Is the search for enlightenment a selfish pursuit?

Is not the search for enlightenment a selfish search?

You cannot be centred and you are trying to help others, to be of service to them. The only help that you can give, the first and the very basic thing, is to be centred and rooted within yourself. Yes, enlightenment is a selfish search. This is half of the answer I would like to give you.Now the other half. Because enlightenment is a selfish search, the most selfish, incomparably selfish -- that's why you cannot attain enlightenment through search. The search will make you a beautiful person, wise, compassionate, in a thousand and one ways, but not enlightened. So, for me there exist three types of persons; one, the so called religious person, the moral, the puritan, the so-called good, who goes on trying to be unselfish and remains selfish. Second, the person who knows there is no other way to be, that to be selfish is the only…

I say to you that to be selfish is to be healthy. There is nothing sinful about it. In my vision, men like Mahavira, Buddha and Christ are the most selfish men on this earth. Why? -- because they live purely for themselves, seeking their self, their soul, their bliss, their freedom, their God. And, curiously enough, they happen to be the most altruistic people who walked this planet. The reason is that when a man discovers himself and finds his enlightenment and bliss, he immediately begins to share it with others. He is now on a new journey -- a journey of sharing his joy, his benediction. What else can he do? When clouds are full they rain; when bliss is full it overflows, it shares itself with others. And this too, is selfishness. The same is true with misery.

Osho, yesterday you said that jealousy is included in respect. I have immense respect for you, but the jealousy inherent in it keeps poisoning it, and I feel guilt and pain. Does reverence transcend this poison-laced respect?

It needs a little explaining—it's a delicate point. Whenever you respect someone, you do so because you see in that person something you do not have. You respect because you glimpse in the other something you would also like to possess. A beggar respects an emperor because he, too, longs to be an emperor. So on the one hand he respects, and inside he also envies. Because he is not yet an emperor but wants to be. You have attained what he wants to attain. He respects you as skillful, successful: “I stand far back in the line; you have gone ahead to where I should have been.” So you are powerful, clever, intelligent, strong—he respects you. But inside a fire of jealousy also burns—if he gets the chance, he would like to be in your place and push you aside. And if the beggar gets that chance, he will…

As these touch the externals and are inadequate, the people have need of what they can depend upon.

Nietzsche has said that people are caught in the clutches of religions because they think they can attain bliss through them No one is concerned about either God or the soul or truth. The day you tell them religion has nothing to do with bliss, it will be difficult to differentiate between the worldly and the religious. They both run for the same purpose. They seem to be running in different directions, but the goal is the same. One man amasses wealth, because he thinks he can gain happiness through it. One man prays because he feels prayers lead to happiness. No matter how contrary these two may seem in their actions, they are not contrary. Their thinking is the same and their journey is also the same. There is not the slightest difference. Lao Tzu says: give up selfishness. If you want to know your self and experience the…

In being selfish does one still remain aware of others or not?

If you are aware of yourself you become aware of others. How can it be otherwise? If you are not aware of yourself, how can you be aware of others? Awareness first must happen within you. The light must be lighted there first. The flame must arise within you; only then can the light spread and envelop others. You live in darkness, unawareness -- how can you be aware of others? You go on thinking, you dream -- you are not aware of others. The husband may say, "I am aware of my wife and her feelings." Simply not possible, because the husband is not aware of himself. He lives in deep darkness and unconsciousness. He does not know from where his anger comes, he does not know from where love arises, he does not know from where comes this existence, flowing. He is not aware of himself -- and…