Is training and sharpening the intellect useless in the journey towards self-realization?

Osho, if the intellect becomes such a major obstacle on the journey to self-realization, isn’t it futile to train and sharpen it? Wouldn’t it be better, to keep children’s simplicity unbroken, to lead them straight into meditation without any intellectual training?

Many times it has happened that wolves have stolen away small children. Some forty years ago, near Calcutta, two girls were found in the forests. And about ten years ago, near Lucknow, a boy was found who had been raised by wolves. He had grown quite big—about fourteen years old. He had received no training, never gone to school, never lived among humans. A little child lifted from the cradle by wolves, he grew up among them. He could not even stand on two legs, because that too is part of education. Do not think that you stand on two legs by yourself; you were taught to do so. The human body is fashioned to go on all fours. No child is born walking on two legs; he walks on all fours. Two-legged walking is learned. Ask the scientists, the anatomists; they say something striking: man’s body can never be…

Beloved Osho, if intellect is such an obstacle in the journey towards self-realization, is not then training and sharpening of it just useless? Is it not possible that because of their innocence and expressiveness, children should be helped to move into meditation directly, without imparting them any training in the intellect?

It is worth consideration, it is significant, and the question naturally arises, that if intellect is such a big obstacle, why train it in the first place? Why not introduce children to meditation while they are still innocent and simple, instead of sending them to university? Instead of shaping their logic and thinking faculty, instead of educating them, why not drown them into meditation in their innocence and simplicity? If intellect is an obstacle, why help it grow? Why not get rid of it before developing it? It would have been alright if intellect was only an obstacle. But an obstacle can also become a stepping-stone. You are walking on a pathway and there is a huge rock lying on the pathway. Now, this is an obstacle, and you may return from there thinking the pathway does not go anywhere further. But if you climb on the rock, a new…

Osho, I dance and I weep. Meditation brings me great bliss, yet sometimes a question wrings my heart: after all, what need is there for sadhana, for meditation, for God-realization?

Hence the miser is the most pitiable person in the world. He possesses money, yet has no essence. The miser has wealth but does not know how to use it. He coils over his money like a snake. Stories rightly say that when a miser dies, he becomes a snake coiled on his safe, a ghost. He was a ghost while living. After death he does not need to become one—he never lived; he was already dead. I have heard of a man who had buried gold bricks in his garden. His daily task—call it worship, prayer, adoration—was to dig up the pit, look at the bricks, then fill it again. His heart would be greatly gratified. Thus his life passed. He grew old. A fakir had watched this many times. One night the fakir took away the gold bricks and put bricks of stone in their place. The old…

Osho, why has human faith in religion waned?

Then there is a further fall. This is when, around Buddha, people hear, oppose, accept. Then two-and-a-half thousand years pass. One generation hands it to the next. Those who had heard from Buddha, or at least seen him—some hint of truth must have reached their ears; some touch of Buddha’s presence must have touched them; some color of Buddha must have fallen upon their souls—however slight, it fell. Then their sons and their sons’ sons believe because the fathers believed, the forefathers believed, people have always believed—and then belief becomes blind belief. What you call religions are superstitions. They should have been bid farewell long ago. New editions of truth descend from the sky every day. A new Koran descends every day. God has not grown tired, has not exhausted Himself with Mohammed. Jesus is not God’s only son—as Christians say, the only begotten. Nor did God come to an…

Osho, are you absolutely against intellect? Should one never use one's head at all?

I AM NOT ABSOLUTELY against intellect. It has its uses but they are very limited, and you have to understand their limitations. If you are working as a scientist you will have to use your intellect. It is a beautiful mechanism, but it is beautiful only if it remains a slave and does not become the master. If it becomes the master and overpowers you then it is dangerous. Mind as a slave to consciousness is a beautiful servant. Mind as a master of consciousness is a very dangerous master. The whole question is of emphasis. I am not absolutely against intellect -- I use intellect myself, how I can be against it? Right now, talking to you, I am using it. But I am the master; it is not my master. If I want to use it I use it. If I don't want to use it, it has…