According to Osho, there is no harm in anything lived consciously, lovingly, and without imposing it on others; harm begins when acts become unconscious, compulsive, or used to judge, repress, or escape. Existence contains many types—there are people like that—so let diversity be, watch your own mind, and choose awareness over condemnation.
If it doesn’t hurt anyone and you do it with awareness, it’s fine; trouble starts when you do it blindly or to avoid yourself.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, have you been drinking?
This harm can take many forms. If a man, drunk, goes and hits someone on the head, that is harm. If a man, after drinking, mistreats his wife, that too harms another. If a man, after drinking, leaves his job and his children begin to starve, that too harms others. In all such situations that drinking becomes immoral. But if a man’s drinking does not injure his health; if, instead of spoiling, his relationship with his wife becomes better; if the next day he can go to the office and work more at ease, then I do not consider that such drinking has done anything immoral. Immorality means that through us someone else suffers harm. If no one is being harmed through us, then the word immorality has no meaning. (The audio recording of the question is not clear.) I was saying to you: what should we call immoral? Our…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, OFTENTIMES HAVE I HEARD YOU SPEAK OF ONE WHO COMMITS A WRONG AS THOUGH HE WERE NOT ONE OF YOU BUT A STRANGER UNTO YOU AND AN INTRUDER UPON YOUR WORLD. BUT I SAY THAT EVEN AS THE HOLY AND THE RIGHTEOUS CANNOT RISE BEYOND THE HIGHEST WHICH IS IN EACH ONE OF YOU, SO THE WICKED AND THE WEAK CANNOT FALL LOWER THAN THE LOWEST WHICH IS IN YOU ALSO. AND AS A SINGLE LEAF TURNS NOT YELLOW BUT WITH THE SILENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE WHOLE TREE, SO THE WRONGDOER CANNOT DO WRONG WITHOUT THE HIDDEN WILL OF YOU ALL. LIKE A PROCESSION YOU WALK TOGETHER TOWARDS YOUR GOD-SELF. YOU ARE THE WAY AND THE WAYFARERS. AND WHEN ONE OF YOU FALLS DOWN HE FALLS FOR THOSE BEHIND HIM, A CAUTION AGAINST THE STUMBLING STONE.
Moses has said that something is right and something else is wrong and so has Manu and so has Mohammed, but it is not your heart. And the ultimate decision has to be yours. How can Manu, Moses or Mohammed decide for you? -- everything has changed. So much water has gone down the Ganges since Manu. Manu existed five thousand years ago and Hindus are still following his dictates; he has decided what is moral and what is immoral. No, this is sheer nonsense. Life has completely changed. If Manu comes back he will not be able to recognise anything he will be simply bewildered. He will only be able to understand his own book, MANUSMRATI, the book that he wrote five thousand years ago; everything else has changed. But he will certainly laugh at the foolishness of the Hindus -- that they are still following him.
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,…
Beloved Osho, I love you so much, and still -- how can it be that so many questions which come to my mind are reflecting the dark side of me? I am afraid to bore you, but somehow these questions often feel as if they are the most honest and authentic to me.
Latifa, one thing to be constantly remembered is not to judge what is dark and what is light, what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil -- because the moment you judge, you start repressing. You don't want to show anything that you judge as dark, as evil, as bad. Then you have chosen only half of yourself; it is as if you have chosen only the day and you have denied the night. But the night has its own beauties. Its darkness is also a beauty -- it has a depth, a silence, a serenity, the stars. If the day has its beauty, the night has its own beauty; they are both unique -- and they are complementary. What you have been doing is to ask questions which look good -- and you repress those questions which you feel and judge to be…