Siddhi

A friend has asked: Osho, if events happen in nature and feelings in man, then when one attains siddhi and experiences one’s separateness, do bodily pain and mental anguish stop?

This needs a little understanding. First, understand the difference between pain and suffering. If a thorn pricks your foot, two things happen. One is pain. Pain means you experience that there is hurt in the foot. I know there is hurt in the foot. You are the knower. The pain happens in the foot; you are the seer of it. You are the witness. This does not mean that if you are a witness and someone pricks your foot you will feel no pain. Do not fall into that illusion. There will be pain, because the prick of a thorn is an event. But there will be no suffering. Keep this distinction in mind. Suffering happens when I become one with the pain. When I say, “A thorn is pricking me,” then suffering happens. When I say, “A thorn is pricking the foot—and I am seeing it,” then there is…

Osho, the transcendental meditators have an advanced siddhi course where they learn to fly, as they call it. I have seen photographs of them hovering above the ground. How they do it?

You go to the photographic department here and learn a little bit about trick photography -- and there is nothing more in it. Krishna Bharti, Champa, they will be of immense help to you. Or if you want really a crazy man then go to Sarjano; he will teach you trick photography. It is all trick photography, nothing else -- no SIDDHI, no flying, nothing else. But stupid people become very much interested in such sheer nonsense. If transcendental meditators can fly, what is the need for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to have an airplane? There is no need at all! We have met -- I have met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi just by accident. I was having a camp in Pahalgam in Kashmir and he was also having a camp in Pahalgam. His disciples became very much interested and they wanted me to come to them and to talk to them,…

Osho, you have earlier said, “Live moment to moment, live in the present.” Now you are saying, “Return to the past.” What should we do?

So it is with the mind—there are ruts. The past means endless grooves. However much you understand, your intellect agrees, you make decisions, you resolve—at the moment of resolve you feel something is going to change. But not even an hour passes before your decision breaks. Then only self-condemnation is produced, nothing else. Your saints, your fakirs, your priests and pundits—most of the time they only succeed in producing self-condemnation in you, nothing else. Their words are logically correct. You cannot even say they are wrong; you have to admit they are right. In that admission you take a decision. But against what are you deciding? Inside are grooves carved since who knows when, deep tracks. Walking in them has become a habit. It is easy to walk in them. They will pull you again and again. The meaning of returning into the past is: these grooves must be erased.…

Regarding the bliss of the Self: suppose it has become clear to me that throughout the day I see body and soul as separate, and within that two things arise—joy and sorrow. When joy comes, the experience of it is inside. If some suffering comes in the body, does the soul experience that suffering the way the mind does? Suppose the body is gravely ill and in pain twenty-four hours—then one who has realized the soul should not be affected by the pain, right?

In truth, the soul is only the power of pure awareness. It gives awareness. To have awareness is one thing; to be afflicted by what one is aware of is quite another. If this foot is injured, to be aware that there is an injury is one thing; to be tormented by the pain of the injury is quite another. Awareness will not occur to one who is unconscious. Awareness will not occur to one who is unconscious! Full awareness happens to the one who is conscious. But being aware that there is pain in the foot and being aware that “I am unhappy” are two different things. Even if a thorn were to prick Mahavira while walking on the road, he would know that a thorn has pricked—only that much: a thorn has pricked. Just as it would be evident to you if a thorn pricked you. If you…