Indulgence

So this too was indulgence then? Was nakedness and the plucking of hair also a form of indulgence?

Yes, it was very much indulgence. For them it is indulgence—nothing but indulgence. And for them there is complete enjoyment in nakedness; for them it is entirely a part of their indulgence. It is not that they have left clothes; rather, nakedness has come. That is to say, the emphasis is not on having discarded clothes but on nakedness arising. A simplicity has come, and life has become so simple that, like the life of a child, of an animal or a bird—simple and innocent—they stand like that. But such a person will be utterly simple in the other parts of life too—simple in every way, guileless, innocent. In the other areas of his life there will be no signs of madness. Whereas the person who is an exhibitionist, who is naked only so that others will see him naked—this is his illness. Such a person will not be simple…

Osho, while listening to yesterday’s discourse I felt as if in you both Charvaka—“live happily”—and Ashtavakra—“move happily”—were speaking together. And for some reason I found that likable. But if, to become disenchanted with indulgence—that is, to be liberated—it is necessary to pass through indulgence completely, wouldn’t it be better to give Charvaka’s philosophy full scope in place of the huge hocus‑pocus of religious practice?

You eat; hunger had been there, there was torment—you ate, there was satiety. In that moment of satiety there is the flavor of fasting. For that short while, no memory of food remains. And the meaning of fasting is precisely this: that food does not preoccupy you. When the body is utterly healthy, when it is vibrant, then for a little while a glimpse of the bodiless arises. Ask athletes, runners, swimmers. Sometimes while swimming—in the sunlight, with the waves—there comes a moment when the body begins to throb with such aliveness, such a sense of well‑being showers in the body, that the body is forgotten—you become bodiless. That joy is of the bodiless. Sometimes while running, there comes a moment when the inner climate and the outer weather become harmonious; you are running, drenched in sweat, but the mind becomes silent, thoughts have stopped. Standing beneath a tree in…

Osho, religions call worldly pleasures unstable and fleeting and thereby try to create dispassion in us. But isn’t it precisely their fleetingness that is also the reason for their attraction?

Certainly, it is so; transience itself is the cause of attraction. And religions do not create dispassion by merely declaring life transient. Religion says: wherever there is transience, suffering will follow like a shadow. Transience is not the cause of dispassion; the suffering that comes in its wake is. Transience attracts, it beckons. The faster life runs away, the more the mind says—Enjoy, quickly! Now it’s here, now it’s gone. Who knows when the curtain will fall? So enjoy as much as you can; live with the utmost urgency. Let not even a single moment go idle—suck it dry. Exhaust the full possibility of each moment. Transience is attraction. Death is approaching; that is precisely why we cling to life. If death did not come, who would cling to life? If pleasures came and never left, who would worry? The cause of attraction is transience. The faster a thing dissolves,…

Gurdjieff wrote: as a child he loved a certain fruit in the Caucasus; delicious, but it caused stomach pain. Yet the taste—irresistible. Children are children, and old people too. Doctors forbid ice‑cream—but you eat; this they forbid—but how to leave! Then you suffer. His father forbade him many times; he wouldn’t listen, ate in secret. One day his father brought a whole basket of the fruit, sat him down with a stick in hand and said, “Eat.” Gurdjieff didn’t understand. First he was delighted—what happened to father! Always forbidding; and now a basket! But the father sat with a stick—so he had to eat. At first he relished—two, four, eight, ten; then the pain began; but father, stick in hand, said, “You must finish the basket.” Tears flowed; vomiting began; still the father said, “If you refuse I will break your limbs. Empty the basket!” He made him finish it.