From Unconsciousness to Consciousness

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Osho ends three years of silence and begins an entirely new phase of his work. He talks directly to those who are listening now, ruthlessly attacking the hypocrisy and will-to-power that hide behind the names of democracy, capitalism, religion, relationship, and the family. Sometimes shocking and always humorous, he exposes the lies to which society still so earnestly adheres.

With an extraordinary freshness, Osho ridicules the stories we tell to protect our egos, and inspires us to have the courage to go within and experience ourselves as we are.

“I am not against anybody. But my basic work is to expose before you all the diseases, the bondages, so that you are not caught in them, so you can remain free, so you can have a merger with existence, without any barrier.”

Osho continues to inspire millions of people worldwide in their individual search for meditation and transformation amidst the everyday challenges of contemporary life. His proposal that we celebrate the whole of our humanity—both our inner and outer worlds—encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology. The American novelist Tom Robbins man called him “the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ.”

One part of you is conscious, one-tenth. Nine-tenths of you is unconscious. If the conscious part thinks itself to be the whole, it becomes the ego. Then it forgets about the unconscious; then the part imagines itself to be the whole. Then it is the ego.

If the conscious also becomes aware of the unconscious, that is the whole effort of religion, that is the whole effort of meditation. If the conscious turns back, looks back, and becomes aware of the unconscious also — the dark night within — then the conscious knows, “I am conscious, I am unconscious also. My consciousness is just a wave on the ocean. The unconscious is vast.” Then the ego disappears. Ego is the part, thinking itself to be the whole. Non-ego is the part, becoming aware of the whole. Then the ego disappears.

How to define the nature of consciousness? It has never been defined, it never will be defined. Who will define it? To define it you have to be away from it. To define anything you have to stand out of it, you need a distance. Perspective will not be possible if the distance is not there.

You are consciousness, you are unconsciousness. There is nobody who can stand outside and define it. You can know it, but you cannot define it. That’s why all religion is mysterious, mystical, vague, cloudy — because no term which is very basic to religion can be defined.

The subject cannot be made an object. I cannot put myself in front of me, so I cannot define it. Neither has Buddha defined it, nor Jesus. Definition as such is debarred by the very nature of the phenomenon.

Everything else can be defined because consciousness is the definer. Everything else is before consciousness. The consciousness can know — it can go around, watch, observe, experiment, define, dissect — but who will define consciousness?

You cannot go away from it: you are it. You can know it, but you cannot define it. Knowledge is not possible, only knowing.

I can help you to create a meditative state where you can know what it is. I can give you the method, but I cannot give you the definition. That’s why religion always looks a little suspicious. “Why don’t you define your terms? Just do as science does. Define! If you cannot define your terms, that simply shows you don’t know what you are talking about.”

A great linguist and positivist philosopher, A.J. Ayer, says that if we take two terms God and dog — the second is true and the first is false. Nobody can define God, the word is meaningless. God cannot be defined. Dog can be defined — dog is more meaningful than God.

If you insist on definitions, then only things can be defined; persons cannot be defined. Laws can be defined, love cannot be defined. Gravitation can be defined, but grace — grace cannot be defined. That which is without is definable; that which is within is elusive. One has to understand this — and move into meditation. Buddha says: “Buddhas can only show you the way. You have to move. One day you come upon the goal. Nobody can give you the goal beforehand.”

Not even a definition is possible. And it is good that a definition is not possible. Otherwise you will settle for the definition, you will settle for the information, and you will never travel, you will never journey to the goal. And sometimes it pens that the very map you were thinking to use for the journey becomes the barrier. You become satisfied with the map itself.