Question – How would you describe your particular path to enlightenment in relationship to other traditional paths such as the various kinds of yoga, sufism, buddhism, zen, christianity, etcetera?
Osho – I HAVE NO particular path. I don’t belong to any path whatsoever, and therefore all paths belong to me. Each path is perfect in itself, but each path can help only a very minor part of humanity. Each path exists for a particular type. It is complete in itself. Nothing is to be added to it — nothing is to be deducted from it. As it is, it is perfect. But it can help only a particular type. Humanity is vast; one path cannot carry the whole of humanity. All paths are needed. In fact, as the human mind changes, more new paths have to be evolved. With the mind changing, many old paths have become by and by useless, or can be used only by a very few individuals.
I use all paths. Whenever I see a seeker, I start looking into him — what type he is and what type of path will be helpful to him. I may not use the name of the path, because those names have become too much loaded. If a Hindu comes to me and I say to him, “Sufism is your path,” he will not be able to understand; he will be immediately closed to it. A Hindu cannot conceive himself on the path of Mohammedans — that’s impossible for him.
I will not talk about Sufism, but whatsoever I will give him will be Sufism. To me the path is not important, but the seeker. Paths exist for you, not vice versa. You don’t exist for any path or any doctrine. All doctrines, all paths, all dogmas, exist for you. If they are helpful, good; if they are not helpful, they have to be thrown on to the rubbish heap.
Man is important, because man carries the potentiality of being God. Paths are just means. Use them, but don’t be used by them. Remain masters, and always remember that you are the end and nothing else is more important than you, than your innermost core. If you remember this, you can use many paths and you can be enriched by many ways.
And this is my understanding, that the more you travel, the more you walk on many paths, the more open you become, the more enriched you are. The whole past of humanity belongs to you. If you are a Mohammedan, don’t say that only Mohammed belongs to you — Buddha is also yours, Christ also. The whole past of humanity is your heritage. Why be poor? Why say, “I am a Hindu and only Krishna belongs to me and Christ is a stranger. I won’t allow him in my house; only Krishna is allowed”? If only Krishna is allowed, then you will have only one door to your house, only one room to your house — then you cannot be multi-dimensional. But if Christ also comes, and Mohammed is also welcomed, then you will have an enrichment; then you have different flowers in your garden; then you will have many types of diamonds in your treasury. Don’t confine yourself Remain open. Welcome everything that has happened on the earth, and that all is yours. Claim it, and use whatsoever you can use for your own growth. Don’t stick and don’t cling, otherwise you will be frozen. My whole effort here is to melt you, so that you can start flowing in many currents.
You are frozen. Somebody is a frozen Christian. Somebody is a frozen Hindu. Somebody is a frozen Jain. Somebody is a frozen Buddhist — all dead. Melt! Become a little warmer! You have become so cold and so closed. Become warm. Allow the sun’s rays to work on you.
And don’t protect yourself Become vulnerable. Melt in a thousand and one currents — unafraid and fearless, start flowing. God comes through a thousand and one ways. And if he comes through a thousand and one ways, let him come that way — let yourself be introduced to God through as many possibilities as possible. Why cling to one form? Why cling to one name? All names are his and all forms are his. And the more you become acquainted that all forms are his, the more possibility there is that you will become aware that he is formless. Otherwise, how can all forms be his? Only the formless can manifest itself in millions of forms. Only the pathless can be travelled through so many paths, and only the gateless can be achieved through so many gates.
Don’t be poor. Become rich, and claim the whole heritage of man! That’s why I go on talking of Christ, Mahavir, Krishna, Patanjali, Buddha, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu. This is nothing but to show-you that the whole of humanity is yours. You are vast! You are not frozen dead particles — you are alive beings, and life is infinite.
I have no particular path. All paths are mine. I am not concerned with paths — I am concerned with you. I look into you because you are important; you are the goal, and nothing else matters. Then I decide what will be suitable for you. Sometimes one path is suitable for you, sometimes two, sometimes three, sometimes many. It depends how you have grown in your past lives. You may once have been a Mohammedan and you worked a little on that path; you progressed a little on that way. Then you became a Christian, and you worked on that path a little. Then you became a Buddhist. You have lived so many lives. You have forgotten them — I cannot forget them. You can be forgiven if you forget. I cannot be forgiven if I forget.
When I look into you, I don’t look only into your present because in your present all your past is involved: it is there in its totality, layer upon layer; you are an infinite territory… when I look into you, I look at how many ways you have been working upon yourself, a little on this path, a little on that. Then both of the paths will be helpful to you; then in you already a synthesis has happened.
I’m not for synthesis, for any artificial combination — I’m not in favour of it. I’m not in favour of synthesizing Christianity with Hinduism, but what can I do? I am helpless; it has happened in you. You have been once a Mohammedan, then a Hindu, then a Christian. What can I do? It is in your blood, in your consciousness; the synthesis has already happened. I’m not trying to synthesize, but for you a synthetic path in which all the three are involved, will be helpful. It will give you a sudden surge of energy — it will release something within you. You will start flowering in many directions immediately, and many flowers are to come….
When I see that a man has been consistently following one path, then there is no need for synthesis; then he has to follow that path. If one has been for at least seven lives a Buddhist, then there is no need — then it will be confusing for him to give him something else. He has already worked hard on a particular path; now he has to be helped on the same path.
So when YOU come to me, if you are a Buddhist and you have been a Buddhist in your past lives, I am here to make you a greater Buddhist. If you come to me and you have been a Christian in your past lives, I am here to make you a greater Christian. I may not tell you that I am helping you to be a Christian, but don’t be deceived by the appearances. I may not be saying that I am helping you to be a Buddhist, but I am doing that. One day when the light will dawn on you, then you will suddenly realize that I was not a detractor. I have not taken you on another path which you were not on — I have simply helped you on the same path, because all paths are mine. No particular path is mine. In that way I am richer than anybody else who has ever existed in the world. They had particular paths. The same Christ cannot say to you what I am saying. And the same Mahavir cannot say to you what I am saying. They had particular paths — I have none. I claim the whole of humanity.
Source – Osho Book “Come Follow To You, Vol 3”