Is losing oneself in helping others a better method to lose the ego?

You appear to devote your life to helping other people; but people around you appear only interested in helping themselves. If their aim is to lose their egos, is not a better method to lose oneself in helping others?

THIS is from a new seeker, Virginia. Because she is new, she cannot understand what is happening here. The first thing to remember: you can help others only when you have helped yourself, not before it. You can help others only when you have disappeared, not before it. You cannot lose your ego by helping others. You can lose your ego, and THEN YOU can help others. In fact, if you have the ego already there and you help others, you will attain to a very cultivated, subtle, pious ego -- that's all. Egolessness won't come through it. The ego will become religious,'and when a poison becomes religious, it becomes more dangerous. I am helping you because I am not. You are here to help yourself in the first place. When you disappear, then in |fact there is no need to help others; it happens of its own accord. Let…

Osho, do I have to forget myself to lose my ego?

Eva, IT IS NOT A QUESTION OF FORGETTING YOURSELF -- on the contrary, it is a question of remembering yourself.What is the ego? Ego exists because you have forgotten yourself, because you don't remember who you are. And it is very difficult to live without SOME idea of who you are. Not knowing the reality of your being, you have to create a false substitute. What is the ego? Ego is the false substitute that you have created for the self. It is not your self, but it is very difficult to live without a self -- it will be almost impossible to live without a self some kind of self is needed, is a must; otherwise, how will you keep yourself together? You will start falling apart. Even if the center is false, it helps you. Even a false center keeps you at least somehow together. You have forgotten…

Osho, a Sufi poet has said— “Erase your very self if you desire rank, for the seed, mingling with dust, turns into flowers and gardens.” Osho, will you bestow your grace to erase my self, so that my inner seed may sprout, blossom, and bear fruit?

This so‑called fraternity of priests and saints is very clever. To the rich they say “Laxmi-Narayan”—to the poor, “Daridra-Narayan.” To the rich they say, “Your wealth is due to past merits.” To the poor they say, “Don’t worry; bear poverty with peace and contentment; ahead, a great rank awaits.” That is why no revolution has happened in this country in five thousand years. How could it? The poor are consoled, “In heaven you will be first—don’t worry.” He sits waiting for heaven—for tomorrow, which never comes. Tomorrow is an outright lie. Premmurti, first of all—do not desire rank. What will you do with rank? What does “rank” mean? That others will honor you! Why do we seek respect from others? Because we feel an inferiority complex within. This psychology must be understood clearly. The person who feels inferiority within seeks respect from others so that somehow the inner pit may…

Osho, may the color of that flower fade so that only the fragrance remains; let the head go if it must, but let honor remain. Let Your glory be proven by my negation. May I efface myself so completely that only You remain.

No need to rush. Don’t even start trying to erase the “I.” The “I” is such a clever craftsman that if you set out to erase it, it will hide behind the eraser. One day the ego will rise and proclaim, Look, I have destroyed my ego! Now I am egoless! Who is as humble as I? Such a declaration is the ego’s own. Awaken within. Watch and recognize the routes of ego. There is no need to fight. Fight only if you wish to lose—if you want to be defeated. Then how does ego go? Ego dissolves through awareness alone—just as darkness disappears when a light is lit. You don’t have to shove darkness out! You don’t have to slash it with a sword! You don’t wrestle with darkness. If someone starts wrestling with darkness, thumping his chest, do you think he will ever win? He will die fighting,…

A friend has asked: Vivekananda said that in truth only those are alive who live for others; those who live for themselves are dead.

I don’t know what Vivekananda said. But if he said this, then it is simply wrong—or he must have meant it in some other sense. As for me, I tell you: live utterly for yourself. But where is the difficulty? The difficulty is in words. You think you are living for yourself; you are not. You assume you are selfish and living for yourself; I say to you that you are profoundly other-oriented. You are not selfish at all; you are not living for yourself at all. If you believe you are living for yourself, then what Vivekananda said is perfectly right—that those who live for themselves—in your language—are dead. You are dead. And he said that those who live for others are alive. That is your way of using words. But I say to you that your language is wrong. You are not living for yourself. The father lives…