You are constantly comparing. Somebody else is more beautiful than you, somebody else has more beautiful eyes than you, somebody else has more beautiful hair than you, somebody else is stronger than you, somebody else seems to be more intelligent than you, somebody else has something else and so on and so forth… There is no end to it! You will become more and more miserable.
And you have been told, “Become like Jesus.” “Become like Buddha.” “Become like Krishna.” You will be miserable. Buddha never tried to become like Krishna, that’s why he was happy. Krishna never tried to become like anybody else, that’s why he was happy. Jesus never tried to become like Moses, that’s why he was happy – even on the cross he was happy. And you are constantly trying to be somebody else.
These ideals have to be dropped; they have to be destroyed completely. And then, a deep and profound yes will arise from the depths of your being. It will fill you with tremendous fulfillment.
And, to me, this is religion. This yes filling your whole being, overflowing you, is religion. Right now you are full of no’s, a thousand and one no’s. About everything there is a no and that’s what is making your life a hell. You have to be alert because you have to get rid of all this rubbish that was poured upon you by your parents, by your society, by your church. And it hurts if something is taken away because you have believed in it for a long time. It has become almost part of your blood, your bone, your marrow. It hurts, although it is just pus and nothing else; but to take it away hurts.
One old woman took sannyas in America; she must have taken sannyas for wrong reasons. Many people take sannyas for the wrong reasons. They become aware of it only later on when there arises a clash between their idea of sannyas and my vision of sannyas.
This woman was always sending small amounts of money to the ashram – just tokens of her love and respect. And she was writing beautiful letters, very poetic. The reason was that deep down she had become a sannyasin because she was reading my books on Jesus. The Mustard Seed was the book that moved her deeply. But it was not me, it was because of Jesus. She became convinced of Jesus’ truth and because I had helped her, she became a lover of me.
Then just yesterday her letter arrived. She is very disturbed about what she should do now. Because in some tapes she has heard that I have said that in old days there were records, there are written records, about Jesus’ physical appearance saying that he was an ugly man, that his height was only four feet five inches and not only that, he was a hunchback and his face was disgusting. Now she is shocked. Now she says, “I want to go back to my old master Jesus. I don’t want to remain a sannyasin anymore.” Now, this was the time for her to get free of a conditioning. She missed the opportunity. Going back she will be the same as she has always been. A moment had come when a door opened, but she turned away.
Many of you are here for wrong reasons and if you are here for wrong reasons you will be in trouble sooner or later. I am going to disturb you, disturb all your dreams, disturb all your ideals. I am going to put dynamite inside you! My whole work consists of sabotaging. Once I can destroy all your ideals that you have carried all along, once I can make you free of all the jargon that you have learned from others, once I am able to decondition you, then you will be able to say yes to yourself.
Every tree says yes to itself; every animal, every bird says yes. Nobody is needed to teach it. The no is taught, yes is natural. Yes is part of Tao, no is a conditioning.
You have felt rightly that, “I have the feeling that all my misery is rooted in this incapacity.” That is true. That is the beginning of a tremendous journey; you have felt the right direction. Now go on moving into it. It will take time and it will take effort and it will be an agony. Before the ecstasy can happen you will have to pass through many agonies. That is the price we have to pay. But once you have gathered enough courage to drop your whole past – Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan, Jaina, Buddhist – once you are unconditioned, your life becomes a flow, a beautiful flow. And then the ocean is not far away. Every river reaches it with no maps, with no guides. Every river reaches it naturally, spontaneously. That is the way of Tao.
-Osho, "Tao: The Golden Gate, Vol. 1, #10, Q1"