Sivananda

In 1969 followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi invited Osho to talk to them. This was the first occasion on which Osho addressed a western audience, and the first time he talked publicly at length in English. The discourse has been published in OTI January 1 & 16, 1991; and February 1, 1991. Osho: Really, there can be no method as far as meditation is concerned. Meditation is not a method. Through technique, through method, you cannot go beyond mind. When you leave all methods, all techniques, you transcend mind. So meditation itself is not a method. Truth cannot be achieved through method. Method is our own invention. We, who are ignorant, have achieved knowledge through methods constructed, created, projected, in our ignorance. Through method you can achieve a sort of self-hypnosis, a sort of auto-hypnosis. Any method, whatsoever it's name, can only give you an illusory kind of peace.

If enlightenment and samadhi mean total consciousness, cosmic consciousness, all-pervading consciousness, then it seems very strange to call this state of cosmic consciousness centering, as the word `centering' implies one-pointedness. Why is cosmic consciousness, or samadhi, called centering?

It is like small children doing arithmetic. They can always go to the back of the book and can know the answer. The answer is there; at the back of the book, the answers are given. They can look at the question, then they can go to the back and know the answer. And once a child knows the answer it is very difficult for him to learn the method, because there seems to be no need. When he already knows the answer, there is no need. And really, he will do the whole thing in reverse order. Then through any false, pseudo method he will arrive at the answer. He knows the real thing, he knows the answer, so he can arrive at the answer by just creating a false method. And this happens so much in religion that it seems, as far as religion is concerned, everyone is…

Osho, if I speak for myself, the deep experiences of meditation happened before I had even heard the names of Krishnamurti or you. This self-experience happened without practicing any method. Therefore when Krishnamurti says, “Do not practice any method; it happens naturally,” that feels natural to me. After all, Krishnamurti does emphasize continuous awareness and learning from life without a center, as a result of which meditation can happen. If I am not mistaken, you do not agree with this tenet of Krishnamurti. This surprises me. I hope to understand your viewpoint.

That night all ambition dropped. That night there was no feeling, no thought, no future. He slept. He lay under a banyan; it was a full-moon night. In that moonlight, the emaciated body, utterly thin—he must have looked unearthly, like a ghost! A woman had vowed that on a full-moon night, if she became pregnant, she would offer sweet rice pudding to that banyan deity. She had become pregnant; the full moon had come; so Sujata came with a platter of kheer and sweets, delicious food, to offer to the banyan on the bank of the Niranjana. In the moonlight she saw—as if the banyan deity had himself appeared! She was overwhelmed, touched his feet, and said, “O deity of the banyan! I had never imagined you would appear! But I am blessed—accept my offering.” On any other day Buddha would not have eaten at night—night eating was a sin.…

Will you please tell us why krishnamurti is against techniques, whereas shiva is for so many techniques.

The basic point has been missed; the basic point is that for this no-technique technique to work you must destroy all support, you must not cling to anything. And it is very arduous. It is almost impossible. That is why so many people for these last forty years have been listening to Krishnamurti but nothing has happened to them. It is so arduous and difficult, almost impossible to remain unsupported, to remain totally alone and to be alert that the mind is not allowed to create any support. Because mind is very cunning, it can create subtle supports again and again. You may throw away Gita, but then you fill the space with Krishnamurti's books. You may laugh at Mohammed, you may laugh at Mahavir, but if someone laughs at Krishnamurti you get angry. Again in a roundabout way you have created a support, you are clinging. Non-clinging is the…