QUESTION: OSHO, I THINK THAT I AM ALMOST ENLIGHTENED.

I AM REALLY SURPRISED that in a single sentence almost all the words are wrong. How did you manage?! It starts with ’I’ – ’I’ never becomes enlightened; ’I’ is the barrier. It is ’I’ that is preventing.When you become enlightened you are not; there is nobody to claim. The Upanishads say – and Zarathustra and Lao Tzu and Jesus all say the same thing again and again in different ways.... The Upanishads are very clear; they say: If somebody says, ”I am enlightened,” then know well he is not. Enlightenment is something that cannot be claimed, because the claimer has to disappear before enlightenment happens. One is enlightened only when one is not. And you start the sentence: I... I THINK.... And the second word is ’think’. What does thinking have to do with enlightenment? Thinking is always far far away from enlightenment. It is the constant process of thought in you that keeps you drowned in your own mud; it is the constant process of thought in you that keeps you blindfolded, that keeps you blind, that does not allow your eyes to reflect that which is, because those thoughts go on distorting everything. Thought is a mechanism of distortion. But we have become accustomed.... People come to me and they say, ”I think, Osho, I have fallen in love” – as if love is part of thinking. They cannot even say, ”I feel I am in love.” They say, ”I think I am in love.” Even love has to be a thought in them. And how can love be a thought? Love can only be a feeling.These are three layers: first is thought, second is feeling, and third is being – thinking, feeling, being. You can think about the world, you can think about objects of the world; you cannot think of love – love is higher than thinking, beyond the grasp of thought. You can feel love: you cannot think it.

And you cannot even feel enlightenment – it is beyond feeling. Just as love is beyond thinking, enlightenment is beyond feeling. You can only BE enlightened – you cannot think, you cannot feel. It is there! And when it is there, it is there. And you say: I THINK THAT I AM ALMOST ENLIGHTENED. What do you mean by ’almost’? It has never been heard before. Either one is enlightened or not! Almost? It is like saying that this is almost a circle – almost a circle? A circle has to be a perfect circle, otherwise it is not a circle. It may be some other shape – you cannot say ’almost a circle’. You cannot say, ”I am almost in love.” That very word ’almost’ says you are not.  

There was a young man from the coast, 

Who began making love with a ghost. 

At the height of orgasm

The she-ectoplasm

Said, ”I think I can feel it – almost.”

You must be dreaming – making love to a ghost.

Hence the word ’almost’. Drop all such nonsense. And if you can drop it, you need not become enlightened – you are. Nobody needs to become enlightened. Enlightenment is not something that is going to happen to you – it is already the case! It has happened. It is your very nature. Just drop all kinds of rubbish that you have gathered around it.

Osho, Philosophia Perennis, Vol 1