Читать книгу The Perfect Way - Osho - Страница 8

Chapter: 4

Meditation Is Non-Doing

Osho,

Is there a conflict between religion and science?

No. The knowledge of science is incomplete knowledge. It is as if there were light all over the world and in your own house, darkness. With such incomplete knowledge, without knowing one’s own self, life simply turns into misery. For life to be filled with peace, contentment and fulfillment, it is not enough to know material things alone. That way one may find prosperity but not fulfillment. That way one may have possessions but one will not have light. And without light, without knowledge, possessions become a bondage – a self-made noose with which to hang oneself.

One who knows only the world is incomplete, and incompleteness brings misery. By knowing the world one gains power, and science is a search for that very power. Hasn’t science put the secret keys to limitless power into mankind’s hands already? Yes, but nothing worthwhile has come out of the attainment of that power: power has come but not peace. Peace comes by knowing godliness, not material things. This search for godliness is religion.

Power without peace is self-destructive. The knowledge of matter without the knowledge of the self means power in the hands of ignorance. No good can come of it. The conflict that has prevailed between science and religion, worldliness and spirituality so far has had disastrous results. Those who have searched only in the realm of science have become powerful but they are restless and anguished. And those who have searched only in religion have no doubt attained peace but they are weak and poor. Thus spiritual discipline so far has been incomplete and divided. So far there has been no complete and undivided search for truth.

I want to see power and peace in their undivided form. I want a synthesis, a meeting of science and religion. That will give birth to a whole man and to a whole culture, which will be rich both in the inner and in the outer. Man is neither only the body nor only the soul, he is a meeting of the two. Hence if his life is based only on one of the two it becomes incomplete.

Osho,

What is your opinion about sansara, the world and sannyas, the renunciation? Is sannyas only possible if one renounces the world?

There is no conflict between the world and sannyas. One has to renounce ignorance, not the world. Renouncing the world is not sannyas. The awakening of knowing, of self-realization, is sannyas. This awakening leads to a renunciation, not of the world, but of attachment to it. The world stays where it is and as it is, but we are transformed, our outlook is transformed. This transformation is very original. In this awakened state you do not have to give up anything. What is useless and superfluous drops on its own like the dry leaves from a tree. Just as the darkness disappears with the coming of light, so with the dawn of knowing, the impurities of life are swept away and what remains is sannyas.

Sannyas has nothing to do with the world. It has to do with the self. It is the purification of the self, just like the purification of impure gold. There is no contradiction between impure gold and pure gold but only a refinement. Looking at life from the standpoint of self-ignorance is sansara, the world. Looking at life from the standpoint of self-knowing is sannyas.

Therefore, whenever someone says to me that he has taken sannyas, the whole thing seems very false to me. This “taking” of sannyas creates the impression that it is an antagonistic act against the world. Can sannyas be taken? Can anyone say he has “taken” knowing? And will any knowing that is taken like that be true knowing? A sannyas that is taken is not sannyas. You cannot put a cloak of truth around you. Truth has to be awakened within you.

Sannyas is born. It comes through understanding, and in that understanding we go on being transformed. As our understanding changes, our outlook changes and our behavior is transformed without any effort. The world stays where it is, but sannyas is gradually born within us. Sannyas is the awareness that I am not only the body, I am also the soul. With this knowing, the ignorance and attachment inside us drops away. The world was outside and it will still continue to be there, but inside us there will be the absence of attachment to it. In other words, there will be no world, no sansara inside us.

To try to cling to the outside world is ignorance and to try to renounce it is also ignorance, because in both these states you continue to be related to it. Attachment and antagonism to the world are both ignorance. They both are relationships. The non-relationship is going beyond both. Non-attachment is not renouncing, it is the absence of both clinging and renouncing. This absence of clinging and renouncing I call sannyas.

Freedom from both attachment and renouncing comes through knowing, through understanding. Attachment is ignorance, and the reaction that comes from being fed up with that attachment is renouncing. This reaction too is ignorance. In the first case a person runs toward the world; in the second case, away from it. But in both cases he runs and he does not know that bliss for the one enshrined within him is neither in running after the world nor in running away from it. The bliss is in being firmly settled in one’s own self. One has neither to run toward the world nor from it. Rather one has to come within, to one’s self.

Remember, we have to come into our selves. This coming home happens neither through attachment nor through renouncing. It only becomes possible by becoming a witness to the inner conflict between attachment and renunciation. There is one within us who is the witness to both our attachment and our renunciation. We have to know this witness. By knowing that which is only a witness, non-attachment happens on its own. This is a natural outcome of self-realization.

Osho,

According to you then, renunciation of home and family is useless.

I remember a sutra of Mahavira’s. He said: “Unconsciousness is possession.” He did not say that possession was unconsciousness. Why? It is because of our ignorance, because of our inner unconsciousness that we are attached to worldly objects. Inside we are empty and impoverished, so we want to fill ourselves with outward objects. That way we delude ourselves into believing we are important. If one gives up attachment under these conditions while ignorance remains within, can one really get rid of attachment? One will get rid of things but not of attachment.

One may leave his home for an ashram, but the attachment will shift to the ashram. One may leave his family, but his attachment will shift to the sect. As long as the attachment is there on the inside, it will find ways to manifest itself under any new condition. Hence, those who know have advised renunciation of unawareness, of ignorance, not of material objects. Once knowing dawns, the things that are futile do not have to be abandoned, they drop away on their own.

Osho,

Do we need to concentrate the mind in order to attain thoughtlessness?

I do not ask you to concentrate your mind. Concentration is a kind of forcing, a kind of tension. If one concentrates on some idea, on some form or image or on some word, it will lead neither to thoughtlessness nor to the awakening of consciousness but to an unconscious state of auto-hypnotic mental stupor. Forced concentration leads to unconsciousness. And it is an error to mistake this unconsciousness for samadhi, for no-mind. Samadhi is neither a state of unconsciousness nor of stupor. Samadhi is the realization of total consciousness. Samadhi is thoughtlessness plus total consciousness.

Osho,

How are we to watch the processes of incoming and outgoing breath in meditation?

Keep the spine erect. Make sure it is not bent. The body is in a state of natural balance when the spine is held erect. In that position the gravitational pull of the earth has a uniform effect on the body and it is easy to free oneself from that pull. When the force of gravity is at its minimum the body does not interfere in one’s becoming empty, in one’s becoming devoid of thoughts. Keep the spine erect, but without causing any tension or rigidity in the body. Allow the body to be naturally relaxed as if it were hung on the spine like a piece of cloth on a peg.

Leave the body relaxed. Then breathe slowly and deeply. The inhaling and the exhaling will move the naval center up and down. Continue to watch this movement. You don’t need to concentrate on it, just watch it, be a witness to it. Bear in mind I am not asking for concentration. I am advising simple watchfulness and awareness. Breathe as children do – their chests do not move; their stomachs move. This is the natural process of inhalation and exhalation. As a result of this natural breathing, peace descends, becoming deeper and deeper.

Because of the disturbed and tense condition of our minds we have gradually lost the ability to breathe deeply and fully. By the time we grow to adolescence, superficial and artificial breathing becomes a habit. You must have noticed yourself that the more your mind is disturbed the more your breathing loses its natural and rhythmic movement. Breathe in a natural way – rhythmically, effortlessly. The harmony of natural breathing helps dispel the restlessness of your mind.

Osho,

Why do you advise us to observe the breathing process?

I do so because breathing, inhaling and exhaling, is the bridge between the body and the soul. The soul resides in the body through breathing and because of breathing. By becoming aware of your breath, by direct perception of breathing, you will gradually experience that you are not the body: “I am in the body but I am not the body alone. It is my abode but not my foundation.”

As the direct perception of breathing deepens, more and more one experiences the presence, the proximity of the one who is not the body. There will come a moment when you will clearly see the separateness of your self and body. Then the three layers of your existence will be realized – the body, the breath and the soul. The body is the shell; the breath is the bridge, the connecting link; the soul, the self, is the foundation.

The role of the breath on the path to self-realization is the most important one, because breathing is the midpoint. On one side of it we have the body; on the other, the soul. We already exist on the body level; what we yearn for is to be in the realm of the soul. Before this can be done it is essential to be at the level of prana, the breath. The transition is through the breath.

Watching at the level of the breath, we can look both ways. From there the paths leading to the body and to the soul become clear. The path is one and the same, but the two directions stand out clearly. It then becomes easier to go on following the breath. I hope you now understand why my emphasis is on breathing.

Osho,

Why do you call meditation a non-doing? Is it not an act as well?

Look here, please. My fist is closed. To close my fist I must make a positive action. Closing is an action, a doing. But when I wish to open it, what must I do? I don’t have to do anything to open it. If I simply drop the effort of closing the fist it will open on its own and the hand will return to its natural and normal state. Therefore I won’t call opening one’s fist a “doing.” It is a “non-doing,” or if you like you can call it “negative action.” But that makes no difference; it is the same thing. I have no insistence about words, just that you can understand my point, my intent.

By calling meditation a non-doing, I wish to indicate that you should not regard meditation as a task or an occupation. Meditation is a state of non-occupation. It is a naturalness and you do not have to turn it into some kind of mental tension. If meditation were also a mental tension, a “doing,” it would not lead you into your self-nature, into peace. Tension itself is a restlessness. And in order to enter the realm of peace one has to begin with peace. If there is no peace at the very first step, there will certainly be none at the last. The last is just the culmination of the first.

I see people going to temples and I see them worshipping gods and goddesses there. I also see them sitting in meditation, but it is all an activity, a tension, a sort of restlessness for them. And if they expect flowers of peace to bloom in this restlessness, they are utterly mistaken.

If you want peace, if you wish to be peaceful, it is essential that you start out in peace from the very first moment.