Osho on Creativity

Man is uncreative. Have you observed? Any time when you are creative, sex disappears. If you are painting and totally absorbed in it, you don’t have any sexual desire. Sex simply does not cross the threshold of your mind; it is simply not there. Only in deep creativity are people celibate, in no other way. Your saints, so-called saints, are not celibate — because they are so uncreative, they cannot be. It is impossible; it is just against the very science of energy. They are doing nothing, sitting in the temples and ashrams repeating Ram-Ram, Ram-Ram, or just stupidly playing with their malas — how can they be celibate? How can brahmacharya happen to them? It happens only when creativity takes all your energy, and no energy is left as a tension in you.

Poets can be celibate more, painters can be celibate more, dancers can be celibate more, musicians can be celibate more. I am not saying that they are all celibates, I am saying that whenever a poet is a poet, he can be celibate — because a poet is not twenty-four hours a day a poet. It is very rare to find a poet who is twenty-four hours a day a poet. Then he becomes a seer, then he becomes a rishi, then he is no more an ordinary poet. It is from people like these who were for twenty-four hours poets that great poems like the Upanishads, the Koran and the Gita were born. It is not ordinary poetry. Ordinary poets are only once in a while poets, otherwise they are ordinary people — maybe far worse. Ordinary painters are only once in a while painters.

It is said about a great Indian poet, Rabindranath, that whenever he was in the mood to create, he would close his doors and disappear into his room for days together — three or four days. No food, no bath, he would not even come out. Only when his energy had moved into creativity and he was unburdened would he open his door and come out. And people who saw him coming out of his room after four days of fasting and remaining lost in his creativity, all observed that his face was no more the same. He looked as if he had gone to some other world. He looked so delicate, like a roseflower; he looked so beautiful, so feminine, so graceful, so buddhalike. But only for a few hours would that fragrance surround him, and then it would disappear. And even for months together, the mood might not come…

Poets are only once in a while poets. And when you read a whole poem, the whole poem is not a poem either. Only a few lines here and there are really poetry; the other lines are just managed by the poet, they did not descend on him. All poets are not always poets, all poems are not poems. Hence you may not be able to understand what I am trying to convey to you, but whenever a poet is a poet, he is celibate. Sexuality simply disappears, evaporates. And whenever a poem is born in a poet he is part of God, he is a creator. In that moment it is impossible to give any object to your desire.

Sex gives an object to your desire. Sex is not pure, cannot be, because the object is always there. The moment sex becomes pure, it is samadhi. The mind and the body both are sexual. The body has come out of sex, and the mind is always hankering for objects, hence it is sexual. But both can be purified through creativity. My message, my key, my golden key to transform your energies, is creativity. Be more and more creative, and slowly slowly you will see a transformation happening of its own accord. Your mind will disappear, your body will have a totally different feel to it, and constantly you will remain aware that you are separate, that you are a pure witness. And that pure witness is pure desire and nothing else. I am not against desire. I am all for desire, but I am not for desires with objects. Let objects disappear, and then you will have a desire like a flame without any smoke. It brings great liberation.

Source:

Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.

Discourse name: The Book of Wisdom Chapter title: The Smokeless Flame Chapter #15

25 February 1979 am in Buddha Hall

References:

Osho has spoken on ‘work, worship, life, creativity, energy, transformation ’ in many of His discourses. More on the subject can be referred to in the following books/discourses:

1. Come Follow To You, Vol 2
2. From Bondage to Freedom
3. The Sword and the Lotus
4. The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 4
5. The Golden Future
6. From Misery to Enlightenment
7. The Goose is Out
8. The Osho Upanishad