What happens when one lives an immoral life in relation to meditation?

"is it not true that an immoral life creates hindrances in meditation?"

A buddha can be angry if he thinks that it is going to help. Because of his love sometimes he may be angry, but that is only a pretension and only fools are befooled by it. Those who know, they will simply laugh. As meditation deepens, says tantra, you start changing. And it is beautiful when change happens to you. If you "do" it, it can never be something very deep because doing is just on the surface. So tantra says, allow it to happen from the being, from the very center. Let it flow from the center towards the periphery; don't force it from the periphery to the center. That is impossible. Tantra will not say moral or immoral. The only thing is if you are asleep try to change it. Allow yourself to become more and more alert, wherever you are. If you are immoral, tantra says, "It…

But concentration is like when you force a child to sit in the corner of a room and be silent. Tell him to be silent, 'Be quiet, don't move,' and see what happens to him. He will force himself, he will close his eyes, his eyes will be clenched shut and he will be boiling within. He will be restless and he will want to jump out of himself. And that's what happens to people who try to concentrate. Meditation is a non-focussed awareness. Meditation is more like a mirror: you simply watch whatsoever goes on happening in the mind. A thought comes, a thought arises, stays there for a time being, then moves, goes out, comes in from this door, goes out from another door; even another thought arises. There is a constant procession, a traffic of thoughts, desires, memories, imagination.

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.

It is also asked: Osho, if faith and belief fall away, won’t degeneration and immorality spread?

Whoever wants to give birth to himself must endure the pangs of birth. You must pass through the pain. Strip off all your garments, all your cheap moralities, and look: what is within, and who? If you see an animal, don’t rush to put the garments back on. It is precisely because of those garments that the animal survives and is protected. Drop those garments. Agree to know yourself as you are, and perhaps the very fact will pain you so much that you will be compelled to change. No other path will remain. If a thief clearly knows, “I am a thief,” if a violent person clearly knows, “I am violent,” it is hard to live long with that theft and violence. You cannot live long with an illness once you know you are ill. Once the memory arises that disease has seized you, you begin to seek treatment.…

Question: OSHO, IS MORAL CHARACTER ABSOLUTELY USELESS? Morality is invented religion, not discovered religion. Discovered religion has to be your own, then certainly a great revolution happens in you. Then certainly your character has a virtue, but then it is not moral; it is religious, it is spiritual. Moral character has value to those who want to enslave you, but it is AGAINST YOU. You need a spiritual character, and spiritual character is not born out of moral education; it is born out of meditation. You need more awareness, not more moral education. Vadan, that's why I am not emphasizing moral character at all; my whole emphasis is on the essential. If at the very center of your being some knowing, some clarity arises, your life will be different, totally different. It will have a beauty, a grace.