Question :

Do you recommend any particular discipline besides dynamic meditation?

 

 

Even to move into an undisciplined life you have to follow some discipline. But you must remain the master; it must not become a slavery. The real thing, the end, is always to be spontaneous As we are, we are really conditioned not to be free. Our whole upbringing, our culture, our civilization, our religion, our parents – they have all conditioned our minds not to be flee, because a free mind is a dangerous mind.

 

Your freedom is really a deception. You are tethered to a pole It allows you a little freedom – you can move and say that you are free – but you are still tethered to the pole, so you can only move in a circle. This is man’s state of mind. To jump from this state directly into the spontaneous is very difficult.

 

Sometimes it happens, but you need much courage. You require the mind of a gambler, of one who can stake everything for the unknown. Then only you can take a jump. You can jump immediately from rules to no rules, from your deadened life to the electricity of living, but then you need very deep courage, the courage to lose yourself. But that is rare. When it exists, no discipline is needed, but since it is not ordinarily possible, you have to do something before you are able to take a jump.

 

You can jump in stages. Then the jump is not so big and you are not afraid of it. At a certain point, one has to take a jump into the unknown, but before that, certain preliminary steps are helpful. Once you reach a certain point the jump can happen, but before that there are degrees.

 

It is just like when you are heating water. At a certain point, at a certain degree, it evaporates. But whether that hundred degree point has come or not, heating is helpful. Of course, you can come back even from ninety-nine degrees. You have to reach a certain point before the jump can happen. That point differs with each individual. It is not like water: that at a hundred degrees it just evaporates. It is going to be different for each person. It is uncertain.

 

If you could be certain that one particular point was going to be the point from which every individual could take the jump, then mind would be just a machine. But it is not, so the jumping point differs with individuals. For one person it may come on the first step, and for someone else it may come on the hundredth. And for someone else, even the first step may not be needed.

 

Each individual has to grope in the dark, but a certain direction can be given. I cannot tell you how many steps you have to take, but I can show you the direction. Discipline should not be the end, effort should not be the end. The effortless, the undisciplined, the totally free, must be the end. You should never be a slave to any discipline or you will never come to that certain point from which a jump can happen.

 

Even in a disciplined way of life you can be free. Really, the discipline should be your choice, not something imposed on you. Then you remain the master. Any moment you can drop the discipline. And with me, there is no condemnation when you drop it. If you drop it, it is okay. You are free to do it or not to do it; you remain the master. Then discipline is not a discipline. It is just a question of your choice.

 

- Osho, “The Eternal Quest, #5”