Tamas is like a built-in brake that gives you rest and stability—use it in balance, not as a permanent stop.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, the creation that runs on the three gunas was made by God. God has placed the tamas guna in human nature—what purpose does God have behind it?
Have you ever watched a tightrope walker? He is never still. You might say, “Why doesn’t he stand still?” If he stood still, he would immediately fall and die. Why doesn’t the acrobat stay steady? Because he is continuously balancing. When you see him lean to the left, don’t be mistaken: he leans left only when there is a danger of falling to the right. He leans right when there is a danger of falling to the left. He is balancing all the time. When the fear of falling to the right arises, he shifts his weight to the left so balance is restored. When he has saved himself from the right and the danger arises on the left, he shifts to the other side to save himself. And nature is working below. If the acrobat doesn’t balance, he falls to the ground, bones break. He cannot then complain to…
Tamas means inertia. Tamas means stopping. Tamas means to be held. Tamas is the binding force. Without tamas, things would keep moving and never stop. You throw a stone; if there were no tamas in the world, no restraining force, no obstruction, the stone would go on, on—how would it stop? Tamas is the obstructing energy. When you throw the stone, you give it the force of rajas. Hence your arm aches; energy left your hand. You lost something in throwing. And to the extent you gave energy, to that extent the stone goes far. As the energy ends, tamas pulls it down. What Newton called gravitation is a local application, a form of tamas. Tamas has many forms; gravitation is one. Tamas is the force that draws downward. By which you fall into hell—that is tamas. When you steal, tamas; when you lie, tamas.
Ego, is it? No, not ego. Tamas means lethargy—so much laziness that, as for what will happen tomorrow, where is the concern… what is there to do? Whatever will be, will be. For now, just keep walking quietly. Such laziness that even if someone were to come into this room and announce that tomorrow this house will catch fire, we would still go on living as though no fire were going to break out tomorrow—because if we accept that it will, then we would have to do something now. And that having to do something feels so heavy that not doing—letting things go on as they are—seems just fine.
If we accept that death is certain—whether ten years from now, twenty, or fifty, what difference does it make—if it becomes clear and firm in our consciousness that death is inevitable, then we will have to do something. We cannot go on living the way we are; we will have to make a change. And there is so much laziness about making that change that we say, “All right, we’ll see tomorrow; whatever happens, happens.” And this is what I call tamas. Tamas means a dense burden of darkness upon the mind that doesn’t let us do anything. Even if it is explained to us, it doesn’t let us act; even if we are warned, it doesn’t let us act. And our inclination not to act is such that, as things are going, we quietly keep moving along in the same rut. So it isn’t that there is no understanding…
18. The seen which is composed of the elements and the sense organs is of the nature of stability, action, and inertia, and is for the purpose of providing experience and thus liberation to the seer.
19. THE THREE GUNAS -- STABILITY, ACTION, AND INERTIA -- HAVE FOUR STAGES: THE DEFINED, THE UNDEFINED, THE INDICATED, AND THE UNMANIFEST. 20. THE SEER, ALTHOUGH PURE CONSCIOUSNESS, SEES THROUGH THE DISTORTIONS OF THE MIND. 21. THE SEEN EXISTS FOR THE SEER ALONE. 22. ALTHOUGH THE SEEN IS DEAD TO HIM WHO HAS ATTAINED LIBERATION, IT IS ALIVE TO OTHERS BECAUSE IT IS COMMON TO ALL. 23. THE SEER AND THE SEEN COME TOGETHER SO THAT THE REAL NATURE OF EACH MAY BE REALIZED. 24. THE CAUSE OF THIS UNION IS IGNORANCE. Everybody experiences: sometimes you feel lazy, sometimes you feel so full of energy; sometimes you feel so good and light, and sometimes you feel so evil and bad; sometimes you are a darkness, and sometimes you are a dawn. You feel all these gunas. Many moments of them come continuously, you move in a wheel, but they are…