The Desireless Path_ at The Turiya Files

LAST NIGHT YOU SPOKE OF SATSANG AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE DISCIPLE'S PROXIMITY TO THE GURU. DOES THIS MEAN PHYSICAL PROXIMITY? IS THE DISCIPLE WHO LIVES AT A GREAT PHYSICAL DISTANCE FROM THE GURU AT A LOSS?

Yes and no! Yes, a physical closeness is necessary in the beginning because you cannot understand anything else right now, as you are. You can understand the body; you can understand the language of the physical. You exist at the physical, so yes, a physical closeness is necessary - in the beginning.

And I say 'no' also because as you grow, as you start learning a different language which is of the non-physical, then physical closeness is not necessary. Then you can go anywhere. Then space doesn't make any difference. You remain in contact. Not only space, but time also doesn't make any difference. A Master may be dead, you remain in contact. He may have dropped his physical body, you remain in contact. If a trust happens, then time and space both are transcended.

Trust is the miracle. You can be in closeness with Mohammed, or Jesus, or Buddha, right now, if trust is there. But it is difficult. It is difficult because you don't know how. You cannot trust a living person, how can you trust a dead one? If trust happens, then you are close to Buddha right now. And for persons who have faith, Buddha is alive. No Master ever dies for those who can trust. He goes on helping; he is always there. But for you, even Buddha is there physically, standing behind you or in front of you, just sitting by your side, you are not close to him. There may be vast space between you. Love, trust, faith, they destroy space, time, both.

In the beginning, because you cannot understand any other language, you can understand only the language of the physical, physical closeness is necessary - but only in the beginning. A moment will come when the Master himself will send you away. He will force you to go away because that too becomes necessary - you may start clinging to the physical language.

Gurdjieff almost always, all his life, will send his disciples away. He will create such a miserable situation for them, then they will have to leave. It will be impossible to live with him. After a certain point, he will help them to go away. He will force really them to go away, because you should not become too much dependent on the physical. The other, the higher language, must develop. You must start feeling close to him wherever you are, because body has to be transcended. Not yours only, the Master's body has also to be transcended.

But in the beginning it is a great help. Once the seeds are sown, once they have taken root, then you are strong enough. Then you can go away, and then you can feel. Just going away, the contact is lost - then the contact is not much importance. Trust will grow, further you go away. Trust will grow more, because wherever you are on the earth you will feel the Master's presence continuously. The trust will grow. He will be helping you now through hidden hands, invisible hands. He will be working upon you through your dreams, and you will feel constantly, like a shadow, he is following you.

But that is a very developed language. Don't try it from the very beginning because then you can deceive. So I will say, move step by step. Wherever trust happens, then close your eyes and follow blindly. Really, the moment trust happens you have closed your eyes. Then what is the use of thinking, arguing? Trust has happened and trust will not listen to anything now.

Then follow and remain close unless the Master himself sends you away. And when he sends you away then don't cling. Then follow. Follow his instruction and go away, because he knows better. And what is helpful he knows.

Sometimes, just near the Master, it may become difficult for you to grow - just like under a big tree a new seed will have many difficulties to grow. Under a big tree, a new tree will become crippled. Even trees take care to throw their seed far away so that the seeds can sprout. Trees use many tricks to send the seed away; otherwise they will die, they fall down just under the big tree. There is so much shadow. No sun reaches there, no sun rays reach.

So a Master knows better. If he feels that you should go away, then don't resist. Then simply follow and go away. This going away will be coming nearer to him. If you can follow, if you can silently follow without any resistance, this going away will be a coming nearer. You will attain a new closeness.

WHEN YOU ASK US TO UNDERSTAND SOMETHING CLEARLY, WHOM DO YOU ADDRESS TO UNDERSTAND? MIND HAS TO CEASE. THEREFORE, IT IS NO USE MAKING THE MIND UNDERSTAND ANYTHING. WHO SHOULD UNDERSTAND THEN?

Yes, mind has to cease, but it has not ceased yet. Mind has to be worked upon; an understanding has to be created in the mind. Through that understanding this mind will die. That understanding is just like poison. You take the poison. You are the taker, and the poison kills you. The mind understands, but the understanding is poison for the mind. That's why the mind resists so much. It tries and tries not to understand. It creates doubt, it fights in every way, it protects itself because understanding is poison for the mind. It is elixir for you, but for the mind it is poison.

So when I say understand clearly, I mean your mind, not you, because you need not any understanding. You are already understanding. You are the very wisdom - the pragnya.

You need not any help from me or from anybody else. Your mind has to be changed. And if understanding happens to the mind, mind will die, and with the mind, the understanding will disappear. Then you will be in your purity. Then your being will reveal a mirrorlike purity - no content, contentless. But that inner being needs no understanding. It is already the very core of understanding. It needs no understanding - just the clouds of the mind, they have to be persuaded.

So what is understanding really? Just a persuasion for the mind to leave. Remember, I don't say fight, I say persuasion. If you fight, the mind will never leave, because through fight you show your fear. If you fight, you show that the mind is something of which you are afraid. Just persuade. All these teachings, all meditations are a deep persuasion for the mind to come to a point where it can commit suicide, where it simply drops, where mind itself becomes such an absurdity that you cannot carry it any more - you simply drop it. It is better to say mind drops itself.

So when I say an address for a clear understanding, I am addressing your mind. And there is no other way. Only your mind can be approached because you are unavailable. You are so hidden deep inside, and just the mind is on the door. The mind has to be persuaded to leave the door and to leave the door open. Then you will become available.

I am addressing mind - your mind, not you. If mind drops, there is no need to address - I can sit in silence and you will understand; there is no need to address. The mind needs words; the mind needs thoughts; the mind needs something mental which can persuade it. Buddha or Patanjali or Krishna talking to you, are addressing your mind.

A moment comes when mind simply becomes aware of the whole absurdity. It is just like this: if I see you, that you are pulling the strings, your shoelaces, and trying to pull yourself up through them, and I tell you, "What nonsense you are doing; this is impossible." Just through your own shoelaces, you cannot pull yourself up. It is simply impossible; it cannot happen. So I persuade you to think more about the whole thing: "This is absurd. What are you doing! And then you feel miserable because it is not happening, so I go on telling you, insisting, hammering. One day you may become aware that, 'Yes, this is absurd. What I am doing?'"

Just like pulling yourself by the shoelaces is your whole effort at the mind. Whatsoever you are doing is absurd. It can never lead you anywhere than the hell, than the misery. It has always led you to the misery, you are still not aware. All this communication from me is just to make your mind alert that the whole effort is absurd. Once you come to feel that the whole effort is absurd, the effort disappears. It is not that you will have to leave your shoelaces, and you will have to make some effort and it is going to be arduous, you will simply see the fact and you will leave and you will laugh. You have become enlightened if you leave your shoelaces and simply stand and laugh. This is going to be the case.

Through understanding the mind drops. Suddenly you become aware that no one else was responsible for your misery, you were creating it continuously; moment to moment you were the creator. And you were creating the misery, and then you were asking how to go beyond it, how to be not miserable, how to achieve bliss, how to achieve samadhi. And while you are asking, you are creating. Even this asking, "How to achieve samadhi?" is creating misery because then you say, "I have been making so much effort and samadhi has not been reached yet. I am doing everything that can be done, and the samadhi has not been reached yet. When I will become enlightened?"

Now you are creating a new misery when you have made enlightenment also an object of desire, which is absurd. No desire will come to a fulfillment. When you realize this, desires drop - you are enlightened. Desireless, you are enlightened. With desires you go moving to a circle of misery.

YOU SAID THAT YOGA IS A SCIENCE, A METHODOLOGY FOR INNER AWAKENING. BUT EFFORT TO BE, TO GO NEARER TO NO-MIND, IMPLIES MOTIVATION AND HOPE. EVEN TO UNDERGO THE PROCESS OF INNER TRANSFORMATION IMPLIES MOTIVATION. THEN HOW CAN ONE MOVE ON THE PATH OF YOGA WITH HOPE AND MOTIVATION? DOES NOT EVEN WAITING IMPLY MOTIVATION?

Yes, you cannot move on the path of yoga with motivation, with desire, with hope. Really, there is no movement on the path of yoga. When you come to understand that all desire is absurd, all desire is misery, there is nothing to do, because every doing will be a new desire. There is nothing to do! Simply you cannot do anything because whatsoever you do will lead you into a new misery. Then you don't do. Desires have dropped, mind has ceased, and this is yoga; you have entered. This is not a movement, it is a stillness. Because of the language, problems arise. I say that you have entered, it appears that you have moved. When desire ceases, all movement ceases. You are in the yoga:

With motivation, in the name of yoga, you will create again other miseries. I see every day people. They come: "I have been practicing yoga for thirty years; nothing has happened." But who told you something is going to happen? He must be waiting for something to happen; that's why nothing has happened. Yoga says don't wait for the future. You meditate, but you meditate with the motive that through meditation you will reach somewhere, some goal. You are missing the point You meditate and enjoy it. There is no goal, there is no future, no further; there is nothing ahead. Meditate, enjoy it - without any motivation.

And suddenly the goal is there. Suddenly the clouds disappear because they were created by your desire. Your motivation is the smoke which creates the clouds; they have disappeared. So play with the meditation; enjoy it. Don't make it a means. It is the end. This is the whole point to be understood.

Don't create new desires. Understand the very nature of desire, that is misery. Just try to understand the nature of desire, you will come to know that it is misery. Then what is to be done? Nothing is to be done! Becoming alert that desire is misery, desire drops.

And it depends on your intensity. If your realization is so deep that it is total, that desire is misery, you will not only have entered yoga, you have become a siddha. You have reached the goal.

It will depend on your intensity. If the intensity is total, then you have reached the goal. If your intensity is not so total, you have entered the path.

Osho Yoga: The Alpha & The Omega Vol. 1

Talks on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Chapter 2 - The Desireless Path