My effort is to leave you alone with meditation, with no mediator between you and existence. When you are not in meditation you are separated from existence, and that is your suffering.

It's the same as when you take a fish out of the ocean and throw it on the bank — the misery and the suffering and the torture he goes through, the hankering and the effort to reach back to the ocean because it is where he belongs, he is part of the ocean and he cannot remain apart.

Any suffering is simply indicative that you are not in communion with existence, that the fish is not in the ocean.

Meditation is nothing but withdrawing all the barriers — thoughts, emotions, sentiments — which create a wall between you and existence. The moment they drop, you suddenly find yourself in tune with the whole; not only in tune, you really find you are the whole.

When a dewdrop slips from a lotus leaf into the ocean it does not find that it is part of the ocean, it finds it is the ocean. And to find it is the ultimate goal, the ultimate realization. There is nothing beyond it.


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Buddha, seeing what had happened to Jainism, that it had become ritualism, dropped God, he dropped all rituals, and single-pointedly insisted on meditation. But he forgot that the priests who had created rituals in Jainism are going to do the same with meditation.

And they did it, they made Buddha himself a God. They talk about meditation but basically Buddhists are worshipers of Buddha — they go to the temple and instead of Krishna or Christ, there is Buddha's statue. God was not there, ritual was difficult — around meditation, ritual was difficult. They created a statue and they started saying, in the same way all religions have been doing, "Have faith in Buddha, have trust in Buddha and you will be saved."

Both the revolutions were lost. I would like that what I am doing is not lost. So I am trying in every possible way to drop all those things which in the past have been barriers for the revolution to continue and grow. I don't want anybody to stand between the individual and existence. No prayer, no priest; you alone are enough to face the sunrise, you don't need somebody to interpret for you what a beautiful sunrise it is.

You are here, every individual is here, the whole existence is available.

All that you need is just to be silent and listen to existence.

There is no need of any religion, there is no need of any God, there is no need of any priesthood, there is no need of any organization.

I trust in the individual categorically. Nobody up to now has trusted in the individual in such a way. So all things can be removed.

Now all that has been left to you is a state of meditation, which simply means a state of utter silence.

The word meditation makes it look heavier. It is better to call it just a simple, innocent silence and existence opens all its beauties to you.

And as it goes on growing, you go on growing, and there comes a moment when you have reached the very peak of your potentiality — you can call it Buddhahood, enlightenment, bhagwatta, godliness, whatever — it has no name, so any name will do.


Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic by Osho. This article was excerpted with permission from the book:

Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic
by Osho.

Who was this man known as the Rolls-Royce Guru, the Rich Man's Guru, and simply the Master? Drawn from nearly five thousand hours of Osho's recorded talks, this is the story of his youth and education, his life as a professor of philosophy and years of travel teaching the importance of meditation, and the true legacy he sought to leave behind... Published by St. Martin's Press. ©2000. http://www.stmartins.com.

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About The Author

photo of OshoOsho is one of the best-known and most provocative spiritual teachers of the 20th century. Beginning in the 1970s he captured the attention of young people from the West who wanted to experience meditation and transformation. Even since his death in 1990, the influence of his teachings continues to expand, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world. For more information, visit https://www.osho.com/