Why is love indescribable?

Osho, why is love indescribable? The moment it is remembered in the heart, speech falls silent. One cannot say what happens then. The eyes grow half-lidded and everything is lost! Why does this happen? I can’t understand it. What is this form of love?

The more science advances, the heavier life becomes. Everything becomes understandable, and then nothing remains worth living for. If life becomes all prose, nothing remains but suicide. There must be some poetry in life. Poetry means: ungraspable—there is a glimpse, but it won’t be caught. There must be something like mercury too—close your fist and it scatters. And there is much of this in life. Love is exactly like mercury: the more you try to grasp it in explanations, the more it slips away. In the silent night, how is it that suddenly my heart brimmed over? I know not which sweet dreams stretched upon the inner screen. What unfamiliar remembrance filled my life-breath with monsoon rains? With the drizzling of my own eyes I put the rainy season to shame; and the world too, with moist eyelashes, raised this innocent question: These little pitchers, my eyes—how did they hold…

Why is god said to be indescribable?

Those who know talk about methods how god can be known. Those who don't know try to prove god, they offer proofs saying, "Here, this is the proof. God exists this way. He has one thousand hands or four hands or three heads." All these are foolish statements. His hands cannot be measured in a thousand hands. Three heads will not be enough because all heads are his, and all hands are his. And not only hands that exist today. Hands that do not yet exist are also his. Those that exist today are his, and those that exist in the infinite future are also his. How can it be expressed in a thousand hands? And not only man's hands are his, the hands of birds and animals are his too. Branches of trees, these hands of trees are also his. Everything is his. How can this vastness fit in…

Question: First question: Osho, why is the divine called ineffable? Everything in life is ineffable. The divine is the totality of life. When every single thing in life is ineffable, then the sum of all will be supremely ineffable. Can you define love? Someone may ask, “What is love?” And it is not that you have not known love. Perhaps the monsoon hasn’t poured, but a drizzle has surely touched you. In some way, by some door, a little taste of love has been felt. You must have known a friend’s love, a husband’s, a wife’s, a son’s, a mother’s, a father’s. From somewhere or other a ray of love must have descended, for without a ray of love no one can live. There has been a recognition, a small window has opened. But if someone asks, “What is love?” you will be struck dumb. What will you say?

Osho, why can the Supreme Beloved not be defined? If something can be experienced, why can it not be expressed?

We could conduct this experiment with a child: the child is born and we remove all the fibers that sense sweetness—plastic surgery, excise them, peel the tongue. Then tell him, “The sugar drop is sweet.” He will say, “Say something more; this doesn’t help. What do you mean by sweet? What does ‘sweet’ mean?” You too would be baffled: what is there to explain about “sweet”? “Sweet is sweet!” He will say, “That solves nothing—that’s mere repetition. ‘Sweet is sweet’—what did that clarify? Please explain.” How will you explain? No; there are experiences, and yet they cannot be defined. And those experiences that can be defined only mean this much: they are common experiences—everyone shares them. But the experience of the divine is supremely uncommon. It happens, once in a great while, to a rare individual. Understand the plight of that rare one. He has known—now how to tell you?…

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…