Appendix #6 Catharsis and Meditation: Steps on The Path
The New Alchemy To Turn You On #23
Date:
1973-02-12
(am)
Place:
Anandshila
Osho's Commentary
ABOUT THE AFTERNOON MEDITATION. KIRTAN, singing and dancing, is one of the secret doors, one of the deepest doors. The approach is very basic.
The first thing to be understood is: don't take religion seriously. You can sing and dance in it; long faces are not needed. We have lived with long faces too long. If you see the old face of God it is sad. It creates boredom.
Now -- and not only now, it has always been so, but more so today -- now. we need a dancing and laughing God. Seriousness has killed religion. Irreligious people have not killed religion. atheists have not destroyed religion -- seriousness has killed relig ion. The serious faces of the priests and prophets.
Seriousness is a disease. Because of the serious face of religion. only diseased people have been attracted to it Those who are young, alive, dancing and laughing have felt that they are not for religion and religion is not for them. When they become old. diseased -- when life has withered away, when their energy has dimmed, then -- when death is coming near -- they will seek the divine.
This has proven fatal. And because of this, the whole earth has become nonreligious. Religion must be young, alive. fresh. It must have a different base I call that base festivity, celebration, a deep attitude toward happiness.
The afternoon meditation means all these things. You have to dance in an ecstatic mood. All your life energy is to be flowing, laughing, singing. Celebrate life, don't try to fight with it. And in celebration you will transcend, and you will become the winner.
In the morning meditation, what we are doing is cathartic. After you have gone through a catharsis you need to dance, to sing; you need something to sing about. Catharsis is negative; you are just purifying yourself. When you are ready, purified, feel a deep gratitude. Sing and dance, and completely merge yourself in the dancing and singing. The moment the dancer has disappeared and only the dance remains, you have entered. The moment the singer has disappeared and only singing has remained, you have entered.
Forget the dancer, the center of the ego. Become the dance. That is the meditation Dance so deeply that you forget completely that 'you' are dancing and begin to feel that you are the dance. The division must disappear. Then it becomes a meditation. If the division is there, then it is an exercise: good, healthy, but it cannot be said to be spiritual. It is just a simple dance. Dance is good in itself. As far as it goes, it is good. After it, you will feel fresh, young. But it is not meditation yet. The dancer must go, until only the dance remains.
So what to do? Be totally in the dance, because division can exist only if you are not total in it. If you are standing aside and looking at your own dance, the division will remain you are the dancer and you are dancing. Then dancing is just an act, something you are doing. It is not your being. So get involved totally; be merged in it Don't stand aside, don't be an observer, Participate!
Let the dance flow in its own way. Don't force it. Rather, follow it: allow it to happen. It is not a doing but a happening. Remain in the mood of festivity. You are not doing something very serious. You're just playing, playing with your life energy, playing with your bioenergy, allowing it to move in its own way. Just like the wind blows and the river flows you are flowing and flowing. Feel it.
And be playful. Remember this word 'playful' always. With me, it is very basic. In this country we call creation God's leela, God's play. God has not created the world. It is his play.
The world is not a creation that is separate from the divine. It is divine. Everything is just a play. So allow the divine within you to be playful. Allow it to be dancing and singing and celebrating. Only then can you approach it, only then does it become revealed to you.
Don't approach the inner search in a serious way. It is not work. It is like children playing It is not work; it is play. It is not even a game, because a game has rules, you have to follow rules. When you are playing, you just have to follow your own life energy. Follow it. Flow with it.
Forget yourself and let there be dancing and singing, and you will reach a very deep source within you. Many new flowers will come to your life, many new dimensions will open. Just allow your life energy to move. And remember always, your life energy is wiser than you. Once you know your life energy and can allow it to lead you, you will come to feel what type of a fool you were before -- stupid. You were trying to lead life, you were trying to force life, you were trying to control a greater energy with your mind, with your poor concepts, your mental concepts. You were trying to put a window around the sky.
You are just a frame around the whole. Don't be too concerned with it. Be concerned with the life source, the force, the energy that is within you. Through singing and dancing, I hope that the frame will break and you will be able to throw it away so that your life energy will be freed. Once freed, you will have a different quality. That quality is divine; it is not human.
Osho's Commentary
The first thing to be understood is: don't take religion seriously. You can sing and dance in it; long faces are not needed. We have lived with long faces too long. If you see the old face of God it is sad. It creates boredom.
Now -- and not only now, it has always been so, but more so today -- now. we need a dancing and laughing God. Seriousness has killed religion. Irreligious people have not killed religion. atheists have not destroyed religion -- seriousness has killed relig ion. The serious faces of the priests and prophets.
Seriousness is a disease. Because of the serious face of religion. only diseased people have been attracted to it Those who are young, alive, dancing and laughing have felt that they are not for religion and religion is not for them. When they become old. diseased -- when life has withered away, when their energy has dimmed, then -- when death is coming near -- they will seek the divine.
This has proven fatal. And because of this, the whole earth has become nonreligious. Religion must be young, alive. fresh. It must have a different base I call that base festivity, celebration, a deep attitude toward happiness.
The afternoon meditation means all these things. You have to dance in an ecstatic mood. All your life energy is to be flowing, laughing, singing. Celebrate life, don't try to fight with it. And in celebration you will transcend, and you will become the winner.
In the morning meditation, what we are doing is cathartic. After you have gone through a catharsis you need to dance, to sing; you need something to sing about. Catharsis is negative; you are just purifying yourself. When you are ready, purified, feel a deep gratitude. Sing and dance, and completely merge yourself in the dancing and singing. The moment the dancer has disappeared and only the dance remains, you have entered. The moment the singer has disappeared and only singing has remained, you have entered.
Forget the dancer, the center of the ego. Become the dance. That is the meditation Dance so deeply that you forget completely that 'you' are dancing and begin to feel that you are the dance. The division must disappear. Then it becomes a meditation. If the division is there, then it is an exercise: good, healthy, but it cannot be said to be spiritual. It is just a simple dance. Dance is good in itself. As far as it goes, it is good. After it, you will feel fresh, young. But it is not meditation yet. The dancer must go, until only the dance remains.
So what to do? Be totally in the dance, because division can exist only if you are not total in it. If you are standing aside and looking at your own dance, the division will remain you are the dancer and you are dancing. Then dancing is just an act, something you are doing. It is not your being. So get involved totally; be merged in it Don't stand aside, don't be an observer, Participate!
Let the dance flow in its own way. Don't force it. Rather, follow it: allow it to happen. It is not a doing but a happening. Remain in the mood of festivity. You are not doing something very serious. You're just playing, playing with your life energy, playing with your bioenergy, allowing it to move in its own way. Just like the wind blows and the river flows you are flowing and flowing. Feel it.
And be playful. Remember this word 'playful' always. With me, it is very basic. In this country we call creation God's leela, God's play. God has not created the world. It is his play.
The world is not a creation that is separate from the divine. It is divine. Everything is just a play. So allow the divine within you to be playful. Allow it to be dancing and singing and celebrating. Only then can you approach it, only then does it become revealed to you.
Don't approach the inner search in a serious way. It is not work. It is like children playing It is not work; it is play. It is not even a game, because a game has rules, you have to follow rules. When you are playing, you just have to follow your own life energy. Follow it. Flow with it.
Forget yourself and let there be dancing and singing, and you will reach a very deep source within you. Many new flowers will come to your life, many new dimensions will open. Just allow your life energy to move. And remember always, your life energy is wiser than you. Once you know your life energy and can allow it to lead you, you will come to feel what type of a fool you were before -- stupid. You were trying to lead life, you were trying to force life, you were trying to control a greater energy with your mind, with your poor concepts, your mental concepts. You were trying to put a window around the sky.
You are just a frame around the whole. Don't be too concerned with it. Be concerned with the life source, the force, the energy that is within you. Through singing and dancing, I hope that the frame will break and you will be able to throw it away so that your life energy will be freed. Once freed, you will have a different quality. That quality is divine; it is not human.