Catharsis

Of what value are the 'cathartic' therapies: the reliving of one's traumatic moments or acting out of fears etc? Is not insight enough? Or bliss methods, such as sufi dance?

Mantra, insight is enough, but how to get the insight? It is hidden in much rubbish. The diamond is there, but it is hidden under much debris, dirt. The dirt has to be removed only then will the diamond be available, will the insight be available. The therapies do the spade work. If insight were available directly, it would have been very easy. Then you could become blissful any moment. But you are layers upon layers of repression. You have repressed your fear, you have repressed your anger, you have repressed your love, you have repressed your sex. You have repressed so many things! The insight is there, but these layers of repression have to be thrown out. The cathartic therapies help. They will not produce your insight, they will only clear the way. They will only make the insight available to you. The insight is there. Everybody has brought…

Can one get over-addicted to catharsis?

Yes. Mind has a very deep-rooted disease I call the disease of O.D: overdose; overdoing. Remain alert for this disease of O.D. You can do anything too much, and then, that which was going to be beneficial will become harmful. Food is good, it is vitality, but you can eat too much, then it becomes poisonous. You can die by overeating -- in fact, medical researchers say that people die more of overeating than of starvation. Newspapers go on reporting that a few people have died somewhere because of starvation, they never report how many people are dying by overeating -- that should be reported first. Always, more people are dying through overeating. A man can live for three months without eating anything at all. But you overeat for even three weeks, and you cannot survive. You try. For three days eat as much as you can.... It happened, Mulla…

"what are the possible reasons for not having an explosive catharsis? I constantly, even with today's shaktipat meditation, have only a very mild catharsis. Does it necessarily mean that I am not open or not open enough, or are there other possible reasons? My concern over this then becomes a distraction to me during the meditation and after."

The first thing to be noted, to be remembered: catharsis will happen deeply if you just help it to happen, if you just cooperate with it. Mind is so suppressed, and you have so much pushed things down, that to reach them your cooperation is needed. So whenever you feel even a light catharsis, help it to become stronger. Don't just wait. If you feel that your hand is trembling, don't just wait, help it to tremble more. Don't feel, think that it has to be spontaneous, so you have to wait. If it has to be spontaneous, then you will have to wait for years, because for years you have been suppressing and the suppression was not spontaneous. You have done it on purpose. You will have to do quite the opposite now. Only then can the suppressions be brought to the surface. You feel like weeping; you weep…

Beloved Osho, during catharsis I express only negative emotions, anger, jealousy, anguish, etcetera. Why do I not express love, devotion, bliss and religious emotions? Do I not possess them?

They are in you but they are a little deeper. When a well is dug, first of all it is stones, pebbles and mud which come out and not the water. It depends on the land also. Somewhere the water is at thirty feet and somewhere the water is at sixty feet deep. Water is certainly there. Every land has water underneath it but the difference is of depth. A simple-minded person will get the water soon -- maybe at two, three or ten feet, and if a complicated person digs then he may get it at fifty or sixty feet. An innocent-minded person will get it quickly, but a violent, angry man will take a long time to reach the water level. The difference is in the layers of the land. Water is underneath all land. The soul is there in everyone, godliness is there in everyone -- the…