According to Osho, life-values are time-born and must evolve; what was right yesterday may be wrong today and different tomorrow. The key is alertness to the present—because the present is God. Clinging to inherited notions creates suffering; responsive awareness lets us flow with changing circumstances. Change is the law of life and a blessing, keeping existence fresh; therefore examine and update your values continuously.
Yes—values should change with time; stay awake to what’s true now instead of copying the past.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: Second question: Osho, do life-values also transform with time? Satyanand, Whatever is born in time is bound to be transformed. Life-values too are products of time. What was right in the days of the Vedic seers is not right today. What is right today may not be right tomorrow. It is essential to keep watching with awareness every day so that when the current of time changes, we change too. But we live in yesterday, while existence is always now. We live in the past, and existence is in the present; the harmony breaks. From this, great suffering arises; from this, hell is created—because we go on missing. If there is no relationship with the present, there cannot be a relationship with God either, because the present is God. And we live in the past. Our notions belong to the past.
Osho, it is said that some values are based on time and place, and some values are eternal. Would you kindly shed some light on this?
This is not the prayer of the mosque’s sacred courtyard; This is the salat of love’s alley. No awareness of petition in prostration, no conditions of etiquette in prayer. Those who are standing, are standing in the realm of awe; Those who have bowed, remain bowed in prayer. This is not the prayer of the mosque’s sacred courtyard. The value of the supreme life I speak of is not the namaz recited in the mosque, not the worship performed in the temple. This is the salat of love’s alley— the prayer of the lane of love. There is a namaz recited in the mosque: it has its manners, its method, order, rules and regulations. And there is a namaz recited in love’s alley: it has no scripture. It is free. It is spontaneous. No awareness of petition in prostration, no condition of etiquette in prayer— that formula of prayer offered…
Osho, how should life be lived, and what is its purpose?
Enter life—stay awake and experiment; try waking and observe; try sleeping and observe; try eating; try lying and truth-telling; try anger and forgiveness; try love and enmity—taste all. In all of it, wherever depth increases, where peace increases, where joy increases, where a glimpse of the divine comes—recognize that as the rule forming for your life. And do not make even that rule so rigid that there is no possibility of change tomorrow. No one knows what life will bring tomorrow. The straight path may suddenly need a turn. What was pleasurable may become painful. Keep an opening for tomorrow. Hence the second thing: discover life’s rules from within. And also: do not consider your discovered rule absolute. Do not regard it as perfect. It must have the flexibility to change tomorrow. Life flowers fully only in one who can change each moment. But we are “consistent” people. We insist:…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, OF THE THOUSAND AND ONE GOALS NO PEOPLE COULD LIVE WITHOUT EVALUATING; BUT IF IT WISHES TO MAINTAIN ITSELF IT MUST NOT EVALUATE AS ITS NEIGHBOR EVALUATES. MUCH THAT SEEMED GOOD TO ONE PEOPLE SEEMED SHAME AND DISGRACE TO ANOTHER: THUS I FOUND. I FOUND MUCH THAT WAS CALLED EVIL IN ONE PLACE WAS IN ANOTHER DECKED WITH PURPLE HONOURS.... A TABLE OF VALUES HANGS OVER EVERY PEOPLE. BEHOLD, IT IS THE TABLE OF ITS OVERCOMINGS; BEHOLD, IT IS THE VOICE OF ITS WILL TO POWER. WHAT IT ACCOUNTS HARD IT CALLS PRAISEWORTHY; WHAT IT ACCOUNTS INDISPENSABLE AND HARD IT CALLS GOOD; AND THAT WHICH RELIEVES THE GREATEST NEED, THE RARE, THE HARDEST OF ALL -- IT GLORIFIES AS HOLY.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, OF OLD AND NEW LAW-TABLES PART 2 WHEN WATER IS PLANKED OVER SO THAT IT CAN BE WALKED UPON, WHEN GANGWAY AND RAILINGS SPAN THE STREAM: TRULY, HE IS NOT BELIEVED WHO SAYS: `EVERYTHING IS IN FLUX.' ON THE CONTRARY, EVEN SIMPLETONS CONTRADICT HIM. `WHAT?' SAY THE SIMPLETONS, `EVERYTHING IN FLUX? BUT THERE ARE PLANKS AND RAILINGS OVER THE STREAM! `OVER THE STREAM EVERYTHING IS FIRMLY FIXED, ALL THE VALUES OF THINGS, THE BRIDGES, CONCEPTS, ALL "GOOD" AND "EVIL": ALL ARE FIRMLY FIXED!' BUT WHEN HARD WINTER COMES, THE ANIMAL-TAMER OF STREAMS, THEN EVEN THE CLEVEREST LEARN MISTRUST; AND TRULY, NOT ONLY THE SIMPLETONS SAY THEN: `IS NOT EVERYTHING MEANT TO -- STAND STILL?' `FUNDAMENTALLY, EVERYTHING STANDS STILL' -- THAT IS A PROPER WINTER DOCTRINE, A FINE THING FOR UNFRUITFUL SEASONS, A FINE CONSOLATION FOR HIBERNATORS AND STAY-AT-HOMES.