According to Osho, asceticism is against true spirituality because it is self-directed violence—masochism disguised as religion—that nourishes the ego with a false sense of power. It represses life’s energies, rejects joy, and becomes a slow suicide. Authentic religion is life-affirming: a healthy, whole acceptance and celebration of existence, not antagonism toward the body or senses.
Hurting or denying yourself to feel spiritual is hidden self-violence; real spirituality is kind, joyful, and loves life.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why are you against ascetic practices? Are they not religious? Is not asceticism a path to god?
But down the ages we have praised these insane people, we have worshipped them. Because of this worship humanity has remained immature and humanity has remained abnormal. The normal people are not normal. they are only called normal. They exist in great numbers but they are not the norm -- and they are not healthy either. They somehow manage to live their lives. The man who is destructive to his being is insane, and the people who worship him as a saint are also insane. I am utterly against ascetic practices because those practices are against life. I am all for life. I am all for God. God is a celebration. Look around... the whole existence is continuously in a celebration, in a kind of 'alleluia'. It continues singing and dancing, and loving, and enjoying. If you watch existence you will understand what it is to be religious: to be…
Why are you so much against asceticism? Isn't asceticism a valid path to god?
Path? It is a pathology. To be an ascetic simply shows that you are masochistic, that you are suicidal, that you enjoy torturing yourself. And by torturing yourself you can create a certain character, but the character will be only on the surface. It will not transform you, it will only be a pretension. It will be only a face, a facade, a camouflage. Ascetics have existed in the world because there are suicidal people. And there is a death instinct in man -- Sigmund Freud has called it "thanatos." Sigmund Freud's contribution to human growth is immense. In his early life he discovered the life-instinct -- sex, eros. And then in his later life, when he was getting old, he discovered another thing -- thanatos, against eros. There are two basic instincts in man: one is to live, another is to die. Both are there. If the instinct to…
A friend has asked: Osho, is austerity needed in spiritual practice or not?
What I am telling you—purification of body, purification of thought, purification of feeling; emptiness of body, emptiness of thought, emptiness of feeling—this is austerity. What do people think austerity is? A man standing in the blazing sun—“he is doing austerity!” Someone lying on thorns—“he is doing austerity!” Someone sitting hungry—“he is doing austerity!” Our concept of austerity is extremely materialistic, very physical. For us, austerity means tormenting the body. If someone inflicts pain on the body, we say he is practicing austerity. But austerity has nothing to do with bodily torture. Austerity is something wondrous; it is something altogether different. A man is fasting. We think he is practicing austerity. He is merely starving. And I would even say he is not fasting at all; he is simply without food. Being without food, not eating, is one thing; being in upavasa is quite another. Upavasa means dwelling near the divine.…
As I said, there are two common types: those who torture others — sadists; and those who torture themselves — masochists. As with de Sade, so with Masoch — unless he whips himself ten or fifty times each morning, the day will not be fresh. Thus there have been sannyasins who whipped themselves, lay on thorns, wore shoes of thorns, kept wounds open. What kind of people are these? Is this sannyas? Is this Dharma? If a man starves another, we say irreligious; if a man starves himself, we take out a procession. Strange! If torturing is irreligious, what does it matter who is tortured? Another could resist; oneself cannot. It is easier to torture oneself. Torturing another involves many difficulties — society, law, police, courts. As yet there is no law, police or court against self-torture. There should be, for some wicked ones torture themselves.
Osho, I had said something about fasting. People have asked: Are you opposed to fasting? Don’t the senses grow weak through fasting, bringing detachment? Didn’t Mahavira, Buddha, and others do their sadhana through fasting? In this way, many questions have come related to fasting.
The body is an amazing mechanism. The flesh and fat stored in our body are not without purpose. If we stop eating, the body starts digesting its own fat and flesh—a kind of carnivory. We begin to eat our own meat. That is why your weight drops. If you don’t eat for a day, a pound can drop—you’ve digested a pound of your own flesh. The body has to work every day and needs to digest flesh; ordinarily you supply it from food and all goes on. If you stop eating, the stock of flesh you carry begins to be consumed. Within four or five days, the body drops the habit of taking new food and starts digesting its own tissues. You must have seen frogs—they almost come alive in the rains and spend the rest of the time almost like dead, buried in the earth; they dry up and…