What is the difference between spiritual ego and normal ego?

Beloved master, recently you mentioned that the spiritual ego is more dangerous than the normal ego. Can you explain?

Prem Unmado, all egos are dangerous, because the ego is a false entity. It does not exist, in fact. It is there because you are not aware of who you are. The ego is just like darkness. Darkness has no positive existence of its own; it is only the absence of light. Hence you cannot do anything directly with darkness. If you want to remove darkness you cannot remove it directly; you will have to bring light in. If you want to bring darkness in you cannot bring it directly either; you will have to put the light off. Whatsoever you want to do, you will have to do with the light, because the light has existence. Darkness has no existence, and with the nonexistential nothing can be done. The ego is nonexistential, it is a nonentity. It is the absence of awareness, of alertness. You are not conscious; hence…

Beloved Osho, what is meant by a spiritual ego? Is spiritual greed one of its symptoms? Is it curable?

Anand Tarangini, the spiritual ego is not something different from the ordinary ego. Somebody feels his ego because he has money, somebody feels his ego strengthened because he has political power. Somebody feels ego because he has great respectability. But the ego is the same. Somebody feels that he is spiritual -- he's a great saint, holier than you -- that is also the same ego. You can call it "spiritual ego" but spiritual ego is a contradiction in terms. I have heard a story. There were three monasteries in the mountains. And one day, three monks, from each of the monasteries, just by chance met on the road. One of them said, "You have beautiful monasteries. But as far as our monastery is concerned, you cannot compete with us in our austerity." The second said, "We know your monastery; its discipline is arduous, your austerity is great. But nobody…

What is the difference between waiting for godot and waiting for god?

It is as if the sun has risen in the morning and you are sitting in your room with closed doors and windows, in darkness. Open the doors, you become available to the sun. The sun was already available -- just the meeting happens. You cannot wait for God. All waiting is for Godot. Godot means the one who never comes, who CANNOT come, whose arrival is impossible. And the only impossible thing is that which has already happened -- how can it happen again? You are alive, and you are waiting for life, Now, this is ridiculous. The real man of religion does not think in terms of God. He thinks in terms of life or, even better, of living -- because life can again become an abstract idea. Living, moment-to-moment living. In that very living, one knows what God is, because one knows who one is. Your idea…

Osho, you say that your main concern is our spiritual not our psychological growth. What is the difference between them?

"I think we should treat not the symptoms but the real problem." This was the approach of the Southern planter just after the Civil War. This gentleman of the old school found his wife in the arms of her lover and, mad with rage, killed her with his revolver. A jury of his Southern peers had brought in a verdict of justifiable homicide, and he was about to leave the courtroom a free man when the judge stopped him. "Just a point of personal curiosity, sir, if you are willing to clear it up." In reply, the gentleman bowed. "Why did you shoot your wife instead of her lover?" "Sir," he replied, "I decided it was better to shoot a woman once than a different man each week." If you try to change your mind, you will have to shoot a different man each week. It is better to shoot…

Osho, in the general feeling about the ego, it seems as if one is an egoist or egoless. One moment it feels there is ego; the next moment it feels egoless.

Yes, yes, that’s how it goes. That’s how it goes. In fact, all our thinking is in degrees. It’s like this: at 98 degrees we say, “This person is perfectly fine,” and at 99 degrees we say, “There’s a fever.” 98 is also a “fever,” but it is the normal fever. At 99 it becomes abnormal. Then when it returns to 98, we say, “All right, normal again.” There is still fever—meaning the same fever that everyone has. As long as it is where everyone else’s is, we call it normal; just a little this side or that, and trouble starts. It is the same with the ego. It is our fever. As long as it is at the same degree as in everyone, we say, “He is perfectly humble, a good man.” If, compared to us, his degree goes to 99, we say, “He seems very egoistic.” If it…