The Perfect Way. Osho
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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.