Awakening

Osho, on the journey of awakening, are rasa, virasa, and sva-rasa merely waystations? Kindly explain.

Such a moment comes now and then in your life—at moments of love, or of prayer, or of meditation. If you have a deep love with someone, sometimes such an exalted peak arises within that neither the lover remains nor the beloved remains. Then Rasa ripens. Then Rasa showers. That Rasa is the Rasa of the Divine. Hence in love the first ray of the experience of God descends; or in some deep absorption of meditation, where the distinction of self and other dissolves and the sky of nonduality opens—there too, God showers. The questioner has asked rightly, but about rasa… He asks: Are rasa, virasa, and sva-rasa merely stages? Rasa is not a stage. Rasa is the source—and the final destination as well. For the ultimate destination can only be that which has also been the source. In the end we return to the source. The circle of life…

Osho, you say we cannot take full responsibility for ourselves until we are 'awakened '. The western growth movement says we cannot be awakened until we take full responsibility for ourselves. Is there a conflict?

For ninety-nine percent? Patanjali will be the way. So I don't discard Patanjali -- I don't discard anything. Everything is accepted and used. Use all the methods skillfully and you will be benefited by all. And don't become obsessed with a method. Don't say that "I believe in gradual growth." If you say, "I believe in gradual growth," then you are preventing the possibility of sudden enlightenment. Maybe you are the person -- who knows? -- you are Hui Neng! Even Hui Neng was not aware until he became enlightened. Who knows?! Somebody may be here who is a Hui Neng, a potential Hui Neng, and if he starts thinking that "No, it is not possible. I don't believe in sudden enlightenment," that very idea will prevent him. Then he will listen to the four lines of the Diamond Sutra and will not become enlightened because of his idea. I…

Osho, why do I want to wake up when, as you say, awakening only happens when I am not? This seems very paradoxical.

Deva Satyarthi, THE EGO IS NOT YOUR REAL SELF; the ego is a false entity, arbitrary. It is the ego that is your sleep, that surrounds you like a darkness, like a cloud. Hidden behind this darkness is your real self, your real being, which wants to wake up, which wants to get out of all this smoke, out of all this darkness, which wants to get out of the prison of the ego. There is really no paradox, it only appears so. It appears paradoxical. Your question seems relevant... but you have two selves. One is the real: the one that you were born with, the one that was even before your birth, the one that will be there even when death has happened, the one that is running underneath like a hidden current. And the other is created by you, by your family, by your church, by your…

Question: BELOVED MASTER, CAN SOMEONE WHO IS NOT OPEN WAKE UP? Deva Ashoka, it is impossible to wake up if you are not open. Opening to existence is what waking up is all about: open to the sun, to the moon, to the rain, to the wind, open to this whole celebration of the trees, of the rocks, the earth and the stars, of animals, birds, people. Existence is a celebration, a continuous festival, a carnival. If you are not open, if you are closed, if you don't have any windows and doors towards existence, how can you wake up? Waking up and being open are synonymous. People remain closed in their minds. They never come out of their minds and they never allow reality to penetrate to their hearts. A very transparent China Wall divides them from the world. And the world is divine, existence is God.