Yoga is pure science

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OM Friends of Osho

 

PATANJALI'S RAJA YOGA : EIGHT STAGES FOR

SELF-REALIZATION

 

Meditation and spiritual realization develops slowly through an

eight-step process. This process is concerned with developing

the appropriate attitude, concentration and dispassionate

awareness required to achieve one's spiritual potential.

 

These eight steps are not necessarily sequential. They are

inter-related and mutually supportive. Attention to one results in

improvement in the others and a growing sense of spiritual

attainment. But preoccupation with one can result in impairment

to the others and a diminuation of spiritual attainment. The key is

to practice them with a sense of serenity and equinimity, without

any expectation, and with an open mind and an open heart.

 

1. Yamas-social observances (to be applied to thought, word

and deed):

i. Satya-truthfulness

ii. Ahimsa-non-violence, non-injury

iii. Asteya-non-stealing

iv. Aparigraha-non-covetousness, non-receiving of presents

v. Brahmacharya- moderation, sexual continence, celebacy.

 

2. Niyamas-personal observances:

i. Soucha-cleanliness of body, purity of mind. Freedom from

distraction.

ii. Santosha-contentment

iii. Tapas-self-restraint. Practices to control senses, actions

and emotions.

iv. Swadyaya-religious or spiritual study

v. Iswaraprendhana-developing a personal construct of, God,

a personal relationship with God and maintaining constant

remembrance and worship of God in that form.

 

3. Asana

Steady posture. Making the body fit to sit quietly for long

periods with the spinal column free and straight. Making the

mental body receptive to highter thoughts.

 

4. Pranayama

Control of Prana or vital energy.

 

5. Pratyahara

Withdrawal of the senses from their objects. Separating the

mind from the senses that disturb it. Renounce want and

desires.

 

6. Dharana

Concentration. Focusing the mind on a single thought to the

exclusion of all else. The mind becomes calm and serene. To

begin, diminish the number of thoughts, curtail wants and

desires, maintain cheerfulness and peacefulness, practice

 

7. Dhyana

Meditation. An unbroken flow of thought toward God.

Meditation opens the intuitive faculties, makes the mind calm

and steady, brings perfect harmony and peace.

 

8. Samadhi

Superconscious state beyond all ordinary sensory

experience and limits. Characterized at first by flashes of

illimination as one meditates on the spatial or temporal things

of the mind. Ultimate samadhi transcends mind and intellect ,

space and time as the individual soul identifies with or merges

with the Supreme Soul.

 

OM Namah Sivaya

 

Omprem

 

 

 

, Friends of Osho

<supraath> wrote:

> Patanjali is the greatest name as far as the world of Yoga is

concerned. This man is rare -- there is no other name

comparable to Patanjali. For the first time in the history of

humanity this man brought religion to the status of a science. He

made religion a science: pure laws, no belief is needed.

> So-called religions need beliefs. There is no other difference

between one religion and another; the difference is only of

beliefs. A Mohammedan has certain beliefs, a Hindu certain

others, a Christian certain others. The difference is of beliefs.

Yoga has nothing as far as belief is concerned; Yoga doesn't say

to believe in anything. Yoga says "Experience." Just as science

says "Experiment," Yoga says "Experience." Experiment and

experience are both the same; their directions are different.

Experiment means there is something you can do outside;

experience means there is something you can do inside.

Experience is an inner experiment.

>

> Science says, "Don't believe, doubt as much as you can," but

also, "Don't disbelieve" -- because disbelief is again a sort of

belief. You can believe in God, you can believe in the concept of

no-God. You can say, "God is" with a fanatic attitude; you can say

quite the reverse, that "God is not," with the same fanaticism.

Atheists, theists, are all believers, and belief is not the realm for

science. Science means to experience something, that which is;

no belief is needed.

>

> So the second thing to remember is that Yoga is existential,

experiential, experimental. No belief is required, no faith is

needed -- only courage to experience -- and that's what is

lacking. You can believe easily because in belief you are not

going to be transformed. Belief is something added to you,

something superficial. Your being is not changed, you are not

passing through some mutation. You may be a Hindu -- you can

become a Christian the next day. You simply change, you

change the Gita for a Bible. You can change it for a Koran, but the

man who was holding the Gita and is now holding the Bible

remains the same. He has changed his beliefs.

>

> Beliefs are like clothes. Nothing substantial is transformed,

you remain the same. Dissect a Hindu, dissect a Mohammedan

-- inside they are the same. The Hindu goes to a temple, the

Mohammedan hates the temple. The Mohammedan goes to the

mosque and the Hindu hates the mosque but inside they are the

same human beings.

>

> Belief is easy because you are not really required to do

anything, just a superficial dressing, a decoration, something

which you can put aside any moment you like. Yoga is not belief;

that's why it is difficult, arduous -- and sometimes it seems

impossible. It is an existential approach. You will come to the

truth not through belief but through your own experience, through

your own realization. That means you will have to be totally

changed -- your viewpoints, your way of life, your mind; your

psyche as it is has to be shattered completely. Something new

has to be created. Only with that new will you come in contact

with the reality.

>

> So Yoga is both a death and a new life. As you are you will

have to die, and unless you die the new cannot be born. The new

is hidden in you. You are just a seed for it and the seed must fall

down, be absorbed by the earth. The seed must die, only then

will the new arise out of you. Your death will become your new

life. Yoga is both a death and a new birth. Unless you are ready

to die you cannot be reborn. So it is not a question of changing

beliefs.

>

> Osho: The Path of Yoga

>

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