How can I stop wanting to be special?

How can I stop wanting to be special?

Because you ARE special, and there is no need to be special. You ARE special, you ARE unique -- God never creates anything less than that. Everyone is unique, utterly unique. There has been no person like you before, and there will NEVER be a person like you again. God has taken this form for the first time and the last time, so there is no need to try to become special, you already are. If you are trying to be special you will become ordinary. Your very effort is rooted in misunderstanding. It will create confusion, because when you try to become special you have taken one thing tor granted -- that you are not special. You have become ordinary already. You have missed the point. Now, once you have taken it for granted that you are ordinary, how can you become special? You will try this way and…

Beloved master, I feel that I am a very special person. I am so special that I want just to be ordinary. Please can you say something about this?

Anand Sangito, everybody here thinks exactly the same. And not only here, but everywhere else. Everyone deep in their heart knows that he is special. This is a joke God plays on people. When he makes a new man and pushes him down towards the earth, he whispers in his ear, "You are special. You are incomparable, you are just unique!" But this he goes on doing to everybody and everybody goes on carrying it deep in the heart, although people don't say it as loudly as you are doing, because they are afraid others may feel offended. And nobody is going to be convinced, so what is the point of saying it? If you tell somebody, "I am special," you cannot convince him because he himself knows that he is special. How can you convince anybody? Yes, maybe sometimes somebody may be convinced, at least pretend to be convinced.…

Beloved Osho, I have hoped to become more sure of myself, stronger and more relaxed through meditation. On the contrary, although I am less anxious, I feel more and more empty, uncertain and vulnerable. Why does this happen?

Every desire leads not to the goal it has promised you; it leads to just the opposite of it. You want to be special? you have already accepted your ordinariness. One who is special does not want to be special; he's not even aware that he is special. Whatever you want, one thing is certain: you are not that. And from where are these desires and wants coming? -- imitation. All around, you see people: somebody is so rich, somebody is so intellectual, somebody is a wrestler, somebody is a boxer. And you are nothing -- it hurts. It hurts because of your wrong conceptions about life. So you have to note down a few things in your being: one, you cannot be anybody other than who you are. If you try to be somebody other than who you are, you will never be somebody else, but you will miss…

Please help me to be happy, to be ordinary. I find that all my upsets, conflicts, turmoils, have to do with this desire to be special and nothing else.

And one can miss by a small margin; one can miss by only a small thought. A small thought can become a barrier and you can miss the whole beauty of the vast Himalayas. You can be there, watching the beautiful peaks of the Himalayas, and the sun falling on the Himalayan snow, showering gold all around, and a thought comes into your mind, and the Himalayas have disappeared, the thought clouds you. You remember something: the other day somebody had insulted you, and that's enough. Or you start planning for the future, 'Tomorrow I have to leave', and the Himalayas have disappeared. And the thought is so small, and the Himalayas are so big... But even a small thought can hinder. The thought is so close to you, and it can stand in between. Just a small particle of dust can fall in your eye, and just a small…

What is the difference between being special and being unique?

Never try to be special. In the very idea of being special you are feeling inferior. In the very idea of being superior to somebody or inferior to somebody you have lost contact with yourself, with your uniqueness. In that very idea you have become your own enemy. Now you will be in trouble, you will create more and more misery for yourself and for others, you will create ripples of misery all around you. A man who simply relaxes in his uniqueness is a man who creates ripples of bliss around him. He lives in bliss and he creates pulsations of bliss for others also. If you are around such a person you will suddenly be showered with great peace and love and silence and happiness -- because he is happy. The moment you accept your uniqueness, your individuality, how can you be unhappy? Just think of it in…