Yoga has nothing to do with Islam, Hinduism, Jainism or any other religion

Yoga has nothing to do with Islam, Hinduism, Jainism or any other religion. But Jesus or Mohammed or Zarathustra or Buddha or Mahavira or anyone who has realized the truth, has not realized it without passing through Yoga. Except for Yoga, there is no way for life to rise to the state of inner paradise. The so-called religions are nothing but belief systems. Yoga is a systematic methodology of scientific experiments done in the search for the truth of life, and not for belief systems.

[Note: This is a translation from the Hindi Neo-Yoga Sutras, which is in the process of being edited. It is for research only.]

Hence, the first thing that I would like to say to you is that Yoga is a science, not a belief. For experiencing Yoga, one need not have faith of any kind. To experiment with yoga, superstitious belief of any kind is not needed. An atheist can enter into its experiments as much as a theist can. Yoga does not bother whether you are an atheist or a theist.

Science does not depend on your concepts. On the contrary, you have to change your concepts because of science. Science does not expect you to have any kind of prior reasoning or any accepted beliefs, it only expects you to experiment. Science says, do and see. Because scientific truths are real truths, they do not need any faith whatsoever. Two and two make four, it is not an assumption. And if someone does not accept it, he will be in trouble himself — it is not that the truth of two and two making four will be in trouble.

Science does not begin with assumptions, it begins with investigation. In the same way, Yoga does not begin with assumptions, it begins with search, quest and investigation. Hence, all that is required is the capability to experiment. Only the capacity to experiment is needed; only courage to search is needed, nothing else.

When I say Yoga is a science, I would like to talk to you about some sutras that are the fundamental basis for the science of Yoga. These sutras have nothing to do with any religion, because without them no religion can stay alive. These sutras do not need the support of any religion, but without their support religion cannot exist even for a moment.

The first sutra of Yoga is that life is energy.

For a long time science did not agree with this, but now it does. For a long time science used to think that the universe is matter. But those who declared thousands of years before the discoveries of science that matter is an untruth, a lie, an illusion — did not mean that it does not exist — by illusion they meant that it is not as it appears, or it does not appear to be what it is.

But in the last thirty years, science in its every single step has been in accord with Yoga. In the eighteenth century, the declaration of the scientists was that God is dead, soul has no existence, matter is all that there is. But in the past thirty years, the situation is reversed. Science has had to say that matter does not exist, it only appears to exist; energy alone is the truth. It is due to the fast movement of the energy that matter appears to be.

The walls are visible, and if someone tries to pass through them, his head will get broken — how to say then that the walls are illusions? They are clearly visible. There is ground underneath your feet. If there is not then how are you standing on it? No, science is not saying in this sense that matter does not exist. Science says so in the sense that things are not as they are appear to us. If we run an electric fan very fast, its three blades will stop appearing to be three because the blades will run so fast that the empty space between the blades will be filled before it can be noticed by our eyes. If the fan is run very fast, separate blades will not be seen, only a circle will be noticed that is revolving. You won’t be able to count and say how many blades there are. If the fan can be run even faster, you cannot throw a stone through the gaps. The stone will fall back on the thrower’s side. If the fan can be run even faster, as fast as atoms are moving, then you will be able to sit on the fan comfortably. Neither will you feel the gaps nor will you fall, nor will you notice that underneath you the blades are running. Because the time taken by the blade to fill the gap will be less than the time taken by your brain to register the gap. Before your feet can inform your brain that a blade has left a gap behind, the next blade comes and fills the gap. Thus if the gap can be bridged before it really exists for you, you can happily stand on it.

In the same way we are standing on surfaces. The electrons in the atoms are revolving at such tremendous speed that things seem to be static. But nothing in existence is static, the objects that seem to be static, are all moving. Had there been only objects moving, even then there would be no difficulty. But as science went on breaking things down, it came to know that after the atom there remains no matter — only energy particles, electric particles remain. Even to call them particles is not right, because particle again gives the idea of matter. Hence a new word ‘quanta’ had to be coined in the English language. Quanta means particles and no-particle at the same time — particle and a wave simultaneously. There can only be waves of electricity, not particles. Energy can have only waves, not particles. But because of our old language we go on calling them particles. There is nothing like a particle. In the eyes of science, the whole universe is an expansion of energy, electrical energy. And this is the first sutra of Yoga: Life is energy.

Source: Sun of Consciousness
Chapter 2 – The Universe — A Family

OSHO

Yoga: the Growth of 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 evolving toward pure consciousness; not being conscious of something, but being consciousness itself.

When you are conscious of something, you are not conscious of being conscious. Your consciousness has become focused on something; your attention is not at the source of consciousness itself. In yoga the effort is to become conscious of both the object and the source. The consciousness becomes double arrowed. You must be aware of the object, and you must be simultaneously aware of the subject. Consciousness must become a double arrowed bridge. The subject must not be lost, it must not become forgotten when you are focused on the object.

This is the first step in yoga. The second step is to drop both the subject and the object and just be conscious. This pure consciousness is the aim of yoga.

Even without yoga man grows toward becoming more and more conscious, but yoga adds something, contributes something, to this evolution of consciousness. It changes many things and transforms many things. The first transformation is a double-arrowed awareness, remembering yourself at the very moment that there is something else to be conscious of.

The dilemma is this: either you are conscious of some object or you are unconscious. If there are no outside objects, you fall into a sleep; objects are needed in order for you to be conscious. When you are totally unoccupied you feel sleepy — you need some object to be conscious of — but when you have too many objects to be conscious of, you may feel a certain sleeplessness. That is why a person who is too obsessed with thoughts cannot go into sleep. Objects continue to be there, thoughts continue to be there. He cannot become unconscious; thoughts go on demanding his attention. And this is how we exist.

With new objects you become more conscious. That is why there is a lust for the new, a longing for the new. The old becomes boring. The moment you have lived with some object for a while, you become unconscious of it. You have accepted it, now your attention is not needed; you become bored. For example, you may not have been conscious of your wife for years because you have taken her for granted. You no longer see her face, you can’t remember the color of her eyes; for years you have not really been attentive. Only when she dies will you again become aware that she was there. That is why wives and husbands become bored. Any object that is not calling your attention continuously creates boredom.

In the same way, a mantra, a repeated sound vibration, causes deep sleep. When a particular mantra is being repeated continuously, you are bored. There is nothing mysterious about it. Constantly repeating a particular word bores you, you cannot live with it anymore. Now you will begin to feel sleepy, you will go into a sort of sleep; you will become unconscious. The whole method of hypnosis, in fact, depends upon boredom. If your mind can be bored with something then you go into a sleep, sleep can be induced.

Our whole consciousness depends on new objects. That is why there is so much longing for the new — for new sensations, a new dress, a new house — for anything that is new, even if it is not better. With something different, you feel a sudden upsurge of consciousness.

Because life is an evolution of consciousness — this is good. As far as life is concerned, it is good. If a society is longing for new sensations, life progresses, but if it settles down with the old, not asking for the new, it becomes dead; consciousness cannot evolve.

Source: OSHO, Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy

Kundalini: The Awakening of the Life Force

Beloved OSHO

One reason is that any knowledge about kundalini or about esoteric paths of bioenergy — the inner paths of elan vital — is generalized. It differs from individual to individual; the root is not going to be the same. With A it will be different, with B it will be different, with C it will be different. Your inner life has an individuality, so when you acquire something through theoretical knowledge it is not going to help — it may hinder — because it is not about you. It cannot be about you. You will only know about yourself when you go within.

There are chakras, but the number differs with each individual. One may have seven, one may have nine; one may have more, one may have less. That is the reason why so many different traditions have developed. Buddhists talk of nine chakras, Hindus talk of seven, Tibetans talk of four — and they are all right!

The root of kundalini, the passage through which kundalini passes, is also different with each individual. The more you go in, the more individual you are. For instance, in your body your face is the most individual part, and in the face the eyes are even more individual. The face is more alive than any other part of the body; that is why it takes on an individuality. You may not have noticed that with a particular age — particularly with sexual maturity — your face begins to assume a shape that will continue, more or less, for the whole life. Before sexual maturity the face changes much, but with sexual maturity your individuality is fixed and given a pattern, and now the face will be more or less the same.

The eyes are even more alive than the face, and they are so individual that every moment they change. Unless one attains enlightenment, the eyes are never fixed. Enlightenment is another kind of maturity.

With sexual maturity the face becomes fixed, but there is another maturity where the eyes become fixed. You cannot see any change in Buddha’s eyes: his body will grow old, he will die, but his eyes will continue to be the same. That has been one of the indications. When someone attains nirvana, the eyes are the only door by which outsiders can know whether the man has really attained it. Now the eyes never change. Everything changes, but the eyes remain the same. Eyes are expressive of the inner world.

But kundalini is still deeper.

No theoretical knowledge is helpful. When you have some theoretical knowledge, you begin to impose it on yourself. You begin to visualize things to be the way you have been taught, but they may not correspond to your individual situation. Then much confusion is created.

One has to feel the chakras, not know about them. You have to feel; you have to send feelers inside yourself. Only when you feel your chakras, and your kundalini and its passage, is it helpful; otherwise, it is not helpful. In fact, knowledge has been very destructive as far as the inner world is concerned. The more knowledge gained, the less the possibility of feeling the real, the authentic, things.

You begin to impose what you know upon yourself. If someone says, “Here is the chakra, here is the center,” then you begin to visualize your chakra at that spot; and it may not be there at all. Then you will create imaginary chakras. You can create; the mind has the capacity. You can create imaginary chakras, and then, because of your imagination, a flow will begin that will not be kundalini but will be simple imagination — a completely illusory, dreamlike phenomenon.

Once you can visualize centers and can create an imaginary kundalini, then you can create everything. Then imaginary experiences will follow, and you will develop a very false world inside you. The world that is without is illusory, but not so illusory as the one you can create inside.

All that is within is not necessarily real or true, because imagination is also within, dreams are also within. The mind has a faculty — a very powerful faculty — to dream, to create illusions, to project. That is why it is good to proceed in meditation completely unaware of kundalini, of chakras. If you stumble upon them, then it is good. You may come to feel something; only then, ask. You may begin to feel a chakra working, but let the feeling come first. You may feel energy rising up, but let the feeling come first. Do not imagine, do not think about it, do not make any intellectual effort to understand beforehand; no pre-notion is needed. Not only is it not needed, but it is positively harmful.

And another thing: kundalini and the chakras do not belong to your anatomy, to your physiology. Chakras and kundalini belong to your subtle body, to your sukshma sharira, not to this body, the gross body. Of course, there are corresponding spots. The chakras are part of your sukshma sharira, but your physiology and anatomy have spots that correspond to them. If you feel an inner chakra, only then can you feel the corresponding spot; otherwise you can dissect the whole body, but nothing like chakras will be found.

Source: Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy
OSHO – Kundalini: The Awakening of the Life Force

MAN SLEEPS almost one-third of his life, twenty years approximately. But sleep has been neglected, terribly neglected

Nobody thinks about it, nobody meditates on it. This has happened because man has paid too much attention to the conscious mind.

Mind has three dimensions. Just as matter has three dimensions, mind also has three dimensions. Only one dimension is conscious, another dimension is unconscious, and still another dimension is there which is superconscious. These three dimensions are of the mind — just like the matter, because deep down mind is also matter. Or, you can say it otherwise, that matter is also mind. It has to be so, because only one exists.

Mind is subtle matter; matter is gross mind. But ordinarily man lives only in one dimension, the conscious. Sleep belongs to the unconscious; dreaming belongs to the unconscious. Meditation, ecstasy, belong to the superconscious, just like waking and thinking belong to the conscious. So, we have to go slowly into this phenomenon of mind.

The first thing about mind to be remembered is, it is just like an iceberg — the topmost part is on the surface; you can see it, but it is only one-tenth of the whole. Nine-tenths is hidden underneath. You cannot see it ordinarily unless you move in the depth. But these are only two dimensions. There is a third dimension — as if a part of the iceberg has evaporated and has become a small cloud and hovers in the sky. It is difficult to reach to the unconscious; it is almost impossible to reach to that cloud — of course, part of the same iceberg, but evaporated.

That’s why meditation is so difficult, samadhi so arduous. It takes one’s total energy. It demands one’s total devotion. Only then does the vertical movement into the cloud-like phenomenon of the superconscious become possible. The conscious is there; you are listening to me from the conscious. If you are thinking what I am saying, if you are inside making a sort of dialogue with whatsoever I am saying, a sort of commentary goes on inside, this is the conscious mind.

But you can listen to me without thinking — in deep love, heart-to-heart, not in any way verbalizing what I am saying, judging what I am saying, right or wrong, no. No valuation — you simply listen in deep love, as if the mind has passed, and the heart listens and beats with joy. Then the unconscious is listening. Then whatsoever I say will go very deep to your roots.

But the third possibility is also there, that you can listen through the superconscious. Then even love is a disturbance — very subtle, but even love is a disturbance. Then there is nothing, no thought, no feeling. You simply become a void, an emptiness, end to end. And into that emptiness falls whatsoever I say and whatsoever I am. Then you are listening from the super-conscious.

These are the three dimensions. While you are awake, you live in the conscious — you work, you think, you do this and that. When you fall into sleep, the conscious is no more functioning, it is resting. Another dimension starts working, the unconscious. Then you cannot think, but you can dream. And the whole night there are almost eight cycles of dreaming continuously. Only for a few moments you are not dreaming, otherwise you are dreaming.

Source: OSHO