Osho on Homosexuality- Accept whosoever you are. No condemnation
Question - Dear Osho, today you spoke of homosexuality and let us laugh
at the idea of all men walking arm-in-arm through the streets and
calling each other 'darling' laughter is good, of course, but sometimes
it has an edge of mockery. As a Gay person, I felt put down at that
moment. Please will you talk about how gay people or blacks or jews or
any other minority may receive and accept such laughter.
Osho -
Pradipam, You are not the only gay person here. We have many gay guys,
and many lesbian ladies too. This is a miniature world -- I have all
kinds of people here; my garden contains all kinds of flowerings, all
kinds of plants. It is less a garden, more a jungle. And I accept all --
wild plants and all. Everybody is welcome.
Why did only you
become disturbed? There are very famous gay guys here. In fact, I never
knew, Pradipam, that you were also one of them. Why did you become
disturbed? Why has nobody else taken any offence? They have learnt to
accept -- because that is my whole teaching! Accept whosoever you are.
No condemnation, no judgement, no evaluation. If you are a homosexual,
so what?! Enjoy it! God has made you that way. That is his way of
expressing himself through you. And there have been great homosexuals --
from Socrates onwards.
If you look at the long history of
homosexuals, you will be surprised: they have had better company than
the heterosexuals. In fact, great talented poets, painters, musicians,
artists -- all had a tendency towards homosexuality. There is something
in it, and that something has to be understood -- why artists, painters
and poets? Because these are the inventive people -- they are never
satisfied with things as they find them; they try to do new things.
Now, heterosexuality is a natural phenomenon; it is simply a given
fact. The inventive people start trying new ways to relate; they are
imaginative. Just falling in love again and again with a woman or with a
man seems to be routine. They would like to try some new experiments.
These are the people who have invented homosexuality. They are
inventors.
And some have gone even a little further ahead: they have
become bisexuals. Now the bisexual thinks the homosexual is a little
behind. The bisexual is more fluid -- can adjust with a woman, can
adjust with a man. He has far more opportunities of love-making. He will
never be starved; he can always find a lover, a beloved.
You must be feeling guilty somehow deep down; that's why you became
offended. Otherwise, you would have laughed and enjoyed the joke. And,
in fact, I am not responsible for saying those words -- guess who is
responsible?... And I don't think you can guess. The Pope!
The
Pope went on a journey to the Holy Land. On the last day he went to the
Mountain of Calvary and said his prayers. He walked down the hill
looking very holy and solemn with his incense-bowl swinging from his
hand. A homosexual who had been watching him from a distance came up to
the Pope, pulled very gently at his sleeve and said, "Hello, darling,
your handbag is on fire."
I got that idea from the Pope. But,
Pradipam, please don't be offended -- I am not against anybody. Blacks
or Jews or homosexuals -- I am not against anybody. My whole message is
one of total acceptance. But I don't invent these jokes: my sannyasins
go on sending them to me. So if you have some jokes against
heterosexuals, please send them to me. Just whatsoever jokes I receive, I
use.
Sometimes a few women have written letters to me saying,
"Your jokes are always against women." What can I do? Send me jokes
against men! I have no interest in inventing jokes -- people go on
sending me them. Send any kind of joke and I will use it.
But this
guilty feeling is not good. Deep down you are feeling as if you are
doing something wrong -- that's why it hurts. You have a wound inside;
you may have covered it, but the wound is there. And if you understand
me, uncover the wound. Only when you uncover it can it be healed. Let
the sun heal it and the wind heal it. Uncover it!
It is
perfectly right, whatsoever you are. It is NOBODY else's business. If
two men feel good being together, it is nobody else's business to
interfere. No law, no government, no religion, no church, should come
in. If they BOTH are happy, it is perfectly their own decision. And we
want the world to be happy -- and these two persons are contributing
their happiness to the world by being happy together.
If two
women feel good being with each other, the world is happier for that,
better for that. Don't make them feel guilty unnecessarily. But guilt
persists -- because down the ages you have been taught homosexuality is a
sin; down the ages you have been taught that this is one of the
greatest sins. You may be surprised to know: there have been states in
America, just a hundred years ago, where the punishment for
homosexuality was sentence for life. And there have been countries where
one was beheaded if one was caught in any homosexual relationship.
Humanity has been so stupid in the past. And we ALL carry those
conditionings deep down in the collective unconscious.
A
ventriloquist -- maybe it was Sarvesh -- was driving in the country when
he was attracted to a large farm. He asked for and was given a tour. As
he was shown through the barn, the ventriloquist thought he would have
some fun. He proceeded to make one of the horses talk. The hired hand,
wide-eyed with fear, rushed from the barn to the farmer. "Sam," he
shouted, "those animals are talking! If that little sheep says anything
about me, it is a damned lie!"
That's how guilt comes up. You
cannot hide it -- it has its way of manifesting. You condemn your
homosexuality -- that's how your question has arisen. Otherwise, you
would have laughed, you would have enjoyed it! And unless a man is
capable of laughing at himself, he does not know what laughter is and
the beauty of laughter. To laugh at others is very simple; it is
violent, it is cruel. To laugh at oneself has something spiritual about
it. But we go on hiding behind rationalizations.
Now you think
the homosexual minority is being offended. One thing you should know: I
am neither a heterosexual, nor a homosexual, nor a bisexual -- so I
cannot be against this and for that. I belong no more to the world of
sex. Sex has no more meaning -- that's why I can accept you all.
Your so-called saints will not be capable of accepting you all, because
they belong to the world of sex; they themselves are sexual beings
still -- repressed, obsessed, maybe against, but to be against means you
are still obsessed. I am neither for nor against, neither for this nor
for that. It simply does not matter! It is simply games that people
enjoy playing -- it is fun, that's all. It has nothing serious about it.
It is childish. Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, all is childish.
One day I hope you will grow beyond all these. And then a totally
different phenomenon happens: in the East we have called it
BRAHMACHARYA. The West has no equivalent word for it -- because in the
West consciousness has never penetrated to that height. The word
'celibacy' is a poor translation, and with ugly connotations.
'Celibacy' simply means not getting involved in sex; it is a negative
word. The celibate may not be beyond sex; he may be simply withholding.
BRAHMACHARYA actually means: living like a God. The literal meaning is:
living like God. What does it mean? -- living like God. It means sex has
simply disappeared: that smoke no more surrounds the flame of your
being; your flame of being is smokeless. And when sex has utterly
disappeared, the whole energy that is contained in sexuality is released
in love, in compassion.
But by feeling offended, you exposed
yourself. In a way this is good. Don't feel guilty any more. And it is
always good to expose yourself in utter nudity. Don't be afraid, because
that is the only way to, know oneself -- to expose oneself.
According to legend, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung once travelled together
on a train, and during the journey Jung began to analyse Freud, probing
deeper and deeper into the man's psyche in an attempt to pinpoint the
origin of his neurosis. Freud was being his evasive self, so when Jung
came to within a hairbreadth of Freud's essence, he asked impatiently
for Freud to reveal his innermost being, his true, real self.
"I cannot," Freud refused. "To do so would be to give up my authority."
At that, Jung sat back and sighed, "Then you have already lost it."
The real man is always ready to expose himself to the very core,
because he is not afraid. Freud saying this, "I cannot expose my real
self because to do so would be to give up my authority," is simply
saying that he is carrying a pseudo self around himself. He carried it
his whole life -- although he was the originator of psychoanalysis he
was never psychoanalysed. Many times his disciples approached him and
said, "We can psychoanalyse you," but he always refused. He was afraid.
This legend is very symbolic -- he was afraid to expose himself as he
was. And the fear was of losing authority. But a REAL man of authority
is never afraid of losing it. He CANNOT lose it. There is NO way of
losing it. And this is the difference between a man of authority and an
authoritative man. The authoritative man has NO real authority; he is a
pretender. The man of authority can expose himself absolutely, because
his authority is not something imposed from the outside -- it is his
very core, his experience, his authenticity. Jung did well when he sat
back and said, Then you have already lost it."
It is said, from
that day the rift started between Jung and Freud; then it could not be
bridged again. And I cannot say that only Jung was responsible for the
rift; in fact, basically Freud himself was responsible. Freud was
suffering from many kinds of things which can be called neurotic. Still
he would not allow himself to be analysed.
My whole work here
is to help you to expose yourself in your utter nudity. Whatsoever you
are, wherever you are, I am going to seek and search you out and bring
you into the light. Sometimes it hurts, it shocks; sometimes you feel
angry, offended, but please be patient. This is surgery -- it is bound
to be painful.
- Mo N Ey
