According to Osho, asmita is the mind’s subtlest and final state—a refined self-sense at the junction where mind meets the Divine, still within mind and duality, like a transparent glass wall before truth. Ego is the gross first state. Liberation requires a further leap: even asmita must melt; only beyond mind—no self, no dualities—does the ultimate become accessible.
Asmita is a very thin feeling of I-am still inside the mind; to be truly free, even that must be let go.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Is this asmita a spiritual state or a state of mind? That too has been asked.
It is the mind’s final state, and ego is the mind’s first state. Ego is the grossest state of the mind; asmita is the subtlest. Understand it this way: mind is in the middle—on one side the world, on the other the Divine, and mind between the two. Where mind joins with the world, ego is born; where mind joins with the Divine, asmita stands. These are the two junctions. The junction where mind connects with the world is called ego. And the junction where the human mind connects with the Divine—or must ultimately break as well, because every joining also implies a breaking; wherever things join, they also break—that junction is asmita. Lao Tzu says: the one in whom the first bond has snapped, whose connection with the world is severed, but in whom the second bond still remains—his unity with the Divine has not yet ripened—there, asmita endures.…
A miserable person cannot be loving and a loving person cannot be miserable. Remember this as one of the basic principles of the higher mathematics of life. Create both in you: be loving and be blissful. And both are possible, we are made for them. We have an inbuilt capacity to grow these flowers together. And when they bloom together there is great celebration, not only in you, but the whole existence participates in the celebration. JANINE BECOMES VEETGYAN. OSHO : Veetgyan means beyond knowledge. Beauty is beyond knowledge, love is beyond knowledge, God is beyond knowledge. All that is really significant is beyond knowledge. That which is within knowledge is ordinary, mundane -- utilitarian but of no real significance. It can't make you grateful to God. And sooner or later one starts feeling bored with that which knowledge makes available.
[Meditation isn't concentration; in fact it's the ultimate in relaxation, Osho told a Japanese sannyasin.] When you are totally relaxed, doing nothing, thinking nothing, simply enjoying the moment for the sheer sake of enjoying it, with no other motive, for no purpose, you are in meditation. And those are the rarest moments in life because only in those relaxed moments do windows open into the temple of god, glimpses start coming to you. And once you have tasted the joy of relaxing, you can relax even while working. Action remains on the surface and relaxation goes on like an undercurrent. That is the ultimate in meditation. Then one goes on doing the ordinary things of life and still one remains centred in god. [He gave the name Veet Asmito to a German woman. Asmito" meant subtle ego, he explained.] In English there is only one word for the ego.
(Tonight Osho has talked at length of love and of bliss. Now to a student from Germany he talks of the two together as being her path.) For yourself be blissful, for others be loving. Bliss will take care of your subjectivity, interiority, and love will take care of your external life. And when both are there simultaneously they balance each other, otherwise man becomes lopsided. One has to be constantly balancing between love and bliss. More of love and you become an extrovert, more of bliss and you become an introvert. But when both are balanced, in that balance transcendence happens; you go beyond, beyond the inner and the outer, beyond all dualities. And that is the target for a sannyasin: to go beyond all dualities -- darkness-light, life-death, matter-mind, this world and that world. One has to go on transcending all dualities.
Question: ATMAN CHITTAM KALADINAM TATVANAMAVIVEKO MAYA MOHAVARNAT SIDDIH MOHAJAYADANATTABHOGATSAHAJA VIDYAJAYAH JAGRAD DVITIYA KARAH. THE SOUL IS THE MIND. LACKING DISCRIMINATION OF WHAT IS ESSENTIAL IS ILLUSION. THE YOGI CAUGHT IN ATTACHMENTS MAY ATTAIN POWERS BUT NOT SELF-KNOWLEDGE. AFTER CONQUERING ATTACHMENTS PERMANENTLY, SPONTANEOUS WISDOM IS ATTAINED. THE AWAKENED YOGI REALIZES THAT THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS AN EMANATION OF HIS OWN ENERGY. This sutra is very significant. Waves are seen in the ocean, but the wave also is the ocean. However superficial, however agitated the wave is, it still contains the infinite ocean within itself. The most contemptible, the most insignificant thing, also contains the absolute within itself. God is hidden in each and every particle No matter how mad you are, no matter how distressed your mind is, no matter how many disturbances and diseases surround you -- still you are God. It makes no difference that you are asleep, unconscious.