Is awareness enough to drop old patterns, or do I need to understand their roots?

Beloved Osho, do I have to know and understand the roots of my old patterns in order to be able to drop them, or is awareness enough? Please comment.

Ananda said, "That's true, they were not my questions and the answers were not given to me. But what can I do? I have ears and I hear, and I have heard and I have seen, and now my whole being is puzzled -- what is right?" Buddha said, "Right? Right is awareness. The first man was a theist. He wanted my support -- he already believed in God. He had come with an answer, ready-made, just to solicit my support so that he can go around and say, `I am right, even Buddha thinks so.' I had to say no to him, just to disturb his belief, because belief is not knowing. The second man was an atheist. He had also come with a ready-made answer, that there is no God, and he wanted my support to strengthen his disbelief and so he can go on proclaiming around that…

It is said again and again that being aware is enough for transformation. How does it work?

But in the East we know the art of making the disappear. So who bothers? It is as if you see a ghost in the dark -- there is no ghost, just the form of the tree -- and you start analyzing. You never come close to the tree, you never bring light; you start analyzing the form from far away. You can go on analyzing: nothing is going to happen out of that analysis. Eastern psychology says: Light a candle, bring the candle to the place, and first see whether the ghost exists at all. If the ghost does not exist, then why bother? Why long long years of analysis? The analyzed goes on pouring out rubbish, and the analyst goes on dissecting, analyzing, labeling and categorizing the rubbish. Much work goes on, and all futile, much ado about nothing. Western psychology is based on analysis, Eastern psychology is…

Bodhidharma's breakthrough sermon.

IF SOMEONE IS DETERMINED TO REACH ENLIGHTENMENT, WHAT IS THE MOST ESSENTIAL METHOD HE CAN PRACTICE? THE MOST ESSENTIAL METHOD, WHICH INCLUDES ALL OTHER METHODS, IS BEHOLDING THE MIND. BUT HOW CAN ONE METHOD INCLUDE ALL OTHERS? THE MIND IS THE ROOT FROM WHICH ALL THINGS GROW. IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THE MIND, EVERYTHING ELSE IS INCLUDED. IT'S LIKE WITH A TREE. ALL OF ITS FRUIT AND FLOWERS, ITS BRANCHES AND LEAVES, DEPEND ON ITS ROOT. IF YOU NOURISH ITS ROOT, A TREE MULTIPLIES. IF YOU CUT ITS ROOT, IT DIES. THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND THE MIND REACH ENLIGHTENMENT WITH MINIMAL EFFORT. THOSE WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND THE MIND PRACTICE IN VAIN. EVERYTHING GOOD AND BAD COMES FROM YOUR OWN MIND. TO FIND SOMETHING BEYOND THE MIND IS IMPOSSIBLE. BUT HOW CAN BEHOLDING THE MIND BE CALLED UNDERSTANDING? WHEN A GREAT BODHISATTVA DELVES DEEPLY INTO PERFECT WISDOM, HE REALIZES ...THE ACTIVITY OF…

Osho, I practice self-analysis, “introspection,” to awaken the witnessing. Is this right as a first step? Kindly explain.

That is why you see: the wife is happily sitting, listening to the radio, knitting her sweater; the moment the horn honks downstairs—husband has arrived—she lies down: “I have a headache.” Don’t think she’s faking; it really happens. I’m not saying she is deceiving—this has become her habit. The husband’s horn is enough to trigger a headache. Association has formed. Don’t think I say she’s cheating. Perhaps in the beginning she faked it; now that is long past—now it’s a habit. As the husband comes, the headache rises—because only when she has a headache does the husband put his hand on her head. Otherwise, who puts his hand on his wife’s head! Someone might put a hand on another’s wife; who puts a hand on his own! Only when the wife is troubled does the husband show a little sympathy. Love is gone; now only sympathy keeps things moving. The…

[A sannyasin says: My mind is doing a beautiful job of driving me crazy! But I feel that mostly I'm witnessing, rather than doing anything about it.] Just be a witness. Don't do anything about it, because anything that you do can never be very deep. It can be at the most a temporary arrangement. All that man can do is going to be on the surface. So if a problem arises and you do something, temporarily it is solved, but the same problem will arise again in some other way. If there is an indecision, you can patch it up by doing something, but somewhere else the division will bubble up. And this goes on and on. Problems change but the problem goes on and on. The basic thing is that the problem should dissolve, and that only happens when you simply don't do anything.