Tantric Philosophy Lessons
Neo Tantra - Osho quotes (and a message from Ma Anand Leandra)
Message from Leandra: Osho coined the term "Neo Tantra" for what he taught. There is much confusion as to what this actually means. Many of today's teachers of Tantra claim that this is the physical or sexual aspect of Tantra, or that Neo Tantra implies a focus on teaching tantric sexuality as opposed to teaching the spiritual or transformational meaning of what Tantra is. This is, in my opinion, totally incorrect and really not comprehensible as to why this is being done.
When one reads Osho's writings about what he meant, what he taught, one gets a very clear picture that Neo Tantra is being misinterpreted. The term Neo Tantra is often referred to as "western tantra" or "modern tantra" as an expression of our modern times being pre-occupied with sexual matters. I understand Osho’s tantric teachings to actually pick up where we are at in these modern times (starting from the fifties when the discovery of the birth control pill revolutionised sexuality in that it became more freely available without the fear of pregnancy as well as the sixties with the "free love” philosophy and personal expressiveness of the hippy movement).
Tantra does not sexualise us, it picks us up where we are and that is in general with a huge preoccupation of sexuality that has not ended in spite of a deep shift into more esoteric and spiritual understandings of life that have emerged since then – and indeed cannot end because of it’s very nature and importance to our being and lives. We have to take our pre-occupation with sex into account when our intention is to live more spiritually. Not doing so results in, for most of us, a separation of spirituality and sexuality and this, in end effect, inhibits our spiritual growth, let alone our physical pleasure.
How can we live a spiritual lifestyle and in the bedroom resort to animal nature and a testosterone driven, goal orientated sexuality or alternatively, live a spiritual lifestyle and, once again in the history of man- and womankind, suppress sexuality, without noticing that something is amiss? Our dissatisfaction with life, our yearnings for the "ultimate” truth about who and what we are, so abundant in individuals and society all over the world, proves this very point.
This page will therefore attempt to put Neo Tantra into context with a variety of quotes from Osho showing the reader what Osho meant and how the term Neo Tantra should be understood if used correctly. The quotes will also give the reader a good idea of what the path of Tantra in our day and age and in cultures of all kinds really is.
Namaste, Ma Anand Leandra
Tantra Sacred Massage: www.tantra-massage.co.za
Durga Tantra School: www.durgatantraschool.co.za
National Institute of Tantra South Africa: www.tantra-south-africa.co.za
Osho quotes
"The first part has to be sex. The second part has to be love. The third part has to be prayer, and the fourth has to be transcendence. So from the gross to the subtle you move. And in the fourth, sex has to completely disappear, love too, prayer too. Make it absolutely silent, peaceful, meditative... not even a trace is left. These are the four stages of Neo-Tantra..."
- "Sex is just the beginning, not the end But if you miss the beginning, You will miss the end also "
- "If you remain aware you will come to know that sex is not just sex. Sex is the outermost layer, deep inside is the love, and even deeper is prayer, and deepest is God himself. Sex can become a cosmic experience. Then it is Tantra."
- "This is tantra's proposition, that mind is nothing but subtle matter; it can be changed. And once you have a different mind you have a different world, because you look through the mind. The world you are seeing, you are seeing because of a particular mind."
- "The moment you enter love, you enter a different person. And when you come out you will not be able to recognize your old face; it will not belong to you. A discontinuity will have happened. Now there is a gap, the old man is dead and the new man has come. That is what is known as rebirth -- being twice-born."
- "Tantra's contribution is the greatest, because it give you keys to transform the lowest into the highest. It gives you keys to transform mud into lotuses."
- From the Prologue to Osho's book Sex Matters in answer to the question: "Why does the topic of sex make people so uncomfortable? Why is it such a taboo?"
"The simple reason is that people have been for centuaries living a repressed sex life. They have been told by all the religious prophets and the messiahs and the saviors that sex it sin. To my understanding, sex is your only energy, it is life energy. What you do with it depends on you. It can become sin, and it can become also your highest peak of consciousness. It all depends on you how you use the energy.
There was a day when we had no idea how to use electricity. Electricity was available always - as lightning - and was killing people, but now it is your servant. It is doing everything that you want.
Sex is bioelectricity. The question is how to use it. And the first principle is not to condemn it. The moment you condemn anything, you cannot use it. Sex should be accepted as a normal, natural thing in life - just as sleep, as hunger, as everyghing else. Furthermore, sex can be joined with meditation, and once sex can be joined with meditation its whole quality changes. Sex without meditation can only reproduce children. Sex with meditation can give you a new birth, can make you a new human being."