Sublimation

Why has man lost the capacity of sublimation since patanjali's time?

In Patanjali's days people were simple, natural. No need for catharsis; nothing was repressed. There was no need to go into catharsis. But now everybody is repressed. And everybody is repressed in so many ways that years of catharsis will be needed: only then you become natural again. You have collected so much garbage in the unconscious, it has to be thrown out. Right now you cannot move on the path -- first you have to unload yourself. You must understand society has its own needs, every nation has Its own needs. They are not necessarily the needs of the individuals. this is the problem. The individual's need is to be happy, to be blissful -- to delight in this small life that has been given to you. That is the individual need, but that is not the social need. Society doesn't bother whether you are happy or unhappy: the…

Question: Osho, to me the present state of world affairs appears illusory. Eminent scholars from different walks of life offer various themes for the transformation of life. For instance, religious leaders affirm that God or religion alone is omnipotent and can transform life and provide heaven. Sociologists, politicians, educationists and moralists believe that only better forms can create a better society. Naturalists say that understanding nature will bring transformation. Whereas psychologists and psychopathologists believe that psychoanalysis, tranquilizers, sedatives or brainwashing agents can transform life, etc., etc. But to me, sir, all this appears to be merely a partial transformation. Would you suggest what total and spontaneous transformation is? Man has constantly been thinking how life can be transformed from the roots. There are reasons for such thinking: as life is, there seems to be nothing in it but sorrow, pain, restlessness, struggle and strife.

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.…

Osho, what do those people mean who say that, so that there is no explosion, one should search within with a subtle, refined vision...

But the effortless awakening I speak of—once it arrives, there is no question of its departure, because you did not bring it; it came. Gradually you and awakening are not two; you are the awakening. You did not make even anger “the other,” so how would awakening be “other”? It becomes you. There is no question of its return. Whatever we have truly known cannot be unknown. You cannot undo knowing. Yes, what we have merely learned by rote can wobble. But what is known—like a child who comes to know love; once he knows, he cannot un‑know it. Knowing becomes part of you; it cannot fall away. Reading four books about love is different; that can be forgotten. Through the experiment of awakening, whatever happens in us reveals itself gradually. Awakening is not something that comes from outside; it is your inner being uncovering itself. If it were an…