According to Osho, when the ego projects a future self, nothing truly new is born; it merely rearranges the dead past—selecting pleasures, dropping pains—and calls it ‘tomorrow.’ This projection sustains the ego’s endless trip, postpones arrival, and keeps you from the living present. Freedom comes by dropping all trips—ceasing to chase a future me—and resting in present, egoless awareness.
Dreaming of a ‘better me’ is just recycling old stuff and keeps you from being here now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Dang Dang Doko Dang · Discourse 4
1976-06-14 · Buddha Hall · English
I have got a future-ego. It keeps telling me what a super person I am going to turn out to be in a few years' time when I am finished with this trip. It is very smug and in the meantime, like right now, it is pretending to be so humble, so malleable, so adaptable, and so untouchable. Could you help me to get at it? It is bugging me.
Who is this me? If you think the ego is bugging you, who are you? It is again an ego trip. Now the ego is taking a very subtle form. When the ego is not, you are not. Ego is all that defines you, that makes you say 'i' or 'me'. Ego is your definition, your boundary, ego divides you from others. It is ego, that's why you can say 'i' and 'you'. If the ego disappears, who is 'i' and who is 'you'? Now you are taking a very subtle form. You say the ego is bugging you. Who are you then? Just see the point. If you don't see the point you can go on playing the game ad infinitum. You can become humble and the ego will be there. You can even become egoless and the ego will be there. Ego is very subtle and very cunning…Read the full discourse →
Vigyan Bhairav Tantra Vol 2 · Discourse 14
1973-05-29 · Bombay, India · English
When I become more and more aware, my attention develops and there remains a feeling that I exist, I am present, I am aware. Please explain how this feeling can be dissolved into an egoless state of just awareness.
The light is there, and the darkness is immediately not there. There is not a single moment's gap, because if there is a gap then you can see darkness moving out. And if there is a single moment's gap, then there is no reason why there can't be a gap of one hour. There is no gap. The act is simultaneous. Really, the coming of the light and the going out of the darkness are two aspects of one phenomenon. The same happens with awareness: when you are aware, the ego is not. But the ego can go on playing tricks, and the ego can say, `I am aware.' The ego can say, `I am aware,' and can n you. Then the question will arise. And the ego wants to accumulate everything, even awareness. The ego not only wants wealth, power, and prestige; it wants meditation also, it wants samadhi…Read the full discourse →
Vedanta Seven Steps To Samadhi · Discourse 17
1974-01-19 · Mt. Abu, Rajasthan, India · English
Beloved Osho, many times I feel so merged in you that it is as if I have died and only you are. But this feeling doesn't remain constant, and always the ego returns. This happens whenever I have to again communicate with others or return to activity. Why doesn't the ego remain dead?
If you make it a goal -- egolessness -- then you will always remain with the ego. Don't make it a goal, because all goals belong to the ego. If you think that you should remain egoless, who is this "you" who should remain egoless? This is the ego. So the first thing, don't make it a goal. Any goal will feed the ego -- even the goal of egolessness. When you are egoless enjoy it; when you feel the ego again, be alert -- but don't expect the contrary. If you start expecting you will be more entangled with the same thing. Whenever egolessness is there enjoy it, feel grateful, thank God, and when the ego comes again, be alert. Soon more and more egolessness will happen to you, less and less ego will return. And the moment will come when ego will disappear, but don't make it a…Read the full discourse →
Ram Duware Jo Mare · Discourse 8
1974-06-01 · Pune · Hindi · English translation
Osho, this ego of mine from lifetimes is perhaps the greatest obstacle between you and me. This very ego does not let me bow at your feet, does not let me be effaced. Lord, have compassion on me and erase me; in this very life, absorb me into yourself and make me one.
Put your whole effort into meditation. I am standing with you! And the divine stands with you. The whole existence is with you. Whenever one sets out toward meditation, the whole existence, in bliss, extends help—for someone lost is coming home; someone far away is returning; a seed is sprouting, shooting, leafing. The sky gives it shade, the sun warmth, the clouds water. The earth gives it life. The whole existence becomes a helper. Yes—if you move against existence, then you are alone. The journey of ego is a solitary journey. In the journey of meditation, the whole existence is your ally. But do not leave it all to existence; you must labor. Existence will support. And what you have done so far is auspicious, in the right direction. Your steps are falling in the right direction. Look back and remember your face of five or seven years ago, saint!…Read the full discourse →
I Say Unto You Vol 2 · Discourse 3
1977-11-02 · Buddha Hall · English
Mark 9
33. AND HE CAME TO CAPERNAUM: AND BEING IN THE HOUSE HE ASKED THEM, WHAT WAS IT THAT YE DISPUTED AMONG YOURSELVES BY THE WAY? 34. BUT THEY HELD THEIR PEACE: FOR BY THE WAY THEY HAD DISPUTED AMONG THEMSELVES, WHO SHOULD BE THE GREATEST. 35. AND HE SAT DOWN, AND CALLED THE TWELVE, AND SAITH UNTO THEM, IF ANY MAN DESIRE TO BE FIRST, THE SAME SHALL BE LAST OF ALL, AND SERVANT OF ALL. 36. AND HE TOOK A CHILD, AND SET HIM IN THE MIDST OF THEM, AND WHEN HE HAD TAKEN HIM IN HIS ARMS, HE SAID UNTO THEM, 37. WHOSOEVER SHALL RECEIVE ONE OF THESE CHILDREN IN MY NAME, RECEIVETH ME: AND WHOSOEVER SHALL RECEIVE ME, RECEIVETH NOT ME, BUT HIM THAT SENT ME. JOHN 8 52. THEN SAID THE JEWS UNTO HIM, 53. ART THOU GREATER THAN OUR FATHER ABRAHAM, WHICH IS DEAD? AND…Read the full discourse →