How does being available and surrendering relate to not allowing others to dictate my life?

You said nobody should dictate what you should do with your life. How does that fit with being available and surrendering to you?

In the first place I am a nobody. Now listen to the question again. YOU SAID NOBODY SHOULD DICTATE WHAT YOU SHOULD DO WITH YOUR LIFE. Don't surrender to me because I dictate to you. But if you feel like surrendering, what can I do? If you feel like surrendering, it is your feeling. If I am dictating to you to surrender to me, don't listen to me. But if your heart is dictating, then what are you going to do? If I tell you to be available to me, don't listen at all. But if your own understanding says, 'Be available to this man', then be. And here there is nobody. If you look deeply into me you will not find anybody there. The house is empty, the whole space is yours, just for the asking. I am just a space. The man you see here sitting in the…

Osho, please talk about surrender and obedience.

And because from the very beginning your father, your mother, your parents, your teachers, your priests are all teaching you, "Do this, don't do that," they all create a certain obedience in you. You become addicted to obedience; it is a drug. So when you come to me you would like.... People go on asking me -- I never answer their questions -- they go on asking me, "Give us detailed instructions what we should do and what we should not. We want clear instructions from you." I give you clarity not clear instructions, because my instructions may be right today and tomorrow they may not be right. My instructions may be a hindrance to your growth tomorrow because nobody knows about tomorrow -- it is unpredictable. So I give you clarity so that you can find your own way of life today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.…

Beloved Osho, to be disobedient and to surrender seem to me polar opposites. Please explain how the two can be lived.

They are not polar opposites. Just a little awareness.... Be disobedient to your ego -- that is the meaning of surrender. If you want to be disobedient to the person you are surrendering to, then they are opposite, polar opposites. Then why surrender? Surrender simply means you trust the person more than your ego, you trust the person more than your own mind. Surrender happens only in a situation where you have found someone whom you can trust more than you can trust yourself. Then disobey your ego. But people never think in that way. They never think of disobeying their ego, they are always disobeying others. And they don't understand that disobeying others may be just obeying their own ego. This is what has happened with J. Krishnamurti. For his whole life he has been a teacher of thousands of people, telling them to disobey, to be rebellious, not…

Today you told us to become responsible for our own lives and be responsive to our own inner being, and thus to take the reins back into our own hands from the hands of others. How does this fit in with surrendering the reins to you? I listen to my inner voice and sometimes it revolts against what you want me to do. Am I only hearing my ego? Are there any limits to surrendering to a master?

The question is from Swami Prem Pramod. FIRST THING, PRAMOD, do you think you have surrendered to me? ever? for a single moment? My observation is that you have never surrendered. What do you want to take back? You have never surrendered! Those reins you have never surrendered -- they are in your hands. You were just befooling yourself that you had surrendered. What happens actually is: you ask me if you can do something with a decision already in the mind. If I say something which goes with your decision, you feel surrendered. You say, "Perfectly good how deeply I am surrendered to Osho!" If it does not go with your idea and your decision, then your inner voice says, "This is not right." Surrender comes only when things go against your decision -- not when they go with your decision. Then what is the point of surrender? And…

Please explain the difference between witnessing and tathata.

One who stops with attaining firmness of resolve would of course become very powerful, but he won't be able to attain wisdom. And therefore, the ability to make a resolve can be misused, because wisdom is not required to attain it. One will surely gain a lot of power, but that is precisely why he can abuse it. The entire black magic is a product of willpower. One who practices it gains a lot of power, but he lacks wisdom totally. He can end up using that power without any discrimination. A man of will becomes filled with power. It is difficult to predict right away what use he will make of it. He can obviously put it to bad use. Power in itself is neutral. Nevertheless, it is necessary -- whether one intends to use it for good or for evil. And as I see it, rather than remaining…