Stop trying to be better than others or to crush your nature; be natural, respect all life, and let your inner truth grow by itself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you and Shri Krishnamurti seem very opposed to having ideals in life. It is true that ideals create a great deal of hypocrisy. But if we look from the other end, the danger appears that without the challenge of ideals, growth will become impossible. There will be no difference between human and animal. So is the mistake in choosing the wrong ideals? Would you be gracious enough to say something on this?
By “ideal” you mean: distant stars in the sky… to become this, to become that. In that race of becoming you forget how you are. What is, gets forgotten; what should be, fixes your gaze. But what is—that alone is real. A man has tuberculosis—that is the reality. He “should” be healthy, he should be a wrestler like Muhammad Ali or Gama—that is an ideal. So he hangs Gama’s picture at home, does a daily arati to it. And he has TB—rotting within—while his eyes are fixed on Gama’s picture! What will come of it? Will TB vanish? The truth is: because of it, the very means of release from TB is lost. Your eye is not on TB; it is stuck on Gama’s picture. Your eye should have been on TB—then something could be done, treatment could happen. A man is burning with anger and sits with the ideal…Read the full discourse →
Osho, you said that all ideals are wrong. But is the ideal of attaining one’s destination, one’s destiny, equally wrong?
An ideal is wrong; it makes no difference what you make an ideal of. “Ideal” means: it will happen in the future. “Ideal” means: tomorrow. “Ideal” means: it is not available today. An ideal is postponement—for the future. What is your destiny does not need to be made into an ideal; it is bound to happen—it has, in a way, already happened. Destiny means your intrinsic nature. That which is wholly available to you in this moment is your destiny. All ideals are anti-destiny. The very meaning of an ideal is that you want to be what, in your heart of hearts, you know you cannot be. A rose becomes a rose; a lotus becomes a lotus. Nowhere in the lotus’s heart is there an ideal, “I must become a lotus.” If the lotus tried to become a lotus, it would go mad—and fail. What you are, you already are—from…Read the full discourse →
The boy is born to discover his own growth, his own destiny.
That is exactly what you are not allowing. You are not allowing it. You are not allowing it. (The audio recording of the question is not clear.) I understand, I understand your point. Whenever you say, “Be like Gandhi,” it may be that you do not mean “Copy Gandhi”—that may not be what you want to say—but you are creating an ideal in the child’s mind, a concept that one should become such-and-such a person: one should be like Gandhi, or like Rama. You create a concept. The child is one thing; you are creating a concept that is another. There is a distance between the two. To attain that concept the child will try to become that way: “Gandhi acted in a particular way in a particular situation; I too should act like that. Gandhi kept simplicity in his life; I too should become simple. Gandhi is non-violent; then…Read the full discourse →
Osho, your satsang is nothing less than heaven for me. It hurts deeply to be away from you. After this life I have not the slightest desire to be born again. But I make hundreds of mistakes. Please shower your compassion and guide me!
I don’t tell you, “If you smoke, stop.” I don’t—because that has been said to you so much and you still haven’t stopped. The sadhus and saints kept saying it till they died, and you did not stop. What is the point of my repeating it? Those who keep repeating it—I take them to be unintelligent. So many kept repeating and people didn’t listen; then there is a flaw in the very approach. Perhaps the root cause of smoking has never been understood; people just go on repeating empty words. Someone says, “Don’t smoke—you’ll get tuberculosis.” But he takes it for granted that you are afraid of TB. Who is afraid! People say, “When it happens, we’ll see. There is medicine, treatment.” And if you look into a book, you will read that if a man smokes twelve cigarettes a day for twenty years, then he may get TB. Who…Read the full discourse →
"last night you said that a krishna, a christ, a buddha, they are the climax of human possibility and growth, and then you said that yogic and tantric psychology put no ideal before man and that to have an ideal is a mistake according to tantra. In this reference please explain what is the difference between an inspiration and an ideal. What is the significance of inspiration in a seeker's life? Please tell whether even being inspired by a great man is a mistake on the path of a meditator."
In a Jesus, in a Meera, in Chaitanya, just a possibility is revealed, the future is revealed. You need not be whatsoever you are. Something more is possible. So Buddha is just a symbol of the future. Don't imitate him; rather, let his life, his being, the phenomenon that is happening, become a new thirst in you, that is all. You must not be content with yourself as you are right now. Let Buddha become a discontent in you, a thirst to transcend, to go beyond, to move into the unknown. When you reach to the peak of your own being, you will know what happened to Buddha under the bodhi tree or what happened to Jesus on the cross or what happened to Meera when she was dancing in the streets. You will know, but your expression will be your own. You are not going to be a Meera…Read the full discourse →