Enlightenment is just a concept word, one which has become highly misleading over the centuries. Drop it. If Osho, or any teacher, rephrased their point and said “We are all in our natural state, we have just forgotten,” would your ego-mind react in the same way as when it hears “We are all ‘enlightened?”
No, most ego-minds would react quite differently. Because we’ve made ‘enlightenment into this mystical, romanticized, all-problem-solving, nearly-impossible-to-reach ‘state’ of permanent bliss instead of the very natural and ultimately mundane ‘non-state’ it is.
Enlightenment is simply your natural state of being, when everything that is not being in Reality or your natural state - all the psychological assessments, judgments and imaginations your dreaming mind adds on top of Reality - is stripped away.
You are alive, and you are being. Just like any other being having a life on Earth - birds, trees, squirrels, etc. - you go through your day being, being alive, and doing whatever is necessary to survive until you die. The difference is those plants and animals don’t psychologically assess about any of it, they’re just being in the now, and the next now, and the next now, without any overlaid unreal judgments and dream self.
Humans overlay all this unreal nonsense on top of all that: How do I ‘feel’ today? How will I ‘feel’ tomorrow? I’m restless and dissatisfied, even though everything is fine right now and I’m just being. What desire or sense can I gratify to help me feel fulfilled (temporarily?) What judgements am I holding about myself and others? How can I heal the ‘past?’ How can I plan for a perfect ‘future?’ How can I ‘get enlightened?’
Out of 8.7 million species on Earth, we are the only ones to overlay these silly imaginings and unrealities over just Being. No other species does that! They just live. They are just being. Now and Now and Now.
So if I said, “We are all in our natural state, we have just forgotten,” instead of any ‘cosmic-transcendent enlightenment,’ how would you react?
“Oh, my natural state is just Being. Everything, everything, i add on top of just being only takes me out of just being, out of Reality, out of my natural state. I can wrap my head around that.
I’m already being, and choiceless, unjudged, un-overlaid pure being just Is. It wants for nothing. So it’s already enlightened.
If I simply stop overlaying all these desires, for more stimulation, more satiation, more future security, more years before I die, more enlightenment, then right now my Being is already full and completely satisfied. If I stop believing my mind when it says I’m uneasy, restless, or somehow incomplete, and need to ‘get enlightened’ to return to a state of non-restlessness and peace, I see that Being is already compete, fully in the flow of Life and in perfect peace.
Instant enlightenment. Problem (non-problem) solved.
Can we suddenly stop overlaying and believing in all those psychological assessments our mind keeps adding to literally every action and event, every human day? No. The thought-stream continues, and if “you” successfully halt it through some form of manipulation “you” call meditation, it will soon flood you again,
So what can you do? To not only remember, but dwell in & as your true nature. Just be. Don’t add anything to Being. Realize you’re fine, natural and enlightened in this moment, and when you see your mind disbelieving that and going off searching for some illusory enlightenment it can add…just watch.
You’ve practiced non-Being and adding every day of your life, for decades. Now spend a few minutes every day, a few months & years, practicing Being by sitting in silence, reminding yourself everything is fine and already enlightened, and then just Witnessing everything, everything, that your mind thrusts up to add/overlay unto your natural state. No matter what it says, or cries, or insists is true, just stay in the naturally fine being of the moment and keep witnessing, watching, uninterested and uninvolved.
You won’t become firmly established in ‘remembering’ you are ‘enlightened’ overnight. I will take continued witnessing. But eventually you will come to see, to realize, to apperceive, that simply Being with nothing added is your already-enlightened natural ‘state,’ and you will love just being so much that, although the mental add-ons and psychological assessments may continue to pop up, you just won’t be interested anymore, just won’t believe any thoughts anymore. And rest in Being.