According to Osho, the goal isn’t to balance science with Tao but to transform science itself: move from Aristotle’s fragmentary, antagonistic, control-and-destroy approach to a Tao-based science that cooperates with nature, sees totality, and strengthens human resilience. Redesign fundamentals after the atomic age: seek accord, co-evolution, and immunity-building solutions (e.g., befriend ‘mosquito’ forces) instead of extermination and struggle.
Don’t fight nature; rebuild science to work with it, making ourselves stronger and turning ‘enemies’ into partners.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: modern science has taken the human race away from the nature and developed very many dimensions of life. Please explain how the intricate pattern of the scientific system of life can be balanced with the natural life of the tao-age?
If the tree happens to come in the sitting Room, he would so design it that the whole room is in harmony with the tree. So the houses this man builds become a part of nature. Viewed from afar, these houses cannot be seen as such. Lao Tzu feels that houses that stand out are violent. They are violent, like this building 'Woodlands'. If a house goes up to 26 floors, where will the trees be, where will the mountains be and where man? They are all lost! Only the bare building remains. This is unharmonius, grotesque. for there is no co-existence, no harmony with the surroundings. Such a building stands lone and forlorn, in its own arrogance. A house should be such that it is covered with trees, it is touched by the hills and riders go racing by its compound walls. When someone passes this house, it should…
Osho, modern science has taken humankind away from nature and developed many dimensions of life. Please tell us: given the complexity of the scientific way of living, how can a balance be established today with the Taoist era’s effortless, natural way of life?
There is no question of establishing a balance. It is not a matter of balancing Lao Tzu and modern science. If Lao Tzu’s vision truly comes into view, an entirely new science will be born—utterly new. A science founded on Lao Tzu’s vision would be born, because the whole perspective on life would be different. The science that has evolved on Aristotle’s foundations is very incomplete, ignorant. It has tried to understand such a tiny fragment of life and has left the whole. One should say it is childish. It has made no attempt to see the totality. But until now it could not have. Now it will have to. After the discovery of atomic weapons and the development of atomic energy, science has been compelled to reconsider all its basic premises. Why? Because if science keeps moving as it has till now—if it says, “We will go on this…
Where does educating the subconsciousness conflict or harmonise with tao, as it implies discipline with self-effort from an external expression?
Once upon a time, the Duke of Lu went forward to meet a sea bird that had made its appearance in the confines of that country, and escorted it to his ancestral hall. This is a Taoist parable. There, an ox, a sheep and a pig were slaughtered, and a feast was spread before the sea bird, while the band was playing the celebrated music composed under the supervision of the Emperor Shuen. The bird, however, merely looked on, sad and doleful, refusing to relish a morsel of meat or drink a single cup. Thus it died of hunger after three days. The duke fed the bird as he would feed himself, and he failed to see that it should have been treated as a bird and not as a king. The music is meaningless to the bird, and the ox and the sheep and the pig are not his…
Osho, Tao has not yet been properly explained. Either Vinoba Bhave tried, or foreigners tried, or our great scholar Manoharlal-ji tried, but either they could not explain Tao, or I could not understand it—because it is a very vast, serious subject.
First, one must understand the meaning of Tao. In its original sense, Tao means what dharma means: intrinsic nature. Fire burns—that is its dharma. Air is invisible—that is its nature, its dharma. Except for the human being, the whole universe abides within dharma; it does not step outside its nature. In the world—leaving man aside—everything moves within its own nature. Nothing moves outside its nature. If we remove man, only nature remains. Water will fall as rain; sunlight will strike; water will turn to vapor, to clouds, cool, and fall again. Fire will go on burning; winds will keep blowing; seeds will split and become trees. Birds will go on laying eggs. Everything will happen by nature. Nowhere in nature will any contradiction arise. Freedom—man’s dignity as well as his misfortune With the coming of man, an astonishing event occurred in life—the greatest event in this world: man has the…
A friend has asked: Osho, how will the development of material civilization harmonize with a life aligned to Tao’s spontaneous nature? Won’t human society have to return to a primitive state?
What is there to fear? Even if we had to return, what is there to fear? What harm would there be? What have we attained anyway? We have only lost; we have not gained anything. So first, there is no need to be afraid of the so‑called primitive. Because what we call civilization today—what is it except a great disease? Still, I do not believe that we will have to go back. In existence, there is no going back. But even if we did—no harm. Because you have nothing that could be lost. You have nothing. Your situation is like a naked man taking a bath and wondering, “Where will I wring my clothes? Where will I dry them?” What is there to wring, what is there to dry? What could be lost? What have you gained? There is noise, uproar all around—so it looks as if something is being…