Shunya

Osho, so you’re saying that Western civilization has advanced far in the direction of shunya (emptiness)?

Absolutely certain. Absolutely certain. Absolutely certain. Absolutely certain. You are a materialist in that sense. No, don’t say that so quickly! Because I said exactly this: I am a man like Epicurus who becomes a Buddha. I am not a materialist. I hold that the fight between matter and spirit is the very essence of ignorance and foolishness. There is only one reality; call it matter or call it spirit—it makes no difference. Therefore I cannot call myself a materialist, nor can I call myself a spiritualist. Because I consider that division itself to be ignorance. I don’t stand anywhere within that division. I hold—there is only one thing: the same appears as matter when it is visible, and as soul when it is invisible. Two ends of the same thing. So what should I call myself? It’s become a difficult business. What should one call it? Truly, there is…

Osho, if the goal is to attain shunya, the zero, then what is the need to awaken kundalini? And what is the need for sadhana?

This question arises because you think shunya means nothingness—so why practice? If there were something to gain, practice would be needed. You imagine that shunya means becoming a non-entity, so what is the point of sadhana? Sadhana seems necessary only when there is something to become. But you do not know that shunya means the whole; shunya means everything. Shunya does not mean nothing—shunya means all. Right now you cannot conceive what it means that shunya is everything. A well might say: “If going toward the ocean only means discovering that I do not exist, then why go?” The well sounds right. It says, “If I go toward the ocean and in the end it turns out that I am not, why should I go?” But whether you go or not makes no difference. That you are not is the fact; the question of going or not going does not…

You have heard a very beautiful discourse from Osho today; if you wish to ask a question, you may. Yes, yes—go ahead. A friend is asking: It is said that Arvind experienced shunya, the vacuum. Was that the quest for truth?

To ask about Arvind is futile, because whenever we ask in relation to another—“What was that emptiness that happened to him?”—at most we can only fill ourselves with words. Arvind will become just a word, and Arvind’s shunya will become just a word. And whether he attained or did not attain—these too will become words. No, with respect to the other we can never be free of words. In relation to the other, words are unavoidable. Only in relation to oneself can one be free of words. So do not worry about what happened or did not happen to Arvind. Worry about what can happen to you! And if I say that it did happen to Arvind, you will then ask someone else whether what I said about Arvind is right or wrong—you will still ask. Where will that end? This is an infinite regress, this endless questioning we go…

Meditation means not a repetitive mantra but a constant awareness, a remembrance 'Who am I?' 'I am not the body -- if you can remember this, that is meditation. If you can remember 'I am not the mind,' that is meditation. If you can remember 'I am not the feeling and the moods.' that is meditation. This three-dimensional meditation is the right way to reach to the ultimate goal of bliss. And the moment you have found bliss you have found the kingdom of god. Anand means bliss. Shunya means zeroness, to be absolutely spacious. Bliss is vast. It needs your whole inner being to be absolutely empty, only then it can enter. You have to remove the whole furniture -- and there is much furniture inside, all rotten; it is sheer junk but people go on accumulating it.