This is the "First Awakening." You realize that you are not your body, not your mind, not your emotions. You are the seer . Suddenly, the constant chattering of the mind becomes a background noise you are no longer enslaved by. You become a master observing the servant. Step 2: The Second Awakening – Dropping the Witness This is the most dangerous and subtle step. Most spiritual seekers get stuck at Step 1, building a strong ego around being "the witness." Osho warns that the watcher is also a subtle form of the ego.

The division between the observer and the observed collapses. When you look at a flower, there is no "you" looking and no "flower" being looked at. There is only looking . This is the second awakening—a state of pure, non-dual awareness. The duality of subject and object vanishes. Step 3: The Third Awakening – The Return (The Celebration) Unlike many mystic traditions that end in escapism (renouncing the world), Osho insists on the final step: the return to the ordinary world with extraordinary consciousness.

These three steps are not sequential in the usual sense; they are layers of a single explosion into consciousness. The journey begins not with God, but with the self. Osho states that most humans live in a state of "mechanical sleep," identified completely with their thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations.

Living without a "doer." After the ego dissolves, you return to the marketplace, the kitchen, and the office. You eat when hungry, sleep when tired, work when needed—but there is no inner chatter claiming, "I am doing this."

"Awakening is not an achievement. It is a recognition of that which has always been the case." — Osho