According to Osho, to be infallible is to be “infallibly fallible”—to drop perfectionist ideals, goals and shoulds, accept human imperfection, and thus avoid the guilt and hypocrisy that arise from impossible standards. This relaxed acceptance ends inner schizophrenia, stops repression, and opens the way to simple sincerity and spontaneous rejoicing.
It means knowing you’re not perfect, quitting the “shoulds,” and being honest and relaxed instead of guilty or pretending.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, are you infallible?
Thomas V. Kempis, I am infallibly fallible! First, I am not a perfectionist because to me perfectionism is the root cause of all neurosis. Unless humanity gets rid of the idea of perfection it is never going to be sane. The very idea of perfection has driven the whole of mankind to a state of madness. To think in terms of perfection means you are thinking in terms of ideology, goals, values, shoulds, should-nots. You have a certain pattern to fulfill and if you fall from the pattern you will feel immensely guilty, a sinner. And the pattern is bound to be such that you cannot achieve it. If you can achieve it then it will not be of much value to the ego. So the intrinsic quality of the perfectionist ideal is that it should be unattainable, only then is it worth attaining. You see the contradiction? And that…
Beloved master, gurdjieff said that in order to attain to real will one would have to surrender one's false will first. Is this also true here?
Peter Markee, it is true everywhere. It is true forever. Truth is universal: time makes no difference, place makes no difference. And this is one of the most fundamental truths of spiritual growth: the false has to be given up because the false is the barrier. You remain deluded by the false; hence the search for the true never starts. You believe the false to be the true. Then why should you endeavor to realize the true? If you think that darkness is light, then where is the necessity to search for light? If you think this life is all, then there is no question of seeking and inquiring about another life. If time is your total reality, then eternity never becomes a quest for you. The false will means the ego; the true will means egolessness. The false will is yours; the true will is God's. The false will…
Beloved Osho, I want to do a perfect job and I don't see this as a problem but when I condemn myself for doing an imperfect job, it doesn't feel right. Is there a way to accept our failures gracefully?
The perfectionist is sick, psychologically sick. He does not understand that in life, everything is imperfect because imperfection is absolutely needed for evolution. Without imperfection, there is no possibility of evolution. If everything is perfect, the whole world will be a graveyard, because after perfection, what will you do? Except enter your grave -- of course, perfectly. Imperfection is the law. Nothing ever becomes perfect and nothing should ever become perfect, because you are driving it towards death. Imperfection is beautiful. So your problem is first to understand that imperfection is perfectly beautiful. Do your best, hope for the best but always remember: nothing can be perfect. I was staying in a palace of a Maharajah. It is one of the most beautiful palaces in India. His son was taking me around and I saw that on one side, a wall was only half-built. I inquired, "What is the problem?…
I have just recently been helped to discover that nobody is perfect and to let go of my fantasy of a perfect person. Now I am left with my feelings of loving and hating the same person and I find it difficult to live with such intense, seemingly polar opposites in myself. Anything to do?
It is said about Nero that he was so much obsessed with food that he had four doctors following him wherever he would go. And those four doctors' duty was to make him vomit. He would eat too much and the doctors would make him vomit, and then he would eat too much again -- immediately. To make it possible for him, so he could eat many times in a day, the only way was to help him vomit. Now this is madness. And how can you enjoy food when you are continuously vomiting? It is nauseating, the very idea is nauseating. And when you digest it you will throw your whole system into a chaos. It is the mind being destructive to the body. When you eat, enjoy it totally. But then there is a need for six to eight hours' fast -- only then does the hunger arise…
What do you mean, Osho, by saying that life is perfect?
I mean exactly that. Life is perfect. But I understand why the question has arisen. The question has arisen because you have some ideas about perfection, and life does not fit with your ideas hence you call it imperfect. When I call life perfect, I don't mean that it fits with my idea of perfection -- I have none. When I call life perfect, I simply mean there is nothing else to compare it with, there is no ideal. This is all there is; it has to be perfect. Your perfection is always comparison, my perfection is just a simple statement of fact; it is not a comparison. You compare, you say, "Yes, this is perfect, that is not perfect," and you have a criterion of what is perfect. I have heard about a Sufi master who was talking to a few people in the coffee house and he said…