According to Osho, no fixed formula—including “offer the other cheek” or “answer force with force”—can guide every situation. Life is fluid; formulas are dead. Sometimes compassion means turning the other cheek; sometimes it means hitting hard. The key is choiceless awareness: watch the whole situation in the present and respond from total understanding, being yourself, not an ideology. Then action is appropriate and leaves no regret.
Don’t follow a rule; stay awake and do what fits the moment—sometimes be gentle, sometimes be firm.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Is jesus' 'offer the other cheek' attitude applicable for us today here in poona, or should we meet the force offered to us with force -- or should we respond as we feel befits the situation?
No, I don't give you any dogma, I don't give you any formula to live up to, because all formulas are false, all formulas are dead, all formulas create a structure around you and that structure becomes by and by your imprisonment. I don't give you any formula, not even the Jesus formula. I want you to be understanding, alert, aware. Let that be your only source of action. Sometimes maybe it is good to offer the other cheek, but only sometimes. It is relative. Sometimes it is better to hit hard, but that too sometimes, and one can never predict. You have to watch the whole situation of a certain moment and live with total response. If you carry a formula you will not be free. I have heard an anecdote. A Christian saint who used to follow Jesus' sayings word for word, literally, was hit hard by an…
Osho, what do you think about the statement that life is stranger than fiction?
IT CAN'T BE OTHERWISE, because fiction is only a reflection of life, only an echo, a faraway echo. How can fiction be more strange than life? It is just a shadow of life, footprints of life. Life is really unbelievable, incredible. It should not be, and it is. It is utterly mysterious. But you become aware of the strangeness of a fictitious story and you never become aware of the strangeness of life, because you take it for granted. You take it for granted as the fish takes the ocean for granted -- and it never becomes aware of it. How can the fish be aware of the ocean? It was born in the ocean, it has lived in the ocean; from the very beginning the ocean was there. Just as you are not aware of the air and the weight of the air, you are not aware of the…
If the other becomes fire then you become water. The fire will be put out. And a person that enters into meditation, goes on the inner journey, will be meeting people every day who get fired up. You will be surprised to know that Frederick Nietzsche, the great German thinker said many things against Jesus, one thing he wrote perhaps you might never have imagined, perhaps no one has thought of. Jesus has said, "When someone slaps your cheek, offer him the other cheek. When someone takes your coat, offer him your shirt too. And if someone asks you to carry his load for one mile, then go with him for two miles." It is a lovely statement. Jesus is saying in his own language, WHEN OTHERS BECOME FIRE AVADHU, YOU BECOME WATER, You become water if the other becomes fire, if he slaps one cheek, give him the other.
Osho, Lord Shri Krishna in the Mahabharata took up the Sudarshan Chakra against tyrants. The Prophet Muhammad too had to take up the sword for the sake of religion. Even the Son of God, Jesus, had to take a whip in his hand. The “ahimsa paramo dharmah” of Buddha and Mahavira must have come in the way of their path, and people committed violence against them. Osho, is that still the call of the time? Is that how the law of things stands?
Osho, until life is sacrificed in love, in my eyes there can be no true devotion before that. Osho, may my life depart in your embrace—my heart is restless for that hour; love does not happen for everyone—this deep affection is only for a few. Osho, the longing for self-offering seethes in our hearts; let us see how much strength there is in the murderer’s arm. They say nails were driven into Mahavira’s ears. Consider that story. Mahavira stood naked outside a village beneath a tree in meditation. It was during the twelve years of silence. A cowherd was grazing his herd. Someone came calling him home for urgent work. He saw a naked fellow standing uselessly and said, “Brother, watch my cows for a bit.” He said it and left, not noticing the silent man had neither nodded nor spoken. He assumed silence meant assent—mounam sammati lakshanam. Mahavira could…
Osho, you said... then you will find that the devotee is God. The question arises: if one devotee prefers to be God and another wants to remain only a devotee, then which of the two is superior?
The one who wants to be God will not be able to be. And the one who wants to remain a devotee will become God. The question of superior or inferior does not arise, because only one of the two will happen. The one who does not want to be will be. The one who wants to be will be deprived. That very wanting is of the ego. But the matter is a little delicate. Sometimes humility too belongs to the ego. Beware that your humility may not be of the ego. Perhaps you are saying, “No, I don’t want to be,” because you know that those who refuse are the ones who attain. Then you are clever. Then your humility is adulterous. Your humility is not pure, not sacred, not virginal—it is like a prostitute. The one who wants to be God, whose ego says, “I must become God,”…