Osho Quotes on Relaxation

 

 

“Meditation is the name of the deepest relaxation.”

 

-Osho, "The Transmission of the Lamp"

 

 

 

"The relaxation should not be a method. You should not relax through a Yoga posture. This very understanding is relaxing, this very understanding is relaxation. You relax, effort disappears. You live your ordinary life -- you chop wood and you carry water from the well and you cook food and you eat and you sleep and you love and you live ordinarily with no hankering and no desire for anything extraordinary."

 

-Osho, "The Diamond Sutra"

 

 

 

"A buddha will help you to relax, because only in your deep relaxation will you also become a buddha. There is no other way."

 

-Osho, "A Bird on the Wing"

 

 

 

"Relaxation is the point. And if you can relax with an enlightened person his enlightenment will start penetrating you, because when you are relaxed you become porous. When you are tense you are closed; when you relax he will enter."

 

-Osho, "A Bird on the Wing"

 

 

 

"Be relaxed. Don’t try hard, because it is through relaxation that you can become aware, not by trying hard. Be calm, quiet, silent."

 

-Osho, "Ah, This!"

 

 

 

"Meditation is not concentration but relaxation — one simply relaxes into oneself. The more you relax, the more you feel yourself open, vulnerable, the more you are less rigid, you are more flexible — and suddenly existence starts penetrating you. You are no longer like a rock, you have openings. Relaxation means allowing yourself to fall into a state where you are not doing anything, because if you are doing something, tension will continue. It is a state of non-doing. You simply relax and you enjoy the feeling of relaxation. Relax into yourself, just close your eyes, and listen to all that is happening all around. No need to feel anything as distraction. The moment you feel it is a distraction, you are denying God. This moment God has come to you as a bird. Don’t deny. He has knocked at your door as a bird. The next moment he has come as a dog — barking, or as a child crying and weeping, or as a madman laughing. Don’t deny; don’t reject; accept — because if you deny you will become tense. All denials create tension. Accept. If you want to relax, acceptance is the way. Accept whatsoever is happening all around; let it become an organic whole. It is -- you may know it or you may not know it. Everything is inter-related. These birds, these trees, this sky, this sun, this earth, you, me -- all are related. It is an organic unity. If the sun disappears, the trees will disappear; if the trees disappear, the birds will disappear; if the birds and trees disappear, you cannot be here, you will disappear. It is an ecology. Everything is deeply related with each other.

 

So don't deny anything, because the moment you deny, you are denying something in you. If you deny these singing birds then something in you is denied. Once it happened that it was spring. The weather was delightful and I was sitting on a park bench. I enjoyed the spring, the birds, the air and the sun. I listened to the melodious chirping of numerous birds."

 

-Osho, "Ancient Music in the Pines"

 

 

 

"Buddha makes breathing the very foundation. A deep, relaxed breathing, an awareness of it, gives you such tremendous silence, relaxation, that by and by you simply merge, melt, disappear. You are no longer a separate island, you start vibrating with the whole. Then you are not a separate note but part of this whole symphony."

 

-Osho, "Ancient Music in the Pines"

 

 

 

"‘Drop thinking’ simply means: don’t do anything. Sit. Let thoughts settle themselves. Let mind drop on its own accord. You just sit gazing at the wall, in a silent corner, not doing anything at all. Relaxed. Loose. With no effort. Not going, anywhere. As if you are falling asleep awake — you are awake and you are relaxing but the whole body is falling into sleep. You remain alert inside but the whole body moves into deep relaxation."

 

-Osho, "Ancient Music in the Pines"

 

 

 

"If you can die in total relaxation, the quality of death changes and your new birth somewhere will be of a higher quality."

 

-Osho, "Ancient Music in the Pines"

 

 

 

"Science is concentration: it is mind, it is effort. Meditation or religion is a totally different world: it is relaxation, it is let-go -- it is not concentration at all. It is not one-pointedness, it is no-pointedness. So how can you reconcile them? How do you reconcile work and rest? But you work hard in the day, and at night the rest comes of its own accord. You have earned it; your hard work brings rest."

 

-Osho, "Be Still and Know"

 

 

 

"Meditation is only a name for being alone, silent, waiting for the real to assert itself. It is not an act, it is a silent relaxation — because whatever you do will come out of your false personality. All your doing for twenty-six years has come out of it; it is an old habit."

 

-Osho, "Beyond Enlightenment"

 

 

 

"Just relax, because only in relaxation will you realize what is hidden in you."

 

-Osho, "Beyond Enlightenment"

 

 

 

"My whole approach is that of let-go; it is not of effort. You just relax and enjoy."

 

-Osho, "Beyond Enlightenment"

 

 

 

"If you are centered then you can do anything and it will not create any tension; your relaxation will remain the same. So don't be worried about pushing. Just try to understand that we are so small compared to this immense universe; what we do or don't do makes no difference to existence. We are not to be serious about it. I was not here and existence continued; I will not be here, and existence will continue. I should not take myself seriously.

 

That is a fundamental understanding of a meditator -- that he does not take himself seriously. Then relaxation comes automatically. And with relaxation, whatsoever is natural to you continues, and whatsoever is not natural to you falls on its own accord."

 

-Osho, "Beyond Psychology"

 

 

 

"Let-go means no competition, no struggle, no fight… just relaxing with existence, wherever it leads. Not trying to control your future, not trying to control consequences, but allowing them to happen… not even thinking about them. Let-go is in the present; consequences are tomorrow. And let-go is such a delightful experience, a total relaxation, a deep synchronicity with existence."

 

-Osho, "Beyond Psychology"

 

 

 

"The process is very simple. You have to lie down relaxed, the whole body relaxed. Looking inside the body starting from the toe, see if there is any tension. If there is any tension near the knee or near the stomach or anywhere, then relax it there. Bring that relaxation up to your head — and keep your eyes focused on the light."

 

-Osho, "Beyond Psychology"

 

 

 

"Relaxation means allowing yourself to fall into a state where you are not doing anything, because if you are doing something, tension will continue. It is a state of non-doing. You simply relax and you enjoy the feeling of relaxation. Relax into yourself, just close your eyes, and listen to all that is happening all around. No need to feel anything as distraction. The moment you feel it is a distraction, you are denying God. This moment God has come to you as a bird. Don't deny."

 

-Osho, "Ancient Music in the Pines"

 

 

 

"Remember, don't start trying to relax; that is the most absurd thing in the world. And there are many stupid people writing books about relaxation. I have come across one book -- the name of the book is YOU MUST RELAX! Now that very word 'must' is enough to keep you tense. Relaxation cannot be a "must," it cannot be an effort."

 

-Osho, "The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 12"

 

 

 

"Be in relaxation a few moments. It can be any kind of situations -- swimming in the river, relax with the river, or sunning on the beach, relax with the sun -- anything. Life is full of opportunities."

 

-Osho, "The Book of Wisdom"

 

 

 

"Relaxation is one of the most complex phenomena -- very rich, multidimensional. All these things are part of it: let-go, trust, surrender, love, acceptance, going with the flow, union with existence, egolessness, ecstasy. All these are part of it, and all these start happening if you learn the ways of relaxation."

 

-Osho, "The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 1"

 

 

 

"Religion is not a result of something that you practice. Religion enters in you any moment you relax. Religion is a flowering of relaxation, not a result of practicing. Remember the difference because when you practice you become more tense."

 

-Osho, "Ecstasy - The Forgotten Language"

 

 

 

"Try to relax, and you will find out that you feel more tense than ever. Try harder and you will feel more tense and more tense. Relaxation is not a consequence, is not a result of some activity; it is the glow of understanding. This is the first thing I would like to relate to you: life is purposeless. It is very hard to accept it. And why is it so hard to accept that life is purposeless? It is hard because without purpose the ego cannot exist. It is hard to conceive that life has no goal because without any goal being there, there is no point in having a mind, in having an ego."

 

-Osho, "The Book of Wisdom"

 

 

 

"There is no possibility of relaxation if you have a mind and an ego; the ego is the center of the mind. You will be tense, you will remain tense. How to relax? Is there any way to relax? There is no way unless understanding is there. If you understand the nature of the world, the nature of the very existence, then who are you to worry, and why be in a worried state continuously? Nobody asked you about being born, nobody is going to ask you when the time comes for you to be taken away. Then why be worried? Birth happened to you; death will happen to you; who are you to come in between?

 

Things are happening. You feel hunger, you feel love, you feel anger -- everything happens to you, you are not a doer. Nature takes care. You eat and nature digests it; you need not bother about it, about how the stomach is functioning, how the food is going to become blood. If you become too tense about it you will have ulcers -- and king-size ulcers, not ordinary ones. No need to worry.

 

The whole is moving. The vast ocean, the infinite is moving. You are just a wave in it. Relax, and let things be. Once you know how to let go, you have known all that is worth knowing. If you don't know how to let go, whatsoever you know is worthless, it is rubbish."

 

-Osho, "And The Flowers Showered"