When you get very, very calm inside, your body needs less air, so breathing gets soft and slow and may pause by itself; don't force it or be scared.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, when we enter deep meditation, the body gradually becomes inert and the breath begins to grow very faint, as if it were disappearing. Because of this slowing of the breath, the oxygen in the body decreases. So what is the relationship between this lack of oxygen and the body’s becoming inert with meditation and samadhi?
Therefore we cannot call God “alive”—for to call that alive which has no possibility of dying is meaningless. God has no life; God is existence. We have life; when we are outside existence we have life; when we return into existence, that is our death. A wave rises in the ocean—that is the life of the wave. Before it rose there was no wave, there was the ocean—no stir, no wave. The wave rises: life begins; the wave falls: that is the wave’s death. But the ocean’s waveless existence—the one that was there before the wave arose and will be there after it subsides—the experience of that existence, that tranquility, is samadhi. So samadhi is not the experience of life; it is the experience of existence; it is existential. There, breath is not needed. There, breath has no meaning. There, there is no question of breath at all. There, at…Read the full discourse →
Questioner: when we enter deep meditation, the body becomes inert and the breathing thin, which is likely to cause lack of oxygen in the body. Please explain this phenomenon in the context of meditation and samadhi--I.e. Ecstasy.
It is one thing to enter samadhi--an individual can do it--but the matter of bringing him back is very different. There is no difficulty up to the stage of meditation, but the moment of samadhi requires great precaution and care. It is the moment when it becomes urgent to protect the seeker from slipping into the region of no return. He has to be saved so that he brings us the news of the beyond. And he alone can bring that news who has peeped into it through samadhi, who has a glimpse of it. Whatsoever we know of it came to us from those handful of people who have returned from that beyond. But for them we would have been utterly in the dark about it. You cannot know it through thought or speculation; there is no way to it. It can only be directly contacted and experienced. And…Read the full discourse →
Osho! You were just here, you were just here. The fragrance of your breath is in these breezes. The whisper of your lovely footsteps is in the air. The earth and sky that beheld you… you were just here, you were just here. When I saw you, my breath simply stopped, my Master! These eyes would not lower. The moment I came to my senses, where did you hide? You were just here, you were just here.
Meera! If you want to know the divine, to attain it, you must sustain a very paradoxical kind of awareness. Paradoxical because from one side it is awareness, and from the other it is a kind of unawareness too—an ecstasy, a divine drunkenness that is not stupor but awakening; in which within, a lamp of meditation is lit, a flame of alertness burns. Love knows this art of paradox. Love is the key that opens the lock on that door. Love knows how to sway and yet remain centered within. Love knows how to close the eyes and still come to vision. Love knows how to move not even an inch, and yet complete a journey of a thousand miles. Reason will not grasp it. For thought it is inaccessible. But for love it is natural and easy. What is needed is an awareness colored by ecstasy; and an ecstasy…Read the full discourse →
Osho, in this verse the fourth and final yajna is called the Yoga Yajna. In the Gita Press translation it is called the Ashtanga Yoga Yajna. Please clarify this as well.
Now a lovely thing: Om has A, U, and M. If you emphasize M, vibration immediately occurs at the navel. Islam has the word Allah. Sufi fakirs use the word Allah as with Om. “Allah”—the H lands just where M lands. “Allahu”—the Hu lands exactly at the navel where Om lands. Allah and Om are entirely different words, but the intent is one, and the result is one; the meaning too is one. The Sufi begins with Allah—Allah, then Lah, then Lahu, and finally only Hu remains. And Hu’s blow lands on the navel; and at the navel the sleeping master begins to awaken. By a thousand methods yoga awakens the sleeping master. And as soon as that master awakens, integration arises in the personality—yoga happens. Fragments gather together. The marketplace disappears; soldiers in formation stand. Then the personality obeys command. In the market’s crowd no one obeys; there is…Read the full discourse →
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…Read the full discourse →