Visiting many teachers won’t fix you; you have to wake up and change yourself by using your own awareness and courage.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved master, I have been to many gurus but I have not changed a bit. Why?
"Ahh!" said Morgenstern with a deep sigh. "I've tried, Father, I swear I've tried, but I'm afraid the good man doesn't want it." "In that case, my son," said the priest, "I see nothing wrong with your keeping the watch, and since you've now confessed, there's no need at all anymore for you to feel guilty!" You see the Jewish mind? You can go on changing your religion, you can go on changing your philosophy -- these are really ways to avoid the real change. The real change has to happen deep down in you. You are unconscious, and the only change that is going to help is to become conscious. You are living mechanically: the only thing that can help is to live life non-mechanically. De-automatize yourself, de-hypnotize yourself. The society has hypnotized you. The society has dulled your senses, it has poisoned you. It wants skillful efficient machines;…
Osho, yesterday you said one should not seek a master without first reading the scriptures. I have never studied the scriptures, and the very first time I heard you I accepted you as my master. So is my path wrong? Since yesterday I feel at sea; will I go on wandering forever?
In the depths, whatever happens happens only through your own experience. If your experience is ready and you meet a master, surrender, refuge arises. If your inner experience is not ready and you meet a master, influence arises. Influence comes in a moment and goes in a moment; it has little value. It is like going to see a picture—a film; you are moved for a while. But as soon as the lights come on and the bell rings, you remember it was only a film, a play of light and shadow; there was nothing to cry about, and you walk out laughing. Your eyes may still be wet, but it was all on the surface; it has no inner consequence. Listening to me can also be an influence. My words may feel pleasant, may seem logical. The poetry of my speech may capture your mind. But there is not…
Osho, many enlightened ones—Buddha, Mahavira, Nanak, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Ramana Maharshi, and you yourself—had no guru. Why? Please explain.
It may not be right to say they had no guru. It is more accurate to say that the whole of existence was their guru. Those who do not yet have the courage to take the entire existence as their guru will have to make at least one person their guru—out of stinginess. If you cannot make everyone your guru, make at least one. Perhaps through that one, a window will open. Then, slowly, courage will grow, a taste will come; as your daring increases, you can take others too as your gurus. On the surface it looks as if Buddha had no guru. But if you look deeply, you will see: Buddha did not make any one person his guru because when the whole existence is your guru, whom will you appoint? Rivers and mountains, moon and stars, plants, animals, and birds—all are gurus. There was a Sufi fakir,…
Osho, in acquiring many university degrees, being active in politics, going to jail, running to Delhi, and wandering after many gurus, I have wasted my whole life. Out of compassion you gave me sannyas in 1971, even though I kept postponing it. Now, at the age of seventy, I shed tears. I come regularly, thinking that this time I will ask you many things. But the moment I come to you, the questions disappear. Because of old age my limbs are becoming weak. Osho, understanding my inner being, please guide me yourself!
The true master will always teach: be a witness. Not a doer; neither of the good nor of the bad. Rise above doership. The false guru will teach: be a doer. Conduct, character—this, that. Do good deeds, serve, earn merit, give alms, build dharmashalas, build temples, arrange Satyanarayana rites. Do something! For him religion is doing. Irreligion is also doing and religion is also doing. The true master says: religion is witnessing. It is consciousness, not action. All action is maya—good as well as bad; merit as well as sin. Yes, the chains of sin are of iron and the chains of merit are of gold; but remember, chains are chains. Iron binds and gold binds. And remember also: golden chains are stronger than iron chains. Because iron chains are visible to anyone as chains, and the desire to break them naturally arises out of the humiliation and shame. But…
Osho, a master can always know the spiritual state of a seeker longing for liberation, but how can the seeker know whether the master has attained truth or not? And if the disciple ever feels he has lost the gamble in his choice, can he go to another master? Please clarify your view.
The scripture says: eat once a day—so they eat once. Two garments—so two garments. Don’t travel after sunset—so they don’t. Don’t drink water at night—so they refrain. Rise before dawn—so they rise. They rehearse what the scripture prescribes; through this, they match your idea and seem suitable. If your conception springs from the same scripture, the match is exact. Hence the odd spectacle: the guru of one sect does not seem like a guru at all to another sect. But to his sect he appears the supreme guru. Their conceptions match. Understand the trick. You study the same shastra… Consider an actress who came to see me: “What do you say about the Bhrigu Samhita?” I asked why. She said, “In Delhi they read my Bhrigu. I noted what they said of my past lives, and future too. Some things about this life were true. Others aren’t yet, but the…