According to Osho, yes—his communes are the only places offering unconditional acceptance where mistakes aren’t condemned but used as lessons. Outside society runs on reward and punishment, fueled by fear and greed, which breeds guilt and stubbornness. In a commune’s climate of acceptance, self-acceptance arises, guilt and projections like hell/heaven dissolve, and individuals can take responsibility, learn, and mature without ego-defensiveness.
Yes; in Osho’s communes you’re loved as you are, so mistakes help you learn instead of getting you shamed or scared.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, it is my experience that outside our international communes mankind has based life on a system of penalty and reward. Are our communes the only places where there is complete acceptance of responsibility, and mistakes are recognized as opportunities to learn? Please comment.
In my commune there is no punishment because I accept your mistakes as human, natural. To punish you for something natural and human is to destroy you, your humanity and your natural spontaneity. Nobody is rewarded, because punishment and reward are together. The reward says, "You have done right. Now go on doing right until you get the Nobel Prize." It is a bribe. It is an effort to mold your life according to the vested interests. The society needs slaves, it does not need independent rebels. And my commune consists only of independent individuals, rebels. They have gathered together -- not that they believe in a certain catechism, not that they believe in a certain dogma. I don't give you any dogma, any doctrine. You have gathered here because you have found a certain synchronicity with other sannyasins. You are all rebels. Your rebellion joins you together. Your rebellious…
Osho, for two months I lived in the commune aa and for two years in some communes in france. They have all failed -- hate becoming stronger than love. I felt that I could be more totally myself living in a group with collective decisions and property and free sexuality. What do you think of the way of living in communes?
The problem is not where you live, the problem is you. You can go to a commune and you will carry all your problems with you. And others who have come to live in the commune have also come just like you, with all their problems. Sooner or later those problems will surface. These outer things cannot help. They are distractions. The real change has to happen in you, commune or no commune. The real change has to happen in the deepest core of your being. If it happens there only then will life be different, otherwise it will not be different. You say: "They have all failed." They have failed because you are the same. They have not failed really. Their failure only proves that you are frustrated, they have not fulfilled your expectations. And what were your expectations? You were thinking that just living in a commune would…
Osho, our commune is not like any of the traditional ashrams or monasteries. Would you talk to us more about the function of your commune?
IT is necessary first to understand the traditional structure of an ashrama, and also of a monastery. It will give you the background to understand the meaning of my commune. The ashrama is an Eastern concept based on renouncing society, its comforts, conveniences. An ashrama is a group of people living together in austerity, self-imposed poverty, starvation in the name of fasting; torturing the body in order to have control over the physical by the spiritual; doing all kinds of exercises so that they become able to concentrate on the idea of God if they are Hindus, or on the idea of the ultimate growth of human consciousness if they are Buddhists and Jainas. But the goal is far away for all the three -- you can call it God, you can call it the Buddha, you can call it the Jina. They are different words signifying nothing, but pointing…
Osho, you have been speaking about the importance of being oneself. Could you talk about the paradox of being an individual and melting into the commune?
But the pseudo-religions have done just the opposite. They are against love. You can understand now, why they are against love: because love will destroy the personality, and the pseudo-religion depends on your personality. The pseudo-religions have made a great effort -- all these churches and priests and sermons -- and what are they doing? Their whole work is to create the personality. They manufacture personality -- of course, different kinds of personality: a Hindu personality, a Christian personality, a Mohammedan personality. These are different models of personalities. All these religions are just like factories creating different models of cars, but the function is the same. The pseudo-religions are all afraid of love. They talk about love, and they teach you marriage. They talk about love and they say marriages are made in heaven. It is not something that you have to find out; God has already found the person…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, THE OTHER NIGHT WHEN YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT YOUR VISION OF A MODERN COMMUNE, AND YOUR OFFER TO GORBACHEV TO ESTABLISH A MODEL COMMUNE IN RUSSIA, I WAS DEEPLY TOUCHED. AFTER YOUR COMMUNE DISSOLVED ONE AND A HALF YEARS AGO, I WENT BACK INTO THE WORLD AND GOT QUITE A BITTER TASTE OF LIFE IN WESTERN SOCIETY: POWER, MONEY, FRUSTRATION, COMPENSATION. YOUR VISION OF A COMMUNE SEEMS TO BE THE ANSWER FOR MANKIND -- TO FIND A FULFILLING WAY TO LIVE; YOUR VIEW IS SO VAST, SO CLEAR. BUT LOOKING AT MY OWN REALITY, I STILL DISCOVER POSSESSIVENESS, NARROW-MINDEDNESS, UNLOVINGNESS, GREED, LACK OF HUMBLENESS, DESIRES, JEALOUSY. I FELT ASHAMED LISTENING TO YOUR WORDS BECAUSE THE GAP BETWEEN YOUR VISION AND MY REALITY IS SO HUGE. BELOVED MASTER, SOMETIMES I THINK THAT YOU HAVE TOO POSITIVE A PICTURE OF US. OR ARE YOU SIMPLY SUPPORTING THE GOOD SEED?