You feel lost because you’re gripping an old map—let it go, look with fresh eyes, and the path appears as you walk.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, I have been listening to you for years to find out the right way to god, but the more I listen, the more confused I become. What is wrong with me?
And one thing more: my whole effort here IS to confuse you, because unless I confuse you I cannot create clarity. You are settled, you are certain. I have to shake you, shock you, I have to confuse you; only then will you start seeking and searching for new planes of clarity. So in a way this is good, this is not wrong. It is good that you are confused. Something IS happening -- your foundations are being shaken. They were seated on adjoining stools in a dimly-lighted cocktail lounge. "Honey," he said, "what about forgetting your inhibitions and spending a quiet week-end with me in Atlantic City?" "See here," she answered, "after an exhaustive perusal of the corpus of documented evidence garnered by research on heterosexuality as applied to contemporary sociological mores, and in view of the innate predisposition to the more exotic manifestations of concupiscence evident in your…Read the full discourse →
You tell us the paths are of will and surrender. The path of will is certainly not for me, but then surrender also does not seem to be perfect. Now, what to do? Beloved master, I am totally confused. Kindly show me my path.
THE FIRST THING: if you are really totally confused, out of that confusion will come clarity. But you are not totally confused. Once confusion is total, it becomes the path. Then there is no need for any other path. We seek paths out of confusion, because we are confused... but not totally confused, and we think that we can figure things out. Total confusion means now you are totally helpless, now there is no way to go, now you don't know anything about the goal, about yourself, about the Way. You know nothing. You are in a state of blank. If confusion is total, mind becomes blank. But you are never totally confused -- partially, certainly; totally, never. Total confusion is one of the ways to reach God. It means all your knowledge has proved meaningless; and when I say all, I mean all. Not that you say, "I know…Read the full discourse →
Osho, can you clear this confusion in me? The other day at discourse you talked about the different ways and paths to god. The christian feels his is the only way, the moslem feels his is the only way, and so on. Now all of us here, your entire following -- don't we too believe that yours is the most appealing and therefore the only way? Then what is the difference? I cannot seem to figure it out and yet I am sure there is difference.
GOD IS NOT A GOAL, hence there can be no way to God. All ways are wrong. God is right now, this very moment. God is always in the present, now and here, and always now and here. There can be no way to God. The very idea of the way is fallacious. The way means you have postponed; the way leads to tomorrow, and the tomorrow never comes. The way means you have projected into the future: God is somewhere else and you have to travel. Then religion becomes a journey. And religion is not a journey, it is already the case. God has not to happen to you. God has happened because you are alive. What is life? Who is breathing in you and who is conscious in you? God is not to be known, God is the knower. God is not the object that you have to…Read the full discourse →
Utter confusion is my part. Good and bad have ceased to exist. I am neither proud nor ashamed and yet I am both. Whatever I have achieved seems lost in a fog, resolved together with my failures. Like smoke I feel, but through the smoke a tremendous sadness arises like a sharp rock with a velvet covering. Osho, I can't perceive the end of it -- or is there no end? Is it ecstasy carrying the weight of impurity? Please, Osho, give me sannyas.
This opportunity can turn into a curse too, if you fall victim to some Adolf Hitler; but this curse can become a great opening into the unknown if you are fortunate enough to be in the vicinity of a buddha. If you are fortunate enough to be in love with a buddha, your life can be transformed. People who are still rooted in tradition, and who think they know what is right and what is wrong, will never come to a buddha. They will continue to live their life -- the routine life, the dull, the dead life. They will go on fulfilling their duties as their forefathers used to do. For centuries they have been following a track and they will go on following that trodden track. Of course, when you follow a trodden track, you feel certain -- so many people have walked on it. But when you…Read the full discourse →
I love very much this maxim by an american humorist: "an open mind is a great idea, but if you make it your primary aim in life, what you will end up with will more resemble a cave of winds." sometimes I feel like this here, with the different activities blowing me in so many directions, but no direction seems to be clearly towards god. What to do?
Parodha. God is not to be found in any particular direction. God is all over the place. To seek Him in a particular direction is a sure way to miss Him. GOD IS NOT THERE, God is here. God surrounds you, He is your surround. You breathe Him, you eat Him, you drink Him, you make love to Him, and you have not recognized that it is all God. You are asking for a direction? God cannot be in any direction; all directions are in God. God is the totality. How can the totality be in a direction? -- north, east, west, south, up, down? God cannot be in any direction. Just replace the word 'god' with 'totality', and then you will be able to understand what I mean. And the whole purpose here is to help you drop all directions, all dimensions, so one day you suddenly find yourself…Read the full discourse →