Osho on Women and Creativity

BELOVED OSHO,

COULD YOU SPEAK OF THE CREATIVE FEMALE? I AM A WOMAN, AND THE CREATIVE SPIRIT BURNS STRONGLY IN ME. RECENTLY, YOU MENTIONED THAT THERE SHOULD BE MUCH ART AND MUSIC, BUT IT WAS IN REFERENCE TO MEN. I KNOW WOMEN CAN OFFER A VISION, AN INSIGHT, A SOFTNESS TO THE WORLD OF ART THAT HAS NEVER BEFORE BEEN SEEN. I FEEL IT HAS A DIFFERENT BASE TO START FROM. PERHAPS IT IS BECAUSE ART CAN BE BORN OUT OF LOVE AND NO LONGER NEEDS TO BE CONQUERED.

The first thing to be understood is that I am not speaking only of men. Whenever I am speaking, I am speaking to you all. In fact, there are more women here than men. Drop that idea from your mind that I make any distinction between man and woman. You seem to be part of that stupid movement called women’s liberation. Here there is no need for any women’s liberation. Here the situation is totally opposite — the men are afraid of the women. They are writing letters to me, “How can we be liberated?” In my commune there is no need to make any distinction. And this is the same stupidity — man used to think for centuries that he is higher, he is better, he has more intelligence. Now the woman starts the same idiotic game. I won’t allow it.

Creativity is not concerned whether you are man or woman. If you feel to be creative, do it. But don’t think that you are going to give creativity something higher, something that man has failed to do. Why always go on putting dividing lines between man and woman? The truth is that every man carries a woman within him, and every woman carries a man within her. And it is bound to be so, because whether you are man or woman, you are created by one man, one woman. They have contributed to you half and half. Your father and your mother both are alive in you. It is only a question of which side of the coin is facing up and which side is underneath.

That’s why it is so easy for Leeladhar to change a man into a woman, or a woman into a man, because the basic reality is similar — just a little bit of difference which makes no difference. Even a plastic surgeon can do it, you don’t need a spiritual surgeon for it.

Certainly, it will be a better art if both men and women are creating from their different angles. But the way you say it, you don’t understand creativity at all. You say creativity can be out of love; painting, sculpture and dancing need not be conquered. But the possibility is ninety-nine percent that love is so fulfilling you will not bother to paint. You will not bother to waste your time in making a statue. Love is so fulfilling that who cares about writing poetry? Poetry is written by people who have missed the train. Now they are somehow consoling themselves by writing poetry about love — love they do not know.

It is very difficult to be creative out of love. Yes, a different kind of creativity will be there. If you love a man, perhaps your kitchen will become the field of your creativity. You would like your man to have the best food. You would like the man to have the best clothes. Just look at my clothes! This is creativity out of love. Rarely is it possible for a woman who loves, to be bothered about painting, poetry, dancing, et cetera. It is really man’s inferiority complex — that he cannot love so deeply, that he cannot give birth to a child — that makes him have to find some substitutes to compete with the woman. He creates painting, he creates sculpture, he creates architecture, he creates the landscape for a garden. He wants to feel that he can also create. It is basically coming out of his inferiority. He can see the woman and her immense power of creating life. He creates a dead statue — howsoever beautiful it is, it is dead.

Whoever has asked the question seems to be against men, and any woman who is against men is herself becoming something unnatural. Being against men, she is becoming a man herself. Psychologically she is now feeling inferior because the man can paint and create music and dance. Naturally, she will have to stop giving birth to children so her own creativity can be directed towards these things: painting, poetry, music. But I would like you to know that you will be a loser. You are competing with man, and you need not compete; you are already superior. You need not write poetry, you are poetry. Your love is your music. Your heart throbbing with your lover is your dance! But if you want to create poetry, music and dance, you will have to deprive yourself of love. You will have to be in the same space where man is: feeling inferior and then finding substitutes for creativity. That is ugly. I cannot give my support to it. The woman is the superior sex; she need not prove it.

Why does man have to conquer? — because he is in a difficulty. Be compassionate to man, he is in a great difficulty. He has to reach the peak of the Everest, he has to go to the moon — all stupid things, because what are you going to do on Everest? You will not find even a Coca-Cola there. And what are you going to do on the moon? Life is almost impossible on the moon, because there is not enough oxygen, and water is not available at all. The one person who has walked on the moon was walking with all kinds of gadgets, carrying many things, oxygen and other emergency things. And he was covered completely so he would not get any infection that might exist on the moon. Now do you want to live like that, covered with a plastic bag, carrying oxygen and other things? What kind of life will that be? And for how long? It is okay for half an hour to have a walk on it and come back home. The man on the moon must have looked silly. It is a dead planet, you cannot live on it.

It is a strange world the politicians have created. They want to destroy a living earth, a living planet which has everything life needs. And they want to go to the moon, a dead planet which can provide nothing to support you — not a single tree, not a single bird, no animals, no rivers, no oceans. The politicians seem to be really nuts! How much money has been wasted to reach the moon! The same money could have saved Ethiopia. Man is continuously trying to prove himself superior.

One of my friends, who was also a colleague of mine in the university, told me, “I am in a difficulty and I cannot talk about it to anybody. You are the only one I know who may perhaps understand my situation, and may be of some help.”

I said, “What is the problem?”

He said, “The problem is I am in love with a woman who is taller than me. Now, should I marry her even though she is taller?” No man wants to marry a woman who is taller — just out of an inferiority complex; otherwise what is the problem?

I said, “There is no problem. You can always carry a small stool with you, so whenever you want to kiss your woman, stand on the stool. If women can manage with taller men, then why can’t a man manage with a taller woman? Just watch women, how they are managing with taller men, and do the same. Perhaps you will have to use shoes with high heels — so use them! People in love say, `I could die for you’ — but you cannot use shoes with high heels so that you can reach your woman?”

He said, “I came to find some solution, and you are making a joke of me.”

I said, “No, I am not making a joke.”

It is really because of the inferiority complex in man that he has to marry a woman who is not taller than him, that he has to marry a woman who is at least three or four years younger than him. And that is absolutely unscientific. If you listen to science, everybody should marry a woman who is at least five years older than him because women live longer than men — five years longer than men. Why should you marry a woman five years younger than you? Then you are creating a ten-year distance. You will be dead and your widow will be suffering alone for ten years. The most scientific way will be to marry a woman who is five years older than you, so you can both live together and die together! But man’s inferiority is such….

The woman who has asked the question should remember she is already superior. There is no need to prove it, that’s why there is no need to conquer anything. But if she feels that she has no desire for children, and she wants to paint and she wants to compose music, it is perfectly good. In fact, many women should do that, because the earth is so overpopulated. You will be a great help if you divert your creativity from children to paintings, because paintings don’t need food. Dancing is perfectly good. Dance as much as you want, it creates no Ethiopia. Write poetry. Because of your poetry, perhaps a few people will have to suffer listening to it, getting bored with it, but that is not much of a problem. They can manage to avoid you. But if there is no desire to give birth to children, it is absolutely right. Certainly you will have to create something else. Do it, but don’t think that your creativity will be higher than that of man. It cannot be, for the simple reason that you are the superior sex, you don’t have that inferiority in you which is the incentive for man to put all his life into his painting.

He is competing with your baby! And even if he is a Picasso, he dies in despair. His whole life he tried to paint something, but no painting can be alive, no poetry can be alive. So remember that a woman can create, but most probably her creativity will be just third-rate. But it is good for the world. We don’t want any more population, we want to cut the population to one-fourth of what it is today. So you will be helping a great project. You will be a blessing not giving birth to a child. But drop the idea that you will be creating something superior out of love. If you really want to create something, don’t think of love either, because love is so satisfying, so fulfilling. It is such a miracle, who wants to write poetry?

I have never come across a single lover, man or woman, who has created poetry, who has created paintings, who has created sculptures, for the simple reason that they are so contented. All these creative things need a discontent, a wound which you have to cover up. I am perfectly happy with your idea. Just do whatever creative endeavor you want to; but remember, you don’t have the inferiority complex of man, so you cannot compete with man in any way. You are already in a better position. Man is poor; just have compassion on the poor guy.

Source:

Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.

Discourse Series: From Death to Deathlessness Chapter#1

Chapter title: the man of compassion has to lie

2 August 1985 am in Rajneeshmandir

References:

Osho has spoken on ‘Creativity, Love, Poetry, Dance, Compassion, Beauty’ in many of His discourses. More on the subject can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. The Book of wisdom
2. The Beloved Vol. 1,2
3. Ecstasy- The Forgotten Language
4. Beyond Enlightenment
5. A Bird on the Wing
6. From Bondage to Freedom
7. The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha Vol. 1,2,3,4,5,6
8. The Discipline of Transcendence Vol. 1,2,3,4