According to Osho, true acceptance of one’s sin never breeds self-abasement. Self-reproach arises when ego resists admitting wrongdoing yet is compelled to concede, or confesses strategically to gain spiritual rewards. Genuine admission is egoless, open enough for everyone to know, and thus dissolves shame. Forced or cunning acknowledgment nourishes pride and guilt; authentic seeing ends inner self-hatred.
If you honestly own your mistakes without pride or bargaining for benefits, you won’t hate yourself; self-hate comes from grudging or fake admissions.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, you said that the acceptance of sin gives birth to worthiness. But can it not also give birth to self-abasement? Please explain.
If the acceptance of sin truly happens, self-abasement can never be born. Self-abasement arises because you do not want to accept, and yet you are forced to accept. Understand the difference between these two. What you want is to be supremely wise. You want the world to know you as a great knower. Within yourself you already believe you are; only others have not recognized it yet. In time they will; people are ignorant, foolish—that’s why they don’t see your great wisdom. Otherwise, of course, you are supremely wise. There is an Arab saying: at the final moment of sending each creature into the world, God calls them close and makes one last joke, whispering in their ear, “I have never made anyone greater than you.” And each person carries this within all life long. If he tells anyone, people laugh—because God has played the same joke on them too.…
The sleeping person is like that. All day he seems perfectly fine, not a flicker of anger. Suddenly he slaps his son: “Why are you late?” You think, “He’s fine most of the time.” No—that slap shows that the rest of the time he only creates the appearance of being fine. He is not fine, he cannot be fine, because this could not emerge from a truly fine man. A man suddenly plunges a knife into someone’s chest; we say, “Till yesterday he was a good man—utterly good.” Granted he seemed utterly good; but it was an appearance. The sleeping person can only produce the appearance of goodness. Evil is his destiny; it will show itself. He can hold it back for a moment or two, teeter this way and that, but it will show. Do you realize that you are holding yourself together all the time?
In the same context I ask, Osho, what is sin and what is virtue?
If the inner lamp of awareness is lit, then whatever actions happen are virtue. If the inner lamp is extinguished, then whatever actions happen are sin. Understand this! No act in itself is sin or virtue. Sin and virtue depend on the doer. No act is intrinsically sin or virtue. Generally we believe that acts are good or bad—this act is bad, that act is good. That is not the case. A person whose inner lamp is out cannot truly do a good act—it is impossible. It may look as if he is doing good. He can imitate the actions of those whose lamps are lit. But even in imitation his motive will be contrary. If he builds a temple, it won’t be for the Divine; it will be for his own name or his father’s—he will get the name inscribed. If he gives charity, he will be anxious whether…
Osho, you have earlier said, “Live moment to moment, live in the present.” Now you are saying, “Return to the past.” What should we do?
So it is with the mind—there are ruts. The past means endless grooves. However much you understand, your intellect agrees, you make decisions, you resolve—at the moment of resolve you feel something is going to change. But not even an hour passes before your decision breaks. Then only self-condemnation is produced, nothing else. Your saints, your fakirs, your priests and pundits—most of the time they only succeed in producing self-condemnation in you, nothing else. Their words are logically correct. You cannot even say they are wrong; you have to admit they are right. In that admission you take a decision. But against what are you deciding? Inside are grooves carved since who knows when, deep tracks. Walking in them has become a habit. It is easy to walk in them. They will pull you again and again. The meaning of returning into the past is: these grooves must be erased.…
Question: Final question: Osho, I am a great sinner—save me! Ego even in sin—“a great sinner”! Will small-time sin not do? Man’s ego is such that even if he speaks of sin, he wants to see himself as a great sinner. If someone else comes along and says, “I’m a bigger sinner than you,” a quarrel will start—“Who do you think you are? What do you take yourself for? Bigger and more sinful than me? No one is a bigger sinner than I am.” Man must be great—wherever he is. If it’s wealth, he must be the wealthiest. If it’s position, he must hold the highest office. And if it’s sin, that will also do. But one thing must be there—“great”! What sin have you committed? Picked a pocket? Robbed somewhere? Killed someone? “Great sin!” What great sin could it be? All small acts, all petty.