I feel like I am falling into an eternal black and bottomless abyss. What am I experiencing? - by Osho

"Evening has merged into night.
Some people have come. They say, "You teach nothingness. But the thought of nothingness terrifies us. Is there nothing we can hold on to?"
I tell them that courage is certainly essential for a leap into the void.
But those who leap in do not attain nothingness, they attain wholeness. And those who hold on to something achieve nothing. Can an imaginary handhold really help you?

It is only through emptiness that we can attain truth. And in emptiness, there can be nothing to cling on to. I tell them a story:
"One dark, moonless night, a traveller passing through unfamiliar mountains slipped and fell into a deep chasm. Catching hold of a bush, he hung in suspense. There was darkness all around. Below him was also impenetrable darkness and the dreadful abyss. For many hours he clung to the bush, and throughout this time he suffered the pangs of imminent death. It was a winter night and gradually his hands became cold and numb. Soon he would have to release his grip, and then he would fall into the abyss. No effort could save him, and already he saw himself in the jaws of death. He fell -- but nothing happened. There was no abyss at all. The moment he let go, he found himself standing on the ground."

This has been my experience also. Falling into emptiness, I discovered that emptiness itself was the ground. By dropping the support of the mind, we attain the support of the divine.
The courage to leap into the void is man's only true courage, and those who cannot summon up the strength to enter the void remain unfulfilled."


Osho, excerpted from: Seeds of Wisdom, Number 26