Panch Mahavrat or The Perennial Path The Art of Living

Author(s): Osho Rajnish
Publisher: Osho Rajnish

Page 73

CHAPTER 7. TANTRIC PATH TO SUPER ENERGY
Man is standing in sex energy. He is there all the time. The place form where we are born from nature, is the centre of sex. Nature has made us stand there. Any journey shall have to start from this centre. And we can start our journey from this centre on either side. One is that which is generally tried by people but are not able to accomplish ever. This is that position with which we begin to fight. We become enemies of that place where we are standing, that is, we become enemies of ourselves, and divide ourselves in two parts. One part is that which we censure, which in fact, is ourselves. And the other is that part which we admire, and which we are not at the moment, but the one we wish to be. And when an individual divides himself thus in two parts, it should be understood that he is that which he is rejecting and he is not that which he is accepting. His whole life will now enter a very absurd conflict. He will wish to believe what he is not, and will reject what he is. Such persons can only be confused and agitated. Tantra says there is such an inner conflict in man's life.
If a person wants to attain Brahmacharya - celibacy he cannot get to it by fighting against it. Tantra declares we cannot reach anywhere by fighting against ourselves. What will we fight? Whom will we fight with? We are one whole - undivided entity. To fight means to divide ourselves into two parts. In this manner an individual will be torn and divided into two parts. A split personality will be created. Thus many parts will lie scattered within us. Tantra proclaims that even sex is to be transformed. Celibacy is the power of sex and it is to be taken to celibacy. That same power of sex which runs towards others, is to be taken to self. That same power of sex which desires the company of another, is to be made anxious to reach the depths of the self. That power of sex which is after low kind of happiness is to be turned towards virat, the gigantic - towards endless Bliss - the Eternal - the Salvation liberation. This point of view of Tantra I call the nonduality.
The dualistic nature of conflict is always fighting itself The boy fights the Atman, God against nature and sex is pitched in against meditation. This state can never see the truth. Tantric view is that this fighting is meaningless. What is really required is transformation. This is in total agreement with the fundamental principles of modern science which states that energy cannot be destroyed. We can only transform that which is hidden in any particle - give it another form, shape, life etc. But whatever energy it has, cannot be destroyed.
We can see the same thing this way too - Nothing is created and nothing is destroyed. It is like a seed that transforms into a tree. The seed is never destroyed only its hidden energy transforms and grows into a tree. The tree dies after some time but leaves behind thousands of seeds with potential energies. The seed is not destroyed, it is transformed, because there is a tree now where there was a seed formerly. Celibacy does not mean the destruction of sex, now celibacy is there where there was sex yesterday. Where the nausea of sex energy was running out yesterday, there the same energy is transformed today into celibacy and is running within. The energy which had an outward flow till yesterday, has an inward flow today. The energy which was running from the centre to the circumference, is now running from the circumference to the centre. But it is the same energy. It is not destroyed. Tantra has proclaimed this much before the modern science could understand it.
Tantra says, never commit the folly of destroying energy, otherwise you yourself will be shattered, frittered away and you will not be able to destroy the energy. Therefore those who fight against sex cannot attain celibacy, they pervert themselves instead. Really speaking, we know neither to keep enmity nor friendship. We do not know how to stand between the two. Either we make friends like a mad man or make enemies like a mad man. But our madness remains for ever. We are never able to look at the subject from a detached, neutral point of view.
The Perennial Path: The Art of Living
73
Osho