ARE YOU SELF-REALIZED?--Osho

ARE YOU SELF-REALIZED? AND HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN YOUR

RELATIONSHIPS WITH EXISTENCE AND WITH PEOPLE?

The word you say, 'self-realized', is not right, because realization always means a transcendence of the self. The word 'self-realization' is therefore contradictory. If you realize, you know there is no self. If you do not realize, then there is the self. Whereas selfhood is non-realization, realization is non-selfhood. So I cannot say I am self-realized. I can only say there is no self now!

There was a self -- that was only up to the door. The moment you enter the temple of realization, you find it no more. It is a shadow which follows you up to the door, and not only follows you but clings to you -- but only up to the door, it cannot enter the temple. If you have to save it you will have to remain outside. The self is the last thing one has to throw. One can throw everything, but to throw the self is so impossible, because the effort for self-realization, the endeavor for self-realization, is an effort of the self for the self. The moment you realize, you will not be; you will not try.

So all the great teachers have used words which are fallacious, 'Self-realization' is a fallacious word. But you do not understand if they say 'no-self realization'. It will become absurd. But that is the real thing -- no-self realization. Only Buddha used anatta, no-self. Only Buddha used it. That is why Buddha was uprooted from India. He was just thrown out, and Buddhism could not get roots unless Buddhism began to use the word 'selfrealization'. In China and Japan Buddhism again came back, and they began again to use 'self-realization'. Buddha used 'no-self realization'. I am also using no-self realization. That is the only realization.

The moment there is no self you have become cosmic. It is a great game! To know the self is the only, no doubt the greatest, the ultimate, game. The self is not something which is to be protected; it is something to be destroyed. It is something which is the barrier to your ultimate potentiality, to your ultimate realization.

So I cannot say I am self-realized. I will say, I am no-self realized, and that is the only realization that is possible. No other realization exists. The emphasis of all who claim self-realization is on the self and not on realization. My emphasis is on realization. That is why I emphatically deny the self.

How am I related to the cosmos and to other people? Relationship exists between two selves. I am one who is not related, one who is not in relationship. Relationship is always between two. This may look paradoxical, but in every relationship you remain unrelated. Howsoever you are related, you will remain unrelated, because relationship exists between two. The two will be there. So relationship is only a facade to hide the duality. For moments you delude yourself that you are related, but again you are. You have fallen back to yourself, and there is no relationship.

For example, when we are in so-called love, we appear to be related. We create the fallacy of relationship, but in fact, we are just deceiving ourselves. The two will remain two. However near, the two will always remain two. Even in a sex communion, they will be two. The twoness only creates a fallacy of oneness. Oneness can never exist between two selves. Oneness can only exist between two non-selves.

So as far as I am concerned, I am not related to the cosmic reality, not related at all. And by that I do not mean that I am isolated. By that I mean there is no one who can exist in relationship. As far as the cosmic reality is concerned, I am one, and the cosmic reality is one with me.

From my side, I am one, but as far as others are concerned, I am not one from their side. They are related. Someone is related as a friend, someone is related as an enemy, someone is related as a brother, and someone is related as a disciple. They may be related to me, but I am not related to them. And the whole happening in me is to make them unrelated. But there cannot be any effort on their part, That only can be a realization of no-self