| 
Part VII : Therapy and the Psychology of Buddhas
Throughout 1975 Osho revolutionizes Western methods of therapy
with Eastern techniques of meditation. In April, Osho introduces
this development of his work by describing a new Psychology of
Buddhas
All the Western psychologies are based on pathology, and a real
psychology is needed that is based on the healthy person. The
perfect psychology has to be based on Buddha like people, not
just healthy people.
So there are three types of psychologies. One, pathological:
all Western psychologies are pathological. Only very recently
some wholistic trends which think about the healthy person are
gaining strength, but they are just at the beginning. Even the
first steps have not been taken.
There are psychologies of the second type which think about
the healthy person, which are based on the healthy mind - those
are the Eastern psychologies. Buddhism has a very, very penetrating
psychology; Patanjali has his own psychology. They are based on
healthy people: to help a healthy person become more healthy,
to help a healthy person attain to greater health. Pathological
psychologies help mad people to become healthy.
Then there is a third type. What Gurdjieff used to call the
ultimate psychology is as yet undeveloped. That type has to depend
on Buddha. It has not been developed yet, because where to go
to study a Buddha, and how to study a Buddha? And only one Buddha
won't do, you will have to study many. Then only can you come
to conclusions. But some day that psychology will happen, it is
a must. It must be there because only that can give you the total
perception into human consciousness.
Freud, Jung, Janov, they all remain ill. They have never worked
it out on themselves. Stumbling in the dark, groping in the dark,
they come to some fragments and then they think that those fragments
are complete systems. Whenever a fragment is claimed as a complete
system it becomes a lie. A fragment is a fragment.
Eastern psychologies are for healthy people, to help you to become
more whole.
And my effort will be to work out a psychology of the third type,
the psychology of Buddhas, because that will give you the perfect
penetration into the whole of human consciousness.
Psychologies based on pathologies are good; they help ill people.
But that can never be the goal. It is good, but just to become
healthy, normal, is nothing much. Just to be normal is nothing
much because everybody else is normal. It is bad to be ill because
you suffer, but it is not much good to be normal because normal
people are suffering in millions of ways. In fact, to be normal
means only to adjust to the society. The society itself may be
abnormal, the whole society may be itself ill. To adjust to it
only means you are normally abnormal, that's all. That's not much
of a gain. You have to go beyond social normality. You have to
go beyond the social madness. Then only, for the first time do
you become healthy.
Eastern psychologies: Yoga, Zen, Sufism, all help healthy people
to become more healthy and holy.
The third type of psychology is needed, urgently needed, because
without it you don't have the goal, the perception of the very
end. That has to be worked out. Gurdjieff tried his best but couldn't
succeed. The climate was not ripe. I am trying towards that again.
It is difficult to succeed in it, but the possibility is there
and one has to go on trying. If even a little more light is thrown
on the perfect, the last, the ultimate psychology of man, even
that is good, very helpful. yoga406
The psychology of the Buddhas is a totally radical standpoint.
One has to go into one's own consciousness without dividing it,
without analysing it, without judging it, without evaluating it,
without condemning it, without saying anything about it. Just
go into it and have a feel of it - what exactly it is. The
whole mind has to disappear, only then will you become aware of
what it is - because the mind goes on creating ripples on
the surface, and the mirror remains disturbed and the mirror goes
on distorting. When the mirror disappears completely the mind
disappears completely, and then there is pure silence, kokoro,
nothingness, satori, samadhi - that samadhi is the non-analytical
state of your being. That is your primal state. That is what God
is. parad104
And this much I can say about psychology: it is very much alive
and there is hope. Much work is going on, and by and by psychoanalysts,
psychologists, psychiatrists, are becoming more and more interested
in meditation.
You will be surprised. I have got all sorts of people here. From
different professions people have come, but the most sannyasins
have come from the profession of psychology, psychoanalysis. I
have got hundreds of psychotherapists as my sannyasins. This is
very significant. Not so many doctors have come, not so many engineers
have come, not so many bankers have come, not so many politicians
have come. The greatest number from any single profession is that
of psychotherapists.
That is a great indication. That shows psychology is moving beyond
itself, psychology is moving into religion by and by. Sooner or
later, psychology will become a very firm foundation for a religious
leap. And unless it becomes a firm foundation for the religious
jump, it will not have any meaning. It will get its meaning only
when it becomes a step to the temple of God.
But when I say 'when it becomes a step towards religion,' I mean
simply religion. I don't mean Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism;
Mohammedan, Jain, Buddhist, I don't mean. Those are not really
religions, they have become politics. They are political organizations.
A religion is very much individual. Religion is basically individual.
It is a transformation of the individual consciousness; it has
nothing to do with organizations. You are a Mohammedan or a Hindu
or a Christian because you are born in that organization. Nobody
can be born into a religion. Religion has to be consciously chosen.
In the very conscious choice it becomes significant; otherwise
it is meaningless. trans304
In May 1975 the first bodywork sessions begin with Rolfing and
massage.
Osho recommends that a newcomer undertake the course of Rolfing,
saying:
When the mind is melting and changing, it is very simple to go
into Rolfing, and great is the benefit because the body can change
very easily with the mind. Something changes in the mind and,
parallel to it, the body has to readjust, or if something changes
in the body, the mind has to readjust. They both keep a very subtle
harmony. So if you are in a certain state of mind, the body has
a certain structure. When the mind changes, the body needs a new
structure.
And Rolfing is nothing but restructuring. It tries to melt the
old musculature and helps the body to create new musculature.
For example if a man is very angry, he has a certain musculature
in the hands, in the arms, in the shoulders, in the teeth. An
angry person is bound to have a very deep and subtle layer of
tension in the jaw, in the teeth, in the hands. When you drop
anger, or you release it, cathart it, suddenly there is no need
for the old structure. So if you don't do Rolfing, that old structure
can exist for months, even for years. That old structure can force
you into old ways, into old habits, even though the mind has changed,
because the body has its own weight.
Many times you do things and later on you say, 'I did it in spite
of myself.' How can a person do something in spite of himself?
But it happens. It happens because the body has its own way and
sometimes it is too much. The mind knows it is wrong. The mind
doesn't want to do it, but the old habit is such that the body
forces you and you are just pulled into the old habit.
So when the mind is really changing through meditation, Rolfing
is a great support and it changes the structure very easily. But
if the mind is not undergoing changes, then Rolfing is very painful
because the mind is not ready and you are forcing the structure
to change, and that structure has an existential necessity. Even
if you do Rolfing, the body will accumulate the same tension again.
For a few days you will feel very good, but again, because the
mind is still there, it will create its own field. roseis09
Osho speaks to a sannyasin who is to begin massage in the ashram.
Continue working, mm? Massage is something that you can start
learning but you never finish. It goes on and on, and the experience
becomes continuously deeper and deeper, and higher and higher.
Massage is one of the most subtle arts - and it is not only
a question of expertise. It is more a question of love.
First learn the technique, and then the remaining I will teach
you. Learn the technique - then forget it. Then just feel,
and move by feeling. When you learn deeply, ninety percent of
the work is done by love, ten percent by the technique. By just
the very touch, a loving touch, something relaxes in the body.
If you love and feel compassion for the other person, and feel
the ultimate JUSTIFY">If you love and feel compassion
for the other person, and feel the ultimate value of him; if you
don't treat him as if he is a mechanism to be put right, but an
energy of tremendous value; if you are grateful that he trusts
you and allows you to play with his energy - then by and by
you will feel as if you are playing on an organ. The whole body
becomes the keys of the organ and you can feel that a harmony
is created inside the body. Not only will the person be helped,
but you also.
Massage is needed in the world because love has disappeared. Once
the very touch of lovers was enough. A mother touched the child,
played with his body, and it was massage. The husband played with
the body of his woman and it was massage; it was enough, more
than enough. It was deep relaxation and part of love.
But that has disappeared from the world. By and by we have forgotten
where to touch, how to touch, how deep to touch. In fact touch
is one of the most forgotten languages. We have become almost
awkward in touching, because the very word has been corrupted
by so-called religious people. They have given it a sexual colour.
The word has become sexual and people have become afraid. Everybody
is on guard not to be touched unless he allows it.
Now in the West the other extreme has come. Touch and massage
have become sexual. Now massage is just a cover, a blanket, for
sexuality. In fact neither touch nor massage are sexual. They
are functions of love. When love falls from its height it becomes
sex, and then it becomes ugly.
So be prayerful. When you touch the body of a person be prayerful - as
if God Himself is there, and you are just serving Him. Flow with
total energy. And whenever you see the body flowing and the energy
creating a new pattern of harmony, you will feel a delight that
you have never felt before. You will fall into deep meditation.
While massaging, just massage. Don't think of other things because
those are distractions. Be in your fingers and your hands as if
your whole being, your whole soul is there. Don't let it be just
a touch of the body. Your whole soul enters into the body of the
other, penetrates it, relaxes the deepest complexes.
And make it a play. Don't do it as a job; make it a game and take
it as fun. Laugh and let the other laugh too. Soon you will be
helping many people. hammer18
In August 1975 the first therapy groups begin. Included in the
group process are daily Dynamic and Kundalini Meditations, and
the 10-day Meditation Camp before or after the group. In darshan,
Osho assigns groups, instructs group leaders, and meets with participants.
By the end of 1977 there are 50 groups, and the ashram is known
as the greatest growth centre in the world. Applications are made
to register as a university
Many people ask me why I insist so much on growth groups here - because
no ashram anywhere in India has growth groups. My insistence is
for a certain basic reason, it is very fundamental. The modern
mind is very much repressed - the more cultured you become,
the more repressed you become automatically. Those other ashrams
in India have no notion of the modern mind; they still live at
least three thousand years ago. They still think that Buddhist
meditations will do, or Patanjali will do.
And I know perfectly well that Buddha and his meditations and
Patanjali and his methods are of immense JUSTIFY">And
I know perfectly well that Buddha and his meditations and Patanjali
and his methods are of immense value. But they cannot work directly
on the modern mind. They were not invented for the modern mind,
they were invented for a different kind of mind - more primitive,
more simple, more innocent, more childlike.
Before you can do vipassana or zazen you will have to go through
groups like encounter and primal therapy and gestalt. They will
destroy, they will take the poison out of your system. Then you
will again be a primitive - innocent, childlike. Then vipassana
can work, otherwise not.
So here, in this place, first we emphasize catharsis. And when
the catharsis is complete, only then the second step, meditation,
starts. So you can think of my approach in three steps: the first
is catharsis, the second is meditation, the third is prayer. revol02
You ask: When the university began with you in Poona, some called
it Esalen East. Esalen is a growth center in California. Does
your university differ from California growth centers?
Absolutely, because the founder of Esalen had come to be initiated
in Poona, to become a sannyasin. He became a sannyasin. And he
could see the difference, that what they were doing was just intellectual
work, and what was happening in Poona was existential and experiential
work.
In Esalen there was nothing like meditation, and meditation has
been my central teaching. Nothing else is needed. One simply has
to come to a space within oneself where there is no thought, no
feeling, but utter silence, and that comes through a very simple
method: by watching your thought process. last224
You ask me: Is that true that you have declared your therapists
to be the best in the world? And what makes the difference between
them and the famous therapists of the Esalen Institute?
Yes, my therapists are the best in the world, for the simple reason
that other therapists are only therapists, they are not meditators.
My therapists are meditators too.
Therapy is a superficial thing. It can help to clean the ground,
but just to have a clean ground is not to have a garden.
You will need something more. Therapy is negative; it simply takes
away the weeds from the ground, removes the stones from the ground,
prepares the soil for the garden. But there its work ends.
Western therapy is still in its very primitive stage. It has to
go a long way. And unless it becomes associated with meditation,
it may help a little bit superficially but it cannot really help
the person to grow.
And it takes so much time. There are people who have been in psychoanalysis
or in other therapies for ten years, twelve years. They have been
changing therapists, but their problems remain the same. They
have been digging deep in their dreams; they have been finding
new analysts - Freudian, Jungian, Adlerian, Assagiolian - and
those explanations seem significant for a moment. But they don't
change anything. In fact people become addicted to therapy….
And you have to look at one thing: the people practicing psychoanalysis
and other concerned professions of therapy, these people themselves
are not healthy. They know the technique, they have learned the
technique, but they themselves are not healthy people - healthy
in the sense that they have any integrity. Twice the number of
psychotherapists go mad than any other profession. And twice the
number of psychoanalysts commit suicide than any other profession.
This is very strange…because these people should not go
mad and should not commit suicide; otherwise how are these people
going to help others?
Not a single meditator has committed suicide down the ages. You
cannot think of Gautam Buddha committing suicide. You cannot think
of Bodhidharma going mad. It is simply inconceivable. So something
very fundamental is missing.
So when I say my therapists are the best in the world, I simply
mean that my therapists are not only therapists, they are meditators
too. Other therapists are only therapists. light16
|
