According to Osho, rejecting others’ opinions is essential because second‑hand beliefs are like blind men describing light: they breed confusion, rigidity, and borrowed certainty. Truth cannot be reached by asking, reading, or social approval; it arises from direct, total participation in life and inner silence. Become fluid, stake your whole being in living inquiry, and let experience—not opinions—reveal what is real.
Don’t borrow beliefs; be quiet inside and learn from your own direct living and experience.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Because you yourself are saying there is no need to take anyone’s opinion?
You don’t understand—you don’t understand what I am saying. And you will not be able to understand. If you keep moving in this direction, a time will come when you won’t understand anything at all. Do you see? This whole direction is the direction of madness—the whole direction. With all these calculations of yours that have begun, in the end you can only become deranged, nothing else. You should understand the direction of silence. Suppose I go and ask—a blind man—what light is like; then I ask another blind man, then a third, then twenty-five blind men, and collect all their opinions, and then add my own opinion to it. I myself am blind; otherwise I wouldn’t be going around asking about light. I myself am blind; otherwise why would I ask what light is? I would know. So the first basic fact is that I am blind. The second…
Why am I always afraid of others' opinion?
Because you are not, because you are not yet. You are nothing but a piled-up phenomenon of others' opinion. Who are you? Somebody says you are beautiful, so you are beautiful. And somebody says you are ugly, so you are ugly. And somebody says you are wonderful, so you are wonderful. And somebody says 'I have never seen such a nasty person', so you are a nasty person. And people go on saying, and you go on collecting all these things. And that is your image. That's why your image is very contradictory, ambiguous. One person says you are beautiful, another says you are ugly. You want to forget this person's idea that you are ugly, but you cannot forget it; it will be there. If you keep the opinion that you are beautiful you will have to keep the opinion that you are ugly too. Your image is very…
Osho, why is it that the moment we cling to some belief—whether theism or atheism—the mind feels so reassured? Why does it seem almost impossible for it to stand in the middle, dropping both?
There is no greater courage than to stand in existence without conclusions. By “without conclusions” I mean: no belief, no superstition. It means: we will see existence as it is, without bringing our notions in between. We will neither say “God is” nor “God is not.” We will neither say “the soul is” nor “the soul is not.” We will inquire. But inquiry is hard. Inquiry means you must pay a price. Who wants that bother? So we borrow beliefs on credit. We say, Mahavira knew, Buddha knew, Krishna knew—why should we get into the mess? We’ll cling to them, hold their feet, and pass through. That is not faith; it is only weakness. And the weak do not move. It is not trust to think we can walk to freedom by holding Buddha’s feet. If you have no trust in yourself, how will you trust Buddha? No real trust…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, SHOULD WE TAKE YOUR ADVICE NOT TO TAKE ANYONE'S ADVICE? Advice is the only thing in the world which everybody gives and nobody takes. You can ask me a question, but you cannot ask for advice; I am not that foolish. I will never give you any advice, because who am I to give you advice? You are unique, every individual is unique. My advice will be my experience. That may distract you from your own life, that may take you away from your own being. I have never advised anyone. Yes, you can ask a question. The answer that I give only has to be understood, it has not to be accepted on my authority. You have to be just a listener to it, without any prejudice.
Osho, you said... then you will find that the devotee is God. The question arises: if one devotee prefers to be God and another wants to remain only a devotee, then which of the two is superior?
The one who wants to be God will not be able to be. And the one who wants to remain a devotee will become God. The question of superior or inferior does not arise, because only one of the two will happen. The one who does not want to be will be. The one who wants to be will be deprived. That very wanting is of the ego. But the matter is a little delicate. Sometimes humility too belongs to the ego. Beware that your humility may not be of the ego. Perhaps you are saying, “No, I don’t want to be,” because you know that those who refuse are the ones who attain. Then you are clever. Then your humility is adulterous. Your humility is not pure, not sacred, not virginal—it is like a prostitute. The one who wants to be God, whose ego says, “I must become God,”…