According to Osho, yes: many Western psychological troubles arise from Christianity’s sin-centered conditioning, which burdens people with inherited guilt and moralism, creating tension and a need for endless confession or analysis without true release. He contrasts this with the Eastern view that ignorance—not sin—is the root, so the task is awareness and meditation. Real change happens by transforming one’s being, not merely policing behavior; then ethical action follows naturally.
Osho says Western minds hurt because they’re taught to feel guilty for sin, while real healing comes from becoming aware through meditation and changing inside, not by just fixing behavior.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Aren't a lot of the problems of the western mind the result of the sin-and-guilt in christianity?
Yes, that is bound to be. The concept of sin creates a very different consciousness around it. This concept is lacking in the Eastern mind. Rather, it is substituted for by the concept of ignorance. In Eastern consciousness the root of all evil is ignorance not sin. Evil is there because you are ignorant. So the problem is not of guilt but of discipline. You have to be more aware, more knowing. In the East, knowledge is transformation -- and meditation is the instrument for that transformation. With Christianity, sin became the center. And it is not only your sin. It is the original sin of humanity. You are burdened with a concept of sin. This creates guilt, tension. That is why Christianity could not really develop meditative techniques. It only developed prayer. What can you do to fight sin? You can be moral and prayerful! There is nothing like…
Is your philosophy influenced by the western psychoanalytic tradition?
His own disciples, great disciples, Jung and Adler left him, simply because of this fixation on sex. Everything is not sex; life consists of many more things. Adler founded another school of psychoanalysis, but made the same mistake. His whole idea is will to power. Bring him anybody, and he will find that he is suffering from will to power. Now sex is replaced by will to power. He has again forgotten that life is many things, it is multidimensional. Jung founded another school of analytical psychology. He tried to reduce everything to mythologies, ancient mythologies -- that your unconscious is remembering your past lives; they are surfacing. Nobody has been helpful in transforming man, in giving him real health, sanity, serenity, tranquility, balance. But the East can contribute much, because in the East the thing is totally different. We have never taken mind seriously. We have always thought that…
Beloved Osho, in the morning you said that one who realizes the brahman thus destroys sin and is well established in brahman. In this reference, explain the difference between the concept of sin in the upanishads and in the bible. And please also explain the implications in human life.
There is a very basic difference. To the biblical religions -- to Jews, Christians, and even Mohammedans -- the concept of sin is totally different than it is to the Hindus and Buddhists. The concept of sin in Christianity, in The Bible, is related to your acts -- to what you do. What you do may be a sin, or it may not be a sin; it may be a virtue but it is related to your doing. To the Upanishads, it is not related to the doing at all. What you do is irrelevant; what you ARE is the point. It is not the doing but the being itself that is significant. So what will it mean to call a man a sinner? We mean that he is ignorant, unaware of his own self. Because of this ignorance, his acts become sins. The act can become a sin only…
Beloved Osho, the strongest thing in my christian upbringing was to be unselfish, not to think of myself. Now, remembering myself and following the urge to turn inwards, I seem to have to push through a layer of unease, guilt and confusion. I know there is a big difference. Would you speak to us about it?
Even here... the East has forgotten its own peaks of glory -- the days of Gautam Buddha and Mahavira. Now it lives... even people who are not Christians are influenced by the Christian ideology. The Indian constitution says that charity consists of helping the poor, spreading education to the poor, making hospitals for the poor. None of these three things will be found in the teachings of Gautam Buddha. Not that he is against helping the poor, but because he knows that if you are a meditator you will help, but you will not brag about it. It will be a simple, natural thing. From this mystery school they have taken away the tax exempt status because they say it is not a charitable institution. To teach meditation is not charity. To open a hospital is charity. To open a school and teach geography and history is charity. And what…
Why does religion create so much guilt?
Religion does not create guilt -- if it creates guilt it is not religion. Yes, Mohammedanism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, they create guilt. Let that be your definition of religion: if it creates guilt it is not a religion. It is something else pretending, something else garbed as religion, posing as religion -- but it is not religion. Religion creates celebration, not guilt. These are hidden things which don't want to expose themselves. These so-called religions are more political than religious. Their whole idea, desire, ambition, is how to dominate people, how to control people. And naturally, guilt is one of the best mechanisms ever evolved to control people, to dominate people. Make them feel guilty! Once they start feeling guilty they are in your control. All dictators do that, all politicians do that. And your priest is just a politician behind the mask. The popes, the SHANKARACHARYAS, are all politicians;…