on Yoga

 

 

Yoga Is Just a Technology

 

Science comes out of no-mind just as religion comes out of no-mind. The source of religion and science is not separate, it is the same source -- because both depend on breakthroughs, insights, intuitive flashes.

 

Technology comes out of mind, and religious technology also comes out of mind -- Yoga, mantra, yantra. Yoga means body postures which can help you to go deep inside yourself -- they are created by the mind. That is religious technology. That's why Yoga is not part of any particular religion. There can be Christian Yoga, there can be Hindu Yoga, there is certainly Buddhist Yoga, Jaina Yoga -- there can be as many Yogas as there are religions.

 

Yoga is just a technology. No machine is Hindu, no machine is Mohammedan. You don't go into the marketplace to purchase a Mohammedan car or a Hindu car. Machines are simply machines. Yoga is technology. Mantra is technology, it is created by the mind. In fact mantra comes from the same root as 'mind' -- both come from the Sanskrit word MAN. One branch becomes 'mind', another branch becomes 'mantra' -- both are part of the mind.

 

Scientific technology is created by the mind, religious technology is created by mind. All the rituals of religions -- temples, mosques, churches, prayers, scriptures -- these are all created by the mind. But the flash, the insight, Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree.... When for the first time he became aware, totally aware, that was not anything out of mind. It was not part of mind, it was something beyond. It was something that has nothing to do with you, with your ego, with your mind, with your body. It is something pure, virgin, it is part of the eternity. In that moment when Buddha's mind was completely at rest, the beyond penetrated him. He became a god.

 

-Osho, "Philosophia Perennis, Vol. 1, #9, Q3"

 

 

 

 

The Basic Element of Existence for Yoga Is Sound

 

Just as physicists think that the whole consists of nothing but electrons, electric energy, yoga thinks that the whole consists of nothing but sound electrons. The basic element of existence for yoga is sound because life is nothing but a vibration. Life is nothing but an expression of silence. Out of silence we come and into silence we dissolve again. Silence, space, nothingness, nonbeing, is your innermost core, the hub of the wheel. Unless you come to that silence, to that space where nothing else remains except your pure being, liberation is not attained. This is the yoga framework.

 

They divide your being into four layers. I am speaking to you; this is the ]ast layer. Yoga calls it vaikhari; the word means "fruition," flowering. But before I speak to you, before I utter something, it becomes manifest to me as a feeling, as an experience; that is the third stage. Yoga calls it MADHYAMA, "the middle." But before something is experienced inside, it moves in a seed form.

 

You cannot experience it ordinarily unless you are very meditative, unless you have become so totally calm that even a stirring in the seed which has not sprouted yet can be perceived; it is very subtle. Yoga calls that pashyanti; the word pashyanti means "looking back," looking to the source. And beyond that is your fundamental being out of which everything arises. That is called para; para means "the transcendental."

 

-Osho, "Yoga: The Path to Liberation, #9"

 

 

 

 

Yoga Will always Be Associated with Patanjali

 

In fact, it was not he who invented yoga; yoga is far ancient. Yoga had been there for many centuries before Patanjali. He is not the discoverer, but he almost became the discoverer and founder just because of this rare combination of his personality. Many people had worked before him and almost everything was known, but yoga was waiting for a Patanjali. And suddenly, when Patanjali spoke about it, everything fell in line and he became the founder. He was not the founder, but his personality is such a combination of opposites, he comprehends in himself such incomprehensible elements, he became the founder -- almost the founder. Now yoga will always be known with Patanjali.

 

Since Patanjali, many have again worked and many have reached new corners of the world of yoga, but Patanjali towers like an Everest. It seems almost impossible anybody ever will be able to tower higher than Patanjali -- almost impossible. This rare combination is impossible. To be a logician and to be a poet and to be a mystic, and not of ordinary talents... It is possible: you can be a logician, a great logician, and a very ordinary poet. You can be a great poet and a very ordinary logician, third-rate -- that's possible, that's not very difficult. Patanjali is a genius logician, a genius poet, and a genius mystic; Aristotle, Kalidas and Tilopa all rolled in one -- hence the appeal

 

-Osho, "The Mystery Beyond Mind, #5"

 

 

 

 

Yoga Tries Step by Step to Penetrate the Inner Mystery

 

The whole yoga is a methodology: how to uncover it which is so hidden, how to open the doors within yourself, how to enter the temple that you are, how to discover yourself. You are there, you have been there from the very beginning, but you have not discovered it. The treasure is carried by you every moment. Every breath you take in or out, the treasure is there. You may not be aware, but you have never missed it.

 

You may be completely oblivious, but you have never lost it. You may have forgotten it completely, but there is no way to lose it – because you are it. So the only question is: how to discover it. It is covered; many layers of ignorance cover it. Yoga tries step by step, slowly, to penetrate the inner mystery. In eight steps yoga completes the discovery. The beginning steps are called bahirang yoga, the yoga of the outside. Yam, niyam, asan, pranayam, pratyahar ­ these five steps are known as the yoga of the outside. The following three, the last three – dharana, dhyan, samadhi – are known as antarang, the yoga of the inside.

 

-Osho, "The Essence of Yoga, #9"

 

 

 

 

Yoga Is Effort, Tantra Is Effortlessness

 

Yoga is effort, tantra is effortlessness. With effort, with your tiny energy, and your tiny ego, you fight with the whole. It will take millions of lives. Then too it doesn't seem possible that you will ever become enlightened. Fighting with the whole is stupid; you are just a part. It is as if a wave is fighting with the ocean, a leaf is fighting with the tree, or your own hand fighting with your body. With whom are you fighting?

 

Yoga is effort, intense effort. And yoga is a way to fight the current, to move against the current. So whatsoever is natural, yoga has to drop it; and whatsoever is unnatural, yoga has to strive for it. Yoga is the unnatural way: fight with the river and move against the current! Of course, there is challenge and the challenge may be enjoyed. But who enjoys the challenge? Your ego.

 

It is very difficult to find a yogi who is not an egoist; very difficult, rare. If you can find a yogi who is not an egoist, it is a miracle. It is difficult because the whole effort creates the ego, the fight. You may find humble yogis, but if you watch a little deeper, in their humbleness you will find the most subtle ego hidden, the most subtle ego. They will say, "We are just dirt on the ground." But look in their eyes -- they are bragging about their humility. They are saying, "There is nobody more humble than us. We are the humblest people." But this is what ego means

 

-Osho, "Tantra: The Supreme Understanding, #6"

 

 

 

 

Yoga Can Teach You again how to Be Here and Now

 

Wherever you are, in that moment, enjoy not asking for the future. No futuring in the mind, just the present moment, the nowness of the moment, and you are satisfied. Then there is no need to go anywhere. Wherever you are, from that very point you will drop into the ocean, you will become one with the cosmos.

 

But the mind is not interested in here and now. The mind is interested somewhere in the future, in some results. So the question is, in a way, relevant for such a mind – it will be better to call it the modern mind rather than Western – the modern mind which is constantly obsessed with the future, with the result, not with the here and now.

 

How can this mind be taught Yoga? This mind can be taught Yoga because this future orientation is leading nowhere. And this future orientation is creating constant misery for the modern mind. We have created a hell – and we have created too much of it. Now either man will have to disappear from this planet Earth, or he will have to transform himself. Either humanity will have to die completely because this hell cannot be continued anymore, or we will have to go through a mutation.

 

Hence, Yoga can become very meaningful and significant for the modern mind because Yoga can save. It can teach you again how to be here and now, how to forget past and how to forget future and how to remain in the present moment with such intensity that this moment becomes timeless. The very moment becomes eternity.

 

-Osho, "The Path of Yoga, #8"

 

 

 

 

Yoga Is for a Higher Order of Health

 

Yoga is for those who are completely healthy as far as medical science is concerned, normal. They are not schizophrenic, they are not mad, they are not neurotic. They are normal people, healthy people with no particular pathology. Still they become aware that whatsoever is called normality is futile, whatsoever is called health is of no use. Something more is needed, something greater is needed, something holier and whole is needed.

 

Therapies are for ill people. Therapies can help you to come to Yoga, but Yoga is not a therapy. Yoga is for a higher order of health, a different order of health – a different type of being and wholeness. Therapy can, at the most, make you adjusted. Freud says we cannot do more. We can make you an adjusted, normal member of the society – but if the society itself is pathological, then? And it is! The society itself is ill. A therapy can make you normal in the sense that you are adjusted to the society, but the society itself is ill.

 

-Osho, "The Path of Yoga, #1"

 

 

 

 

Yoga Is not a Therapy

 

A disciple means a seeker who is not a crowd, who is trying to be centered and crystallized – at least trying, making efforts, sincere efforts to become individual, to feel his being, to become his own master. The whole discipline of Yoga is an effort to make you a master of yourself. As you are, you are just a slave of many, many desires. Many, many masters are there and you are just a slave – and pulled in many directions.

 

NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA.

 

Yoga is discipline. It is an effort on your part to change yourself. Many other things have to be understood.

 

Yoga is not a therapy. In the West many psychological therapies are now prevalent, and many Western psychologists think that Yoga is also a therapy. It is not! It is a discipline. And what is the difference? This is the difference: a therapy is needed if you are ill, a therapy is needed if you are diseased, a therapy is needed if you are pathological. A discipline is needed even when you are healthy. Really, only when you are healthy can a discipline then help. It is not for pathological cases.

 

Yoga is for those who are completely healthy as far as medical science is concerned, normal. They are not schizophrenic; they are not mad they are not neurotic. They are normal people, healthy people with no particular pathology. Still, they become aware that whatsoever is called normality is futile, whatsoever is called health is of no use. Something more is needed, something greater is needed, something holier and whole is needed.

Therapies are for ill people. Therapies can help you to come to yoga, but yoga is not a therapy. Yoga is for a higher order of health, a different order of health -- a different type of being and wholeness. Therapy can, at the most, make you adjusted. Freud says we cannot do more. We can make you an adjusted, normal member of the society -- but if the society itself is pathological, then? And it is! The society itself is ill. A therapy can make you normal in the sense that you are adjusted to the society, but the society itself is ill!

 

-Osho, "The Path of Yoga, #1"

 

 

 

 

The Discipline of Yoga Means Yoga Wants to Create a Crystallized Center in You

 

If the moment has come when you feel that all directions have become confused, all roads have disappeared, the future is dark and every desire has become bitter and through every desire you have known only disappointment, all movement into hopes and dreams has ceased:

 

NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA.

 

This “now” may not have come. Then I may go on talking about Yoga but you will not listen. You can listen only if the moment is present in you.

 

Are you really dissatisfied? Everybody will say yes, but that dissatisfaction is not real. You are dissatisfied with this, you may be dissatisfied with that, but you are not totally dissatisfied. You are still hoping. You are dissatisfied because of your past hopes but you are still hoping for the future. Your dissatisfaction is not total: you are still hankering for some satisfaction somewhere, for some gratification somewhere.

 

Sometimes you feel hopeless but that hopelessness is not true. You feel hopeless because certain hopes have not been achieved, certain hopes have fallen away – but hoping is still there, hoping has not fallen away. You will still hope. You are dissatisfied with this hope, that hope, but you are not dissatisfied with hope as such. If you are disappointed with hope as such the moment has come, and then you can enter Yoga. And then this entry will not be an entering into a mental, speculative phenomenon. This entry will be an entry into a discipline.

 

What is discipline? Discipline means what creates an order within you. As you are you are a chaos. As you are you are totally disorderly.

 

Gurdjieff used to say – and Gurdjieff is in many ways like Patanjali, he was again trying to make the core of religion a science – Gurdjieff said that you are not one, you are a crowd; not even when you say “I”, is there any I. There are many I’s in you, many egos. In the morning one I, in the afternoon another I, in the evening a third I, but you never become aware of this mess – because who will become aware of it? There is not a center that can become aware.

 

"Yoga is discipline" means yoga wants to create a crystallized center in you. As you are, you are a crowd and a crowd has many phenomena. One is, you cannot believe a crowd. Gurdjieff used to say that man cannot promise. Who will promise? You are not there. If you promise, who will fulfill the promise? Next morning the one who promised is no more.

 

-Osho, "The Path of Yoga, #1"

 

 

 

 

For Yoga a total Frustration is Needed

 

So one can enter Yoga, or the path of Yoga, only when he is totally frustrated with his own mind as it is. If you are still hoping that you can gain something through your mind, Yoga is not for you. A total frustration is needed – the revelation that this mind which projects is futile, the mind that hopes is nonsense, it leads nowhere. It simply closes your eyes, it intoxicates you, it never allows reality to be revealed to you. It protects you against reality.

 

Your mind is a drug. It is against that which is. So unless you are totally frustrated with your mind, with your way of being, with the way you have existed up to now, if you can drop it unconditionally, then you can enter on the path.

 

So many become interested but very few enter, because your interest may be just because of your mind. You may be hoping that now, through Yoga, you may gain something, but the achieving motive is there – that you may become perfect through Yoga, you may reach to the blissful state of perfect being, you may become one with the Brahman, you may achieve the satchitananda. This may be the cause of why you are interested in Yoga. If this is the cause then there can be no meeting between you and the path which is Yoga. Then you are totally against it, moving in a totally opposite dimension.

 

Yoga means that now there is no hope, now there is no future, now there are no desires. One is ready to know what is. One is not interested in what can be, what should be, what ought to be. One is not interested! One is interested only in that which is, because only the real can free you, only the reality can become liberation.

Total despair is needed. That despair is called dukkha by Buddha. And if you are really in misery, don't hope, because your hope will only prolong the misery. Your hope is a drug. It can help you to reach death only and nowhere else. All your hopes can lead you only to death. They are leading.

 

-Osho, "The Path of Yoga, #1"

 

 

 

 

The Path of Yoga is a very Difficult One

 

“But the path of yoga is a very difficult one. It is just impossible, nearly impossible, that you can attain to the perfection of the ego. It means you become the center of the whole universe. The path is very long, arduous, and really, it never reaches to the end. So what happens to the followers of Yoga the path, in some life, they turn to Tantra.

 

Intellectually Yoga is conceivable; existentially it is impossible. If it is possible you will reach by Yoga also, but generally it never happens. Even if it happens, it happens very rarely, such as to a Mahavira. Sometimes centuries and centuries pass and then a man like Mahavira appears who has achieved through Yoga. But he is rare, an exception, and he breaks the rule.

 

But Yoga is more attractive than Tantra. Tantra is easy, natural, and you can attain through Tantra very easily, very naturally, effortlessly. And because of this, Tantra never appeals to you as much. Why? Anything that appeals to you appeals to your ego. Whatsoever you feel is going to fulfill your ego will appeal to you more. You are gripped in the ego; thus yoga appeals to you very much.

 

Really, the more egoistic you are, the more yoga will appeal to you, because it is pure ego effort. The more impossible, the more it is appealing to the ego. That is why Mount. Everest has so much appeal. There is so much attraction to reach to the top of a Himalayan peak because it is so difficult. And when Hillary and Tensing reached Mount. Everest, they felt a very ecstatic moment. What was that? It was because the ego was fulfilled -- they were the first.

 

-Osho, "The Book of Secrets, #32"

 

 

 

 

The Body Must Go through a Catharsis First

 

Hatha yoga does not take this into account, because in former times a suppressed mind and suppressive attitude were not prevalent, particularly in India. In those days, India was one of the least suppressive countries. Now, that is not so. And in the West, Christianity has caused so much suppression that everybody is crippled inside. These suppressions in the body have to be released first, otherwise you start out with a body that is not right, not natural, and many unnecessary problems may be created by it.

 

That is why something totally unknown to hatha yoga has to be introduced now: the body must go through a catharsis first. To bring about this catharsis, a totally new science will be needed, because this suppression is something new.

 

For example, if you have suppressed sex a lot, then the kundalini cannot move up. It is blocked. The whole structure from where the kundalini can move up is simply blocked, blocked by the suppressed sexual energy. Or, if you have indulged too much in sex, then you have no energy left to move upward. These are the two problems: either you have a suppressed mind and the energy has become blocked or you have indulged too much so that no energy is left to move within you.

 

You are not in a natural state, your energy is not balanced, it is not a natural flow. That comes from either suppressing or indulging. With balanced energy, hatha yoga can be used very easily, but otherwise it creates problems. Another thing is that all these hatha yoga techniques were developed for use in monasteries. They are monastic techniques intended for people who are totally involved in them for twenty-four hours a day, not doing anything else. Then too, you have to work with them for a very long period, for years. If hatha is taught to a person who is not totally involved in it – who only comes to do hatha yoga once or twice, or even for an hour a day, but who is involved for twenty-three hours a day in quite a different world, a work that is quite the contrary - it is not going to help much. Whatsoever you have gained is lost every day. The very method is a monastic method.”

 

Now we have to develop the methods, nonmonastic methods that will not be undone by the rest of the activities of your life.

This is a problem, this is one of the most significant problems for those whose who are interested in yoga. In India, people just go on in their traditional way. They have tradition so they follow it without thinking of whether something has to be changed or something new has to be added The whole world has become so different now that hatha yoga techniques are irrelevant in many ways, but they go on being taught because they have because they have become traditional.

 

-Osho, "The Eternal Quest, #4"