What is the psychology behind proving and asserting oneself?

Beloved master, why does everybody want to prove and to assert? What is the psychology behind proving and asserting oneself?

The psychology behind assertiveness, behind proving oneself, is very simple. Every child, from his very beginning, is told that he is not what he should be. Disciplines are given, commandments are given; he has to fulfill them. If he cannot, he starts feeling inferior. It seems that others are fulfilling them, only he is not capable. And the inferiority complex is the basic mind disease out of which many diseases arise. No child is born with an inferiority complex. It is the parents, the teachers, the priests, the society, the culture, which are responsible for creating the inferiority complex in the child. And the only way for the child to get rid of it seems to be to prove himself worthy according to the expectations of others. It creates a very miserable situation. He is not growing towards his own potential, he is following guidelines given by others. He will…

A friend has asked, Osho, why does inferiority—the inferiority complex—arise?

It arises for this very reason: you take yourself to be Everest and you cannot prove it. You believe yourself to be the center of the world, but you cannot prove it. Then inferiority is born. Inferiority arises only in those whose minds carry a sense of superiority. It will sound upside down; but we have turned life so upside down that when one says something simple and straightforward, it appears inverted. Whoever harbors a feeling of being superior will come to feel inferior. He will feel, “I am nothing,” because he imagines so much about himself and cannot make it true. Then pain grips the mind: “I could do nothing.”

Beloved Osho, it seems to me that I don't understand anything

If I say something, there is no need to believe in it. There is no need to disbelieve either. Remain open. If I say something, then try it. Then look at the trees without any ideas whatever. Look at the birds and the sky with no knowledge. Drop language and see whether what I am saying gives you clarity. If you can drop the word "rose" and then see the rose flower, what happens? You will immediately feel a new kind of relationship arising between you and the flower. Don't even call it a flower; there is no need. Your language is not needed to support it; it exists without language. Why bring language in? Put language aside. Put aside your continuous gibberish that goes on inside the mind. Just look. In the beginning it is difficult -- the language will come up again and again, just out of old…

But even here the play of ego continues. Every age says: What we have discovered, no one discovered before. And every man says: What I know, none knows. I am original. For centuries man has been thinking. For thousands of years contemplation has continued. What could be left for you to be original about! Like the disciples of Krishnamurti who say that what Krishnamurti says is original—they have not read Ashtavakra. Otherwise they would be astonished. Not a single statement of Krishnamurti goes beyond the statements of Ashtavakra. Well, Krishnamurti does not read scriptures—he insists he will not read the old; all right, he may be forgiven. But his disciples, who make the claim, they should at least look around a little before declaring originality. There is not a single statement man can make today that has not been made before.

Beloved Osho, why does everyone want to pretend to be what they are not? What is the psychology behind it?

You are being taught everything, but you are not being taught to be yourself. This is the ugliest form of society possible, because it makes everybody miserable. I have heard of another great man, a great professor of literature who was being retired from the university. All the university professors had gathered, all his friends had gathered, and they were rejoicing. But suddenly they became aware that he was missing. One of his friends, an attorney, went out... perhaps he in was the garden. But what was he doing there? He was sitting under a tree. The attorney was his closest friend, a boyhood friend. The attorney said, "What are you doing here?" He said, "What I am doing here? Remember fifty years ago? -- I came to tell you that I wanted to kill my wife. And you said, `Don't do any such thing. Otherwise -- fifty years in…