According to Osho, teachings that condone self-expression are revolutionary because they lovingly accept human nature without repression, honoring the body, senses, love, and this life as sacred. He unites Zorba and Buddha (enjoyment and awareness), so full, tasteful living becomes the foundation for spiritual growth. No promised otherworld is needed; depth here-now reveals the beyond, guided by a fellow human, not a savior.
Be fully yourself—enjoy life with awareness—because living your natural self wisely is the doorway to real spirituality.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
What is so special about what you teach, if it condones almost all forms of self-expression?
First, nobody in the whole history of humanity has allowed man's nature total freedom; it was always with conditions. Man's nature has never been accepted lovingly, it has been condemned as sin. All the religions have been committing that criminal act of condemning man's nature. By condemning, you cannot change man's nature, but you can poison it. They have poisoned it, so man is living in a kind of limbo. Neither can he be natural -- because then all the moral teachings in his mind disturb him, saying "You are committing sin" -- nor can he follow the moral teachings. Nature has its own way; its pull, its gravity is great. Man is torn apart. All the religions have created a schizophrenic humanity, split about each and every thing. For example, in India Mahatma Gandhi in his ashram had five great principles. The first principle was no taste: eat, but…
And remember that life is already there, manifested. There is nothing hidden in it. In Zen they say that nothing is hidden from the very beginning, but people are trying to find it -- and it is just in front of the eyes. The meaning is here in these trees, in the life of these insects, in this railway engine, in you and me. The meaning is here. [In speaking of T'ai Chi, Osho said... ] The idea is to concentrate on the chi energy in the hara. The effort is to conserve energy that is not available to anyone else, inside a citadel in your being. It is available when you need it and it makes you tremendously powerful. [Osho went on to say that once one had accumulated energy, it then has to be shared.
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…
Question: First question: Osho, what message do you want to give to the world? All past religions taught man conflict: drop this, cling to that. Wherever conflict is taught, man is split. To split man is to prepare him for madness. Ask the psychologists: humanity is insane. We have turned the earth into a vast madhouse. Some are a little mad, some very mad. The more mad are in the asylum; the less mad are outside it. But there is no fundamental difference—no qualitative difference. Go to the asylum or go to parliament—what difference will you find? The same type of people, the same type of derangement. Derangement has become the norm. Here, health itself is an offense. Here, the healthy man is not liked. So Mansoor is hanged, Socrates is given poison, stones rain upon Buddha.
Osho, what is your fundamental teaching to your sannyasins?
Truth is a transmission beyond words. Words move from one mind to the other mind. What I am saying to you is from one mind to another mind. What is not said is far more important. Listen to my silences the pauses in between. Listen to the gaps. When you are in tune with me, in deep harmony with me, when there is no fight going on between you and me -- no resistance, no conflict no argument... And there is no need of any argument because I am not trying to convince you of anything, I am not trying to persuade you to become followers, to become imitators. My effort is totally different: it is that of communion, not of communication. When two hearts are beating together in rhythm, in a kind of synchronicity, when they are dancing together hand in hand, in a deep loving embrace, then something…