Osho on Women

Social media is flooded with #MeToo, the call sign of a movement to encourage survivors of sexual assault and abuse to speak up. The campaign was founded ten years ago, but has taken off now to expose the magnitude of the issue, and is provoking society to take steps to stop it. Yet the oppression of women has been happening since the discovery of paternity and the origin of private property. While the feminist movement has made great strides in addressing the patriarchal mindset, and this hashtag is bringing assault and abuse out into the open, Osho’s vision is far clearer…

“Man has ruled over women for millennia. He has been given every opportunity and chance and woman has been repressed continuously, has been crippled. She has not been allowed to compete with man shoulder to shoulder in life. That’s why we don’t know how many Gautam Buddhas on the women’s side did not get the opportunity to blossom. We don’t know how many Albert Einsteins have simply been denied any possibility for growth.”

Osho, Sat Chit Anand – Truth Consciousness Bliss, Talk #26

“Man has to be taught to be more heartful because from the heart goes the way to being. You cannot bypass the heart. The woman is in a better position, she can go directly toward being from the heart. But instead of recognizing this immense quality in women, man has been condemning women. Perhaps there is a reason; perhaps he was aware of some superiority in woman – the superiority of love. No logic can be higher than love, and no mind can be higher than the heart. But the mind can be very murderous; the mind can be very violent, and that's what the mind has done for centuries.

“Man has been beating women, repressing women, condemning women. And not knowing that condemning women, repressing women is making them inferior, half of humanity is deprived of raising its consciousness. And you are deprived, because you could also have learned the art of moving upwards from half of the universe. You could also have moved on the same way, on the same path; hence I always say, the liberation of women is also the liberation of man. It is more the liberation of man than the liberation of women."

Osho, Socrates Poisoned Again after 25 Centuries, Talk #21

Has religion played a role in male domination?

“Christianity destroyed thousands of wise women, burned them alive. Even the name ‘witch’ – which means ‘a wise woman’ and nothing else – became so condemnatory… and the same happened in the East. All the religions prohibited women, and I can see that the reason is a great fear that if women are allowed the same opportunity as is given to men, they will be far ahead in the experience of consciousness. And that is against the ego of man.”

Osho, The Hidden Splendor, Talk #22

But what’s behind it, why has man been behaving like this?

“Man suffers from a great inferiority complex because he cannot give birth to children. It is one of the deepest unconscious inferiorities in man. He knows the woman is superior, because in life there can be nothing higher than giving birth to life.

“Man’s function, his participation in giving birth to life, is negligible. It is not more than a syringe injection. It can be done by a syringe – he can be absolutely relieved of taking part in reproduction. He must have felt it from the very beginning. And the only way to overcome this inferiority complex was to reduce the woman in every possible way to such an inferior position that man can forget his inferiority complex and start believing that he is superior.

“All the societies of the world, all the cultures, all the religions in different ways have been doing the same: reducing the woman to a secondary category of humanity not equal to man.”

Osho, The Sword and the Lotus, Talk #17

“A woman is more centered than a man… more serene, more silent, more patient, is capable of waiting. Perhaps because of these qualities she has more resistance to diseases and she lives longer than a man. Because of her serenity, her delicateness, she can fulfill a man’s life immensely. She can surround man’s life in a very soothing, cozy atmosphere.

“But the man is afraid – he does not want to be surrounded by the woman, he does not want to let her create a cozy warmth around him. He is afraid because that way he will become dependent. So for centuries he has been keeping her at a distance. And he is afraid because he knows deep down that the woman is more than he is. She can give birth to life. Nature has chosen her to reproduce, not man.

“Man’s function in reproduction is almost nil. This inferiority has created the greatest problem – man started cutting the woman’s wings. He started in every way reducing her, condemning her, so that he could at least believe that he is superior. He has treated women as cattle – even worse. In China, for thousands of years, the woman was not thought to have a soul, so the husband could kill her and the law would not interfere – she was his possession. If he wanted to destroy his furniture, it was not illegal. If he wanted to destroy his woman, it was not illegal. This is the ultimate insult – that the woman has no soul.”

Osho, The Sword and the Lotus, Talk #5

How would you suggest we get out of this ancient trap?

“Men have always created freedom for themselves, but obstructed women. Men have imprisoned women within the four walls of the house and have allowed themselves freedom. Those days are gone. Now women are as free as you are. And if you don’t want to burn in jealousy, there are only two ways: one way is that you yourself become free of desire. Where there is no desire, jealousy cannot remain. And the other way: if you don’t want to become free of desire, then at least give the same rights to the other as you have. Gather this much courage. I would like you to become free of desire….

“Your wife has as much right to her freedom as you demand for yourself. And if you find that, no, it is not right that your wife becomes interested in other men, then your being interested in other women is also not right. What you expect of your wife you should become, you should act in the same way. Only then do you have any right.”

Osho, Die O Yogi Die, Talk #8

In your work, it seems you have broken totally with the traditional approach?

“I have accepted women for the first time on an equal basis to men. I am in favor of women’s liberation because I know that unless women are liberated, men will never be liberated. Their liberation is together, because they are two sides of the same coin. Naturally many more women have come, because for centuries they were denied, they were insulted, they were never accepted as equal to men. Naturally, more and more women will be coming – and only those men will be here who are ready to accept women as their equal. No male chauvinists can remain around me. It is a family of equal people, with equal dignity.

“If women had been respected in the past, humanity would not have been in such a mess as it is today – because women are half of humanity. Half of humanity has remained undignified, uneducated, deprived of all freedom, all movement. We have hampered, handicapped ourselves. We have destroyed half of ourselves, and if we are in misery then who is to be blamed?

“I am all in favor of women’s liberation – but not the way the women’s liberation movement is going. It is taking a reactionary attitude, it is not a real revolution. It is trying to imitate man. And remember, imitation never makes you equal; imitation at the most will make you a carbon copy – but the original is original.”

Osho, Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries, Talk #7

How should intelligent men understand this situation?

“Women’s liberation is automatically men’s liberation. Women’s slavery is automatically men’s slavery. They go together.”

Osho, The Last Testament, Vol. 1, Talk #19

“My emphasis is to give respect to women – and equality is not against men. It is a world which belongs to you both and you both have to be together to make it as beautiful and as divine as possible.”

Osho, Sat Chit Anand – Truth Consciousness Bliss, Talk #26