According to Osho, many adopt a warrior-like attitude on the path of yoga because they import the only victory strategy they know—fight—from the outer world. Inside, however, there is no enemy; battling only divides you and breeds schizophrenia. Inner transformation comes through let-go and surrender, not aggression. Leave Machiavellian tactics at the threshold and allow your nature to flow, as Lao Tzu, Patanjali and Buddha counsel.
We fight inside because we’re used to winning by fighting outside, but inside there’s no opponent—so stop struggling and gently let go.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why do so many persons on the path of yoga adopt an attitude of fight, struggle, over-concern with keeping strict rules, and warrior-like ways? Is this necessary in order to really be a yogi?
And trust, shraddha, faith, was easier in a world which was non-technological. A technological world needs cunning, calculation, mathematics, cleverness -- not innocence. In a technological world, if you are innocent you will look foolish; if you are cunning you will look clever, intelligent. Our universities are doing nothing but this: they make you clever, cunning, calculating. The more calculating, the more cunning, the more successful you will be in the world. Quite the reverse was the case in the East in the past. If you were cunning it was impossible for you to succeed even in the outside world. Only innocence was accepted. Technique was not valued too much, but inner quality was valued too much. If a person is cunning and he makes a better shoe nobody will go to him in the East in the past. They will go to the person who is innocent. He may…
The song continues:
TO TRANSCEND DUALITY IS THE KINGLY VIEW. TO CONQUER DISTRACTIONS IS THE ROYAL PRACTICE. THE PATH OF NO-PRACTICE IS THE WAY OF ALL BUDDHAS. HE WHO TREADS THAT PATH REACHES BUDDHAHOOD. TRANSIENT IS THIS WORLD, LIKE PHANTOMS AND DREAMS, SUBSTANCE IT HAS NONE. RENOUNCE IT AND FORSAKE YOUR KIN, CUT THE STRINGS OF LUST AND HATRED, AND MEDITATE IN WOODS AND MOUNTAINS. IF WITHOUT EFFORT YOU REMAIN LOOSELY IN THE NATURAL STATE, SOON MAHAMUDRA YOU WILL WIN AND ATTAIN THE NONATTAINMENT. Distractions are there, when you will lose your consciousness again and again. You meditate, you sit for meditation, a thought comes -- and immediately you have forgotten yourself; you follow the thought, you have got involved in it. Tantra says only one thing has to be conquered, and that is distractions. What will you do? Only one thing: when a thought comes, remain a witness. Look at it, observe…
Therefore, if the man thrown down is intelligent, he need not fight—he can make the other fight and defeat him. In Japan, under Tao’s influence, an art developed: Judo. Judo is the art that when someone attacks you, you provoke him to attack more; you incite him to go mad, and you remain calm. And when he strikes, you absorb the blow. If he punches you, do not resist; do not stiffen your hand to block. Make your hand like a cushion, a pillow—let his fist sink into it. Judo says your hand will drink the force of his punch. This is true. When you block with strength, your bone breaks not from his force but from your resistance. Your stiffness breaks it. If you are not stiff at all… See a drunk fall in the street. You try falling. You will return home with broken bones.
Lao Tzu says, “What is this conquering—of others or of yourself? No need to conquer at all—for conquering means violence, struggle, duality, quarrel, tension, anguish. Whether you conquer the other or yourself, the fight remains.” Lao Tzu says, “Do not fight—accept.” Those who teach you to fight make an impact upon you, for you stand ready for a fight. If not with others, then with yourself. Without fighting the ego does not form. Understand this well. I repeat it a thousand times: you are eager for a fight, waiting, searching, “Where can I find one?” Surely, fighting with others is expensive, for the other will not sit idle. Hence the brave fight others; cowards fight themselves. For there is danger in fighting the other; fighting oneself carries no danger—the other part is unarmed. Fighting oneself means you split yourself into two: body and soul—make them fight!
Osho, as many codes of morality as there are—earlier or today—if one looks closely, all of them come out of some religion: whether from the Bible, the Quran, the Manusmriti, or Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. Patanjali, in fact, begins the Yoga Sutra with rigorous yamas and niyamas. Then how can we proceed by leaving them aside?
This is why Patanjali, Mahavira, and Buddha prescribed precepts of conduct: so that you do not get into needless trouble with society; otherwise your energy will be squandered in quarrels. Who will then make the inner search? Because of Buddha and Patanjali, there has never been a revolution in India. For they said: If you plunge into outer revolution, who will go into the inner one? The real revolution is there—not in changing small rules like, “Left isn’t right; we’ll keep to the right.” Chuang Tzu tells a little story. In a village there was a circus. The manager had monkeys. He made them perform. The monkeys were given four loaves in the morning and three in the evening. One day loaves were a bit short, so in the morning the manager said, “Monkeys! Take three now; I’ll give four in the evening.” The monkeys were furious. They made a…