Just watch the inner critic without arguing with it, and it will lose its grip.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Before I know it my watcher turns into my judger. What to do?
Don't judge it. If your watcher becomes a judger, okay. Don't judge the judger -- watch it. If again the judger comes, watch it. Always go on falling back on the watcher; don't be defeated by the judger. And don't be disturbed. It is not a question that you have to not judge. If you force it you will not be happy -- you will be suppressed. And whatsoever you will do, the judger will be there -- no matter how you force, suppress. No! Release it I If a thought comes, and another thought follows and becomes a judgment, watch the judgment also. Always go on falling into the watcher -- that's the whole thing. If again the judger comes, let it come. Don't be afraid. You are always free to become a watcher again. The whole method of watching is not to be deceived and not to be…Read the full discourse →
I heard you say existence is non-judgmental, but our minds are full of judgments. Where do they come from? Are they also related to the idea of god?
Existence is non-judgmental. That is one of the greatest contributions of Zen to humanity: that you need not be a saint to be awakened. You can be awakened from any angle, from any dimension of life. It is almost like somebody is dreaming that he is murdering someone, and somebody else is dreaming a very sweet dream that he is serving the poor people. Somebody is dreaming that he is very virtuous, a saint, and somebody is dreaming that he is a murderer, the worst kind of criminal. Do you think the saintly dreamer will wake up sooner, and the sinner and the criminal will take a little longer time to wake up? They will both wake up exactly at the same time, by the same method. Just throw one bucket full of ice-cold water on both and they will jump out of their beds. It does not matter whether…Read the full discourse →
Beloved master, you talk so much about the witness, but what is the witness and what is the judge? How can we tell which is which -- the witness or the judge?
Out of that witnessing a response arises -- a response which is total because your whole heart is behind it, a response which is total because it is your own response, not a repetition of somebody else's teachings; a response which you will never regret, a response which will not make you feel guilty, that "I have done something wrong," which will not make you feel egoistic, that "I have done something great." A response is a simple response, it neither makes you feel inferior nor superior. It is simply the requirement of the moment. It comes out of your witnessing and it is finished. It leaves no trace behind. The witnessing soul is like the sky. The birds fly in the sky but they don't leave any footprints. That's what Buddha says, that the man who is awakened lives in such a way that he leaves no footprints. He…Read the full discourse →
How to drop judging people?
From the outside that's what we can judge. From the outside it is always wrong. Seeing it again and again, understanding it again and again, penetrating it again and again, you will not need to drop judgements, they drop of their own accord. Just watch. Whenever you judge, you are doing something foolish. It does not apply to the person at all, it can apply only to the act. And that act too is taken out of context because you don't know his whole life. It is as if you tear a page from a novel and you read it and you judge the novel by it. It is not right; it is out of context. The whole novel may be a totally different thing. You may have taken a negative part, an ugly part. But you don't know anybody's life in its totality. A man has lived for forty…Read the full discourse →
Osho said that there was no need to try to still the mind, to stop the thoughts. He said that just as the traffic goes by and one remains on the sidewalk, unaffected, just a watcher, so one should simply witness the thoughts as they went by. We are not our thoughts, and recognising that we are the witness is enough. The very acceptance of the thoughts makes one more relaxed. The relaxation helps to create a distance, to separate oneself. To evaluate a thought as good or bad means that you are attached to your thoughts -- so one should not put labels on them.] ... put yourself aside, sit under a tree, and just watch the traffic. Soon, one day, the traffic disappears and the road is empty. Suddenly there is an interval and in that interval is meditation. But that interval cannot be created or cultivated.Read the full discourse →