Osho Quotes on Living Consciously

Osho Quotes on Living Consciously

1. The way of living unconsciously is called by Buddha the dark way. And the way of living consciously, attentively, moment to moment, bringing your consciousness to each act, each small act, each detail, is the way of light.
2. From birth to death you go on living, groping in darkness with no light — and you could have created the light. You cannot find it in the scriptures; nobody can hand it to you. It is not purchased or sold; it is nontransferable. But you can create it — you can put all your energies together. You can start living consciously from this very moment.
3. If you are living in an unconscious way it makes no difference whether you live to seventy, eighty, ninety, a hundred; it does not matter. Living consciously even for a single moment is enough.
4. A stupid person behaves mechanically: an intelligent person behaves consciously.
5. Consciousness means living with a witness; unconsciousness means living without a witness. When you are walking on the road, you can walk consciously — that’s what Buddha says one should do — you are alert, deep down you are aware that you are walking; you are conscious of each movement. You are conscious of the birds singing in the trees, the early morning sun coming through the trees, the rays touching you, the warmth, the fresh air, the fragrance of newly opening flowers. A dog starts barking, a train passes by, you are breathing… you are watching everything. You are not excluding anything out of your alertness; you are taking everything in. The breath goes in, the breath goes out… you are watching everything that is happening.
6. This life that you are living is sorrow, but this is not the only life. This is the life you have chosen. You can live another kind of life: Buddha lived it, I am living it, you can live it. You can live in a totally different way: you can live desirelessly, you can live meditatively, you can live with choiceless awareness. You can live so centered and rooted in your being that no sorrow can remain. No sadness, no misery, no death remains possible; they all disappear. As you become full of light, your life goes through a transformation. This is not the right kind of life that you are living.
7. If you are living your life consciously, alertly, not repressing, not being against your body, you will have a tremendous silence. In your night there will be no disturbance — no dreams, just silent sleep. And in your day you will have a very cool feeling surrounding you — no thoughts, no traffic of thoughts which keeps your head hot the whole day.
8. Unless you become alert and aware in life, unless you change the quality of your living, you will not die consciously. And only a conscious death can bring you to a conscious birth; and then a far more conscious life opens its doors.
9. It is through decisiveness that the soul is born. If you exist accidentally, like driftwood, you live without a soul; your life is not much of a life. It is pseudo, it is lukewarm; it has no intensity; it has no flame; it has no light. You cannot experience the truth. Living accidentally, knowing the truth is impossible. One has to be so decisive, so committed, so consciously involved with life, so intensely adventurous, that all is at stake every moment. One has to be creative — not only unfolding, but creative.
10. Sannyas is the beginning of the day, sannyas is the dawn. Let the night disappear, don’t cling to it. Become more alert so that the night cannot take possession of you again. Night means unawareness, day means awareness. Night means living a life mechanically, day means living a life with awareness, consciously.
11. If you are centered, nothing can be destroyed. No fire can destroy your centering. Not even death is capable of distracting you. And this centering is possible only if you start living each moment meditatively, fully alert, aware. Don’t move like an automaton. Don’t react like a mechanism. Become conscious. Collect yourself more and more so that a crystallized consiousness continuously illuminates your inner being, a flame goes on burning there and it lights wherever you move. The path, the way, whatsoever you do, it lights it.
12. Heaven is not somewhere else: it is a way of living. So is hell — a style of life. Hell is living unconsciously; heaven is living consciously. Hell is your own creation, so is heaven. If you go on living unconsciously, through your unconscious desires, instincts, motives — of which you are not the master but only the victim — then you create hell around yourself. But if you start living a conscious life, a life of bringing more and more light to the deep, dark corners of your being, if you start living full of light, your life is moment-to-moment ecstasy.
13. Be skillful and live life consciously. Otherwise life becomes boring. You feel it. You know how it feels. Sooner or later everything feels boring; one is bored to death. One goes on living because one is not courageous enough to commit suicide. One goes on living just in the hope that sooner or later one will die — the death is coming.
14. Spirituality is not other-worldliness. Spirituality is a way of living in this world meditatively, totally, blissfully. It is not against this world; in fact it enhances this world, enriches this world, it makes this world more beautiful, more blissful. But religions up to now have done just the opposite. They have made this earth a hell. I hold the so-called religions absolutely, categorically responsible for the misery that exists in the world.
15. I am teaching everybody to enjoy the moment, and don’t be bothered by tomorrow. Living in the moment intelligently, consciously, meditatively, will take care of the future. There is no need for me to give you directives, guidelines for what you have to do when I am gone. That’s what all the old religions have done.
16. Before death comes you will become unconscious, so you will miss the experience of death. The people who are living consciously — and that is my basic teaching, live consciously every moment. Even while making love, remain conscious and a witness. It is a life… long growth if becoming alert. Then you can die consciously and you can experience death as the ultimate orgasm. It is far bigger than any sexual orgasm. In fact, the difference is not only of quantity, the difference is of quality. It is immeasurable. Living moment to moment, one learns how to die. beautifully, silently, joyously.
17. It is not my belief ‘that man should live more meditatively’, it is my understanding that man can live only in meditation — otherwise there is no life. Meditation is life. Not to be in meditation is not to live. Then you only pretend that you are living; then your life is just a mask. It has no authenticity in it, it has no depth; it is just the surface, the facade.
18. 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 flavour 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.
19. I teach you to be expressive and to accept all your nature with pride — it is your inheritance from nature. Living naturally without inhibition, things like rape will disappear. Living silently and meditatively, violence is not possible. Compassion will be just a natural phenomenon.
20. If you know the art of living… and that’s what I call religion — real, authentic religion — the art of living. If you know the art of living… and it consists of small things, not of big, great commandments… very small things… just sipping your tea joyfully, meditatively, tasting each sip as if this is the last sip. Perhaps you may not be able again to hold the cup in your hands — there is no guarantee.
21. In short: to live means to live in God — consciously, totally. And those who are not living that way, they are dead. They are WORSE than dead! because they THINK they live, and they are not alive. They are not yet even born. They are only seeds, potential but not actual. A Jesus has to happen to them, a Master has to happen to them, only then will they fall in the soil. A gardener is needed — only then will the seed die and be born as a tree. And then there will be great rejoicing, great flowering, and great fulfillment, great fruition.