How does sexual desire disappear through the practice of meditation?

Another friend has asked: Osho, how does sexual desire disappear through the practice of meditation?

It is not that sexual desire disappears; through meditation your energy begins to move in another dimension and direction. If someone says that by digging canals the river no longer floods, it does not mean floods stop coming because of the canals; floods still come, but their force is carried off through the canals, and the villages along the banks no longer need to be submerged. Meditation does not throw your sexual desire out. You have only one power—whether you expend it in sex or in meditation. Your energy is one; use it however you will—into anger or into forgiveness, into love or into hate—the power is the same. All expressions are uses of that one power. Meditation makes your energy upward-moving. It starts traveling on a higher path. Its outlets change. Where sex was the outlet, love becomes its path. If the energy flows downward—degrades—it finds sex as its…

No, Osho, what happens is that our mind is in one of two states. Either I feel I will be able to solve it, or I’m afraid that I won’t be able to solve it...

Because of that ignorance, we create many problems we don’t even suspect. For instance, in India almost everyone assumes that the sexual act is devastating. Physiologically that is absolutely wrong—completely wrong. In fact, sexual inactivity is devastating. Activity is not devastating. And it is also interesting that anyone who thinks he can go to extremes in sexual activity is mistaken. The body has checks. You cannot go to extremes; there are bodily checks. Nature has arranged it so you cannot expend surplus force beyond what the body allows. But one can misuse it, right? Even misuse is not possible—if you use full understanding. As far as sex has been understood, misuse is not possible. Misuse is impossible. Then not just sex—by that argument you can’t misuse anything! If we extend that very argument, you can’t misuse anything! No, no—you can misuse many things. Why not sex? Because the entire arrangement…

Question: IF YOU SLEEP, DESIRE GROWS IN YOU LIKE A VINE IN THE FOREST. LIKE A MONKEY IN THE FOREST YOU JUMP FROM TREE TO TREE, NEVER FINDING THE FRUIT -- FROM LIFE TO LIFE, NEVER FINDING PEACE. IF YOU ARE FILLED WITH DESIRE, YOUR SORROWS SWELL LIKE THE GRASS AFTER THE RAIN. BUT IF YOU SUBDUE DESIRE, YOUR SORROWS FALL FROM YOU LIKE DROPS OF WATER FROM A LOTUS FLOWER. THIS IS GOOD COUNSEL AND IT IS FOR EVERYONE: AS THE GRASS IS CLEARED FOR THE FRESH ROOT, CUT DOWN DESIRE LEST DEATH AFTER DEATH CRUSH YOU AS A RIVER CRUSHES THE HELPLESS REEDS. FOR IF THE ROOTS HOLD FIRM, A FELLED TREE GROWS UP AGAIN. IF DESIRES ARE NOT UPROOTED, SORROWS GROW AGAIN IN YOU. That's why it happens that if you are involved into something really deeply you may not feel any interest in sexuality.

Please describe to us the spiritual significance of sex energy. How can we sublimate and spiritualize sex? Is it possible to have sex, to make love, as a meditation, as a jumping board toward higher levels of consciousness?

There is no such thing as sex energy. Energy is one and the same. Sex is one outlet for it, one direction for it; it is one of the applications of the energy. Life energy is one, but it can manifest in many directions. Sex is one of them. When life energy becomes biological, it becomes sex energy. Sex is just an application of the life energy. So there is no question of sublimation. If life energy flows in another direction, there is no sex. But it is not a sublimation; it is a transformation. Sex is the natural, biological flow of life energy, and the lowest application of it. It is natural because life cannot exist without it, and the lowest because it is the foundation not the peak. When sex becomes the totality, the whole life is just a waste. It is like laying a foundation and going…

For the first time you will see what sex should be. Ordinarily people are just obsessed by sex. It is not a natural thing. It is almost like a burden... a constant worry about it. It is more like a performance; it is more like a duty that one has to do. If you do it, you don't gain much. If you don't do it, you feel you are losing much; maybe you are missing something. So it is a very vicious circle -- and that's what has been up to now. So before sex becomes normal and natural, there will be a time in which you will lose interest -- in that time don't be afraid. You are not going to become a buddhist nun -- don't be afraid, mm? And by chance you had to listen to Buddha lectures, mm?