Yes—your sense of what’s wise changes as you grow, moving from following rules to seeing clearly from within.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, if you don’t mind, just one more question. In your talks you lay more emphasis on discernment, truth, and thought. So what do you say about the place of faith, devotion, and love in a person’s growth?
They have a great place—indeed, a very great place. But in my view their place is as a result. If someone lives life with discernment, one day he will come to faith. But that faith will not be opposed to discernment; it will arise from discernment. The faith you commonly call “faith” is anti-discernment—it comes beforehand, without discernment. I am against that. The faith that arrives without discernment, and in opposition to it—I am against it. That is blindness. My understanding is that if a person lives with discernment, faith will also arise in his life, but it will be the fruit of discernment, the outcome of his thinking. We talk so much about devotion, but the devotion that is blind and stands upon belief has no value for me. In my view, a person who inquires also attains to love in life; a thinking person can one day reach…
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…
Osho, you said... then you will find that the devotee is God. The question arises: if one devotee prefers to be God and another wants to remain only a devotee, then which of the two is superior?
The one who wants to be God will not be able to be. And the one who wants to remain a devotee will become God. The question of superior or inferior does not arise, because only one of the two will happen. The one who does not want to be will be. The one who wants to be will be deprived. That very wanting is of the ego. But the matter is a little delicate. Sometimes humility too belongs to the ego. Beware that your humility may not be of the ego. Perhaps you are saying, “No, I don’t want to be,” because you know that those who refuse are the ones who attain. Then you are clever. Then your humility is adulterous. Your humility is not pure, not sacred, not virginal—it is like a prostitute. The one who wants to be God, whose ego says, “I must become God,”…
Does discernment arise in man by itself?
Yes, discernment is within, asleep. If we give it a little support, it will awaken. Like a seed: we put it in the garden—water it, add fertilizer; we don’t draw the sprout out from anywhere, the sprout is within. We simply arrange the conditions.
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…