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Osho on Can an unawakened being ever be impartial?

Can an unawakened being ever be impartial?

An unawakened being cannot be impartial, for their judgments are merely reflections of conditioning and ancient prejudices; only through awakening can one attain the clarity to see beyond bias.

— Osho
According to Osho, an unawakened being can never be impartial; lacking self-knowledge and awareness, the mind runs on conditioning and ancient prejudices—religious, cultural, scriptural—so all judgments are colored. Only awakening brings discriminating clarity beyond bias. Even learned judges or governors merely trade one prejudice for another. True justice and fairness arise only when awareness replaces conditioning.

If you’re not awake inside, you see through the colored glasses of your conditioning; only waking up lets you see fairly.

In His Own Words

From the Discourses

Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.

Yaa Hoo The Mystic Rose · Discourse 29Question 2 1988-04-18 Gautam the Buddha Auditorium English

Beloved Osho, gurdjieff is said to have commented: "until a man discovers that he cannot be impartial through his ordinary functions, he cannot be impartial." can an unawakened being ever be impartial?

My attorneys told me, "You are far more dangerous..." because Jesus was not saying a single thing against Judaism. He was not saying anything against the Jews -- in fact, he was simply saying, "I am the fulfillment of your expectations. You have been expecting that God will send his son. He has sent me." My attorneys said, "You are far more dangerous because you are against all the conditionings of all the religions, all their basic hypotheses. You are against nations, their boundaries; you are against religions, their claims. Naturally it is better that you remain completely silent." And you will be surprised that in the two courts where the case was presented, I simply remained silent. My attorneys would not allow me -- just for my sake, I understood, that if I said anything it would be held against me. It is not a question of truth or…
Watch all this; be alert—and slowly a moment comes when all becomes equal. If someone gives good—good; if someone gives poor—good; if none gives—good; if someone gives—good. In every condition your inner scales remain unshaken. So the bhikshus, doing this meditation, returning from the village, were caught in rain. They took shelter in a nearby building—the capital’s great courthouse. What they saw they were amazed by. One judge dozing while litigants argue! How will he decide? Perhaps he had decided beforehand. He is not even caring to listen. Or he will decide in his sleep. He does not even feel that men’s lives are at stake—and he is napping. Perhaps late into the night he played cards, or drank, or visited a prostitute—and he now sits to decide people’s lives! They saw: in another, bias is clear—judgment is done beforehand; hearing is a formality.
The Path Of The Mystic · Discourse 18Question 1 1986-05-13 Punta Del Este, Uruguay English

Beloved Osho, raised by a father who was perfectionistic, outwardly nonjudgmental and inwardly hypercritical of everything and everyone, I now see my conditioning as very much operating at cross purposes. I was hit for being judgmental and opinionated, yet urged to be "discriminating." now I feel that something in my intelligence is blocked, impaired, hesitant and afraid. Even in sannyas, I have been repeatedly hit for being judgmental when often I felt my statements were relevant and valid. What is the difference between judgment, discrimination, and true clarity? And how is a child, or a for

I said, "Perfectly good -- although I don't agree with you. Remember the school code: no clause says that a student cannot smoke in the class. So I will take him to the principal, but I will make everything clear to him. And you should remember that you have been smoking in the class and we have not reported it simply because it is not in the code." So I took the captain. The teacher came running behind me, and halfway there he said, "Don't mention about me, because I am a new, temporary appointment; they may throw me out." I said, "Okay, I will not mention you, but you stop smoking in the class." He said, "I promise." I took the captain, but the principal was so accustomed to beating me that he did not ask who has brought whom. He simply said, "Open your hands," so I opened…

Osho, is it necessary to qualify awakening with the adjective “discernment” (vivek), or not? Because perhaps there could be an undiscerning awakening as well.

No, an undiscerning awakening is not possible. Awakening is intrinsically discerning. In fact, awakening and vivek mean the same. Just as we cannot speak of a living corpse, we cannot speak of an undiscerning awakening; they are opposing terms. Vivek means awakening. What commonly comes to mind with the word vivek is discrimination—hence your question: the idea of sorting out, “this is wrong and this is right.” But so long as you are making such discriminations—so long as you are saying, “let me take this as right and that as wrong”—you do not yet have vivek. Up to that point you have merely picked up what the truly discerning have lived as right and what they have regarded as wrong. The day real vivek dawns, there is no need to decide, “this is wrong, this is right.” What is right simply happens; what is wrong does not happen. From one…

Beloved master, can the watcher, the consciousness, ever be judgmental about what he sees, or is it still the ego judging the ego, the mind condemning itself?

So he shouted at Gautam Buddha, "Listen, don't move a single foot closer to me! Return back. This is the first time I am allowing someone to go back alive. Perhaps you are unaware of me, I am Angulimal, and look at my garland of fingers. I have killed nine hundred and ninety-nine people. And if you step one inch more then I will not take into consideration who you are. I can see you are no ordinary man. I have killed kings, but I have never seen such beauty and such radiance; I have never seen such eyes so penetrating. You are unique. Please listen to me and go back. Don't force me to kill you." Gautam Buddha said, "Angulimal, you are wrong. I stopped moving almost thirty years back. The day my mind stopped, all movement stopped. It is desire that keeps people moving. I don't have any…