I see, feel or am creating. Osho, what is?
There is no need to distinguish between thoughts, dreams and reality. If you try, you will feel more confused. There is no way to distinguish, because as far as mind is concerned everything appears in the mind as a thought. It may be real, it may not be real; but the moment anything appears in the mind it appears in the form of thought. You cannot distinguish, and there is no need. And don't go on that journey, because that journey becomes a journey of thinking, and meditation is lost. Rather, on the contrary, remain centered in your witnessing. Don't be worried by the objects in the mind; whatsoever they are, they are mind stuff. You simply remain more centered in your witnessing. Just be the watcher. Don't try to distinguish. Whatsoever appears in the mind, just watch it. Watch it appearing, watch it being there, watch it disappearing. Sooner…