What does it mean to be a breaker of concepts?

Osho, Somewhere you have said that you are an iconoclast, a breaker of illusions. It seems to me that beyond that you are a great breaker of concepts. Would you kindly say something about this?

Sahajanand! Whether idols, delusions, or concepts—these are all different facets of the mind. With these very bricks the prison of the mind is constructed. Only by removing the bricks one by one can you enter the state of no-mind. Whatever you believe, whatever you worship—everything will have to be taken away from you. It feels harsh. It hurts. Wounds happen. The cowardly run away; only the courageous can remain with me. And it is not a question of whether your concept is right or wrong. No concept is right. Concept means wrong. Concept means: you have believed what you have not known. What you have not experienced, not encountered, not realized—you have adopted it: out of fear, out of greed, out of conditioning, out of society, out of convenience, out of consolation. Because it was taught since childhood. Because it was repeated again and again. Because it has had centuries…

Osho, why is it that the moment we cling to some belief—whether theism or atheism—the mind feels so reassured? Why does it seem almost impossible for it to stand in the middle, dropping both?

There is no greater courage than to stand in existence without conclusions. By “without conclusions” I mean: no belief, no superstition. It means: we will see existence as it is, without bringing our notions in between. We will neither say “God is” nor “God is not.” We will neither say “the soul is” nor “the soul is not.” We will inquire. But inquiry is hard. Inquiry means you must pay a price. Who wants that bother? So we borrow beliefs on credit. We say, Mahavira knew, Buddha knew, Krishna knew—why should we get into the mess? We’ll cling to them, hold their feet, and pass through. That is not faith; it is only weakness. And the weak do not move. It is not trust to think we can walk to freedom by holding Buddha’s feet. If you have no trust in yourself, how will you trust Buddha? No real trust…

Without concepts, how will one know what is the path and what is the wrong path; what is to be accepted and what is to be discarded; what is virtue and what is sin; and finally, who is the seer and what is the seen?

I have heard of a scientist—a great scientist, especially skilled with electrical instruments. He was very worried about his daughter, because a boy was after her. If he had been an old-fashioned father, he would have driven the boy out with a stick. He was not old-fashioned; he was a modern man. But modernity is only on the surface; inside, the old goes on. So inwardly he was troubled. He called the boy that monkey. Has that monkey come again? He couldn’t stand him at all. The two would sit for hours in the drawing room, chatting; many a night they sat till midnight. Finally it was beyond his endurance; he grew very restless wondering what on earth they did sitting there. Being a modern father, he couldn’t just go and stand between them—the old days of doing that were gone. It would have spoiled his modern image; people would…

people only grow old, they don't grow up and my whole effort here is to help you to grow up to become mature, to become grounded, centred to know yourself, because that knowing becomes the key of knowing the whole but the walls of the scriptures hindus, christians, mohammedans, jews they have all created their walls those walls have to be completely demolished mercilessly demolished unless we drop our hangovers of a primitive past we cannot live in the present, sincerely, totally and a sannyasin is to live totally, sincerely now, here mind is capable of creating systems of thought but they are like making houses out of playing cards I just a little breeze and the whole house topples down and all the systems that mind creates are basically without any foundation so if you look into any system created by the mind and all systems are created by…

Osho, right before our eyes you painted the images of Buddha, Mahavira, and Krishna in enchanting colors. You filled us with devotional awe for them. And now you are mercilessly dismantling those very images. Why are you doing both—creating idols and breaking them? Has the journey to the formless through these forms become impossible now, or are you forcing us to return to ourselves?

You too take your own meanings. And your meanings compelled me to change. So now I have begun to pull back the colors, because I want it to be clear that you must not fix your gaze on Buddha but on yourself. Too many garlands have already been heaped upon Krishna; too many heads have already bowed at the feet of Mahavira. But all that is the dead past. You have to recognize the principle of life within yourself. So, just as I once filled in colors, I have begun to remove them. Even while coloring, the purpose was the same. My purpose has not changed. My goal is exactly the same. But the method has changed. I colored so that you would look at yourself. If you could not, then now I am removing the colors so that the canvas becomes empty and you are forced to look at…