Because talking splits the One into two, teachers say “Heaven and Earth” as the least-wrong pointer to what can’t be said.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, why has this silent experience of the Nameless been given dualistic names like Heaven and Earth, or consciousness and matter? Why has nonduality not been expressed?
Expression can only be of duality; nonduality remains inexpressible. So, at the most, in speaking, what can be done is two—in speech. The nearest to truth that speech can come is two—in speech. Outside speaking, only one remains. But language cannot say anything without breaking it into two. If Lao Tzu is speaking, writing, he is committing the minimum mistake possible. Nothing more accurate can be done with words. And even if we want to deny this, we will still have to use words. Then we say “nondual”—not two. Yet to say “not two” we still use the two. Even to say “not,” one has to say it. The two will follow us. As long as we make the effort to speak, the two will follow us. Leave speaking, and the one remains. You may say, “Why don’t we just say ‘one’?” But we don’t notice what happens. The moment…
Question: bhagwan sri, why has this silent manifestation of the unknown been given different basic names like, heaven, earth, matter and consciousness? Why has the manifestation of the absolute not been given?
The man died. so did Farid. Neither the man went to Farid wit!l his question. nor did anyone hear Farid s answer. When he was on his death-bed others reminded Farid about the answer he said he already had for the man."We are anxious to hear your answer. Please tell us," They pleaded. Farid was silent. "Please tell us," they urged. "You are about to die. Let not the answer die with you." Farid said. "I am answering you. I am silent and that is my answer. If I say even this. that I am answering you with my silence a duality is created. For that would mean that it can be shown with silence and not without it. Duality is created, distinction is formed. Therefore do not make me say that I am answering with my silence. I am silent and you should understand. Raise no words." But how…
O how may I ever express that secret word? O how can I say he is not like this, and he is like that? If I say that he is within me, the universe is ashamed. If I say that he is without me, it is falsehood. He makes the inner and the outer worlds to be indivisibly one; the conscious and the unconscious, both are his footstools. He is neither manifest nor hidden, he is neither revealed nor unrevealed: there are no words to tell that which he is.
II. 56. dariya ki lahar dariyao hai ji THE RIVER AND ITS WAVES ARE ONE SURF: WHERE IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE RIVER AND ITS WAVES? WHEN THE WAVE RISES, IT IS THE WATER; AND WHEN IT FALLS, IT IS THE SAME WATER AGAIN. TELL ME, SIR, WHERE IS THE DISTINCTION? BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN NAMED AS WAVE, SHALL IT NO LONGER BE CONSIDERED AS WATER? WITHIN THE ABSOLUTE, THE WORLDS ARE BEING TOLD LIKE BEADS. LOOK UPON THAT ROSARY WITH THE EYES OF WISDOM. THE TRUTH IS KNOWN AND YET NOT KNOWN -- known in a sense and not known in another -- known because we are part of it, but not known because we are not separate from it. To know something, the knower has to be separate; and yet again, to know something really, how can you know it if you are separate? This is the basic…
Osho, if the truth of life is nonduality, then why is there duality?
One world, shaped into the visible. One imagining, merely possible. One world, incessantly eloquent. One solitude, soundless. One unbroken surge of movement. One unmoving, waveless stillness. Two readings, one poem. There are not two. There are two readings—the poem is one. Truth is one. Look while half-asleep and the world appears. Look awake, and the Divine appears. The world and the Divine are not two different things. The sleeping person, when he looked for the Divine, saw the world; and the awakened person, when he looked at the world, saw the Divine. The awakened one says: the world is not; the Divine is. The sleeping one says: where is the Divine? There is only the world. These are two perspectives; the truth is one. Two readings, one poem!
Beloved master, mystics have spoken about true consciousness, and about "one" without a second. Yet, the very foundation of experience, of knowing, conceiving and language, is duality --at least a distinction between the subject and object must be made. From a logical point of view, pure consciousness cannot be the unconsciousness. What can be said about this?
So the mystic's basic expression is silence, but because people cannot understand silence he has to speak, and then whatever he says can be proved wrong. If he says, "The experience is of pure consciousness," he can be proved wrong logically, because consciousness alone, without any object, is logically impossible. But what is logically impossible is not existentially impossible. And that is where the philosopher and the mystic depart. The philosopher remains in the world of logic and language, and the mystic moves into the world of silence. So it is not his fault, it is our fault. We force him to speak. We ask him to say something about the ultimate experience. The only right way is not to say anything. But then the mystic will appear too hard --that he has no compassion on you. You have come to ask something and he is not answering. You think…