According to Osho, the Latihan meditation was discovered by Bapak Subud, a Muslim in Indonesia. It arose spontaneously while he was chopping wood—his body moved in uncontrolled gestures, then he fell into profound silence. He later shared it with friends, and the practice briefly became a worldwide movement despite its accidental, non-traditional origins.
It was first discovered by Bapak Subud in Indonesia when it suddenly happened to him while he was chopping wood.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, who was the master who discovered or invented the latihan meditation technique? Would you like explain this meditation technique?
And by chance, the time to read it came very soon, just after fifteen days. The neighboring country invaded. They had been invaded by this king many times, defeated many times. They were boiling with anger and violence and humiliation and insult. For ten years, they had been training their people and this time they were determined: "Either we take over the kingdom of the enemy or we are not going to come back home alive." And when somebody, even if he is beaten, has such an idea in the mind, he's no longer weak. He is far stronger than your strongest people. They fought as the king had never seen anybody fight... because the king and his soldiers were just fighting to defend, but the enemy was fighting to gain self-respect. They had lost their integrity, and even at the cost of life it had to be regained --…
Beloved Osho, what are the differences, and maybe the similarities, between latihan and self-hypnosis?
One part of your mind says, "This is criminal. You may unnecessarily get into trouble." Another part of the mind says, "You can hit the person, but the other person is stronger than you. He will not just stand there and take it and say goodbye to you and go home. He will jump upon you and you will be unnecessarily beaten, so why create such a situation?" But your hand was ready. The energy has reached to your muscles, to your fingers, to your hand. You stopped for any reason: nonviolence, fear, he is your superior, he is your boss -- for any reason you stopped. But what will happen to the tension? Your hand was ready; the energy cannot go back. There is no system for any energy that has become ready to be expressed to go back to its original source. It will remain in your wrist,…
So Latihan is very good for cleansing the body, but there it ends. Then one feels quiet and one feels a subtle calmness, but that cannot be the end. One starts feeling that one is missing something -- in fact more so than before, because those poisons were there before and you did not have clarity to see things. Now you have more clarity, naturally you will feel that you are missing. A clouded mind never feels that it is missing anything, it is not aware at all. So whenever you pass through such a system as subud, one day or other you will feel that the system has done something, but now what? And it is not yet a perfect system -- it is just a beginning, and it cannot be perfect in the very nature of things.
The song continues:
IN MAHAMUDRA ALL ONE'S SINS ARE BURNED; IN MAHAMUDRA ONE IS RELEASED FROM THE PRISON OF THIS WORLD. THIS IS THE DHARMA'S SUPREME TORCH. THOSE WHO DISBELIEVE IT ARE FOOLS, WHO EVER WALLOW IN MISERY AND SORROW. TO STRIVE FOR LIBERATION ONE SHOULD RELY ON A GURU. WHEN YOUR MIND RECEIVES HIS BLESSING EMANCIPATION IS AT HAND. ALAS, ALL THINGS IN THIS WORLD ARE MEANINGLESS, THEY ARE BUT SORROW'S SEEDS. SMALL TEACHINGS LEAD TO ACTS -- ONE SHOULD ONLY FOLLOW TEACHINGS THAT ARE GREAT. A master, a guru, is nothing but a window. One has to pass through him, one has to have a little taste -- then you can also open your own windows; otherwise the whole thing remains verbal. You can read Tilopa, but unless you find Tilopa nothing will happen to you. Your mind may go on, saying, "Maybe this man is mad, in some hallucination, dreaming,…
I have too much sexual energy burning within my body. When I dance, sometimes I feel I am going to kill the whole world and at some stages so much anger and violence bubbles within my body that I can't channelise the energy into meditation techniques and it drives me crazy. I don't feel to go into the sex act but violent energy is still burning like volcanic fire. I can't bear it and it makes, me sometimes suicidal. Please explain how to give a creative outlet to this energy.
If a person is hungry, how can he understand music? It is sheer absurdity to ask him to listen to classical music when he is hungry. Or to tell him to meditate or to sit in zazen. He cannot think anything about Buddha, cannot think anything about God or Jesus. He cannot meditate, his mind will flicker and waver; it will go again and again to his empty stomach. No, he cannot love poetry and he cannot love music when the first needs are unfulfilled. Give him fulfillment in the first, primary needs -- food, shelter, love -- and then suddenly the energy is released from the lower world and he will start reading poetry, listening to music; he will enjoy dancing. Now higher needs are arising: he would like to paint or sculpt. These are luxuries. They only come into existence when lower needs are fulfilled. And when these…