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Main Index
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afraid of death is incapable of love. So those who become too afraid of death become incapable of love.
The West has become very afraid of death, hence love has disappeared; and the reason is the idea of one life. That has made people very afraid of death. The East thinks that there are many many lives, one goes on coming. It is a circular process: just as seasons go round and round, again the spring will come and again and again; just as the sun moves around the earth, again there will be a morning and again. Everything moves in a circle -- so does life. The East has taken in the circular phenomenon very deeply: one dies and is born again.
The East believes in reincarnation, hence there is not much fear of death. Who bothers? One simply changes one's body. Who cares? It is really good that the old is dropped and you will get a new body. It is like changing garments: the body becomes rotten so one changes it, but life goes on moving. Because in the East the idea has been prevalent for centuries, people are more loving. They don't fear death, there is not much fear.
In the West the Christian idea, basically the Jewish idea, that there is only one life, naturally creates much fear that if you miss once, you miss forever. Hence the speed. Nothing should be missed. Squeeze every moment: eat, drink, be merry, as much as you can. Manage to live as fast as you can, because death is coming and then there will be no other opportunity; this is the only opportunity. This creates great anxiety, and because people become too focused on death, love disappears. Then instead of love there is only ordinary sex, and that is called love; it is not love.
Love can have sex in it but sex has no love in it. When love is there even sex is transformed into something higher, into something spiritual. When there is no love sex is an ordinary, biological mechanism nothing spiritual about it. And because death is too prominent one cannot have enough space and time to love. Love needs time, intimacy, to grow. Sex can be without intimacy. Sex can be a hit-and-run affair. Love needs to grow roots. Love is a Cedar of Lebanon: it takes hundreds of years to grow, it is
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