Why is it so difficult to feel equal to and love everyone?

I always either feel superior or inferior to people. I feel ashamed of feeling that way and try to hide it. I wish I could genuinely -- not pretend to -- feel equal to and love everyone. Why is it so difficult?

WHETHER YOU FEEL SUPERIOR OR INFERIOR or equal, the mind remains the same. You still go on thinking in comparison and the misery will continue. You can think yourself superior -- the moment you think yourself superior you are creating possibilities to feel inferior, because somebody somewhere is going to be ahead of you in some way or other. If you think yourself inferior, you are creating the possibilities to feel superior -- in some way, somebody is going to be behind you. We are standing in a queue, and the queue is not linear: it is a circle. Somebody is always ahead of you and somebody is always behind you. Then naturally the idea arises -- because superiority and inferiority bring ego and misery -- why not feel equal? And you think you are asking for a radical change? No, not at all. To feel equal is the same…

Beloved master, I feel a new kind of authority and love growing in me, a clarity about myself and love for myself and others. It feels like everybody is equal for me and I don't have a special affection towards anybody. I feel free and beautiful. And all these gifts are just given to me. I don't do anything to get them. Everything just happens. Can you say something about this?

"Everything just happens. Can you say something about this?" I can say only one thing, that you are not grateful. If everything happens and if it is authentic, following it will come a deep gratitude. That gratitude is not in your question anywhere. And gratitude is religiousness, gratitude is the only prayer. All prayers are just man-made. Gratitude is not a word, it is a deep feeling in the very center of your being. If that gratitude is felt, everything is right; then whatever I have said, don't take any note of it. But if gratitude is not there, then what I have said, ponder over it. Meditate more and don't get into such stupid ideas. To me, gratitude is the greatest experience that you can have -- not to God, not to me, not to anybody in particular... simple gratitude for this whole existence. These birds, these beautiful trees,…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHEN I HEAR YOU TALK ABOUT THE INTERDEPENDENCE AND INTERWOVENNESS OF EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS -- THAT NOBODY AND NOTHING IS AN ISLAND, SOMETHING IS DAWNING IN ME WHICH I CAN HARDLY PUT INTO WORDS. WHAT SO FAR HAS JUST BEEN AN INTELLECTUAL PERCEPTION SOMETIMES CRYSTALLIZES AS MOMENTS OF AWE AND ADMIRATION FOR EXISTENCE'S INTELLIGENCE, WHICH GOES SO FAR BEYOND OUR OWN LIMITED THINKING. THE SMALL BUT SO REVEALING FACT THAT A SINGLE ELECTRON CAN DISAPPEAR AND REAPPEAR SOMEWHERE ELSE WITH NO TIME GAP -- NO MATTER HOW FAR APART EVENTS HAPPEN -- WAS SOMETHING LIKE A CLUE TO ME. IMAGINING IN TERMS OF ENERGY THAT NOTHING IS LOST OR DISAPPEARS, I FEEL SOMETIMES HOW THE ESSENCE OF PLANTS, ANIMALS AND HUMAN BEINGS IS INTERCONNECTED, AND JUST CHANGES FORMS ON THIS OR ANOTHER PLANET -- LET'S SAY, SOME MILLIONS OF LIGHT YEARS AWAY.

Beloved master,you say unenlightened persons cannot be compared. But I compare and evaluate myself constantly with other people. I feel this constantly brings clouds and a distance between me and them. What can be done about it?

Veetdharma,I have said that unenlightened people cannot be compared, because they are utterly different from each other. Their histories are different, their biographies are different, their pasts are different. They have moved through different terrains, different lives, in different ways; their karmas are different. They cannot be compared. It will be like comparing a stone with a rose flower, or a rose flower with a star. People are so different from each other, they cannot be compared. Only unenlightened persons can be compared, because they are no longer different at all, because they ARE no more. Emptiness can have only one taste When two rooms are utterly empty, what is there to compare? They are so alike. If you want to compare, you can compare; you can say both are empty. Otherwise there is nothing in them to compare. When both the rooms are full of different furniture and paintings,…

Osho, you feel, sir, that the education we are giving in schools and universities, which is based on comparison, is harmful. If it is harmful, what measures should we take so that we can bring about a humanity without fear?

Certainly, education based on comparison is extremely harmful—poisonous, toxic. The moment we teach a person to think in terms of comparison, the moment we compare one person with another, we create inferiority, fear, ambition. He becomes afraid. For when we compare, we tell A, “B is superior to you; you must rise above B.” Instantly, we sow fear in A. He becomes frightened of life: how to get ahead of B? And even if he goes beyond B, what is the difference? C is standing ahead. There are thousands in the line ahead. He must be at the very front. The person becomes terrified, anxious. And when we compare a person with someone else, it means we do not accept that person. He is rejected in that very moment. As he is, he is not acceptable; only if he becomes something else will we accept him. We have insulted his…