According to Osho, genuine transformation does not come from personal 'will power' - the mind's concentrated, conflict-based control. That creates alternating potency and collapse. True change arises when desire and direction fall away, ego dissolves, and one aligns with the Whole: tao, God-power. Then will is not yours but being itself, effortless, shadowless energy in which transformation happens naturally.
You don’t transform by forcing yourself; you transform when you relax wanting and let the bigger life move through you.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Can this happen through will power?
Will is power; energy. There is no such thing as 'will power'. Will is power, will is energy. But by 'will' I mean the whole: Those who use the term 'will power' use it in a psychic sense. They use it to mean the power of concentration. I am not using the term in that sense. To me, 'will' means the whole. So only God is will. We are never will; we are just desires. Will is power, without desire. It is power with no movement or, with an inner movement. It is power without direction: directionless, dimensionless. When we say, "God is power," it does not mean that God is powerful. It means: God-power. God is the energY of the whole, the power of the whole. So when I say 'will power', it does not mean that will has power. Will is power -- it is energy. You can…
Osho, into what should the power of the ego be transformed?
So those three experiments I have spoken of for the purification of life—purification of the body, of thought, and of feeling—if these three experiments continue, in doing them you will find the ego has dissolved. Anger will not dissolve in that sense; ego will dissolve. The energy of anger will continue in new forms. No “energy of ego” will remain. When ego dissolves, nothing is left behind—no residue. Anger or sex do not dissolve in that sense; they are transformed. They remain present in other forms. The energy of anger remains; it functions in another way. It may become compassion, but the energy is the same. And in this world, those who are very angry—if their energy is transformed—they can be filled with just that much compassion, because the energy takes a new form. Energy is not destroyed; it takes new forms. As I said, those who are very sexual…
Osho, just as you distinguish between thought and the power of thought, isn’t there the same distinction between desire and willpower?
Certainly. As long as there are thoughts, you do not have the power of thought. There is a crowd of thoughts, not the power of thought. The power of thought arises only when the crowd of thoughts has departed. Then within you there is the pure energy of thought—uncovered by thoughts, laid bare; a burning fire of thought-power, with no ashes of thoughts upon it, only the glowing ember. Exactly the same holds for desires and willpower. The more the desires, the less the willpower. The fewer the desires, the greater the willpower. If you drop all desires, then whatever you will, the very moment you will it, it will be fulfilled. Your willpower will become that immense. When you do not desire, you have such vast energy that the very act of willing brings fulfillment. This is the secret of life: those who are eager to have their desires…
Osho, is there any method to increase willpower?
So do not take a very big resolve all at once, one that you already know is beyond you—and this is what often happens: those who set out on the journey of resolve take resolves beyond their limits. Your own mind counsels you, “Yes, take it.” And then you get stuck, and you fall. Then the same mind says, “Now drop it. You’re not anyone’s slave; you took it yourself, now leave it.” Why does the mind do this? Because the greater your resolve becomes, the smaller your mind becomes. The day a resolve is fulfilled, the mind dies; it cannot survive. Mind and resolve are opposing forces. Mind is the name of your weakness; resolve is the name of your soul. Mind is your disease; resolve is your health. Therefore the mind will keep putting you in difficulties. It will say, “Take a big one.” When you take it,…
When you try by willpower, you start forcing somewhere. So Kabir remains there -- you never say good-bye to him -- and you start becoming Pujari. Then there is a conflict, and of course Kabir starts fighting, resisting. You are divided, tense, and anguish arises. No, that is not the way. Willpower is not the way for anything. Auto-hypnosis is the way. Auto-hypnosis means simply suggesting, that's all; not trying to do anything. It is so easy; the suggestion works. Emile Coue, one of the most penetrating thinkers and scientists in the world of hypnosis, found a law. He called it 'the law of reverse effect'. If you will something, the opposite will be the result. If you try to become something with effort, with strain, just the opposite will be the result. You will not be able to become that. Have you watched somebody learning cycling?