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Osho on What is the relationship between lust and adultery?

What is the relationship between lust and adultery?

Adultery is not the natural desire for your partner; it is the mind's distortion of love into lust that creates inner conflict and ugliness. Embrace sex as a beautiful expression of love, free from both repression and indulgence.

— Osho
Synthesized from Source definition
Core Insight:
According to Osho, adultery is not the natural desire you feel for your own partner; calling that adultery is repressive nonsense. He contrasts this with Jesus’ point that lusting after another woman is already inner adultery, highlighting the mind’s role. Sex is beautiful when accepted naturally; both repression and indulgence distort it into ugliness.
Liking your spouse is normal; the real cheating begins in the mind when you secretly crave others.
Why this matters practically
- Reduces guilt by normalizing healthy sexual feeling in relationships.
- Promotes self-awareness to notice when desire becomes objectifying or deceptive.
- Encourages a balanced, non-repressive, non-indulgent approach to intimacy.
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