One woman came to me, must be about sixty-five, and she said, “Osho, my sex desire is disappearing. Help me” – because if you have been influenced by Freud too much, then sex is almost equivalent to life. If the sex desire is disappearing, you are dying, then death is very close by. So to the very end, on the death bed also, you have to remain sexual beings. You have to force yourself to be sexual beings.

This is altogether a new problem, particularly for Indians, who cannot think of it as a problem. If it happens to them, they will go to the temple and thank God. Even when they are young, if the sex desire disappears, they will be very, very happy – tremendously happy. “God has been very much helpful: the problem is solved.” But the problem may not be solved; they may be simply getting impotent.

The problem arises because of a certain outlook. The problem is not a problem in itself; it depends on your outlook. If you are a Westerner, then drinking alcoholic beverages is not a problem. Simple, like any drink – Coca-Cola or Fanta. If you are a German, beer is simply water – no problem in it. But if you are an Indian, then the difficulty arises…even Coca-Cola is a problem. Gandhi will not allow you to drink Coca-Cola. He had prohibited tea in his ashram. Tea! It became a problem to him because it has some quantity of caffeine in it. For Buddhists tea has never been a problem. It has been almost a religious ritual in Japan, in China.

A Buddhist monk starts his life with tea. In the early morning, before he goes to meditate, he takes tea. After he has meditated he takes tea, and takes it in such a religious way, with such grace and dignity. It has never been thought of as a problem. In fact Buddhists discovered it. Legendarily it is connected with Bodhidharma.

Bodhidharma is thought to have discovered tea. He used to live on a hillside. The mountain’s name was Ta, and because the tea was first discovered there, that’s why it is called ta, tea, cha, chai – they are all derivations from Ta. And why did Bodhidharma discover it, and how did he discover it?

He was trying to attain to a point of absolute awareness…it is difficult. You can live without food for many days, but without sleep? And he was trying not to allow any sleep. After a period, seven, eight days, suddenly he felt sleep coming. He tore away his eyelids and threw them, so there would be no problem anymore. It is said those eyelids fell into the ground, sprouted as tea. That’s why tea helps awareness; if you drink too much tea in the night you will not be able to sleep. And because the whole Buddhist mind is how to attain to a point where sleep does not interfere and you can remain perfectly aware, of course tea became almost a sacred thing – the holiest of the holies.