WHEN SOME DESIRE COMES, CONSIDER IT. THEN, SUDDENLY, QUIT IT.

Osho - This is a different dimension of the same technique.

WHEN SOME DESIRE COMES, CONSIDER IT. THEN, SUDDENLY, QUIT IT.

You feel a desire -- a desire for sex, a desire for love, a desire for food, anything. You feel a desire: consider it. When the sutra says consider it, it means do not think for or against it, just consider the desire, what it is.

A sexual desire comes to the mind. You say, "This is bad." This is not consideration. You have been taught that this is bad, so you are not considering this desire, you are consulting the scriptures, you are consulting the past -- the past teachers, the RISHIS -- sages. You are not considering the desire itself, you are considering something else. You are considering many things; your conditioning, your upbringing, your education, your culture, your civilization, your religion -- but not the desire.

This simple desire has come. Do not bring in the mind, the past, the education, the conditioning; do not bring in values. Just consider this desire -- what it is. If your mind could be washed completely of all that has been given to you by the society, of all that your parents have given to you -- the education, the culture -- if your total mind could be washed out, the desire for sex will arise. It will arise, because that desire is not given to you by the society. That desire is biologically built in; it is in you.

For example, if a child is born and no language is taught, the child will not learn any language. He will remain without language. A language is a social phenomenon; it has to be taught. But when the right moment comes, the child will feel sexual desire. That is not a social phenomenon, it is biologically built in. The desire will come at the right mature moment. It is not social, it is biological -- deeper. It is built into your cells.

Because you were born out of sex, every cell of your body is a sex cell; you consist of sex cells. Unless your biology can be washed off completely, the desire will be there. It will come -- it is already there. When a child is born the desire is already there, because the child is a by-product of a sexual meeting. He comes through sex; his whole body is built with sex cells. The desire is there, only a time is needed before his body becomes mature enough to feel that desire, to enact that desire. The desire will be there whether you are taught that sex is bad or good, whether you are not taught that sex is hell or heaven, whether you are taught this way or that way, for or against -- because both are teachings.

The old traditions, the old religions, Christianity particularly, they go on preaching against sex. The new cults of hippies and yippies and others have started the opposite movement. They say sex is good, sex is ecstatic, sex is the only real thing in the world. Both are teachings. Do not consider your desire according to some teaching. Just consider the desire in its purity, as it is -- a fact. Do not interpret it.

Consideration here means not interpreting, but just looking at the fact as it is. The desire is there: look at it directly, immediately. Do not bring in your thoughts or ideas, because no thought is yours and no idea is yours. Everything has been given to you, every idea is a borrowed thing. No thought is original -- no thought can be original. Do not bring in thinking, just look at the desire, at what it is, as if you do not know anything about it. Face it! Encounter it! That is what is meant by CONSIDER IT.

WHEN SOME DESIRE COMES, CONSIDER IT.

Just look at the fact -- at what it is. Unfortunately, it is one of the most difficult things to do. Compared to this, reaching to the moon is not so difficult or reaching to the peak of Everest is not so difficult. It is highly complicated -- reaching to the moon is highly complicated, infinitely complicated, a very complex phenomenon. But compared to living with a fact of the inner mind it is nothing, because the mind is so subtly involved in everything you do. It is always there. Look at the word... If I say, "Sex," the moment I say it you have decided for or against. The moment I say, "Sex," you have interpreted: "This is not good. This is bad." Or, "This is good." You have interpreted even the word.

Many persons came to me when the book FROM SEX TO SUPERCONSCIOUSNESS was published. They came and they said, "Please change the title. The very word `sex' makes them disturbed -- they have not read the book. And those who have already read the book also say to change the title.

Why? The very word gives you a certain interpretation. Mind is so interpretive that if I say "Lemon juice," your saliva starts flowing. You have interpreted the words. In the words `lemon juice' there is nothing like lemon, but your saliva starts flowing. If I wait for a few moments, you will become uneasy because you will have to swallow. The mind has interpreted; it has come in. Even with words you cannot remain aloof, without interpreting. It will be very difficult, when a desire arises, to remain aloof, to remain just a dispassionate observer, calm and quiet, looking at the fact, not interpreting it.

I say, "This man is a Mohammedan" The moment I say, "This man is a Mohammedan," the Hindu has thought that this man is bad. If I say, "This man is a Jew," the Christian has decided that this man is not good. The very word `Jew', and in the Christian mind comes the interpretation; the traditional, conventional idea flares up. This Jew is not to be considered, the old interpretation will have to be imposed on this Jew.

Every Jew is a different Jew. Every Hindu is a different, unique individual. You cannot interpret him because you know other Hindus. You may have come to conclude that all the Hindus you have known are bad, but this Hindu is not in your experience. You are interpreting this Hindu according to your past experience. Do not interpret, interpretation is not consideration. Consideration means consider THIS fact -- absolutely this fact. Remain with this fact.

Rishis have said that sex is bad. It may have been bad for them; you do not know. You have the desire, a fresh desire, with you. Consider it, look at it, be attentive to it. THEN, SUDDENLY, QUIT IT.

There are two parts to this technique. First, remain with the fact -- aware, attentive of what is happening. When you feel a sexual desire, what is happening in you? See how you become feverish, how your body begins to tremble, how you feel a sudden madness creeping in, how you feel as if you are possessed by something else. Feel it, consider it. Do not exercise any judgement, just move into this fact -- the fact of sexual desire. Do not say it is bad!

If you have said that, the consideration has stopped, you have closed the door. Now your face is not toward the desire -- your back is. You have moved away from it. You have missed a moment in which you could have gone deep down into your biological layer of being. You are clinging to the social layer, which is the uppermost.

Sex is deeper than your SHASTRAS -- scriptures -- because it is biological. If all the shastras can be destroyed -- and they can be destroyed, many times they have been -- your interpretation will be lost. But sex will remain; it is deeper. Do not bring superficial things in. Just consider the fact and move within, and feel what is happening to you. What happened to particular rishis, to Mohammed and Mahavir, is irrelevant. What is happening to you this very moment? This alive moment, what is happening to you?

Consider it, observe it. And then the second part... this is really beautiful. Shiva says, THEN, SUDDENLY, QUIT IT.

SUDDENLY -- remember. Do not say, "This is bad, so I am going to leave it. I am not going to move with this idea, this desire. This is bad, this is sin, so I will stop it, I will suppress it." Then a suppression will happen, but not a meditative state of mind. And suppression is really creating by your own hands a deceived being and mind.

Suppression is psychological. You are disturbing the whole mechanism and suppressing energies which are going to burst out any day. The energy is there, you have simply suppressed it. It has not moved out, it has not moved in, you have simply suppressed it. It has simply moved sideways. It will wait and it will become perverted, and perverted energy is the basic problem with man.

Psychological diseases are by-products of perverted energy. Then it will take such shapes, such forms, which are not even imaginable, and in those forms it will try again to be expressed. And when it is expressed in a perverted form, it leads you into a very, very deep anguish, because there is no satisfaction in any perverted form. And you cannot remain perverted, you have to express it. Suppression creates perversion. This sutra is not concerned with suppression. This sutra is not saying to control, this sutra is not saying to suppress.

The sutra says, SUDDENLY, QUIT IT. What to do? The desire is there; you have considered. If you have considered it, it will not be difficult; the second part will be easy. If you have not considered it, look at your mind. Your mind will be thinking, "This is good. If we can quit sexual desire suddenly, this is beautiful." You would like to do it, but your liking is not the question. Your liking may not be your liking, but just the society's. Your liking may not be your own consideration, but just tradition. First consider, do not create any liking or disliking. Just consider, and then the second part becomes easy -- you can quit the desire.

How to quit it? When you have considered a thing totally, it is very easy; it is as easy as dropping this paper from my hand. QUIT IT... What will happen? A desire is there. You have not suppressed it and it is moving out, it is coming up; it has stirred your whole being. Really, when you consider a desire without interpretation your whole being will become a desire.

When sex is there and if you are not against it or for it, if you have no mind about it, then just by looking at the desire, your whole being will be involved in it. A single sex desire will become a flame. Your whole being will be concentrated in the flame, as if you have totally become sexual. It will not only be at the sex center, it will spread all over the body. Every fiber of your body will be trembling. The passion will have become a flame. Now, quit it. Don't fight with it, simply say, "I quit it."

What will happen? The moment you can simply say, "I quit," a separation happens. Your body -- your passionate body, your body filled with sex desire -- and you become two. Suddenly, in a moment, they are two poles apart. The body is writhing with passion and sex, and the center is silent, observing. No fight is there, just a separation -- remember this. In fight you are not separate. When you are fighting you are one with the object. When you have just quit it, you are separate. Now you can look at it as if someone else is there, not you.

One of my friends was with me for many years. He was a constant chain smoker, and he tried and tried, as smokers do, not to smoke. One day, suddenly in the morning, he would decide, "Now I am not going to smoke," and by the evening he would be smoking again. And he would feel guilty and he would defend it, and then for a few days he would not gather courage again to decide not to smoke. Then he would forget what happened. Then one day, again he would say, "Now I am not going to smoke," and I would just laugh because this had happened so many times. Then he himself became fed up with the whole thing -- with this smoking and then deciding not to smoke, and this constant vicious circle.

He wondered what to do. He asked me what to do, so I told him, "Do not be against smoking -- that is the first thing to do. Smoke, and be with it. For seven days do not be against it; do this thing."

He said, "What are you telling me? I have been against it, and even then I could not leave it, and you are saying not to be against it. Then there is no possibility of leaving it."

So I told him, "You have tried with the inimical attitude and you have been a failure. Now try the other -- the friendly attitude. Do not be against it for seven days."

Immediately he said, "Then will I be able to leave it?"

So I told him, "Then again... you are still inimical toward it. Do not think about leaving it at all. How can one think about leaving a friend? For seven days just forget it. Remain with it, cooperate with it, smoke as deeply as possible, as lovingly as possible. When you are smoking, just forget everything; become the smoking. Be totally at ease with it, in deep communion with it. For seven days, smoke as much as you like and forget about leaving it."

These seven days became a consideration. He could look at the fact of smoking. He was not against it, so now he could face it. When you are against something, or someone, you cannot face it. The very being against becomes a barrier. You cannot consider... How can you consider an enemy? You cannot look at him, you cannot look into his eyes; it is difficult to face him. You can look deeply only into the eyes of one you love; then you penetrate deep. Otherwise eyes can never meet.

So he looked into the fact deeply. For seven days he considered it. He was not against, so the energy was there, the mind was there, and it became a meditation. He had to cooperate with it; he had to become the smoker. After seven days he forgot to tell me. I was waiting for him to say, "Now the seven days have ended, so now how can I leave it?" He forgot completely about the seven days. Three weeks passed and then I asked him, "Have you forgotten completely?"

He said, "The experience has been so beautiful, I do not want to think about anything else now. It is beautiful, and for the first time I am not struggling with the fact. I am just feeling what is happening to me."

Then I told him, "Whenever you feel the urge to smoke, simply quit." He didn't ask me how to quit it, he had simply considered the whole thing and the whole thing became so childish, and there was no struggle. So I said, "When you feel again the urge to smoke, consider it, look at it, and leave it. Take the cigarette in your hand, stop for a moment, then leave the cigarette. Let it drop, and as the cigarette drops let the urge also drop inside."

He didn't ask me how to do it, because consideration makes one capable -- you can do it. And if you cannot do it, remember, you have not considered the fact. Then you were against it, all the time thinking how to leave it. Then you cannot quit it. When suddenly the urge is there and you quit it, the whole energy takes a jump inward. The technique is the same, only the dimensions differ: