If we make kids afraid of their bodies, they grow up fixated and confused; if we’re calm and honest, they grow up balanced and society advances.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, if the primitive ideology had a primitive idea, then it led to stagnation. Today we even have paper clothes—people say, paper clothes have come; if it rains, what will happen! But in the primitive days, among tribals, nothing of this sort ever arose in their hearts; there was nothing to hide, they roamed naked, as many still do today. So in a society that has seen two thousand, five thousand, ten thousand years of revolution and practice, does no such change come? Yet you advocated keeping the earlier idea.
No, I am not saying that either, I am not saying that either. What I am saying, I am giving you only as an example. I am not saying it should become like that, that we should hold on to that idea. All I am saying, only this much, is that the tribal mind does not have the same obsession with sex. Why not? Why is there no attraction for a nude picture for him? And why is there so much attraction for us? We are so attracted because the child’s natural curiosity to see the body has been stunted, blocked, suppressed. That suppressed desire then seeks other routes to look at naked bodies. And these routes are more dangerous. Because when you see a real naked body—now here is the surprising thing—if you see a naked body directly, the matter ends. But if you look at a nude picture,…
Osho, what type of society can develop individuals in whom the subconscious mind is utilitarian and easily dispensable?
I have felt so many times that a person who cannot enjoy sex cannot go deep in meditation -- because wherever there is happiness he becomes afraid. The association goes deep. So you have created a barrier. Now he will divide the mind also because he cannot accept the sex part in the mind. Sex is both body and mind. Everything is both! In you, everything is both -- remember it constantly. Sex is both body and mind, so the mind part of sex has to be suppressed. That suppressed part will become the unconscious. The forces, the thoughts, the moralistic preachings which will suppress it, will become the subconscious. A very small portion of the mind which is conscious will remain in your hands. It is useful only for the day-today routine, not for anything more. At least it is not useful to live deeply. You can exist, that's…
One of the controversial issues about the rajneesh ashram concerns indulgence in sex and what are being condemned as sexual perversions or orgies. We would like bhagwan rajneesh to give us his views on sex and its role in transcendence. -- r.k. Karanjia, editor, blitz
He's an atheist, a confirmed atheist who had never prayed. But with the situation -- the fear of the night and the wild animals -- for the first time in his life he thought of God. He forgot all his arguments that he used to give against God. He knelt down on the ground and he said, "Dear Lord...." although he looked around, a little embarrassed, knowing perfectly well that there was nobody, but still embarrassed -- the whole life's philosophy of atheism! But when fear knocks on the doors and when death is so close by, who bothers about logic, philosophies, isms? Who bothers about reason, argument? "Dear Lord," he said, "please help me get out of these woods, and I will always worship you. I will even start going to the mosque. I will follow all the rituals of Islam. I promise you! Just save me. Forgive me.…
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…
Osho, do you feel that a child should be given the freedom to inquire about the facts of his birth and about sex?
The ignorance of our society and the traditional foolishness of parents is what spoils children. It is not obvious to us on the surface, because when children create such messes we want to make our old rules even stricter: “Look, everything is going wrong—tighten the old rules.” And we do not see that it is because of those very rules that the mess is happening. Make them stricter and the disorder will only increase. I want to give unconditional freedom to the whole of life. No one has the right to stop anyone. But freedom is not license. And the curious thing is: a free person is never licentious; only the dependent person becomes licentious. Dependence unnerves so much that dependence is one extreme. When the dependent man gets a chance, the other extreme is his licentiousness. He never pauses in the middle, where freedom is. If you lock a…