Self-Esteem

Osho, I feel negative about myself: how do you see me?

Jesus says: "Think not of the morrow, and look at the lilies in the field! how beautiful they are. Even Solomon was not so beautiful attired in all his grandeur." And what is the secret of the beautiful lilies, the poor lilies? The secret is simple: they think not of the morrow, they don't know anything of the future. Tomorrow exists not. This day is enough unto itself, this moment is enough unto itself. And, Asutosh, your feeling of negativity about yourself will disappear. Remember, if you feel negative about yourself, you will automatically feel negative about others. That is a necessary corollary. It has to be understood. THE PERSON WHO IS NEGATIVE ABOUT HIMSELF cannot be positive about anybody else either, because the faults that he finds in himself he will find in others -- in fact he will magnify them in others. He will take revenge. Your parents…

Osho, when I see you, a longing arises in me that I too may one day touch heights like yours. Is this also comparison? Is it the outcome of an inferiority complex?

It happened: there was a Muslim fakir, Junoon. He lived in Egypt. He used to say that God has made everything perfect, for from the Perfect only the perfect can be born. As the Isha Upanishad says: from that Perfect, the perfect comes forth, and yet the Perfect remains. Junoon also used to say that God made everything complete. In the village there was a logician—a pundit as well. One day he came to hear Junoon. Junoon said that God has made everything complete. The logician said, “Wait!” He had brought a man with him—a hunchback. He was completely bent; he could hardly stand upright; his hands and feet were crooked; his back utterly hunched. The logician said, “Look at this man! Is he also perfect? And did God make him too?” Junoon laughed and said, “We have never seen a more perfect hunchback than this. I have seen many…

Beloved Osho, in your presence, I feel showered with your unconditional love and compassion. My hungry heart is opening, and I have experienced a lot of joy and stillness here in your buddhafield. But my feelings of unworthiness still dominate my life, and I'm clinging to them so tightly that I despair of ever letting go. It has been a long and serious road so far. Dear Osho, will you please help me?

But people are such that even when they have come here and they have been listening to me, they are managing what to listen to, what not to listen to. Whatever gives nourishment to their prejudices, they are open to, very happy that their convictions are being supported. The moment I say something that goes against their convictions -- and those convictions are their misery, the foundation of their suffering and their hell -- immediately they close themselves. But how long can you keep yourself closed? I go on hitting you from every dimension, every direction. Sooner or later you have to listen. Then too, such is human stupidity that people start defending themselves. I sometimes wonder why you are wasting your time. If you are here to defend yourself, that you can do very well wherever you are. It will be easier to defend yourself somewhere else; here it…

For centuries the society has been using that strategy to destroy the integrity of the individual. It gives you ideals, it tells you how you should be. It never allows you to love yourself as you are. It creates division: you are one thing, the society says you have to be something else; you become two. Your ideal self creates a constant tension in you. Your real self also becomes a burden because you don't want it; the society says that it is worthless: Drop it. The real is denied and the unreal is imposed. Now this is the whole misery of man: how can one ever be in bliss if the real is denied, rejected, condemned, and the unreal is appreciated, valued? The unreal remains unreal but it hovers above your head continuously torturing you: You should be this.