According to Osho, 'insistence' is the ego’s stubborn demand that reality conform to its ideas—clinging, rigidity, and pushing. In authentic spiritual living there is no insistence at all: one drops demands and allows life to unfold, responding with awareness rather than control. When insistence dissolves, openness, love, and intelligence flow naturally, and conflict gives way to ease and spontaneity.
Insistence means stubbornly forcing your way; Osho says let go and allow life instead of pushing.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
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!…
But there is a great attraction in going upstream, in going against life. The attraction is that it creates ego, the more you fight with the natural instincts, the more you create ego. Ego is an unnatural phenomenon, no animal knows anything about it. It is an absolutely human invention. No animal can know about it because no animal ever tries to go against nature. All animals -- and trees and rocks and mountains and rivers and stars -- they all live in absolute harmony with nature, hence there is no question of ego. When you live in harmony with nature, how can you think of yourself as separate? The harmony is so deep: you dance with the rhythm of the whole, you sing the song of the whole, you pulsate in tune with the whole. You cannot feel yourself separate in any way.
Osho, karmatyagann sannyasau na praishochcharanena tu. Sandhau jivatmanor aikyam sannyasah parikirtitah. To abandon actions is not sannyas. Nor does one become a sannyasin by merely declaring, “I am a sannyasin.” Sannyas is called the sense of oneness of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul in samadhi. Osho, in the context of sannyas, please be compassionate and make this sutra from the Maitreyi Upanishad understandable for us.
Anand Maitreyi! Karmatyagann sannyasau... For centuries sannyas has been taken to mean the renunciation of action. But dropping action is not dropping the mind. Renouncing action only creates an illusion—deep and dangerous. If no one abuses you or insults you, anger won’t naturally arise. But that does not mean anger has ended within you. The day someone insults you, even if anger has slept for centuries, it will raise its hood again. The right conditions were simply missing. Seeds were there, but there was no rain; they lay dormant in the field. When the rain comes, they will sprout. The seeds of the world are in the mind. The world is only the opportunity, the situation in which those inner seeds sprout. But man is extrovert; he always looks outside. He thinks the world entangles him. The world entangles no one; it is your mind that entangles you. And the…
Osho, what is the meaning of existence?
Buddha says: The inner emptiness is so beautiful, don't stuff it with junk, leave it as it is. And that's what meditation is all about, that's what Zen is. It means living out of emptiness, asking nothing from life, living moment to moment for no other reason, just enjoying being alive. It is more than you can ask for! What more meaning do you need? Is breathing not enough? Is this chirping of the birds not enough? Is the green and the red and the gold of the trees not enough? Is this vast existence with all its splendor not enough? You want some meaning? Yoka says: <q>THE MOON RISES ABOVE THE RIVER. ON THE BANK THE WIND PLAYS SOFTLY IN THE PINES ALL NIGHT LONG, PURE AND CALM. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THAT SERENITY? LOOK ON THE BUDDHA'S PRECEPTS OF NATURE. WINTER AND AUTUMN MISTS, DEW, CLOUDS, SPRING…
Osho, what is the fundamental anguish of human life?
There is only one anguish: that a human being cannot become what he was born to be. There is only one anguish: that the seed remains a seed and does not bloom like a flower; that it cannot scatter its fragrance to the infinite winds; cannot converse with the moon and stars; cannot offer its colors to the sky; cannot be expressed. If the poem within the poet cannot be revealed—anguish. If the painter cannot paint—anguish. If the dancer cannot dance—if chains lie on his feet—anguish. Anguish means only this: that what we are meant to be—our innate nature and destiny—does not come to fruition, and we are forced to be something else. Then anguish is born. Then melancholy gathers over life. And all those countless people you see burdened with sorrow, living in a kind of hell—the reason is only this: each has come carrying the seed of becoming…