Is there a conflict between the idea that we cannot take full responsibility for ourselves until we are awakened and the belief that we cannot be awakened until we take full responsibility for ourselves?

Osho, you say we cannot take full responsibility for ourselves until we are 'awakened '. The western growth movement says we cannot be awakened until we take full responsibility for ourselves. Is there a conflict?

For ninety-nine percent? Patanjali will be the way. So I don't discard Patanjali -- I don't discard anything. Everything is accepted and used. Use all the methods skillfully and you will be benefited by all. And don't become obsessed with a method. Don't say that "I believe in gradual growth." If you say, "I believe in gradual growth," then you are preventing the possibility of sudden enlightenment. Maybe you are the person -- who knows? -- you are Hui Neng! Even Hui Neng was not aware until he became enlightened. Who knows?! Somebody may be here who is a Hui Neng, a potential Hui Neng, and if he starts thinking that "No, it is not possible. I don't believe in sudden enlightenment," that very idea will prevent him. Then he will listen to the four lines of the Diamond Sutra and will not become enlightened because of his idea. I…

Beloved Osho, these words "taking responsibility for yourself," confuse me. I am an individualist and enjoy being on my own. If I do what feels good to support myself, is it not a way of feeding my ego? Where is the limit between taking responsibility for oneself and feeding the ego by fulfilling its tendencies?

There is no limit for taking responsibility for yourself. And the question has arisen... and not only this question, many questions arise because you only think about them; they are not your existential experiences. If you take responsibility for yourself you cannot be an egoist, because to be an egoist simply means you are fast asleep and you cannot take any responsibility. Responsibility comes with awareness, alertness. You are asking an intellectual question like, "When we bring light into the room, what are we are going to do with the darkness? Where have we to throw it?" Intellectually it is perfectly right. There is darkness in the room and you say, "Bringing light into the room, the question arises, `Where then has the darkness to be pushed? Where has it to be thrown? In what way?' But it is not existential. Just try to bring light in and there will…

Osho, one day you said that life is an interrelationship -- that everything is related. The next day you said, "only you yourself are responsible for everything." but the psychologists say that the foundation of one's whole personality is laid in early childhood, between three and seven years of age, when one happens to be a helpless tool in the hands of the family and environment. Will you kindly explain the contradiction? Secondly, in spite of this contradiction, the total growth of man lies in individual efforts as well as social. So is it not necessary that the religious man should seek to

I will take another example: Hindus have believed continuously, for millennia, that everyone is a soul and that the soul is immortal, the soul is pure, the soul is Divine. Gurdjieff, in this century, said, "Do not deceive yourself. It is very difficult to gain a soul. Not everyone has a soul. It is very rare. Sometimes one attains a soul; otherwise you will be without a soul." It seems absolutely contradictory. He says that only a few rare individuals attain to a soul. He says that soul is an achievement. It is not given to you at your birth; it is not in you right now. It is possible only if you make some effort. Then you may create a soul. Gurdjieff says that not everyone is immortal. Those who attain souls, they become immortal. Otherwise you are just a wastage. Nature creates you with a possibility of being…

Beloved Osho, a monk asked chimon, "what will the lotus flower be when it has not yet come out of the water?" chimon said, "the lotus flower." the monk asked chimon, "what about when it is out of the water?" chimon said, "the lotus leaves." setcho says: the lotus leaves! The lotus flower! He is so kind to tell you of them! The flower coming out of the water -- what difference, before or after? If you wander about, now north of the river, now south of the lake, questioning master wang and the like, as one doubt is settled, others will arise, and you will puzzle over question after question.

OSHO, ISN'T THE LOTUS FLOWER A LOTUS FLOWER AT ITS CONCEPTION: WHEN IT IS FLOATING IN THE POND AND WHEN IT IS PLUCKED FROM THE POND? AND: I HAVE HEARD YOU TELL US TIME AND AGAIN THAT THE REALIZATION OF OUR ENLIGHTENMENT IS INEVITABLE -- WHETHER IT BE THIS MINUTE, TOMORROW, OR THE NEXT LIFE AROUND. WOULD YOU TALK ABOUT WHERE THE INDIVIDUAL'S RESPONSIBILITY LIES FOR WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN ANYWAY? AND THE THIRD QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE PREREQUISITES FOR BEING A DISCIPLE? Everything comes out of it and everything returns to it, and there is nothing holy because there is nothing unholy. This is not knowledge, conceptual knowledge, this is existential experience; hence, Bodhidharma could say, "No knowing." He is describing himself as no knowing. He is saying, "I am just a mirror. Things come before me, reflect within me, disappear. I remain as empty as ever" --…

Osho, in an earlier discourse you said that each human being is himself responsible for his good and bad deeds. But in this morning’s talk you said that everything happens according to the laws of the Vast, the Brahman energy. Then how can a person himself be responsible for his actions?

There are two planes. One is the plane of the ignorant—there you must understand in the language of the ignorant. The other is the plane of the wise—there too you must understand in its own light. Great confusion often arises because the ignorant live on the ignorant’s plane but speak the language of the wise; then difficulties multiply. This happens every day. It has certainly happened in our country. Because there was so much talk of wisdom here that even the ignorant learned to repeat it. They too began to mouth the words of knowledge. They live as the ignorant, act as the ignorant, carry the ignorant’s load—yet at the convenient time they speak as the enlightened. A man in my neighborhood died; I went to their house. The neighbors had gathered. Everyone was consoling them: “The soul is immortal.” I thought, how many sages in this neighborhood! “The soul…