According to Osho, the issue isn’t to obey no law but to abandon rigid, dead rules. Disorder arises when fixed laws ignore changing realities; life then breaks them and chaos ensues. True order comes from elastic, context-sensitive guidelines—a “liquid morality” that evolves with life—so we remain harmonious, responsible, and effective without slipping into immorality.
Don’t throw away all rules; keep them flexible so they fit what’s happening now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, won’t this create disorder if we don’t obey any law?
No, no, I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is exactly what will bring order. Disorder spreads because of rigid rules. Suppose we decide never to step out of this house, and tomorrow there’s a fire—then disorder will spread. But if we have decided that in case of fire we can go out, no disorder will spread. It is stiff, dead disciplines that always produce disorder. When needs change and the rules don’t; when the situation changes and the rule doesn’t—then disorder arises. Disorder is the name of disharmony between rule and situation. But if our rule is elastic and changes with the situation, disorder never spreads. The anarchy in the world is because of those who are crazy about order. They make order so rigid that life changes every day while their order doesn’t; then life breaks their order. If order is elastic, flexible, disorder will never spread. As…
I believe in discipline, law and order, and that's why I am hesitating to take a jump into sannyas. What should I do?
This is the only commandment -- the eleventh commandment. And the eleventh is enough; the other ten are not needed at all. Be aware and let your discipline come out of your awareness. And there will come a discipline which has a beauty. It will not be like a plastic flower, it will be a real rose. It will have perfume, it will have life. And there will come a certain order, but not imposed, not cultivated -- natural. Just the other day Bodhidharma was saying: When you know the ultimate law, Dharma, when you have become aware of it, when you are attuned to it, your life becomes simple, easy, natural, flowing. No hindrances, no obstructions are there, no blocks are there. That is order. Order is not like railroad tracks, where the train goes on moving on the rails, the same rails, every day. Order is like a…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, THEN A LAWYER SAID, BUT WHAT OF OUR LAWS, MASTER? AND HE ANSWERED: YOU DELIGHT IN LAYING DOWN LAWS, YET YOU DELIGHT MORE IN BREAKING THEM. LIKE CHILDREN PLAYING BY THE OCEAN WHO BUILD SAND-TOWERS WITH CONSTANCY AND THEN DESTROY THEM WITH LAUGHTER. BUT WHILE YOU BUILD YOUR SAND-TOWERS THE OCEAN BRINGS MORE SAND TO THE SHORE. AND WHEN YOU DESTROY THEM THE OCEAN LAUGHS WITH YOU. VERILY THE OCEAN LAUGHS ALWAYS WITH THE INNOCENT. BUT WHAT OF THOSE TO WHOM LIFE IS NOT AN OCEAN, AND MAN-MADE LAWS ARE NOT SAND-TOWERS, BUT TO WHOM LIFE IS A ROCK, AND THE LAW A CHISEL WITH WHICH THEY WOULD CARVE IT IN THEIR OWN LIKENESS? WHAT OF THE CRIPPLE WHO HATES DANCERS? WHAT OF THE OX WHO LOVES HIS YOKE AND DEEMS THE ELK AND THE DEER OF THE FOREST STRAY AND VAGRANT THINGS?
Beloved Osho,
IN PLACE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, WITH WHICH I WAS BROUGHT UP, I HAVE GIVEN MYSELF A NEW SET OF RULES -- BE ALERT, BE PATIENT, BE SPONTANEOUS, ACCEPT MYSELF. A game cannot continue if rules are not followed, but life will continue without rules. What rules are these trees following? What rules does the sun follow? What rules does the sky follow? The human mind is such that it thinks they are also following rules, moving according to rules. The sun moves, it follows a rule, so there is a ruler -- the God who controls everything. He is like a great super-manager. He goes spying on everybody -- who is following, who is not following. This is a mind creation. Life exists without rules; games cannot exist without rules. So real religion is always without rules; only false religion has rules, because false religion is a game. I…
Beloved Osho, modern science has discovered a number of laws such as the law of gravity, which describe the behavior of the material world. Does the science of the inner soul also have laws which apply to consciousness and being?
It is one of the most fundamental differences between the outer and the inner. The outer is ruled by laws: The inner is just freedom. Consciousness knows no laws. It is matter that needs laws. Without laws, the material existence is impossible. And in the same way, with laws, the world of consciousness is impossible. Consciousness can exist only in absolute freedom, with no limits, with no conditions, with no laws. Matter will immediately fall apart without laws, for the simple reason that it has no individuality. It has no center of being which can hold it together if there are no laws. Matter is without a center, or in other words, without a self. Just because there is no center in it, it cannot remain together unless it is surrounded by all kinds of laws, conditions, rules. Science goes on discovering laws because it deals only with dead matter.…