Osho on Self Respect and Ego Difference

Once I inquired Osho in some other reference, “What is the difference between ego and self-respect?” Osho responded, “Ego is aggressive. Its interest is in attacking others. It feels pleasure in causing pain to others but self-respect is defensive. It is not at all eager to attack. Nor does it have any interest in causing pain to anyone, but if someone attacks him, then he wants to defend himself. Only for this reason, in ethics, self- respect is said to be a lesser evil because at least everyone has the right of self-defence.” “But the difficulty is that everyone thinks that his is the ‘self-respect’ and the other’s is the ‘ego’. This is how ‘ego’ thinks. For him, all others are ‘egoist’. And every one thinks the same way. So, a seeker has to be alert towards self-respect too. A seeker has to go beyond self-respect also, get it?”