Osho on Love

Question : What is Love? Osho : It depends. There are as many loves as there are people. Love is a hierarchy, from the lowest rung to the highest, from sex to superconsciousness. There are many many layers, many planes of love. It all depends on you. If you are existing on the lowest rung, you will have a totally different idea of love than the person who is existing on the highest rung. Adolf Hitler will have one idea of love, Gautam Buddha another; and they will e diametrically opposite, ecause they are at two extremes. At the lowest, love is a !ind of politics, power politics. "herever love is contaminated y the idea of domination, it is politics. "hether you call it politics or not is not the #uestion, it is political. And millions of people never !now anything a out love except this politics $$ the politics that exists etween hus ands and wives, oyfriends and girlfriends. It is politics, the whole thing is political% you want to dominate the other, you en&oy domination. And love is nothing ut politics sugar$coated, a itter pill sugar$coated. 'ou tal! a out love ut the deep desire is to exploit the other. And I am not saying that you are doing it deli erately or consciously. (eople are falling in love with horses, dogs, animals, machines, things. "hy) Because to e in love with human eings has ecome an utter hell, a continuous conflict $$ nagging, always at each other*s throats. This is the lowest form of love. +othing is wrong with it if you can use it as a steppingstone , if you can use it as a meditation. If you can watch it, if you try to understand it, in that very understanding you will reach another rung, you will start moving upwards. ,nly at the highest pea!, when love is not a relationship any more, when love ecomes a state of your eing, the lotus opens totally and great perfume is released $$ ut only at the highest pea!. At its lowest, love is &ust a political relationship. At its highest, love is a religious state of consciousness. I love you too, Buddha loves, -esus loves, ut their love demands nothing in return. Their love is given for the sheer &oy of giving it; it is not a argain. Hence the radiant eauty of it, hence the transcendental eauty of it. It surpasses all the &oys that you have !nown. "hen I tal! a out love, I am tal!ing a out love as a state. It is unaddressed% you don*t love this person or that person, you simply love. 'ou are love. .ather than saying that you love some ody, it will e etter to say you are love. /o whosoever is capa le of parta!ing, can parta!e. "hosoever is capa le of drin!ing out of your infinite sources of eing, you are availa le $$ you are availa le unconditionally. That is possi le only if love ecomes more and more meditative. 01edicine* and 0meditation* come from the same root. 2ove as you !now it is a !ind of disease% it needs the medicine of meditation. If it passes through meditation, it is purified. And the more purified it is, the more ecstatic. +ancy was having coffee with Helen. +ancy as!ed, 3How do you !now your hus and loves you)3

3He ta!es out the gar age every morning.3 3That*s not love. That*s good house!eeping.3 31y hus and gives me all the spending money I need.3 3That*s not love. That*s generosity.3 31y hus and never loo!s at other women.3 3That*s not love. That*s poor vision.3 3-ohn always opens the door for me.3 3That*s not love. That*s good manners.3 3-ohn !isses me even when I*ve eaten garlic and I have curlers in my hair.3 3+ow, that*s love.3 4very ody has their own idea of love. And only when you come to the state where all ideas a out love have disappeared, where love is no more an idea ut simply your eing, then only will you !now its freedom. Then love is God. Then love is the ultimate truth. 2et your love move through the process of meditation. "atch it% watch the cunning ways of your mind, watch your power$politics. And nothing else except continuous watching and o serving is going to help. "hen you say something to your woman or your man, loo! at it% what is the unconscious motive) "hy are you saying it) Is there some motive) Then what is it) Be conscious of that motive, ring it to consciousness $$ ecause this is one of the secret !eys for transforming your life% anything that ecomes conscious disappears. 'our motives remain unconscious, that*s why you remain in their grip. 1a!e them conscious, ring them to light, and they will disappear. It is as if you pull up a tree and ring the roots to the sunlight% they will die, they can exist only in the dar!ness of the soil. 'our motives also exist only in the dar!ness of your unconsciousness. /o the only way to transform your love is to ring all the motivations from the unconscious into the conscious. /lowly slowly, those motives will die. And when love is unmotivated, then love is the greatest thing that can ever happen to any ody. Then love is something of the ultimate, of the eyond. That is the meaning when -esus says, 3God is love.3 I say to you% 2ove is God. God can e forgotten, ut don*t forget love $$ ecause it is the purification of love that will ring you to God. If you forget a out God completely, nothing is lost. But don*t forget love, ecause love is the ridge. 2ove is the process of alchemical change in your consciousness.