Inner Guide

How to differentiate between the dictates of the unconscious mind and that of the inner guide? How can one recognize that the inner guide has come into function?

The first thing: because of Freud, much misunderstanding has arisen around the word "unconscious". Freud completely misunderstood it, misinterpreted it. And he has become the very basis of modern knowledge about mind. To Freud, unconscious meant simply the repressed conscious, the suppressed part of the conscious. So all that is evil and bad, immoral, has been suppressed. Because the society cannot allow it, it has to be suppressed within. For Freud, that repressed part is the unconscious -- but not for mystics. Freud is not a mystic; he has not entered his own unconscious. He has been simply observing cases of patients: ill people, abnormal people, mad, insane, pathological. He has been studying the pathological mind, and through the study of the pathological mind -- and that, too, from without -- he concluded that just underneath the conscious there is an unconscious mind. That unconscious mind carries all that has…

Beloved Osho, how can I find out which of the many voices inside me is the one which comes from the real self to guide me? How can I be sure it doesn't come from the unconscious?

It is very simple: none of the voices come from the inner self. All voices come from the mind. When all voices are absent, the inner self inspires you in silence towards a certain action, direction. It does not come in words -- it is just a silent indication. Otherwise it would have been absolutely impossible to find out which one is the voice of the inner self. It is easy because no voice is of the inner self. So when all voices have died down and there is utter silence, the inner self is capable of taking your hand and moving you. That is the moment to be in a let-go, and allow it to take you wherever it takes you. In language we have to use words which do not apply to the inner reality -- for example, the "inner voice." There is no voice -- it is…

In the fischer-hoffman process one discovers within himself a guide. My guide is direct, open, takes no bullshit, no ambiguity. She tells me not to take sannyas. My question: are there some people who should not or need not take sannyas? Is there some stigma attached to those who don't? I feel there is nothing in me that contradicts anything in you yet I feel I cannot or need not or should not become your sannyasin.

And you say: MY GUIDE IS DIRECT, OPEN, TAKES NO BULLSHIT, NO AMBIGUITY.... Certainly, because it is YOUR guide -- how can it take any bullshit? It is your guide. Now your ego has become part of your guide too. If your reason can take bullshit your feeling can take even more -- because reason can judge a little way what is bullshit and what is not. Feelings has no way to judge. Feeling is simply blind. If your logic can become a victim, remember, your love is far more blind. If your rationality cannot be trusted there is no way to trust your irrationality. Becoming a sannyasin simply means you have come to realise one fact at least -- that alone you can go on deceiving yourself. So if you can find somebody with whom you will not be able to deceive yourself any more, you have found your…

Osho, you said... then you will find that the devotee is God. The question arises: if one devotee prefers to be God and another wants to remain only a devotee, then which of the two is superior?

The one who wants to be God will not be able to be. And the one who wants to remain a devotee will become God. The question of superior or inferior does not arise, because only one of the two will happen. The one who does not want to be will be. The one who wants to be will be deprived. That very wanting is of the ego. But the matter is a little delicate. Sometimes humility too belongs to the ego. Beware that your humility may not be of the ego. Perhaps you are saying, “No, I don’t want to be,” because you know that those who refuse are the ones who attain. Then you are clever. Then your humility is adulterous. Your humility is not pure, not sacred, not virginal—it is like a prostitute. The one who wants to be God, whose ego says, “I must become God,”…