Your methods sound so radical: are they all I need, or do I need a master to direct me?

     Every dependence is a slavery. That's why I cannot say to you, "Just follow me." I can say to you, "Try to understand." In trying to understand me, perhaps you may be able to see the path yourself.
     I can help you to see the path, I can help you to open your eyes; I can throw cold water in your eyes –that's what I am doing every day. Sometimes you get irritated, you get annoyed, because nobody wants cold water in the early morning to be thrown into their eyes. I can shake you, I can wake you, I can drag you out of your bed. I can make you a little alert and give you the full details of how to become more aware, more meditative – and then there is nothing else to be done.
     Your meditation will take you; I cannot take you anywhere.

     You will be grateful to me that I did not ask you cheap things – surrender to me, just trust in me and everything will be okay. All that is sheer nonsense. You like it because it is cheap; you like it because you have not to do anything. I am asking you something arduous. You will have to do it; you will have to work hard at it. You will have to sharpen your intelligence, your consciousness, and, as it is sharpened, the way becomes more and more clear.

     You are nobody's shadow, nobody's follower.
Everybody reaches to the truth alone, not by following anybody.
And it is beautiful to reach alone because then it is your earning. Then you deserve it.

OshoThe Sword and the Lotus

     When you leave your body, will your meditation techniques help our inner growth as much as they do now?

     All the meditation techniques that I have given to you are not dependent on me – my presence or absence will not make any difference – they are dependent on you.
     It is not my presence, but your presence that is needed for them to work.
     It is not my being here but your being here, your being in the present, your being alert and aware, that is going to help. I can understand your question and its relevance. It is not irrelevant.
     The whole past of man is, in different ways, a history of exploitation.
Even the so-called spiritual people could not resist the temptation to exploit. Out of a hundred masters, ninety-nine percent were trying to impose the idea that, "Without me you cannot grow, no progress is possible. Give me your whole responsibility."
    But the moment you give your whole responsibility to somebody, unknowingly you are also giving your whole freedom.
     Naturally, all those masters had to die one day, but they have left long lines of slaves: Christians, Jews, Hindus, Mohammedans.... What are these people? Why should somebody be a Christian?
If you can be someone, be a Christ, never be a Christian.
     Are you absolutely blind to the humiliation when you call yourself a Christian, a follower of someone who died two thousand years ago?
     The whole of humanity is following the dead.
     Is it not weird that the living should follow the dead, that the living should be dominated by the dead, that the living should depend on the dead and their promises that "We will be coming to save you"? None of them has come to save you.
     In fact, nobody can save anybody else; it goes against the foundational truth of freedom and individuality.
     As far as I am concerned, I am simply making every effort to make you free from everybody – including me – and to just be alone on the path of searching.

     This existence respects a person who dares to be alone in the seeking of truth. Slaves are not respected by existence at all; they do not deserve any respect. They don't respect themselves; how can they expect existence to be respectful towards them?
     So remember, when I am gone, you are not going to lose anything. Perhaps you may gain something of which you are absolutely unaware.

Osho Beyond Enlightenment

    Isn't it possible that we become dependent on the group with whom we meditate, or on the methods themselves?

     My method can be used in a group, but the group is not necessary; you can use it alone.
     Any group can become a dependence, so that you can work only in the group. Out of the group, you are back to your usual self. When you are in the group you are a certain person; when you leave the group you are a different person.
     I don't want [you] to be dependent. It is perfectly good to have small groups, but the methods I have given to you are individual; you can work alone. You don't need anybody to watch you, because my method is that you have to be the watcher.

     The group can be a space where you can become more alert; it can be a space where you can become more asleep.
     The master cannot guarantee to be with you forever; some time he will be leaving. Then you should not be left in a space where you cannot function without him. And for that, a preparation is needed: from the very beginning you work alone. Even if you are working in a group, you are not dependent on the group; your work, your method, is basically individual.
     So my approach is individual.
     I am not giving you school methods: I am giving you individual methods, which can be done together with friends, which can be done alone. So you have freedom.
     But there is nothing wrong if [you] are making small groups, because those small groups cannot hinder the methods that I have given to you or the work that you have to do upon yourself. It is available in both situations – alone or in groups.

     (The Russian mystic, Gurdjieff's) ...is a totally different path than what I am teaching to you. It is a path of power.
     What I am teaching to you is the path of awareness.
     My work is totally different: you have to be aware, and awareness is not a power. You have to be aware even of your powers. If you come across them, you have to be aware, and you have to remain detached, only a watcher.
     What I have been telling you is something that cannot be misused in any way by you.
     And witnessing is a purely individual phenomenon.

Osho Light on the Path

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