According to Osho, resistance intensifies precisely where desire is deepest because real love threatens the ego’s existence. Attraction and resistance are twin poles: coming closer to what you truly want feels like a death of the old ‘you.’ The heart has already moved, but the mind fights on. Don’t force; allow time and free surrender—strong love inevitably dissolves resistance.
You resist what you most want because it would change who you think you are, so your mind gets scared while your heart already knows.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, why does every desire come carrying its opposite? Is its dividedness inevitable? And is no whole and undivided desire possible? What is desire?
One day, by mistake, he wandered into the camp of a Muslim chieftain. He was going along in ecstasy, dancing; the camp happened to be in the way—that was all. The women, frightened, screamed. A naked man, dancing in ecstasy, had walked in—they thought he was mad. Seeing a naked sadhu intrude, the chieftain, too, grew angry. He drew his sword and struck. One of Sadashiva’s hands was cut off and fell to the ground. But Sadashiva’s joy suffered no interruption. The hand fell, blood began to flow, yet the dance continued. Just as he had been dancing, he turned and kept dancing as he walked away. The chieftain was astonished, and also pained—he had never seen such ecstasy. And that a hand could be cut off and he would not even notice—such ecstasy! The man was in some other realm. Looking into his eyes, it was as if he…
Osho, looking within I have felt that many of my desires are sick, diseased—especially the negative desires. So are there healthy and unhealthy desires? And would you kindly tell us what the difference is between healthy and sick desires?
Desire is natural. It is nature’s gift. It is a donation from the divine. In itself desire is perfectly healthy. Without desire you could not live—not even for a single moment. In fact, the ancient scriptures say one thing: God was alone. A desire arose in him to become two—and the world was born. A desire arose in God to be two, to be many, to expand, to spread—and the world came into being. We are parts of that very desire of the divine; we are rays of that desire. So the first thing: desire is natural. It is of nature; it is innate. Desire is not bad; it is not sin. Those who told you desire is sin—avoid desire, escape from it, repress it, cut it down, kill it—they are the ones who made desire sick. Repressed desire becomes diseased. Whatever is pushed down turns poisonous. It does not…
Osho, in the previous verse you spoke about resolve. What is the difference between resolve and repression of the senses? We want to understand this.
It is necessary to understand the word deva. Much confusion has arisen from it. Deva is a technical term. In this world, when people die, ordinary people find a womb quickly; a body becomes available immediately. But for a very exceptional, auspicious soul, a suitable womb is not immediately available; it must wait. For a very evil soul too, a womb is not readily available; it also must wait. For ordinary souls the womb becomes available at once—hence an ordinary man dies here and is born there; there is little gap between death and new birth—sometimes moments, sometimes not even that. Wombs are available round the clock; the soul immediately enters. But a superior soul waits for a worthy womb. Such superior souls are called devas. Inferior souls also wait; they are called pretas—ghosts. Those who died doing much evil—such as a Hitler, on whose head lies the murder of…
Question: wasn't buddha's desire for realization a desire?
Mind is desiring. The mind cannot do anything without desire. You cannot transcend the mind through desiring, because the mind is the desiring. So the mind has to desire even that which is found only when there is no desire. But begin with the wall. Know desire, and you will stumble upon the door. Even Buddha had to begin with a desire, but no one told him -- the fact was not known to him -- that the door opens only when there is no desire. As I understand it, struggling with desire is the disease. Giving up the struggle is the freedom. That is the only real death: when you just give up. If you can just lie down and die with no struggle to live, without even an indication of struggle, that death can become a realization. If you just lie down and accept -- with no movement…
Osho, on deep introspection I find no worldly desires that might become a bondage at the time of death. But the desire to attain truth keeps growing—what should I do? Kindly guide me.
That too will obstruct. Desire as such obstructs. It makes no difference what the desire is for; the content does not matter. Whether you want wealth or you want meditation, the nature of wanting is the same—and wanting hinders. Whether you want status or you want the Divine, the delusion of wanting is one. What does wanting mean? Understand this. Wanting means: as I am, I am not all right. Something else should be. A little more money, a little more status, a little more meditation, a little more truth, a little more God. But a little more is needed. As I am, I am not satisfied. Wanting means discontent. Then what difference does it make what the wanting is for? The discontent will remain. You go and throw a pebble into a still lake—a pebble, an ordinary pebble—and ripples arise. Do you think if you throw the Kohinoor diamond,…