What obstructs my vision from seeing the obvious?

Beloved Osho, it has always been the observation of seekers that the realization of godliness is a very arduous phenomenon. But enlightened ones like you always emphasize that it can happen right here, right now. Is saying this again and again a provocation? And a method or device to arouse thirst in us?

Don't laugh, because most people are just like Chinmaya. Don't think that your laughing proves that you are different than Chinmaya. Chinmaya at least got up the courage to ask -- you didn't even ask. This is the only difference. You are just like him. If you haven't become God by the time the Ashtavakra Gita discourses are over, then know: there is no difference, you are just like him. But if while listening you wake up and become God, then just the shadow of the whip has worked. "It has always been the observation of seekers that the realization of God is a very arduous phenomenon." The seeker is off track from the very beginning. The very meaning of seeker assumes that God has to be sought, that he has lost God somewhere. The seeker accepts that he has lost the divine somewhere. What a strange idea. He has…

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!…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHO IS IN THE WAY? WHEN MASTER JUI YEN WAS DWELLING CONSTANTLY IN HIS ROOM, HE WOULD CALL TO HIMSELF, "BOSS!" AND ALSO RESPOND TO HIMSELF, "YES?" "BE ALERT!" "I WILL." "HEREAFTER, DON'T FALL FOR PEOPLE'S DECEPTIONS." "I WON'T." JUST AROUSE YOURSELF RIGHT HERE, AND SEE WHAT IT IS. THE ONE WHO DOES THE AROUSING ISN'T ANYONE ELSE, HE'S JUST THE ONE THAT CAN RECOGNIZE DIMNESS AND DULLNESS. HE'S YOUR OWN FUNDAMENTAL IDENTITY. THIS IS ME GIVING MEDICINE TO SUIT THE DISEASE, HAVING NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE; BRIEFLY POINTING OUT THE ROAD FOR YOU TO RETURN HOME AND SIT IN PEACE, AND THAT'S ALL. IF YOU STICK TO DEAD WORDS, AND SAY IT REALLY IS YOUR FUNDAMENTAL IDENTITY, THEN YOU'RE ACKNOWLEDGING THE CONSCIOUS SPIRIT AS YOUR SELF, AND THIS HAS EVEN LESS TO DO WITH IT.

Osho, ego is the greatest obstacle to taking sannyas. How can it be removed? The ego-sense does not go.

Ego has no reality. Then how to define it? Understand ego in this way: when you look outward, there is ego; when you look inward, ego departs. Enter meditation; drop the very worry of fighting with ego. Fighting the ego is like someone fighting darkness—pushing at it, trying to throw it out. No, I say, light a lamp. Enter meditation, enter prayer; light the lamp—turn within. Close your eyes and begin to look inside—what is there? You will discover one thing: you will never find the ego. And where there is no ego, there is the Divine. The Divine is your true nature; ego is your delusion. As someone sees a rope and takes it for a snake—or sees a snake in a rope—so is ego: a mis-seeing. To see what is, as it is—that is God-experience. And certainly, ego is the greatest obstacle to taking sannyas. But sannyas is…

Osho, you said that the state of the mind itself is the obstacle. And it is precisely my state of mind that has drawn me to you. You also said that the intellect is the obstacle, because the intelligent person thinks too much. And I see that you are surrounded by intelligent people.

So I say the intellect is also an obstacle. Perhaps it is indeed the intellect that has brought you this far—you must have read or heard about me, and that is why you came—but now that you are here, listen to what I am saying: set the intellect aside. Be a little no-mind with me. Let the waves subside. Become waveless for a while. The moment there are no waves, all distance between you and me disappears. In wavelessness only One remains. There I am not, and you are not—there only That is. Raso vai sah—the essence is He. Only His nectar showers. There is only the One—the same deathless elixir, the same unstruck sound, which the Zen mystics call the sound of one hand clapping. There is not even a second hand to clap. Which the Hindus call the sound of Om—there, there is no one producing the sound;…