According to Osho, good is whatever gives immediate inner rest and joy—a felt sense of “enough, here.” Bad is what keeps the mind restless, forever chasing “more, further,” and what causes you pain now. Use direct experience—cash, not credit: small compassionate acts uplift instantly; grasping desires agitate and empty you.
Good makes you peaceful and happy right now; bad makes your mind keep chasing more and hurts you now.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, then what is good and what is bad—should a person judge it for himself?
There is no other way. And judging is not very difficult. First, look at what you cannot come to rest upon. You are often more childish than a child. The body has an age; spiritual age is another matter entirely—and often it hasn’t grown at all. Then people go on doing childish things. An old man hoarding money—take him for a child, because the act is childish. What is he doing? Death stands before him, and the man is putting more locks on his safe. Pure child’s play. Little children play with dolls; a grown man carries a whole wedding procession of Lord Ram—with all the dolls arranged—parading and making a racket. He is still a child. He has made different kinds of dolls, given them big, respectable names. But his mental age has not grown. Within us there are many ages, many layers of age. My quest, my appeal,…
But what is good, what is bad? What is good, what is bad—will a person judge for himself?
Because that is not the real question. The question is not “how many?” It is that many compulsions force you to stay and suffer. I am saying: wherever the mind says, “Run, run—further, further,” and wherever you reach it gives you pain—that is bad. And wherever the mind says, “Here, not there; even if it takes time, here—here is bliss—where I am,” that is good. Where you are not, deception is possible; where you are, there is no deception. There, when you arrive, you will know. If this begins to get clear—even though the distinction is subtle—if you keep experimenting a little, keeping a small inner checking going twenty-four hours a day: “This act I just did—did it give me joy or pain? In the place I arrived at—did I want to stay or to leave?”—keep such a small test running. In two to four months it will become so…
Osho, what is the definition of God?
Words are very small. If you say God is light, then what of darkness? The scriptures have said that God is light. Suppose we accept this as a definition—then what about darkness? Where will darkness go? Darkness is too; in fact it is far more than light. Light sometimes is and sometimes is not; darkness is always, eternal. Where will you place darkness? If you say God is light, darkness is left out. If you say God is darkness, then light is left out. If you say God is both darkness and light, a contradiction arises: they cannot be together. Try to have both darkness and light in the same room. If you bring in light, darkness disappears; if you preserve darkness, you cannot have light. Then how can both be together? That becomes an impossibility. So you cannot say “both” either. Then the fourth device is to say: it…
Osho, you said... then you will find that the devotee is God. The question arises: if one devotee prefers to be God and another wants to remain only a devotee, then which of the two is superior?
The one who wants to be God will not be able to be. And the one who wants to remain a devotee will become God. The question of superior or inferior does not arise, because only one of the two will happen. The one who does not want to be will be. The one who wants to be will be deprived. That very wanting is of the ego. But the matter is a little delicate. Sometimes humility too belongs to the ego. Beware that your humility may not be of the ego. Perhaps you are saying, “No, I don’t want to be,” because you know that those who refuse are the ones who attain. Then you are clever. Then your humility is adulterous. Your humility is not pure, not sacred, not virginal—it is like a prostitute. The one who wants to be God, whose ego says, “I must become God,”…
Beloved Osho, what is the difference between the emptiness of the child before the formation of the ego and the awakened childlikeness of a buddha?
Whether you are for it or against it doesn't matter -- your concern shows where your ego is hanging. And I will include the capitalist in it also: his whole concern is how to gather money, hoard money -- because money has power over matter. You can purchase any material thing through money. You cannot purchase anything spiritual, you cannot purchase anything that has any intrinsic value; you can purchase only things. If you want to purchase love, you cannot purchase; but you can purchase sex. Sex is the material part of love. Through money, matter can be purchased, possessed. Now you will be surprised: I include the communist and the capitalist both in the same category, and they are enemies, just as I include Charvaka and Mahatma Gandhi in the same category, and they are enemies. They are enemies, but their concern is the same. The capitalist is trying…