According to Osho, sexually free societies are not degraded but more honest, because they face the fact of sex without hypocrisy; so‑called moral societies are dishonest. Pornography, like any nude art, is simply beautiful unless a perverted mind turns it into disease. Condemnation stems from anti-sexual conditioning; a new, healthier morality—exemplified by Sweden—embraces openness.
Sex and nudity aren’t bad—if your mind is clear, nude images are just art, and open attitudes toward sex are more honest than fake morality.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
What is your view of pornography and what are your views on the new morality of sexually free societies like sweden?
I will not condemn. I appreciate it. Sexually free societies are not degraded. Rather, they have come to face the facts of life honestly. They are more honest than so called moral societies, which are basically dishonest. If sex is a fact then you must take it as a fact. No beating around the bush And pornography is an art, unless your mind is perverted. If your mind is perverted, pornography becomes a disease. Otherwise it is a simple art. If I paint a beautiful flower you appreciate it so why not appreciate it if I paint a nude woman? It is just as beautiful. And if a naked flower is beautiful, a naked woman or a naked man is also beautiful. But a naked flower will not create any attitude in you of condemnation, when a picture of a naked woman will. Not because it is pornography, but because…
Osho, there is a great deal of hypocrisy in india about sex. People are not even willing to discuss it openly, yet there is a growing proliferation of, and obsession with, nude pictures. Will this flood of pornography help? Can it finally bring sex out into the open in india?
If you want to see the reality of the politician you will have to see him from his back door. There he is in his nudity, as he is, and so is the priest. These two kinds of cunning people have dominated humanity. And they found out very early on that if you want to dominate humanity, make it weak, make it feel guilty, make it feel unworthy. Destroy its dignity, take all glory away from it, humiliate it. And they have found such subtle ways of humiliation that they don't come in the picture at all. They leave it to you to humiliate yourself, to destroy yourself. They have taught you a kind of slow suicide. You ask me, Silvera: "There is a great deal of hypocrisy in India about sex." It is not only a question about sex. Sex is the most fundamental hypocrisy, but then there are…
Osho, it is astonishing that a porno magazine published from India’s capital, which trades in obscenity, has written that you should be hanged. What is the secret behind this?
Anand Maitreya! There is not the slightest secret. The matter is absolutely straight and clear. Pornographic magazines sell because of your sadhus and renunciates! If things were up to me, porn magazines wouldn’t be able to sell anywhere in the world. If things were up to me, who would buy a porn magazine? For what purpose? Who buys porn magazines? Those very people who have repressed their sexual desire. Those who have not honored their sexuality, not welcomed it. Those who have fallen prey to pundits, priests, sadhus and monks. They are the ones who read porn magazines—though some read them hidden inside the Gita, some inside the Quran, some bound in a Bible cover—but it’s the same people. This whole world is full of “religious” people—so who is reading porn? The very ones who read books saying “celibacy is life” are the ones who read porn. These are not…
What is pornography, and why does it have so much appeal?
Your alive wife does not give you any thrill. With your alive wife you suddenly go dead. There are people, even while making love to their wife, they are imagining some other woman; they are imagining some PLAYBOY picture. They can make love to their woman only when in their imagination there is some other woman, some fantasy. Then they get thrilled. They are not making love to their woman, and the woman is not making love to them. She may be thinking of some actor or some hero or somebody. There are four people in each bed! Of course, it is too crowded, and you never contact the real person; those imaginary ones are standing in between. You should know that masturbation -- mental or physicalis a perversion. It does not exist in nature. Homosexuality does not exist in nature, but in zoos it comes into existence. In zoos…
Question: OSHO, WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF MORALITY CONCERNING SEX? Divendra, THERE IS NO FUTURE OF ANY MORALITY concerning sex. In fact, the very combination of sex and morality has poisoned the whole past of morality. Morality became so much sex-oriented that it lost all other dimensions -- which are far more important. Sex should not really be so much of a concern for moral thinking. Truth, sincerity, authenticity, totality -- these things should be the real concerns of morality. Consciousness, meditation, awareness, love, compassion -- these should be the real concerns of morality. But sex and morality became almost synonymous in the past; sex became overpowering, overwhelming. So whenever you say somebody is immoral you simply mean that something is wrong with his sexual life.