Tantra: An Alchemy of Transformation
Osho on Seven Centres
OSHO, TO FIND A SOULMATE SOUNDS NICE, BUT ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE. WOULD YOU PLEASE SAY SOMETHING MORE ABOUT IT? AND HOW CAN IT EVEN COME CLOSE TO FINDING A MASTER?
Prem Aniruddha,
IT IS CERTAINLY ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE to find the soulmate — even if ALL facilities are available. The earth is big, millions and millions of people; and life is very short — how are you going to find your soulmate? And remember, even if all the facilities are available… right now, no facilities are available. It becomes even more impossible when facilities are not available, when you are prevented in every way from finding the soulmate. But even if you are helped, educated in how to find the soulmate, then too it will be difficult to find them in a small seventy years’ life. It rarely happens; it is a rare phenomenon.
Man has seven centers. The lowest is the sex center and the highest is the samadhi center, and between these two there are five more centers. It is a ladder. When all the seven centers of a man are in tune and harmony with all the seven centers of a woman, then you have found the soulmate. It has happened only once in a while — with Krishna and Radha, with Shiva and Shakti. It could have also happened to Majnu and Laila if they had been allowed to meet, to Shiri and Farihad if they had been allowed to meet — but the society hindered them.
And remember: Krishna and Radha were not allowed by the society either; it was not a legal marriage, it was illegal. Radha was not Krishna’s wife but just a girlfriend. And with Shiva and Shakti, the parents were very much against Shakti getting married to Shiva. He looked a very strange man — he was. It was against the parental advice that Shakti jumped into a love affair with Shiva.
But only once in a while has this happened, and this seems to be natural. Whenever it happens, absolute oneness is felt — unity, not union. Two persons utterly disappear into each other; there is not even a small, thin screen dividing them; there is no division at all. It is UNIO MYSTICA. Two persons function as if they are one person; two bodies, but one soul. It is absolute harmony. It is love at its peak. No meditation is needed — this love is enough. You must have seen Shiva temples in India; you must have seen the SHIVALINGA. SHIVALINGA simply represents the orgasmic state of these two lovers. SHIVALINGA simply represents Shiva as masculine energy; and just below SHIVALINGA — the phallic symbol — is the symbol of Shakti: YONI. SHIVALINGA and Shakti’s YONI are meeting; they have become one, they have disappeared into each other. They have lost ALL personality. That’s why it is the only image in the world which has no face.
Just pure energy is symbolized by LINGA and YONI, by the male sexual organ and the female sexual organ. Simply energy is represented — creative energy, vital energy; energy out of which the whole of life flows. Neither does Shakti have any face nor does Shiva have any face; those faces are no more meaningful, the personalities have disappeared. It is a meeting of pure energy, and only pure energies can dissolve into each other — because if you have a solid personality it will obstruct dissolution. Only pure energies, liquid, can enter into each other and become one. If you put two rocks together, they may be together but they cannot become one. But if you pour water into water, it becomes one.
At this highest peak where all the seven centers meet, persons disappear, only energies remain, a play of energy, a play of consciousness. And the joy is constant, it is orgasmic. It is a spiritual communion. No meditation is needed for such a couple — because for such a couple love is meditation enough. It is a mystic phenomenon, it is transcendental. But it is very rare. Amongst millions and millions of people, once it will happen. It will be almost a chance meeting.
Below it, there is another meeting: six centers meeting. That too is rare. If the first is one percent, the second is only two percent. It is union, not unity. It is not a cosmic, mystical union, but still something very close to it — an aesthetic union, an artistic phenomenon, a poetic experience.
The first can be understood only by those who have known samadhi, satori. The second can be understood by poets, painters, dancers, musicians. The third, lower than that, is the meeting of five centers. It is three percent possible. It is not even a union; it is duality. Two persons remain two, but still there is great harmony. The two function in harmony — as if two musical instruments are playing in harmony. The two remain two. There is no union, there is no unity. They are separate. This is what Kahlil Gibran has described: “Lovers should be like two pillars of a temple supporting the same roof, yet apart and separate.” This is a little lower than the aesthetic, artistic, musical experience. It is a moral experience — chaste, still beautiful.
The fourth is four centers meeting. It has a four percent possibility. Duality. Harmony has disappeared but there is great understanding still — great understanding about each other, great caring about each other. There is no spontaneous harmony, but out of understanding a certain rhythm is maintained. It is an experience of great intelligence; it is not even moral. One has to be aware — if one is not aware, one will fall from this fourth state. Then there is the fifth: three centers meeting. Five percent possibility. Duality becomes more and more emphasized. Understanding is still there but not constant — flickering, shaky. Once in a while conflict arises, but it is not disruptive of love. On the contrary, it adds to it, makes it a little more spicy. It is a psychological experience.
Below it is two centers meeting — Six percent possibility. Great duality, clearcut duality. Moments, only moments, of understanding. And conflict comes too much. It is almost fifty-fifty: fifty percent understanding, fifty percent conflict. It is a physiological experience. Still a great balance is there because of this fifty percent understanding, fifty percent conflict. And below it is one center meeting — seven percent possibility. Too much conflict. Rare moments of joy, very rare. Once in a while, few and far between. But still worth it! It is a sexual experience.
And below it, the lowest, is no centers meeting — the common, garden variety. These are the couples you meet. It is not even a sexual experience; it is even below sexual experience. It is more or less masturbatory. It is only a certain kind of social, economic, political arrangement. It is exploitation. It is businesslike. It is more or less part of the marketplace, the arranged marriage. No love. No respect. Not even hate! Because hate can exist only if some love is there. It is neither friendship nor enmity. It is a very formal relationship — a relationship which is not a relationship at all. It is a mutual masturbatory arrangement. You exploit the other, the other exploits you. It is a kind of prostitution. The ugliest possibility… but this is what is happening on the earth…This is a very businesslike world, very cunning. And all your arrangements that you call relationships, that you call love affairs, have nothing to do with relationship or with love affair. They are basically economic arrangements…
Aniruddha, you ask: TO FIND A SOULMATE SOUNDS NICE, BUT ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE.
YES IT IS ALMOST lMPOSSIBLE — if left to nature itself, it is almost impossible. But in the East we have developed a science: if you cannot find a soulmate, you can create one. And that science is Tantra. To find a soulmate means to find the person with whom all your seven centers meet naturally. That is impossible. Once in a while, a Krishna and a Radha, a Shiva and a Shakti. And when it happens, it is tremendously beautiful. But it is like lightning — you cannot depend on it. If you want to read your Bible, you can’t depend on it that when the lightning is there you will read. The lightning is a natural phenomenon, but undependable. If you wait for your natural soulmate to meet with you, it will be just like waiting for lightning to read your Bible. And you will not be able to read much either. For a moment it is there, and by the time you have opened the Bible it is gone.
Hence Tantra was created.
Tantra is a scientific approach. Tantra is alchemy: it can transform your centers, it can transform the other’s centers; it can create a rhythm and harmony between you and your beloved. That is the beauty of Tantra.
It is like bringing electricity into your house. Then you can turn it on and off whenever you want. And you can have a thousand and one uses of it: it can cool your room, it can heat your room…. Then it is a miracle. These seven centers in you are nothing but centers of body electricity. So when I am talking about lightning, don’t think of it only as a symbol — I mean it literally.
In your body there exists a subtle current of electricity, very subtle. But the more subtle it is, the deeper it goes. It is not very visible. Scientists say that all the electricity that is in your body, if put together, can be used to light a five-candle bulb. It is not much. Quantitatively it is not much; quantitatively the atom is not much, but qualitatively… if it explodes, it has tremendous energy in it. These seven centers, these seven chakras, Yoga and Tantra have talked about down the ages, are nothing but seven knots in your body electric current. They can be changed, they can be rearranged. They can be given a new shape, form. Two lovers can be transformed so deeply that all their seven centers can start meeting.
Tantra is the science of transforming ordinary lovers into soul mates. And that is the grandeur of Tantra. It can transform the whole earth; it can transform each couple into soul-mates. It has not yet been used; it is one of the greatest treasures that is Lying there, unused. The day humanity uses it, a new love will surround the earth; the earth will become aglow with a new love. Only the new man can use it — Homo NOVUS CAN use it. That’s why I herald the new man. Only the new man can use it because only the new man will accept his body in its totality. The old man NEVER accepted his body. He was always fighting with his body, quarrelling with his body, trying to destroy his body. The old man was suicidal; the old man was schizophrenic. The new man will have a wholeness to him. He will not be suicidal. He will be so tremendously in love with life that he will want to come back again and again and again. Only the new man can transform these life energy centers.
That’s what I am trying to do here. It is offending the whole country — not only the whole country but the whole world, because they have never heard of anything like this. This is a great experiment. On the success of this experiment much will depend. If we can help people to grow into such depths of love that EACH couple becomes a Krishna-Radha, that each couple becomes a Shiva and Shakti, just think of the world, how beautiful it can become. The paradise will become pale before it. This very earth can be the paradise. But the science is subtle, and only those who are really ready to understand without prejudices can understand it. And the work is very delicate, mysterious. Outsiders will never be able to understand what is going on; they are bound to misunderstand it.
It is just the same: if you take outsiders to some scientific lab where they are researching atomic energy, do you think the outsiders will be able to understand anything at all? This is far deeper experiment! because to work on atomic energy is to work on matter, and to work on human energy, love energy, is to work on consciousness. It needs very perceptive people to see it. But this is what my intention is in creating a commune, a Buddhafield — where I can transform each couple into Krishna-Radha, where each couple can have that joy, that cosmic joy, that cosmic orgasm, that total ecstasy, when all the seven centers of man and woman meet and mingle and disappear into each other. Right now you are at the lowest where not even a single center is meeting. Aniruddha, it is impossible if you depend on nature. It is very very possible if you depend on Tantra.
Source:
This is an excerpt from the transcript of a public discourse by Osho in Buddha Hall, Shree Rajneesh Ashram, Pune.
Discourse Series: Philosophia Perennis, Vol 1
Chapter #8
Chapter title: You Are Without Stain
28 December 1978 am in Buddha Hall
References:
Osho has spoken on ‘Tantra, sex, transformation, love’ in many of His discourses. More on the subject can be referred to in the following books/discourses:
- The Beloved, Vol 1, 2
- The Rebellious Spirit
- The Divine Melody
- I Say Unto You, Vol 1
- My Way: The Way of the White Clouds
- Ecstasy – The Forgotten Language
- The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 2, 3, 10
- The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 1, 2, 3
- Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, Vol 1, 2
- The Tantra Vision, Vol 1, 2
- Tantra: The Supreme Understanding
- Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 1, 2, 4, 7
- The Mustard Seed: My Most Loved Gospel on Jesus