According to Osho, perceiving ugliness arises from opinionated, unconscious minds; it’s the blindness of judgment. In meditative clarity, opinions fall away and you don’t label reality as ugly or beautiful—you simply see the truth. From such vision, action becomes responsible and creative, not dictatorial. When vision is clear, what looked ugly reveals its causes and can be addressed with intelligence, not reaction.
When you stop judging and get quiet inside, ugly or beautiful disappears—you just see what’s real and respond wisely.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Unconsciousness creates all kinds of ugliness in life; so whenever you find anything ugly in you, just look for the cause; somewhere in the roots will be unconsciousness. If there is ambition the person becomes ugly. Politicians are bound to be ugly, so much ambition, so much desire to dominate others, by any means -- because time is short and competition is great. There are so many people who are trying to be the president, to be the prime minister in such a great competitive world, with such a short life, how can one bother about the means and the end? Then any means have to be used to fulfil your desire. Then one forgets all sense, all reason, all aesthetic sensibility. If one has to murder people, one murders.
Question: THE SAGE SANKRITI ONCE VISITED ADITYALOK, THE ABODE OF THE SUN GOD, AND BOWING TO HIM HE WORSHIPPED HIM WITH WHAT IS KNOWN AS CHAKSHUSMATI VIDYA. AUM, SALUTATION TO THE SUN GOD WHO ILLUMINES THE ORGAN OF VISION! SALUTATION TO THE SUN WHO IS A GREAT WARRIOR! SALUTATION TO THE SUN WHO REPRESENTS THE THREE CONDITIONINGS: TAMAS, RAJAS AND SATTVA (DARK, RED AND WHITE)! O LORD, FROM UNTRUTH LEAD ME TO TRUTH, FROM DARKNESS LEAD ME TO LIGHT, AND FROM DEATH LEAD ME TO THE ETERNAL. SALUTATION TO THE SUN, THE SON OF ADITI, WHO IS THE LIGHT IN OUR EYES. AND WE DEDICATE ALL THAT WE HAVE TO THE SUN WHO RULES THE UNIVERSE.
Beloved Osho, each time I see you, I am shocked by your beauty. You've got to be the most gorgeous being that has ever happened! Osho, in what way do you experience your own beauty?
So he made the portrait. It took many sittings and the woman became more and more puzzled as she saw the portrait coming up. When the portrait was complete she said, "Only one question, I want to know where my nose is. Everything is okay, but at least I should know where my nose is. From there I can figure out the eyes, the mouth, my ears -- that can be the center for finding myself." Picasso said, "I told you in the very beginning...! Now it is a trouble to find the nose -- who knows where your nose is! I have painted it, that is true, but in so many sittings I can't remember exactly where I have put it. You take it home and contemplate; perhaps you may find it. It is there, that much is certain. It is there, this much I can guarantee because I…
Osho, yesterday you said that when anger is watched consciously, it dissolves. But why is it that when sexual desire arises, even in awareness its intensity persists? Why is it so?
There is no entanglement in the breath. If you try to practice on anger… Anger is not happening every moment; it happens sometimes. And when it happens, it happens with such intensity that you are already going deep into it; so much is at stake in those moments that you may think, “We will look into awareness later; first let’s settle this now.” Lust is very deep, because existence has made it so deep; life depends on it. If lust were so easy that you decided and were freed, perhaps you would not even have been born—because many before you would have become free, and the possibility of your being would have been almost nil. But your parents, and their parents, did not become free; therefore you are. You too will not get free so easily, because your children are also to be—they are waiting: “Do not run away midway.”…
Osho, Master Shuzan raised his short staff and said: If you call it a short staff, you oppose its truth. And if you do not call it a short staff, you deny the fact. Now tell me, what would you like to call it? Osho, kindly explain the intent embedded in this Zen master's riddle.
As human opinion changes, beauty and ugliness change. What is beautiful? What is ugly? There is no definitive yardstick; it depends on your intellect. The intellect lives by comparison, so the very moment you see something you start comparing. This Zen master says to his disciple: do not compare—and without comparison, tell me what this is. He says: if you call it a short staff, you oppose truth—because in truth there is no comparison; comparison is of the mind. As long as mind remains, you will not know truth. Truth is incomparable. It is neither beautiful nor ugly; neither auspicious nor inauspicious; neither good nor bad. There is no division—there is only “is-ness.” Will you call this entire existence beautiful or ugly? Good or bad? People have called it one thing or another: the theist says “absolutely good—God created it.” The atheist says, “How can it be good with so…