Osho was one of the most popular, yet controversial spiritual masters from India. He was born in a small village called Kuchwada in Madhya Pradesh on 11 December 1931. His name was Rajneesh Mohan Chandra Jain who was often an independent and rebellious as a child who questioned all social, religious and philosophical beliefs.
According to Washington Post, “Osho advocated meditation for everyone, but his technique was revolutionary, beginning not with stillness and silence but with violent activity to release pent-up energy and emotions, leading to a state of calmness in which meditation can flourish. This is an ideal place for people to learn the dozens of meditations he designed. There’s swimming meditation, dancing and martial arts meditation, smoking meditation, walking meditation, breathing meditation and meditation for couples.”
He was someone who embraced individuality and uniqueness and redefined meditation for today’s busy generation.
Here are some of the most beautiful quotes from Osho.
ON LOVE
“If you love a flower, don’t pick it up. Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love. So if you love a flower, let it be. Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation.”
“Friendship is the purest love. It is the highest form of Love where nothing is asked for, no condition, where one simply enjoys giving.”
“Real love is not an escape from loneliness, real love is an overflowing aloneness. One is so happy in being alone that one would like to share.”
“Love is authentic only when it gives freedom. Love is true only when it respects the other person’s individuality, his privacy.”
“If you love yourself, you love others. If you hate yourself, you hate others. In relationship with others, it is only you mirrored.”
ON LIFE
“Experience life in all possible ways – good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light, summer-winter. Experience all the dualities. Don’t be afraid of experience, because the more experience you have, the more mature you become.”
“Life begins where fear ends.”
“Once you have started seeing the beauty of life, ugliness starts disappearing. If you start looking at life with joy, sadness starts disappearing. You cannot have heaven and hell together, you can have only one. It is your choice.”
“A serious person can never be innocent, and one who is innocent can never be serious.”
“Die each moment so that you are renewed each moment.”
“Never sacrifice your life for anything! Sacrifice everything for life! Life is the ultimate goal.”
“What is relaxation? It is a state of affairs where your energy is not moving anywhere, not to the future, not to the past – it is simply there with you. In the silent pool of your own energy, in the warmth of it, you are enveloped. This moment is all. There is no other moment. Time stops – then there is relaxation. If time is there, there is no relaxation. Simply, the clock stops; there is no time. This moment is all. You don’t ask for anything else, you simply enjoy it. Ordinary things can be enjoyed because they are beautiful. In fact, nothing is ordinary – if God exists, then everything is extraordinary. Relaxation is not a posture; relaxation is a total transformation of your energy.”
“In ignorance, sin is natural. In enlightenment, virtue is natural.”
ON TRUST
“If you want to learn anything, learn to trust – nothing else is needed. If you are miserable, nothing else will help – learn to trust. If you don’t feel any meaning in life and you feel meaninglessness, nothing will help – learn to trust. Trust gives meaning because trust makes you capable of allowing the whole to descend upon you.”
ON MEDITATION AND AWARENESS
“My meditation is simple. It does not require any complex practices. It is simple. It is singing. It is dancing. It is sitting silently”
“….with a master you are not on a “headtrip”. Doubt and belief are all “headtrips”. With a master you are on a “heart-trip”. And heart doesn’t know what doubt is, heart doesn’t know what belief is – heart simply knows trust. Heart is like a small child: the small child clings to the father’s hand, and wherever the father is going the child is going, neither trusting nor doubting; the child is undivided. Doubt is half, belief is half. A child is still total, whole; he simply goes with the father wherever he is going. When a disciple becomes just like a child, then only these gifts of the highest peak of consciousness can be given.
When you become the deepest valley of reception, then the highest peaks of consciousness can be given to you. Only a valley can receive a peak. A disciple should be absolutely feminine, receptive, like a womb. Only then such a phenomenon happens as is going to happen in this song.”
“When you come to the ultimate, when you come to your deepest core, you suddenly know that you are neither this nor that – you are no one. You are not an ego, you are just a vast emptiness…because the deeper you go, the deeper you feel that you are nobody, a nothingness. That’s why people become so scared of meditation. It is a death. It is a death of the ego – and the ego is just a false concept.”
“Thoughts are like darkness: they enter only if there is no light within. Awareness is fire: you become more aware, less and less thoughts enter.”
“To know existence, all fixed attitudes have to be dropped. Your eyes should be just windows, not projectors. Your ears should be just doors, not projectors.”
“…that the more you look, the less you find; the deeper you look, the thoughts disappear, disperse. Once you know this then the key is in your hand. And this key unlocks the most secret phenomenon: the phenomenon of buddhahood.”
ON CREATIVITY
“Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.”
“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”
Do you have any quotes from Osho that touched you? Share it in the Comments!