Why does falling in love feel like dying?

Why does it feel like you are dying when you are in love? Is falling in love a suicidal desire? Or just a self-destructive instinct like the lemmings' march to the sea or a moth's flight into a flame? It's weird.

LOVE is DEATH, but the one who dies in love has never existed really. It is the unreal self, the idea of an ego, that dies. So love is death, it is suicide, it is dangerous. That's why millions of people have decided against love. They live a loveless life. They have decided in favour of the ego -- but ego is false. And you can go on clinging to the false and the false will never become real. So the life of an egoist always remains in insecurity. How can you make something unreal real? It is always disappearing. You have to cling to it, you have to constantly create it again and again. It is a self-deception. And it creates misery. Misery is the function of the unreal. The real is blissful -- SATCHITANAND. The truth is blissful, and the truth is awareness. SAT means truth, CHIT means…

I am in love, and I feel like a moth dying into a candle flame. Am I meant somehow to extricate myself and be aware and alone, or to die into the flame. In joy, in agony, it goes on and on...

Madhuri, die! because to die in love is to be reborn. It is not death, it is the beginning of true life. To die without love is death. To live without love is death. To be in love is to know something of God, because as Jesus says, "God is love." I have even improved upon it: I say love is God. Die, Madhuri, die. Utterly. Abandon yourself. Be lost. There is no need to protect yourself against love, because love is not the enemy. Love is the only friend. Don't protect yourself. Don't hide from love. Don't be afraid of love. When love calls, go with it. Wherever it leads, go with it, go in trust. Yes, there will be moments of agony, because they are always there when there are moments of ecstasy. They come together, it is one package; just like day and night, summer and winter,…

How is it possible? -- I'm afraid when I feel your love deep inside me.

She thinks it is a sort of contradiction: if she loves so much, then why this fear? And I tell you, the fear is there because she loves so much. There is no contradiction in it. It is an absolutely consistent thing -- whenever you love you are afraid. Moving towards love is moving towards an abyss. One starts wavering, one feels dizzy. Go to a height in the Himalayas and look down at the valley; that valley is no-thing. When you look down at the valley of love, a TREMENDOUS fear grips you. You are almost paralyzed: you cannot run away, you cannot take the jump. You simply tremble in infinite fear. What to do? Going back is not possible because love attracts: love calls your depth, love calls your future, love calls your potentiality; love gives you a glimpse of what you can be. You cannot run away…

OSHO: Love is the most intoxicating phenomenon. It is the wine that wells up within. It is not something chemical that comes from the outside, it is not even part of the body, not part of the mind either. It is the dance of the heart in tune with the whole. Love is your heart in deep harmony with the heart of the universe. Then there is great intoxication. And yet the intoxication does not make you unconscious; on the contrary it makes you more conscious than ever. That's the paradox of love: on one hand one is intoxicated, on the other hand one has never been so aware before. It is an intoxication that makes you wake up. HER SIX-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER: PREM GARIMA, GLORY OF LOVE. NENE BECOMES MA PREM KUNDAN OSHO: It is by passing through the fire of love that one becomes one's real self.

Osho, I have fallen in love with chuang tzu, with joshu, with mumon, with bodhidharma. How can I not follow them? I feel already they have transformed me. How can I not be thankful?

Let me tell you one anecdote first. When Rabbi Nor, Rabbi Moudekai's son, assumed the succession after his father's death, his disciples noted that there were a number of ways in which he conducted himself differently to his father, and asked him about this. 'I do just as my father did,' he replied.'He did not imitate and I do not imitate.' Meditate over this anecdote. He said,'I do just as my father did. He did not imitate and I do not imitate.' If you really understand Joshu, Bodhidharma or me, you will not imitate -- because I have not imitated, because Bodhidharma never imitated anybody. Joshu used to say to his disciples,'If you utter Buddha's name, go and rinse your mouth immediately.' Joshu also used to say,'If you meet the Buddha on the way, kill him immediately.' And he used to worship Buddha every day. Ordinarily Zen looks puzzling, but…