AT THE START OF SNEEZING, DURING FRIGHT, IN ANXIETY, ABOVE A CHASM, FLYING IN BATTLE, IN EXTREME CURIOSITY, AT THE BEGINNING OF HUNGER, AT THE END OF HUNGER, BE UNINTERRUPTEDLY AWARE.

THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US. IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE.

Life is a paradox. To reach near you have to travel far, and that which is already achieved you have to achieve again. Nothing is lost. Man remains natural, man remains pure, man remains innocent; it is only that he forgets it. The purity is not disturbed, the innocence is not destroyed. Only a deep forgetfulness is there.

That which is to be achieved you are already. In essence, nothing new is to be achieved. You have only to discover, uncover, unfold that which is already the case; hence, both the difficulty of spiritual endeavor and the simplicity. I say "both".... It is very simple if you can understand, but it is very difficult because you have to understand that which you have completely forgotten, that which is so obvious that you never become aware of it, that which is just like your breathing. It goes on continuously, uninterruptedly, but because it goes on continuously, uninterruptedly, you need not be aware of it. Your awareness is not needed; it is not a basic requirement. You can forget it or you can remember it: it is a choice.

SANSARA and NIRVANA, the world and the liberated state of consciousness, are not two things -- just two attitudes, just two choices. You can choose either. You can be in the world because of a certain attitude, and the same world becomes NIRVANA, the same world becomes absolute bliss, just by changing the attitude. You remain the same, everything remains the same; just a change of focus, a change of emphasis, a change of choice, is required. It is easy. Once absolute bliss is achieved, you will laugh about it. Once it is known, you will not be able to understand why you were missing it, how you could miss it. It was there always just waiting to be looked at, and it was yours.

A buddha laughs. Anyone who achieves it laughs because the whole thing seems to be ridiculous. You were searching for something which was never lost. The whole effort was absurd. But this happens only when you have achieved it, so those who have achieved it say it is very simple. But those who have not achieved it, they say it is the most arduous thing, the most difficult -- really, not simply difficult, but the most impossible thing.

These methods which we will be discussing are told by someone who has achieved -- remember this. They will look too simple, and they are. To our minds things so simple cannot be appealing -- because if techniques are so simple and the abode is so near, if you are already in it, if techniques are so simple and the home is so near, you will look ridiculous to yourself. Then why are you missing it? Rather than feel the ridiculousness of your own ego, you will think that such simple methods cannot help.

That is a deception. Your mind will tell you that these simple methods cannot be of any help -- that they are so simple, they cannot achieve anything. To achieve divine existence, to achieve the absolute and the ultimate, how can such simple methods be used? How can they be of any help? Your ego will say that they cannot be of any help.

Remember another thing: ego is always interested in something which is difficult, because when something is difficult there is a challenge, and if you can overcome the difficulty your ego will feel fulfilled. The ego is never attracted towards anything which is simple -- never! If you want to give your ego a challenge, then you have to have something difficult devised. If something is simple there is no appeal, because even if you can conquer it there will be no fulfillment of the ego. In the first place, there was nothing to be conquered, the thing was so simple. Ego asks for difficulties -- some hurdles to be crossed, some peaks to be conquered. And the more difficult the peak, the more at ease your ego will feel.

Because these techniques are so simple, they will not have any appeal to your mind. Remember, that which appeals to the ego cannot help your spiritual growth. Only that which has no appeal to your ego can be a help towards transformation. But this is what happens: if some teacher says that this or that is very difficult, very arduous, that only after lives and lives and lives will you have any possibility for any glimpse, your ego will feel good.

These techniques are so simple that right now, here and now, the thing is possible. But then there is no contact with your ego. If I say that right now, here, this very moment you can achieve all that is possible to man, that you can become a Buddha or a Christ or a Krishna in this very moment here and now without losing a single instant, then there will be no contact with your ego. You will say, "This is not possible. I must go somewhere else to search for it." And these techniques are so simple that you can achieve all that is possible to human consciousness at any moment that you decide to achieve it.

When I say that these techniques are simple, I mean many things. First, spiritual explosion is not caused by anything; it is not a causal phenomenon. If it were caused by something, then time would be needed, because time is necessary for the cause to take place. And if time is needed, then it cannot be the case, it cannot happen this very moment. Then you will have to wait for tomorrow or for another life. The next moment will be needed. If anything is causal, then the cause has to take place, and then after the cause the effect will follow,.and you cannot produce the effect right now without the cause; time will be needed. But a spiritual happening is not a causal phenomenon. You are already in that state; just a remembering is needed. It is not a causal phenomenon.

It is just like this: in the morning somebody has suddenly awakened you, and you cannot recognize where you are. For a moment you may not even recognize who you are. In a sudden awakening from deep sleep, you may not be able to recognize the place, the time, but within a moment you will recognize. The more alert you will become, the more you will recognize who you are, where you are and what has happened. This is not a causal thing -- just a question of alertness. With a growing alertness, you will recognize.

All these techniques are for a growing alertness. You are already the person you long to be, you are already where you want to reach. You have reached your home already. You have never left it really. You have always been there, but dreaming, asleep. You can fall asleep here and then you can dream, and in your dream you can move anywhere; you can go to hell or to heaven or anywhere.

Have you ever observed that whenever you are in your dream, one thing is certain? -- that you are never in the room in which you are asleep. Have you observed that fact? You can be anywhere, but you will never be in the same room, on the same cot where you are. Because you are already there, there is no need to dream about it. Dream means you have to trek away.

You may be sleeping in this room, but you will never dream of this room. There is no need, you are already there. The mind desires something which is not, so the mind moves. It may go to London, to New York, to Calcutta, to the Himalayas, to Tibet, to anywhere. It may go anywhere, but it will never be here. It can be anywhere, but never here -- and you are here. This is the case. You are dreaming. Your divine existence is here; you are THAT. But you have been trekking long.... And each dream creates a new sequence of dreaming. Each dream creates new dreams, and you go on dreaming and dreaming and dreaming.

All these techniques are just to make you alert so that you can come out of your dreams back to the place where you have always been, to the state which you have never missed. And you cannot miss it, it is your nature -- it is SWABHAV. It is your very being, so how can you miss it? These techniques are just to help your alertness to grow more, to help it become more intense. With the intensity of awareness, everything changes. The more intense the awareness, the less the possibility for dreaming; you become more and more alert about the real. The less intense the awareness, the more you drift into dreaming. So the whole phenomenon is that a non-alert state of mind is the world, and an alert state of mind is NIRVANA. Non-alert, you are what you appear to be. Alert, you are what you are.

So the whole question is one of how to change your non-alert state of mind into an alert state of mind, how to become more aware, how to get out of sleep and dreaming. That is why techniques can be of help. Even an alarm clock can be of help -- just an artificial device, just an alarm clock. But if the alarm goes on, it can help to bring you out of your dreaming. But you can deceive it also; you can even dream about it, and then the whole thing is falsified. When the alarm goes, you can dream, you can make a dream around the alarm also. You can dream that you have entered a temple and the bells are going on. Now you have deceived the alarm. It could have broken your sleep, but you can change it into dream itself; you can make it part of your dreaming.

If you can make it part of your dreaming, if it can be absorbed into a dreaming process, then it cannot help you. You can dream anything, and then it will not look like an alarm. It will have become something else. You have entered a temple and the bells are....; now there is no need to wake up. You have changed the alarm, the real thing, into a dream, and a dream cannot be disturbed by another dream, it can only be helped.

These techniques are all artificial in a way. They are just devices to help bring you out of your dreaming state, but you can make them also part of your dream. Then you miss the point. Then you MISS the point! Try to understand this because this is very basic. And once understood, it will be helpful; otherwise you can go on deceiving yourself.

For example, I say, "Take a jump into sannyas." That is just a device. Your old identity is broken; your old name becomes as if it belongs to someone else. You can look at your past more detachedly. You can be a witness. You are aloof, a distance is created. I give you a new name and a new robe just to create the distance. But you can make it part of your dreaming; then you will miss the whole point. You can still think in terms of the old -- that the old man, A, has taken sannyas. You feel, "I have taken sannyas. " "I" remain the old. "I" have changed my robe, my name, but "I" remain the old,.and the old continues. Now this sannyas is just something added to the old. It is not discontinuous, it is continuous. If it is continuous, if YOU have taken sannyas, you the old one, if YOU have changed your robe and name, you have missed the point.

You must be dead, you must not be the old now. You must feel that the old has died, that this is a new entity which you never knew, that this is not a growth out of the old. This is discontinuous with the old. Then the device will have helped. Then the alarm will have worked and the technique is useful. You are not missing the point. All these techniques are such that you can miss or you can use them; it depends. But remember well, the techniques are just techniques. If you understand the spirit, you may become alert even without any technique.

For example, the alarm clock may not be needed. Go deeply into it. Why do you need an alarm clock? If you want to get up early in the morning at three, why do you need an alarm clock? Deep down you know that you can deceive yourself, and deep down you know that if you really want to get up at three, you will get up at three and no clock is needed. But with the clock, the responsibility is put off. Now you will not be responsible. Now if something goes wrong, the clock is responsible. You can sleep with ease now. Now the clock is there; you can sleep without any disturbance.

But if you really want to get up early at three, you will get up early at three. No clock is needed. This very intensity to get up will bring the happening. This will to get up at three may be so intense, you may not be able to sleep at all, and there will be no need to get up; you will already be awake the whole night. But to sleep well the clock is needed. Then you can go to sleep. But you can deceive. When the alarm goes off, you can deceive; you can dream about it.

These techniques are helpful only because your intensity is low. If you are really intense, there is no need of any technique; you can be alert. But your intensity is not such. Even with the technique you may start dreaming, and many possibilities are there. The first possibility is that you will not believe that such simple techniques can be of any help. This is the first thing. Then there is no contact. Secondly, you may think that a very, very long process is needed, that it will come gradually. But there are certain things that only happen suddenly, they never come gradually.

I am reminded that Mulla Nasruddin was asked to give his blessings to one of his neighbor's sons on his birthday. So he said, "Son, I hope you live One hundred and twenty years plus three months." Everyone was wondering at this "plus three months."

The son asked, "But why? It is okay -- one hundred and twenty years. Why plus three months?"

So Mulla Nasrudin said, "I would not like you to die so suddenly. Just one hundred and twenty years, and suddenly you die? I would not like you to die so suddenly; that is why plus three months."

But even with "plus three months" you will die suddenly anyway. Whenever you are going to die, you will die suddenly. Every death is a sudden death. No death is gradual because either you are alive or dead. There is no gradual process. One moment you are alive and the next moment you are dead. There is no time process.

Death is sudden; SAMADHI is also sudden. Spiritual explosion is also sudden. It is like death. It is more like death than it is like life; it is sudden. It can happen at any moment. If you are ready, these techniques can be of help. They will not bring it gradually; really, they will gradually bring you to be ready for the sudden happening. Remember this distinction: they are preparing you so that the sudden SAMADHI happens.

These techniques are not techniques for SAMADHI; they are techniques to prepare you, and then SAMADHI happens. So how you use these techniques depends on you. So don't think that a very long process is needed, because that may be just a trick. The mind says a very long process is needed so that you can postpone. You can say, "Tomorrow I will do it or the day after tomorrow," and you can go on postponing forever. A postponing mind goes on always postponing. It is not a question of whether you are going to do it tomorrow; there is only a question because you are not going to do it today, that is all. Tomorrow will again be a today, and the same mind will say, "Okay, I am going to do it tomorrow."

And, remember, you never postpone for years. You postpone for one day because if you postpone for years you cannot deceive yourself. You say, "It is only a question of one day. Just today I am not doing it; tomorrow I will do it." And the gap is so small that you never feel you are postponing it forever.

Tomorrow never comes, it is always today. And this mind which thinks in terms of tomorrow will ALWAYS think in terms of tomorrow. And it never comes, it has never been, it will never be. All that you have is this very moment, so don't go on postponing. Now we will enter the techniques.

The first technique:

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LISTEN TO OSHO SPEAK ON THIS MEDITATION

"AT THE START OF SNEEZING, DURING FRIGHT, IN ANXIETY, ABOVE A CHASM, FLYING IN BATTLE, IN EXTREME CURIOSITY, AT THE BEGINNING OF HUNGER, AT THE END OF HUNGER, BE UNINTERRUPTEDLY AWARE."

It looks so simple: at the start of sneezing, during fright, in anxiety or before hunger or after hunger, "BE UNINTERRUPTEDLY AWARE." Many things have to be understood. Very simple acts like sneezing can be used as devices, because howsoever simple they look, they are very complex, and the inner mechanism is a very delicate thing. Whenever you feel that a sneeze is coming become alert, and the sneeze may not come at all. It may simply disappear, because a sneeze is a non-voluntary thing -- unconscious, non-voluntary.

You cannot sneeze voluntarily; you cannot "will" it. How can you? How helpless man is! You cannot "will" a single sneeze. Howsoever you may try, you cannot bring it out. A single sneeze -- such a small thing, but you cannot will it. It is non-voluntary; volition is not needed. It does not happen because of your mind; it is because of your total organism, your total body.

And the second thing: when you become alert, when the sneeze is coming -- you cannot bring it, but when it is coming -- if you become alert, it may not come, because you are bringing something new to the process: the alertness. It may disappear, but when the sneeze disappears and you are alert, there is a third thing. First, a sneeze is non-voluntary. You bring in a new thing -- alertness. When the alertness comes, the sneeze may not come. If really you are alert, it will not; it may not happen at all. Then a third thing happens. The energy that was going to be released through a sneeze, where does it move? It moves to your alertness. Suddenly there is a flash, a lightning. You become more alert. The energy, that was going to be thrown by the sneeze moves into alertness. Suddenly you become more alert.

In that flash, in that lightning, even enlightenment is possible. That is why I say that these matters are so simple, they look absurd. Their promise seems to be too much. Just through sneezing, how can one become enlightened? But sneezing is not just sneezing; you are totally involved in it. Whatsoever you do or whatsoever happens to you is a total involvement. Observe again: whenever a sneeze happens, you are totally in it with the whole body, the whole mind. It is not just your nose in which the sneeze is happening; every fiber, every cell of your body is involved in it. A subtle trembling, a subtle wavering goes all over the body, and with it the whole body becomes concentrated. And when the sneeze has happened, the whole body relaxes. But it is difficult to bring alertness to it. If you bring alertness to it, it will not happen, and if it happens you can know that the alertness was not there. That is why you should be alert.

"AT THE START OF SNEEZING...", because if it has started, nothing can be done. The arrow has gone; you cannot change it now. The mechanism has started. The energy is on its way to being released, it cannot be stopped. Can you stop a sneeze in the middle? How can you stop it in the middle? By the time you are ready, it has already happened. You cannot stop it in the middle.

Just at the beginning, become alert. The moment you feel the sensation that it is coming, become alert. Close your eyes and be meditative. Bring your total consciousness to the focus just where you are feeling the sensation of an oncoming sneeze. Just at the beginning, remain alert. The sneeze will disappear, and the energy will be transformed into more alertness. And because in the sneeze the whole body is involved, the whole mechanism is involved -- it is a release mechanism and you are alert at this moment -- there will be no mind, there will be no thought, no meditation.

In a sneeze, thinking stops. That is why so many people like snuff. It unburdens them, their minds feel more relaxed because for a moment thinking stops. Snuff gives them a glimpse of no-thinking. Through snuff, when the sneeze comes, they are not minds, they become bodies. The head disappears for a single moment, but it feels good.

If you become habituated to snuff, it is very difficult to leave it. It is more penetrating a habit than smoking; smoking is nothing before it. It penetrates more deeply, because smoking is conscious and sneezing is unconscious. To leave snuff is more difficult than to leave smoking. And smoking can be changed, substitutes can be found -- but there is no substitute for snuff, because, really, sneezing is a very unique phenomenon in the body.

The only other thing that can be compared and which has been compared is the sex act. Those who think in terms of physiology, they say that the sex act is just sneezing through the sex organ -- and the similarity is there. It is not one hundred percent right because much more is involved in sex, greater things are involved in it. But in the beginning, just in the beginning, the similarity is there.

Something is thrown out from the nose and you feel relieved, and something is thrown out from the sex organ and you feel relieved. And both are non-voluntary. You cannot move into sex with will. If you try, you will be a failure -- particularly men, because man's sex organ has to do something. It is active. You cannot "will" its act, and if you try, then the more you try, the more it will be impossible. It can happen, but you cannot make it happen. Because of this, in the West sex has become a problem. This half century in the West sex knowledge has developed, and everyone has become so conscious about it that the sex act is becoming more and more impossible.

If you are alert, sex will be impossible. If a man is alert while making love, the more he is alert, the more it will be difficult. He will not be able to get an erection. It cannot be willed, and if you will it you will lose it. The same method, the same technique, can be used in sex. Just in the beginning, when you feel the sensation of an erection just coming to you but it has not yet come, you just feel the vibration, become alert. The vibration will be lost, and the same energy will move into alertness.

Tantra has used this. It has tried in many ways. A beautiful naked woman will be there just as an object for meditation, and the seeker, the meditator, will sit before the nude woman meditating on her body, her form, her proportions, just waiting for the first sensation in his sex center. The moment the sensation is there, be will close his eyes. He will forget the woman. He will close his eyes, and he will become alert of the sensation. Then sex energy is being transformed into alertness.

He is allowed to meditate on the nude woman only up to the point when the sensation is felt. When he has to close his eyes and move to his own sensation and become alert there, the same as is done in sneezing. And why does this flash happen? Because mind is not there. The basic thing is that if the mind is not there and you are alert, you will have SATORI, you will have the first glimpse of SAMADHI.

Thought is the barrier. So if thought disappears in any way, the thing will happen. But thought must disappear; only then is alertness there. Thought can disappear even in sleep; thought can disappear when you go unconscious; thought can disappear when you take some drug. Thought disappears, but then there is no alertness to be aware of the phenomenon that is hidden behind thought. So I define meditation as thoughtless consciousness. You can become thoughtless and unconscious; then there is no meaning. You can be conscious with thought; you are already that.

Bring these two things together -- consciousness and thoughtlessness. When they meet, meditation happens, meditation is born. And you can try with very small things because nothing is really small. Even a sneeze is a cosmic phenomenon. In existence, nothing is great and nothing is small. Even a minute atom can destroy the whole world, and even a sneeze, a very atomic phenomenon, can transform you.

So don't see things as small or big. There is nothing small and nothing big. If you have the penetrating eye, then very small things are vital. Between atoms universes are hidden, and between the universe and an atom you cannot say which is great and which is small. Even a single atom is a universe in itself, and the greatest universe is nothing but atoms. So don't think in terms of great and small. Just try. Don't say, "What can happen in a sneeze? I have been sneezing the whole life, and nothing has happened."

Bring in this technique: JUST "AT THE START OF SNEEZING, DURING FRIGHT...", when you feel afraid and fear enters, just when you feel the fear enter, become aware and fear will disappear. With alertness, there can be no fear. How can, you be afraid when you are alert? You can be afraid only when you lose alertness. Really, a coward is not a person who is afraid; a coward is a person who is asleep, and a brave man is a person who can bring his alertness to the moments of fear. So fear disappears.

In Japan, they train their warriors for alertness. The basic training is for alertness, and everything else is secondary: swordsmanship, archery, everything is secondary. It is known, it is said about the great Zen master Rinzai that he never succeeded -- never succeeded in his archery -- to get to the right point, to the right aim. His arrow always missed; it never reached to the right point. And he is known as one of the greatest archers, so it is asked, "How is Rinzai known as the greatest archer when he never succeeded in any aim and the point was always missed? His arrow never reached to the right point, so how is he known as one of the greatest archers?"

The followers of Rinzai say, "It is not the end, it is the beginning. We are not concerned with the arrow reaching to the end, we are concerned with when the arrow starts its journey. We are concerned with Rinzai. When the arrow leaves the bow, he is alert; that is all. It is not the result, that is irrelevant."

One man was a disciple to Rinzai. He was a great archer himself, he never missed his aim, and then he came to Rinzai to learn, so someone said, "To whom are you going to learn? He is not a master; he is not even a disciple. He is a failure, and you are a great master and you are going to Rinzai to learn?"

So that archer said, "Yes, because I have succeeded technically. But as far as my consciousness is concerned, I am a failure. He is technically a failure, but as far as his consciousness is concerned he is the archer and the master -- because when the arrow leaves he is alert, and that is the point."

This archer who was a master technically had to learn, for years under Rinzai, and every day he was one hundred percent accurate in his aiming. Rinzai would say, "No, you are a failure. Technically the arrow leaves rightly. But you are not there, you are not alert. You loose it in your sleep."

In Japan they have been training their warriors to be alert first, and everything else is secondary. A warrior is a brave man if he can be alert. And it was felt in the Second World War that you cannot match Japan's warriors; their bravery is incomparable. From where does it come? Physically they are not so strong, but in consciousness, in alertness, fear cannot enter. They are not afraid, and whenever fear comes they will try Zen methods.

This sutra says, "DURING FRIGHT, IN ANXIETY..." When you feel anxious, much anxiety-ridden, try it. What is one to do? What do you ordinarily do when anxiety is there? What do you do? You try to solve it. You try alternatives, and you get more and more into it. You will create a bigger mess because anxiety cannot be solved through thinking. It cannot be dissolved through thinking because thinking itself is a sort of anxiety. So you help it to grow more. Through thinking, you cannot come out of it; you will go deeper into it. This technique says don't do anything with anxiety. Just be alert. Just be alert!

I will tell you one old anecdote about Bokuju, another Zen master. He lived alone in a cave, all alone, but during the day, or even in the night, he would sometimes say loudly, "Bokuju" -- his own name, and then he would say, "Yes, I am here." And no one else was there.

Then his disciples used to ask him, "Why are you calling `Bokuju', your own name, and then saying, `Yes sir, I am here'?"

He said, "Whenever I get into thinking, I have to remember to be alert, and so I call my own name, `Bokuju.' The moment I call `Bokuju' and I say, `Yes sir, I am here,' the thinking, the anxiety disappears."

Then, in his last days, for two or three years, he never called "Bokuju," his name, and never had to reply, "Yes sir, I am here."

The disciples asked, "Master, now you never do this."

So he said, "But now Bokuju is always there. He is ALWAYS there, and there is no need. Before I used to miss him. Sometimes the anxiety would take me, cloud me all over, and Bokuju was not there. So I had to remember `Bokuju,' and the anxiety would disappear." Try your name. When you feel deep anxiety, just call Try this. This is a beautiful thing. Try your name. When you feel deep anxiety, just call your name -- "Bokuju" or any name, but your name -- and then reply to it, "Yes sir, I am here," and feel the difference. Anxiety will not be there. At least for a single moment you will have a glimpse beyond the clouds, and that glimpse can be deepened. Once you know that if you become alert anxiety is not there, it disappears; you have come to a deep knowing of your own self and the mechanism of inner working.

"... Above a chasm, flying in battle, in extreme curiosity, at the beginning of hunger, at the end of hunger, be uninterruptedly aware."

You can use anything. Hunger is there, become alert. What to do when you feel hunger is there? What has happened? When you feel hunger you never see it as something happening to you. You become the hunger. You feel, "I am hungry." The real feeling is that "I am hunger," but you are NOT hunger; you are only conscious of it. It is something happening on the boundary. You are the center, you have become aware of it. It is an object. You remain the subject, you are a witness. You are not hunger; hunger is happening to you. You were there when hunger was not and you will be there when hunger will have gone. So hunger is an accident; it happens to you.

Become alert, then you will not be identified with it. If you feel hunger, become alert that hunger is there. Look at it, encounter it, face it. What will happen? The more you become alert, the farther away will the hunger be felt; the less alert, the nearer. If you are not alert, exactly at the center you will feel, "I am hunger." If you become alert, hunger is thrown away. Hunger is there, you are here. Hunger is an object, you are a witness.

Fasting has been used only because of this, for this technique. Fasting in itself is of no use. If you are not doing this technique with the hunger, fasting is foolish -- just foolish, of no use. Mahavira used fasting with this technique, and Jainas have been simply using fasting without this technique. Then it is foolish. You are just destructive, and it cannot be of any help. You can be hungry for months and identified with hunger, feeling that "I am hungry." It is useless, harmful. There is no need to go on a fast. Every day you can feel it, but there are problems. That is why fasting may be helpful.

Ordinarily, we stuff ourselves with food before we feel hunger. In the modern world there is no need to feel hunger. You have a time fixed for your meals, and you take them. You never ask whether the body is feeling hungry or not; at a fixed hour you take your meals. Hunger is not felt. You may say, "No, when it is one o'clock I feel hungry." That may be a false hunger; you feel it because it is one o'clock, your time. Someday you can play a trick. Tell your wife or your husband to change the clock. It is twelve, and the clock will show that it is one. You will feel hunger. Or it is already one hour fast: it is two exactly, and the clock shows one; then you will feel hunger. You look at the clock, and you feel hunger. This is artificial, false, it is not real.

So fasting may be helpful. If you fast, then for two or three days you will feel a false hunger. Only after the third or fourth day will real hunger be felt; your body will demand, not the mind. When mind demands, it is false. When the body demands, it is real. And when it is real and you become alert, you become totally different from your body. Hunger is a body phenomenon. Once you can feel that hunger is different from you and you are a witness to it, you have transcended the body.

But you can use anything, these are just examples. This technique can be used in many ways; you can devise your own way. But insist on one thing: if you are trying with hunger, then go on at least for three months with hunger. Then only will you be disidentified with your body someday. Don't change the device every day because a deepening is needed with any technique.

So choose anything for three months. Stick to it, apply the technique, go on working with it, and always remember to be aware in the beginning. In the middle it will be very difficult, because once the identity is felt that YOU are hungry, you cannot change it. You can get changed mentally. You can say, "No, I am not hunger, I am a witness." That is false. This is the mind talking, this is not a feeling experience. Just try to be aware in the beginning, and, remember, you are not to say that "I am not hunger." This is how mind can deceive. You can say, "The hunger is there, but I am not hunger. I am not body, I am the BRAHMAN." You are not to say anything. Whatsoever you say will be false because you are false.

This chanting that "I am not the body" will not help. You go on saying "I am not the body" because you know that you are body. If you really know that you are not the body, what is the use of saying "I am not the body"? There is no use, it will look stupid. Be aware, and then the feeling that "I am not the body" will be there. This will not be a thought, this will be a feeling. This will not be felt in the head, this will be felt all over your being. You will feel the distance -- that the body is far away, that "I am absolutely different." And there is not even a possibility of mixing both. You cannot. The body is the body; it is matter, and you are consciousness. They can live together, but they never mix. They cannot become mixed.

The second technique:

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LISTEN TO OSHO SPEAK ON THIS MEDITATION

"THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US. IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE.

This is one of the basic messages of tantra. It is very difficult to conceive of it because it is absolutely non-ethical, non-moral. I will not say immoral because tantra is not concerned with morality or immorality. Tantra says it is irrelevant. This message is to help you to grow beyond purity and impurity, beyond division really, beyond dichotomy, duality. Tantra says, existence is non-dual, it is one, and all distinctions are man-created -- all distinctions, remember. Distinctions as such are man-created. Good-bad, pure-impure, moral-immoral, virtue-sin: all these concepts are man-created. They are attitudes of man; they are not real. What is impure and what is pure? It depends on your interpretation. What is immoral and what is moral? It depends on your interpretation.

Nietzsche has said somewhere that all morality is interpretation. So something can be moral in this country and immoral in the neighboring country, something can be moral to a Mohammedan and immoral to a Hindu, moral to a Christian and immoral to a Jaina. Or something can even be moral to the older generation and immoral to the younger generation. It depends; it is an attitude. Basically, it is a fiction. The fact is simply the fact. The naked fact is simply the fact; it is neither moral nor immoral, pure nor impure.

Think of the earth without human beings. Then what will be pure and what will be impure? Everything will be -- simply "be." Nothing will be pure and nothing will be impure; nothing will be good and nothing will be bad. With man, mind comes in. Mind divides. It says "this" is good and "that" is bad. This division not only creates a division in the world; this division creates a division in the divider also. If you divide, you are also divided in that division, and you cannot transcend your inner division unless you forget outer divisions. Whatsoever you do to the world, you have done to yourself also.

Naropa, one of the greatest masters of Siddha Yoga, says, "An inch division, and hell and heaven are set apart" -- an inch division! But we go on dividing; we go on labeling, condemning, justifying. Look at the bare fact of existence and don't label it. Only then can tantra's teachings be understood. Don't say good or bad; don't bring your mind to the fact. The moment you bring your mind to the fact, you have created a fiction. Now it is not a fact, it is not a reality: it is your projection. This sutra says, "THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US. IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE."

"THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US:" Tantra says, "What is very pure for other teachings, a virtue, is a sin for us, because their concept of purity divides. For them something becomes impure."

If you call a man a saint, you have created the sinner. Now you will have to condemn someone somewhere because the saint cannot exist without the sinner. And look now at the absurdity of our efforts: we go on trying to destroy sinners, and we conceive of and hope for a world where there will be no sinners -- only saints. This is nonsense because saints cannot exist without sinners. They are the other aspect of the same coin. You cannot destroy one aspect of the coin, they both will exist. Sinners and saints are both part and parcel of one thing. If you destroy the sinners, saints will disappear from the world. But don't be afraid; let them disappear because they have not proved to be of any worth.

Sinners and saints are both part of one interpretation, of one attitude towards the world, in which one says, "This is good and that is bad." And you cannot say that "This is good" unless you say that "That is bad." The bad is needed to define the good. So the good depends on the bad, your virtue depends on sin, and your saints are impossible; they cannot exist without the sinners. So they must be grateful to the sinners; they cannot exist without them. In relation to them, in comparison to them, howsoever much they condemn the sinners, they are part and parcel of the same phenomenon. Sinners can disappear from the world only when saints disappear -- not before that; and sin will not be there when there is no concept of virtue.

Tantra says that the fact is real and the interpretation is unreal. Don't interpret. "IN REALITY, KNOW NOTHING AS PURE OR IMPURE." Why? Because purity and impurity are OUR attitudes imposed on reality. Try this. This technique is arduous, not simple -- because we are so much oriented towards dual thinking, based, rooted in dual thinking, that we are not even aware of our condemnations and justifications. If someone starts smoking here, you may not have consciously felt anything, but you have condemned. Deep down within you, you have condemned. Your look may have condemned or no look may have condemned. You may not have looked at the person, and you have condemned.

This is going to be difficult because the habit has become so deep-rooted. You go on -- just by your gestures, your sitting, your standing -- you go on condemning, justifying, not even aware of what you are doing. When you smile at a person or when you don't smile at a person, when you look at someone or you don't look, you just ignore someone, what are you doing? You are imposing your attitudes. You say something is beautiful; then you will have to condemn something as ugly. And this dual attitude is simultaneously dividing you, so within you there will be two persons.

If you say that someone is angry and anger is bad, what will you do when you will feel angry? You will say that this is bad, then there will be problems because you say that "This is bad: this anger in me is bad." Then you have started to divide yourself into two persons -- a bad person, an evil person within, and a good person, a saint. Of course, you are bound to be identified with the saint within, so the devil, Satan, the evil within you is to be condemned. You are divided in two. Now there will be a constant fight, a conflict. Now you cannot be an individual; you will be a crowd, a house divided against itself. Now there will be no peace, no silence. You will feel only tensions and anguish. This is what you are feeling, but you don't know why.

A divided person cannot be at peace. How can he be? Where to put your devil? You have to destroy it, and it is you; you cannot destroy it. You are not two. The reality is one, but because of your divisive attitude you have divided the outer reality. Now the inner is also divided accordingly -- so everyone is fighting with himself. It is as if you are fighting against one hand -- fighting the right hand with the left hand -- and the energy is one. In my right hand and left hand, I am; I am flowing in both. But I can oppose one against the other, my right hand against my left hand, and I can create a conflict, a bogus fight. Sometimes I can deceive myself that the right hand has won, and now the left is down. But this is a deception, because I know that it is me in both and any moment I can put the left up and the right down. I am in both; both the hands are mine.

So howsoever much you think you have put your saint above and crushed the devil down, know that at any moment you can change the positions, and the saint will be down and the devil will be up. That creates fear, insecurity, because you know that nothing is certain. You know you are so loving this moment and you have crushed your hatred down, but you are afraid because at any moment the hatred can come up and the love will be just crushed down. And it can happen at any moment because you are within both.

Tantra says don't divide, be undivided; only then will you be victorious. How to be undivided? You don't condemn, don't say "this" is good and "that" is bad. Just withdraw all conceptions of purity and impurity. Look at the world, but don't say what it is. Be ignorant, don't be too much wise. Don't label, remain silent, non-condemnatory, non-justifying. If you can remain silent about the world, by and by this silence will penetrate within. And if the division is not there outwardly, the division will disappear from the inner consciousness, because both CAN exist together.

But this is dangerous for society. That is why tantra was suppressed. This is dangerous! Nothing is immoral, nothing is moral; nothing is pure, nothing is impure. Things are as they are. A real tantric will not say that a thief is bad; he will say that he is a thief; that is all. And by using the word `thief' there is no condemnation in his mind. This "thief" is just a fact, not a condemnation. If someone says that "Here is a man who is a great saint," he will say, "Okay! He is a saint." But there is no evaluation in it. He will not say, "He is good", he will say, "Okay! He is a saint and that man is a thief," just like this is a rose and that is not a rose, this tree is high and that tree is low, night is dark and day is light -- but without comparison.

But this is dangerous. Society cannot exist without condemning one thing and without appreciating the other -- society cannot exist! Society exists on duality. That is why tantra was suppressed. It was thought to be anti-social, but it is not. It is not! But that very attitude of non-duality is transcendental. It is not anti-society, it is transcendental; it is beyond society.

Try this. Just move in the world without any values, just with natural facts: someone is this, someone is that. And then, by and by, you will feel a non-division within yourself. Your polarities will be coming together, your "bad" and your "good" will be coming together. They will merge into one, and you will become one unity. There will be nothing as pure, nothing as impure. Know the reality.

"THE PURITY OF OTHER TEACHINGS IS AN IMPURITY TO US:" Tantra says that "What is basic for others is poisonous for us." For example, there are teachings which are based on non-violence. They say violence is bad, non-violence is good. Tantra says that non-violence is non-violence, violence is violence; nothing is good and nothing is bad.

There are teachings which are based on celibacy -- BRAHMACHARYA. They say that BRAHMACHARYA is good, sex is bad. Tantra says sex is sex, BRAHMACHARYA is BRAHMACHARYA. One is a BRAHMACHARI and one is not. But these are simple facts, no values are attached to them. And tantra will never say that BRAHMACHARYA is good -- the celibate is good -- and that the one who is in sex is bad. Tantra will not say that. Tantra accepts things as they are. And why? Just to create a unity within you.

This is a technique to create a unity within you, to have a total existence within, undivided, non-conflicting, not opposed. Only then is silence possible. One who is trying to move to some place against something can never be at peace. How can he be? And one who is divided within himself, fighting with himself, how can he win? It is impossible. You are both, so who is going to win? No one is going to win, and you will be at loss because you will dissipate your energy in fighting unnecessarily. This is a technique to create a unity in yourself. Allow valleys to disappear; don't judge.

Jesus says somewhere, "Judge ye not so that ye may not be judged." But this was impossible for the Jews to understand, because the whole Jewish conception is morality oriented: "This is good and that is not good." Jesus in his teaching, "Judge ye not," is talking in terms of tantra. If he was murdered, crucified, it is because of this. He had a tantra attitude -- "Judge ye not."

So don't say that a prostitute is bad -- who knows? and don't say that a puritan is good. Who knows? And ultimately they both are part of one game. They are based on each other -- on a mutual existence. So Jesus says, "Judge ye not," and this is what this sutra means: "Judge ye not so that ye may not be judged."