Don’t search for a trick—fully let go; when all trying fails and you’re utterly helpless, surrender happens by itself, like love.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
On the path of surrender, how does the seeker come to the right technique out of one hundred and twelve methods?
There are so many stories which have become meaningless for us because we do not know how they happened. Mahakashyap came to Buddha, and Buddha just touched his head with his hand, and the thing happened. And Mahakashyap began to dance. So Ananda asked Buddha, "What has happened to him? And I have been for forty years with you! Is he mad? Or is he just fooling others? What has happened to him? And I have touched your feet thousands and thousands of times." Of course, to Ananda, this Mahakashyap will either look like he is mad or as if he is just deceiving. He was with Buddha for forty years, but there was a problem. He was his elder brother, Buddha's elder brother; that was the problem. When Ananda came to Buddha forty years before, the first thing he said to Buddha was this: "I am your elder brother,…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, I have always heard you speaking about surrender, and it seems to me that surrender is the only important factor in achieving transformation. Then how to surrender? What is the meaning, method and process of it? And what contribution does the active meditation make in reaching the state of surrender?
Mahavira succeeded -- the other seeker in the same part of the world. He was doing certain techniques and he succeeded. Through techniques he succeeded in dissolving his ego. That is why Jainas and Buddhists are bonafide enemies. They cannot come to any reconciliation, they cannot come to any compromise, because they are so absolutely opposite. Mahavira succeeded through technique, so the whole teaching of Mahavira is of method. Buddha succeeded through failure, so his whole teaching is of effortlessness: "Do not do anything." These are the two dimensions. Both are good, but my suggestion is to first try to follow technique. If you succeed, it is okay. If you fail, then surrender will be possible. Then it too is okay. I am for both; that is why I look contradictory. One young man reached me today and he said, "You are so contradictory that it is impossible to follow…Read the full discourse →
Osho, last night you spoke about witnessing as a method; other times I have heard you speak about becoming a thing totally, being totally involved in any given situation. Usually I am at a loss as to which of these two to follow: whether to stand back and witness in a detached why or to become something totally -- for example, when there is anger or love or sadness. Are these not two opposite paths? Are they both for different kinds of situations or for different types of people? When should one do which?
There are only two deep things in the body -- sex and food. Nothing is more than these two, because food is needed for individual survival and sex is needed for race survival. Both are survival mechanisms. The individual cannot survive without food and the race cannot survive without sex. So sex is food for the race and food is sex for the individual. These are the deepest things because they are concerned with your survival -- the most basic things. You will die without them. So if you are fasting and just witnessing, then you have touched the deepest sleep. And if you can witness without being identified or bothered -- the body is suffering, the body is hungry, the body is demanding and you are just witnessing -- suddenly the body will be different. There will be a discontinuity between you and the body; there will be a…Read the full discourse →
People in the west today are crying out of theoretical solutions to their problems. You have often spoken about 112 major techniques that have been used to reach the divine. Will you please tell us about some of those methods?
Mozart said, "It will be impossible for you. I never went to anybody and asked them anything. You have come to me and asked something. If I tell you, I will be your teacher. You are not a person who can become a great musician without a teacher. Those who can, do so without asking anyone for advice. If you are to become a great musician you will have to grow through discipline, you will need guidance, a teacher. Even this much you cannot understand yourself: how to become a musician without a teacher. You have asked me even this." So those who hear Krishnamurti go on fooling themselves. They are not the right people to follow his teachings. Had they been, they would never have gone to Krishnamurti But they have been going to him for forty years! For forty years they have been going to him to learn…Read the full discourse →
After hearing about so many meditation techniques in vigyana bhairava tantra, I am beginning to feel that the inner door cannot really open by techniques, but that it really depends on things like initiation, the grace of the master, etc. Is that not really the case? And when and how can one become capable of receiving initiation?
That is the last of techniques, but people try it first. That is the last, the ultimate. When nothing happens by doing, if there is only helplessness and helplessness and helplessness, if you lose all hope and your ego is shattered, then you know that nothing can be done alone. Then your hand reaches to the feet of a master. It is a different type of reach: you are helplessly searching for him, your whole being moves to his feet. You become just a womb to receive. Then the grace is available. It has never been unavailable; it is always available. In every age, in every period, there are enlightened persons. But unless you are ready to lose yourself, you will not be in contact with him. You may be just sitting behind him or just sitting by the side of him, but there will be no contact. There are…Read the full discourse →