Nepali Wanderer

Sex and Love:

Some experiences are beyond words; they can only be felt. It’s like trying to explain the taste of sugar, as words can’t truly capture its essence. The same holds true for love. But as civilisation has advanced, people have written extensively about love, often forgetting to genuinely experience it.

Love isn’t something to be created or sought outside ourselves; it already exists within us, waiting to be discovered. Osho uses the analogy of a statue hidden within a stone, needing only to be revealed by removing the impurities. He identifies these impurities as the dogmas of major religions, particularly propagated by religious leaders. Osho argues that this alienation from love stems from the demonisation of sex by these leaders.

You might wonder, what’s the connection between love and sex? Osho sees sex as the starting point of love. The blossoming of flowers, the singing of birds, and the dancing of peacocks — all are manifestations of sexual energy transforming into love. Osho compares sex and love to coal and diamonds; both are composed of the same elements, with time being the factor that transforms coal into a diamond. Similarly, sex, with time, can transform into love.

Life: The Greatest Force of All:

Life is the greatest gift, and yet many people fail to realise this. The reason is the blind adoption of ready-made philosophies of others, without exploration on their own. Osho highlights how most religions are death-oriented, focusing on heaven, the soul, or the afterlife. This suppression of life stems from a deep-seated reason, which Osho explains through a question.

What lies at the core of a man? Is it God? Is it the soul? No. Forget man; consider even an animal or a plant instead. At its core is the life force, which creates and sustains itself, existing long before humanity. This life force, the drive to create and evolve higher, is suppressed when sex is labeled a sin, as most religious leaders do. This only hinders the natural evolution towards something greater.

But here’s the mystery: despite all this suppression, the life force — sex — still prevails. People still find themselves drawn to it. And within this mystery lies the secret that can elevate us from sex to super consciousness.

The Secret of Sex:

On the surface, sex may seem like a mere physical attraction, but the bliss experienced during sex has nothing to do with the body. Instead, it is linked to two things: the dissolution of ego and a sense of timelessness. At the peak moment of sex, a person loses his or her sense of self or ego and awareness of time. This momentary realisation of Samadhi (Super Consciousness) is what lures beings into sex, despite knowing it is an energy-consuming process. However, there’s a problem: this blissful state is only temporary. So, the question is: can it be prolonged?

Osho believes that ancient wise sages realised this state, meditated upon it, and thus created Yoga. But they could create Yoga and realise Samadhi only because they were first able to understand sex and meditated on it. One cannot transcend anything without fully understanding it, as lingering doubts or fears will always hold one back. Osho uses the example of electricity: how only after understanding it were people able to transform it from something frightening (lightning) into something useful.

Brahmacharya — living in harmony with Brahman — only comes after the realisation, transcendence, and sublimation of sexual energy. It doesn’t come from closing your eyes and hiding your doubts, as modern religion often promotes. Suppression in the name of celibacy prevents people from understanding the truth about sex and transcending it, that is, using sex as a means to achieve something higher.

Meditation and Love:

Osho discusses two planes: the lower plane, belonging to animals, and the higher plane, associated with bliss. Humans exist somewhere in between. They experience the lower plane whenever they can hide their faces, like showing animal behaviour in crowds. And they catch glimpses of the higher plane during peak moments of sex. Attachment to sex is an attachment to that higher plane, albeit momentarily. Therefore, another path is needed — the path of meditation — so that the life force can be channeled in a different direction.

Osho explains that once a person practices meditation, a new door opens for life energy, allowing it to blossom into love. When two people are deeply in love, they merge into one another. However, this merging is temporary and often leads to attachment to that one person. And all attachments end in misery, owing to the impermanence of things.

Therefore, it’s crucial to seek a different kind of love, where you can be in love all the time. This love must be unconditional and universal. Osho gives the analogy of a flower, how it exudes the same fragrance to all, irrespective of the other entity. Love, that way, is a state of mind, not a relationship, and ultimately, it should be your nature. Remember, union with one person is ordinary love. And union with all is super consciousness, eternal bliss, Brahman, or God — whatever a person chooses to call it.

The Understanding of Sex:

Finally, Osho emphasises the greatest challenge of all: the widespread misunderstanding of sex. On the surface, this might seem like a puzzling statement, considering people have been engaging in sex and producing offspring for millennia. But Osho compares this to driving a car versus understanding its engine or knowing how to switch on a light and confusing that as truly understanding electricity.

He describes sex as a longing for union — the union that was separated at birth, the union that occurs during sex, even if momentarily. But union between two finite beings will always remain finite, whereas union with the infinite will be infinite. This longing for union with the infinite is given different names by people: God, Brahman, Samadhi, etc.

Osho then discusses ways to extend this moment of union through slow breathing and focusing on the third eye chakra. He also stresses the importance of viewing sex as divine and approaching it with the same reverence as entering a temple, contrary to using it as an escape from a bad mood. This prolonged glimpse will eventually free humans from the confines of sex. From there, they will begin to see all sensual pleasure-driven activities as a waste of energy, choosing instead to preserve this energy to attain the bliss that is Samadhi.

In conclusion, understanding sex and realising and meditating upon it is important. After this step, celibacy will occur naturally.