Relaxation

 

 

First, the nature of activity and the hidden currents in it have to be understood, otherwise no relaxation is possible. Even if you want to relax, it will be impossible if you have not observed, watched, realized, the nature of your activity, because activity is not a simple phenomenon.

 

Many people would like to relax, but they cannot relax. Relaxation is like a flowering: you cannot force it. You have to understand the whole phenomenon -- why you are so active, why so much occupation with activity, why you are obsessed with it.

 

Remember two words: one is "action," another is "activity." Action is not activity; activity is not action. Their natures are diametrically opposite. Action is when the situation demands it, you act, you respond. Activity is when the situation doesn't matter, it is not a response; you are so restless within that the situation is just an excuse to be active.

 

Action comes out of a silent mind -- it is the most beautiful thing in the world. Activity comes out of a restless mind -- it is the ugliest. Action is when it has a relevance; activity is irrelevant. Action is moment to moment, spontaneous; activity is loaded with the past. It is not a response to the present moment, rather, it is pouring your restlessness, which you have been carrying from the past, into the present. Action is creative. Activity is very very destructive -- it destroys you, it destroys others.

 

Try to see the delicate distinction. For example, you are hungry then you eat -- this is action. But you are not hungry, you don't feel any hunger at all, and still you go on eating -- this is activity. This eating is like a violence: you destroy food, you crush your teeth and destroy food; it gives you a little release of your inner restlessness. You are eating not because of hunger, you are simply eating because of an inner need, an urge to be violent. [....]

 

You cannot remain yourself, you cannot remain silent, you cannot remain inactive. Through activity you go on throwing your madness, insanity. Action is beautiful, action comes as a spontaneous response; life needs response. Every moment you have to act, but the activity comes through the present moment. You are hungry and you seek food. You are thirsty and you go to the well. You are feeling sleepy and you go to sleep. It is out of the total situation that you act. Action is spontaneous and total.

 

Activity is never spontaneous, it comes from the past. You may have been accumulating it for many years, and then it explodes into the present -- it is not relevant. But mind is cunning; the mind will always find rationalizations for the activity. The mind will always try to prove that this is not activity, this is action; it was needed. Suddenly you flare up in anger. Everybody else becomes aware that it was not needed, the situation never demanded it, it was simply irrelevant -- only you cannot see. Everybody feels: "What are you doing? There was no need for it. Why are you so angry?" But you will find rationalizations; you will rationalize that it was needed.

 

These rationalizations help you to remain unconscious about your madness. These are the things that Gurdjieff used to call "buffers." You create buffers of rationalization around you so you don't come to realize what is the situation. Buffers are used in trains; between two bogies, two compartments, buffers are used so that if there is a sudden stopping there will not be too much shock to the passengers -- the buffers will absorb the shock. Your activity is continuously irrelevant, but the buffers of rationalizations don't allow you to see the situation. Buffers blind you -- and this type of activity continues.

 

If this activity is there, you cannot relax. How can you relax? -- because it is an obsessive need, you want to do something, whatsoever it is. [....]

 

Activity is when the action has no relevance. Watch in yourself and see: ninety percent of your energy is wasted in activity. And because of this, when the moment for action comes, you don't have any energy. A relaxed person is simply non-obsessive, and the energy starts accumulating within him. He conserves his energy, it is conserved automatically, and then when the moment for action comes his total being flows into it. That's why action is total. Activity is always half-hearted, because how can you befool yourself absolutely? Even YOU know that it is useless. Even you are aware that you are doing it for certain feverish reasons within, which are not even clear to you, very vague.

 

You can change activities, but unless activities are transformed into actions, that won't help. People come to me and they say, "I would like to stop smoking." I say, "Why? This is such a beautiful TM, continue. And if you stop it you will start something else -- because the disease doesn't change by changing the symptoms. Then you will chew pan, then you will chew gum; and there are even more dangerous things. These are innocent, because if you are chewing gum you are chewing gum yourself. You may be a fool, but you are not a violent man; you are not destructive to anybody else. If you stop chewing gum, smoking, then what will you do? Your mouth needs activity, it is violent. Then you will talk, then you will talk continuously; yakety-yakety-yak -- and that is more dangerous!" [....]

 

Activity is your escape from yourself. In action you are; in activity you have escaped from yourself -- it is a drug. In activity you forget yourself, and when you forget yourself there are no worries, no anguish, no anxiety. That's why you need to be continuously active, doing something or other, but never in a state when non-doing flowers in you and blooms.

 

Action is good. Activity is ill. Find the distinction within yourself: what is activity and what is action; that is the first step. The second step is to be more involved in action so that the energy moves into action; and whenever there is activity to be more watchful about it, more alert. If you are aware, activity ceases, energy is preserved, and the same energy becomes action.

 

Action is immediate. It is nothing ready-made, it is not prefabricated. It doesn't give you any chance to make a preparation, to go through a rehearsal. Action is always new and fresh like the dew-drops in the morning. And a person who is a person of action is also always fresh and young. The body may become old, but his freshness continues. The body may die, but his youth continues. The body may disappear, but he remains -- because God loves freshness. God is always for the new and the fresh.

 

Drop more and more activity. But how can you drop it? You can make dropping itself an obsession. This is what has happened to your monks in the monasteries: dropping activity has become their obsession. They are continuously doing something to drop it: prayer, meditation, yoga, this and that -- now that is also activity. You cannot drop it in that way; it will come from the back door.

 

Be aware. Feel the difference between action and activity. And when activity takes hold of you -- in fact that should be called a possession: when the activity possesses you, like a ghost; and activity is a ghost, it comes from the past, it is dead -- when activity possesses you and you become feverish, then become more aware; that's all that you can do. Watch it. Even if you have to do it, do it with full awareness. Smoke, but smoke very slowly, with full awareness so that you can see what you are doing.

 

If you can watch smoking, suddenly some day, the cigarette will fall from your fingers, because the whole absurdity of it will be revealed to you. It is stupid; it is simply stupid, idiotic! When you realize that, it simply falls. You cannot throw it because throwing is an activity. That's why I say it simply falls, just like a dead leaf from the tree ... falling, just like that it falls. If YOU have thrown it, you will pick it up again in some other way, in some other form.

 

Let things drop, don't drop them. Let activity disappear, don't force it to disappear -- because the very effort to force it to disappear is again activity in another form. Watch, be alert, conscious, and you will come to a very very miraculous phenomenon: when something drops by itself, on its own accord, it leaves no trace on you. If you force it, then a trace is left, then a scar is left. Then you will always brag that you smoked for thirty years, and then YOU dropped it. Now this bragging is the same; talking about it you are doing the same thing -- not smoking, but talking too much about that you have dropped smoking. Your lips are again in activity, your mouth is functioning, your violence is there.

 

If a man really understands, things drop -- and then you cannot take the credit that "I have dropped it." It dropped itself! You have not dropped it. The ego is not strengthened through it. And then more and more actions will become possible. And whenever you have an opportunity to act totally, don't miss it, don't waver -- act.

 

Act more, and let activities drop on their own accord. A transformation will come to you by and by. It takes time, it needs seasoning, but there is no hurry also. [....]

 

Now you can understand what relaxation means. It means no urge to activity in you. Relaxation doesn't mean lying down like a dead man; and you cannot lie down like a dead man -- you can pretend only. How can you lie down like a dead man? You are alive; you can only pretend. Relaxation comes to you when there is no urge to activity; the energy is at home, not moving anywhere. If a certain situation arises you will act, that's all, but you are not finding some excuse to act. You are at ease with yourself. Relaxation is to be at home.

 

I was reading one book a few years ago. The title of the book is YOU MUST RELAX. This is simply absurd, because the "must" is against relaxation -- but such books can only sell in America. "Must" means activity, it is an obsession. Whenever there is a "must" an obsession is hidden behind it. There are actions in life, but there is no "must," otherwise the "must" will create madness. "You must relax" -- now relaxation has become the obsession. You have to do this posture and that, and lie down, and suggest to your body from the toes to the head; tell the toes, "Relax!" and then go upwards.

 

Why "must"? Relaxation comes only when there is no "must" in your life. Relaxation is not only of the body, it is not only of the mind, it is of your total being.

 

You are too much in activity, of course tired, dissipated, dried up, frozen. The life-energy doesn't move. There are only blocks and blocks and blocks. And whenever you do something you do it in a madness. Of course the need to relax arises. That's why so many books are written every month about relaxation, and I have never seen a person who has become relaxed through reading a book about relaxation -- he has become more hectic, because now his whole life of activity remains untouched. His obsession is there to be active, the disease is there, and he pretends to be in a relaxed state so he lies down. All turmoil within, a volcano ready to erupt, and he is relaxing, following the instructions from a book: how to relax.

 

There is no book that can help you to relax -- unless you read your own inner being, and then relaxation is not a must. Relaxation is an absence, absence of activity, not of action. So there is no need to move to the Himalayas. A few people have done that: to relax, they move to the Himalayas. What is the need to move to the Himalayas? Action is not to be dropped, because if you drop action you drop life. Then you will be dead, not relaxed. So in the Himalayas you will find sages who are dead, not relaxed. They have escaped from life, from action.

 

This is the subtle point to be understood: activity has to go, but not action -- and both are easy. You can drop both and escape to the Himalayas, that's easy. Or, the other thing is easy: you can continue in the activities, and forcing yourself every morning, or every evening, for a few minutes, to relax. You don't understand the complexity of the human mind, the mechanism of it. Relaxation is a state. You cannot force it. You simply drop the negativities, the hindrances, and it comes, it bubbles up by itself.

 

What do you do when you go to sleep in the night? Do you do something? If you do, you will be an insomniac, you will move into insomnia. What do you do? You simply lie down and go into sleep. There is no "doing" to it. If you "do," it will be impossible to sleep. In fact, to go into sleep all that is needed is, the continuity in the mind of the activities of the day has to discontinue. That's all! When the activity is not there in the mind, the mind relaxes and goes into sleep. If you do something to go into sleep, you will be at a loss, then sleep will be impossible. Doing is not needed at all.

 

DO NOUGHT WITH THE BODY BUT RELAX. Don't do anything! No yoga posture is needed, no distortions and contortions of the body are needed. "Do nought!" -- only absence of activity is needed. And how will it come? It will come by understanding. Understanding is the only discipline. Understand your activities and suddenly, in the middle of the activity, if you become aware, it will stop. If you become aware why you are doing it, it will stop. And that stopping is what Tilopa means: DO NOUGHT WITH THE BODY BUT RELAX.

 

What is relaxation? It is a state of affairs where your energy is not moving anywhere, not to the future, not to the past -- it is simply there with you. In the silent pool of your own energy, in the warmth of it, you are enveloped. This moment is all. There is no other moment.

 

Time stops -- then there is relaxation. If time is there, there is no relaxation. Simply, the clock stops; there is no time. This moment is all. You don't ask for anything else, you simply enjoy it. Ordinary things can be enjoyed because they are beautiful. In fact, nothing is ordinary -- if God exists, then everything is extraordinary. [....]

 

Relaxation means this moment is more than enough, more than can be asked and expected. Nothing to ask, more than enough, than you can desire -- then the energy never moves anywhere. It becomes a placid pool. In your own energy, you dissolve. This moment is relaxation. Relaxation is neither of the body nor of the mind, relaxation is of the total. That's why buddhas go on saying, "Become desireless," because they know that if there is desire, you cannot relax. They go on saying, "Bury the dead," because if you are too much concerned with the past, you cannot relax. They go on saying, "Enjoy this very moment."

 

Jesus says, "Look at the lilies. Consider the lilies in the field -- they toil not and they are more beautiful, their splendor is greater than King Solomon. They are arrayed in more beautiful aroma than King Solomon ever was. Look, consider the lilies!"

 

What is he saying? He is saying, "Relax! You need not toil for it -- in fact, everything is provided." Jesus says, "If he looks after the birds of air, animals, wild animals, trees and plants, then why are you worried? Will he not look after you?" This is relaxation. Why are you so much worried about the future? Consider the lilies, watch the lilies, and become like lilies -- and then relax. Relaxation is not a posture; relaxation is a total transformation of your energy.

 

Energy can have two dimensions. One is motivated, going somewhere, a goal somewhere; this moment is only a means and the goal is somewhere else to be achieved. This is one dimension of your energy, this is the dimension of activity, goal-oriented. Then everything is a means; somehow it has to be done and you have to reach to the goal, then you will relax. But for this type of energy the goal never comes, because this type of energy goes on changing every present moment into a means for something else, into the future. The goal always remains on the horizon. You go on running, but the distance remains the same.

 

No, there is another dimension of energy: that dimension is unmotivated celebration. The goal is here, now; the goal is not somewhere else. In fact, you are the goal. In fact, there is no other fulfillment than of this moment -- consider the lilies. When you are the goal and when the goal is not in the future, when there is nothing to be achieved, rather, you have just to celebrate it, you have already achieved it, it is there. This is relaxation, unmotivated energy.

 

So, to me, there are two types of persons: the goal-seekers and the celebrators. The goal-oriented, they are the mad ones; they are going, by and by, crazy, and they are creating their own craziness. And then the craziness has its own momentum: by and by, they move deeper into it -- then they are completely lost. The other type of person is not a goal-seeker -- he is not a seeker at all, he is a celebrator.

 

And this I teach to you: Be the celebrators, celebrate! Already there is too much: the flowers have bloomed, the birds are singing, the sun is there in the sky -- celebrate it! You are breathing and you are alive, and you have consciousness -- celebrate it! Then suddenly you relax, then there is no tension, then there is no anguish. The whole energy that becomes anguish becomes gratitude; your whole heart goes on beating with a deep thankfulness -- that is prayer. That's all prayer is about: a heart beating with a deep thankfulness. [....]

 

Remember, activity is goal-oriented, action is not. Action is overflowing of energy; action is in this moment, a response, unprepared, unrehearsed. Just the whole existence meets you, confronts you, and a response comes. The birds are singing and you start singing -- it is not an activity. Suddenly it happens. Suddenly you find it is happening, that you have started humming -- this is action.

 

And if you become more and more involved in action, and less and less occupied in activity, your life will change and it will become a deep relaxation. Then you "do" but you remain relaxed. A buddha is never tired. Why? -- because he is not a doer. Whatsoever he has, he gives, he overflows.

 

-Osho, "Tantra: The Supreme Understanding, #4"