How much am I responsible for what I experience in life?

Beloved master, I have heard, "we create our own reality," and I have heard, "flow with existence." at times it appears like one or the other or po. How much am I responsible for what I experience? What kind of dance is going on?

You are responsible for everything, for every dance that is going on. When you relax and let go, that too is your responsibility. When you don't relax and don't allow the state of let-go, that too is your responsibility. So there are not two different things. There is only one thing, and that is, your responsibility. Only one thing has to be remembered: whatever gives you a more loving heart, whatever gives you a more clear intelligence, whatever gives you a more integrated individuality, do it. Whatever goes against it, goes against your own ultimate growth. These are symbolic. Lovingness, friendliness, compassion, intelligence, clarity of vision -- these are symbols that you are in the right dimension. But whatever you do is your responsibility. You cannot dump your responsibility on anybody else. There is nobody else. With God, the devil has also died; they were two sides of the same…

Is this difference -- the difference in their stages -- due to their own choice, or is it their destiny?

To me, the solution to the whole problem takes on a different shape. Do not divide them. They are not two, they are already one -- they have always been one. When the energy becomes conscious it is soul, when it becomes unconscious it becomes body. Sometimes you are more a soul and less a body, sometimes you are more a body and less a soul. This flickering back and forth between one and the other goes on continuously. In the morning you may be more a soul, in the evening you are more a body. When you are in anger you are more a body, when you are in love you are more a soul. The degrees change continuously. When you meditate your consciousness expands and your body shrinks; when you take an intoxicant your consciousness shrinks and your body expands. Body and consciousness are two poles of one…

Osho, in an earlier discourse you said that each human being is himself responsible for his good and bad deeds. But in this morning’s talk you said that everything happens according to the laws of the Vast, the Brahman energy. Then how can a person himself be responsible for his actions?

There are two planes. One is the plane of the ignorant—there you must understand in the language of the ignorant. The other is the plane of the wise—there too you must understand in its own light. Great confusion often arises because the ignorant live on the ignorant’s plane but speak the language of the wise; then difficulties multiply. This happens every day. It has certainly happened in our country. Because there was so much talk of wisdom here that even the ignorant learned to repeat it. They too began to mouth the words of knowledge. They live as the ignorant, act as the ignorant, carry the ignorant’s load—yet at the convenient time they speak as the enlightened. A man in my neighborhood died; I went to their house. The neighbors had gathered. Everyone was consoling them: “The soul is immortal.” I thought, how many sages in this neighborhood! “The soul…

Beloved Osho, you say we are responsible for ourselves, and that there is no god. What part do fate and destiny have in our lives? Or are they just excuses to avoid our responsibilities by pinning hope on something outside ourselves?

This man Diogenes used to live naked, because he said, "Man is born naked, and he becomes weaker because he is protected by clothes." All around the world no animal has clothes -- except a few dogs in England. England is a mysterious country. Dogs have clothes because a naked dog is un-Christian. You will be surprised to know that in the Middle Ages in England even chair legs were covered with clothes, because they are legs and it is not gentlemanly to see naked legs. Diogenes lived naked. He was a strong man. Four people who were doing the business of hijacking people and selling them as slaves in the market thought, "This is a great catch, this man can bring us great money. We have sold many slaves, but not so strong, beautiful, young. We can have as high a price as we demand; and there is going…

Bahaudin el-shah, great teacher of the naqshbandi dervishes, one day met a confrere in the great square of bokhara.

THE NEWCOMER WAS A WANDERING KALENDAR OF THE MALAMATI, THE "BLAMEWORTHY". BAHAUDIN WAS SURROUNDED BY DISCIPLES. "FROM WHERE DO YOU COME?" HE ASKED THE TRAVELER, IN THE USUAL SUFI PHRASE. "I HAVE NO IDEA," SAID THE OTHER, GRINNING FOOLISHLY. SOME OF BAHAUDIN'S DISCIPLES MURMURED THEIR DISAPPROVAL OF THIS DISRESPECT. " WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" PERSISTED BAHAUDIN. "I DO NOT KNOW," SHOUTED THE DERVISH. WHAT IS GOOD?" BY NOW A LARGE CROWD HAD GATHERED. "I DO NOT KNOW." " WHAT IS EVIL?" "I HAVE NO IDEA." " WHAT IS RIGHT?" "WHATEVER IS GOOD FOR ME." "WHAT IS WRONG?" "WHATEVER IS BAD FOR ME." THE CROWD, IRRITATED BEYOND ITS PATIENCE BY THIS DERVISH, DROVE HIM AWAY. HE WENT OFF, STRIDING PURPOSEFULLY IN A DIRECTION WHICH LED NOWHERE, AS FAR AS ANYONE KNEW. "FOOLS" SAID BAHAUDIN NAQSHBAND. "THIS MAN IS ACTING THE PART OF HUMANITY. WHILE YOU WERE DESPISING HIM,' HE WAS DELIBERATELY…