That is your real guide - OSHO

The way you are growing in silence, in your meditations, in your grace, and the way the gratitude is coming to you, YOU DON'T NEED ANY PERSONAL GUIDANCE. You need to be more and more open to the impersonal existence. The idea of personal guidance is mind's old habit to become dependent on someone; and I am struggling hard against your habits.

THE WHOLE EXISTENCE IS AVAILABLE TO GUIDE YOU -- and you are now in a position to be in direct contact with the universe. As your gratitude deepens, as your grace becomes more and more clear, as your silence becomes more and more rooted in you -- IT IS THE UNIVERSE ITSELF WHICH TAKES YOU INTO ITS OWN HANDS. Those hands are invisible, but they are there; you are not orphans in the universe. You are immensely needed and loved; you are just not aware of it.

My own suggestion is to DROP THE IDEA OF PERSONAL GUIDANCE, because anybody will try to guide you according to his mind, according to his ideas of how you should be. That's what all the teachers of the world have been doing: imposing their idea, their image on people who are searching and seeking guidance. IT IS ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS GAMES TO PLAY, because in it you are always the loser. If the teacher succeeds in imposing certain directions, certain patterns, disciplines, ACCORDING TO ME IT IS NOT GUIDANCE; IT IS MISGUIDANCE. Because nobody knows your unique self -- only you can know it. And you have to grow according to your nature, not according to anybody's guidance.

To me, TO BE NATURAL, TO BE SPONTANEOUS IS ENOUGH. All guides have been misguides. And you can see it: the whole universe of humanity is living in tremendous misguidance. Otherwise why should there be so much insanity? Why there should be so much misery, so much agony and spiritual suffering? The reason is that nobody HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO BE JUST HIMSELF, HIS NATURAL BEING.

YOUR SO-CALLED RELIGIONS DON'T TRUST NATURE. They trust in holy scripture; they trust in dead words spoken thousands of years before, by people we do not know whether they knew anything, or they were just creating fictions... Unless you know, you can never be certain. BUT THEY ARE MOLDING YOU ACCORDING TO PATTERNS CREATED IN THE PAST. This process of molding people into Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists, goes against the very basic human right; IT DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO BE YOUR NATURAL SELF. And unless you are yourself, you cannot be happy.

Just think, if there were teachers teaching roses that they have to become lotuses... Fortunately, ROSES DON'T CARE ABOUT TEACHERS AND RELIGIONS AND CHURCHES. But just think for a moment: if people were there who were telling the roses to be lotuses, the marigolds to be roses, what would be the ultimate outcome of it?

Roses would try to become lotuses, which they can never become; IT IS NOT THEIR SELF-NATURE. They can only be roses, beautiful, immensely graceful, fragrant. But if this idea of being somebody other than what their nature is, is imposed on them, TWO THINGS WILL HAPPEN: they will never become lotuses, but their whole energy will be wasted in trying to become lotuses. And the second thing is they will not be roses either, because from where will they find the energy to be roses? That whole energy is making an effort for the impossible.

ACTUALLY THE SAME HAS HAPPENED WITH HUMANITY. Everybody is giving you an ideal; everybody is ready to tell you how you should be.

ALL "SHOULDS" AND ALL "SHOULD NOTS" HAVE TO BE ABANDONED. You simply have to listen to your own inner voice. And wherever it leads, just go without bothering whether people think it right or wrong.

IF YOU CAN BECOME JUST YOUR OWN SELF, if you can blossom into your intrinsic nature, then only will you have blissfulness -- a peace which cannot be expressed in words, and a certain poetry to your being; a certain dance to your being, because you will be in tune with existence. To be in tune with yourself is the only way to be in tune with existence. NOBODY NEEDS PERSONAL GUIDANCE, because all personal guidance is a beautiful name for dependence on somebody, and he is going to distort you.

I DON'T GIVE YOU ANY DISCIPLINE -- I don't tell you, you should be this or that. I simply say you should become silent, so that you can listen to your still, small voice. That is your real guide; the guide is within you.

That is your real guide - OSHO