Question 5

Many say that your Meditation Techniques are dangerous because they can release more energy than we can deal with. And you have often said that madness and enlightenment are equally possible on the spiritual path. Can you say some more about madness and how we can avoid it?

 

 

If you try to avoid it you will be in danger, because anything avoided always remains like a hangover. Madness has to be lived through, not avoided. If you avoid it it will remain a part of your unconscious. If you avoid it you will not be able to encounter your total being, a part will always be suppressed.

 

Madness has to be passed through and through. You have to move through it. Fear is there – the fear is not of madness, remember, the fear is of getting identified. Madness cannot do anything. If you remain unidentified, alert, you can enjoy it, it is a beautiful experience. It happens around you, it never happens to you. But if you get identified, then there is danger.

 

That’s what I was saying yesterday. On the third layer, the chaos layer, the possibility of madness is there – if you get identified. So before you get identified you have to learn awareness. And all my meditation techniques are such that they teach you two things: one: to be aware, and another: to be chaotic. They create chaos in you, and simultaneously they create awareness in you, they have an inbuilt safety. So don’t be afraid. And anyway, I am here!

 

You go through the madness, remaining alert. Never say: I am mad. If madness happens just say: Madness is there, I am a witness. That will do. Soon everything will subside, you have passed the layer – how can you avoid it? It is there, just on the way. If you try to avoid, you will cling to the second layer, the layer of games and roles. And, afraid of the third – chaos, you will cling more and more to it. No need to be afraid! Learn how to be aware, that’s all; how to be mindful.

 

Start with small things – eat, but eat with alertness. Walk, but walk with awareness. Talk to people, but talk with awareness. Listen to me, but always remain alert that you are listening. Don’t get lost in it. Just learn to be aware, and then the madness can be released. And you will enjoy it – nothing like it! It is a storm, but a great phenomenon.

 

When everything goes into chaos within you that means everything moves to the original source – manmade rules, regulations are lost. The games of the society disappear; all definitions are meaningless. You move into the undefined, with no map. It is a beautiful experience, an experience of the unknown. But dangerous! If you become lost you become mad.

 

That’s why I insist before one enters into the third layer one should choose a Master. Never enter alone. There must be somebody who can SHOCK you out of your identification; who, if you get lost, can pull you out of the mess. But one has to go through it.

 

And my meditation techniques ARE dangerous. In fact there cannot be any meditation techniques which are not dangerous. If they are not dangerous, they are not meditation techniques, they are tricks. Just like Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They are mental tricks. Just consolatory. No danger. At the most they can give you good sleep, that’s all. If you miss, you don’t miss anything, you remain the same. If you attain, you attain to good sleep, that’s all. No danger involved. That’s why TM has had such a universal impact; people are so much attracted to it because it is so impotent, it does nothing, it is just like homeopathic medicine. Homeopaths say that their medicines are such that if they help, they help – otherwise they never harm. TM is homeopathic.

 

But what I am saying is allopathic. It is poison. Play carefully. It helps tremendously, it can harm also. And this is the criterion: Whatsoever helps can also harm. If something cannot harm it cannot help either. The possibility is always of both. It is dangerous because it is powerful. If something is not dangerous, it means it is powerless, it has no potency.

 

Yes, they are dangerous. Before you decide to enter, think twice. And don’t enter into my meditations as students – that can be dangerous. Enter as disciples. Don’t enter into my meditations curiously. No, curiosity can lead you to dangers. If you are really ready, ready to face madness, only then you are welcome. Otherwise – remain normal. Cling to the second layer and the first layer. At least you are not in danger. You will not attain to anything but you will also not lose anything. You can waste your life easily, with comfort. You can live comfortably, and you can die comfortably.

 

With me, there is danger. If you succeed with me, you can live tremendously. If you fail, you go mad. But you can fail only if you don’t listen to me. If you listen to me there is no question of it. I am not talking of anything theoretically. Whatsoever I am saying, I have done, I have passed through it, I know what is possible, what is not possible. what can happen, what can go wrong. Every inch of the territory is known to me, so if something goes wrong that means only that you have not been listening to me. If you listen to me, trust me, nothing can go wrong; that is how trust, a deep trust and surrender are needed.

 

-Osho, "Tao: The Three Treasures, Vol 4, #6, Q5"