You go on thinking about ego as if it is a very big and strong thing. It is not. It is just a water bubble, a soap bubble. It does not need a thunderbolt; just a small prick and it is gone — and the bigger it is; the weaker; the stronger it is, the weaker.
This paradox has to be understood. It's just as if you make a soap bubble, and go on making it bigger and bigger and bigger. The bigger the bubble, the more the emptiness in it; the bigger The bubble, the weaker — sooner or later it is going to explode. If it was small, it was stronger.
That's why I say that the ego has to be strengthened, so that it becomes weak and bursts. The bigger the balloon, the more emptiness it carries. Just a prick…. That's why it was so easy for a Buddha to attain to truth, because he was the son of an emperor. A big balloon he must have carried within, a big ego — he was no ordinary man.
It must have been more difficult for Jesus than it was for Buddha. He was just a son of a carpenter, a poor man's son. It must have been very difficult for him to drop it. For Buddha it was simple; in fact it dropped of its own accord, it was so big, so empty.
So don't wait for a thunderbolt. Just a small breeze…. Your ego is nothing but a dewdrop on a grass leaf. A small breeze and it slips and is gone. It happens very easily. But I am saying: it happens. You cannot do. If you do, then even thunderbolts won't help.
It happens. You just go on becoming more and more still, silent, peaceful, loving; and one day, when the time has come, when the right moment has arrived, when the ego is ripe, it slips. And when it slips, it is beautiful, because it doesn't leave a trace behind.
If you drop it, it never drops. First, you were thinking you were somebody; then you start thinking you are nobody. First, it was hiding behind 'somebodiness'; now it will hide behind 'nobodiness'. First, you were thinking you were something extraordinary, a rare gem, a kohinoor; now you will think, "I am the most humble man in The world" — but the MOST humble — remember.
"There is nobody who is more humble than me — I am the humblest." Now it is hiding in your humbleness. The wound has not disappeared; only the label has changed. You are the same; you have moved from one extreme to another, but nothing is transformed.
A man whose ego has disappeared is not humble at all. Because how can you be humble without an ego? A man whose ego has disappeared — his ego has disappeared, that's all; and with the ego, all humbleness also — because humbleness is a quality of the ego; it is a function of the ego. A man who is egoless is not humble at all. He is neither humble nor arrogant; he simply is.
OSHO