What is the Zen approach towards sex?

Osho, what is the zen approach towards sex? The zen people seem to have a neuter gender, or asexual aura about them.

Remember, the business people are ascetic people. They have devoted everything to money. Now a man who knows love and has known the thrill of love and the ecstasy of it will not be competitive. He will be happy if he can get his daily bread. That is the meaning of Jesus' prayer: "Give us our daily bread." That is more than enough. Now Jesus looks foolish. He should have asked, "Give us a bigger bank balance." He asks only for the daily bread? A joyous man never asks for more than that. The joy is so fulfilling. It is only unfulfilled beings who are competitive, because they think life is not here, it is there. "I have to reach to Delhi and become the president," or to the White House and become this or that. "I have to go there, joy is there" -- because they know here there…

Apparently sex was used by some zen masters -- for example, ikkyu -- as a way to transform energy. However, in no translation to date does evidence of this appear. It seems disciples excluded from their records about their master any mention of sex, for fear that their master would be misunderstood. Would you like to comment?

Because of this comparison, Hinduism also became contaminated with the idea of repression of sex. Otherwise, you can see beautiful statues of men and women in deep embrace, in different postures even in the temples in Khajuraho, in Konarak, in Puri. Such beautiful sculpture you cannot find anywhere else. These temples were Hindu. Of course, sex was accepted by the Hindus -- not only accepted, but a system of transforming the sexual energy, Tantra, was developed by the Hindu saints. Jainism has remained a very small current, but very influential. It is one of the very important things to understand: the more miserable your saint, the holier he seems. If the saint is happy, joyous, loves life, and enjoys everything that existence allows him, you cannot think of him as very holy. To be holy, one has to be miserable. In short, pleasure in any direction is condemned. Jaina saints…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON SEXUAL ETHICS? My views on sexual ethics are against all the views that have been held up to now. They were all repressive of sex; they were condemnatory and created a split in the human mind. The whole schizophrenia and all the perversions of man are rooted in those wrong sexual ethics. I conceive of sex as a natural phenomenon. There is nothing profane in it and there is nothing sacred in it. It is purely natural life energy of tremendous importance. If you cannot sublimate it, it can destroy you; and it has destroyed humanity. It is the energy man is born out of; everything is born out of it. Naturally there is no higher energy than sexual energy, but biological reproduction is not its only function. The same energy can have different creative dimensions.

In the whole history of human consciousness, you are the first to give the utmost respect to women and to make available all the opportunities to grow into enlightenment. But why were zen masters consciously ignoring women for centuries? There are only a few instances of women being enlightened, but not being zen masters! Is it true that woman by nature is not much interested in the growth of her consciousness? Could you please include this great matter of the better half in your zen manifesto?

Meditation is not natural. Meditation is something which only a very evolved consciousness can manage. But reproduction, all kinds of animals are doing perfectly well without any guidance. Only man needs guidance. Now there are great discussions all over the world about how to teach children sex. Strange, no bird teaches sex, no animals have any classes, guidelines. I have heard about a small boy who found a book, HOW TO MAKE LOVE. He was standing on the head of a small girl and reading the instructions, because it said, "You should be on top of the girl" -- so he stood on the head of the girl. And he said, "Now it does not say anything, and I don't enjoy it very much." And the girl said, "Neither do I enjoy it. Get down, I'm getting a headache!" Only man needs to be taught sex. This is what religions…

So a great reverence has to be developed. That is the tantra vision: reverence for life, reverence for everything that life implies, particularly sex because it is sex that life comes out of. Each cell of the body is a sexual cell. The whole celebration around us is a sexual celebration. Flowers are sexual, the song of the bird is sexual and all that is beautiful is sexual. But the word 'sex' has become very very condemned. The moment you use the word something inside you becomes antagonistic; the very word has become loaded. I am not saying to force sex on yourself, but whenever it happens have a very very holy, full-of-reverence attitude towards it. The woman that you love, think of her as a goddess; think of her as a medium between you and god.