darkness does not exist

I'm groping in the dark. Osho, could you get me out of this?

"I don't see darkness anywhere. You're the one keeping your eyes closed. Darkness doesn't exist. It's your creation. The sun is everywhere, the light is everywhere, it's midday. But you keep squeezing your eyes shut, keeping them closed. Hence the darkness. Now, no one can force your eyes open. There are some things you have to do for yourself.

If you want to sneeze, you'll have to sneeze, I can't do that for you. If you want to blow your nose, you'll have to do it yourself, I can't do it for you. There are some things you have to do for yourself. This is one of the most fundamental things in life. If it were not so, even in your freedom you would be a slave. If I pull you out of your darkness, or anyone else, that light won't be very bright. You will be trapped in that light, you didn't come of your own free will, you didn't bloom spontaneously.
Have you ever watched a child try to pry open a flower bud? The bud can be opened, but it will not be a flower, something will be missing, something of great significance. The soul will be missing. The flower has a soul when it blooms spontaneously, hence it has life. When you force it, you destroy it. Everything beautiful in life can just happen; it cannot be done. 

There is a beautiful story about a Zen master, Joshu:
One day, Joshu fell in the snow and shouted 'Help me! Help me!'
A disciple of Joshu came and lay down beside him.
Joshu laughed, got up and said to the disciple: 'Right! Perfectly right! That's what I'm doing to you too.'
Joshu had fallen in the snow and screamed, 'Help me! Help me!' But there was no need. If you fell, you can get up. The same energy that made you fall, manages to make you rise. The person who cannot get up cannot even fall. The same energy that leads you to get lost can bring you home. The person who cannot return home cannot get lost either, because energy is needed.

The same energy that makes you a sinner can make you a saint. In fact, being a sinner is more complex, more difficult, more laborious. Being a saint is not complex or laborious. And being religious is definitely not work. It's the same energy! You are keeping your eyes closed, and expending a lot of energy to keep them closed. The same energy that is keeping you closed, if relaxed, will help you to open up.
The disciple is a true disciple. He understood Joshu perfectly well. He knows that he has created a situation, he has consciously laid it down. Perhaps the disciple was passing by and Joshu fell down - created a situation - and shouted, 'Help me! Help me!' And the disciple came and lay down beside him. It didn't help him at all. What was he doing?
He wasn't trying to help him at all. He was simply being understanding. He was saying, 'What can be done? Okay, I'm his disciple, I'm going to lie down next to him. What else can I do?'


A master is compassionate to you, he has compassion. What else can he do? A real master cannot hold your hands, because that will keep you always dependent. Bringing you out by force is the same as keeping you still inside. The moment the master lets go of your hands, you will go back to your old world, to your old mind. It wasn't over yet, it was still stuck inside you.
A true master helps without helping. Try to understand: a real master helps without helping. His help is very indirect, he never comes right away to help you. It comes in a very subtle way. He approaches you like a very brittle breeze, not like a wild gale. It approaches you like an aura, invisible. He certainly helps you, but he never forces you. It only takes you as far as you're ready to go, never one step further. He never pushes you violently, because anything done violently will be lost sooner or later.
What you have not developed of your own free will, you will lose. You cannot enjoy that which has not spontaneously grown in your being. You enjoy your own growth. I can even give you the truth, and you will throw it away because you will not recognize it. I can force you to wake up, but you'll fall asleep the moment I'm gone, and you'll curse and be mad at me because you were still enjoying your dreams. You were having sweet dreams and then a man came and woke you up.
Sometimes watch yourself. You have to catch a very early train, four or five o'clock in the morning, and you ask someone to wake you up at four o'clock. So he does. And you get angry. You don't like the idea, but that was your idea. You feel like he's your enemy.
I have heard about Emanuel Kant, a German philosopher, that he was very time bound. He almost moved like a clock hand, exactly on time, everything, not a minute too late, not a minute too late. All his life he used to wake up early, at five o'clock in the morning. He had a servant. The servant had to drag him out of bed and sometimes even beat him. He had given such power to the servant. He said to him, 'Even if you have to hit me, hit me. It's going to be a good fight for you, but you have to wake me up. Don't listen to what I tell you early in the morning. I will scold you, I will yell at you and threaten you that I will set you on fire, but don't worry. Anything I say, listen, but drag me out of bed.'
He became very dependent on this servant, so much so that the servant almost became the master and the master became the servant. Sometimes the servant left him. Hence, he tried to find other servants, but no one adapted, because how could you beat your boss at five o'clock in the morning? Even though he said, 'Hit me!', the servant was afraid. And the old servant had to be brought back again.
But how does this happen? You can be short a good and cozy dream. It's cold, but under the blanket it's warm and cozy. Yes, you had decided earlier that you were going to get up early, but what now...? You want to roll over and fall asleep again.
No one can be woken up before their time, nor should they be.
And there is no problem. Simply try to understand why you keep your eyes closed. Rather than asking me to force them open, try to understand why you keep them closed. Try to understand what dreams you still have to dream. Haven't you dreamed enough? Haven't you actually dreamed more than enough? For millions of lifetimes you have been dreaming. And you haven't achieved anything with all those dreams. You remain empty, hollow. Still you go on filling yourself with new dreams, with new desires, with new ambitions. It is quite possible that you are now dreaming of enlightenment, which is why you asked this question.
You dreamed many dreams. Now a new dream arose in his mind: to become a buddha, to attain enlightenment. This is again a dream. If you were really done with all your dreams, then who would be keeping you asleep? Open your eyes! In fact, there will not even be a need to open your eyes. Once you understand that you've dreamed every dream possible, your eyes will open. There won't even be a need to open them because nobody will be there to close them.
Look at my fist: if I have to keep it like a fist, I have to keep it closed, clenched. The moment I stop closing it, it starts opening spontaneously. Being open is natural, being closed is unnatural. To keep it closed you have to put a lot of energy into it. To open, no power is needed.
This is a very strange thing: to remain miserable, you have to put a lot of energy into it. To remain cheerful, you don't need any energy at all. Happiness is free, it costs nothing. Misery you have to earn. If you want to be miserable, it takes a lot of effort to remain miserable. It is a very unnatural state. A clenched fist is unnatural; an open hand is natural. The open hand needs no energy, otherwise you would feel tired; at the end of the day you'd be dead tired from having your hand open all day. Then you will say, 'All day long I have kept my hands open and now I am feeling very tired.' Any day, keep your fist clenched all the time and by the end of the afternoon you will feel really tired. The natural is the open hand.
An open heart is a natural phenomenon; an open being is just natural. A closed being is very unnatural, very artificial; you have to put all your energy into it. That's my observation in thousands of people: they give all their energy to keeping themselves miserable. Staying in hell is a big investment. It's not easy, it's very difficult. You have to be very strong to be in hell, very stubborn, resolute. (...) You have to be as hard as a diamond, only then can you remain in hell. If not... no one is standing in your way. Just relax and you enter heaven, relaxation is the door.
You say: I'm groping in the dark. Relax. The moment you relax, your eyes will begin to open, just as a bud opens and becomes a flower, just as a fist that is no longer clenched begins to open and becomes an open hand.
I'm not here to force this. I'm here to enlighten you on how this happens. I can talk about this process, I can't do it for you. Understood, it happens. I promise you nothing. I only promise you one thing: what happened to me I will make it obvious to you. Then it's up to you to follow.
Buddha said: Buddhas only show the way, but you have to go, it's up to you to follow the path."

OSHO - Zen: the Path of Paradox