https://oshofriends.com/dictionary/69286Punishment
Question 6
Are we not punished for out sin?
No, We are punished BY our sin, not FOR our sin.
Sin itself is its punishment. You over-eat, you suffer; you over-indulge, you suffer. It is not that the suffering will come later on, that suffering will come as a result, no. Suffering comes in the act itself. So let me tell it in this way: We are punished BY our sin, not for our sin.
That FOR has created great difficulties for man, because 'for' means 'in the future', maybe in the other life. 'Who bothers about the future? And we will see when it comes if some ways and means can be found to avoid it. Or we can always go to the priest and confess, or we can go to the Ganges and take a bath and be relieved of the sin. Or we can go to a saint and be blessed by him.' Some strategy can be found, but I tell you you are not punished FOR sin, you are punished BY sin. So there is no way to get rid of it.
If you eat too much, you go against nature, and immediately... the punishment. The punishment is instantaneous, it is not afterwards; it is then and there, it is immediate. So nobody can avoid it. If you want to avoid it. you have to be very very conscious not to commit sin.
Sin is a kind of unconsciousness. You become angry. In that very anger you suffer, not that you will suffer afterwards. Anger is fire, anger is poison. It poisons your whole system: it disturbs your health, it disturbs your mind, it disturbs your tranquillity, it disturbs your soul; and then it hangs with you for days together. The disturbance has to settle again, and before it settles, you become angry again. Then it becomes chronic. Then it hangs with you.
My approach is that in the very act is the punishment, and in the very act is the reward, obviously. When you are loving, there is heaven; when you are hateful, there is hell.
-Osho, "I Say Unto You, Vol 2, #4, Q6"
