Osho – This world is the world of death, and the gods that you have created out of your imagination are part of this world — they are going to die. You, your world, your gods, they are all going to die, because this world is created by your desire, and the gods are also created by your desire and imagination.
You don’t know who you are — how can you know the real God? And how can you know the real world? Whatsoever you know is a projection, is a kind of dream. Yes, when a dream is there, it appears real. Every night you dream, and you know that while in the dream you never suspect it, you never doubt it, you never raise a question.
Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples, “Every night when you are going to sleep, when you are just on the verge and the curtain of sleep is falling on you, a little bit you remember still, not yet drowned in the darkness of sleep, a little bit of awareness, and sleep is coming…those moments, those intervals between waking and sleep,” Gurdjieff used to say, “those moments are very significant. Raise a question in your mind and go on repeating it while you are falling asleep. A simple question: Is it real? Is it for real? Go on repeating the question while you are falling asleep, so that one day in dream you can ask: Is it real?” That day brings a great benediction.
If you can ask in a dream, “Is it real?” the dream immediately disappears. Here you ask, and there the dream is no more. Suddenly a great awakening happens inside. In sleep you become alert. The sleep continues; hence the tremendous beauty of its experience. The sleep continues; the body remains asleep, the mind remains asleep, but something beyond body and mind becomes alert; a witness arises in you. “Is it real?” — if you ask it in your dream…very difficult to remember because when you are dreaming you have completely forgotten yourself. Hence the device — while falling asleep, go on repeating this question: Is it real? Is it real? Fall asleep repeating this question.
Somewhere between three and nine months, one day it happens — in dream suddenly the question arises: Is it real? And you have one of the most profound experiences of your life. The moment the question is raised, the dream immediately disappears, and there is utter emptiness and silence. Sleep is there and yet a small light of awareness has happened. And then only will you be aware of this life and its illusoriness; then you will be able to see that the world of desires, jealousies, ambitions, is just a dream seen with open eyes. And if you can see that this world is also a dream, you are on the verge of enlightenment.