According to Osho, he creates confusion to prevent disciples from settling into comfortable beliefs and spiritual sleep. Confusion is his deliberate method to unsettle, keep them moving like pilgrims into the unknown, and ignite an urge to seek rather than stagnate. By repeatedly upsetting their certainties, a mature consciousness arises that no longer clings to the old—and ultimately cannot be confused or unsettled by anyone, not even the master.
He shakes you up on purpose so you don’t nap in comfy ideas, and you learn to keep exploring until nothing can confuse you anymore.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you don't allow me to settle anywhere. By the time I feel settled, you say something which unsettles me again. Why do you go on creating confusion in your disciples?
Ma Tsu heard of Ta Mei's stay on the mountain and sent a monk to ask him this question: 'What did you obtain when you called on the great master Ma Tsu and what prompted you to stay here?' Ta Mei replied, 'The great master told me that mind was Buddha and that is why I came to stay here.' The monk said, 'The great master's Buddha Dharma is different now.' Ta Mei asked, 'What is it now?' The monk replied, 'He says it is neither mind nor Buddha.' Ta Mei laughed and said, 'That old man is causing confusion in the minds of others and all this will have no end. Let him say that it is neither mind nor Buddha. As far as I am concerned, mind is Buddha.' When the monk returned and reported the above dialogue to Ma Tsu, the latter was very happy and said,…
Confusion is natural. If you come to me you are going to pass through a chaos, because all that you have thought before becomes meaningless. All that you have becomes futile. Your whole past is simply nullified... simply washed away. All that belonged to you no more belongs to you. The past is the certainty. When the past is gone, certainty is gone. The past is the certainty because the past is certain -- now nothing can be changed about the past. You say,'Why is the past certain?' It has happened. Good, bad, happy, unhappy -- it has happened. Now there is no way to change it. So when you have the past as your belonging, you are certain -- the future is uncertain. With the future is confusion.
Beloved master, a while ago I wrote to you about being confused, and you said you were taking care. Now since then I have got even more confused! What are you doing to me?!
Prem Asang, taking care! That's my way of taking care! You get confused because you are carrying certain ideas and prejudices in the mind. If you don't carry any ideas, any prejudices in the mind, even I cannot confuse you; nobody in the whole world can confuse you. Confusion arises from your own inner causes. For example, if you believe in a certain idea and I say something against it, then there is confusion. You cannot leave the old idea; it is so old, it has got so many roots in you and you have lived with it so long that it has become comfortable and cozy. You have believed in it so long, it has given you so many consolations, that now suddenly to drop it will mean moving in a state of insecurity; it has become your security and safety. But listening to me you cannot cling to…
At times you seem to intend to confuse us about love and meditation. Sometimes you stress the ultimate futility of love but on other occasions you pronounce meditation as being useless. And sometimes you say both love and meditation are fundamental paths of enlightenment.
The questioner says, 'At times you seem to intend to confuse us'. No, you have not listened to me well. I am always confusing, not only at times. Confusion is my method. What I am trying to do by confusing you is to uproot you from your mind. I would not like you to have any roots in the mind in the name of love or in the name of meditation or in the name of God. Your mind is very cunning. It can thrive on anything; on meditation, on love, it can thrive. The moment I see that your mind is thriving on anything, I immediately have to uproot you from it. My whole effort is to create a no-mind state in you. I am not here to convince you about anything. I am not here to give you a dogma, a creed tolive by. I am here to…
Osho, you confuse me.
Sometimes I say things to shock you because that is the only way to wake you. The purpose is not to shock you; the purpose is to wake you. Sometimes I say things to uproot your prejudices. I am not against them. I am simply trying to clean your ground... as if a person wanted to plant a new garden, a new lawn. What is he going to do first? The weeds have to be removed, the soil has to be cleaned of all stones, weeds, grass. If that is not done, then roses cannot grow there. While I am talking to you it is a continuous effort to uproot weeds. If you cling to those weeds, you will feel very disturbed: I am uprooting and you are trying to protect them -- then there is a constant fight between me and you. That's why I insist so much that…