Beware

Beware of indulgence and beware of renunciation

You can go and sit in a cave and become a statue, but that which you have repressed will hover
around you, will be the only thing that you will ever think about.
Tantra says: Beware. Beware of indulgence and beware of renunciation. Beware of both: both are
traps. And either way you are trapped in the mind. There where is the way?
Tantra says: Awareness is the way. Indulgence is mechanical, repression is mechanical; both are
mechanical things. The only way out of mechanical things is to become aware, alert. Don’t go to
the Himalayas, bring a Himalayan silence within you. Don’t escape, become more awake. Look into
things deeply with no fear... without fear, look into things deeply. Don’t listen to what your so-called
religious people go on teaching. They make you afraid: they don’t allow you to look into sex, they
don’t allow you to look into death. They have exploited your fears tremendously.
The only way to exploit a person is: first, to make him afraid. Once you are afraid, you are ready to
be exploited. Fear is the basis, it has to be created first. You have been made afraid. Sex is sin, so
is fear. Even while making love to your woman or man, you never look directly into it. Even while
making love you are avoiding. You are making love AND avoiding. You don’t want to see into the
reality of it – what it is exactly, why it infatuates, why it has a magnetic pull over you? Why? What
is it exactly, how does it arise, how does it take possession of you, what it gives, and where does it
lead? What happens in it and what happens out of it? Where do you arrive again and again making
love? Do you arrive anywhere? These things have to be encountered.
Tantra is an encounter with the reality of life. And sex is fundamental. So is death. They are the
two most basic, fundamental chakras – MULADHAR and SWADHISTAN. Understanding them, the
third chakra opens. Understanding the third, the fourth opens, and so on and so forth. When you
have understood the six chakras, that very understanding hits the seventh chakra and it blooms into
a one-thousand-petalled lotus. That day is of superb glory. That day God comes to you, that day
you come to God. That day is the meeting day. That day is the day of cosmic orgasm. That day
you embrace the divine and the divine embraces you. That day the river disappears into the ocean
forever and forever. Then there is no coming back.
But, from each state of your mind, understanding has to be gained. Wherever you are, don’t be
afraid. That is the Tantra message: Wherever you are, don’t be afraid. Drop only one thing – fear.
Only one thing has to be feared, and that is fear. Unafraid, with great courage, look into the reality,
whatsoever the reality is. If you are a thief, then look into that. If you are an angry person, look into
that. If you are greedy, look into that. Wherever you are, LOOK into it. Don’t escape. Looking into it,
go through it. Watching, go through it. If you can walk the path into greed, into sex, into anger, into
jealousy, with eyes open, you will be freed of it. This is the Tantra promise: Truth liberates. Knowing
frees. Knowing is freedom. Otherwise, whether you repress or you indulge, the end is the same.

The Tantra Vision, Vol 2 43 Osho
CHAPTER 3. BREAKING THE FOUR SEALS