According to Osho, habit is nurture—copied from society, programmable and droppable; it only masquerades as ‘second nature.’ Instinct is inborn, the lowest layer of your nature, shared with animals. Human nature is a spectrum from instinct to intellect to intuition (heart) and finally turiya, the nameless fourth—your unchangeable essence where the individual meets the universal; meditation opens the higher layers.
Habits are learned and can be changed, instincts are the built‑in animal part, and human nature is the whole ladder from those drives up to loving wisdom and a silent oneness inside.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
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…
Beloved Osho, some people do things instinctively. Is instinct the same as intuition? Or is instinct animal-like, and intuition only human? Beloved master, please comment on the difference, if there is a difference.
Just a few months ago one Jaina monk did this kind of suicide. They call it santhara. And I wonder that a government which is against suicide takes no note of these people. They should be prevented. They should be put in jails, with others who attempt suicide ... because what does it matter what kind of means you use for suicide? Whether you die within nine minutes or ninety days does not matter. And if you allow the Jaina monks, then why should you prevent others? And the prevention is also very beautiful. If you are caught committing suicide -- if you have committed, nothing can be done -- but if you are caught committing suicide, then you will be sent to the gallows. Strange punishment! That's what he was doing himself! Now why waste unnecessary years of time in courts, cases, judges, advocates and finally, because he was…
Beloved Osho, please could you talk about the subtle differences between instinct and intuition?
Yogeshwar, your individuality can be divided -- just for the purpose of understanding it; otherwise there is no division. It is one single unity, whole: the head, the heart, and the being. Intellect is the functioning of the head, instinct is the functioning of your body, intuition is the functioning of your heart. And behind these three is your being, whose only quality is witnessing. The head only thinks; hence it never comes to any conclusion. It is verbal, linguistic, logical, but because it has no roots in reality, thousands of years of philosophical thinking have not given us a single conclusion. Philosophy has been the greatest exercise in futility. Intellect is very clever in creating questions and then creating answers, and then out of those answers, more questions and more answers. It can make palaces of words, systems of theories, but they are all just hot air. The body…
Question: OSHO, WHAT IS INTUITION, AND WHAT IS ITS PLACE IN YOUR RELIGION? IT is a little bit complex, because a few other things will have to be understood first; then you can understand what intuition is. Intuition is the highest rung of the ladder, the ladder of consciousness. It can be divided into three divisions: the lowest and the first is instinct; the second, the middle one, is intellect; and the third, the highest one, is intuition. The word "in" is used in all three. It is significant. It means these are qualities inborn. You cannot learn them, there is no way to grow them with any outside help. Instinct is the world of the animals -- everything is instinct. Even if sometimes you see indications of other things, it is your projection.
Osho, you said last night that those who have become void, valley-like, do not react but they respond, and that the responses of these different enlightened ones will be different -- that the valley will reecho in its own unique and individual way. Now a question arises whether those who become absolutely void, nothingness, still have a personality and individuality. If so, then please explain how this becomes possible.
THIS is one of the paradoxes of spiritual life: the more one dissolves into the Divine, the more unique one becomes. The dissolution is not of the individuality but of the self. The dissolution is not of the uniqueness but of the ego. The more you are an ego, the more you are like others, because everyone is an egoist. The ego is the most ordinary thing in the world. Everyone is an egoist; even a newborn child is an egoist -- a perfect egoist. So it is not anyone's achievement; it is not extraordinary. Really, it can be said that to be just ordinary is the most extraordinary thing possible because no one feels just ordinary. So to feel oneself extraordinary is just the most ordinary thing. Everyone feels like that! So ego is not something unique. If you have an ego, it is not something unique. Really, egolessness…