Orgasm

 

 

You must have known some moments when time had totally stopped. Ordinarily, biological man, the sleepy man, only knows such moments through lovemaking -- because it is only in lovemaking that he loses his mind, it is only in lovemaking that he gets lost. But that peak, the orgasmic peak, in which he loses all mind, and becomes just a vibration, becomes just an energy, a liquid energy -- no thought, no past, no future, no desire -- happens only for moments. It is only through love and the orgasmic experience that you become aware that there is a possibility of time stopping totally.

 

Hence I say: sexual orgasm is the lowest but the fundamental experience of meditation -- lowest and fundamental. It is through sexual orgasm that man became aware of the infinite possibility of stopping time completely, of getting out of time. If you can get out of time for one moment, that means one can get out of time forever, too. Then ways and means have to be found. That's how Tantra, Yoga, Zen, Tao, Sufism, all kinds of ways and means, have been found. Once man became aware that the possibility exists that there is a window through which he can escape, even though it happens only once in a while....

 

Many times people ask me why women have not become great masters like Buddha, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, Bodhidharma, Jesus -- why? One of the fundamental reasons is that man has denied women the experience of orgasm. You will be surprised by my answer. You will not have imagined that that would be the root cause why women could not rise as high as a Buddha, as a Bodhidharma.

 

What went wrong? One thing: man has not allowed women to have the experience of orgasm. And it became possible because there is a little difference between a man's orgasm and a woman's orgasm. Man comes to his orgasmic peak very quickly, so he can have his orgasm easily, quickly. The woman comes to the orgasmic plane slowly; her pace is different. Unless a man loves the woman tremendously and helps her to come to the orgasmic state and moves slowly with her.... If he cares about her, is not just using the woman as a means to attain his own orgasm but is also careful and attentive and loving enough that she should also have her orgasm, then he moves slowly.

 

That's what Tantra discovered centuries ago: that man has to move very slowly. Man's orgasm is local, genital, and the woman's orgasm is more total. Her whole body is involved in it, hence it takes time. Man's orgasm is so local that it does not take much time. Unless a man loves the woman, caresses her body, helps her whole body to rise to the peak.... It is a subtle art to come to the orgasmic state together.

 

When man and woman both come to the orgasmic state together, simultaneously, it is a great experience of ecstasy -- very rich. Man coming alone to orgasm is one thing: it misses much, it is not so rich, it is not multidimensional. It is more or less masturbatory -- the woman has been used only as a means for masturbation -- it is not true orgasm, and the woman remains behind. And man has been doing that for centuries, so many women have completely forgotten that there is any possibility of orgasm for them.

 

It is only now with the women's liberation movement that women are becoming aware that in the past they have been missing something very valuable in their lives. In the East they are not yet aware of it. It is very rare in the East to find an orgasmic woman, one who knows what orgasm is. Even in the West only a very small percentage of women is becoming capable of orgasm.

 

This has been the greatest oppression, the greatest exploitation of women, because if women are deprived of orgasm they are deprived of one of the most fundamental experiences of meditation. The only window towards God remains closed. They never become aware that there is a moment when time disappears, that there is a moment when "I am no more a body, no more a mind, but a pure consciousness -- absolutely thoughtless, desireless, dreamless and utterly blissful."

 

This is the lowest experience, remember; one has not to stop there. This is the first step of a long journey, only then do you arrive at the temple. But it is a necessary step, it is very fundamental.

 

So once in a while you may have become aware that time stops, but time stops only when you are blissful. Time stops only when you are absolutely without mind -- conscious, yet mind is not there -- because you are not 'minding', you are not thinking... a simple existence.

 

It can happen in music, it can happen while watching a sunset, it can happen while you are painting. But these experiences are far more rare, whereas sex is available to each and everybody: it is a biological gift of nature. To be a musician of such caliber that you can lose yourself as you lose yourself in a woman or a man is a rare phenomenon; it happens only once in a while. To be a painter, a sculptor, a dancer, a poet -- this needs great talents, and one may not have them -- but the same thing happens.

 

That's why it is possible for a great painter to go beyond sex very easily: because he has another window to experience the orgasm, to experience the timeless moment, to experience God. It is easier for a poet or a dancer to go beyond sex than it is for others, because they have an alternative through which they can experience the same thing -- and maybe with a greater depth.

 

-Osho, "The White Lotus, #5“