Osho's perspective on Nonbeing
When Osho Spoke About Nonbeing
Passages from the discourses where this theme comes alive.
Osho, who is it that knows non-being, and on what basis is it known?
No, this is not a question; this question does not arise. It neither arises nor can it be formed. Because when we say, “Who knows non-being?” we have already assumed that someone remains. Then non-being has not happened. Nirvana is not an expression of bodily experience.
Who knows nonbeing and on what basis can it be known?
The question itself is wrong. This question cannot arise and cannot be formed, because when we ask, "Who knows nonbeing?" we take it that someone remains behind. Then it is not nonbeing.
Do you know who I am?
NO Sir, NOT AT ALL. Because you are not. You are an emptiness -- anatta. No sir. On the surface you may be somebody, but I am not concerned with your surface. In the deepest core you are simply a nobodiness, not even a nobody -- nobodiness. How can I know you? And that's the beauty, because if I can know you I have defined you, I have made you limited by my knowledge. If you can be known, immediately you become an object, you are no more a consciousness. If you can be known you cannot be infinite, and you are -- infinite in your emptiness. How can I know you? Even you yourself cannot know. There exists nothing like self-knowledge. When you come to realize it, it is a NO-SELF-knowledge. When you come to settle with it, suddenly you become aware that the knower and the known have…
There is a very unique thing in the Vedas. “What is all this?”—the seer has asked.
“Perhaps the Divine who made it knows—or who knows, maybe even he does not!” This is something astonishing. God! The Vedic seer says: “What is all this?” “Perhaps—perhaps the One who made it knows; or who knows, maybe even He does not!” They must have been very courageous people. The gist is: even God may not know. In truth, whatever becomes known turns trivial. Once it is known, what remains? To know is to define. Existence has never been defined. Has anyone ever said what it is? That is why Buddha fell silent. Ask him, “Is there God?”—he is silent. “Is there a soul?”—he is silent. That, precisely, was Buddha’s answer! He says: Stop this prattle about soul and God. Who has known? Wake up! Drop the worry about knowing. So there is, first, the race of the doer—that is the race of ego. Then there is the race for…
"Nonbeing cannot be known by anyone, for the moment there is a knower, nonbeing ceases to exist. When knowing and the knower dissolve, the question itself vanishes into silence."
If someone is there to know nothingness, it isn't nothingness—so the question doesn't make sense.
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