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Osho quotes

A growing collection of quotes from beloved Osho, that sometimes are directly related to breathwork or bodywork and sometimes simply give expression to the beauty and the essence of .... well, IT!

Osho on Cathartic Methods

“Cathartic methods are modern inventions. In Buddha’s time they were not needed because people were not so repressed. People were natural, people lived primitive lives—uncivilised, spontaneous lives. So Vipassana---vipassana means insight—was given by Buddha directly to people.

But now you cannot go into Vipassana directly. And the teachers who go on teaching Vipassana directly don’t belong to this century; they are two thousand years backward. Yes, sometimes they may help one or two persons out of one hundred persons, but that can’t do much.

I am introducing cathartic methods, so that first what the civilization has done to you can be undone, so you can become primitive again. From that primitiveness, from primal innocence, insight becomes easily available.”

From: The Orange Book, p. 28

Is it possible to celebrate misery?

“This is a wrong attitude that has been given to you—that sadness is wrong. Nothing is wrong with it. It is another polarity of life.

Happiness is one pole, sadness is another. Blissfulness is one pole, misery is another. Life consists of both, and life is richer because of both.

A life only of blissfulness will have extension, but will not have depth. A life of only sadness, will have depth, but will not have extension. A life of both sadness and blissfulness is multi-dimensional; it moves in all dimensions together.

To me, life in its totality is good. And when you understand life in its totality, only then can you celebrate; otherwise not. Celebration means: whatsoever happens is irrelevant—I will celebrate. Celebration is not conditional on certain things: “When I am happy then I will celebrate”, or “When I am unhappy I will not celebrate”.

Celebration is unconditional; I celebrate life. It brings unhappiness—good, I celebrate it. It brings happiness—good, I celebrate it. Celebration is my attitude, unconditional to what life brings.”

From: Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega v.4 Chap. 10 “The Alchemy of Celebration”

Life needs a balance between the depth and the height

"I want people to be so awake that their whole consciousness goes to the deepest part of their being, and also to the highest peak. A vertical growth, just like a tree grows. Its roots go down into the earth, and its branches spread towards the stars. Its blossoms flower into the sky, its nourishment comes from the deepest part of the earth. It is always balanced; higher the tree goes, the deeper it’s roots.

You cannot have a Cedar of Lebanon, a 400- or 500-year old tree, rising so high in the sky, with small roots—it will fall down immediately. Life needs a balance between the depth and the height; I teach you both simultaneously.

In your entering to the Center in meditation, you are growing your roots deeper into the Cosmos. And bringing the Buddha out from the hidden center is bringing your fragrance, bringing your grace, bringing your ecstasy, higher, where it can blossom into the sky.

Your ecstasy is a movement toward the height, and your meditation is a movement towards the depth, and once you have both, your life becomes a celebration.

THAT IS MY WORK: TO TRANSFORM YOUR LIFE FROM A SAD AFFAIR INTO A CELEBRATION!"

From: Zen Fire, Zen Wind, Chapter 5

Begin with the body.

“The first thing is to learn respect for the body, to unlearn all the nonsense that has been taught to you about the body. Otherwise, you will never turn on, and you will never turn in, and you will never turn beyond. Start from the beginning. The body is your beginning.

The body has to be purified of many repressions. A great catharsis is needed for the body, a great rechana. The body has become poisoned because you have been against it, you have repressed it in many ways. Your body is existing at the minimum, that’s why you are miserable. Tantra says: Bliss is possible only when you exist at the optimum--never before it. Bliss is possible only when you live intensely. How can you live intensely if you are against the body?

You are always luke-warm. The fire has cooled down. Down the centuries the fire has been destroyed. The fire has to be rekindled.

Tantra says: First purify the body—purify it of all repressions. Allow the body energy to flow, remove the blocks. It is very difficult to come across a person who has no blocks, it is very difficult to come across a person whose body is not tight. Loosen this tightness—this tension is blocking your energy; the flow cannot be possible with this tension.”

From: The Tantra Vision, Volume 2, Chapter 7

So start this breathing.