• The moment you see that whatsoever you are in your own creation, you are freed from all outer causes and circumstances.
    - Osho

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"NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA.

YOGA IS THE CESSATION OF MIND.

THEN THE WITNESS IS ESTABLISHED IN ITSELF.

IN THE OTHER STATES THERE IS IDENTIFICATION

WITH THE MODIFICATIONS OF THE MIND."

- Patanjali, "Yoga Sutra, #1"

 

 

 

The first sutra:

 

NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA -

 

Athayoganushasanam.

 

NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA. Each and single word has to be understood because Patanjali will not use a single superfluous word.

 

NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA.

 

First try to understand the word "now". This "now" indicates to the state of mind I was just talking to you about.

 

If you are disillusioned, if you are hopeless, if you have completely become aware of the futility of all desires, if you see your life as meaningless - whatsoever you have been doing up to now has simply fallen dead nothing remains in the future, you are in absolute despair - what Kierkegaard calls anguish. If you are in anguish, suffering, not knowing what to do, not knowing where to go, not knowing to whom to look, just on the verge of madness or suicide or death, your whole pattern of life suddenly has become futile. If this moment has come, Patanjali says, NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA. Only now you can understand the science of yoga, the discipline of yoga.

 

If that moment has not come, you can go on studying yoga, you can become a great scholar, but you will not be a yogi. You can write theses upon it, you can give discourses upon it, but you will not be a yogi. The moment has not come for you. Intellectually you can become interested, through your mind you can be related to yoga, but yoga is nothing if it is not a discipline. Yoga is not a shastra; it is not a scripture. It is a discipline. It is something you have to do. It is not curiosity; it is not philosophic speculation. It is deeper than that. It is a question of life and death.

 

If the moment has come where 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 dissatisfied7 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 for the future you are still hoping. 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. But hoping is still there: hoping has not fallen. You will still hope. You are dissatisfied with this hope, that hope, but you are not dissatisfied with hope as such. If with hope as such you are disappointed, the moment has come and then you can enter yoga. And then this entry will not be entering into a mental, speculative phenomenon. This entry will be an entry into a discipline.

 

What is discipline? Discipline means creating 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 says that you are not one, you are a crowd, not even when you say "I", there is 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 it7 There is not a center who 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.

 

People come to me and they say, "Now I will take the vow. I promise to do this." I tell them, "Think twice before you promise something. Are you confident that next moment the one who promised will be there?" You decide to get up early in the morning from tomorrow - at four o'clock. And at four o'clock somebody in you says, "Don't bother. It is so cold outside. And why are you in such a hurry? We can do it tomorrow." And you fall asleep again.

 

When you get up you repent. And you think, "This is not good. I should have done it." You decide again that "Tomorrow I will do;" and the same is going to happen tomorrow because at four in the morning the one who promised is no more there, somebody else is in the chair. And you are a Rotary Club: the chairman goes on changing. Every member becomes a rotary chairman. Rotation is there. Every moment someone else is the master.

 

Gurdjieff used to say, "This is the chief characteristic of man, that he cannot promise." You cannot fulfill a promise. You go on giving promises, and you know well you cannot fulfill, because you are not one: you are a disorder, a chaos. Hence, Patanjali says, NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA. If your life has become an absolute misery, if you have realized that whatsoever you do creates hell, then the moment has come. This moment can change your dimension, your direction of being.

 

Up until now you have lived as a chaos, a crowd. Yoga means now you will have to be a harmony, you will have to become one. A crystallization is needed; a centering is needed. And unless you attain a center, all that you do is useless. It is wasting life and time. A center is the first necessity, and only a person can be blissful who has got a center. Everybody asks for it, but you cannot ask. You have to earn it! Everybody hankers for a blissful state of being, but only a center can be blissful. A crowd cannot be blissful, a crowd has got no self. There is no atman. Who is going to be blissful.

 

Bliss means absolute silence, and silence is possible only when there is harmony-when all the discordant fragments have become one, when there is no crowd, but one. When you are alone in the house and nobody else is there, you will be blissful. Right now everybody else is in your house, you are not there. Only guests are there, the host is always absent. And only the host can be blissful.

 

This centering Patanjali calls discipline - ANUSHASANAM. The word "discipline" is beautiful. It comes from the same root from where the word "disciple" comes. "Discipline" means the capacity to learn, the capacity to know. But you cannot know, you cannot learn, unless you have attained the capacity to be.

 

One man once came to Buddha and he said... He must have been a social reformer, a revolutionary. He said to Buddha, "The world is in misery. I agree with you." Buddha has never said that the world is in misery. Buddha says, "You are the misery," not the world. "Life is misery," not the world. "Man is misery," not the world. "Mind is misery," not the world. But that revolutionary said, "The world is in misery. I agree with you. Now tell me, what I can do? I have a deep compassion, and I want to serve humanity."

 

Service must have been his motto. Buddha looked at him and remained silent. Buddha's disciple, Ananda, said, "This man seems to be sincere. Guide him. Why you are silent?" Then Buddha said to that revolutionary, "You want to serve the world, but where are you? I don't see anyone inside. I look in you, there is no one.

 

"You don't have any center, and unless you are centered whatsoever you do will create more mischief." All of your social reformers, your revolutionaries, your leaders, they are the great mischief creators, mischief-mongers. The world will be better if there were no leaders. But they cannot help. They must do something because the world is in misery. And they are not centered, so whatsoever they do they create more misery. Only compassion will not help, only service will not help. Compassion through a centered being is something totally different. Compassion through a crowd is mischief. That compassion is poison.

 

NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA.

 

Discipline means the capacity to be, the capacity to know, the capacity to learn. We must understand these three things.

 

The capacity to be. All the yoga postures are not really concerned with the body, they are concerned with the capacity to be. Patanjali says if you can sit silently without moving your body for few hours, you are growing in the capacity to be. Why you move? You cannot sit without moving even for few seconds. Your body starts moving. Somewhere you feel itching; the legs go dead; many things start happening. These are just excuses for you to move.

 

You are not a master. You cannot say to the body, "Now for one hour I will not move." The body will revolt immediately. Immediately it will force you to move, to do something, and it will give reasons: "You have to move because an insect is biting." You may not find the insect when you look. You are not a being, you are a trembling - a continuous hectic activity. Patanjali's asanas, postures, are concerned not really with any kind of physiological training, but an inner training of being, just to be - without doing anything, without any movement, without any activity, just remain. That remaining will help centering.

 

If you can remain in one posture, the body will become a slave; it will follow you. And the more the body follows you, you will have a greater being within you, a stronger being within you. And, remember, if the body is not moving your mind cannot move, because mind and body are not two things. They are two poles of one phenomenon. You are not body and mind, you are body-mind. Your personality is psychosomatic - body-mind both. The mind is the most subtle part of the body. Or you can say the reverse, that body is the most gross part of the mind.

 

So whatsoever happens in the body happens in the mind, and the vice versa: whatsoever happens in the mind happens in the body. If the body is non-moving and you can attain a posture, if you can say to the body "Keep quiet," the mind will remain silent. Really, the mind starts moving and tries to move the body, because if the body moves then the mind can move. In a nonmoving body, the mind cannot move; it needs a moving body.

 

If the body is non-moving, the mind is non-moving, you are centered. This non-moving posture is not a physiological training only. It is just to create a situation in which centering can happen, in which you can become disciplined. When you are, when you have become centered, when you know what it means to be, then you can learn, because then you will be humble. Then you can surrender. Then no false ego will cling to you because once centered you know all egos are false. Then you can bow down. Then a disciple is born.

 

A disciple is a great achievement. Only through discipline you will become a disciple. Only through being centered you will become humble, you will become receptive, you will become empty, and the guru, the Master, can pour himself into you. In your emptiness, in your silence, he can come and reach to you. Communication becomes possible.

 

A disciple means one who is centered, humble, receptive, open, ready, alert, waiting, prayerful. In yoga, the Master is very, very important, absolutely important, because only when you are in a close proximity of a being who is centered your own centering will happen.

 

That is the meaning of SATSANG. You have heard the word SATSANG. It is totally wrongly used. Satsang means in close proximity of the truth; it means near the truth, it means near a Master who has become one with the truth - just being near him, open, receptive and waiting. If your waiting has become deep, intense, a deep communion will happen.

 

The Master is not going to do anything. He is simply there, available. If you are open, he will flow within you. This flowing is called SATSANG. With a Master you need not learn anything else. If you can learn satsang, that's enough - if you can just be near him without asking, without thinking, without arguing: just present there, available, so the being of the Master can flow in you. And being can flow. It is already flowing. Whenever a person achieves integrity, his being becomes a radiation.

 

He is flowing. Whether you are there to receive or not, that is not the point. He flows like a river. If you are empty like a vessel, ready, open, he will flow in you.

 

A disciple means one who is ready to receive, who has become a womb - the Master can penetrate into him. This is the meaning of the word satsang. It is not basically a discourse; satsang is not a discourse. Discourse may be there, but discourse is just an excuse. You are here and I will talk on Patanjali's sutras. That is just an excuse. If you are really here, then the discourse, the talk, becomes just an excuse for your being here, for you to be here. And if you are really here, satsang starts. I can flow, and that flow is deeper than any talk, any communication through language, than any intellectual meeting with you.

 

While your mind is engaged, if you are a disciple, if you are a disciplined being, your mind is engaged in listening to me, your being can be in SATSANG. Then your head is occupied, your heart is open. Then on a deeper level, a meeting happens. That meeting is satsang, and everything else is just an excuse, just to find ways to be close to the Master.

 

Closeness is all, but only a disciple can be close. Anybody and everybody cannot be close. Closeness means a loving trust. Why we are not close? Because there is fear. Too close may be dangerous, too open may be dangerous, because you become vulnerable and then it will be difficult to defend. So just as a security measure we keep everybody, never allow to enter a certain distance.

 

Everybody has a territory around him. Whenever somebody enters your territory you become afraid. Everybody has a space to protect. You are sitting alone in your room. A stranger enters in the room. Just watch when you become really scared. There is a point. If he enters that point, beyond that point, you will become scared, you will be afraid. A sudden trembling will be felt. Beyond a certain territory he can move.

 

To be close means now no territory of your own. To be close means to be vulnerable, to be close means whatsoever happens you are not thinking in terms of security.

 

A disciple can be close for two reasons. One: he is a centered one; he is trying to be centered. A person who is trying even to be centered becomes unafraid; he becomes fearless. He has something which cannot be killed. You don't have anything, hence the fear. You are a crowd. The crowd can disperse any moment. You don't have something like a rock which will be there whatsoever happens. Without a rock, without a foundation you are existing - a house of cards, bound to be always in fear. Any wind, any breeze even, can destroy you, so you have to protect yourself.

 

Because of this constant protection, you cannot love, you cannot trust, you cannot be friendly. You may have many friends but there is no friendship, because friendship needs closeness. You may have wives and husbands and so-called lovers, but there is no love, because love needs closeness, love needs trust. You may have gurus, Masters, but there is no disciplehood because you cannot allow yourself to be totally given to somebody's being, nearness to his being, closeness to his being, so that he can overpower you, overflood you.

 

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. All 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 prevalent now, 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, when you are healthy only a discipline can help then.

 

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!

 

So sometimes it happens that in an ill society a healthy person is thought to be ill. A Jesus is thought to be ill, and every effort is done to make him adjusted. And when it is found that he is a hopeless case, then he is crucified. When it is found nothing can be done, this man is incurable, then he is crucified. The society is ill itself because society is nothing but your collective. If all the members are ill, the society is ill, and every member has to be adjusted to it.

 

Yoga is not therapy; yoga is not trying in any way to make you adjusted to the society. If you want to define yoga in terms of adjustment, then it is not adjustment with the society, but it is adjustment with existence itself. It is adjustment with the divine!

 

So it may happen that a perfect yogi may appear mad to you. He may look out of his senses, out of his mind, because now he is in touch with the greater, with a higher mind, higher order of things. He is in touch with the universal mind. It has happened always so: a Buddha, a Jesus, a Krishna, they always look somehow eccentric. They don't belong to us; they seem to be outsiders.

 

That's why we call them avatars, outsiders. They have come as if from some other planet; they don't belong to us. They may be higher, they may be good, they may be divine, but they don't belong to us. They come from somewhere else. They are not part and parcel of our being, mankind. The feeling has persisted that they are outsiders; they are not. They are the real insiders because they have touched the innermost core of existence. But to us they appear.

 

NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA.

 

If your mind has come to realize that whatsoever you have been doing up to now was just senseless, it was a nightmare at the worst or a beautiful dream at the best then the path of discipline opens before you. What is that path?

 

The basic definition is,

 

YOGA IS THE CESSATION OF MIND

 

chittavrittinirodha.

 

I told you that Patanjali is just mathematical. In a single sentence, NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA, he is finished with you. This is the only sentence that has been used for you. Now he takes it for granted that you are interested in yoga, not as a hope, but as a discipline, as a transformation right here and now. He proceeds to define:

 

YOGA IS THE CESSATION OF MIND.

 

This is the definition of yoga, the best. In many ways yoga has been defined; there are many definitions. Some say yoga is the meeting of the mind with the divine; hence, it is called yoga - yoga means meeting, joining together. Some say that yoga means dropping the ego: ego is the barrier; the moment you drop the ego you are joined to the divine. You were already joined, only because of the ego it appeared that you were disjoined. And there are many, but Patanjali's is the most scientific. He says,

 

YOGA IS THE CESSATION OF MIND.

 

Yoga is the state of no-mind. The word "mind" covers all - your egos, your desires, your hopes, your philosophies, your religions, your scriptures. "Mind" covers all. Whatsoever you can think is mind. All that is known, all that can be known, all that is knowable, is within mind. Cessation of the mind means cessation of the known, cessation of the knowable. It is a jump into the unknown. When there is no mind, you are in the unknown. Yoga is a jump into the unknown. It will not be right to say "unknown"; rather, "unknowable".

 

What is the mind? What the mind is doing there? What it is? Ordinarily we think that mind is something substantial there inside the head. Patanjali doesn't agree - and no one who has ever known the insides of the mind will agree. Modern science also doesn't agree. Mind is not something substantial inside the head. Mind is just a function, just an activity.

 

You walk and I say you are walking. What is walking? If you stop, where is walking? If you sit down, where the walking has gone? Walking is nothing substantial; it is an activity. So while you are sitting, no one can ask, "Where you have put your walking? Just now you were walking, so where the walking has gone?" You will laugh. You will say, "Walking is not something substantial, it is just an activity. I can walk. I can again walk and I can stop. It is activity."

 

Mind is also activity, but because of the word "mind", it appears as if something substantial is there. It is better to call it "minding" - just like "walking". Mind means "minding", mind means thinking. It is an activity."

 

I have been quoting again and again Bodhidharma.

 

He went to China, and the emperor of China went to see him. And the emperor said, "My mind is very uneasy, very disturbed. You are a great sage, and I have been waiting for you. Tell me what I should do to put my mind at peace."

 

Bodhidharma said, "You don't do anything. First you bring your mind to me." The emperor could not follow he said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Come in the morning at four o'clock when nobody is there. Come alone, and remember to bring your mind with you."

 

The emperor couldn't sleep the whole night. Many times he cancelled the whole idea: "This man seems to be mad. What does he mean, 'Come with your mind; don't forget?'" The man was so enchanting, so charismatic that he couldn't cancel the appointment. As if a magnet was pulling him, at four o'clock he jumped out of the bed and said, "Whatsoever happens, I must go. This man may have something; his eyes say that he has something. Looks a little crazy, but still I must go and see what can happen."

 

So he reached, and Bodhidharma was sitting with his big staff. He said, "So you have come? Where is your mind? Have you brought it or not?"

 

The emperor said, "You talk nonsense. When I am here my mind is here, and it is not something which I can forget somewhere. It is in me." So Bodhidharma said, "Okay. So the first thing is decided - that the mind is within you." The emperor said, "Okay, the mind is within me." Bodhidharma said, "Now close your eyes and find out where it is. And if you can find out where it is, immediately indicate to me. I will put it at peace."

 

So the emperor closed his eyes, tried and tried, looked and looked. The more he looked, the more he became aware there is no mind, mind is an activity. It is not something there so you can pinpoint it. But the moment he realized that it is not something, then the absurdity of his quest became exposed to himself. If it is not something, nothing can be done about it. If it is an activity, then don't do the activity; that's all. If it is like walking, don't walk.

 

He opened his eyes. He bowed down to Bodhidharma and said, "There is no mind to be found." Bodhidharma said, "Then I have put it at peace. And whenever you feel that you are uneasy, just look within, where that uneasiness is." The very look is anti-mind, because look is not a thinking. And if you look intensely your whole energy becomes a look, and the same energy becomes movement and thinking.

 

YOGA IS THE CESSATION OF MIND.

 

This is Patanjali's definition. When there is no mind, you are in yoga; when there is mind you are not in yoga. So you may do all the postures, but if the mind goes on functioning, if you go on thinking, you are not in yoga. Yoga is the state of no-mind. If you can be without the mind without doing any posture, you have become a perfect yogi. It has happened to many without doing any postures, and it has not happened to many who have been doing postures for many lives.

 

Because the basic thing to be understood is: when the activity of thinking is not there, you are there; when the activity of the mind is not there, when thoughts have disappeared, they are just like clouds, when they have disappeared, your being, just like the sky, is uncovered. It is always there - only covered with the clouds, covered with thoughts.

 

YOGA IS THE CESSATION OF MIND.

 

In the West now, there is much appeal for Zen - a Japanese method of yoga. The word "zen" comes from dhyana. Bodhidharma introduced this word dhyana in China. In China the word dhyana became jhan and then chan and then the word traveled to Japan and became zen.

 

The root is dhyana. Dhyana means no-mind, so the whole training of Zen in Japan is of nothing but how to stop minding, how to be a no-mind, how to be simply without thinking. Try it! When I say try it, it will look contradictory, because there is no other way to say it. Because if you try, the very try, the effort is coming from the mind. You can sit in a posture and you can try some japa chanting, mantra - or you can just try to sit silently, not to think. But then not to think becomes a thinking. Then you go on saying, "I am not to think; don't think; stop thinking," but this is all thinking.

 

Try to understand. When Patanjali says, no-mind, cessation of mind, he means complete cessation. He will not allow you to make a japa, "Ram-Ram-Ram." He will say that this is not cessation; you are using the mind. He will say, "Simply stop!" but you will ask, "How? How to simply stop?" The mind continues. Even if you sit, the mind continues. Even if you don't do, it goes on doing.

 

Patanjali says just look. Let mind go, let mind do whatsoever it is doing. You just look. You don't interfere. You just be a witness, you just be an onlooker not concerned, as if the mind doesn't belong to you, as if it is not your business, not your concern. Don't be concerned! Just look and let the mind flow. It is flowing because of past momentum, because you have always helped it to flow. The activity has taken its own momentum, so it is flowing. You just don't cooperate Look, and let the mind flow.

 

For many, many lives, million lives maybe, you have cooperated with it, you have helped it, you have given your energy to it. The river will flow awhile. If you don't cooperate, if you just look unconcerned - Buddha's word is indifference, upeksha: looking without any concern, just looking, not doing anything in any way - the mind will flow for a while and it will stop by itself When the momentum is lost, when the energy has flowed, the mind will stop. When the mind stops, you are in yoga: you have attained the discipline. This is the definition: YOGA IS THE CESSATION OF MIND.

 

THEN THE WITNESS IS ESTABLISHED IN ITSELF.

 

When the mind ceases, the witness is established in itself.

 

When you can simply look without being identified with the mind, without judging, without appreciating, condemning, without choosing - you simply look and the mind flows, a time comes when by itself, of itself, the mind stops.

 

When there is no mind, you are established in your witnessing. Then you have become a witness - just a seer-a drashta, a sakchhi. Then you are not a doer, then you are not a thinker. Then you are simply being pure being, purest of being. Then the witness is established in itself.

 

IN THE OTHER STATES THERE IS IDENTIFICATION WITH THE MODIFICATIONS OF THE MIND.

 

Except witnessing, in all states, you are identified with the mind. You become one with the flow of thoughts, you become one with the clouds: sometimes with the white cloud, sometimes with the black cloud, sometimes with a rain-filled cloud, sometimes with a vacant, empty cloud, but whatsoever, you become one with the thought, you become one with the cloud, and you miss your purity of the sky, the purity of space. You become clouded, and this clouding happens because you get identified, you become one.

 

A thought comes. You are hungry, and the thought flashes in the mind. The thought is simply that there is hunger, that the stomach is feeling hunger. Immediately you get identified; you say, "I am hungry." The mind was just filled with a thought that hunger is there; you have become identified and you say, "I am hungry." This is the identification.

 

Buddha also feels hunger, Patanjali also feels hunger, but Patanjali will never say that, "I am hungry." He will say "The body is hungry"; he will say, "My stomach is feeling hungry"; he will say, "There is hunger. I am a witness. I have come to witness this thought, which has been flashed by the belly in the brain, that 'I am hungry.'" The belly is hungry; Patanjali will remain a witness. You become identified, you become one with the thought.

 

THEN THE WITNESS IS ESTABLISHED IN ITSELF.

 

IN THE OTHER STATES THERE IS IDENTIFICATION WITH THE MODIFICATIONS OF THE MIND.

 

This is the definition:

 

YOGA IS THE CESSATION OF MIND.

 

When mind ceases, you are established in your witnessing self. In other states, except this, there are identifications. And all identifications constitute the samsar; they are the world. If you are in the identifications, you are in the world, in the misery. If you have transcended the identifications, you are liberated. You have become a siddha, you are in nirvana. You have transcended this world of misery and entered the world of bliss.

 

And that world is here and now-right now, this very moment! You need not wait for it a single moment even. Just become a witness of the mind, and you have entered. Get identified with the mind, and you have missed. This is the basic definition.

 

Remember everything, because later on, in other sutras, we will enter details what is to be done, how it is to be done - but always keep in the mind this is the foundation.

 

One has to achieve a state of no-mind: that is the goal.

 

- Osho, "Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 1, #1"

 


 


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    Mastery of the mind is Yoga

    Mastery of the mind is Yoga Mind can be either the source of bondage or the source of freedom. Mind becomes the gate for this world, the entry; it can also become the exit. Mind leads you to the hell; mind can lead you also to the heaven. So it depends how the mind is used. Right ...
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    One has to work with both the body and the mind. The body should be trained through yogic methodology, and the mind through awareness.

    Asanas, pranayama — there are so many methods through which energies can be made to flow inward. When they flow inward they become one, because at the center there cannot be more than one. So the more energy goes inward, the more harmony there is. Conflicts drop. In the center the...
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    Yoga is the method of evolving toward pure consciousness

    The evolution of life is to become more and more conscious, but the consciousness is always other oriented: you are conscious of some thing, some object. Yoga means to be evolving in the dimension where there is no object and only consciousness remains. Yoga is the method of evolv...
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    Creation is Pranayam and Destruction of the world is Pratyahar

    Question 1 Beloved Osho, Yesterday you explained that pranayam is the method which expands the bio-energy and pratyahar is to return to the original source. First it is expansion, then it is return to the source. Why is it so? Because life is made of contradiction and there is no ...
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    Try to find your own posture. Try to find your own yoga

    Try to find your own posture. Try to find your own yoga - Posture should be steady and comfortable - Patanjali's yoga has been very much misunderstood, misinterpreted. Patanjali is not a gymnast, but yoga looks like it is a gymnastics of the body. Patanjali is not against the body...
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    An Object is known or unknown depending on whether the mind is colored by it or not.

    An Object is known or unknown depending on whether the mind is colored by it or not. Now, one thing more: when you look at an object, your mind colors the object and the object colors your mind. That's how things are known or unknown. When you look at a flower you say, "Beautiful....
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    Yoga - Osho Quotes on Yoga

    Osho Quotes on Yoga This is Patanjali's definition. When there is no mind, you are in yoga; when there is mind you are not in yoga. So you may do all the postures, but if the mind goes on functioning, if you go on thinking, you are not in yoga. Yoga is the state of no-mind. If you...
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    Patanjali is for unhealthy people and Zen is for very natural people

    Question : For zen it is: “eat when you are hungry and drink when you are thirsty.” For Patanjali it is: “regularity - niyam.” How to reconcile spontaneity and regularity? There is no need to synthesize. If you are really spontaneous you will become regular. If you are really regu...
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    Primal Therapy is part of Prati-Prasav. It is one of the oldest techniques of Patanjali

    on Prati Prasav Process n Yoga Patanjali says: THE SOURCES OF THE FIVE AFFLICTIONS, KLESHAS, CAN BE ABOLISHED BY RESOLVING THEM BACKWARDS TO THEIR ORIGIN. Prati-prasav: this is a very, very significant process, the process of prati-prasav. It is the process of reabsorbing back to ...
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    When Posture is mastered there is a cessation of the disturbances caused by Dualities

    When Posture is mastered there is a cessation of the disturbances caused by Dualities When the body is really in comfort, restful, the flame of the body is not wavering -- it has become steady, there is no movement -- suddenly, as if time has stopped, no winds blowing, everything ...
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    When energy is overflowing, then only is the celebration, the transformation.

    When energy is overflowing, then only is the celebration, the transformation. Very significant.... If you are a man of austerities you will not be overflowing. You will have repressed your energies. Afraid of sex, afraid of anger, afraid of love, afraid of this and that, you will ...
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    Osho on Yoga

    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 r...
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    In Yoga two kinds of samadhi are talked about (nirbeeja and sabeeja)

    Anand means bliss, nirbeeja means seedless. The word nirbeeja is a very specific word. In Yoga two kinds of samadhi are talked about, two kinds of ultimate states of consciousness. One is sabeeja; it means with seed. Another is nirbeeja; it means seedless, without seed. The sabeej...
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    Yoga is pure science

    Before we talk about the first sutra, a few other things have to be understood. First, yoga is not a religion-remember that. Yoga is not Hindu, it is not Mohammedan. Yoga is a pure science just like mathematics, physics or chemistry. Physics is not Christian physics is not Buddhis...
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    Wherever you are, you are in a mechanical mind

    Wherever you are, you are in a mechanical mind So how to attain to this original mind? Now, one of the most important problems in religion has to be understood: the original mind is free from desires, and the way to attain it is to become desireless. A problem arises for the think...
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    I call that man religious who renounces the mind

    The mind has a persistent habit to go on believing in itself — even against all facts. Even if your old mind goes on giving you nothing but misery and hell, you go on believing in it. People say that this is an age of unbelief. I don’t see it. The same old belief in the mind conti...
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    Breathing and thinking are deeply connected

    Breathing and thinking are deeply connected Patanjali gives other alternatives also. If you can do this -- being happy with happy people, friendly; compassion with the miserable, joy with the virtuous, indifference with the evil ones -- if you can do this, then you enter from the ...
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    on Patanjali Yoga sutras

    Yoga’s third sutra… I told you that existence has two forms. Energy – the first sutra. Second – energy has two forms – non-existence and existence. And the third sutra – existence has two forms. One we call conscious, the other we call unconscious. But they are two forms, not two ...
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    on Shirshasana in Yoga – Don’t do too much shirshasana

    In the old ashrams everybody had to sleep on a rocky bed – actually also, because it helps. In yoga, your spine, your backbone, is very important, and not only in yoga but in biology also. Now biologists say man could become man because he started standing erect, his backbone erec...
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    Existence has two forms. One we call conscious, the other we call unconscious.

    Yoga says, it is futile to choose between the dualities. Yoga says do not make a choice between what is always seen as two in life. They are one and the same. It is only a deception. Face value is one thing, at the back something else. Existence and nonexistence, birth and death, ...
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    Yoga is the cessation of mind

    "NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA. YOGA IS THE CESSATION OF MIND. THEN THE WITNESS IS ESTABLISHED IN ITSELF. IN THE OTHER STATES THERE IS IDENTIFICATION WITH THE MODIFICATIONS OF THE MIND." - Patanjali, "Yoga Sutra, #1" The first sutra: NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA - Athayoganushasanam. N...
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    Awareness is to be aware that you are not the body

    What is awareness? Awareness is to be aware that you are not the body, not because the Upanishads say so or Patanjali says so — because you can cram it into your mind that you are not the body. You can go on repeating every morning and evening, ‘I am not the body’ — that will not ...
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    A man of Zen is totally different from the man of Yoga

    A man of Zen is totally different from the man of Yoga, and the distinction has to be understood. The man of Yoga is in tremendous control. The whole methodology of Yoga is how to control yourself, how to control absolutely. The man of Yoga cannot be disturbed because he is in suc...
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    Don't judge this way or that - be indifferent

    Don't judge this way or that - be indifferent When you feel somebody is a virtuous man, joy, the ordinary attitude is that he must be deceiving. How anybody can be more virtuous than you? Hence so much criticism goes on. Whenever there is somebody who is virtuous, you immediately ...
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    Success is nearest to those whose efforts are intense and sincere.

    Success is nearest to those whose efforts are intense and sincere. Your totality is needed. Remember, sincerity is a quality that happens whenever you are totally in something, but people are almost wrong in their idea of sincerity. They think to be serious is sincere. To be serio...
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    A man of awareness is unattached

    "ATTRACTION, AND THROUGH IT, ATTACHMENT, IS TOWARDS ANYTHING THAT BRINGS PLEASURE. REPULSION IS FROM ANYTHING THAT CAUSES PAIN." These are your two ways of being here in the world: you are attracted towards something which you feel causes pleasure, you feel repelled, repulsed by s...
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    on Yoga and Tantra - Tantra is complementary to Yoga

    Question 5 Is it possible to find a synthesis between yoga and tantra? does one lead to another? No, it is impossible. It is as impossible as if you try to find a synthesis between man and woman. Then what will be the synthesis? -- third sex, an impotent person, will be the synthe...
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    What is the difference between traditional yoga and tantra?

    Question 1: What is the difference between traditional yoga and tantra? are they the same? Tantra and yoga are basically different. They reach to the same goal; however, their paths are not only different, but contrary also. So this has to be understood very clearly. The yoga proc...
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    Osho on Yoga Definition - When there is No Mind, You are in Yoga

    Yoga is the Cessation of Mind" This is the definition of yoga, the best. In many ways yoga has been defined; there are many definitions. Some say yoga is the meeting of the mind with the divine; hence, it is called yoga -- yoga means meeting, joining together. Some say that yoga m...
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    It is neither theistic nor atheistic

    Question 2 It is said that Yoga is an Atheistic system. Do you agree with this? Again, yoga is neither. It is a simple science. It is neither theistic nor atheistic. Patanjali really is superb, a miracle of a man. He never talks about God. And even if he mentions once, then too he...
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    on Samadhi – In samadhi you become part of God

    Samadhi is a word very difficult to translate into English; there exists no parallel. But in Greek there is a word which is parallel; that word is ataraxia. The Greek word means quiet, calm, of deep inner contentment. That is the meaning of samadhi so contented, so deeply contente...
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    Posture is mastered by relaxation of effort and meditation on the unlimited

    Posture is mastered by relaxation of effort and meditation on the unlimited Beautiful words, great indicators and pointers: prayatna shaithilya -- relaxation of effort -- the first thing, if you want to attain to the posture, what Patanjali calls a posture: comfortable, steady, th...
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    Osho on Yoga Discipline

    Osho on Yoga Discipline Discipline means the capacity to be, the capacity to know, the capacity to learn. We must understand these three things. The capacity to be. All the yoga postures are not really concerned with the body, they are concerned with the capacity to be. Patanjali ...
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    Introduction to the path of Yoga : Yoga is the science to be in the here and now

    Yoga is the science to be in the here and now We live in a deep illusion -- the illusion of hope, of future, of tomorrow. As man is, man cannot exist without self-deceptions. Nietzsche says somewhere that man cannot live with the true: he needs dreams, he needs illusions, he needs...
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    Alonesness and Universal Oneness

    Yoga says if only we could see that we are not more than a bird on a big aeroplane. In a river, two straws were floating. The river’s flow was rapid and one straw was trying to fight against the river’s current. He was trying to make a dam in the river to stop it. It was not makin...
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    Yoga is a pure science

    "Yoga is pure Science" Yoga is not a religion-remember that. Yoga is not Hindu, it is not Mohammedan. Yoga is a pure science just like mathematics, physics or chemistry. Physics is not Christian physics is not Buddhist. If Christians have discovered the laws of physics, then too p...
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    Wherever your identification is, there is your imprisonment

    Wherever your identification is, there is your imprisonment Now the sutras. LOOSENING THE CAUSE OF BONDAGE AND KNOWING THE CHANNELS ALLOWS THE MIND TO ENTER ANOTHER'S BODY "BANDHA KARANA SHAITHILYAT" -- "Loosening the cause of bondage." What is the cause of bondage? Identification...
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    Lack of awareness. You take the body as yourself and then you suffer. You are suffering in a dream

    Lack of awareness is when you take your body as yourself. Ninety percent of your lives’ miseries are because of this: lack of awareness. You take the body as yourself and then you suffer. You are suffering in a dream. The body is not yours. Soon it will not be yours. Where were yo...
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