What is the difference between being oneself and being egoless?

Beloved Osho, what is the difference between the emptiness of the child before the formation of the ego and the awakened childlikeness of a buddha?

Whether you are for it or against it doesn't matter -- your concern shows where your ego is hanging. And I will include the capitalist in it also: his whole concern is how to gather money, hoard money -- because money has power over matter. You can purchase any material thing through money. You cannot purchase anything spiritual, you cannot purchase anything that has any intrinsic value; you can purchase only things. If you want to purchase love, you cannot purchase; but you can purchase sex. Sex is the material part of love. Through money, matter can be purchased, possessed. Now you will be surprised: I include the communist and the capitalist both in the same category, and they are enemies, just as I include Charvaka and Mahatma Gandhi in the same category, and they are enemies. They are enemies, but their concern is the same. The capitalist is trying…

A friend has asked: Osho, is it possible for someone to live egoless in this ego-filled world and still be successful? Where everyone is full of ego, wouldn’t living egoless be like swimming against the current? Wouldn’t it bring obstacles, difficulties, failures?

Notice: even the egoist pays respect to the egoless. Even the politician comes and sits at a saint’s feet—this person has stepped out of the arena; one enemy less; he has left the fight; he has begun to flow with the current. So if you think that by becoming egoless you will flow against the current, you are mistaken. As an egoist you are already against life’s current. In egolessness you flow with life’s stream. Yes, you will go opposite to the egoists—but that will create no obstacle. Hindrance only comes if, even through egolessness, you still want wealth, prestige and position in the world. Then there can be trouble. It is said: An emperor was praying in a temple on New Year’s Day. He used to come on the first day of the year to pray. He was saying to God, What am I! The dust of your feet—worse…

Osho, can there be an egoless program?

Yes, certainly there can be; it has nothing to do with ego. Ego is quite another matter. Ego is quite another matter. For example, we have decided that at five o’clock we will all sit with such-and-such preparations. In this, there is no question of the seeker’s being egoless; the only question is that the one who is to become the medium be egoless. And egolessness is not such a thing that you can sometimes be it and sometimes not. If it has happened, it has happened; if it hasn’t, it hasn’t—isn’t that so! If I am egoless, I am; if I am not, I am not. It is not that tomorrow morning at five I will become egoless. Do you understand what I am saying? How will I become? There is no method. If I am now, I will be at five as well—whether I make some arrangement or…

Can you explain to us the difference between emptying oneself and effacing oneself? And what is the role of individuality in dissolution?

Divya, the process of emptying oneself and the process of effacing oneself have nothing in common. Not only are they different, they are diametrically opposite. Emptying oneself brings individuality, more and more individuality. Emptying oneself means emptying oneself of all that is implied in personality. Personality is a farce, personality is pseudo, personality is that which is given to you by the society. Personality is imposed on you from the outside; it is a mask. Individuality is your very being. Individuality is that which you bring into the world, individuality is God's gift. Personality is ugly because it is pseudo. And the more personality you have, the less is the possibility for individuality to grow. The personality starts occupying the whole of your space. It is like a cancerous growth. It goes on growing, it possesses you totally. It leaves no space for individuality to have even its own corner.…

What is the difference between a crystallized self and a big, strong ego?

THEY LOOK ALIKE, but they are as different as two things can be. Not only different, they are diametrically opposite. The crystallized self is not a self at all. It is called a crystallized "self," but it is not a self at all. And the big, strong ego is neither big nor strong. It is very hollow; how can it be strong? It is very empty; how can it be strong? And how can it be big? It is neither big nor strong, but it has the selfhood in it, the "I-amness," the feeling that "I am." The ego is the self. The real self is not a self at all. We develop the ego just to hide the fact that we don't know who we are. It is very hard to see that we are so ignorant about ourselves, that we don't know. To hide this ignorance, we create…