According to Osho, Sufis call man a machine because ordinary human life runs on unconscious habits and automatic reactions from the past. We 'sleep-walk' through events, rarely tasting real awareness—perhaps only in sudden danger. A machine reacts; a conscious being responds. Only when awareness enters, breaking conditioned patterns and bringing responsibility to the present moment, does man cease to be mechanical and become truly human.
Most of the time you run on autopilot; waking up with awareness lets you choose new responses instead of knee-jerk reactions.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why do the sufis say that man is a machine?
You are a machine. It is just a built-in program in you now: you feel nervous, your hand goes into the pocket, the packet comes out. It is almost like a machine doing things. You take the cigarette out, you put the cigarette in your mouth, you light the cigarette, and this is all going on mechanically. This has been done millions of times, and you are doing it again. And each time you do this it is strengthened; the machine becomes more mechanical, the machine becomes more skillful. The more you do it, the less awareness is needed to do it. This is why the Sufis say man functions as a machine. Unless you start destroying these mechanical habits... Sufis have many methods to destroy them. For example, they teach many devices. They say: Do something just contrary to what you have always done. Try it. You come home,…
Najrani said, 'if you say that you can "nearly understand", you are talking nonsense.' a theologian who liked this phrase asked, 'can you give us an equivalent of this in ordinary life?' 'certainly,' said najrani. 'it is equivalent to saying that something is "almost a circle".'
A robopath is really poor. He may have as much wealth as one can have, but he is poor. His life is one-dimensional. He always lives to the minimum, close to the minimum. Do as few things as possible because then you remain more perfect. If you do many more things, naturally you can't be perfect. A real man is rich. He commits many errors -- of course, he never commits the same error twice -- but he always goes on new adventures, seeking and searching for the new. He is ready to go astray. The perfectionist is not ready to go astray. He cannot learn because learning creates trouble -- that's why you see that chil-dren can learn very much, grown-ups cannot. Grown-ups become perfectionists, they become robopaths. Children are still not trained for it; they are ready to learn. And children learn fast. Psychologists have come to observe…
What do you mean when you say that man is a machine?
Do you live in the present moment? Do you recognise things as they are right now? Or do you just go on seeing them through old eyes, old mind... memory? Don't you have cliches? You immediately put things into certain boxes, ready-made boxes. For example, if you are a Hindu and you meet a man and you were very interested in the man... the man looks beautiful and is very nice, and you like his vibe. Then you ask things about him and he says 'I am a Mohammedan.' Finished. All that nice vibe is no longer there; you have shrunken back. You have a box, a fixed box that Mohammedans are not good. You are a Hindu, Mohammedans are bad. You immediately categorise him, you pigeon-hole him. Now you are no longer interested in the reality of the man. The reality was saying something else, but it was going…
That is the definition of consciousness: beyond mechanicalness. And that has to be your work: don't behave mechanically. Bring more and more consciousness into your acts -- even small acts: walking, eating, talking, listening taking a shower. Make them more and more conscious. Do each thing deliberately with a self-remembering that you are doing it. That self-remembering is not needed ordinarily, because once you have learned to do a certain thing then there is no need to remember. Then the body has learned the way and it does it mechanically. For example, if you are learning driving; first you have to be very attentive, very alert. As you start getting the feel of it, the knack of it, you become less and less attentive. After a month, when you have got the licence, you can forget about being attentive. Now the mechanical part in the body takes over.
Uwais was asked, 'how do you feel?' he said, 'like one who has arisen in the morning and does not know whether he will be dead in the evening.' the other man said, 'but this is the situation of all men.' uwais said, 'yes, but how many of them feel it?'
The Koran says there are three basic qualities which have to be in the heart of the seeker. The first is khushu. khushu means humility, humbleness. The second is karamat. karamat means charity, sharing, the joy of giving. And the third is sijd. sijd means truthfulness, authenticity, not to pretend but to be whatsoever you are. These three are the three pillars of Sufism. Humility does not mean the ordinary so-called humbleness. The ordinary humble person is not egoless. He carries a new kind of ego -- of being humble. He thinks he is humble, 'Nobody is as humble as I am. I am the topmost in humility.' But he goes on comparing. The ego has not changed, the ego has only taken a new posture, a new gesture, more subtle. First the ego was very gross. When you go on bragging about your money. It is very gross. One…