According to Osho, a child’s “original face” is thought-free, fresh, divine presence—your very subjectivity, here and now. It fades under society’s conditioning, ambitions, and labels. To help children keep it, don’t burden them with identities or success-obsessions, or send them chasing God “there.” Protect their aliveness: honor silence, play, wonder, and awareness, so consciousness remains without unnecessary thoughts and their depth isn’t covered by layers.
Let kids stay quiet inside and curious outside—don’t load them with labels, beliefs, or pressure; give love, space, and presence.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, how do we, the commune, ensure that our children maintain their original face?
He said, "He says that at least something should be put from our side too." I said, "I am not going to tell anybody, but just to deceive me, these two lines of Kabirdas in the whole question? You have been putting them in and you think I will be deceived?" He said, "I had to work hard, looking into Kabirdas' collection to find some lines which could fit somewhere in your question." I said, "You are a fool; you should have asked me. When your master can steal the whole article, you, being his steno, should at least learn this much politics. You could have said to me, `Just give me two or three quotations so that I can fit them in.' In future don't bother yourself." He was a poor man, and where would he find Kabirdas, and something very relevant to me? So I used to give…
Beloved Osho, I love the words you use, "one's original face," but I have no existential glimpse or understanding of what you mean by them. Would you care to explain further?
The original face is a beautiful poetic expression, but it does not mean that you will have a different face. This same face will lose all its tensions, this same face will be relaxed, this same face will be nonjudgmental, this same face will not think of others as inferior. This same face under these new values will be your original face. There is an ancient proverb: Many a hero is a man who did not have the courage to be a coward. If you are a coward what is wrong in it? You are a coward -- it is perfectly good. Cowards are also needed, otherwise from where will you get heroes? They are an absolute necessity to give the background to create heroes. Just be yourself, whatever it is. The problem is that never before has anybody told you just to be yourself. Everybody is poking his nose…
Osho, why, in the first place, have people been distracted from their original self?
The brahmin said, "I am not leaving, I will come back, but I don't have time to convince you. The train will be missed -- the station is two miles away from my house. But nobody was listening to him, and I was provoking people: "Stop him, otherwise his wife, his children... you will have to look after them -- who is going to feed them?" They brought him back with his bags, and of course he was angry and threw his bag at his wife. His wife asked, "What have we done? Why are you...?" And I was there outside in the crowd He said, "Nobody has done anything. That boy told me there would be a reaction. The reason is that three days before, in the temple, I was teaching the philosophy of action and reaction and this boy was present there. Now he is teaching me." He…
Osho, Zen Master Hogen of Seiryo Monastery was just about to give his discourse before the evening meal when he noticed that the bamboo screen hung for meditation had not yet been put away. He pointed to it, and immediately two monks rose from the assembly and began to put it away. Observing that very moment, the Master said: “The first monk’s state is good, but the second’s is not.” Osho, please explain the purport of this Zen enlightenment story.
A Marwari, dying, told his lawyer: “To every servant who has served me for five years, I bequeath fifty thousand rupees.” The lawyer couldn’t believe it—he knew the man; he never gave five paise. Fifty thousand to each—and there were many servants. He asked, “Are you in your senses?” The Marwari said, “More than you. There is no servant in my house I let stay for five years! I’ll give nothing—but the news of my charity will spread.” Even at death, the relish is in reputation. The mask doesn’t drop, not even in the last moment. What people say after you die is important; what you are is not. You have no taste for being—only for others’ opinions. That is the mark of the householder. The sannyasin’s mark is: what I am is my relish. What people say—what is the use? That is their business. What I am—that is mine,…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, AND A WOMAN WHO HELD A BABE AGAINST HER BOSOM SAID, SPEAK TO US OF CHILDREN. AND HE SAID: YOUR CHILDREN ARE NOT YOUR CHILDREN. THEY ARE THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF LIFE'S LONGING FOR ITSELF. THEY COME THROUGH YOU BUT NOT FROM YOU, AND THOUGH THEY ARE WITH YOU YET THEY BELONG NOT TO YOU. YOU MAY GIVE THEM YOUR LOVE BUT NOT YOUR THOUGHTS, FOR THEY HAVE THEIR OWN THOUGHTS. YOU MAY HOUSE THEIR BODIES BUT NOT THEIR SOULS, FOR THEIR SOULS DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF TOMORROW, WHICH YOU CANNOT VISIT, NOT EVEN IN YOUR DREAMS. YOU MAY STRIVE TO BE LIKE THEM, BUT SEEK NOT TO MAKE THEM LIKE YOU. FOR LIFE GOES NOT BACKWARDS NOR TARRIES WITH YESTERDAY. YOU ARE THE BOWS FROM WHICH YOUR CHILDREN AS LIVING ARROWS ARE SENT FORTH.