Osho on Sigmund Freud Life, Western psychology and Meditation

 

 

Question 3

Osho,

Sigmund Freud has explained self-deception by postulating separate parts of the psyche, each part autonomous and capable of pursuing different goals, and each part unknown to the other because they function according to different principles: one according to rationality, and one non-verbal. I also feel this inner schism. Is something like this responsible for my unawareness?

 

 

Sigmund Freud is as unaware as you are. And one should ask first if the mind has two separate divisions which know nothing of each other: one functions verbally, linguistically, rationally; one non-verbally, non-linguistically, non-logically.

 

The first thing to remember to ask Sigmund Freud is, how does he come to know? Who is this third one who knows that there are two divisions? There must be a third one, a witness, because there is no connection between the two. The two are not in communication, they function separately. Then how does Sigmund Freud come to know that there are two separate divisions of the mind?

 

He does not know anything of awareness -- he never mentions it. He knows nothing of witnessing -- he never mentions it. Unknowingly, he is using awareness. He is not aware that he is aware of a division, because a third principle is absolutely needed to be aware of the two. Otherwise, how can you know about the two?

 

And if Sigmund Freud can know, it simply proves that in some unconscious way he has become a witness. From a distance he has watched the division of the mind. That's where the Western psychology is missing -- it has come very close to the witness. This is absolutely right. What he is saying is absolutely right. Mind is divided in two hemispheres, and they know nothing of each other. But to know it, the only way is that there must be a watcher behind and above and beyond who can see both functioning, separately, without any inter-communication. Not knowing, he has experienced a moment of meditation.

 

Western psychology is still not aware of meditation. I feel sometimes very surprised when I come across such statements, and that nobody asked these people, "How have you come to know?" -- which is a simple question. If they say that one part of the mind has come to know the other part, there is communication. That, they cannot say. They have closed that door themselves.

 

One is verbal, one is non-verbal. There is no question of any communication. They function separately. Once they have recognized that there is a third principle of awareness, which is not mind but which is your consciousness, to accept the third principle is to know the infinite, is to know the absolute.

 

This division of the mind has been known in the East for thousands of years. In fact, you will be surprised that the Eastern understanding is not of two divisions but of four divisions. The mind is split into four divisions. It is almost like a cross. The left side and the right side is one division, then the front mind and the back mind is another division. So there are four parts. Western psychology has only come to understand the front two parts. What Sigmund Freud is talking about is the two front parts. One is non-verbal, one is verbal.

 

But there is another division between the front of the mind and the back of the mind. The front of the mind is active, and the back of the mind is absolutely inactive. There is also a clear-cut division. There is no communication between them; hence, physiologists particularly have become aware of this second division, because the back of the mind does not function at all -- and nature never produces anything which is of no use. The back of the mind must have some use, otherwise why does nature go on producing it?

 

All the centers in the back part are inactive. But for centuries the meditators in the East have known that both the divisions are valid. Mind is divided into four parts, and just as the verbal mind uses language, reason, logic, the non-verbal mind is irrational, has no idea of any language. And between them there is no communication. These are both active -- the rational and the non-rational. But the back of the mind, the two parts behind these two front parts, is completely inactive.

 

The meditators have come to see that the inactive part is also needed, because that is where you rest, otherwise you would go mad. The front of your mind works, acts, dreams, thinks; the back of the mind simply rests, in deep tranquility. That is the basis of your sanity, otherwise the front of the mind will lead you immediately into madness. The back of the mind is absolutely dark and silent. It is deep and very mysterious, but it is where your roots are.

 

Just like the trees have their roots in the darkness of the earth, the front of the mind has its roots in the back part of the mind. There is no communication, but the back is continuously tranquilizing, helping the active mind to remain sane. It goes on giving you restful moments.

 

In the night, when you are dreaming, the front of your mind is working. There are moments when you are not dreaming, you feel fresh. In the eight hours of sleep when you are just asleep, then your back part of the mind has taken over. It is inactive. There is not even a dream. Those are the moments of deep sleep which rejuvenate you, and in the morning you feel fresh.

 

But in eight hours of sleep, you are dreaming for almost six hours. Only for two hours are you not dreaming -- that too, not continuously. Those two hours are spread over the eight hours -- sometimes fifteen minutes at a time -- but those two hours are absolutely necessary. If you lose those two hours you will go mad -- you have lost contact with your inactive mind.

 

To know about these four parts of the mind one needs something beyond the four -- and that is our consciousness, that is our awareness. It is not a thought, it is only a witness, a sakshin -- just a witness, just a mirror. When the mirror reflects, it is not an action. The mirror does nothing; it simply reflects. To know this mirror is to know the whole mystery of existence.

 

Sigmund Freud lived an unconscious life. He was as full of anger as anybody else. He was as full of hate as anybody else. He was as ambitious as anybody else. You should read his life story. That will give you a glimpse of a man who finds a science of pyschoanalysis... a great discoverer, but who in his own life was an ordinary, very average, mediocre person, very possessive, and very much afraid of death. That is a strange thing.

 

A man of awareness first gets rid of the idea of death. That is the first thing that disappears from his mind, because there is no death. Once you taste awareness, you have tasted eternity. Now you know: the body will go, the mind will go; you will still remain. You have always been here, and you will always be here -- in the body or not in the body, but your being is eternal. Hence, the fear of death is the first thing to disappear. But about Sigmund Freud's life you will be surprised: he was more afraid of death than you are. Even the mention of the word `death', and he was so much afraid he would have a nervous breakdown -- even the word `death'!

 

He would be sitting on a chair, you would start talking about death, and just a moment later he would fall from his chair onto the ground in a coma! It happened three times in his life... and he would start foaming from the mouth. It would take half an hour to bring him back. So it became known to his disciples never to use the word `death' in front of him.

 

His closest disciple was Carl Gustav Jung. He was going to be his successor, but he was very interested in death. That is again the same thing from another angle. He was fascinated by death, so although it was prohibited to mention death in front of Freud, he mentioned it three times on different occasions. This was the reason for the split between Freud and Jung, and why Jung was thrown out of the Freudian school. He was going to be his successor. He was the most intelligent of his disciples. And he founded another school -- he was capable, but the reason he was expelled was that he was becoming a danger to the life of Sigmund Freud.

 

But it was a strange thing that a man of such intelligence -- the founder of a new science, psychoanalysis, so close to the spiritual being of man -- was so mediocre, so afraid that even ordinary people will think that this was strange. But it was not strange. Perhaps it was because of his understanding of the mind that he became aware of death. He was going to die -- it was absolutely certain, there was no question about it. And not knowing anything beyond the mind, he became so nervous, so alert in the mind that it made him very nervous about death -- because he was going to die, don't mention it! If anybody died -- "don't mention it to Freud." He would never pass by a graveyard, because the graves may have reminded him of death.

 

If the mystics who had meditated had heard about Sigmund Freud becoming the founder of psychoanalysis, they would have laughed. But my feeling is that he came very close... just a little push. If he had come in contact with a master, just a little push and he would have become aware of awareness, conscious of consciousness. And that is the miracle, the only miracle that has any great significance, meaning, that has something of truth in it. From there the real journey begins, and then you can be on your own, there is no need for the master. Just at the opening of the door, perhaps you need a push.

 

You may have seen birds sometimes when they give birth.... The young one comes out of the egg, and the mother bird tries to teach the bird to fly. He flutters his wings, but does not leave the shelter... he is afraid. He can see the mother flying around the nest trying to persuade him not to be afraid: "You are my child, and just as I have wings, you have wings." Seeing the mother's wings, he also flutters his wings. This is synchronicity.

 

And sometimes it is needed that if the child does not get it by himself and take a jump into the air, the mother has to push him. It is out of compassion and love. Once he is pushed -- of course first he feels very much shocked at what his own mother is doing. He has never used his wings; it is natural to be afraid that he will fall and die. But just as he is thrown out of the nest, he hesitates for a moment. His use of the wings is a little haphazard, but soon he starts balancing.

 

He goes to the other tree, and he is immensely happy. He calls the mother to come! And he wants now to go farther, longer, higher. And now he flies with the mother: once he has known the wings, soon he will not need the mother. One day he will fly and will never come back to the nest. That is the greatest day in the life of the disciple and the master both!

 

-Osho, "The Sword and the Lotus, #16, Q3"