Your physical senses are corrupted.
[Our physical senses] have been trained. You see things if your society allows you to see them, you hear things if your society allows you to hear them. You touch things if your society allows you to touch them. — Osho
Let us take a closer look at the senses.
Smell
Because we value a so-called cultured society and sexual repression goes hand in hand with it, we have banished cultivating the sense of smell in its natural state. Smell, in its natural state, is a strong sexual door.
Osho gives this example to illustrate the possible difficulty in this so-called cultured society:
You are moving on the road and a woman starts releasing her scent and gives you a signal of acceptance. She is somebody else’s wife; her husband is with her — the signal is there that you are acceptable. What will you do? It will be awkward, embarrassing! Your wife is walking with you and there is no scent from her body, and suddenly a man passes by and she gives the signal — and those are unconscious signals; you cannot suddenly control them. Then you will become aware that she is interested in the other man, that she is welcoming the other man. That will create trouble! So down the centuries, man has destroyed his sense of smell completely.
A result is the elimination of body odor in cultured societies. Layers of deodorants, perfume, and strong perfumes cover the body, disguise sexual desires, and are a way of avoiding reality.
See
We don’t look at people.
We don’t really look at them.
No eye contact — we avoid it.
We are afraid to be offensive.
Or see a few things the person is unwilling to show. We see it as a bad manner, so we avoid it.
A person says one thing but means another. We miss the pragmatics because we have lost the ability to see the hints of the face and body language.
And don’t get me started with the introduction of phones in our society and the phone addiction. Surely, phones help us in a lot of ways, but the downside is the loss of one-to-one communication skills. Have you been on the train lately? No one takes the time to look at others. Everyone is engrossed in their screens.
Hear
We have selective hearing. We hear what we want to hear and the rest we fade out, even the great subtle music surrounding life. We are absolutely unaware of it.
Touch
We touch less.
We hold hands less.
We hug less.
And when we do, we feel embarrassed.
Because the warmth of another body can open us up.
That opening up is a simple sign that we are alive, that we are immensely alive.
But the layer and fear around this is “Keep away, keep a distance”.
These repressions make the body non-orgasmic. The body experiences no joy. The physical sense layers destroy, interpret, manipulate, project, and invent new realities.
Yoga is a good instrument to make the body alive again.
It gives the body lucidity, grace, beauty, and flow.
Through joy, the first corruption disappears. Hence my insistence to be joyous, to be celebrating, to enjoy life, to accept the body — not only to accept it but to feel grateful that existence has given you such a beautiful body. Such a sensitive body, with so many doors to relate to reality: eyes and ears and nose and touch — open all these windows and let life’s breeze flow in, let life’s sunshine in. Learn to be more sensitive. Use every opportunity to be sensitive so that the first filter is dropped. — Osho
Make Your Body Alive Again!
And only you can do it. Society has done its work of corruption, you will have to undo it. — Osho