Eroticism

If man's erotic instincts were liberated, would they not run wild?

Man has not suffered from eros, no, not at all. Man has suffered from anti-eros. When you are anti-eros, THANATOS -- death -- becomes your god. Death is worshipped. Money is dead, so is politics, so is ego -- all dead things become very, very important. And you worship these dead idols. You ask me: IF MAN'S EROTIC INSTINCTS WERE LIBERATED, WOULD THEY NOT RUN WILD? Maybe, if they were immediately given total freedom, for the time being they may run wild. But that will be only transitory -- and the reason is not in eros. The reason will be because for centuries it has been repressed. It is as if a person has been starved for many years. Then you suddenly give him all freedom -- you give him the key to the kitchen. Yes, he is going to be wild for a little while, but what is wrong…

Beloved Osho, in the west, the portrayal of woman's body is used in films, books and magazines. This art form is known as `eroticism'. Through the sculptures of khajuraho and ajanta I have seen that a similar art form was there in the east. Can you talk about the difference between these two cultures in regard to the female body?

What is happening in the West is simply pornography, obscene. It does not help man to get rid of it, but simply gives him a temporary relief. The pornographic literature, photography, are all helping you to stay normal; otherwise, you will go mad. So I don't think there is any harm when somebody reads PLAYBOY hiding it inside the BIBLE. What he is seeing in a pornographic magazine brings up his own unconscious. This was used as a meditation technique in Khajuraho. In the West it is used to create more thirst for the same sexuality which has been aroused by the pornographic magazine, by blue films, by naked dances and striptease. The same method was used to transform your energy into spirituality. In the West it is used to provoke more sexuality, more sensuality. And then there is a kind of insatiation -- almost all painting has gone pornographic,…

Osho, human beings either go to the excess of sexual indulgence or to the opposite extreme of the frustration born of sexual repression. What is Sahaj Yoga’s vision on this subject—please be kind enough to explain it to us.

The Taj Mahal is the imagination of Sufi fakirs. An emperor had it built, but the conception was given by Sufis. Those who built it were Sufi fakirs too. That’s why, if you sit silently and look at the Taj on a full-moon night for an hour or two, an unparalleled meditation descends. The signatures of Sufis are upon it. Its very form is such that it dissolves you into meditation. Millions of statues of Buddha were made—who made them? Not shopkeepers. Not mere technicians either. Such images of Buddha were made that if you just sit by them—stone, yes, but they poured so much into the stone; gave it such a form, such a hue, such a feeling—that even sitting near the stone something within you becomes still. In China there is a temple—the Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas. It took centuries. Monks kept making, kept making, kept making.…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON SEXUAL ETHICS? My own insight is that people came to discover meditation through sexual orgasm because of these qualities. They could see that when thoughts stop, time stops, ego disappears and you are in a tremendously beautiful space. Although it lasts only for seconds, it has given you the taste of something that is not of this world, something of the beyond. We don't know who discovered meditation, perhaps thousands of years ago. In the East we have books at least ten thousand years old describing methods of meditation. But any method brings the same qualities. This is my feeling, that without sexual orgasm nobody could have been able to discover these three qualities. Once they discovered these three qualities, people of intelligence must have tried to experience them without going into sexual orgasm.