What should one do to overcome skepticism and repression of the heart before embarking on a spiritual journey?

Osho, you say the Master is the news of the Divine on earth, and that love and trust are the bridge to union. But if someone’s mind is skeptical and the heart is repressed, what should one do before setting out on the religious journey?

Why set out at all? It’s like asking me how someone who isn’t sick should go to a doctor! Why go at all? Or asking how someone who isn’t hungry should move toward food! Why move at all? If there is no hunger for the Divine, leave the whole matter. Before hunger, nothing can be done. There is no appetizer we can give you to increase your hunger. Appetizers work only because hunger already exists; otherwise they merely fill the stomach and kill what little appetite there was. If there is no thirst for God, then forget God. Let Him be in His house, you in yours. Why create unnecessary hassle? When thirst awakens, then go. What’s the hurry? Time is infinite. God is not in a rush, not impatient. Whenever you come you will find Him; He is always there. Arrive late, you will still find Him. What is…

Osho, you said that God-realization cannot be added as one more desire to the mind’s many cravings. “Let the One alone dwell within; to none other give your mind.” In this context, how then does the journey on the spiritual path begin?

There are many desires. There are thousands of things to get. Naturally it seems that if the desire for the Divine arises, it will arise as just one more among these desires. If all desires must fall away before the desire for God can be meaningful, then how will it arise? Understand: there are a thousand desires; God cannot be the thousand-and-first. Then where does the beginning happen? It begins when the futility of these thousand desires starts becoming visible to you. If the thousand remain meaningful and the thousand-and-first also becomes meaningful, your world just gets bigger; religion is not born. Let it become clear to you that these thousand are futile—that you are running after mirages. As one desire after another drops, nine hundred and ninety-nine remain; the space that opens is consecrated to God. When nine hundred and ninety-eight remain, a little more space opens—consecrate that too…

A friend has asked, Osho, how can a person filled with doubt, irreverence, disbelief, rebellion pray, be devoted, and surrender?

But being half-and-half is not good. If you are praying and doubt is still inside, why are you praying? Stop that prayer. For now, do doubt properly. And when doubt no longer remains, then begin prayer. Learn to do anything completely. For, in completeness the personality becomes integral. You are no longer in fragments. Within you there are twenty-five kinds of persons. You are a crowd. One part of the mind says one thing; another part says something else; a third says something else. A lady came to me just this morning. She said she had been searching for God for twenty years. I told her, “Come to Chowpatty tomorrow morning at six for meditation.” She said, “Coming at six will be very difficult.” Searching for God for twenty years! And coming at six in the morning to Chowpatty is difficult! This is called searching for God! People this incomplete…

Question: First question: Osho, the thirst does not arise; the doors do not open. Mulla said, “Now jump—into my arms.” The boy hesitated—what if he slipped and fell? Mulla said, “What are you afraid of? Don’t you trust your own father?” The boy jumped—and Mulla stepped away. He crashed to the ground and began to cry: “What have you done?” Mulla said, “I taught you a lesson: never trust even your father. Don’t trust anyone—that is the sign of an intelligent man. Understand?” God made the world as an experience. Do not trust the outside here. There are great temptations, beautiful temptations. Drums sound sweet from afar; only from afar. As you approach, the sweetness fades. When you come right up to it, it proves a mirage. The world exists so that you may gain the taste of its opposite.

Question: Second question: Osho, is abhipsa enough for the Lord? But if it is the kind of abhipsa Farid pointed to—if within you, truly without any greed, having seen the futility and meaninglessness of life, having looked through all its experiences, a clear sense has dawned that here there is nothing else worth attaining, nothing else worth knowing; that it is Truth one must know, that unseen which sustains all; because only by knowing That will we find the ultimate rest—otherwise this scramble will go on and on; we have gained all and, having gained, seen that nothing is really gained, the hands remain empty—if from such understanding a tongue of flaming fire rises within you; or in the satsang of a Buddha the contagion of his thirst infects you, provokes you, sets you ablaze, fills you with urgency, gives birth to a fire of longing—viraha—then abhipsa is sufficient.