How do I get free of the 'I'?

Osho, you said, “You are free—now, here, in this very moment”; but how do I get free of this “I”?

This is the marvelous principle of destiny, of fate: everything is happening by itself. The wrong people took it in the wrong sense—that was their mistake. Properly understood, fate means only this: if you understand the principle of destiny rightly, you become a witness, and there is nothing to do. But people did not become witnesses through fate; they became inert, indolent. There is a difference between a non-doer (akarta) and an idler (akarmanya). The idler is lazy, sluggish, dead. The non-doer is overflowing with energy—he simply does not say, “I am doing.” The Divine is doing. I am only seeing. This play is happening; I am watching. Man is very dishonest; he uses even the most beautiful truths in ugly ways. Fate is a very beautiful truth. It means only this: everything is happening; nothing is happening by your doing. All is ordained. What has to be, will be.…

You said that, "you are liberated here and now, this very moment." but how can I get free of this "I"?

But no, we have been taught these diseases since childhood. Since childhood we have been told, "Do something before you die. Don't die without doing anything. If you can, do something good, if not, do something bad, but make a name for yourself." People say, "So what if you get a bad name, at least your name is known. If you don't find the right way, then do something crazy, but make a name for yourself!" People are so crazy that they go to the mountains and inscribe their names in stone. They go visit an ancient castle and scribble their name on the walls. And the man writing his name doesn't see that he is rubbing out another name to write his: someone else will come and rub his out and write over it. You have erased someone else's, you are writing over the top of others writing --…

"you are the one observer of all, and in reality always free. Your bondage is this: you see the other -- not yourself -- as the observer.

" 'I AM THE DOER,' THUS HAS THE BLACK SERPENT OF EGO BITTEN YOU. 'I AM NOT THE DOER,' DRINK THIS NECTAR OF TRUST AND BE HAPPY. " 'I AM THE ONE PURE KNOWING,' THUS HAVING BURNT THE FOREST OF YOUR IGNORANCE WITH THIS FIRE OF CERTAINTY AND BEING BEYOND SORROW, BE HAPPY. "THIS IMAGINARY WORLD IS PROJECTED LIKE A SNAKE ON A ROPE. KNOWING THIS YOU ARE BLISS, ULTIMATE BLISS, THUS WANDER HAPPILY. HE WHO CONSIDERS HIMSELF FREE IS FREE, AND HE WHO CONSIDERS HIMSELF BOUND IS BOUND; BECAUSE IN THIS WORLD THE PROVERB IS TRUE: 'AS YOU THINK SO YOU ARE'. "ATMA IS THE WITNESS, ALL-PERVADING, PERFECT, ONE, FREE, CONSCIOUS, FREE FROM DOING, NONATTACHED, DESIRELESS, PEACEFUL. BECAUSE OF ILLUSION, IT LOOKS LIKE THE WORLD. " 'I AM AN INDIVIDUALLY PROJECTED LIFE,' DROP THIS ILLUSION AND ALSO THE FEELING OF INNER AND OUTER, AND AWAKEN IN THE THOUGHT THAT…

Ask, Who am I? and in the end it will be known: I am not. And then what is known—that alone is. Its name is Truth; its name is Paramatman. But the one who says ‘I am the Atman’ never comes to know the Paramatman, because he proceeds with the premise that ‘I am’. The so-called atma-vadi is not a paramatma-vadi, for the atma-vadi says, ‘I am’—and his insistence persists that I am separate! He says, I want moksha! He says, even in moksha ‘I’ will remain! The atma-vadi is ready to give up everything—but not the ‘I’. He says, I will give up wealth, I will give up house, wife and children, I will give up the world. He even says, I will give up the body, I will die, I will take santhara. But he says: I will not give up ‘I’! I shall survive!

As long as you know yourself by attaching to something, ego will arise. Ego is: the identification of consciousness with some other thing. The moment you drop all identification—when you say, “I am only pure awareness; I am pure knowing”—you begin to return home; the moment of liberation draws near. Ashtavakra says, “With the conviction that I am pure awareness...” Aham ekā viśuddha bodhaḥ iti. “...with the fire of such certainty...” This certainty will not come just from hearing. Not by an intellectual understanding. You have understood this many times, then forgotten again. Certainty will come through experience, by a little experiment. With realization, certainty is born. And with certainty, revolution happens. “...burn the forest of ignorance and, free of sorrow, attain happiness; be happy.” “In which this imagined world appears like a snake in a rope—know yourself as that bliss, the supreme bliss of awareness. Therefore roam about happily.