Astrall
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Therefore, psychology, with all its schools of psychoana
lysis, psychosynthesis, Gestalt, and so on...
it gropes around in the dark because it still doesn't under
stand the fact that a person can transcend the mind. There
are psychologists, such as B. F. Skinner or Delgado, who be
lieve that a person is nothing more than behavior. In other
words, a person is nothing more than physics, chemistry, phy
siology. Science is capable of explaining everything; nothing
more is needed; a person is a body and nothing more. This is
the view held by most of modern psychology, and it is the
only psychology in communist countries.
There are a few people who try to go a little further, but
they fall into clever traps of the mind. They begin to think
that psychology is nothing more than the mind. Freud,
Adler, Jung – they all believe that psychology is nothing
more than the study of the mind, the exploration of the mind.
The word "psychology" is wonderful: it comes from the word
"psyche," and "psyche" means "soul." But no psychologist
agrees with the idea of the soul. In fact, they have no right
to call their reflections psychology; they are using the wrong
word – a word that means something more.
They all either believe in the body or believe in the mind,
but the body and the mind are not really separate things.
Body-mind
is one phenomenon. In fact, we shouldn't use the conjunction
"and" between them.
Body-mind
should be one word,
because the difference is not so great that we can use the
conjunction "and." Even a hyphen is not needed between them;
there is no space even for a hyphen. The body is the mind
viewed from the outside, the mind is the body viewed from the
inside. Or, in other words, the body is the external expres
sion of the mind, and the mind is the internal expression of
the same phenomenon – simply in two different dimensions.
Until a person transcends both of them, he knows nothing
about the breakthrough. And people all over the world are
really torn apart by the foolish idea that a person is nothing
more than a body, or nothing more than a mind, or, at most,
both. The breakthrough is possible if a space opens up inside
you in which you can discard the mind and still continue to
exist.
But when the shell of all the past, all the memories, is
discarded, there arise moments, very subtle moments, when
you find yourself nowhere. You are no longer "there," but not
yet "here"; you are simply passing through the birth canal. This
is painful because the old personality is disappearing, and the
new one has not yet appeared. You may become very afraid,
so you need a master. The master's task is to help you in such
critical moments. Socrates said that the master's task is to
be a midwife, and I completely agree with him. It is the same
as helping a child leave the womb in which he has been for
nine months... and in which he was in unimaginable comfort.
In fact, throughout his life, the child will seek the same com
fortable conditions. There was no responsibility, no anxiety,
no problems. He needed nothing; existence took care of
everything. Some unknown energies continuously flowed from
the mother to the child. The mother did everything necessary,
and the child simply luxuriated inside the womb. For people
who are outside the womb, nine months is nine months; for the
child, however, it is almost infinity, because he is not aware
of time; he cannot be aware of time. You begin to be aware of
time when events occur.
Have you noticed this? If many events occur on a certain day,
you have one sense of time; if nothing happens on another day,
you have a completely different perception of time. The sense
of time depends on what is happening. Time is measured by
events. But in the womb, nothing happens; everything is calm.
The child cannot feel that it is only nine months: it is infi
nity, it is a state of timelessness. And to float in the mother's
womb in warm liquid is unimaginably pleasant.
That is why we have a desire for bliss – because we have
already experienced it. Otherwise, you would not be seeking
it; something must remain deep in your subconscious – some
experience, some nostalgia, that makes you seek bliss.
All the search for God is, in essence, the search for the
mother's womb. And a meditating person really enters the
womb of God.
In a Hindu temple, the inner part is called
garbha – "womb." When you enter a Hindu temple, into its
deepest part, where the statue of the god is located, you enter
the garbha – "womb." This is very significant, full of great
meaning. To re-enter the universe in deep relaxation is to
find peace, bliss, a problem-free existence. This is the break
through.
If you come to a psychoanalyst, he will try to return you
to your former personality. This is the whole task of psychol
ogy in the West: to help people come back into alignment,
because they have become a little out of alignment with their
past. And, of course, as soon as you become out of align
ment with your own mind, you become out of alignment with
society, because your mind is part of the collective mind of
society. You are no longer in alignment with your
religion, you are no longer in alignment with your political
ideology. You simply discover that – in a way – you have
been uprooted. And you are overcome with great fear: you
have ceased to be part of the collective mind; you are alone,
and you long to be part of the crowd, to feel a little warmth,
a little comfort, and to be back on familiar ground.
This is what psychology does in the West. All its work is
directed against religion. Religion tries to give you a new
individuality, a new birth, while psychology returns you to
your old personality. It forces you to somehow squeeze back
into the skin that, like a snake's skin, has been shed. In fact,
it is impossible to do this, because that skin can never again
become yours. You can live with it, but it will simply hang
on you; it will be a burden; it will no longer be part of you.
Osho
lysis, psychosynthesis, Gestalt, and so on...
it gropes around in the dark because it still doesn't under
stand the fact that a person can transcend the mind. There
are psychologists, such as B. F. Skinner or Delgado, who be
lieve that a person is nothing more than behavior. In other
words, a person is nothing more than physics, chemistry, phy
siology. Science is capable of explaining everything; nothing
more is needed; a person is a body and nothing more. This is
the view held by most of modern psychology, and it is the
only psychology in communist countries.
There are a few people who try to go a little further, but
they fall into clever traps of the mind. They begin to think
that psychology is nothing more than the mind. Freud,
Adler, Jung – they all believe that psychology is nothing
more than the study of the mind, the exploration of the mind.
The word "psychology" is wonderful: it comes from the word
"psyche," and "psyche" means "soul." But no psychologist
agrees with the idea of the soul. In fact, they have no right
to call their reflections psychology; they are using the wrong
word – a word that means something more.
They all either believe in the body or believe in the mind,
but the body and the mind are not really separate things.
Body-mind
is one phenomenon. In fact, we shouldn't use the conjunction
"and" between them.
Body-mind
should be one word,
because the difference is not so great that we can use the
conjunction "and." Even a hyphen is not needed between them;
there is no space even for a hyphen. The body is the mind
viewed from the outside, the mind is the body viewed from the
inside. Or, in other words, the body is the external expres
sion of the mind, and the mind is the internal expression of
the same phenomenon – simply in two different dimensions.
Until a person transcends both of them, he knows nothing
about the breakthrough. And people all over the world are
really torn apart by the foolish idea that a person is nothing
more than a body, or nothing more than a mind, or, at most,
both. The breakthrough is possible if a space opens up inside
you in which you can discard the mind and still continue to
exist.
But when the shell of all the past, all the memories, is
discarded, there arise moments, very subtle moments, when
you find yourself nowhere. You are no longer "there," but not
yet "here"; you are simply passing through the birth canal. This
is painful because the old personality is disappearing, and the
new one has not yet appeared. You may become very afraid,
so you need a master. The master's task is to help you in such
critical moments. Socrates said that the master's task is to
be a midwife, and I completely agree with him. It is the same
as helping a child leave the womb in which he has been for
nine months... and in which he was in unimaginable comfort.
In fact, throughout his life, the child will seek the same com
fortable conditions. There was no responsibility, no anxiety,
no problems. He needed nothing; existence took care of
everything. Some unknown energies continuously flowed from
the mother to the child. The mother did everything necessary,
and the child simply luxuriated inside the womb. For people
who are outside the womb, nine months is nine months; for the
child, however, it is almost infinity, because he is not aware
of time; he cannot be aware of time. You begin to be aware of
time when events occur.
Have you noticed this? If many events occur on a certain day,
you have one sense of time; if nothing happens on another day,
you have a completely different perception of time. The sense
of time depends on what is happening. Time is measured by
events. But in the womb, nothing happens; everything is calm.
The child cannot feel that it is only nine months: it is infi
nity, it is a state of timelessness. And to float in the mother's
womb in warm liquid is unimaginably pleasant.
That is why we have a desire for bliss – because we have
already experienced it. Otherwise, you would not be seeking
it; something must remain deep in your subconscious – some
experience, some nostalgia, that makes you seek bliss.
All the search for God is, in essence, the search for the
mother's womb. And a meditating person really enters the
womb of God.
In a Hindu temple, the inner part is called
garbha – "womb." When you enter a Hindu temple, into its
deepest part, where the statue of the god is located, you enter
the garbha – "womb." This is very significant, full of great
meaning. To re-enter the universe in deep relaxation is to
find peace, bliss, a problem-free existence. This is the break
through.
If you come to a psychoanalyst, he will try to return you
to your former personality. This is the whole task of psychol
ogy in the West: to help people come back into alignment,
because they have become a little out of alignment with their
past. And, of course, as soon as you become out of align
ment with your own mind, you become out of alignment with
society, because your mind is part of the collective mind of
society. You are no longer in alignment with your
religion, you are no longer in alignment with your political
ideology. You simply discover that – in a way – you have
been uprooted. And you are overcome with great fear: you
have ceased to be part of the collective mind; you are alone,
and you long to be part of the crowd, to feel a little warmth,
a little comfort, and to be back on familiar ground.
This is what psychology does in the West. All its work is
directed against religion. Religion tries to give you a new
individuality, a new birth, while psychology returns you to
your old personality. It forces you to somehow squeeze back
into the skin that, like a snake's skin, has been shed. In fact,
it is impossible to do this, because that skin can never again
become yours. You can live with it, but it will simply hang
on you; it will be a burden; it will no longer be part of you.
Osho