Is sadhana only necessary so long as there is lust and desire?

Osho, is sadhana only necessary so long as there is lust and desire?

Have you seen a tightrope walker? The whole time he sways left to right and right to left. When he leans left, a moment comes when a little more and he will fall; instantly he leans right, to correct the excess. Then on the right the same brink appears; again he leans left. In this way, by swaying, he manages to stay on the rope. But once he climbs down, will he keep swaying? He sits. Why would he lean then? He stands firmly; ground has been found. He is no longer on a rope. Moving in the world is like walking a tightrope. Every moment you must lean: now love, now hate; now sympathy, now anger—left and right. Lovers come to me and ask, “How can it happen that we never get angry with the one we love?” I say, it cannot be so—unless you climb down from the…

Osho, in the Dwarka camp you said that meditation and samadhi are a voluntary, conscious entry into the state of death, through which the illusion of death dissolves. Then the question arises: to whom does the illusion of death occur? Does it occur to the body or to consciousness? Since the body is only an instrument, it cannot have delusive awareness; and there is no reason for consciousness to be deluded. Then what is the cause and basis of this event of delusion?

They sent word. She came very annoyed. “It’s his same old habit,” she said. “He’s grown old but hasn’t dropped it. Even at death he will create mischief.” She came with a stick, banged it on the ground and said, “Stop this devilry! If you must die, die properly!” The man laughed, came down, and said, “I was only playing a little—wanted to see what they would do. Now I will die properly, conventionally.” Then he lay down and died. His sister left, saying, “Fine, now finish the rites. There is a right way for everything; do things properly.” Our illusion about death is a social delusion. It can be broken. There are methods and arrangements to break it. And even if no one else breaks it for you, anyone who has done a little meditation will break it himself at the time of death. No outside help is needed.…

Osho, in yesterday’s sutra you said that scientists claim if any sense is not used for three years it becomes nonfunctional. And yet we do not use the sex sense for twenty or twenty‑five years and still we do not find ourselves free of sexual desire. Not only us—even so‑called sadhus and sannyasins seem tormented by sexuality after years of practice. Does this principle not apply to the sex sense?

On this, two or three things need to be understood. First: the sex sense is not like your other senses. In truth, the sex sense is the center—the ground-source—of all your senses. The other senses lie on the surface, at the periphery; the sex sense is deep within, at the root. If you cut off a tree’s branches, the tree does not die; new branches sprout. But if you cut the roots, the tree dies—those green branches, too, wither and fall away. The eyes are on the surface, the hands on the surface, the ears on the surface; the sex sense is very deep. So if you do not use the eyes for three years, they will atrophy. If you do not use the ears, you will become deaf. If you do not move the hand, it will become paralyzed. If you do not use the legs, they will stiffen…

Osho, the witness, the seer, consciousness is always separate—virginal and unbound. And the whole play of life is nothing but the movement of the gunas within themselves. In such a situation, if a person’s qualities of sattva, rajas, and tamas are calmed in a scientific or chemical way, or if a person is made sattvic, will he then attain that ever-free witness? If the witness is forever free and present, then by chemically altering the three gunas will it not be revealed? Would the person not then become religious? What is the fundamental difference between solving the problem arising from the

Sadhana means we are dissolving the current itself, not breaking the bulb. There is no point in breaking the bulb. In fact, the bulb is useful; it tells you whether the current is flowing or not, whether there is current or not. Your anger within tells you you are still sunk in ignorance. Lust tells you your life energies have not yet become aware. If we remove these elements, anger will stop manifesting and you will also stop knowing that you are in deep ignorance. It is as if a man is sick and we snatch away the symptoms of his disease so that he doesn’t even come to know he is ill. And keep in mind, anger is an opportunity. Only the unwise say anger is simply bad; I do not say so. Anger is an opportunity; you can use it badly or well. Anger is a chance. In…

Osho, if the mind is dreamlike, then whatever is done through the mind will also be dreamlike, won’t it! Then is sadhana also dreamlike, and sannyas too?

Exactly so. Sadhana is a dream, and sannyas too. But there are differences between dream and dream. A thorn gets lodged in your foot; you use another thorn to remove the first. The second is also a thorn—remember that. One thorn is already stuck, so you take it out with another. Don’t imagine the second thorn is not a thorn—otherwise you’ll make a great mistake. And when the first thorn is out, what do you do? You throw away both thorns. You don’t wrap up the second thorn and put it in a safe, you don’t worship it. The world is a thorn. Sannyas is also a thorn. With one thorn you remove the other. Then both are useless. In the ultimate state, even sannyas is not. That Brahmin who asked Buddha, “Are you a deva, a gandharva, a human being?” forgot one thing; he should have asked, “Are you…