Latihan

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,…

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 --…

Osho, how is your meditation different from auto-suggestions and hypnosis? And if it is different, how? Please clarify.

It is not different from auto-hypnosis and hypnosis; it is more. As far as auto-hypnosis goes, the path of meditation goes along with it, on the same road. But where auto-hypnosis stops, this path goes beyond. And because of that going-beyond, even in the stretch where it runs alongside hypnosis there remains a fundamental difference. The very basis of hypnosis is that your conscious mind goes to sleep. To become stupefied, to fall into a trance, is hypnosis. The process of hypnotic suggestion takes you into drowsiness. The more drowsy you become, the more sleep-like you become, the more you can be hypnotized. Then in that hypnotic state anything can be made to happen through you, because your discrimination is asleep. In this process of meditation you are not to go into trance; in fact, you cannot—because the whole process is active. That is why a hypnotist will lay you…

(Audio recording unclear) There is a great difference, a very great difference. The difference is simply this: in hypnosis, where the hypnotist is doing the hypnotizing, even there the event that happens is almost the same as what happens when one meditates by oneself—almost the same. Here too the subtle body can be taken out, sent, seen. But it is induced by another; it is compulsory, forced. It is an event done in you by someone else.

Samadhi is an event that happens by oneself. An event done through another brings you no benefit—perhaps harm. You get no benefit. He may make you perform certain psychic feats, but you gain nothing; rather, you are harmed. The rhythm and harmony of your psychic body will be damaged by such experiments; there will be obstruction. And when, through your own practice, you naturally move out of the body, there is no harm; instead, you experience some secrets and mysteries within. Hypnosis is unconsciousness—something happens in you while you are unconscious. Samadhi is complete awareness—something happens in awareness. When something happens within you in awareness, you become acquainted with new facts of the mystery of your world and your life. That acquaintance supports you in self-cultivation. In hypnosis you do not become acquainted—you are unconscious. You gain no benefit, though the event that occurs is almost the same.