Is Gurdjieff's realization as great as Lao Tzu's?

Lao tzu seems to be the most truthful man, but george gurdjieff used to paint sparrows and sell them as canaries. Lao tzu says to do nothing and realize, gurdjieff says only a superhuman effort will do. Is gurdjieff's realization as great as lao tzu's? How do you explain the difference?

Yes, there are no degrees of enlightenment; either it is or it is not. Lao Tzu and Gurdjieff are both enlightened, and there are no degrees, so nobody is more enlightened and nobody is less enlightened. But their working is different, their time is different, the age they live in is different, the people they have to tackle and the disciples they get are different. Lao Tzu lived in a very primitive world. People were very simple, humble, not tense, not in a hurry -- in fact they had no time sense, they were more natural. Gurdjieff lived in a totally opposite time. Lao Tzu lived in the East and Gurdjieff lived in the West -- and in the twentieth century -- the maddest century ever; almost everybody is neurotic. Gurdjieff had to devise different things for this different type of person. This type of man had not existed in…

Do taoists agree with the happening of sudden enlightenment or the gradual one?

THEY DON'T BOTHER. Lao Tzu does not bother, because he says: Just to be ordinary is to be enlightened. It is not something special that one has to achieve, it is not an achievement, it is not something that one has to reach. It is you -- in your absolute ordinariness it flowers. To be extraordinary is the disease of the ego. The ego always wants to be extraordinary, someone special, unique, incomparable -- that is the hankering desire of the ego. If you can become a Rockefeller, good; if you can become a Hitler, good; or if you cannot become a Rockefeller or a Hitler, then renounce the world and think of becoming a Buddha. But become someone, someone special, a historic phenomenon. Lao Tzu is not bothered about enlightenment and all that nonsense. He says: Just be ordinary. Eat when you feel hungry, drink when you feel thirsty…

Osho, yoga is a method of upward ascent; it seeks to take energy, power, upward. And Lao Tzu’s method seems exactly the opposite—to bring energy downward, toward the navel. So a question naturally arises: between these two methods, which one is right?

A disciple of Lao Tzu, Lieh Tzu, was once asked: We have heard that the Buddha attained enlightenment sitting under a tree. And we have heard that some yogi, chanting a mantra, sitting under a tree, attained truth by his mantra. Lieh Tzu, what is your view? Lieh Tzu said: As we understand it, chanting mantras, doing practices, performing yogasanas—these are for those who cannot remain without doing. But the real point is not that Buddha arrived by practice; he arrived because he sat. The essential thing is: he sat, therefore he arrived. Some yogi kept reciting a mantra and arrived; the mantra is not the essential thing. He arrived because he sat. The mantra is a pretext—for he cannot sit empty, so he keeps reciting. Lieh Tzu is saying: whoever has arrived, has arrived because they sat and left everything. Some can sit having left everything; they will not…

Osho, Lao Tzu earlier said that those who follow the Tao live like wind and water—natural and effortless. And the other day Lao Tzu said that the highest kind of hearers make tireless effort to live according to the Tao. Please clarify this apparent contradiction.

There is no contradiction. One who has attained Tao lives like wind and water, but how can one who is moving toward Tao live like wind and water? Even to live like wind and water one must first make effort. How can you be at the destination at the very beginning of the journey? You will have to break your old habits; there is old conditioning, old sanskaras—they have to be destroyed. They surround you from every side. Even if you come to see that they are wrong, they will still chase you—because mere knowing is not enough. You have practiced them for years, for lifetimes. A man understands and decides that smoking is bad: “I will quit.” But his blood has acquired the habit of nicotine. Your blood cannot suddenly receive the intelligence of your decision. Your blood does not get the news. Even the beat of the heart…

One friend has asked: "yoga is a path of elevation, of raising the life-energy upwards, whereas lao tzu's method is exactly the opposite: of bringing down the energy to the navel centre. So the question invariably rises: which is the right method?"

There was one disciple of Lao Tzu by the name of Lieh Tzu. Someone said to him, "It is said that Buddha sat under a tree and was enlightened. Also, yogis repeat mantras and attain enlightenment. What do you say?" Lieh Tzu replied, "As far as my understanding goes, the repetition of mantras or the practising of sadhanas and yogasanas is the work of those who cannot remain without something to do." The real thing is not that Buddha attained because of sadhana. Rather, Buddha attained because he sat in one place. It is not that a yogi attained by repeating a mantra, but because he sat in one place. The mantra was only an excuse to do something since he could not remain inactive. Lieh Tzu meant to say that those who have attained did so because of the fact that they left everything and became inactive. There are…