I am going to destroy the ego... OSHO

[A sannyasin tells Osho he is scared of him.]

Mm! That’s very good! That’s a good indication. When you become scared of me that means you are coming close to me! Then only does one start feeling as if one will be burned. A master is a fire. You come close – first it is warm, then it becomes fiery, but you cannot go back because that fire has a great magnetic attraction too.

In fact where can you find a place to die which will be better? So be consumed! Let this fire consume you... and out of that is the resurrection. Out of that you become totally new. Out of that you become impregnable, invulnerable.

This is the paradox: you have to be absolutely vulnerable to become invulnerable. You have to die to attain deathlessness. You have to go through fire to become real gold.

You need not be afraid: only that which is not true will bum – that which is true will remain. Truth
cannot be burned, only the false, but we are too attached to the false, hence the fear. The ego will be in danger. You will not be in danger but because you think you are the ego, the fear arises. Just a little detachment from the ego is needed.

I am going to destroy the ego... and it is good that it is destroyed – the sooner the better – because only when it is destroyed will you be able to see who you are.

The ego is very very ordinary and the being is tremendously extraordinary. The ego is just a shadow, it is not really you: it is a reflection in the mirror. I am going to destroy the mirror and the reflection will be destroyed but you are not going to he destroyed at all.

But it is natural, mm? – when somebody hits the mirror and the mirror is falling into pieces, you will see that you are falling into pieces because your image will be falling into pieces. But only later on when the mirror has fallen down on the ground into pieces – your image has disappeared – suddenly you find that you are still there; you are not your image!

But that happens, in primitive societies it happens.... People are afraid, if their photograph is taken they are afraid, they are afraid that if somebody burns the photograph, then? Or if somebody insults the photograph, then? Still in primitive communities in india, if you go to an aboriginal society, they don’t want to be photographed because they feel that you are imprisoning them. Then the photograph will be with you and whatsoever you want to do with the photograph you can do. And sometimes death had happen ed with the idea of it.

In the primitive society this goes on: somebody makes an image of someone, does some mantra and things, and kills the image with a sword. the man comes to know and he falls dead, with the belief that he has been killed!

Still in civilised countries effigies are being burned. That is just a primitive idea, as if by burning the effigy you are going to destroy the man.

I will destroy your effigy but not you... mm? Good.

OSHO
Far Beyond the Stars
CHAPTER 1. THE MOMENT YOU BECOME PART OF THE COMMUNITY, YOU DISSAPEAR
2 JULY 1977