I often panic, and worry that I might go mad.
“The basic thing to be understood is that you are not the mind — neither the bright one nor the dark one. If you get identified with the beautiful part, then it is impossible to disidentify yourself from the ugly part; they are two sides of the same coin. You can have it whole, or you can throw it away whole, but you cannot divide it.
“The whole anxiety of man is that he wants to choose that which looks beautiful, bright; he wants to choose all the silver linings, leaving the dark cloud behind. But he does not know that silver linings cannot exist without the dark cloud. The dark cloud is the background, absolutely necessary for silver linings to show.
“Choosing is anxiety.
“Choosing is creating trouble for yourself.
“Being choiceless means: the mind is there and it has a dark side and it has a bright side — so what? What has it to do with you? Why should you be worried about it?
“The moment you are not choosing, all worry disappears. A great acceptance arises, that this is how the mind has to be, this is the nature of the mind — and it is not your problem, because you are not the mind. If you were the mind, there would have been no problem at all. Then who would choose and who would think of transcending? And who would try to accept and understand acceptance?
“You are separate, totally separate.
“You are only a witness and nothing else.
“But you are being an observer who gets identified with anything that he finds pleasant — and forgets that the unpleasant is coming just behind it as a shadow. You are not troubled by the pleasant side — you rejoice in it. The trouble comes when the polar opposite asserts — then you are torn apart.
“But you started the whole trouble. Falling from being just a witness, you became identified. The biblical story of the fall is just a fiction. But this is the real fall — the fall from being a witness into getting identified with something and losing your witnessing.
“Just try once in a while: Let the mind be whatever it is. Remember, you are not it. And you are going to have a great surprise. As you are less identified, the mind starts becoming less powerful, because its power comes from your identification; it sucks your blood. But when you start standing aloof and away, the mind starts shrinking.
“The day you are completely unidentified with the mind, even for a single moment, there is the revelation: mind simply dies; it is no longer there. Where it was so full, where it was so continuous — day in, day out, waking, sleeping, it was there — suddenly it is not there. You look all around and it is emptiness, it is nothingness.
“And with the mind disappears the self. Then there is only a certain quality of awareness, with no ‘I’ in it. At the most you can call it something similar to ‘am-ness,’ but not ‘I-ness.’ To be even more exact, it is ‘is-ness’ because even in am-ness some shadow of the ‘I’ is still there. The moment you know its is-ness, it has become universal.
“With the disappearance of the mind disappears the self. And so many things disappear which were so important to you, so troublesome to you. You were trying to solve them and they were becoming more and more complicated; everything was a problem, an anxiety, and there seemed to be no way out.
“I remind you of the story The Goose is Out. It is concerned with the mind and your is-ness.
“The master tells the disciple to meditate on a koan: A small goose is put into a bottle, fed and nourished. The goose goes on becoming bigger and bigger and bigger, and fills the whole bottle. Now it is too big; it cannot come out of the bottle’s mouth — the mouth is too small. And the koan is that you have to bring the goose out without destroying the bottle, without killing the goose.
“Now it is mind-boggling.
“What can you do? The goose is too big; you cannot take it out unless you break the bottle, but that is not allowed. Or you can bring it out by killing it; then you don’t care whether it comes out alive or dead. That is not allowed either. “Day in, day out, the disciple meditates, finds no way, thinks this way and that way — but in fact there is no way. Tired, utterly exhausted, a sudden revelation...suddenly he understands that the master cannot be interested in the bottle and the goose; they must represent something else. The bottle is the mind, you are the goose...and with witnessing, it is possible. Without being in the mind, you can become identified with it so much that you start feeling you are in it!
“He runs to the master to say that the goose is out. And the master says, “You have understood it. Now keep it out. It has never been in.”
“If you go on struggling with the goose and the bottle, there is no way for you to solve it. It is the realization that, “It must represent something else; otherwise the master cannot give it to me. And what can it be?” — because the whole function between the master and the disciple, the whole business is about the mind and awareness.
“Awareness is the goose which is not in the bottle of the mind. But you are believing that it is in it and asking everyone how to get it out. And there are idiots who will help you, with techniques, to get out of it. I call them idiots because they have not understood the thing at all.
“The goose is out, has never been in, so the question of bringing it out does not arise.
“Mind is just a procession of thoughts passing in front of you on the screen of the brain. You are an observer. But you start getting identified with beautiful things — those are bribes. And once you get caught in the beautiful things you are also caught in the ugly things, because mind cannot exist without duality.
“Awareness cannot exist with duality, and mind cannot exist without duality.
“Awareness is non-dual, and mind is dual. So just watch. I don’t teach you any solutions. I teach you the solution: Just get back a little and watch. Create a distance between you and your mind.
“Whether it is good, beautiful, delicious, something that you would like to enjoy closely, or it is ugly — remain as far away as possible. Look at it just the way you look at a film....
“Identification is the root cause of your misery. And every identification is identification with the mind.
“Just step aside, let the mind pass.
“And soon you will be able to see that there is no problem at all — the goose is out. You don’t have to break the bottle, you don’t have to kill the goose either.”
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Growing Old or Growing Up? - by Osho
Growing Old or Growing Up?
I’m feeling loving towards people, feeling warmth, but I don’t feel very sexual. I don’t know if my sexuality is slightly repressed or if it’s okay.
There’s no need to feel sexual — and there is no need to be worried about it. Just feel loving and warm. That one has to remember, that one should not become cold. If one starts feeling cold, then it is a problem. And if sex disappears completely, there is no problem; warmth should not disappear.
It almost always happens together. When people’s sex disappears, their warmth disappears. When their warmth comes, their sexuality comes. That’s why people think that sexuality and warmth are two aspects of the same energy. They are not.
It is a good experience to be warm and non-sexual. Then you are growing; then you are really growing. Just to grow older is not real growth. To be grown is not to be a grown up. Growing up means exactly what it says: growing up, growing upwards. And this is a beautiful step — that one retains the warmth, and sex by and by disappears. Sex is beautiful because of its warmth; there is nothing else. So if you can retain the warmth when sex disappears, perfectly good; as it should be. Then the goal is preserved, and only the non-essential is gone. Never lose sight of warmth. Sex is not an essential thing; warmth is essential.
So everything is going well. Don’t force sexuality on yourself, otherwise that will be a destructive step. Be more and more warm. There is no need to become anti-sexual. There is no need to repress sexuality. If sometimes just your warmth takes you into sex, it’s okay, it’s beautiful. But if you go into it because of the warmth, then the motive is warmth, not sex. It happens, but it is the periphery. The center remains your loving heart, your warmth.
The Passion for the Impossible
I’m feeling loving towards people, feeling warmth, but I don’t feel very sexual. I don’t know if my sexuality is slightly repressed or if it’s okay.
There’s no need to feel sexual — and there is no need to be worried about it. Just feel loving and warm. That one has to remember, that one should not become cold. If one starts feeling cold, then it is a problem. And if sex disappears completely, there is no problem; warmth should not disappear.
It almost always happens together. When people’s sex disappears, their warmth disappears. When their warmth comes, their sexuality comes. That’s why people think that sexuality and warmth are two aspects of the same energy. They are not.
It is a good experience to be warm and non-sexual. Then you are growing; then you are really growing. Just to grow older is not real growth. To be grown is not to be a grown up. Growing up means exactly what it says: growing up, growing upwards. And this is a beautiful step — that one retains the warmth, and sex by and by disappears. Sex is beautiful because of its warmth; there is nothing else. So if you can retain the warmth when sex disappears, perfectly good; as it should be. Then the goal is preserved, and only the non-essential is gone. Never lose sight of warmth. Sex is not an essential thing; warmth is essential.
So everything is going well. Don’t force sexuality on yourself, otherwise that will be a destructive step. Be more and more warm. There is no need to become anti-sexual. There is no need to repress sexuality. If sometimes just your warmth takes you into sex, it’s okay, it’s beautiful. But if you go into it because of the warmth, then the motive is warmth, not sex. It happens, but it is the periphery. The center remains your loving heart, your warmth.
The Passion for the Impossible
Friday, May 25, 2007
The Book of Understanding - Creating Your Own Path to Freedom ( By Osho )
Excerpt 1
Learned and Natural: Reclaiming the self you were born with
In the past, all over the world, people were pagans -- simple nature-worshippers. There was no concept of sin, there was no question of guilt. Life was accepted as it is. There was no evaluation, no interpretation -- reason had not interfered yet.
The moment reason starts interfering, condemnation comes in. The moment reason enters, division starts and man becomes split. Then you start condemning something in your being -- one part becomes higher, another part becomes lower, and you lose balance. But this had to happen; reason had to come in, this is part of growth. As it happens to every child, it had to happen to the whole of humanity too.
When the child is born he is a pagan. Each child is a born pagan, he is happy the way he is. He has no idea what is right and what is wrong; he has no ideals. He has no criteria, he has no judgment. Hungry, he asks for food. Sleepy, he falls asleep. That’s what Zen masters say is the utmost in religiousness -- when hungry eat, when feeling sleepy go to sleep. Let life flow; don’t interfere.
Each child is born as a pagan, but sooner or later he will lose that simplicity. That is part of life; it has to happen. It is part of our growth, maturity, destiny. The child has to lose it and find it again. When the child loses it he becomes ordinary, worldly. When he regains it he becomes religious.
The innocence of childhood is cheap; it is a gift from existence. We have not earned it and we will have to lose it. Only by losing it will we become aware of what we have lost. Then we will start searching for it. And only when we search for it and earn it, achieve it, become it -- then we will know the tremendous preciousness of it.
Excerpt 2
Outer and Inner: In search of where the twain shall meet
There have been many civilizations before ours that have reached high peaks, but destroyed themselves because they grew in a deep imbalance. They developed great technologies, but they forgot that even the greatest technological progress is not going to make people more blissful, more peaceful, more loving, more compassionate.
Our consciousness has not grown at the same pace as our scientific progress, and that has been the cause of many civilizations destroying themselves. We have created monsters as far as machines are concerned, and at the same time we have remained retarded, unconscious, almost asleep. And it is very dangerous to give so much power to unconscious people.
That’s what is happening now. Politicians are of the lowest kind as far as consciousness is concerned. They are clever, they are cunning. They are mean, too, and they make every effort for a single goal, which is to be more powerful. Their only desire is for more power -- not for more peace, not for more being, not for more truth, not for more love.
What do you need more power for? -- to dominate others, to destroy others. All the power accumulates in the hands of unconscious people. So on the one hand, politicians in all the civilizations that have developed and died -- it would be better to say committed suicide -- had all the power in their hands. On the other hand, the genius of human intelligence was searching for more and more technology, scientific improvements, and all they discovered finally had to go into the hands of the politicians.
The destruction of our earth will not come from some other planet -- we are preparing our own graves. We may be aware, we may not be aware, but we are all gravediggers and we are digging our own graves. Right now there are only a few nations in possession of nuclear weapons. Soon many more nations will also be nuclear powers. It is going to be beyond control, with so many nations having so much destructiveness that a single nation could destroy the whole earth. A single crazy person, a single politician, just to show his power, can destroy the whole of civilization and you will have to begin from ABC. And the destruction is not only of humanity. With humanity will die all the companions of humanity -- the animals, the trees, the birds, the flowers. Everything could disappear, everything that is alive.
The reason is an imbalance in our evolution. We go on developing scientific technology without bothering at all that our consciousness should also evolve in the same proportion. In fact, our consciousness should be a little ahead of our technological progress.
If our consciousness were in the state of enlightenment.... In the hands of a Gautam Buddha nuclear power would no longer be dangerous. In the hands of a Gautam Buddha nuclear power would be turned towards some creative force -- because force is always neutral; either you can destroy with it or you can find ways to create something. But right now our powers are great and our humanity is very small. It is as if we have put bombs in the hands of children to play with.
Human beings have gone through this struggle since the very beginning. It is the imbalance between the inner and the outer.
The outer is easier, and the outer is objective. For example, one man, Thomas Alva Edison, creates electricity and the whole of humanity uses it; there is no need for everyone to discover it again and again. Inner growth is a totally different phenomenon. A Gautam Buddha may become enlightened but that does not mean that everybody else becomes enlightened. Each individual has to find the truth by himself or herself. So whatever happens on the outside goes on accumulating, piling up; all the scientific progress goes on piling up because each scientist is standing on the shoulders of other scientists. But the evolution of consciousness does not follow the same law. Each individual has to discover it by himself; he cannot stand on the shoulders of somebody else.
Anything objective can be shared, can be taught in the schools, colleges, universities. But the same is not true about subjectivity. I may know everything about the inner world; still I cannot hand that over to you. It is one of the fundamental laws of existence that the inner truth has to be discovered by each individual through his or her own efforts. It cannot be purchased in the marketplace nor can it be stolen. Nobody can give it to you as a gift. It is not a commodity, it is not material; it is an immaterial experience.
One can give evidence for this immaterial experience by one’s individuality, by one’s presence, compassion, love, silence. But these are only indications that something has happened inside a person. That person can encourage you, can tell you that you are not going inside in vain: “You will find treasures, as I have found.” Each master is nothing but an argument, evidence, an eyewitness. But the experience remains individual.
Science becomes social, technology becomes social; the subjective realm remains individual. That is the basic problem, how to create a balance.
Excerpt 3
Shepherd and Sheep: Cutting yourself loose from the puppeteer
The very idea of God gives you a sense of relief – that you are not alone, that somebody is looking after affairs; that this cosmos is not just a chaos, it is really a cosmos; that there is a system behind it, there is logic behind it; that it is not an illogical jumble of things, that it is not anarchy. Somebody rules it; the sovereign king is there looking after each small detail – not even a leaf moves without his moving it. Everything is planned. You are part of a great destiny. Maybe the meaning is not known to you, but the meaning is there because God is there. God brings a tremendous relief. One starts feeling that life is not accidental; there is a certain undercurrent of significance, meaning, destiny. God brings a sense of destiny.
There is no God – it simply shows that man knows not why he is here. It simply shows man is helpless. It simply shows that man has no meaning available to him. By creating the idea of God he can believe in meaning, and he can live this futile life with the idea that somebody is looking after it.
Just imagine: you are on an airplane flight and somebody comes and says, “There is no pilot.” Suddenly there will be a panic. No pilot?! No pilot simply means you are doomed. Then somebody says, “The pilot must be there – invisible, we may not be able to see the pilot, but he is there; otherwise how is this beautiful mechanism functioning? Just think of it: Everything is going so beautifully – there must be a pilot! Maybe we are not capable of seeing him, maybe we are not yet prayerful enough to see him, maybe our eyes are closed, but the pilot is there. Otherwise, how is it possible? This airplane has taken off, it is flying perfectly well; the engines are humming. Everything is proof that there is a pilot.”
If somebody can convince you, you can relax again into your chair. You close your eyes, you start dreaming again – you can fall asleep. The pilot is there, you need not worry.
The pilot exists not – it is a human creation. Man has created God in his own image. It is man’s invention. God is not a discovery, it is an invention. And God is not the truth – it is the greatest lie there is.
Learned and Natural: Reclaiming the self you were born with
In the past, all over the world, people were pagans -- simple nature-worshippers. There was no concept of sin, there was no question of guilt. Life was accepted as it is. There was no evaluation, no interpretation -- reason had not interfered yet.
The moment reason starts interfering, condemnation comes in. The moment reason enters, division starts and man becomes split. Then you start condemning something in your being -- one part becomes higher, another part becomes lower, and you lose balance. But this had to happen; reason had to come in, this is part of growth. As it happens to every child, it had to happen to the whole of humanity too.
When the child is born he is a pagan. Each child is a born pagan, he is happy the way he is. He has no idea what is right and what is wrong; he has no ideals. He has no criteria, he has no judgment. Hungry, he asks for food. Sleepy, he falls asleep. That’s what Zen masters say is the utmost in religiousness -- when hungry eat, when feeling sleepy go to sleep. Let life flow; don’t interfere.
Each child is born as a pagan, but sooner or later he will lose that simplicity. That is part of life; it has to happen. It is part of our growth, maturity, destiny. The child has to lose it and find it again. When the child loses it he becomes ordinary, worldly. When he regains it he becomes religious.
The innocence of childhood is cheap; it is a gift from existence. We have not earned it and we will have to lose it. Only by losing it will we become aware of what we have lost. Then we will start searching for it. And only when we search for it and earn it, achieve it, become it -- then we will know the tremendous preciousness of it.
Excerpt 2
Outer and Inner: In search of where the twain shall meet
There have been many civilizations before ours that have reached high peaks, but destroyed themselves because they grew in a deep imbalance. They developed great technologies, but they forgot that even the greatest technological progress is not going to make people more blissful, more peaceful, more loving, more compassionate.
Our consciousness has not grown at the same pace as our scientific progress, and that has been the cause of many civilizations destroying themselves. We have created monsters as far as machines are concerned, and at the same time we have remained retarded, unconscious, almost asleep. And it is very dangerous to give so much power to unconscious people.
That’s what is happening now. Politicians are of the lowest kind as far as consciousness is concerned. They are clever, they are cunning. They are mean, too, and they make every effort for a single goal, which is to be more powerful. Their only desire is for more power -- not for more peace, not for more being, not for more truth, not for more love.
What do you need more power for? -- to dominate others, to destroy others. All the power accumulates in the hands of unconscious people. So on the one hand, politicians in all the civilizations that have developed and died -- it would be better to say committed suicide -- had all the power in their hands. On the other hand, the genius of human intelligence was searching for more and more technology, scientific improvements, and all they discovered finally had to go into the hands of the politicians.
The destruction of our earth will not come from some other planet -- we are preparing our own graves. We may be aware, we may not be aware, but we are all gravediggers and we are digging our own graves. Right now there are only a few nations in possession of nuclear weapons. Soon many more nations will also be nuclear powers. It is going to be beyond control, with so many nations having so much destructiveness that a single nation could destroy the whole earth. A single crazy person, a single politician, just to show his power, can destroy the whole of civilization and you will have to begin from ABC. And the destruction is not only of humanity. With humanity will die all the companions of humanity -- the animals, the trees, the birds, the flowers. Everything could disappear, everything that is alive.
The reason is an imbalance in our evolution. We go on developing scientific technology without bothering at all that our consciousness should also evolve in the same proportion. In fact, our consciousness should be a little ahead of our technological progress.
If our consciousness were in the state of enlightenment.... In the hands of a Gautam Buddha nuclear power would no longer be dangerous. In the hands of a Gautam Buddha nuclear power would be turned towards some creative force -- because force is always neutral; either you can destroy with it or you can find ways to create something. But right now our powers are great and our humanity is very small. It is as if we have put bombs in the hands of children to play with.
Human beings have gone through this struggle since the very beginning. It is the imbalance between the inner and the outer.
The outer is easier, and the outer is objective. For example, one man, Thomas Alva Edison, creates electricity and the whole of humanity uses it; there is no need for everyone to discover it again and again. Inner growth is a totally different phenomenon. A Gautam Buddha may become enlightened but that does not mean that everybody else becomes enlightened. Each individual has to find the truth by himself or herself. So whatever happens on the outside goes on accumulating, piling up; all the scientific progress goes on piling up because each scientist is standing on the shoulders of other scientists. But the evolution of consciousness does not follow the same law. Each individual has to discover it by himself; he cannot stand on the shoulders of somebody else.
Anything objective can be shared, can be taught in the schools, colleges, universities. But the same is not true about subjectivity. I may know everything about the inner world; still I cannot hand that over to you. It is one of the fundamental laws of existence that the inner truth has to be discovered by each individual through his or her own efforts. It cannot be purchased in the marketplace nor can it be stolen. Nobody can give it to you as a gift. It is not a commodity, it is not material; it is an immaterial experience.
One can give evidence for this immaterial experience by one’s individuality, by one’s presence, compassion, love, silence. But these are only indications that something has happened inside a person. That person can encourage you, can tell you that you are not going inside in vain: “You will find treasures, as I have found.” Each master is nothing but an argument, evidence, an eyewitness. But the experience remains individual.
Science becomes social, technology becomes social; the subjective realm remains individual. That is the basic problem, how to create a balance.
Excerpt 3
Shepherd and Sheep: Cutting yourself loose from the puppeteer
The very idea of God gives you a sense of relief – that you are not alone, that somebody is looking after affairs; that this cosmos is not just a chaos, it is really a cosmos; that there is a system behind it, there is logic behind it; that it is not an illogical jumble of things, that it is not anarchy. Somebody rules it; the sovereign king is there looking after each small detail – not even a leaf moves without his moving it. Everything is planned. You are part of a great destiny. Maybe the meaning is not known to you, but the meaning is there because God is there. God brings a tremendous relief. One starts feeling that life is not accidental; there is a certain undercurrent of significance, meaning, destiny. God brings a sense of destiny.
There is no God – it simply shows that man knows not why he is here. It simply shows man is helpless. It simply shows that man has no meaning available to him. By creating the idea of God he can believe in meaning, and he can live this futile life with the idea that somebody is looking after it.
Just imagine: you are on an airplane flight and somebody comes and says, “There is no pilot.” Suddenly there will be a panic. No pilot?! No pilot simply means you are doomed. Then somebody says, “The pilot must be there – invisible, we may not be able to see the pilot, but he is there; otherwise how is this beautiful mechanism functioning? Just think of it: Everything is going so beautifully – there must be a pilot! Maybe we are not capable of seeing him, maybe we are not yet prayerful enough to see him, maybe our eyes are closed, but the pilot is there. Otherwise, how is it possible? This airplane has taken off, it is flying perfectly well; the engines are humming. Everything is proof that there is a pilot.”
If somebody can convince you, you can relax again into your chair. You close your eyes, you start dreaming again – you can fall asleep. The pilot is there, you need not worry.
The pilot exists not – it is a human creation. Man has created God in his own image. It is man’s invention. God is not a discovery, it is an invention. And God is not the truth – it is the greatest lie there is.
When the Shoe Fits - Stories of the Taoist mystic Chuang Tzu - by Osho
History always remembers foolish people because fools make history and fools write it.
Chuang Tzu makes no history, because easy is right. How can you make history if you are easy? If you win a war and kill millions of people you make history. If you just brush your teeth in the morning how can you make history? And easy is right! You take a bath, and you sing a little song...how can you make history? You eat your food and you silently go to sleep without any dreams–how can you make history? No, history takes no notice of persons who are easy and natural. History takes notice of people who are mad, obsessed with something, who create trouble in some way or other.
Difficult is wrong, easy is right. Be easy and don’t try to be in history. Leave it for fools and mad people, you just stay out of it…because you cannot have both. Either you can have life or you can be remembered in history. If you have life, you will be just an easy and simple person doing simple and small things and enjoying them. You will not create any trouble for anybody; nobody will take any notice of you. You will exist as if you never existed. That is what easy is–existing as if you are not existing, existing as if you are not. Not in anyone’s way, nobody will know about you, but there is no need. You will enjoy; you will attain to the highest peak of ecstasy. Easy is right.
When the Shoe Fits uses ten stories from the life of Chuang Tzu as starting points to explore what "Easy is right" really means. The title of the book is taken from the first story: "When the shoe fits," says Chuang Tzu, "the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. And when the heart is right, ’for’ and ’against’ are forgotten." In commenting on these ten beautiful and paradoxical stories, Osho invites us to explore what the ego is, and how it gets in our way; what true self-acceptance really means; why drawing up rules of conduct for people to follow never seems to work - and much, much more. Chuang Tzu’s perspective, in Osho’s hands, becomes absolutely relevant to live in the 21st century.
Chuang Tzu makes no history, because easy is right. How can you make history if you are easy? If you win a war and kill millions of people you make history. If you just brush your teeth in the morning how can you make history? And easy is right! You take a bath, and you sing a little song...how can you make history? You eat your food and you silently go to sleep without any dreams–how can you make history? No, history takes no notice of persons who are easy and natural. History takes notice of people who are mad, obsessed with something, who create trouble in some way or other.
Difficult is wrong, easy is right. Be easy and don’t try to be in history. Leave it for fools and mad people, you just stay out of it…because you cannot have both. Either you can have life or you can be remembered in history. If you have life, you will be just an easy and simple person doing simple and small things and enjoying them. You will not create any trouble for anybody; nobody will take any notice of you. You will exist as if you never existed. That is what easy is–existing as if you are not existing, existing as if you are not. Not in anyone’s way, nobody will know about you, but there is no need. You will enjoy; you will attain to the highest peak of ecstasy. Easy is right.
When the Shoe Fits uses ten stories from the life of Chuang Tzu as starting points to explore what "Easy is right" really means. The title of the book is taken from the first story: "When the shoe fits," says Chuang Tzu, "the foot is forgotten. When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten. And when the heart is right, ’for’ and ’against’ are forgotten." In commenting on these ten beautiful and paradoxical stories, Osho invites us to explore what the ego is, and how it gets in our way; what true self-acceptance really means; why drawing up rules of conduct for people to follow never seems to work - and much, much more. Chuang Tzu’s perspective, in Osho’s hands, becomes absolutely relevant to live in the 21st century.
Emotional Wellness -Transforming Fear, Anger, and Jealousy into Creative Energy - by Osho
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About: Emotional Wellness
How do we reconcile our need to express our emotions with our desire to get along with others? Far too often we find ourselves trapped in this dilemma of “expression” versus “repression.” We fear that by expressing our true feelings, we will hurt and alienate those close to us. But by repressing our emotions—even in the benevolent guise of “self-control”—we only risk hurting ourselves.
Here, Osho provides a practical and comprehensive approach to dealing with this conflict effectively. Emotional Wellness leads us to understand the roots of our emotions, to respond to situations in a way that can teach us more about ourselves and others, and to navigate life’s inevitable ups and downs with greater confidence and equilibrium.
Includes:
o The impact that fear, anger, and jealousy have on our lives
o How emotions like guilt, insecurity, and fear are used to manipulate us
o How to break out of unhealthy patterns of dealing with strong emotions
o How to transform destructive emotions into creative energy
o The role of society and culture on our individual emotional “styles”
Excerpt from Emotional Wellness
Emotions cannot be permanent. That’s why they are called “emotions”—the word comes from “motion,” movement. They move; hence, they are “emotions.” From one to another you continually change. This moment you are sad, that moment you are happy; this moment you are angry, that moment you are compassionate. This moment you are loving, another moment full of hatred; the morning was beautiful, the evening is ugly. And this goes on. This cannot be your nature, because behind all these changes something is needed like a thread that holds all of them together. Just as in a garland you see flowers, you don’t see the thread, but the thread is what is holding all the flowers, in the same way these emotions are all flowers. Sometimes anger flowers, sometimes happiness, sometimes pain sometimes anguish. But these are all flowers, and your whole life is the garland. There must be thread; otherwise you would have fallen apart long ago. You continue as an entity—so what is the thread, the polestar? What is permanent in you? - Osho, Emotional Wellness
About: Emotional Wellness
How do we reconcile our need to express our emotions with our desire to get along with others? Far too often we find ourselves trapped in this dilemma of “expression” versus “repression.” We fear that by expressing our true feelings, we will hurt and alienate those close to us. But by repressing our emotions—even in the benevolent guise of “self-control”—we only risk hurting ourselves.
Here, Osho provides a practical and comprehensive approach to dealing with this conflict effectively. Emotional Wellness leads us to understand the roots of our emotions, to respond to situations in a way that can teach us more about ourselves and others, and to navigate life’s inevitable ups and downs with greater confidence and equilibrium.
Includes:
o The impact that fear, anger, and jealousy have on our lives
o How emotions like guilt, insecurity, and fear are used to manipulate us
o How to break out of unhealthy patterns of dealing with strong emotions
o How to transform destructive emotions into creative energy
o The role of society and culture on our individual emotional “styles”
Excerpt from Emotional Wellness
Emotions cannot be permanent. That’s why they are called “emotions”—the word comes from “motion,” movement. They move; hence, they are “emotions.” From one to another you continually change. This moment you are sad, that moment you are happy; this moment you are angry, that moment you are compassionate. This moment you are loving, another moment full of hatred; the morning was beautiful, the evening is ugly. And this goes on. This cannot be your nature, because behind all these changes something is needed like a thread that holds all of them together. Just as in a garland you see flowers, you don’t see the thread, but the thread is what is holding all the flowers, in the same way these emotions are all flowers. Sometimes anger flowers, sometimes happiness, sometimes pain sometimes anguish. But these are all flowers, and your whole life is the garland. There must be thread; otherwise you would have fallen apart long ago. You continue as an entity—so what is the thread, the polestar? What is permanent in you? - Osho, Emotional Wellness
I Am the Gate - by Osho
Excerpt from I Am the Gate, Third Edition
“Open to trust. Then there is chain reaction; then you come into touch. And the touch is not a touch — it becomes part and parcel of your being.
"Really, we are not as isolated as we feel. All the isolation is because of the closing attitude of the ego. Otherwise there is no separation, no isolation. You are not so different from me. You are not so separate from me. If you are, it is only the isolating ego. If the ego is not there…. And the miracle of trust is that if you trust, you will not be an ego. These both cannot exist simultaneously: if you trust you cannot be an ego, if you doubt you cannot be other than an ego. If you trust then you are not an ego – the isolation is lost. You are open. That opening….
"Then it is not that you are taking anything from me. There is no ’me’ as such. It is not that you are taking something from someone else. It is only that you yourself are reflected — in your own self. It just looks separate because of the ego. If you are open then the chain can continue for centuries.”
“Open to trust. Then there is chain reaction; then you come into touch. And the touch is not a touch — it becomes part and parcel of your being.
"Really, we are not as isolated as we feel. All the isolation is because of the closing attitude of the ego. Otherwise there is no separation, no isolation. You are not so different from me. You are not so separate from me. If you are, it is only the isolating ego. If the ego is not there…. And the miracle of trust is that if you trust, you will not be an ego. These both cannot exist simultaneously: if you trust you cannot be an ego, if you doubt you cannot be other than an ego. If you trust then you are not an ego – the isolation is lost. You are open. That opening….
"Then it is not that you are taking anything from me. There is no ’me’ as such. It is not that you are taking something from someone else. It is only that you yourself are reflected — in your own self. It just looks separate because of the ego. If you are open then the chain can continue for centuries.”
The Need for Chaotic Methods for yoga - by Osho
Traditional methods are systematic because the people in earlier times for whom they were developed were different. Modern man is a very new phenomenon. No traditional method can be used exactly as it exists, because modern man never existed before. So, in a way, all traditional methods have become irrelevant.
For example, the body has changed so much. It is not as natural now as it was in the days when Patanjali developed his system of Yoga. It is absolutely different. It is so drugged that no traditional method can be helpful.
In the past, medicine was not allowed to Hatha yogis, absolutely not allowed, because chemical changes will not only make the methods difficult but harmful. But the whole atmosphere is artificial now: the air, the water, society, living conditions. Nothing is natural. You are born in artificiality; you develop in it. So traditional methods will prove harmful today. They will have to be changed according to the modern situation.
Another thing: the quality of the mind has basically changed. In Patanjali’s days, the center of the human personality was not the brain; it was the heart. Before that, it was not even the heart. It was still lower, near the navel. Hatha Yoga developed methods which were useful, meaningful, to the person whose center of personality was the navel. Then the center became the heart. Only then could Bhakti Yoga be used. Bhakti Yoga developed in the Middle Ages because that is when the center of personality changed from the navel to the heart.
A method has to change according to the person to whom it is applied. Now, not even Bhakti Yoga is relevant. The center has gone even further from the navel. Now, the center is the brain. That is why teachings like those of Krishnamurti have appeal. No method is needed, no technique is needed — only understanding. But if it is just a verbal understanding, just intellectual, nothing changes, nothing is transformed. It again becomes an accumulation of knowledge.
I use chaotic methods rather than systematic ones because a chaotic method is very helpful in pushing the center down from the brain. The center cannot be pushed down through any systematic method because systemization is brain work. Through a systematic method, the brain will be strengthened; more energy will be added to it.
Through chaotic methods the brain is nullified. It has nothing to do. The method is so chaotic that the center is automatically pushed from the brain to the heart. If you do my method of Dynamic Meditation vigorously, unsystematically, chaotically, your center moves to the heart. Then there is a catharsis. A catharsis is needed because your heart is so suppressed, due to your brain. Your brain has taken over so much of your being that it dominates you. There is no place for the heart, so the longings of the heart are suppressed. You have never laughed heartily, never lived heartily, never done anything heartily. The brain always comes in to systematize, to make things mathematical, and the heart is suppressed.
So firstly, a chaotic method is needed to push the center of consciousness from the brain toward the heart.
Then catharsis is needed to unburden the heart, to throw off suppressions, to make the heart open. If the heart becomes light and unburdened, then the center of consciousness is pushed still lower; it comes to the navel. The navel is the source of vitality, the seed source from which everything else comes: the body and the mind and everything.
I use this chaotic method very considerately. Systematic methodology will not help now, because the brain will use it as its own instrument. Nor can just the chanting of bhajans help now, because the heart is so burdened that it cannot flower into real chanting. Chanting can only be an escape for it; prayer can only be an escape. The heart cannot flower into prayer because it is so overburdened with suppressions. I have not seen a single person who can go deep into authentic prayer. Prayer is impossible because love itself has become impossible.
Consciousness must be pushed down to the source, to the roots. Only then is there the possibility of transformation. So I use chaotic methods to push the consciousness downward from the brain.
Whenever you are in chaos, the brain stops working. For example, if you are driving a car and suddenly someone runs in front of you, you react so suddenly that it cannot be the work of the brain. The brain takes time. It thinks about what to do and what not to do. So whenever there is a possibility of an accident and you push the brake, you feel a sensation near your navel, as if it were your stomach that is reacting. Your consciousness is pushed down to the navel because of the accident. If the accident could be calculated beforehand, the brain would be able to deal with it; but when you are in an accident, something unknown happens. Then you notice that your consciousness has moved to the navel.
If you ask a Zen monk, “From where do you think?” he puts his hands on his belly. When Westerners came into contact with Japanese monks for the first time they could not understand. “What nonsense! How can you think from your belly?”
But the Zen reply is meaningful. Consciousness can use any center of the body, and the center that is nearest to the original source is the navel. The brain is furthest away from the original source, so if life energy is moving outward, the center of consciousness will become the brain. And if life energy is moving inward, ultimately the navel will become the center.
Chaotic methods are needed to push the consciousness to its roots, because only from the roots is transformation possible. Otherwise you will go on verbalizing and there will be no transformation. It is not enough just to know what is right. You have to transform the roots; otherwise you will not change.
When a person knows the right thing and cannot do anything about it, he becomes doubly tense. He understands, but he cannot do anything. Understanding is meaningful only when it comes from the navel, from the roots. If you understand from the brain, it is not transforming.
The ultimate cannot be known through the brain, because when you are functioning through the brain you are in conflict with the roots from which you have come. Your whole problem is that you have moved away from the navel. You have come from the navel and you will die through it. One has to come back to the roots. But coming back is difficult, arduous.
Kundalini Yoga is concerned with life energy and its inward flow. It is concerned with techniques to bring the body and mind to a point where transcendence is possible. Then, everything is changed. The body is different; the mind is different; the living is different. It is just life.
A bullock cart is useful, but it is no longer needed. Now you are driving a car, so you cannot use the technique that was used with the bullock cart. It was useful with the bullock cart, but it is irrelevant with the car.
Traditional methods have an appeal because they are so ancient and so many people have achieved through them in the past. They may have become irrelevant to us, but they were not irrelevant to Buddha, Mahavira, Patanjali or Krishna. They were meaningful, helpful. The old methods may be meaningless now, but because Buddha achieved through them they have an appeal. The traditionalist feels: “If Buddha achieved through these methods, why can’t I?”
But we are in an altogether different situation now. The whole atmosphere, the whole thought-sphere, has changed. Every method is organic to a particular situation, to a particular mind, to a particular man.
The opposite extreme is that of Krishnamurti. He denies all methods. But to do that, he has to deny Buddha. It is the other aspect of the same coin. If you deny the methods then you have to deny Buddha, and if you do not deny Buddha then you cannot deny his methods.
These are extremes. Extremes are always wrong. You cannot deny a falsehood through taking an extreme position to it, because the opposite extreme will still be a falsehood. The truth always lies exactly in the middle. So to me, the fact that the old methods don’t work doesn’t mean that no method is useful. It only means that the methods themselves must change.
Even no-method is a method. It is possible that to someone only no-method will be a method. A method is always true in relation to a particular person; it is never general. When truths are generalized, they become false. So whenever anything is to be used or anything is to be said, it is always addressed to a particular human being: to his attention, to his mind, to him and no one else.
This too has become a difficulty now. In the old days there was always a one-to-one relationship between a teacher and a disciple. It was a personal relationship and a personal communication. Today it is always impersonal. One has to talk to a crowd, so one has to generalize. But generalized truths become false. Something is meaningful only to a particular person.
Any person who has been talking in general can be consistent, but then the truth becomes false, because every statement that is true is bound to be addressed to a particular person. Of course, the truth is eternal — it is never new, never old — but truth is the realization, the end. The means are always relevant or irrelevant to a particular person, to a particular mind, to a particular attitude.
As I see the situation, modern man has changed so much that he needs new methods, new techniques.
Chaotic methods will help the modern mind because the modern mind is, itself, chaotic. This chaos, this rebelliousness in modern man is, in fact, a rebellion of other things: of the body against the mind and against its suppressions. If we talk about it in yogic terms we can say that it is the rebellion of the heart center and the navel center against the brain.
These centers are against the brain because the brain has monopolized the whole territory of the human soul. This cannot be tolerated any further. That is why universities have become centers of rebellion. It is not accidental. If the whole society is thought of as an organic body, then the university is the head, the brain.
Because of the rebelliousness of the modern mind, it is bound to be lenient toward loose and chaotic methods. Dynamic Meditation will help to move the center of consciousness away from the brain. Then the person using it will never be rebellious, because the cause of rebellion becomes fulfilled. He will be at ease.
So to me, meditation is not only a salvation for the individual, a transformation for the individual; it can also provide the groundwork for the transformation of the whole society, of the human being as such.
Man will either have to commit suicide, or he will have to transform his energy.
The Psychology of the Esoteric
For example, the body has changed so much. It is not as natural now as it was in the days when Patanjali developed his system of Yoga. It is absolutely different. It is so drugged that no traditional method can be helpful.
In the past, medicine was not allowed to Hatha yogis, absolutely not allowed, because chemical changes will not only make the methods difficult but harmful. But the whole atmosphere is artificial now: the air, the water, society, living conditions. Nothing is natural. You are born in artificiality; you develop in it. So traditional methods will prove harmful today. They will have to be changed according to the modern situation.
Another thing: the quality of the mind has basically changed. In Patanjali’s days, the center of the human personality was not the brain; it was the heart. Before that, it was not even the heart. It was still lower, near the navel. Hatha Yoga developed methods which were useful, meaningful, to the person whose center of personality was the navel. Then the center became the heart. Only then could Bhakti Yoga be used. Bhakti Yoga developed in the Middle Ages because that is when the center of personality changed from the navel to the heart.
A method has to change according to the person to whom it is applied. Now, not even Bhakti Yoga is relevant. The center has gone even further from the navel. Now, the center is the brain. That is why teachings like those of Krishnamurti have appeal. No method is needed, no technique is needed — only understanding. But if it is just a verbal understanding, just intellectual, nothing changes, nothing is transformed. It again becomes an accumulation of knowledge.
I use chaotic methods rather than systematic ones because a chaotic method is very helpful in pushing the center down from the brain. The center cannot be pushed down through any systematic method because systemization is brain work. Through a systematic method, the brain will be strengthened; more energy will be added to it.
Through chaotic methods the brain is nullified. It has nothing to do. The method is so chaotic that the center is automatically pushed from the brain to the heart. If you do my method of Dynamic Meditation vigorously, unsystematically, chaotically, your center moves to the heart. Then there is a catharsis. A catharsis is needed because your heart is so suppressed, due to your brain. Your brain has taken over so much of your being that it dominates you. There is no place for the heart, so the longings of the heart are suppressed. You have never laughed heartily, never lived heartily, never done anything heartily. The brain always comes in to systematize, to make things mathematical, and the heart is suppressed.
So firstly, a chaotic method is needed to push the center of consciousness from the brain toward the heart.
Then catharsis is needed to unburden the heart, to throw off suppressions, to make the heart open. If the heart becomes light and unburdened, then the center of consciousness is pushed still lower; it comes to the navel. The navel is the source of vitality, the seed source from which everything else comes: the body and the mind and everything.
I use this chaotic method very considerately. Systematic methodology will not help now, because the brain will use it as its own instrument. Nor can just the chanting of bhajans help now, because the heart is so burdened that it cannot flower into real chanting. Chanting can only be an escape for it; prayer can only be an escape. The heart cannot flower into prayer because it is so overburdened with suppressions. I have not seen a single person who can go deep into authentic prayer. Prayer is impossible because love itself has become impossible.
Consciousness must be pushed down to the source, to the roots. Only then is there the possibility of transformation. So I use chaotic methods to push the consciousness downward from the brain.
Whenever you are in chaos, the brain stops working. For example, if you are driving a car and suddenly someone runs in front of you, you react so suddenly that it cannot be the work of the brain. The brain takes time. It thinks about what to do and what not to do. So whenever there is a possibility of an accident and you push the brake, you feel a sensation near your navel, as if it were your stomach that is reacting. Your consciousness is pushed down to the navel because of the accident. If the accident could be calculated beforehand, the brain would be able to deal with it; but when you are in an accident, something unknown happens. Then you notice that your consciousness has moved to the navel.
If you ask a Zen monk, “From where do you think?” he puts his hands on his belly. When Westerners came into contact with Japanese monks for the first time they could not understand. “What nonsense! How can you think from your belly?”
But the Zen reply is meaningful. Consciousness can use any center of the body, and the center that is nearest to the original source is the navel. The brain is furthest away from the original source, so if life energy is moving outward, the center of consciousness will become the brain. And if life energy is moving inward, ultimately the navel will become the center.
Chaotic methods are needed to push the consciousness to its roots, because only from the roots is transformation possible. Otherwise you will go on verbalizing and there will be no transformation. It is not enough just to know what is right. You have to transform the roots; otherwise you will not change.
When a person knows the right thing and cannot do anything about it, he becomes doubly tense. He understands, but he cannot do anything. Understanding is meaningful only when it comes from the navel, from the roots. If you understand from the brain, it is not transforming.
The ultimate cannot be known through the brain, because when you are functioning through the brain you are in conflict with the roots from which you have come. Your whole problem is that you have moved away from the navel. You have come from the navel and you will die through it. One has to come back to the roots. But coming back is difficult, arduous.
Kundalini Yoga is concerned with life energy and its inward flow. It is concerned with techniques to bring the body and mind to a point where transcendence is possible. Then, everything is changed. The body is different; the mind is different; the living is different. It is just life.
A bullock cart is useful, but it is no longer needed. Now you are driving a car, so you cannot use the technique that was used with the bullock cart. It was useful with the bullock cart, but it is irrelevant with the car.
Traditional methods have an appeal because they are so ancient and so many people have achieved through them in the past. They may have become irrelevant to us, but they were not irrelevant to Buddha, Mahavira, Patanjali or Krishna. They were meaningful, helpful. The old methods may be meaningless now, but because Buddha achieved through them they have an appeal. The traditionalist feels: “If Buddha achieved through these methods, why can’t I?”
But we are in an altogether different situation now. The whole atmosphere, the whole thought-sphere, has changed. Every method is organic to a particular situation, to a particular mind, to a particular man.
The opposite extreme is that of Krishnamurti. He denies all methods. But to do that, he has to deny Buddha. It is the other aspect of the same coin. If you deny the methods then you have to deny Buddha, and if you do not deny Buddha then you cannot deny his methods.
These are extremes. Extremes are always wrong. You cannot deny a falsehood through taking an extreme position to it, because the opposite extreme will still be a falsehood. The truth always lies exactly in the middle. So to me, the fact that the old methods don’t work doesn’t mean that no method is useful. It only means that the methods themselves must change.
Even no-method is a method. It is possible that to someone only no-method will be a method. A method is always true in relation to a particular person; it is never general. When truths are generalized, they become false. So whenever anything is to be used or anything is to be said, it is always addressed to a particular human being: to his attention, to his mind, to him and no one else.
This too has become a difficulty now. In the old days there was always a one-to-one relationship between a teacher and a disciple. It was a personal relationship and a personal communication. Today it is always impersonal. One has to talk to a crowd, so one has to generalize. But generalized truths become false. Something is meaningful only to a particular person.
Any person who has been talking in general can be consistent, but then the truth becomes false, because every statement that is true is bound to be addressed to a particular person. Of course, the truth is eternal — it is never new, never old — but truth is the realization, the end. The means are always relevant or irrelevant to a particular person, to a particular mind, to a particular attitude.
As I see the situation, modern man has changed so much that he needs new methods, new techniques.
Chaotic methods will help the modern mind because the modern mind is, itself, chaotic. This chaos, this rebelliousness in modern man is, in fact, a rebellion of other things: of the body against the mind and against its suppressions. If we talk about it in yogic terms we can say that it is the rebellion of the heart center and the navel center against the brain.
These centers are against the brain because the brain has monopolized the whole territory of the human soul. This cannot be tolerated any further. That is why universities have become centers of rebellion. It is not accidental. If the whole society is thought of as an organic body, then the university is the head, the brain.
Because of the rebelliousness of the modern mind, it is bound to be lenient toward loose and chaotic methods. Dynamic Meditation will help to move the center of consciousness away from the brain. Then the person using it will never be rebellious, because the cause of rebellion becomes fulfilled. He will be at ease.
So to me, meditation is not only a salvation for the individual, a transformation for the individual; it can also provide the groundwork for the transformation of the whole society, of the human being as such.
Man will either have to commit suicide, or he will have to transform his energy.
The Psychology of the Esoteric
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)