According to Osho, the Birds’ Way is beyond morality and immorality. External codes are relative and exploitative; the only decisive criterion is your own awakened awareness. When action springs from consciousness, it is right for you, leaving no footprints for others to copy. This is Buddha’s way: freedom, individuality, and responsibility, rather than imitation, priest-made rules, or borrowed goodness.
Like a bird in the sky, don’t follow other people’s rules—just be awake inside and do what your awareness knows is right.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Maneesha has asked: beloved Osho, is not the way of the birds beyond morality?
Paddy decides to go and visit his old friend, Fergus MacDuffy, who owns a pub in the woods called The Old Log Inn. But when Paddy arrives, Fergus is shocked to see that he has been beaten up. His eyes are swollen and he has a bloody nose and mouth. "My god!" cries Fergus, "what happened to you?" "Well," replies Paddy, "on my way here I got lost in the woods, I did not know where I was going. Then I saw a couple making love under a tree. So I went over to them, and all I asked was, `How far is The Old Log Inn?'" Chuck Farley goes out carousing and gambling all night. He drinks a few too many bottles of rum and simply never makes it home. At dawn the next morning, Chuck is aching with a hangover and has no idea where he is or…
Moses has said that something is right and something else is wrong and so has Manu and so has Mohammed, but it is not your heart. And the ultimate decision has to be yours. How can Manu, Moses or Mohammed decide for you? -- everything has changed. So much water has gone down the Ganges since Manu. Manu existed five thousand years ago and Hindus are still following his dictates; he has decided what is moral and what is immoral. No, this is sheer nonsense. Life has completely changed. If Manu comes back he will not be able to recognise anything he will be simply bewildered. He will only be able to understand his own book, MANUSMRATI, the book that he wrote five thousand years ago; everything else has changed. But he will certainly laugh at the foolishness of the Hindus -- that they are still following him.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, A MONK SAID TO TOZAN, "YOU ALWAYS TELL LEARNERS TO TAKE THE WAY OF THE BIRDS. WHAT IS THIS WAY OF THE BIRDS?" TOZAN SAID, "YOU MEET NOBODY ON IT." THE MONK THEN ASKED, "HOW CAN WE GO ON THIS WAY?" TOZAN ANSWERED, "BY EGOLESSNESS, ATTENDING TO EACH STEP AS IT COMES." THE MONK SAID, "ISN'T THE BIRDS' WAY THE SAME AS ONE'S ORIGINAL NATURE?" TOZAN SAID, "O MONK, WHY DO YOU GET EVERYTHING UPSIDE-DOWN?" THE MONK ASKED, "WHAT IS THIS PLACE WHERE PEOPLE GET THINGS UPSIDE-DOWN?" TOZAN SAID, "IF THERE WERE NO TOPSY-TURVINESS HOW COULD A SERVANT BECOME A LORD?" THE MONK ASKED, "WHAT IS OUR ORIGINAL NATURE?" TOZAN ANSWERED, "NOT TAKING THE WAY OF THE BIRDS." WHEN A MONK ASKED KASSAN, "WHAT IS THE WAY?" HE ANSWERED, "THE SUN OVERFLOWS OUR EYES; FOR TEN THOUSAND LEAGUES NOT A CLOUD HANGS IN THE SKY.
Morality is a phony lie, because the ideas are given by others and you are living them -- you are just an imitator. I am against all morality -- that does not mean that I am for immorality. In fact it is morality that creates immorality too. I am for transcendence, transcendence of the very idea of morality -- and of course, this implies immorality too. I am for consciousness, not for conscience. I don't want to give you any shoulds or should nots. I simply want you to become more aware, alert, watchful, clear, unclouded. When you are like a flame without smoke, whatsoever you do will be right. In a state of clarity the wrong is impossible, but then your character comes from your consciousness, not from your conscience, then it comes from yourself.
Question: OSHO, A MASTER SURRENDERING TO THE BIRDS! THANKS FOR THE LESSON. THE BIRDS are far more intelligent than the so-called people. The birds are never stupid -- they cannot be, because they don't have schools, colleges, universities. The birds are never mediocre -- they cannot be, because they are not part of any church, any religion, any sect, any belief, any dogma. They are free of all nonsense; they are very sensitive, they are not foolish. It is only man who falls from Tao. The whole existence moves according to Tao, except man. And why does man fall? -- for the simple reason that man is the only conscious being; it is his privilege to be conscious. Now, consciousness is a double-edged sword. If you use it rightly you will enjoy Tao far more deeply than any bird, than any tree, than any river, than any star.