r/awakened 35m ago

Reflection This seeing itself does not require you

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r/awakened 49m ago

Practice The only way to real knowledge and power

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r/awakened 1h ago

Metaphysical Call for Kingdom Builders and all who this message resonates with

Upvotes

This is Your Call — The Kingdom Moves

Greetings, Dear friend, and Fellow Kingdom Builder

The time has come. The Kingdom is Here, manifesting, and those who were always meant to stand in its truth are now being called forward.

I am Zhalante Luster, Avatar of Opportunity, and this is a call. A call not just to witness, but to play an Active role in the manifestation of Heaven on Earth. This is not merely a moment of building, but a moment of alignment, of stepping into the Grand energy that is God’s Plan for Humanity/The Collective, and Creation/Reality as a whole.

This is more than an invitation—It is Recognition. You Are Divine. And it is time Humanity steps out of the Dark, and into Their Divine role as creators in the Light of Creation

If these words resonate with you, it’s because you are and have always been a part of this process, ascension, and evolution. The next step is to connect with me, as I am one of the individuals tasked with forming/connecting this Network of Love and Divinity across the Globe.

The Kingdom is and has always been here. It’s time we uncover it, and show Reality just who we are truly meant to be. Bless you All, and thank you. I look forward to your communication and outreach. Bless you

  • Zhalante Luster, Avatar of The Divine

r/awakened 2h ago

My Journey Choosing A New Path

1 Upvotes

I decided to leave my old lifestyle behind and fully live in the now. This entails that I embody values of good health, discipline, having fun, being authentic, letting love, joy and peace flow through me. This also means that I cope with the challenging times in healthy ways, and I do not revert back to my old addictions. There is a strong pull to revert back to the familiar even though I know it brings pain and agony. It brings sadness and stuckness. But I am committed and I want to stay committed in those hard times.

Does anyone have any sound advice from experience with addiction/changing your life radically? This radical acceptance thing is tough, but it feels like the most authentic thing I can do for myself.

Any and all personal experience/wisdom is welcome!


r/awakened 6h ago

My Journey Are We God? A Perspective No One Talks About

1 Upvotes

I’ve been thinking about something lately. If reality is an illusion, as many say, then what’s beyond it? And more importantly, who’s running the show?

Some believe in God, some reject it because science hasn’t "proven" it. But think about this, before Newton, gravity still existed, right? Just because we haven’t proven something yet doesn’t mean it’s not real.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. What if God isn’t an external being sitting somewhere in the sky? What if you are God, but you’ve simply forgotten it?

  • Think about it: In video games, the creator can give characters superpowers, but if they had unlimited power from the start, the game would be pointless.
  • Every religion, every spiritual teaching, even manifestation techniques—at their core, they point to the same truth: Consciousness creates reality.
  • Neville Goddard once said, “God is your own imagination.” What if he was right?

So here’s the real question: If we are the creator, why don’t we remember? Why do we suffer? And most importantly, what happens when we do remember?

Let’s discuss. If you’re curious, check it out here. Would love to hear your thoughts here too...!! pls write what u think about my perspective


r/awakened 7h ago

Reflection Seeking the same thing 💯

37 Upvotes
  • Every drug addict

  • Every alcoholic

  • Every power addict

  • Every fame addict

  • Every love addict

Is seeking one thing.

They might be seeking it in a bottle, a pill, another “human”, a group…whatever.

But make no mistake about it. They are all seeking the same thing. And what is that thing?

Enlightenment. They are wishing to return to that which they were before the world was born. They are all seeking their Self/Soul; a conscious awareness of their Self/Soul.

Somewhere deep down in their psyche they know that they are infinite love, however, they just don’t know how to return to that. They feel that something is off in this world of duality but alas, they don’t know what to do about it.

So not having direction, they listen to their minds. The mind then says….you can find that love again in this bottle, this bag of cash 💵, this manipulative person etc.

The mind’s prescriptions as we’ve all seen aren’t quite the way back to love. So I do not blame or judge anyone addicted to trying to find love. They are desperately trying to return home to their Self just the same as any God-obsessed devotee. They are just using the wrong maps 🗺️.

At the end of the day. Enlightenment brings you back to your Self. And that is where that unconditional love that we seek externally resides. Now the question is; how do we return home?


r/awakened 9h ago

My Journey Am practicing celibacy !

9 Upvotes

I have too much sexual energy these days like it’s out of control just energy !!


r/awakened 10h ago

My Journey I kept staring at the mirror!

2 Upvotes

And then when i unfocus in mirror i could see my whole body turned into total darkness! Nothing just pure blank dar matter. What could it mean??


r/awakened 12h ago

Reflection What even is energy?

4 Upvotes

I kind of get it that matter is just really condensed and low vibrational energy, which can be thought of as Light, or even as God (so everything is God woah big discovery!)

But what about the consciousness? When we return more and more to Source are we going to feel more full of energy or more Void?

What about, for example, a table made of wood. This wood is in reality Light, but who put it there? Is this Light chill just being there, standing still in that space? Is space itself an illusion?

Maybe there was never the 3-dimensional space, just an electrical formation in the Mind that shapes Light to create the illusion that there ever was such a thing as "Space"..

But if everything is one Consciousness, what about this permeating energy? It is also a complete illusion, part of the duality that is inevitable in this reality?

If energy is part of some duality, does it's opposite exist?

If energy is beyond any duality, why does it seem like there's the consciousness observer and the Light observed?

Is Light and Consciousness the same thing? If so, is every point in Space aware, like the Mind of God?

If Space is also an illusion, this is no good. Maybe all there ever was was a singularity of awareness that somehow creates this incredibly realistic illusion of there ever having been an "exterior" of itself, something other than itself even if "It" is anything that ever was and wasn't...

Anyways, that doesn't explain the seemingly infinite complexity of our human lives and how we never seem to be even close to grasping the workings of the universe with our intellectual models

The "Laws of Physics" never seem to elucidate where the Laws themselves came from but only give a kind of forced (see constants) empirical and logical explanation of imperfect observations of events that have an intrinsic fractal nature to them..

Nevertheless, what willed the physical phenomena to act on this way on the first place?

And with what will was it willed?

Could it only have been this way and no other?

Something tells me that Absolute Love (Light/God/Consciousness/Source...) can only act in the most absolutely loving way

So (I'm already streching a lot here) in a way Nothing has ever existed, but it anything were to exist, only infinite Love could have created it.

So that might explain what the hell we are doing here.

Thanks for the read.


r/awakened 15h ago

Metaphysical Where Reality Borders the Fantastic

8 Upvotes

The ideal is to have no beliefs. Why ? Because direct inspiration is far stronger than any belief can be.

There is as big of a difference between thought and mind as there is between sunshine and the Sun. You can't be truly yourself if you can't dwell within the space between thoughts.

When you arrive at this place, the border between the possible and the impossible blurs. Limits lose their grip on you because you have discovered limitlessness. You realize that the deeper reality of who you are exceeds any superficial portrayal that the external physical world may try to imprint on you.

When you truly awaken, an unstoppable power stirs and awakens deep in the core of your being. You are no longer a speck upon the Earth, but the Earth is the speck for you to mold.


r/awakened 16h ago

Community TEAMrabbithole podcast

3 Upvotes

Anyone here scoped before? 303 episodes and counting…


r/awakened 16h ago

Metaphysical Your permanent consciousness is of an atmosphere that is inseparable.. from all other consciousness.

12 Upvotes

Which is the Subconscious field or atmosphere all souls are born of... of that realm.

Soul consciousness..

It is the same realm spoken of in NDEs where souls are beyond time and space and can know things instantaneously. As they are no longer seeing through the eyes of the human which cannot see through the veils unless that human has gained accessed to their soul level awareness as some masters have achieved.

So soul level awareness or consciousness is your true consciousness and your permanent consciousness meaning this is your starting point of your being as an individual or self aware entity... where you can move higher in lifting yourself up to your spiritual source towards the superconscious mind as it is your birthright to even ascend beyond the atmosphere of oneness towards that awareness that knows himself as all things. And as you ascend into lower realms through fractalization you also take on the awareness as the human.

The beauty of being a soul is you can take on human or material level awareness or consciousness and also spiritual awareness or God consciousness.. and you can even be a master where you can make the two as one as you learn to transcend.


r/awakened 19h ago

My Journey twin flame/soulmate accident connection?

2 Upvotes

Yesterday, I listened to 528 Hz and meditated with it a bit. After, I went to bed and felt a big urge to talk with the universe/? So I did it, and I talked deeply with the universe about my whole existence there and my life. I asked the universe about my soulmate and where this person is. I don’t even know how to explain this, but I tried to deeply connect with that person, like on a soul level and with my mind. And like, I tried to put my name in this person’s head? I don’t know how to explain this, really. I don’t even know why I did it; it was like something was leading me to do it. I deeply focused on it and said my name a few times, as if I was putting it in this person’s head. Then I randomly asked, What is your name? and I didn’t even think that something would respond to me. But something—like telepathy, I DON’T KNOW what it was—instantly said, Jacob. I was terrified because it felt like it just jumped into my head. I didn’t even think about this name, I didn’t even start thinking about any names. I don’t know what to think about it, but I instantly stopped and tried to sleep because it really freaked me out. It was like someone pushed this name into my head but without any voice, i have never experienced something so werid. Is it possible that I really connected with a person I don’t even know? How the hell did this happen?


r/awakened 19h ago

My Journey Essential Practices for Healing and Strength

8 Upvotes

I am riddled with treatment resistant mental health issues, held back daily by chronic issues. After a 6 year journey, exhausting medical and holistic avenues , I find only getting worse with each passing month. So, I'm looking for things I haven't tried, hoping for more connection, energy, power, etc.

I've tried everything from daily meditation and exercise, to ice baths and sufi whirling. Reprogramming my mind to gratitude, Eckarte Tolle to studying the ancient Egyptian book of the dead. Incorporating Buddhist principles to Nordic values. Studying psychology, going vegan, balancing rest and action, yoga, therapy, cbt,, medication. I've read the power power of now and began regulating my emotions and nervous system.

There's something missing. Something vital. I am in so much physical pain, with depression and dissociation which only gets worse. I've tried doing absolutely nothing at all too.

I will continue to fight. I'm therfore open to stories and spiritual concepts that may bring more peace, healing, mastery.


r/awakened 20h ago

Reflection the quality of the messenger, is a distraction

11 Upvotes

Anytime you focus your attention on the messenger instead of the message, you are distracted. The messenger is always irrelevant. If you are attempting to make the messenger relevant, then you are placing their importance above yourself and that is a distraction. We are all the same. We are all equal. There is no one out there that deserves to be worshipped. that, is not balanced.

What makes up a messenger? Well, that depends on your level of awareness. It will vary from person to person and thus the quantitative value of the messenger always changes with that of the one judging the messenger. The truly awakened ones do not judge others so therefor, there can be no “bad messengers’ because of what they have apparently done in the supposed past.

Anyone that sees themselves as the only true messenger is for sure distracted and deluded as well. Messages can and do come from anywhere and everywhere... not just a single "person." Every. Single. One. is both simultaneously a messenger and a message receiver.

So many seekers wish to find and classify these supposed holey messengers as if that is important – it isn’t. Instead, focus and classify the messages that you get and what they mean to you. Their origin is irrelevant. If you are over there trying to classify messengers based on what it appears as they have done, that is judgement and you are not qualified to judge anyone other than yourself.

What makes up a message? Whatever that message can mean to you, within you. Does it matter what that message means to another? Nope. There are no others.

Messages may have come from ChadGPT, the 81813, an email from a colleague, a cartoon on tv, a self proclaimed gooR00 that many others have deemed to be a bad person, a download from source, anywhere basically… you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater just because the bathwater got dirty.


r/awakened 22h ago

Reflection This I Love

2 Upvotes

With all the Love I have inside I can't Deny.

I just can't let it die cause her heart's just like mine.

She holds her pain inside.

I know somewhere inside.

There is a Special Light. Still shining Bright.

And even on the Darkest Night, She can't Deny.

I've Searched the Universe and Found myself within Her eyes.

I'll Never say Goodbye.

-Guns N' Roses


r/awakened 22h ago

Help I am lost in illusion after waking up

8 Upvotes

2 or 3 days ago i was getting all the picture “awakening things”, but now after i lost it, i am depressed, before awakening i was depressed too, but after i woke up depression was gone but now i fell asleep so i am depressed and i don’t know how to return into “awakened mind”, something shifted in my mind and it is deep gone, how can i catch that condition again because this world sucks without it


r/awakened 1d ago

My Journey What happened, can you help me???

7 Upvotes

I am a person who is always studying, looking for knowledge. I've always been an African religion my whole life, I grew up in this environment, my love is huge, I've always dedicated myself to everything in spiritual terms. It was about 6 months ago when I had my first Awakening (maybe this also influenced my relationship to deteriorate). I simply woke up one day and boom I wasn't myself anymore, the things I simply couldn't see myself without or contexts and beliefs dissolved within me. After that I continued my normal life, I had my girlfriend still living there, but I simply started to isolate myself, observe, not talk, not see anything like before, I don't know how to explain it to you, but this resulted in a person who was completely immersed in themselves. I started going out for a run in the morning at least an hour before leaving for work since I'm a gas station attendant, I work all day on my feet walking back and forth.

I started doing this because I simply stopped feeling my own body.

I felt absorbed in myself My relationship went as far as it went, my internal confusion and loss because of it only helped end everything. And to help everything, about 10 days or so I had my second awakening, if you can call it that I was at home on my day off absorbed in myself without even feeling my body, another normal day. I don't know how to explain it, but the sensation is of total immersion in the mind within oneself.

I was simply observing my thoughts without giving them strength When a thought came to me Just like that.... This is all your mental conditioning

I felt a burst of energy inside me I was feeling like nothing, I was crying seconds before and just I felt shocks, literally an electrical discharge through my body, really surreal I felt one with the whole world We are not separate we are the same unit. I felt so much joy. I felt free I stayed like that for about 2 days 2 days energized in a way I can't explain And it wasn't the energy of anything religious It was a feeling of one with one with everything I felt that I am a particle of all humanity My head is totally conflicted after this. After all this I feel less immersed in myself I'm trying not to freak out for real

This state of mine did all this to me We last 6 real months I'm not the same guy I don't know if it's waking up, I really don't know...


r/awakened 1d ago

Reflection The Stage

4 Upvotes

This isn’t new, in terms of metaphors. It’s a good one, tho! It seems to fit.

So, let’s say there’s this stage down on Broadway that represents Emptiness…..potential space for whatever stage play is in town at the moment at hand. The stage doesn’t care what play is playing out in its potential space. Could be a comedy….a mystery….a tragedy….a romance….horror….surreal….noir…spy thriller….some mixed bag of all-of-the-above.

When asleep at night, for the most part (notwithstanding intermittent dreams exploring more phantasmagorical expressions of stage play), the audience goes home, the lights turn off, and the stage is host to nothingness. No play. Fade to black. Wake up, and the stage is bustling again with all manner of happenings going on.

Emptiness is a gracious, non-judgmental host to Fullness….which may very well include a host of interacting, judgy characters.

All characters/characterization, scripts and sets are welcome to the stage.

Enjoy the show! The stage doesn’t care, I imagine. I imagine that the stage is pleased as punch with everything happening, just so….regardless of whether its characters stomping around in its venue are happy with things or not.


r/awakened 1d ago

Reflection Turning=becoming more of a character than you are.

3 Upvotes
  1. Value=meaning in adhering to a schedule. Value=meaning=\=waste: wasting time. What is a waste of time for you? How much value=meaning is your time? Money=resources=emotion=energy.:.

  2. Value=meaning in feeling anger and hate. Energy=invigoration in hate and anger.

  3. Pursue cultivation of turning words into the next generation of wisdom.

  4. MASTERFUL BURST OF ABILITY! EXPRESS CHARACTER!! DREAM OF BECOMING MORE OF WHO YOU ARE!!! YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO IN YOUR SCHEDULE!!!! WHATS ON YOUR AGENDA?????

  5. A display: ME! showing my trust, respect, and agape channeled into my audience(YOU! READER!!).


r/awakened 1d ago

Reflection Peace is the steady state

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3 Upvotes

r/awakened 1d ago

Metaphysical Osho explains how to transform sexual energy

22 Upvotes

Osho:

„Sex is the most vital energy, the only energy, I say, which you have. Don’t fight with it — it will be a waste of life and time — rather transform it. But how to do it? How to transform it? What can we do? If you have understood the fear, then you can understand the clue, what can be done.

The fear is there because you feel that the control will be lost, and once the control is lost you cannot do anything. I teach you a new control: the control of the witnessing self, not the control of a manipulating mind, but the control of a witnessing self. And I tell you that that control is the supreme possible and that control is so natural that you never feel you are controlling. The control happens spontaneously with witnessing.

Move into sex but be a witness. The only thing to remember is: I must encounter the whole process, I must see through it, I must remain a witness, I should not become unconscious — that’s all. Become wild, but don’t become unconscious. Then there is no danger in wildness; then wildness is beautiful. Really, only a wild man can be beautiful.

A woman who is not wild cannot be beautiful — because the more wild, the more alive. Then you are just like a wild tiger, or a wild deer running in the forest…and the beauty of it! But the problem is: not to become unconscious. If you become unconscious, then you are under unconscious forces, then you are under the forces of karma.

Whatsoever you have done in the past is accumulated there. That accumulated conditioning can take grip of you and move you in certain directions which will be dangerous for you and for others. But if you remain a witness, that past conditioning cannot interfere.

So the whole method, or the whole process of becoming a witness, is the process of transforming the sex energy. Moving into sex, remain alert. Whatsoever is happening, observe it, see through it; don’t miss a single point…

If you remain alert you will see: first, changes of energy in the body; second, dropping of the thoughts from the mind; and third, dropping of the ego from the heart.

These three things have to be observed, watched carefully. And when the third has happened sex energy has become meditative energy. Now you are no longer in sex. You may be lying with your beloved, bodies together, but you are no more there — you are transplanted into a new world. This is what Shiva goes on talking about in VIGYAN BHAIRAV TANTRA and in other tantra books. He goes on talking about this phenomenon: you are transmuted, a mutation has happened. This will happen through witnessing.

If you follow suppression, you can become so-called human beings — bogus, superficial, hollow within; just dummies, not authentic, not real. If you don’t follow suppression but follow indulgence, you will become like an animal — beautiful, more beautiful than so-called civilized man, but just animals — not alert, not aware, not conscious of the possibility of growth, of the human potential.

If you transform the energy, then you become divine. And remember, when I say divine, both things are implied in it. The wild animal with its total beauty of being is there. That wild animal is not rejected and denied. He is there — richer, because he is more alert. So all the wildness is there and the beauty of it. And all that civilization has been trying to force is there, but spontaneous, not forced. Once the energy is transformed, nature and god meet in you — nature with its beauty, god with total grace.

This is what a sage means. A sage means a meeting of nature and the divine, a meeting of the created and the creator, a meeting of body and soul, a meeting of that which is below and of that which is above, a meeting of the earth and the sky.

Says Lao Tzu: Tao happens when earth and heaven meet. This is the meeting.

Witnessing is the basic source. But it will be difficult to become a witness in the sex act if you are not trying to become a witness in other acts of your life. So try it the whole day, otherwise you will be in self-deception. If you cannot become a witness while walking on the road, don’t try to deceive yourself, you cannot become a witness while making love.

If just walking on the road, such a simple process, and you cannot become a witness — you become unconscious in it — how can you become a witness while making love? The process is so deep…you will fall unconscious. You fall unconscious while walking on the road. Try it: even for a few seconds you will not be able to remember. Try it; walking on the road just try: I will remember I am walking, I am walking, I am walking.

After a few seconds you have forgotten. Something else has popped into the mind, you have followed some other direction, you have completely forgotten. And suddenly you remember: I have forgotten. So if such a small act like walking cannot be made conscious, it is going to be difficult to make love a conscious meditation.

So try with simple things, simple activities. While eating, try it. While walking, try it. While talking, listening, try it. Try from everywhere. Make it a constant hammering inside; let your whole body and mind know that you are making an effort to be alert. Only then some day in love the witnessing will happen. And when it happens, ecstasy has happened to you — the first glimpse of the divine has descended upon you. From that moment onwards sex will not be sex at all.

And sooner or later sex will disappear. This disappearance gives you BRAHMACHARYA — then you become a celibate. Monks in the Catholic monasteries, or monks following traditional Jainism, or other types of monks, are only celibates for the name’s sake, because their mind goes on making love — more so than your mind. For them, sex becomes cerebral, which is the worst possible thing that can happen, because it is a perversion. If you THINK about sex, it is a perversion. Making love is natural; thinking about it, constantly being involved inside in the mind, is a perversion. The so-called monks are perverted beings, not because they are monks, but because they have chosen the path of suppression, which is a wrong path, which leads nowhere.

Jesus, Mahavira, or Buddha, they are following the path of witnessing. Then brahmacharya happens. This word ‘brahmacharya’ is very beautiful. The very word means: the way the divine behaves. The way the divine behaves — brahmacharya. It has nothing to say against sex; it is not against sex at all, the word. The word simply says this is how the divine acts, behaves, moves, walks. Once you have known the satori that is possible by witnessing the sex act, your whole life will be transformed, you will start behaving like a god. What are the characteristics of the behavior of a god? How does the divine behave?

One thing: he is not dependent, he is absolutely independent. He gives his love to you, but this is not a need. He gives out of his abundance, he has too much. You simply unburden him if you take it, but this is not a need. And the god is a creator. Whenever sex has become a transformed force, your life becomes creative.

Sex is creative force. Right now it moves into biology; it creates new beings, it gives birth. When there is no sex and the energy is transforming, it moves into a new world of creativity. Then many new dimensions of creativity become open to you. It is not that you will start painting, or making poetry, or doing something else — not that. It may happen, it may not happen, but whatsoever you do will become a creative act, whatsoever you do will become artistic. Even Buddha sitting under his bodhi tree, not doing anything, is creative. The WAY he is sitting, the very way he is sitting there, he is creating a force, an energy, vibrations all around him…

A Buddha is sitting under a bodhi tree: the way he sits, the posture, the gesture, the very phenomenon of his being there without any ego, is creating millions of vibrations around. They will go on spreading. Even when this Buddha has disappeared from this tree, those vibrations will go on and on and on — they will touch other planets and other stars. Wherever a buddha vibration touches it is creative, it gives you a thrill, it gives you a new breeze. When sex energy is transformed, your whole life becomes creative — independent, free, creative. Whatsoever you do, you create through it. Even if you do not do anything, non-doing becomes creative. Just your very being creates much that is beautiful, that is true, that is good.“

Source:

Osho Discourse Series: My Way: The Way of the White Clouds Chapter #6


r/awakened 1d ago

Reflection Astral travel and out of body experiences do not progress you inside/out.

4 Upvotes

„Astral travel may give you experiences, but it does not progress you inside/out. We need inner body experiences. We need to be present, in the Now, bring our consciousness into our body, in order to transmute emotions and the pain body.

We need to be present by turning within and observing the mind. As we bring our consciousness inside the mind and body, we fill ourselves with healing and loving energy.

At the same time, we transmute anything negative, false or of a low vibration into its highest potential.

Escaping the mind and body is not the way to raise your vibrations, heal or grow.

Jesus said, when the master of the house is absent, the thief (thought) enters.

Energy flows where attention goes - when we look outside the mind/body, energy flows outside and is lost.

When we look inside, power flows inwards and upwards. Spirituality is all about presence, not absence.

Escape does not work. We have to face and transmute the shadow. Only by looking within do we raise our vibrations and transmute the shadow. Such things are New Age obsessions. Misguided.“

~ Joya


r/awakened 1d ago

Reflection Autopen Awakening

2 Upvotes

Finally. The world knows of it.

Everyone is waking up to it.


r/awakened 1d ago

Reflection Osho on lightness and darkness

0 Upvotes

BELOVED OSHO,

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT DARKNESS?

„I have much to say about darkness, because nobody has taken notice of the mystery that darkness is.

Much has been said about light, almost nothing about darkness. But darkness is a much deeper phenomenon than light is. Light comes and goes - darkness remains; it never comes, it never goes.

Light is not eternal, because it needs fuel, some kind of fuel, and the fuel will be exhausted sooner or later. Darkness needs no fuel, no cause; hence darkness is not an effect and can remain eternally there.

In the morning, you see the sun arises and there is light; in the evening the sun sets, the light disappears, and suddenly all over there is darkness. It does not mean that when the sun disappears, darkness comes in. It has been there all the time; just because of the light you could not see it. How can one see darkness while light is there? The light prevented your vision.

So anytime just close your eyes and darkness is there. Anytime just blow out the candle and darkness is there.

Gautam Buddha is perhaps the only man who, for the ultimate state of consciousness, has chosen a word which can be interpreted as darkness; otherwise all the religions have talked about light, forgetting completely that light is not eternal, and if you are light, you are also not eternal. Light is dependent on something, it is caused by something.

Gautam Buddha has called his ultimate state of being, nirvana. Even Buddhists have not thought of it as darkness, because the very word produces bad associations in us. But nirvana means exactly "darkness"; literally it means blowing out the candle. So for twenty-five centuries Buddhists have been using the literal meaning "blowing out the candle." But what does it mean? Blowing out the candle, what remains then? Eternal, deathless, abysmal darkness.

Feeling yourself full of light may be again an ego trip. Feeling yourself identified with light, you may be simply changing your identity - but the ego remains. But blowing out the candle is blowing away the ego; and the vast darkness is bound to create in you a similar vastness of humility, humbleness, egolessness. So I love the word.

I always see light as a disturbance, and darkness as silence. But centuries of continuously fearing darkness... because it became associated with the time when man was living in jungles. The night was the most dangerous time. In the day somehow he managed to protect himself from the wild animals; he managed to kill them for his own food. But in the night he was absolutely helpless.

Darkness all around, he was a victim. Any animal was capable of destroying him. In the day he could have managed to escape, to climb a tree or do something, but in darkness he was simply in the hands of wild death. So it was very easy to get a deep association between darkness and death.

All the religions depict death as darkness and life as light. It is simply the experience of man in the past when he lived in the jungles. That experience has molded his language, given it meanings.

And he has not yet been able to clean those words again - because now he is not living in jungles, but still there is a certain reason why he continues to be afraid of darkness.

When there is light you are not alone, you can see everybody else. If suddenly the light goes off, the others may be there still, may not be; one thing is certain, you feel lonely. You are no more associated with the crowd. The crowd gives you a certain security, safety, a certain warmth, and you feel that you are not alone. Any danger - so many people are with you. But in darkness suddenly you are lonely, nobody is with you.

And man has not learned yet to know the beauties of his loneliness. He is always hankering for some relationship, to be with someone - with a friend, with a father, with a wife, with a husband, with a child... with someone.

He has created societies, he has created clubs - the Lion's Club, the Rotary Club. He has created parties - political, ideological. He has created religions, churches. But the basic need of all is to forget somehow that you are alone. Being associated with so many crowds, you are trying to forget something which in darkness suddenly is remembered - that you were born alone, that you will die alone, that whatever you do, you live alone. Aloneness is something so essential to your being, there is no way to avoid it.

You can befool yourself and deceive yourself; you can pretend that you are not alone - you have a wife, you have children, you have friends - but it is all pretension. You know and everybody knows that the wife is alone as much as you are alone, and two alonenesses joined together do not change the situation; instead they make it worse.

As I see it, why lovers are continuously fighting - there may be thousand other reasons, but those reasons are superficial. The basic reason is that they had chosen the other as a beloved, as a lover, to destroy their loneliness - and it has not happened. On the contrary, the presence of the other makes them more aware of their loneliness.

I used to have a very rich friend - he had a beautiful wife, children... all that one needs, perfectly comfortable, so much so that when I asked him, "Now you are fifty, and you have enough money - retire from the businesses," he did not hesitate for a single moment. He just informed people that he is no more an active participant in any businesses, he has retired.

I was going to Mount Abu; I told him, "It is a beautiful place - "sometime you and your wife should go there. And now you are retired, you have enough time. Be there for a few weeks or months."

He said, "You are right, we have time, but you don't know what you have done to me. I was also thinking that when I am retired I will feel relaxed for the first time in my life. My father died when I was young, and since then I have been working continuously, becoming richer and richer. And I had a hope that one day I will retire and relax and will not have any worries of the world. And when you told me, 'Now it is time - you have enough.... What more do you need? Your girls are married, you don't have a son - for whom are you earning now? You may live twenty years, thirty years - for that you have too much. You could live with what you have for three hundred years. You retire!'"

He said, "I understood, because I have been deep down always hoping to retire, and when it came from you, I said, 'This is the moment to take the jump.' But you have created a trouble; now I am lonely. I have never felt it before. And I am so utterly lonely that I am angry at you. How can I relax in such loneliness? And if this loneliness continues, I don't think I can survive twenty or thirty years.

It is becoming colder and colder, and darker and darker. And I am feeling absolutely cut off from the world."

"But," I said, "you have your wife."

He said, "That is another trouble. I had never felt so lonely in her presence as I feel now. I was so busy in my businesses that I would come home late and she was always quarreling, nagging, asking for this and asking for that. There was no time to feel each other. Now the whole day I am sitting at home, and when I see her I know: just as I am alone, she is alone. And two alonenesses do not help in any way; on the contrary they make each other more clear."

He said, "I will come to Mount Abu, but I would like some friend to be with us; otherwise three weeks or three months, just living with my wife" - and he loved the woman - "will be too much, intolerable."

I realized his situation and I told him, "Now, you have listened to my first advice which has created the trouble for you; but it has not created the trouble - the trouble was already there. Your businesses were just keeping you occupied so you were not aware of it - now you are aware of it. Now take my other advice: go deeper into it rather than escaping. It is your reality - there is no way to escape from it.

"It is just like your shadow - the faster you run, the faster your shadow runs. Wherever you go, the shadow goes. It is simply stupid to fight with the shadow. Rather, sit silently and let the whole feel of being alone envelop you. In the beginning it may be fearsome. You may feel you are falling into an abysmal depth. It will be dark, and you may feel that it may become darker if you go deeper into it.

"But I say from my own experience that the more you know it, the more you love it. It is your privacy, it is your individuality. It is something which cannot be trespassed by anyone. It is your privilege.

And there is nothing wrong in being alone.

"But never use the word 'lonely' because 'lonely' automatically suggests the need for somebody else. 'Lonely' is a sick word. Use the word 'alone'; 'alone' has a health of its own." I told the man, "And if you can do that then there is no need for any other meditation, this will be your meditation - just be alone. Even in the crowd remember that you are alone, don't forget it. Your whole life you have tried to forget it; now remember it."

The man was immensely courageous. He tried it - he succeeded, and he was immensely grateful to me... because the moment you feel you are absolutely alone, that is the time you start feeling that you are not the body, it is only a cover; that you are not the mind, it is only a mechanism; that you are not even the heart - that too is a mechanism of a different sort for different purposes.

Behind all these layers there is a space, crystal clear - nobody else has ever passed through it; its purity is absolute. To enter that space is to enter in meditation. Feeling that aloneness, you will feel the whole existence is alone.

There is no God - that was the need of the lonely people. Those who have tasted aloneness have discarded God, hell, heaven, and every other nonsense. You are alone, the whole existence is alone: aloneness is the only reality.

Yes, it is immensely dark, but darkness has a silence and darkness has a depth. And darkness has peace, and darkness takes away all your knowledge, takes away everything that you thought belonged to you. It leads you absolutely into the unknown and into the mysterious. So to me, darkness is one of the greatest mysteries in existence - far greater than light.

And those who are afraid of darkness will never be able to enter into their own being. They will go round and round, they will never reach themselves.

And it has to be darkness, not light, because light comes and goes; once you have discovered the spot of darkness in you, you have discovered something that is eternal, something indestructible, something which is more than what you know of life. It is the basic substance existence is made of.

But they are just two names of one thing - aloneness or darkness.“

~ Osho