The Only Answer

"Unless you ask the real question how can any answer help? But the real question is not an intelectual thing, let me tell you, that real question is "Who am I?". All other questions are just formulations of this basic question. 

Somebody asks what is God, but that is not a real question. If you don't know yourself how are you supposed to know God? Somebody asks "Who created the world?" but that is meaningless. You don't even know how you came to existence, what to say about the world? First try to solve your own mystery. Encounter it. So the basic question of all questions is "Who am I?"? How to answer it? Can somebody else answer it for you? That is not possible. How can I say who you are if you can not say it yourself, how can I say who you are? Whatsoever I say will again become information in the head."

"Now the trouble arises because Budha, Jesus, Krishna, me, we all go on saying: "You are a God.". The answer is right but you are not at the point where you can catch it. You are not ready for it. The more you look into yourself, the more you feel yourself to be like a dog rather than a God."

"Rather than thinking that you are a God, you create Gods in your own image. No, if I say that you are a God, this answer won't help - you will have to find your own answer.

The question is existential; you will need an existential answer. The question is out of your being; only out of your being can the real answer come. You will have to go deep inside yourself. First ask: "Who am I?". Ask "Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?". Let this question penetrate into every fibre and cell of your body ad your mind. Let your whole body mind vibrate with the question "Who am I?". It will take months, sometimes years, but it pays. Let your whole being vibrate with one question: "Who am I?". Let this question sink do deep that whatsoever you are doing the question remains vibrating deep down "Who am I?". Walking, eating, talking, listening, the question goes on pulsating deep, deep down "Who am I? Who am I". By and by the question will not be verbal, it will be just a feeling - "Who am I?" not verbal, not these words, "Who am I?". It will be just a question mark in your being, just a questioning, a quest.

And then one day, when your total being is so full of the question that your whole being has become a question-mark, the answer comes. It will not be verbal, it will not be somebody saying "Listen, Tushita" - the question is from Tushita - "Listen, Tushita". Nobody will say that. Suddenly something will explode, as a seed explodes, as a bud opens. And you will be full of the fragrance. When you open your eyes all questioning has disappeared, all problems have disappeared. Then you live the life of no problems. And only then will you live, only the will you be. Then everything is a benediction. Each breath is a blessing - and all, all is nirvana, all is God.

That is what is needed deep down in you, Tushita. You ask "I would like you to answer me, to tell me something, but I don't know the question." It is good that you don't know, because if you know the question it is bound to be the wrong thing. This is the question. But don't use it as a question because the answer is not going to come from the outside the answer is hidden in the question itself. The question is a seed, the outermost core of the answer is the hidden tree in the seed. Take the question as a seed and become the soil for it. A "skullfull" soil will do, your head becomes the soil - that is what I call "skullfull" soil. Only one question, only one question, only one question - you become pregnant with the question. And the pregnancy becomes so deep, that you cannot forget it in any moment. Even while you are sleeping it will be there. Even in your sleep, in your dream, the question will continue - "Who am I?" not so much in words, remember - again an repeat, not so much in words - but the question will be there, "Who am I?" pulsating, streaming, moving, moving deeper and deeper and deeper. And one day it reaches to the very core, it hits your heart, the inner space, the heart space. And then something opens. If you can ask rightly within your own being, you will come to the right answer. And that is the only answer - the one you come to yourself."

Osho - Tao: The Pathless Path II