According to Osho, to ‘play with the devil’ means stop fighting or taking evil within you seriously; the ‘devil’ is simply your condemned energies—sex, anger, greed. Seriousness feeds and solidifies them; playful awareness starves and reabsorbs them, ending inner civil war. Through non-serious, tantric playfulness, these energies integrate, dissolve, and become strength, bringing wholeness, peace, and transformation.
Don’t fight your “bad” feelings; treat them lightly and kindly, and they relax and join your side.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, my wise shiatsu teacher at home told us, "you cannot fight against the devil, you can only play with him." I feel that this could help me but I do not understand it completely. Would you speak about it?
But this is not what is ordinarily understood by a religious person. A religious person becomes very, very serious. He looks at you as if you are sinners condemned to go to hell, doomed. He walks erect, with great pride. You can see in his eyes that he knows that he is 'holier than thou', higher than thou, that he is saved and you are condemned. And of course he becomes very serious; his going to the church, to the temple, his prayer, his ritual, all are very serious affairs. He does not take it non-seriously, playfully. And you cannot know what prayer is if you don't know what playfulness is. Real religion teaches you playfulness -- sincerity of course, but seriousness no, authenticity of course, but seriousness no. You have come to the right place, Christiane, that's what we are doing here. This whole space that is being created…
And I am here to give you freedom, so by surrender I don't mean that you are going to become a follower -- no! Even that word is not good. With me, anyone who falls in love becomes a companion -- he is not a follower. Because I don't say to imitate me and I don't say to be like me. I don't give you any ideal to follow and I don't give you any ideology. I simply make you free of all ideologies and free of all ideals... free of all conditionings. You surrender the ego, and I give you back your freedom. [Osho gives her sannyas.] Deva means divine, vilas means play; divine play. And that is one of the most fundamental secrets of the eastern teachings -- that life should not be taken as work but as play. God has not created the world...
There is no devil at all. I have searched everywhere (laughter) -- I have not found any devil. Because I never did the basic thing in which you are bound to find the devil: I never repressed. It is repression that becomes devil. If you repress then the temptation, if you repress the desire for anything then that desire remains inside you. You can force it for a time-being but you cannot force it forever, because to keep it repressed energy is needed - you start getting tired. Sometimes you need rest and when you are resting the repressed desire starts uncoiling like a serpent. Hence the serpent became the symbol of the devil; it is significant that it was the serpent who seduced Adam and Eve in the beginning. Serpent represents the repressed, coiled energy. You have forced it, it is there in the unconscious.
Osho, the devil seems to be as popular as mao tse tung these days. Why? Why is the devil so attractive?
THE DEVIL IS NOTHING BUT THE OTHER SIDE OF God. The religions have been praising God and condemning the Devil, and the Devil is the other side of God. The word 'devil' is beautiful; it comes from a Sanskrit root which means divine. 'Divine' and 'devil' both come from the same root, DEV: in Sanskrit it becomes DEVADATA -- gods. The Devil and the Divine, both are the same -- but if you repress one part of God, one aspect of his being, sooner or later it is going to assert itself. Now there are churches, in the West particularly, churches devoted to the Devil. Disciples of the Devil are growing, mushrooming all over the world. The First Church of Satan is there in America, where people gather and worship Satan. Satan means 'devil', that is Arabic for 'devil'. All kinds of bizarre things are going on in the world,…
Beloved Osho, would you please tell us more about what the sufis call "adab"? Is it a "tariqa"... A method that extends beyond the physical presence of the master, becoming part of the innermost being of the disciple and reflecting, in every action of his daily?
Radha Mohammed, yes, adab is a tariqa, a method. It is the beginning of something very immense, of something utterly incomprehensible to the intellect. It is the first step of a great eternal pilgrimage. To be with the Master is simply a lesson in how to be with God. That's why down the ages the Master has been called "God". It is very symbolic, it is a metaphor. The word "metaphor" is beautiful. Meta means beyond, phor means going: that which takes you beyond. The Master is a metaphor -- he takes you beyond himself. He is just a beginning, a jumping-board. To be with the Master is nothing but a discipline in how to be with God. God is not visible, the Master is visible; it is easier to learn from the visible and then move to the invisible. Have you looked into children's books? We have to make…