According to Osho, formlessness is hard because the mind can only handle limits, forms, and relationships; it panics before the infinite and stalls when there is no 'other' to relate to. The sadhana demands dropping the mind here and now. The difficulty is not in the formless but in our clinging mind; if you can't drop it, begin with form.
It’s difficult because our mind needs shapes and someone to relate to, and the formless has neither—only a quiet, dropped mind can know it.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
A friend has asked, Osho, why should we be religious when neither the beginning nor the end is known, and there is no trace of God or soul? The enlightened ones speak of truth—if that truth is real, why can’t they make everyone experience it?
No one is telling you to be religious—at least Lao Tzu would not. The so-called religious people have created so much disturbance that it is better you do not become one of them. Lao Tzu does not say, “Be religious.” He simply says: be what you are. You may ask, why should I be what I am? Because that is the only thing you can be. There is no way to be anything else. Yes, you can try to be something else—and in that trying your life can be wasted. You may then say, why not waste life? No one can stop you. And precisely for this reason even the enlightened ones are defeated and cannot give you the knowledge of truth—because you say, why should we know the truth? What can the enlightened do? They can speak. They can try to awaken in you the thirst for the joy…
This seems impossible. Can you jump from form to formlessness? The form will only take you to another form. If you ask Krishnamurti he will it is not possible. How can you jump from the form to the formless? How can you jump from the word to the wordless? All jumps are from form to formlessness, because in a deeper sense, form is the opposite of formlessness. Form is a part of formlessness, and an indivisible part. It may seem separate to us -- because of our limited vision. In fact form and formlessness are indivisible. When we stand on the seashore and look at the sea, we feel that they are separate, and that this shore and the opposite shore, far across the sea, are also separate.
Thus, by meditation, they achieve the ultimate reality , which is unthinkable, unmanifest; the one of endless forms, the ever-auspicious, the peaceful, the immortal, the origin of the creator, the one without a beginning, a middle and an end; the only one, the non-dual, the all-pervading, the consciousness, the bliss, the formless, the wonderful.
To use a name as a repetition has its own difficulties. It is easy to throw out all else, but then it is difficult to throw out itself. If you have used "Rama" to throw out all other thoughts, it will become rooted in you, and then you cannot throw it out. It will be very difficult and very painful. Then something else will be needed to throw it out. As far as I am concerned, I never suggest this method. It is better to begin with no word. Then how to begin? Take the total energy of your body and mind as the beginning. Let you total body-mind energy be involved in it. Make it so active -- let your body energy, your mind energy becomes so active, so active at the peak -- that thoughts dissolve, because thoughts cannot exist at the peak. When your energy is moving…
In America psychologists say that today the American traveler, wherever he goes, feels that whatever he sees is already stale. The irony is that today America has the greatest facility for touring the world. Of the vast number of tourists roaming the globe, eighty percent are Americans. They reach every corner of the world. Yet a strange phenomenon has occurred: wherever they arrive, they feel everything is already stale. Because they have already seen the Taj Mahal a thousand times—in pictures, on television, in films. When they reach the Taj Mahal, it is the thousand-times-seen Taj; it is stale. They come with great expectations to behold it, but when they see it, they feel, “This we have seen a thousand times.” And in truth, through photography, television, films, the Taj can appear more beautiful than to the bare eyes. Therefore the real Taj appears pale.
And in rest is all, because when you are totally restful God is available to you. You enter into the kingdom of God only when you are totally relaxed -- no tension, no desire, no mind -- just like a small child, a nobody, and totally relaxed. Let that be your work on yourself. Arihant means one who has killed the real enemy. Self-ignorance is the real enemy, unconsciousness is the real enemy. To live like a somnambulist is to be one's own enemy. The enemy is not outside you, it is hidden in your own mind. It is your mind -- and one has to go beyond it. The only way to go beyond the enemy, to kill the enemy, is to be more and more alert, more and more conscious of your thoughts, of your acts, of your desires, of your feelings.