In this article, we will share some of the most thought-provoking Osho quotes that can change the way you think forever.
Who is Osho?
Osho is an Indian spiritual leader, who during his lifetime received quite wide popularity and many followers all around the world. His teaching contains ideas of Buddhism, Christianity, Greek philosophy and others. But the complexity of spiritual systems and philosophies that Osho combined in his teaching represents a holistic picture of life, love, and happiness.
People who read Osho’s books can never get enough of it – they want to read and re-read them again and again. It seems that every paragraph contains so much profound wisdom, that you need to absorb and think about it for a while. And some of Osho quotes touch you so much that there is a profound transformation of consciousness happens that changes your life forever.
Here they are – 50 thought-provoking Osho quotes.
50 Thought-Provoking Osho Quotes
#1
“Be — don’t try to become”
― Osho
#2
“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.”
― Osho
#3
“Be realistic: Plan for a miracle”
― Osho
#4
“Nobody can say anything about you. Whatsoever people say is about themselves. But you become very shaky because you are still clinging to a false center. That false center depends on others, so you are always looking at what people are saying about you. And you are always following other people, you are always trying to satisfy them. You are always trying to be respectable, you are always trying to decorate your ego. This is suicidal. Rather than being disturbed by what others say, you should start looking inside yourself…
Whenever you are self-conscious you are simply showing that you are not conscious of the self at all. You don’t know who you are. If you had known, then there would have been no problem— then you are not seeking opinions. Then you are not worried what others say about you— it is irrelevant!
When you are self-conscious you are in trouble. When you are self-conscious you are really showing symptoms that you don’t know who you are. Your very self-consciousness indicates that you have not come home yet.”
― Osho
#5
“Drop the idea of becoming someone, because you are already a masterpiece. You cannot be improved. You have only to come to it, to know it, to realize it.”
― Osho
#6
“The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it’s not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of another person–without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.”
― Osho
#7
“Truth is not something outside to be discovered, it is something inside to be realized.”
― Osho
#8
“I love this world because it is imperfect. It is imperfect, and that’s why it is growing; if it was perfect it would have been dead. Growth is possible only if there is an imperfection. I would like you to remember, again and again, I am imperfect, the whole universe is imperfect, and to love this imperfection, to rejoice in this imperfection is my whole message.”
― Osho
#9
“A certain darkness is needed to see the stars.”
― Osho
#10
“Fame is foolish, it is pointless, meaningless. Even if the whole world knows you, how does it make you richer? How does it make your life more blissful? How does it help you to be more understanding, to be more aware? To be more alert, to be more alive?”
― Osho
#11
“Truth is not to be found outside. No teacher, no scripture can give it to you. It is inside you and if you wish to attain it, seek your own company. Be with yourself. ”
― Osho
#12
“The natural desire of the human mind is to become special – to become special in the ways of the world, to have many degrees, to have much political power, to have money, wealth – to be special.
The mind is always ready to go on some ego trip. And if you are fed up with the world, then again the ego starts finding new ways and new means to enhance itself – it becomes spiritual. You become a great mahatma, a great sage, a great scholar, a man of knowledge, a man of renunciation; again you are special.
Unless the desire to be special disappears, you will never be special. Unless you relax into your ordinariness, you will never relax.”
― Osho
#13
“Here, start living moment to moment totally and intensely, joyfully and playfully — and you will see that nothing goes out of control; that your intelligence becomes sharper; that you become younger; that your love becomes deeper. And when you go out into the world, wherever you go, spread life, playfulness, joy, as far away as possible — to every nook and corner of the earth.”
― Osho
#14
“They say: “Think twice before you jump”. I say: “Jump first and then think as much as you want!”
― Osho
#15
“If you want to learn anything, learn trust – nothing else is needed. If you are miserable, nothing else will help – learn trust. If you don’t feel any meaning in life and you feel meaningless, nothing will help – learn trust. Trust gives meaning because trust makes you capable of allowing the whole descend upon you.”
― Osho
#16
“One just needs a little alertness to see and find out: Life is really great cosmic laughter.”
― Osho
#17
“I also teach you to love yourself first. It has nothing to do with ego. In fact, love is such a light that the darkness of the ego cannot exist in it at all. If you love others, if your love is focused on others, you will live in darkness. Turn your light toward yourself first, become a light unto yourself first. Let the light dispel your inner darkness, your inner weakness. Let love make you tremendous power, a spiritual force.”
― Osho
#18
“To live in the moment is innocence, to live without the past is innocence, to live without conclusions is innocence, to function out of the state of not knowing is innocence. And the moment you function out of such tremendous silence which is not burdened by any past, out of such tremendous stillness which knows nothing, the experience that happens is beauty. Whenever you feel the beauty in the rising sun, in the stars, in the flowers, or in the face of a woman or a man—wherever and whenever you feel beauty, watch.
And one thing will always be found: you had functioned without mind, you had functioned without any conclusion, you had simply functioned spontaneously. The moment gripped you, and the moment gripped you so deeply that you were cut off from the past. And when you are cut off from the past you are cut off from the future automatically because past and future are two aspects of the same coin; they are not separate, and they are not separable either. You can toss a coin: sometimes it is heads, sometimes it is tails, but the other part is always there, hiding behind. Past”
― Osho
#19
“Be ordinary, but bring a quality of awareness to your ordinary life. Bring God to your ordinary life introduce God into your ordinary life. Sleep, eat, love, pray, meditate, but don’t think that you are making or doing something special—and then you will be special.”
― Osho
#20
“Sing your song, and if nobody listens, sing it alone and enjoy it.”
― Osho
#21
“If you know your being, there is no question of becoming. All that you could have ever imagined to become you already are. You are gods who have forgotten who they are. You are emperors who have fallen asleep and are dreaming that they have become beggars. Now beggars are trying to become emperors, in dreams, they are making great efforts to become emperors, and all that is needed is to wake up!”
― Osho
#22
“If you live with unhealthy people, to be healthy is dangerous. If you live with insane people, then to be sane is dangerous. If you live in a madhouse, even if you are not mad at least pretend that you are mad; otherwise those mad people will kill you.”
― Osho
#23
“Don’t try to understand life. Live it! Don’t try to understand love. Move into love. Then you will know – and all that knowing will come out of your experiencing. The more you know, the more you know that much remains to be known.”
― Osho
#24
“Find ecstasy within yourself. It is not out there. It is in your innermost flowering. The one you are looking for is you.”
― Osho
#25
“You become more divine as you become more creative. All the religions of the world have said God is the creator. I don’t know whether he is the creator or not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more godly you become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes creative, you live in God. So he must be the creator because people who have been creative have been closest to him. Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it – whatsoever it is”
― Osho
#26
“Love is the goal, life is the journey.”
― Osho
#27
“My whole teaching consists of two words: meditation and love. Meditate so that you can feel immense silence, and love so that your life can become a song, a dance, a celebration. You will have to move between the two, and if you can move easily if you can move without any effort, you have learned the greatest thing in life.”
― Osho
#28
“Love and respect yourself and never compromise for anything. And then you will be surprised how much growth starts happening of its own accord.. as if rocks have been removed and the river has started flowing.”
― Osho
#29
“They were afraid of your authentic love because authentic love is beyond their control.You are possessed by it. You are not the possessor, you are the possessed. And every society wants you to be in control. The society is afraid of your wild nature, it is afraid of your naturalness, so from the very beginning it starts cutting your wings. And the most basic thing which is dangerous in you is the possibility of love because if you are possessed by love you can go even against the whole world.”
― Osho
#30
“It is beautiful to be alone, it is also beautiful to be in love, to be with people. And they are complementary, not contradictory.”
― Osho
#31
“If you live consciously, if you try to bring consciousness to every act that you go through, you will be living in a silent, blissful state, in serenity, in joy, in love. Your life will have the flavor of a festival. That is the meaning of heaven: your life will have many flowers in it, much fragrance will be released through you. You will have an aura of delight. Your life will be a song of life-affirmation, it will be a sacred yes to all that existence is. You will be in communion with existence — in communion with stars, with the trees, with the rivers, with the mountains, with people, with animals.
This whole life and this whole existence will have a totally different meaning for you. From every nook and corner, rivers of bliss will be flowing towards you. Heaven is just a name for that state of mind. Hell means you are living so unconsciously, so absurdly, in such contradiction, that you go on creating more and more misery for yourself.”
― Osho
#32
“The greatest fear in the world is of the opinions of others. And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom.”
― Osho
#33
“Just being alive is such a gift, but nobody ever told you to be thankful to existence. On the contrary, everyone was grumpy, complaining. Naturally, if everything surrounding your life from the very beginning goes on pointing out to you that you are not what you should be, goes on giving you great ideals that you have to follow and you have to become, your isness is never praised. What is praised is your future – if you can become someone respectable, powerful, rich, intellectual, in some way famous, not just a nobody.”
― Osho
#34
“There is a great difference between trust and belief. Trust is personal, belief is social.”
― Osho
#35
“Never belong to a crowd. Never belong to a nation. Never belong to a religion. Never belong to a race. Belong to the whole existence. Why limit yourself to small things? When the whole is available.”
― Osho
#36
“Tension means you want to be something else which you are not.”
― Osho
#37
“Whenever you feel that someone is angry or someone has collided with you, you always think that he is responsible. This is how ignorance concludes, interprets. Ignorance always says, ”The other is responsible.” Wisdom always says, ”If somebody is responsible, then I am responsible, and the only way not to collide is not to be.”
”I am responsible” doesn’t mean, ”I am doing something, that is why they are angry.” That is not the question. You may not be doing anything, but just your being there is enough for people to get angry. The question is not whether you are doing good or bad. The question is that you are there.”
― Osho
#38
“Help the world to become better. Don’t leave the world just the same as you have found it – make it a little better, make it a little more beautiful.”
― Osho
#39
“Life in itself has no meaning. Life is an opportunity to create meaning.”
― Osho
#40
“We are formed by what we do. It is our actions that ultimately make us. What we do slowly, slowly becomes the creator of our lives and our souls. What we are doing in life decides how we are creating ourselves. What our behavior is in life decides the directions our soul will travel, the paths it will move on, the new worlds it will explore.”
― Osho
#41
“Buddha is a Buddha, a Krishna is a Krishna, and you are you. And you are not in any way less than anybody else. Respect yourself, respect your own inner voice and follow it.”
― Osho
#42
“Courage is a love affair with the unknown.”
― Osho
#43
“You need not search for uniqueness, you are unique already. There is no way to make a thing more unique. The words “more unique” are absurd. It is just like the word “circle.” Circles exist; there is no such thing as “more circular.” That is absurd. A circle is always perfect, “more” is not needed.”
― Osho
#44
“The family is one of the greatest traps that society has used for millennia to keep man a slave.”
― Osho
#45
“You are being taught everything, but you are not being taught to be yourself. This is the ugliest form of society possible because it makes everybody miserable.”
― Osho
#46
“Creativity is the fragrance of individual freedom.”
― Osho
#47
“A totally new kind of education is needed in the world. The person who is born to be a poet is proving himself stupid in mathematics and the person who could have been a great mathematician is just cramming history and feeling lost. Everything is topsy-turvy because education is not according to your nature: it does not pay any respect to the individual. It forces everybody into a certain pattern.”
― Osho
#48
“Fighting with anybody is dangerous because you become like your enemy. That is one of the greatest problems of humanity. Once you fight with somebody, by and by you have to use the same techniques and the same ways. Then the enemy may be defeated, but by the time he is defeated you have become your own enemy.”
― Osho
#49
“Truth cannot be found by intellectual effort because the truth is not a theory, it is an experience.”
― Osho
#50
“People are afraid, very much afraid of those who know themselves. They have a certain power, a certain aura, and a certain magnetism – a charisma that can take out alive, young people from the traditional imprisonment. The enlightened man cannot be enslaved – that is the difficulty – and he cannot be imprisoned. The enlightened man is the greatest stranger in the world, he does not seem to belong to anybody. No organization confines him, no community, no society, no nation”
― Osho