A new term has been coined by Herman Hesse. The term is appealing. The new term is philosia: the love of seeing. Sia means ‘to see’. Philo means ‘love’.

And sophy means ‘thinking’. So philosophy means ‘love of thinking’. We have no term in India for it. We cannot translate the word ‘philosophy’ into any Indian language. Our term is darshan. It means seeing. Not thinking, but seeing.

Seeing comes not through the mind but at the moment the mind is annihilated, the moment the mind is not, the moment the mind ceases. Every type of seeing – either of science or of philosophy or of religion – is an outcome of the state of no-mind.

We have known the example of Archimedes. He was thinking and thinking, and came to no conclusion. Then he was lying in his bathtub. Suddenly something was seen. He ran out of his house naked. He had seen something and he ran into the street crying, “Eureka, eureka! I’ve found it, I’ve found it! I’ve achieved!”

If you ask an Einstein or a Picasso or a Hesse, they too will say that something has been seen. Whether in poetry or in painting or in scientific discovery, something is seen. And the moment of seeing is not the moment of brooding, the moment of seeing is not the moment of logical thinking. Logical thinking is held in abeyance. The logical mind is not working and suddenly something overpowers you. Something comes to you, or you go somewhere – somewhere beyond the human limits. Then you know; knowing is there.

Osho, The Eternal Quest, Ch 8 (excerpt, translated from Hindi)