According to Osho, logic is opposed because it proves nothing real; it is an empty, circular, verbal game that can be used to 'prove' anything, thereby sustaining doubt. Truth arises only from direct, existential experience, with logic serving at best as a secondary tool to clarify it. He urges moving beyond logic into trust (faith), where doubt drops and transformation becomes possible.
Logic is a clever word game that can’t show truth; only your own lived experience can, so trust life more than arguments.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Why are you so much against logic?
Because it is logical to be against logic. Logic proves nothing, that's why I am against logic. It only pretends to prove; it proves nothing. It is an empty game, verbal. But the pretension is such that millions of people are befooled by it, and down the ages we have been trained for logic, so it has appeal. But logic has never proved anything. Proof comes only through experience, never through logic. Logic can help to explain your experience. No experience is ever derived out of logic. Yes, logic can be a servant. when you have attained to a certain experience, logic can help to explain it, logic can help to make it clear. Logic is secondary. So, the first thing: logic proves nothing. Reporter: They say the moon is made of green cheese. Is this correct? Spaceman: We didn't find any cheese on the moon. Reporter: (laughing) Perhaps all…
Why do you always talk against logic?
I'M NOT AGAINST LOGIC, LIFE is against it. I am talking about life, not against logic. Talking about life, it comes as a by-product, the talk against logic. Logic is a manmade world; it is not true to the facticity of existence. Logic is man's imposition on reality. Reality is very illogical, mysterious; it does not follow any rules. And the deeper you go into it, the more and more you will become aware that maybe on the surface there are a few rules, but as you move deep, rules start disappearing. And there comes a point in the depth of reality where all rules are invalid. Physicists are coming to it, because they have penetrated deep into matter. And they are talking almost like mystics. This is one of the greatest phenomena that has happened to this century -- this century's contribution to human consciousness. The mystics have always…
Osho, to what extent does life have relevance to logic?
I am not against logic. Use it -- it is a beautiful strategy as far as things are concerned, the marketplace is concerned, the superficial world is concerned -- but beware that you don't go on carrying it into deeper layers of life and experience. There it is a hindrance. Logic means mind. Mind is helpful in understanding the objective world. Mind is a hindrance in understanding the subjective world, because the subjective world is beyond the mind, behind the mind. You can use your eyes to see others, but you cannot use your eyes to see yourself. If you want to see yourself through your own eyes you have to use a mirror. To look in a mirror means you are creating a reflection of yourself -- which is not you, certainly not you, but you can see the reflection. Logic can see only the reflected glory of existence;…
Logic is applicable to the mundane world, for calculation, for arithmetic, for business, for science -- for the world of the objects it is perfectly okay, but the moment you start entering into higher planes of being, the moment you become interested in poetry, in singing, in music, in dance, in love, in prayer, then you have to leave the world of logic behind. Then you have to take a quantum leap, because unless you are capable of containing contradictions within yourself you will not be able to be a poet. You will not be able to be really a creator. Logic cannot create. It can analyse, it can dissect. There is a story of a Sufi mystic, Farid: one king came to visit the mystic. Somebody has presented him a golden scissor, studded with very precious diamonds.
The buddha said: my doctrine is to think the thought that is unthinkable; to practise the deed that is not doing; to speak the speech that is inexpressible; and to be trained in the discipline which is beyond discipline. Those who understand this are near; those who are confused are far. The way is beyond words and expressions, is bound by nothing earthly. Lose sight of it to an inch or miss it for a moment, and we are away from it forever more.
A doctrine is arrived at through logical thinking. A doctrine comes through the process of 'about-ism'. A siddhanta is arrived at not by closing your eyes, not by thinking too much, but by dropping thinking as such, in toto; by opening your eyes with no prejudice, with no a priori conceptions, and looking direct into reality, facing reality direct. It is already there, it needs only you to be there. And when you are absolutely without any thought, your mind is still, your memory is still, your thinking has completely ceased to be, then reality erupts, explodes. Then you become a receiver. Then siddhanta arises. <q>MY SIDDHANTA IS TO THINK THE THOUGHT THAT IS UNTHINKABLE....</q> The first thing, Buddha says, is to think the thought that is unthinkable. It is a contradiction, a paradox. Now, no logician will ever utter such nonsense. It is from the very beginning nonsensical. That's…