Don’t fight or feel guilty about sexual thoughts—watch them kindly and understand them, and they’ll calm down so real celibacy appears naturally.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
I want to attain to brahmacharya and purity of life but whenever I sit silently sexual fantasies start crowding upon me. It is ugly. I want to get rid of this sex obsession but nothing seems to help. What should I do?
It is not a sex obsession, sir, it is a BRAHMACHARYA OBSESSION. And who told you that sex is dirty? All life exists through sex, all life grows out of it. All that is beautiful is sexual. The cuckoo crying is not saying a prayer, it is a sexual call. And the flowers Flowering are not flowering for your dead so-called gods in your temples, it is a sexual flowering. All that is beautiful in existence is sexual. And it seems you have not even heard my name. You are asking such a question! what seems you must be an absolute stranger here. Have you ever heard my name or not? You say: I WANT TO ATTAIN TO BRAHMACHARYA. But why should you want to attain to BRAHMACHARYA? You should try to understand your sexuality. BRAHMACHARYA comes as a consequence. It is not some thing that you attain or that…
Osho, I have taken the vow to remain a celibate my whole life, but why do I still suffer from sexual thoughts, fantasies and dreams?
Just the last week I was reading about one yogi, Dhirendra Brahmachari, who goes on showing his yoga postures on the television. And he was telling the last week to his audience that, "Do you know how I remain so healthy? I am pulling my anus upwards right now, but you cannot see it because I am wearing clothes." And then he told that his disciple, one girl who sits by his side to show yoga postures, "She is also holding her anus upwards, but you cannot see because she is wearing the clothes." The girl must have gone red! It is good that India has not yet gone for color TV -- in black and white you cannot see whether the girl is blushing or not. But then you have to do all kinds of nonsense things. Now pulling your anus upwards will simply force your sexual energy to…
Osho, today after lecture, as I was kneeling before your platform, sexual fantasies concerning you filled my head. On the one hand, my body was filled with energy and it felt good; on the other hand I began to feel guilty, that it was wrong to have such thoughts about you and I shouldn't allow them to continue. Then my stomach began cramping and I had to run to the bathroom with diarrhoea. What is happening? And is it okay to have such fantasies?
Go inside. As you start moving inside the temple, the figures are less and less, and love starts changing. On the outer walls it is pure sexuality; as you start entering inside, you will find sex is disappearing. Couples are still there, in deep love, looking into each other's eyes, holding hands, embracing each other, but sexuality is no more there. Go still deeper figures are even less. Couples are still there, but not even holding hands, not even touching. Go still deeper -- and the couples have disappeared. Go still deeper.... At the innermost core of the temple what in the East we call the GHARBA, the womb -- there is not a single figure. The crowd is gone, the many is gone. There is not even a window for the outside! No light comes from the outside; it is utter darkness, silence, calm and quiet. And there is…
Osho, I have a lot of fantasies, especially sexual ones. Even though I see how they are taking me away from life here and now, I let myself be dominated by them. According to astrology, a scorpio has especially strong sexual desires. I am a scorpio. Have my fantasies anything to do with that? I would like to drop them because they make it difficult for me to relax and I think they are a large part of my prison. Could you please indicate a way?
It simply shows you are really a religious person! Such great problems arise only for religious people. These are good signs. Having sexual fantasies is an indication that you are reaching towards a higher plane of spirituality. It happens only on higher planes of spirituality! Ordinary mortals don't have such things. They may have sex, but they don't have sexual fantasies. And sex in the genitals is perfectly good, but in the head... everything becomes topsy-turvy! But religious people have been doing that for centuries. It is a kind of sirshasan -- headstand. They stand on their head so the sexual energy, just because of gravitation, starts going in their head! Either physically they do the headstand or psychologically. But remember, everything belonging to its own center is healthy; whenever it starts entering into another center, into the territory of another center, you are going insane. But the so-called religious…
What is pornography, and why does it have so much appeal?
Your alive wife does not give you any thrill. With your alive wife you suddenly go dead. There are people, even while making love to their wife, they are imagining some other woman; they are imagining some PLAYBOY picture. They can make love to their woman only when in their imagination there is some other woman, some fantasy. Then they get thrilled. They are not making love to their woman, and the woman is not making love to them. She may be thinking of some actor or some hero or somebody. There are four people in each bed! Of course, it is too crowded, and you never contact the real person; those imaginary ones are standing in between. You should know that masturbation -- mental or physicalis a perversion. It does not exist in nature. Homosexuality does not exist in nature, but in zoos it comes into existence. In zoos…