According to Osho, the three maxims are superficial outer rules; real transformation is not by avoiding seeing, hearing, or speaking evil but by ending evil within. Evil does not enter from outside; it flows from our being. Become aware of your inner negativity, recognize it completely; then it dissolves, and conduct changes naturally. Focus on being, not censored behavior or moral wrappers.
Don’t just cover your eyes, ears, or mouth—clean the dirt inside your heart by seeing it clearly so it can go away.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
A friend has asked: Osho, what is the difference between sin and virtue? And as long as the mind is filled with sin, how can there be faith, devotion, feeling? How will prayer happen while the mind is full of sin? So first let the mind be filled with virtue; then prayer will happen!
It sounds right. It seems reasonable. Yet it is not right—and it is full of unawareness. It sounds right to say, “As long as the mind is full of sin, how can there be prayer!” But that is like a physician saying, “As long as you are sick, how can I give you medicine! First get well and healthy, and then take the medicine.” But once you are well, why would you need medicine? If you decide to pray only after you’ve dropped all sin, you will never get the chance to pray. As long as there is sin, you won’t pray. And when there is no sin left, why pray? What would be the meaning of prayer then? Prayer is the medicine. Therefore, one has to pray while still a sinner. And another thing: how will sin go? It cannot go without prayer. Those who try to remove sin…
Osho, you say, “Meditate!” But we have illnesses, restlessness, anger, hatred, jealousy— a thousand kinds of evils. And you say, “Meditate!” What will mere meditation do?
We have taken the wrong approach to eliminating evil. If you want to dissolve evil—the inauspicious, the sinful—first understand why it arises. It arises because the mind is restless. A restless mind can commit any number of sins; counting them is impossible. A restless mind cannot do virtue, because virtue requires a background of peace. For the flower of virtue to bloom, the soil must be peace. In the soil of restlessness, only the flower of sin blooms. We have prepared the wrong soil. I am urging a change of soil. People misunderstand. They think that by “meditation” I mean what has always been meant: sitting and remembering some god, focusing on an image, chanting a mantra, turning beads. No. I have nothing to do with those practices. By meditation I do not mean sitting and recalling a god. If you don’t know God, how will you remember him? Which…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU ARE FULLY AWAKE IN YOUR SPEECH. YET YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU SLEEP WHILE YOUR TONGUE STAGGERS WITHOUT PURPOSE. AND EVEN STUMBLING SPEECH MAY STRENGTHEN A WEAK TONGUE. YOU ARE GOOD WHEN YOU WALK TO YOUR GOAL FIRMLY AND WITH BOLD STEPS. YET YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU GO THITHER LIMPING. EVEN THOSE WHO LIMP GO NOT BACKWARD. BUT YOU WHO ARE STRONG AND SWIFT, SEE THAT YOU DO NOT LIMP BEFORE THE LAME, DEEMING IT KINDNESS. YOU ARE GOOD IN COUNTLESS WAYS, AND YOU ARE NOT EVIL WHEN YOU ARE NOT GOOD, YOU ARE ONLY LOITERING AND SLUGGARD. PITY THAT THE STAGS CANNOT TEACH SWIFTNESS TO THE TURTLES. IN YOUR LONGING FOR YOUR GIANT SELF LIES YOUR GOODNESS: AND THAT LONGING IS IN ALL OF YOU.
Osho, from the very beginning of life everyone is taught: speak the truth, do good deeds, do not be violent, do not sin. But we sannyasins are trying to walk exactly on this path; then why are we opposed? Please kindly explain this contradiction.
So Mahavira would not turn at night lest a bug be crushed. And naked Mahavira must have been tormented by bugs and mosquitoes—no doubt. Mahavira told his disciples: mosquitoes will disturb meditation—don’t worry; it’s a test. Mosquitoes have always been enemies of meditators! I once heard a mosquito telling his kids, “If you behave today, in the morning I will take you to Buddha Hall for discourse! But only if you behave!” Mosquitoes are old enemies. Mahavira said: mosquitoes will torture you; they will create obstacles in meditation. The ascetic pays them no attention; he remains in his meditation—let them bite; he won’t move a muscle. And Mahavira must have been all the more tormented—Jains say that when a snake bit him, milk flowed instead of blood! Will mosquitoes leave milk? So cheap—without going to a dairy—just suck Mahavira and drink milk! They must have swelled with joy! So Mahavira…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, DO NOT GRASP ANOTHER'S BOW NOW IF YOU WANT TO SAVE MENTAL POWER, DO NOT BE CONCERNED WITH WHETHER OR NOT A THREE-YEAR-OLD CHILD CAN SAY IT, OR WHETHER OR NOT AN EIGHTY-YEAR-OLD-MAN CAN CARRY IT OUT. JUST DON'T DO ANY EVIL AND YOU HAVE MASTERED THESE WORDS. THEY APPLY WHETHER YOU BELIEVE OR NOT, SO PLEASE THINK IT OVER. IF WORLDLY PEOPLE WHOSE PRESENT CONDUCT IS WITHOUT ILLUMINATION WOULD CORRECT THEMSELVES AND DO GOOD, THOUGH THE GOODNESS IS NOT YET PERFECT, ISN'T THIS BETTER THAN DEPRAVITY AND SHAMELESSNESS? ONE WHO DOES EVIL ON THE PRETEXT OF DOING GOOD IS CALLED IN THE TEACHINGS ONE WHOSE CAUSAL GROUND IS NOT GENUINE, BRINGING ON CROOKED RESULTS. IF, WITH A STRAIGHTFORWARD MIND AND STRAIGHTFORWARD CONDUCT, YOU ARE ABLE TO SEIZE SUPREME ENLIGHTENMENT DIRECTLY, THIS CAN BE CALLED THE ACT OF A REAL MAN OF POWER.