Unconscious

Beloved Osho, what does the revelation of the unconscious, as in psychoanalysis, bring to humanity -- according to you?

Jung had come to India in search of someone, to find out what the East has done to create so many people like Gautam Buddha -- not one but hundreds who have gone beyond mind and all its troubles and problems, worries, anxieties. What is the secret? He was going to universities, meeting psychoanalysts, and everywhere he was told, "You are wasting your time. These people are not the right people. These people have gone to the West to learn psychoanalysis and they are teaching psychoanalysis in the universities. You have come to search and seek somebody who is absolutely untouched by the West. And there is a man." And there was a man -- Shri Raman Maharshi. Wherever Jung went -- and he was there for three months -- everywhere the same name was given to him. "Go to Arunachal in South India and meet this man who is…

Beloved Osho, you spoke of the hidden treasures stored in the superconscious. Are there any treasures in the unconscious or is it just a pandora's box full of agonies? Sometimes I feel I suppress happiness as well as negative emotions.

The treasures are only in the superconscious. The unconscious is a Pandora's box. And if sometimes you repress happiness, then there must be something wrong in that happiness; otherwise, why should you repress it? It may have some implications which are not right. The very effort to repress it shows that you can see something is wrong in it. But you can repress only in the unconscious. So first, you see if your happiness has something wrong in it. Perhaps you are happy because of somebody else's misery, perhaps you are happy because others are not happy. There must be some reason which is not right. So first that happiness becomes a wrong thing, and when it moves into the unconscious -- which is full of garbage, stinking -- it will be pressed by all that garbage into the unconscious. And if you want to get it back again, you…

Beloved Osho, when we sleep, the unconscious is experienced as dreams. During dreamless sleep, why does the unconscious stop expressing itself? It seems there must be a lot of repressed material that needs expression. Does dreaming, then, act like a safety valve, allowing just enough material to be expressed so that some steam is let off and the pressure cooker of the unconscious does not completely explode?

No, it is not like that. According to the Eastern psychology, there are four stages of mind; not just two, as it is according to the Western philosophy -- conscious mind, unconscious mind. In the context of the Western division between conscious and unconscious, your question is very relevant. But the truth is that mind has four states: the waking state, which is comparable to the conscious mind; the sleeping state with dreams, which is parallel to the unconscious mind; third, the dreamless sleep which the West has yet to find; and the fourth, the real waking state. The first is only the so-called waking state, and the fourth is real awakening. The second is sleep with dreams, but sleep with dreams is a disturbed state. In an eight-hour night, six hours you are dreaming and for only two hours are there no more dreams. Those two hours belong to…

We are so anxious that the inner current of anxiety that is flowing is not even visible. And when we become quiet on the surface, the inner current will seem to be moving as a great anxiety; panic may arise and it will feel, “What is happening?” Even then, relax completely; even then, remain silently in the attitude of the witness. Even then, keep on watching; do nothing. The moment you do something, the disturbance begins. (The audio recording of the question is not clear.) No, do not do anything. Practice non-cooperation. Do not give any kind of support to thought. Sit silently, just watch, and they will pass. Thoughts are there, they are moving, but thoughts are powerless in themselves—until my cooperation is given, until I lend them energy. They have no energy of their own.