We spend our lives oscillating between two non-existent realities: the past that's gone forever and the future that never arrives. Meanwhile, the only moment that actually exists—this present moment—slips through our fingers unnoticed. Osho dedicated much of his teaching to this fundamental human problem and offered profound insights into what it means to truly live in the now.
The Illusion of Time
Osho often said that time is a mental creation, a useful tool for practical matters but a prison for consciousness. The mind needs time—to plan, to remember, to organize—but being identified with mind means being trapped in time. You're always somewhere else: regretting yesterday or anticipating tomorrow.
The present moment has no duration; it's not a slice of time but rather the absence of time. It's the gap between past and future where life actually happens. Yet our minds race so frantically between memory and imagination that we completely miss it.
This isn't a philosophical problem but a deeply practical one. When you're not present, you're not alive. You're a ghost, haunting yourself with memories or dreams, but never actually here to experience what is.
The Mind's Resistance to Now
Why is it so difficult to remain present? Osho explains that the mind survives on past and future. The past gives the mind identity—all your memories, your story, your accumulated knowledge and experience. The future gives the mind purpose—all your plans, ambitions, goals, and fears.
If you become truly present, the mind loses its grip. Without past, there's no ego saying "I am this person with this history." Without future, there's no anxiety, no striving, no becoming. You simply are, and for the mind, this is death.
This is why whenever you try to be present, the mind immediately pulls you away with a thought about past or future. It's not being obstinate; it's fighting for survival. Understanding this dynamic is the first step to freedom from it.
Presence as Rebellion
In a world obsessed with productivity, achievement, and becoming something more, being present is an act of rebellion. Society conditions us to constantly prepare for the future: study for exams, work for retirement, exercise for health, save for security. There's always something to achieve, improve, or acquire.
Osho challenges this entire paradigm. What if the purpose of life isn't to become something but to be something—to be present, aware, alive? What if all this rushing toward future goals causes you to miss the only thing that matters: the miracle of existence itself?
This doesn't mean abandoning all planning or becoming irresponsible. It means doing what needs to be done while remaining rooted in present awareness. You can plan for tomorrow while living today, work toward goals while not postponing life until they're achieved.
The Gateway of the Senses
One of Osho's most practical teachings on presence is to use your senses as anchors. The mind lives in abstraction—thoughts, concepts, worries—but your senses always operate in the now. You cannot see yesterday's sunset or hear tomorrow's bird song.
When you find yourself lost in thought, return to your senses. Feel your breathing, notice sounds around you, observe the play of light and shadow, sense your body's contact with the chair or ground. These simple acts pull you out of mental time and into experiential now.
Osho created many techniques to strengthen sensory awareness. Walking slowly and consciously, eating with total attention, listening to music as if your life depends on it—all these practices train you to be present through the doorway of direct experience.
The Paradox of Action
A common misunderstanding is that being present means being passive, just sitting and watching while life passes by. Osho clarifies that presence isn't about inaction but about acting without the interference of psychological time.
When you're truly present, action becomes more effective, not less. You respond to what is rather than reacting based on past patterns or future fears. You see situations clearly and act appropriately, without the distortion of mental baggage.
The Zen archer embodies this: totally focused on the present moment, not thinking about hitting the target or fearing missing it. The action flows from presence, and paradoxically, this is when you're most effective.
Accepting What Is
Presence requires acceptance of reality as it is, not as you wish it were. The mind constantly fights with reality, saying "this should be different" or "this shouldn't be happening." This fight takes you out of the present and into an imaginary world where things are as you want them.
Osho's teaching isn't about passive resignation but about ending the futile war with reality. This doesn't mean you can't work to change things; it means first accepting the reality of what is. Only from this acceptance can real, intelligent action arise.
When you fight against what is, you waste energy in a battle you cannot win. The past has happened; fighting it is insane. The present is as it is; denying it changes nothing. Only acceptance of what is gives you the power to respond wisely.
The Death of Tomorrow
Osho provocatively suggested living as if you'll die tomorrow. Not in a depressing way, but as a way to cut through all postponement and live with intensity and totality today.
What would you do differently if you knew you'd die tomorrow? Probably not waste time on trivial conflicts, nursing grudges, or postponing joy. You'd tell people you love them, you'd forgive, you'd be present with everything and everyone that matters. You'd squeeze every drop of life from the moment.
Why wait until the last day to live this way? Death will come—that's the only certainty. Everything else is uncertain. Yet we live as if we're immortal, postponing life until we've achieved security, success, or perfect conditions that never arrive.
Meditation: The Practice of Presence
For Osho, meditation is simply another word for being present. All meditation techniques, whether active or passive, aim at one thing: bringing you out of mind and into the now.
When you watch your breath, you're present. When you observe your thoughts without getting caught in them, you're present. When you sit in silence, simply being, you're present. Meditation isn't about achieving some special state; it's about discovering the state you're always in when you're not distracted by mind.
The beauty is that you can meditate anywhere, anytime, by simply bringing awareness to this moment. Washing dishes, walking to work, talking with a friend—every activity becomes meditation when done with full presence.
The Joy of Ordinariness
Perhaps the most surprising discovery of presence is that the ordinary becomes extraordinary. When you're fully present, even the simplest things reveal their miracle.
Drinking tea becomes a profound experience. The warmth of the cup, the aroma, the taste on your tongue—all of it becomes intensely alive when you're not thinking about something else. Walking in the park becomes an adventure in awareness as you notice details you've passed a thousand times but never truly seen.
Osho emphasized that enlightenment isn't about transcendent experiences or mystical visions. It's about being so present that you experience the extraordinary in the ordinary, the sacred in the mundane, the infinite in the finite.
The Eternal Now
Ultimately, Osho points to something beyond even the practice of presence: the recognition that only now exists, always has existed, and always will exist. Past and future are thoughts occurring now. Memory and imagination both happen now.
There is literally nowhere else to be but now. Even when you think you're thinking about the past or future, you're doing so now. The question isn't whether you'll be in the now—you always are—but whether you'll be conscious of it.
This realization brings tremendous peace. If you can only ever be here now, why waste this moment wishing you were elsewhere? Why not give yourself completely to what is, exploring it fully, living it totally?
Conclusion
Osho's teaching on the present moment isn't a technique or a practice but an invitation to wake up to the only reality there is. You're always in the now; you can't be anywhere else. But you can be asleep to it or awake in it.
Living in the present doesn't require perfect concentration or special conditions. It simply requires noticing when you've drifted into mental time and gently returning to what is. Again and again, moment by moment, you practice this return until presence becomes natural, until living becomes synonymous with being present.
In this presence, life reveals its deeper dimensions. You discover that you're not the small, time-bound self you thought you were. You're the awareness in which all experiences occur, the space in which life unfolds, the eternal now that was never born and can never die.
This is Osho's gift: not complex philosophy or difficult practices, but a simple reminder to be here, now, awake to the miracle of existence that's always been right in front of you, waiting to be noticed.