You live thousands of years back. It is very rare to find a contemporary man. Somebody is one thousand years old, somebody two thousand, somebody three thousand... And the older they are, the more valuable they think they are. Hindus try to prove that their Vedas are the oldest scriptures, as if this is something creditable. The oldest scriptures simply means that you have not moved since then, you are still carrying the burden. Historians say that the scriptures of the Hindus, the Vedas, are five thousand years old. But Hindus are not ready to accept it -- they say they are at least ninety thousand years old. The older they are the better.

The same is true about other religions, as if all that is old is gold. In fact, life is always new, fresh, as fresh as dewdrops in the early morning sun on the lotus leaf, as fresh as the stars, as fresh as the eyes of a newly-born baby, as fresh as the song of the birds right now.

Life knows only one time, that is now.

-Rajneesh

You can ask God anything, but first you have to surrender totally. But if you are surrendered totally then there is no point in asking. From where will the asking come? Who will demand? And if you are still demanding, the surrender is missing, so the prayer cannot be fulfilled.

-Rajneesh

I believe in an orgasmic universe. There are no such divisions as the creator and the created, the higher and the lower, the sacred and the profane, this and that. I believe in one organism.

Existence has not to be thought of in terms of a painter and his painting, because the moment the painting is finished, the painter and the painting become two separate entities.

Existence has to be thought of only in terms of a dancer and his dance. You cannot separate them; the dancer and the dance are one. At the highest peak of dancing, the dancer disappears into the dance -- there is no dancer but only dance.

That is the experience of meditation: when you dissolve yourself into existence, when the dewdrop slips into the ocean and becomes the ocean. And vice versa is also true: the ocean slips into the dewdrop and becomes the dewdrop. They cannot be conceived of as two entities any more.

-Rajneesh

I don't see that there is any God who created the world. I certainly experience a quality of godliness in existence, but it is a quality, not a person. It is more like love, more like silence, more like joy, less like a person. You are never going to meet God and say "Hello" to him, "How are you?" and "I have been looking for you for thousands of years. Where have you been hiding?"

God is not a person but only a presence. And when I say "presence", be very attentive, because you can go on listening according to your own conditioning. You can even make "presence" something objective -- you have again fallen into the same trap. God is a presence at the innermost core of your being: it is your OWN presence. It is not a meeting with somebody else.

-Rajneesh

Socrates was told by the court in Athens, "If you stop talking about truth, we can release you. You will not be put to death." Socrates refused, and the words he used were very beautiful. He said, "That is my business. I cannot stop talking about truth. Just as I breathe, I talk about truth. It is my business."

-Rajneesh