What is the difference between the discipline of resolve and the discipline of surrender?

A friend has asked: you have shown us the method of negation for realizing the truth or the divine being -- the method of excluding everything else in order to know the self. Is it possible to achieve the same result by doing the opposite? Can we not try to see god in everything? Can we not feel him in all?

Actually, God is "that which is." He exists as much in a mosque as he does in a temple. He exists as much in a slaughterhouse as he does in a place of worship. He exists as much in a tavern as he does in a mosque. He is as present in a thief as he is in a holy man -- not one iota less; that can never be. Who else is dwelling in a thief if not the divine? He is as present in Rama as he is in Ravana -- he is not one iota less in Ravana. He exists as much within a Hindu as he does within a Mohammedan. But the problem is: if we come to believe that the same divinity exists in everyone, our God-manufacturing industry will suffer heavily. So in order to prevent this from happening, we keep on imposing our respective…

Osho, what does surrender mean?

Resolve means: I. Surrender means: not-I. Resolve means: the sense of doership. Surrender means: the sense of non-doership. Resolve means: only through what I do can anything happen; without my doing, nothing will happen—effort is everything. Surrender means: grace is everything. What will happen through my doing? If the Beloved does, it happens. I am only a hollow reed of bamboo; if He plays, I become a flute. His song is everything. I should give Him passage, not become an obstruction. I should step aside from the path. A tiny bud walked along the riverbank and reached—then stepped down into the stream! The lover, bound for tryst, descended from steps to the waves. On the faces of the stars a shimmer came. So much is joined. When even a tiny bud steps into a ripple, in the eyes of stars at immeasurable distances a sparkle appears. Over the whole current…

Osho, neither does surrender happen to me, nor do I have the power of resolve; I am entangled in between. You have created quite a predicament for me. As it is, I cannot even bear distance from you—what should I do? Unbidden, I prayed for the well-being of your cruelties; now my hands no longer rise, even after the act of prayer.

To abandon yourself to a river like a corpse requires a profound mastery of swimming. Only a great swimmer can truly let himself go into the stream. Because a great swimmer is free of fear. He knows: if need be, I can swim. If a difficulty arises, swimming is in my hands. The greater the swimmer, the more motionless he can leave himself; he does not even move hands and feet. “What is there to fear? My hands are with me, I am always here—if a moment comes, I will swim.” Such a moment does not haunt him. Tell one who does not know how to swim, “Jump into the river—give yourself up,” and he may jump in a moment of inspiration, in some joyous surge, excitement, intoxication—my song may seize him—and he jumps. The instant he jumps, he forgets what I said. Instantly his arms and legs will flail.…

So to me, surrender and will are not opposites. Surrender is the final crescendo. So nothing to be worried about. With me, opposites are not opposites but complementaries -- that has to be always remembered. Whenever you are creating some division and thinking in terms of opposites, always remember that my insistence is that there are no opposites, everything is complementary. It is only great will that makes it possible for surrender to happen. They are not against each other. So don't create any conflict and don't start thinking, 'What is my way: will or surrender?' Wherever you are and whatsoever you are, learn to accept it. If there is will, good -- you have to grow your will. One day when a grown-up will is there, a mature will is there, you will see -- now the ripe will wants to fall like a ripe fruit.

A friend has asked one more question: Osho, last night I said that the discipline of resolve (sankalp)—dakshinayan, the downward way—leads below; and the discipline of surrender (samarpan)—uttarayan, the upward way—leads above. A friend has asked: the experiment we are doing in the mornings is also an experiment in resolve. Will that take us southward, downward? Or are there distinctions among resolves as well?

This needs to be understood a little. When a person has to surrender for the first time, even then he must use resolve. Even for surrender, resolve has to be used. If you are using resolve for the sake of resolve itself, the journey becomes dakshinayan—downward. And if you are using resolve for the sake of surrender, the journey becomes uttarayan—upward. This experiment too begins with resolve. All meditations begin with resolve, but not all conclude in surrender. The meditations that begin with resolve and also complete themselves in resolve lead you downward. The methods of meditation that begin with resolve and are completed in surrender lead you upward. This experiment we are doing is also an experiment of resolve. But gradually resolve keeps dropping away and you enter into surrender. In the final moment you are only in a state of surrender; resolve has been left behind. Resolve is…