Why is understanding Osho considered almost impossible?

Osho, in you the impossible has become possible—the unheard-of has happened. And understanding you too seems almost impossible. Why is it so?

If you want to understand, it will become impossible. The very desire to understand creates distance. Listen with love; drop the worry about understanding and the rest. Just listen with love and you will understand. If you set out to understand, you will miss. Why? Because when you sit down to understand, you bring the intellect in between. All the while you are alertly examining: which point is right, which is not; which agrees with logic, which is against logic; which accords with my scriptures, which goes against them. You get caught in this whole tangle. The dust of scripture rises within you like a sandstorm. You forget me altogether. In that storm you catch only fragments; sometimes you hear something as something else. Then you interpret. Then with your own hands you create confusion. These things are not for understanding. These things are for descending into love. Just listen.…

Osho, why can't I understand you?

THERE is no need to understand ME at all. What is needed is to understand yourself. How is it going to help you if you understand me? And what will you understand in understanding me? You will understand what I say, you will collect it, you will become more knowledgeable, and that is not going to help. In fact it can even become a great hindrance. All knowledge becomes a hindrance to wisdom. I am here not to make you understand ME, I am here to help you to understand yourself. You have to watch your own actions, your relationships, your moods more closely: how you are when you are alone, how you are when you are with people, how you behave, how you react, whether your reactions are past-oriented, fixed patterns of thought or you are spontaneous, responsible. Watch all these things, go on watching your own mind, heart.…

What is your message, Osho? I don't understand you.

When you try to understand me you will miss, because while I am imparting something to you, you are engaged and occupied in understanding it. You will miss it. Don't try to understand it, just listen! Just as I am talking to you without any motive, listen on your part without any motive -- and the meeting is bound to happen. When I am without motive and you are without motive, what can hinder, what can obstruct the meeting? Then the meeting is going to happen. And in that communion is understanding; in that communion is light, clarity, transparency. So rather than trying to understand me, celebrate me, rejoice in me -- and you will understand, and without any effort to understand. Nobody ever understands through effort. What effort do you make when you listen to music? Do you try to understand it? If you try to understand it, you…

Osho, why don’t you speak in a language I can understand? I listen to you, I weep, but nothing makes sense to me!

Understanding and understanding—there are two kinds of understanding. One is of the intellect: of words, of thought, of logic. And one is of the heart. You feel joyous, you weep, tears of joy flow; that is the deeper understanding. What will you do with the intellect’s understanding? And you say, “Why don’t you speak in a language I can understand?” Could language be any simpler? I am speaking in everyday, colloquial speech. The difficulty is not of language. The difficulty lies in that great synthesis of mine which doesn’t fall into your grasp. The difficulty is not language. The language is perfectly plain and straightforward. What could be plainer! I don’t know Sanskrit; I don’t know Pali or Prakrit; even my Hindi is broken—just enough to get by. The difficulty isn’t language. The difficulty is with the vision of life I am offering, because you carry fixed notions. You have…

Question: OSHO, WHY IS IT THAT I CANNOT UNDERSTAND YOUR PHILOSOPHY? Beware of your mind! You have never thought about it as a drug -- it is a very subtle drug. And the society goes on drugging you from your very childhood. It becomes part and parcel of your life and it colors everything. Whatsoever you see, you see through it; whatsoever you listen to, you listen to through it -- and it is quick at interpreting for or against. Listening to me, if you are thinking about for or against, you will go on missing me. A drunkard accidentally found his way into a luxurious swimming club and was standing by the pool when he was approached by the manager. "Excuse me, sir, but we are forced to ask you to leave," the manager told him. "Why should I leave?" asked the drunkard.