Intuition

Question: can intuition be explained scientifically? Is it a phenomenon of the mind?

This is intuition. It is a different realm of happening that is not related to the intellect at all, although it can penetrate the intellect. It must be understood that a higher reality can penetrate a lower reality, but the lower cannot penetrate the higher. So intuition can penetrate intellect because it is higher, but intellect cannot penetrate intuition because it is lower. It is just like your mind can penetrate your body, but your body cannot penetrate the mind. Your being can penetrate the mind, but the mind cannot penetrate the being. That is why, if you are going into the being, you have to separate yourself from body and mind, both. They cannot penetrate a higher phenomenon. As you go into a higher reality, the lower world of happenings has to be dropped. There is no explanation of the higher in the lower, because the very terms of…

When that intuition starts functioning, is surrender the only technique for that intuition, or the inner guide? Does a person living through intuition always succeed? How do you value success and failure? Is it not true that the person living intuitively will become weak intellectually?

Surrender is the only technique for the inner being to become active. DOES A PERSON LIVING THROUGH INTUITION ALWAYS SUCCEED? No, but he is always happy -- whether he succeeds or not. And a person not living intuitively is always unhappy whether he succeeds or not. Success is not the criterion because success depends on many things. Happiness is the criterion because happiness depends only on you. You may not succeed because others are competitors there. Even if you are working intuitively, others may be working more cunningly, more cleverly, more calculatingly, more violently, more immorally. So success depends on many other things; success is a social phenomenon. You may not succeed. Who can say that Jesus succeeded? Crucifixion is not a success, it is the greatest failure. A man crucified when he was just thirty-three -- what type of success is this? No one knew about him. Just a…

Beloved Osho, please could you talk about the subtle differences between instinct and intuition?

Yogeshwar, your individuality can be divided -- just for the purpose of understanding it; otherwise there is no division. It is one single unity, whole: the head, the heart, and the being. Intellect is the functioning of the head, instinct is the functioning of your body, intuition is the functioning of your heart. And behind these three is your being, whose only quality is witnessing. The head only thinks; hence it never comes to any conclusion. It is verbal, linguistic, logical, but because it has no roots in reality, thousands of years of philosophical thinking have not given us a single conclusion. Philosophy has been the greatest exercise in futility. Intellect is very clever in creating questions and then creating answers, and then out of those answers, more questions and more answers. It can make palaces of words, systems of theories, but they are all just hot air. The body…

Beloved master, is it my intuition which gives me an idea about something before it actually happens -- or by thinking about it, do I create the situation? Could you please talk about intuition and creating my own reality?

But I don't see it as a bad sign. I simply see it as a misdirected young generation. The intention is right, but there is nobody to tell them that drugs won't fulfill your desire and your longing. Only meditation, only silence, only transcending beyond your mind is going to give you contentment and fulfillment. But they cannot be condemned as they are being condemned and punished. The older generation is responsible because you don't have alternatives for them. I propose the only alternative: as you become more and more meditative, you don't need anything else. You don't need to create a reality because you start seeing the reality itself. And a created reality is just false, it is a dream -- maybe a sweet dream, but a dream is a dream, after all. The thirst is right, just that they are wandering. And their religious leaders, their political leaders,…