State of no-thinking

There is a totally different quality of being which comes by not thinking: not good, not bad, simply a state of no-thinking. You simply watch, you simply remain conscious, but you don’t think. And if some thoughts enter… they will enter, because thoughts are not yours; they are just floating in the air. All around there is a noosphere, a thought-sphere. Just as there is air, there is thought all around you, and it goes on entering on its own accord. It stops only when you become more and more aware. There is something in it: if you become more aware, a thought simply disappears, it melts, because awareness is a greater energy than thought.

Awareness is like fire to thought. It is just like you burn a lamp in the house and the darkness cannot enter; you put the light off – from everywhere darkness has entered… 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.

If you become really integrated in your awareness, thoughts don’t enter you; you have become an impenetrable citadel… Not that you are closed, remember -you are absolutely open; but just the very energy of awareness becomes your citadel. And when no thoughts can enter you, they will come and they will bypass you… Then you can move anywhere, then you go to the very hell – nothing can affect you. This is what we mean by enlightenment.

Abridged from Tantra: The Supreme Understanding, Talk #2, courtesy: Osho Times International; www.osho.com