What happens when a seeker engages in deep and intense breathing?

Questioner: it is likely that through deep and in tense breathing an excess of oxygen enters the lungs of the seeker causing him great harm. What do you say?

Actually, no person uses his lungs fully while breathing. There are roughly six thousand air sacs in a person's lungs, out of which hardly fifteen to twenty hundred sacs are filled with oxygen if the person happens to be very healthy and he breathes normally. The rest of the air sacs are filled with carbon dioxide, which is another name for filth. Therefore it is difficult to find a man who takes in more oxygen than is necessary. One who takes in the necessary amount of oxygen is also rare. A major part of our lungs remains unused. It would be really a great thing if you can fill your whole lungs with oxygen; it will lead to great expansion of your consciousness. How expansive your life is can be known from the amount of oxygen you carry in your lungs. The more oxygen, the more life. And if you…

Osho, in the Buddhist practice of anapanasati, when one meditates on the breath, what effect does it have on the amount of oxygen?

A great deal. In fact—this is very amusing and worth understanding—whatever functions of life there are, if you take your attention to any one of them, its speed increases. The functions of life are going on outside your attention. For example, your pulse is beating. When your doctor checks your pulse, it is not exactly what it was before he checked; it goes up a little, because your attention and the doctor’s—both—have gone to it. And if a lady doctor is checking, it will go up even more; because even more attention goes there. You understand, don’t you? It isn’t exactly what it was; a slight difference appears. Try this experiment: first check your own pulse; then keep your attention on the pulse for ten minutes—how it is beating—and check again; you will find its vibrations have increased. In truth, whatever processes are running inside the body are running outside…

Osho: No, no, not at their expense. Tell them about this method. They themselves will feel it. They will certainly feel the change, the transformation. Let them practise it--just as an experiment with their disturbed mind, their doubts. Let them experiment, just as an experiment. If 'something' happens, then the practice goes by itself. There is no need to convince them. And, the anarchy that is within must be exploded. It should not be stilled or cramped down. It must be expressed in total intensity. The calmness, the serenity, the Nirvana comes not by stilling the mind but by explosion. Then the stillness comes but it is not a cultivated composure. Express what you are, totally. Of course that means madness, because we are mad. So, if you express it, the madness will come out. Even you yourself will feel strange about it, unknown to yourself.

Osho, you have spoken of the four steps of meditation; please explain the full meaning of all four.

First, understand this clearly: three are only steps, not meditation; meditation is the fourth. The gateway is the fourth; the first three are only steps. Steps are not the door; they lead to the door. The fourth alone is the door—rest, pause, emptiness, surrender, dying, dissolving—that is the door. And the three steps lead you to that door. The fundamental basis of those three steps is one: if you want to enter rest, it becomes very easy after going into total tension. Just as a person who labors all day can sleep at night. The more the labor, the deeper the sleep. Someone may ask, “But labor and sleep are opposites; how can labor lead to sleep? The one who has worked all day should not be able to sleep!” And the one who has lazed on the bed all day should sleep! But the one who stayed in bed…