What is it that one wishes to forget through sex?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

“When there are so many things calling, demanding your attention, you give complete attention to the thought of sex. What happens, why are your minds so occupied with it? Because that is the way of ultimate escape, is it not? It is a way of complete self- forgetfulness. For the time being, at least for the moment, you can forget yourself and there is no other way of forgetting yourself.”

-J. Krishnamurti

Acharya Prashant: J. Krishnamurti says that it is the wish to forget oneself that makes one cling to the desire for sex. So, the questionnaire is asking that in contrast to what Krishnamurti says, is it not the fear of losing ‘me’ that drives all desires? And then she asks, “Or are these two things the same?” You must understand the question.

Krishnamurti is saying that “We desire sex because we want to forget ourselves” and Priya (name of the questionnaire) is saying, “We want to hold on to ourselves and that is why we crave for sex. We are afraid that we might lose ourselves, we want to hold and protect ourselves and that is why we go into desires, including sex”.

Priya you have rightly said that both of these are same. When Krishnamurti says that “Man wants to forget himself and that is why he goes into sex”, he is right.

What is it that we call as remembering oneself? What is it that you remember? What goes on in your mind? All the daily struggles, the content of consciousness. Everything that is marked by discontentment, discontinuity, fear, insecurity, and the like. That is the content of the mind. That is what man’s consciousness is all about — strife, concern. The moment you wake up, you lose that which you had in sleep. Thoughts arrive, and along with thoughts come responsibilities, fears, plans, and all the worldly matters arrive. They are a load, they are a pain. Man wants to forget them, man wants to get rid of them.