According to Osho, becoming harmonious with nature won’t turn you into an animal; you’re animal-like already in unconscious drives. Only humans can be out of tune and then consciously return; animals are in tune unconsciously. Conscious harmony transforms you upward - like a Buddha choosing simplicity - into innocence with awareness, not regression. Falling into unconsciousness (drink, drugs) is animal; conscious attunement awakens the divine.
Being natural won’t make you an animal; doing it with awareness makes you wise, while losing awareness makes you slip backward.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
A friend has asked: Osho, Lao Tzu says we should be in harmony with nature; won’t we then become like animals?
Humanity can be renounced in two ways: by falling back, and by going ahead. Falling back is animality. Lao Tzu is not telling you to fall back. Lao Tzu is telling you to go forward. He is saying: come into harmony with nature consciously. Consciously become quiet, become silent. Consciously drop all distortion, all uproar, all conflict. Consciously bid farewell to the ego. Consciously do not sow the seeds of strife. Do not clutch dualities; become free of duality—in awareness, in wakefulness. So certainly, Lao Tzu will look just like an animal. Seat Lao Tzu beside a cow and it will be hard to tell the difference in their eyes—just as tranquil. But the cow does not know what Lao Tzu knows. Lao Tzu is aware now; he is drinking the very nectar of dissolving into nature. The friend who has asked whether becoming one with nature might make a…
"you said that acceptance transforms but why is it that when I accept my senses and desires I feel that I have become animal-like instead of transformed?"
This is your transformation; this is your reality. And what is wrong in being an animal? I have not seen a single man who can be compared to any animal. Suzuki used to say, "I love a frog, even a frog, more than a man. Look at a frog sitting near a pond: how meditatively a frog sits! Look at him, how meditative he is -- not disturbed by the whole world going on, just sitting and sitting and meditating, one with existence." Suzuki said, "When I was unenlightened I was a man, and when I became enlightened I became just like a cat." Look at a cat: she knows the secret of how to relax and she has not read any books about relaxation. How to relax? Look at a cat. No man can be a better teacher than a cat. The cat is relaxed and alert. If you…
Osho, it is said that at the root of desire lies natural sex. Is flowing with nature not supportive of awakening? Please explain.
When you flare up in rage you become animal. It is easy to be angry—but how long can you remain that way? No one can stay in anger continuously. To slip into sex is easy; but the oblivion that sex brings for a moment—how long does it last? Ephemeral. It comes like a bubble—appears, bursts, is gone. Then you stand where you stood before—more worn, more broken, more depressed. Is there anyone who does not feel remorse after sexual indulgence? Is there anyone who, having been angry, does not regret, “What have I done!” Is there anyone who, after angering, does not try to explain, “I wasn’t really angry”? Why this attempt to explain? Because anger means you became animal. The ego is hurt by the idea, “I behaved like an animal?” So we whitewash, we rationalize: “I wasn’t angry—just put on a show; I did it playfully; I did…
Osho, many beings in this creation live a natural, spontaneous life in accordance with nature, but the human race is living a base life. Will human life turn toward spontaneity or not? What is our duty?
It is both man’s misfortune and his good fortune that he is not spontaneous. Misfortune—because the peace and ease available to plants and birds is not available to man. Good fortune—because if he wishes, man can become a Buddha, a Krishna, a Christ. Plants and animals cannot become a Krishna, a Buddha, or a Christ. Man’s defining trait is his freedom. Man is entitled to choose the order of his life. A dog is born a dog and dies a dog. A rosebush is born a rose and dies a rose. No revolution occurs in its life. Life remains confined within a fixed mold. There is dependence. There is peace, yes, but it is the peace of slavery. There is naturalness too—no cunning, no hypocrisy; a rose is simply a rose. It never cheats by posing as champa, nor does it contrive to be a lotus. It is content with…
A friend asked me this afternoon: Osho, unless we suppress our vices, we cannot rise above the animal. We will become animals. If we follow what you say and do not suppress our mind—do not repress our anger, do not repress our sex—then we will become animals.
But I want to tell you: as man is today, animals are better than him. It hurts to know this; it hurts me too. But animals are far better than man—in a thousand ways. What has happened to man is astonishing. Animals do not seem so anxious, nor so miserable. Have you ever heard of an animal or a bird committing suicide? You haven’t. I don’t think such a thing has yet occurred. If it ever does, every newspaper in the world will carry it in big letters on the front page: A dog has committed suicide. So far it has not happened. Only man takes his own life. What does this mean? Man’s life has reached such a condition that man himself wants to end it. Has it become so bad that we ourselves finish it? So meaningless? So filled with sorrow and pain? Yet this is what has…