My discipline is: Do whatsoever you like -- but do it with self-remembering; remember yourself that you are doing it. Walking, remember that you are walking. You need not verbalize this because verbalization will not help; that itself will become a distraction. You need not walk and say inside, "I am walking," because if you say, "I am walking, I am walking," this "I am walking" will be the forgetfulness; then you will not be able to remember.
Simply remember; there is no need to verbalize it. I have to verbalize because I am talking to you, but when you are walking you simply remember the phenomenon, the walking; each step should be taken with full awareness. Eating, eat. I don't say what to eat, and what not to eat. Whatsoever you like, eat, but with the self-remembrance that you are eating. And soon you will see many things have become impossible to do.
With self-remembering you cannot eat meat, impossible. It is impossible to be so violent if you remember. It is impossible to harm somebody when you remember, because when you remember yourself, suddenly you see that the same light, the same flame is burning everywhere, within each body, each unit. The more you know your inner nature, the more you penetrate the other. How can you kill for eating? It becomes simply impossible.
Not that you practice it -- if you practice it, it is false. If you practice not to be a thief it is false; you will be a thief, you will find subtle ways. If you practice nonviolence, your nonviolence... there will be violence hidden behind it. No, religion cannot be practiced. Morality can be practiced; that's why morality creates hypocrisy, morality creates false faces. Religion creates the authentic being, it cannot be practiced. How can you practice the being? You simply become more aware and things start changing. You simply become more of the nature of light, and darkness disappears.
- Osho, "Tantra: The Supreme Understanding, #3"
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There are Jain monks who are even afraid to breathe because in breathing many lives are killed. Very small lives are moving in the air. It is full of germs, very minute germs; you cannot see them with the naked eye.
When you breathe in, they die; when you breathe out, your hot air coming out kills them. So they have even become afraid of breathing. They cannot walk in the night because maybe some insect in the dark... then there is violence. They cannot move in the rainy season because in the rainy season many insects and many flies, many ants, are born, and everywhere life is alive. If you move on wet ground there is a possibility....
It is said that a Jain monk should not even turn his side in the night while asleep, because if you turn your side too many times you may kill a few insects; you should remain on one side. This is moving to the extreme. This is moving to absurdity.
So remember, people have used nonviolence against life. And nonviolence means such a deep love of life that you cannot kill: you love life so much that you will not like to hurt anybody. It is deep love, not rejection. Of course, in being alive a little violence is a must, but that is not violence, because you are not doing it willfully.
So remember, only that is violence which you do willfully. If I am breathing, I am not breathing willfully. Breathing is going automatically -- you are not breathing; you are not the doer. You try to stop it and then you will know. Just for a single second you can stop, and it comes rushing out or rushing in. It happens you are not responsible for it.
- Osho, "The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 5, #7"