According to Osho, enlightened ones do not try to convert your rejection into acceptance; that idea is your projection. They embody tathata (suchness) and simply overflow—like the sun that makes flowers bloom without intending to. Their words arise spontaneously from their being, catalyzing transformation without purpose, demand, or ego. If change happens, good; if not, also good.
Like the sun shining, a wise person doesn’t push you to accept; they just shine, and if you open, it happens.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
I understand your difficulty too. You have asked: Why do they go on explaining to us day and night? Why do they want to turn our rejection of tathata (suchness) into acceptance?
There is no intention to change anything. So note one distinction: if a monk or a saint is very eager to change you, understand that Buddhahood has not yet been born. Where there is a saint in whose presence transformation happens, and yet there is no eagerness to change you, know that Buddhahood is present—transformation happens simply by his presence. Understand. The sun rises; does the sun go to each flower and say, “Open up, I have come, morning has arrived”? Does he take each petal in his hand and pry it open? And if some flower does not bloom, does the sun sit down saddened and draw back his rays? The sun simply radiates; in his presence the flowers blossom. The sun does not make them bloom. And if a flower does not open, the sun keeps no account—he does not complain that so many flowers did not bloom…
Question: BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS tathata -- TOTAL ACCEPTANCE? The story is that the first thing that Zarathustra did when he was born was, he laughed loudly. Can you think of a more rebellious child? Children are not supposed to laugh when they are born; they are supposed to cry, but not supposed to laugh. He must have shocked his parents and the neighborhood and the people who had heard his laughter. Why did he laugh? And such a person is not reliable, not reliable at all -- this is a dangerous man! He has done his first act of rebellion. He has already said that "I am not going to be a part of the crowd -- enough is enough. Many children have cried, I don't follow them. I will start my life with laughter." Whether it really happened or not is not the question.
Osho, please tell us: are not all of Lao Tzu’s teachings the teachings of a defeated, beaten man? At their root, isn’t there a negative attitude, a kind of escapism? Won’t this policy of tathata—of acceptance—end up encouraging exploitative systems? And finally, can we not call these teachings mere theoretical idealism? They are not practical, nor do they show any way to be free of doing or to be de-hypnotized.
No. If we understand life rightly, Lao Tzu is not running away from life; he is only stepping away from stupidity—from the fire, from the disease. He is going deeper into life. And we, thinking we are advancing in life, go on advancing into sheer stupidity and are deprived of life. What is the final criterion? Compare Lao Tzu’s face with ours. Lao Tzu, untroubled even while dying; we, anxious even while living. Lao Tzu joyously embraces death; we have never embraced life with joy. Lao Tzu laughs even in illness; we keep weeping even in health. What is the measure? Put thorns in Lao Tzu’s hands and he is grateful; put a flower in our hands and no gratitude arises. By what path shall we recognize? What standard? Lao Tzu is no escapist. And if he is, then everyone should be an escapist—then escapism is religion. Because by escaping…
To live in the great way is neither easy nor difficult, but those with limited views are fearful and irresolute: the faster they hurry, the slower they go, and clinging cannot be limited; even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray. Just let things be in their own way and there will be neither coming nor going.
OBEY THE NATURE OF THINGS (YOUR OWN NATURE), AND YOU WILL WALK FREELY AND UNDISTURBED. WHEN THOUGHT IS IN BONDAGE THE TRUTH IS HIDDEN, FOR EVERYTHING IS MURKY AND UNCLEAR, AND THE BURDENSOME PRACTICE OF JUDGING BRINGS ANNOYANCE AND WEARINESS. WHAT BENEFIT CAN BE DERIVED FROM DISTINCTIONS AND SEPARATIONS? IF YOU WISH TO MOVE IN THE ONE WAY DO NOT DISLIKE EVEN THE WORLD OF SENSES AND IDEAS. INDEED, TO ACCEPT THEM FULLY IS IDENTICAL WITH TRUE ENLIGHTENMENT. THE WISE MAN STRIVES TO NO GOALS BUT THE FOOLISH MAN FETTERS HIMSELF. THERE IS ONE DHARMA, TRUTH, LAW, NOT MANY; DISTINCTIONS ARISE FROM THE CLINGING NEEDS OF THE IGNORANT. TO SEEK MIND WITH THE DISCRIMINATING MIND IS THE GREATEST OF ALL MISTAKES. The human being is a miracle on this small planet -- very very small, tiny! The sun is sixty thousand times bigger than this earth, and this sun is…
The song continues:
ONE SHOULD NOT GIVE OR TAKE, BUT REMAIN NATURAL -- FOR MAHAMUDRA IS BEYOND ALL ACCEPTANCE AND REJECTION. SINCE ALAYA IS NOT BORN, NO ONE CAN OBSTRUCT OR SOIL IT; STAYING IN THE UNBORN REALM ALL APPEARANCE WILL DISSOLVE INTO DHARMATA, AND SELF-WILL AND PRIDE WILL VANISH INTO NOUGHT. You don't have your own face, you have only opinions of others about you. Somebody says you are beautiful, and you start thinking you are beautiful. Somebody says you are ugly, and you feel hurt and you carry a wound that somebody has said "ugly" -- you have become ugly. You are just an accumulation of the opinions of others, you don't know who you are. You know only what others think you are. And this is strange, because those others who think who you are, don't know themselves -- they know themselves through you. This is a beautiful game: I…