There is a tremendous fear hidden beneath almost every human activity, a fear so subtle and so constant that people rarely notice it directly because it disguises itself through ambition, through relationships, through success, through spirituality, through endless movement and distraction.
And this fear, beloved ones, is the fear of not adjusting, the fear of inner emptiness, the fear that if all the noise is stopped for even a few moments, there might be nobody solid there at all.
And because humanity cannot tolerate this possibility, people spend their entire lives constructing identities continuously, layer upon layer, achievement upon achievement, opinion upon opinion, relationship upon relationship, building psychological walls around a center that was never truly stable to begin with.And this is why the ego becomes so defensive whenever its identity is questioned – because deep down, it senses its own fragility. Deep down, it knows it survives only through constant reinforcement, like a flame requiring continuous fuel.
And, beloved ones, this is why human beings are so easily disturbed by criticism, rejection, failure, aging or loss – because these things threaten the image they have built about themselves. They threaten the continuity of the story called ’me’.Have you noticed how quickly identity changes according to circumstance? One moment, a person feels great because someone praised him. The next moment, he feels worthless because someone criticized him. One moment, he feels successful because society admires his achievements. The next moment, he feels empty because someone else appears more accomplished. If identity were truly solid, such fluctuations would not be possible.
But the ego is not a stable reality. It is psychological movement pretending to be permanence. It is memory pretending to be essence. It is thought pretending to be being.And because thought itself changes every moment, the ego must continuously struggle to maintain the illusion of consistency. This struggle exhausts humanity deeply. People are not only tired from physical work, they are tired from maintaining identity every moment. They are tired from defending opinions, protecting self-images, managing impressions, trying to appear valuable in the eyes of others. The whole machinery of ego requires immense energy because it is fundamentally artificial.
Beloved ones, watch carefully how society strengthens this illusion continuously.
~ Osho
