According to Osho, you know lust completely only through your own direct, total experience of it—enter it consciously, without borrowing others’ judgments or hurrying to transcend. Lived fully, awareness reveals its futility, and the intensity exhausts itself; one deep, unfragmented encounter can take you beyond. Second-hand wisdom cannot substitute; experience itself, rightly lived, attenuates desire and becomes liberation.
Experience lust fully with clear awareness and no borrowed guilt, and you’ll naturally see through it and lose its grip.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
A friend has asked: Osho, yesterday you said that to know anger completely, one must experience it in its totality. Then how is one to know lust completely? Because the experienced say that lust is never satisfied; the more you indulge it, the more it grows. So how can one go beyond lust?
Surely there is an inherent purpose. And it is this: even these saints could not have been born without lust. They too went beyond only by passing through the experience. They too entered it and found it to be futile. That realization of futility is precious—and it comes only when it happens in your own experience. So do not be in a hurry. Do not rely on borrowed experience. That does not mean you tell the experienced, “You are wrong.” You should simply say, “We do not yet know. We wish to enter and know for ourselves what this lust is. We will know it fully. If it turns out to be wrong, that very knowing will bring liberation. And if it turns out to be right, then there is no need for liberation.” One thing is certain: whoever has known rightly has become free. And another thing is also…
Osho, by your grace I can see the sky; I also have experiences of light, and I can become one with the inner flow. But when lust seizes me, I want to be as immersed in that as in meditation. Please tell me, what is this state of mine?
First thing: be a witness to lust as well. Do not become its controller. Do not try to bring it under control by force; remain a witness to it too. Just as you are a witness to everything else, be a witness to lust as well. It is difficult, because for centuries you have been taught that lust is sin. That notion of sin has settled in the mind. In this world there is no sin at all—only the Divine. Drop that notion. In this world the One alone is, pervading all forms—that One is the Divine. In the smallest of the small, the same; in the vastest of the vast, the same! In the low, the same; in the high, the same! In lust, the same; and in samadhi, the same. Here there is nothing that is “sin.” This does not mean I am saying you should remain stuck…
Osho, when I listen to you, every word sinks to the depths of my heart and stirs me. But when I read you, it remains a mental game. Please tell me why this happens.
It’s plain. The arithmetic is simple. When you read, only you are there; I am not. What you read is nothing but you. It becomes a game of the mind. When you listen to me, then sometimes—knowingly or unknowingly—I also slip into you. You seldom give such a chance, but now and then a lapse happens on your side. Unaware, you leave the door a little open—and I come in. So when you are hearing me, it’s a different matter. That is why truth has always been spoken, not written. It cannot be written. Even speaking it is very difficult, yet it can still be said—at least a little can be said, a little news can be given. Because in speaking, many elements are involved that are lost in writing. When you read a book, the book is dead. A book cannot create an atmosphere around you. A book has…
In this same context, someone has asked: Osho, what is your view regarding lust?
Lust is energy, and whoever fights with the energy of lust will be destroyed. Lust is to be transformed, not fought with. Sex, when transformed, becomes brahmacharya. Sex is not the opposite of brahmacharya. Brahmacharya is the transformed state of sex itself. In this world no energies are destroyed—only transformation happens. In this world nothing is destroyed; only transformation happens. Energies are never annihilated. The very energy of hatred, when transformed, becomes love. The very energy of cruelty, when transformed, becomes kindness and compassion. What you are calling lust—those very urges, when transformed, become forces that move life toward truth. After all, you must have seen: just now, on my way here, I passed a place where flowers were blooming. You must have seen a garbage heap where filth lies piled up. From that filth a stench arises, a bad odor spreads; anyone passing by holds his nose. But if…
Question: Third question: Osho, I want to voice the pain of my heart, which I have never expressed to anyone till today. My mind has become fragmented. On one side there is love for satsang and the longing to meet the Divine, and on the other side a constant pull, every moment, toward physical sexual desire. Even into mature age I have not been able to be free of it. Understanding comes but remains incomplete. And despite many experiences of the female body, the tendency torments me even more. All the good sayings and teachings remain outside. I stay the same! Forgetting everything, I become greedy. Lust surrounds the mind. Even in dreams the same thing goes on. By what practice may I gain freedom or equanimity? Please show the way. Have compassion. Radharamana! Reflect on what I have just said. Why do you want to be free of it?