“It is better not to use drugs, because sometimes they can give you certain experiences, and that’s the problem. Once you have the experiences this way, it is very difficult to reach them naturally—without drugs. And to have an experience is not the basic thing; to grow through it is.

You can have an experience through a drug, but you don’t grow. The experience comes to you; you don’t go to the experience. It is as if  you have seen the Himalayas in a vision—beautiful as far as it goes, but it does not go very far. You remain the same. By and by, if the vision becomes your reality, you are losing something, because you will become addicted to it.

No, it is better to go to the Himalayas. It is hard; it is a long journey. Drugs make it too short. They are almost violent; they force something premature. It is better to go the long way, because only through struggle do you grow. An integration arises in you, and you become crystallized. That’s the real thing—experience is irrelevant. The real thing is growth. Always remember that my whole emphasis is on growth, not on experiences.

The mind is always asking for more and new experiences; it is infatuated with experiences—and we have to go beyond the mind. So the real spiritual dimension is not the dimension of experience. In fact, there is nothing to experience. Only you—not even you, just pure consciousness with no limit, with no object to it—just pure subjectivity, just being. Not that you experience beautiful things. You are beautiful, but you don’t experience beautiful things. You are tremendously beautiful, but nothing happens. All around is tremendous emptiness.” — Osho