If you are, you will never see God. The very existence of the ego prevents seeing. The ego functions like a blindfold on your eyes. Then the sun rises, but you remain in darkness. The music goes on and on, but you don't hear a thing. You live in the ocean of love, but your heart is non-functioning, nothing is felt. No prayer arises, no gratitude, no ecstasy. You remain uprooted. You remain like a dying tree with no roots in the earth. You remain impotent; no fruits come to you, no flowers bloom.

And then of course life looks like a long, long drawn-out tragedy, and one starts wondering why one is alive at all; the whole thing seems to be so ridiculously meaningless.

That's what is being felt all over the world by all kinds of thinkers today: that life is meaningless, that man seems to be just an accident, that consciousness is just as accidental as any rock. There seems to be no meaning, no relevance. Not that there is no meaning, but man, as he is today, cannot see meaning. Meaning is another name for God.

-Rajneesh

When you face a Master, he knows more about you than you have ever known about yourself, because whatsoever you know about yourself is very partial, just a fragment of your reality, the tip of the iceberg. Just a small part of your mind that has become conscious, that is one-tenth of it.

Nine-tenths of your being is in deep darkness; you know nothing of it.

The Master will know your unconscious too. The Master will know not only your thoughts, but your dreams too. The Master will know not only your ideas about yourself, your illusions about yourself; he will also know your other side, the shadow of your being, which you have denied, which you have thrown into the basement of your being, which you don't recognize at all as your being. He will know you in your totality, he will know you in your total neurosis. And he has to work with that totality - not with the you that you know you are, but the you as you are.

-Rajneesh

When you come to a man of wisdom, he simply knows where you are, who you are, what you are. Not that he thinks about you; there is no thinking involved. Not that he looks into you; nothing of the sort. He is a mirror: you are simply reflected. There is no thinking, but only reflection.

Being in the presence of a man of wisdom is to be utterly nude. You cannot hide yourself, there is no way. You cannot deceive. Even if you try, it is pointless, because the mirror will reflect the reality.

The mirror can only reflect the reality. The unreal you cannot be reflected. You can pretend, but the mirror will not reflect your pretensions. It will reflect only that which is the case.

When you are in the presence of a man of wisdom, you are reflected not only as you are, but also as you have been, and also as you will be. Your present moment contains your whole past and your whole future. Standing before an enlightened man, you are known from the very beginning to the end. Nothing remains hidden.

-Rajneesh

You will be surprised to know, psychoanalysts go mad more often than any other profession - twice as often! And psychoanalysts commit suicides more than any other profession - twice as much! And even if they don't commit suicide, if they are not that brave and don't go mad, they remain boiling within. They are continuously in a kind of fever, a delirium. They are of course paid well, so they have chosen the profession, but it is a dangerous profession.

If you want to throw out your junk please make it a point not to throw it on any other human being. People have their own already, and it is too much; don't add to it.

But you can go to the river and talk to the river. And the river won't listen, so there is no problem, the river won't go mad. You can go to a tree and talk to the tree, and you can talk to the stars, and you can talk to the walls and that's perfectly good. And if you feel it is too crazy, then write it down, make a diary, and write all that you want.

You have to get rid of your steam, but it should not enter into anybody else's being; otherwise you are violent. And if people learn this simple thing, the world will become saner.

-Rajneesh

There was once a jew - Ohrenstein - who used to go to the rabbi with all his problems. Periodically he would go to the rabbi and ask him: what shall I do about my wife, what should I do about my business, what should I do about this, what should I do about that; my son-in-law is misbehaving, what should I do about it, rabbi, and so on.... Each time Ohrenstein came with one of his many problems, the rabbi would listen patiently and courteously, and then he would fulfill Ohrenstein's eager expectations by giving him some advice or making a suggestion. Ohrenstein always went away beaming, invariably told his friends about the wonderful advice the rabbi had given him, and within a week was back with a new problem and asking for more advice.

Finally, the rabbi's patience began to run out. Enough is enough, even for a courteous and loving rabbi. But what to do about it? Ohrenstein was a perfectly good and sincere man.

One day Ohrenstein came with an unusually big problem. He had fallen in love with a girl; his wife had found out about it; he could not leave the girl, but he did not want to disappoint his wife. On and on he went: the girl this, his wife that, and so on. He talked for two hours, and finally, at the end, he asked, "Rabbi, give me some advice, what should I do?"

"Hmm," the rabbi pondered and tapped on the table as though he were deep in thought. Finally he said, "I have some advice to give you, but I am afraid it may hurt your feelings, you may feel offended by it, so I don't know if I should really give you any advice this time. "

"Hurt my feelings?" Ohrenstein exclaimed. "Rabbi, you can say anything to me!"

"Okay," said the rabbi, "then my advice is you convert to Christianity, let yourself be baptized and start going to confession.

"What on earth are you saying, Rabbi?" Ohrenstein exclaimed, shocked. "Have you gone out of your mind?"

"Not at all," the rabbi replied. "You let yourself be baptized and start going to confession, and then you can drive some stupid parish priest crazy and not me!"

-Rajneesh