Can one love more than one person?

Can one love more than one person?

It is not true about love. Love is inexhaustible, there is no question of scarcity. And you will be surprised that even people like Sigmund Freud think that there is scarcity even about love. Freud is against loving your neighbor or strangers. He's very much against Jesus' saying, "Love your neighbor." And his argument is the simple economic one -- that if love is spread out it is spread thin. Freud wrote: "To love thy neighbor is un-psychological." He also wrote "Such an enormous inflation of love can only lower its value." And in true Jewish and capitalist fashion, Freud assumed a scarcity-economy in the psyche: there was just so much libido, so much love, to go around, and one had to be careful where one invested it. This is utter nonsense. This is ABSOLUTELY wrong. You don't have only so much libido, you have INFINITE libido. And because this…

For example, if I know something and I tell it to one person, do you think I will not be able to tell it to another person because now I have told it to one? Will it be less? In fact it will be more because I will become more articulate with the second person. I said it to the first person -- that was the first attempt; I may not have been so articulate. With the second I will be more articulate, with the third even more, with the fourth even more. The more I become experienced in expressing it, the more the people who come later on will get. It is exactly like this: I love one person; I may not be so articulate. When I love another, I may become more articulate, because that experience helps.

And my teaching is that both are good -- one should start enjoying both. One should enjoy happiness and one should become also capable of enjoying unhappiness. One should enjoy the day and the night also... life and death too. One should not choose. Whatsoever comes, one should be able to find a way to enjoy it. Then life is an adventure and everything opens new doors which you have never opened before. So don't think about it -- become a sannyasin! If you are really in search of danger... but if you are in search of security, you can think about it for a few days, mm? [Another visitor says: Can you love more than one person or is it just that love is a general feeling for many people?

Osho, your answer about the heart which was approximately yogi reminded me of the following interchange: wife: "darling, since we married, do you love me more, or less?" husband: "more or less."

To ask about love in terms of more or less is stupid, because love can neither be more nor less. Either it is or it is not. It is not a quantity; it is a quality. It cannot be measured; it is immeasurable. You cannot say more, you cannot say less. The question is irrelevant, but lovers go on asking because they don't know what love is. Whatsoever they know must be something else. It cannot be love because love is not quantitative. How can you love more? How can you love less? Either you love or you don't love. Love surrounds you, fills you totally, or disappears completely and is not there... not even a trace is left behind. Love is a totality. You cannot divide it; division is not possible. Love is indivisible. If you have not come across such love which is indivisible then be alert. Then…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM A CONVERSATION WITH GURDJIEFF; THESE ARE HIS WORDS: WITH ORDINARY LOVE GOES HATE: I LOVE THIS, I HATE THAT. TODAY I LOVE YOU; NEXT WEEK, OR NEXT HOUR,OR NEXT MINUTE, I HATE YOU. HE WHO CAN REALLY LOVE, CAN BE; HE WHO CAN BE, CAN DO; HE WHO CAN DO, IS. TO KNOW ABOUT REAL LOVE, ONE MUST FORGET ALL ABOUT LOVE AND MUST LOOK FOR DIRECTION. AS WE ARE, WE CANNOT LOVE. WE LOVE SOMETHING BECAUSE SOMETHING IN OURSELVES COMBINES WITH ANOTHER'S EMANATIONS. WE ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE INFLUENCED. WE PROJECT OUR FEELINGS UPON OTHERS. ANGER BEGETS ANGER. WE RECEIVE WHAT WE GIVE. EVERYTHING ATTRACTS OR REPELS. THERE IS THE LOVE OF SEX, WHICH IS ORDINARILY KNOWN AS `LOVE' BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN -- WHEN SEX DISAPPEARS A MAN AND A WOMAN NO LONGER `LOVE' EACH OTHER.