Question – You said there are only two types of people: those whose path is awareness and those whose path is surrender or bhakti. It seems to me that lao tzu has nothing to do with either of them — is there a third type then who follow neither or both?
Osho – LAO Tzu has no path, or, the no-path is his path. Lao Tzu says,’There is nowhere to go, you are already there.’ So the very word ‘path’ becomes meaningless. A path is needed if you are going somewhere. If you are already there then the path is not needed at all. In fact, to have a path will be dangerous; you will go astray. Lao Tzu says,’Those who follow a path go astray.’ By and by, they go further and further away from themselves.
‘Seeker, follow no path, because all paths lead there, truth is here.’
Lao Tzu is the last word in spirituality; beyond him there is nothing.
Ordinarily it is very difficult to conceive no-path because then you are suddenly thrown to yourself, with nothing to cling to, nothing to do: no method, no technique, no means. Suddenly you are thrown to yourself, and that has become almost impossible for you. You need something else to be occupied with. You leave the world, you leave your family, you renounce everything, but you never renounce the ‘other’. In some form or other: in the form of God, in the form of yoga, in the form of a technique, you still have something. Lao Tzu takes that too away from you. He leaves you totally empty. That emptiness needs much courage. In fact, all other paths finally come to the same point.
If you follow bhakti, surrender, one day you will come to understand that in the first place there was nothing to surrender; ego never existed. The ego was false, so the surrender was also false because the disease never existed. But it helped, surrender helped you to know that the ego never existed. Then suddenly you start laughing at the whole ridiculousness of it: that you were surrendering something to your Master that you never had, or you were surrendering something to God that was just a false notion. But this will come in the end; with Lao Tzu it comes in the beginning. With Lao Tzu, the first step is the last. In fact, no-step is the last; there is no beginning and no end. The same is true about Zen. These are not ideologies or philosophies. These are not scriptures; these are tremendous visions of instant mutation.
It happened: When Bodhidharma reached China a great scholar went to see him, and he had brought with him the greatest book that he had written It was very famous; the book was almost in every home. The philosopher was acclaimed by the whole nation. He went to Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen. He wanted the Master’s opinion about his book, in which he had talked about all the possible paths, all the possible ideologies, very minutely. Very subtle was his exposition. He was a very, very refined intellect, a master-mind. What did Bodhidharma do? He took the book in his hand, put it to his nose and said,’It has a kind of quarrelsome smell about it,’ and threw the book away. He said,’Take it away from here! It will spoil my disciples, it will corrupt. It has a certain quarrelsome smell about it.’
All paths, all ideologies, all philosophies, all theologies are quarrelsome. They are in the marketplace claiming,’Only our path leads to truth.’ Not on]y that: they are fighting, arguing with other paths, other ideologies. The world of ideologies is a marketplace.
If you are ready to take the jump, then the truth is already present in you. There is no need to go anywhere; there is no need to look for it anywhere. Close the eyes and it is here. You ARE the truth. So now, let us try to understand the question.
Yes, there are two types of people, two types of persons. Humanity is divided into two types: the male and the female, the yin and the yang, the negative and the positive, the aggressive and the passive. These two types of people both live in illusion, in a sort of dream, a kind of sleep; drunk with desire, blind with desire. The person who belongs to the male type needs some path upon which he can exercise his will; that will suit him. Finally, a day will come when by this exercising of his will, by and by, he will start understanding that he is engaging in a futile effort. But he will take a long time to understand this. He will have to fall many times, and he will again stand, and he will again make efforts, and he will again be a failure because the will cannot succeed.
The will means the ego, the will means you. It is going to fail. But many times it will fail and you will go on hoping that the next time it will not fail. But one day — how can you escape the fact forever and ever? — one day or the other, you will stumble upon the fact that you are doing something stupid. In that realization the will will disappear, and suddenly you will see that the path has disappeared, the religion has disappeared, and you are illumined. It was always there, but you were so much occupied with the path, the will, the effort. All effort brings you to effortlessness, and all willing brings you to will-lessness, and all ego finally brings you to egolessness.
The other part of humanity, the female part, the passive part, cannot move on the path of will. It needs another illusory path: the path of surrender, devotion, bhakti. One day or other, devoting yourself and still finding that something is lacking, because the devotion can never be total — anything illusory can never be total: surrendering and surrendering, and again and again finding that you are still standing behind, you are not yet surrendered — one day suddenly you become aware of the fact. What are you going to do? Surrendering something which you don’t have? — how is it possible? Suddenly the ego has disappeared. Now there is no need to surrender, because there is no ego left.
The path of surrender and the path of will both bring you to where Lao Tzu starts. Their end is the beginning of Lao Tzu. His path is of pathlessness. He is the ultimate word, beyond which nothing exists. He is the last word. Buddha can be improved upon, Jesus can be improved upon, Meera and Mahavir, Krishna and Chaitanya can be improved upon, but not Lao Tzu. You cannot improve upon him; there is nothing to improve. He simply does not play the game. From the very beginning he is a non-participant.
The questioner has asked,’Is there a third type of person?’ No, there are only two types of people. The third type is not a type, because all types belong to the ego. The third type is sheer humanness. It is not a being, it is not a person. It is simply sheer existence, pure existence, purity itself. These two are the types. When these types disappear, then you become aware of that which is universal, which has nothing to do with the person, because personality gathers around the ego. Whether you will or you surrender makes no difference. The personality needs a base in the ego.
The ego has two types: the male and female. But a person who is egoless is not a type at all. You cannot categorize him, you cannot put him in any category. He simply transcends all categories. He is a flood — he is flowing in all directions, he is spread all over. He is not like a stone, he is like the sky: indefinable, elusive. The third is not a type, Lao Tzu is not a type. He does not belong to the world of types, the world of categories; he is simply beyond.
When Confucius went to see him, Confucius became very frightened, because to look into the eyes of Lao Tzu is to look into the eternal abyss… bottomless. It is what Buddha calls SHUNYA: eternal void, emptiness. He started trembling, he tried to escape from him. When his disciples said,’Say something about Lao Tzu, because you have been to see him,’ he was still trembling and perspiring. He said,’Don’t ask about that man! He is not a man at all; he is a dragon. And never go near him, he is dangerous! He can suck you in and you disappear.’
Had Confucius known about black holes he would have said,’He is a black hole; don’t go near him! Once you fall into him you will never be able to return. He is dangerous!’ Only once did Confucius go to see him — never again — but his whole life, the shadow haunted him, because he had known a man who was not bounded. He had known a man who had no limitations. He had known sheer humanity, pure humanity, pure beingness. He had seen the purity of death and life. No, the third does not belong to any types.
Source – Osho Book “Come Follow To You Vol 4″