According to Osho, discipline is inner intelligence and awareness—the art of learning from moment-to-moment watching—so harmony arises and the false drops away effortlessly, like dry leaves. Repression is its opposite: an outer imposition by authorities, demanding obedience, killing intelligence, and producing inner conflict and violence. Discipline grows from your own understanding; repression mimics discipline but masks fear, guilt, and conditioned slavery.
Discipline means you understand and choose from inside; repression means you’re forced from outside and you push things down.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, could you say something about what is going on in Delhi?
I’ll tell a little story. When Lanka’s former ruler Ravana was on his deathbed, Rama sent Lakshman to learn statecraft from him—saying, “Son, we may have won, but we have no experience of running the administration here; go and ask him how to run things.” Lakshman went there and said to Ravana, “You are dying now—tell us how to govern here.” Ravana said, “Half the politics I handled, half Kumbhakarna did. Had you gotten in touch with Kumbhakarna as well?” Lakshman said, “Yes—he said: eat to your heart’s content and then sprawl on the sofa with your eyes closed. This is the best method.” “Tell me,” Ravana asked, “are you going to unleash dictatorship, or will you run things by democracy? Which method will be suitable?” “What will go down well with the people?” “Nothing,” said Ravana. “When you impose dictatorship, the people will yearn for democracy; and when you…
Osho, you say: go beyond the mind. Do not listen to its chatter. Discipline it and make it a servant. Do not be its slave. But how to know when the mind is being disciplined and when it is being repressed? Also, when I took sannyas the other night you said not to get hooked on you. I have to tell you that you are closing the stable door after this particular horse has already bolted.
Lisa, become aware. And I am not saying what is wrong and what is right. I am simply saying: Be aware; or, awareness is right and unawareness is wrong. When you are aware, things will start changing of their own accord, and then the mind functions as a servant. It is a machine, a beautiful machine, one of the most complex machines invented by nature in thousands of years. Man has not yet been able to create anything comparable to it. Even the best computer is not yet so capable. A single human mind can contain all the libraries of the world. It is almost infinite. Its capacity is great, its use is great, but it should be your servant not your master. As a servant it is beautiful; as a master it is dangerous. Let consciousness be your master and mind your servant. It happens through awareness. And I…
What is repression?
But repression makes you false. It is not by repression that anger, sex, greed are destroyed, no. They are there -- just the labels are changed. They go into the unconscious, they start working from there: they go underground. And, of course, when they are underground, they are more powerful. The whole psychoanalytic movement tries to bring what is underground to the surface. Once is becomes conscious, you can be freed of it. A Frenchman was staying in England, and a friend asked him how he was getting on. He said he was doing very well, except for one thing. 'When I go to a party, the hostess, she does not tell me where is the 'pissoir"...' 'Ah, Georges, you mean she does not tell you where the toilet is? That's just our English prudery. Actually, she will say "Do you want to wash your hands?" and that means the…
You said that those who want to attain need discipline and effort at first. Is that not a thing of the ego, and will it not become more strengthened? I have always been hard on myself and missed much of the joys of life. Please explain the difference between discipline and control.
A student learns the word, the dead word; a disciple just learns the secrets of understanding, and when he has his own understanding, he goes on his own way. He pays his respect to Lao Tzu and says: Now I'm ready, I'm grateful, I go my own way. He will always be grateful to Lao Tzu -- and this is the paradox: people who have been deadly following Jesus, Buddha or Mohammed can never forgive them. If you miss your joys of life because of them how can you forgive them? How can you really be in gratitude? In fact you are deeply in anger. If you come across them you will kill them, you will murder them because these are the people who have forced you into a controlled life; these are the people who didn't allow you to live as you would have liked to live; these are…
For example you look into anger: one time, ten times, a hundred times you look into it. Now, the ordinary decision is to decide that because anger brings misery to you and to others, it is horrible, nightmarish, creates anguish, guilt, disturbs you, is of no use, you will force yourself not to be angry. Next time it comes. you will force it into the stomach, repress it. You will breathe in a shallow way and control yourself... will contract yourself so that you can control yourself. This is the ordinary way of disciplining oneself -- whether it concerns anger or greed or whatsoever. This is a dangerous thing to do. This is how the whole humanity has become a madhouse.