The Heart of Yoga. Osho

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СКАЧАТЬ you; he is further beyond you than Patanjali is. At least you can understand this much: that Patanjali seems to be difficult. Now follow me closely and if something is difficult, you can tackle it – however difficult, you can tackle it. More hard effort is needed, but that can be done.

      Heraclitus is not easy, he is simply impossible. Patanjali is difficult. You can understand the difficult; you can do something. You can bring your will, effort, and your whole energy to it and it can be solved. The difficult can be made easy, and more subtle methods can be found. But what will you do with the impossible? It cannot be made easy, but you can deceive yourself. You can say that there is nothing in it, that it is a kindergarten teaching and you are so grown-up, that it is for children, not for you.

      This is a trick of the mind to avoid the impossible because you know that you will not be able to tackle it. So the easiest course is simply to say, “It is not for me, it is below me – a kindergarten teaching.” And you are a grown-up mature person. You need a university, you don’t need a kindergarten. Patanjali suits you. He looks very difficult, but he can be solved. The impossible cannot be solved.

      If you want to understand Heraclitus, there is no way except by dropping your mind completely. If you want to understand Patanjali, there is a gradual way. He gives you steps – what to do – but remember, finally, eventually, he will also say to you, “Drop the mind.” What Heraclitus says in the beginning, he will say in the end. But you can be fooled the whole way on the path. In the end he is going to say the same thing, but he will still be understandable because he makes grades; the jump doesn’t look like a jump when you have steps.

      This is the situation: Heraclitus just brings you to an abyss and says, “Jump!” You look down, your mind simply cannot comprehend what he is saying. It looks suicidal. There are no steps. You ask, “How?” and he says, “There is no ‘how,’ you simply jump!” What is the “how”? And because there are no steps, “how” cannot be explained. You simply jump! He says, “If you are ready I can push you, but there are no methods.” Is there any method in taking a jump? A jump is sudden; methods exist when a thing, a process is gradual. Finding it impossible, you make an about-turn. To console yourself that you are not such a weakling you say that it is for children – it is not difficult enough. It is not for you.

      Patanjali brings you to the same abyss, but he has made steps. He says, “Take one step at a time.” It appeals – you can understand it. The mathematics is simple: take one step, then another. There is no jump. But remember, sooner or later he will bring you to the point from where you have to jump. He has created steps, but they don’t lead to the bottom, just to the middle – and the bottom is so far away that you can exactly say that it is a bottomless abyss.

      So the amount of steps you take makes no difference. The abyss remains the same. He will lead you along for ninety-nine steps, and you will be very happy – as if you have covered the abyss and now the bottom has come nearer. No, the bottom remains as far away as before. The ninety-nine steps are just to befool your mind, just to give you a “how,” a technique. At the hundredth step he says, “Jump!” The abyss remains the same, the span the same.

      There is no difference, because the abyss is infinite, God is infinite. How can you meet him gradually? But these ninety-nine steps will befool you. Patanjali is more clever. Heraclitus is innocent, he simply says to you, “This is the thing; here is the abyss. Jump!” He does not persuade you, and he does not seduce you, he simply says, “This is the fact. If you want to jump, jump; if you don’t want to jump, go away.” He knows that to make steps is useless because finally one has to take the jump. But I think it will be good for you to follow Patanjali because by and by, he seduces you. At least you can take one step and the second becomes easier, then the third. When you have taken ninety-nine steps, it will be difficult to go back because it will be absolutely against your ego – the whole world will laugh. You have become such a great sage, and you are coming back to the world? You were such a mahayogi – a great yogi – why are you coming back? Now you are caught, and you cannot go back.

      Heraclitus is simple, innocent. His teaching is not that of a kindergarten, but he is a child – that’s right – innocent like a child, wise also like a child. Patanjali is cunning, clever. He will suit you because you need somebody who can lead you in a cunning way to a point from where you cannot go back – it becomes simply impossible.

      Gurdjieff used to say that there are two types of masters: one innocent and simple; another sly and cunning. He himself said, “I belong to the second category.” Patanjali is the source of all sly masters. They lead you to the rose garden and suddenly, the abyss. You are caught in such a grip of your own making that you cannot go back. You meditated, renounced the world, wife and children; for years you were doing postures, meditating, and you created such an aura around you that people worshipped you. Millions of people looked to you as a god – and now comes the abyss. Now, just to save your prestige, you have to jump. Where to go? Now you cannot go anywhere.

      Buddha is simple; Patanjali is sly. All science is cunning. This has to be understood, and remember, I am not saying it in any derogatory sense; I am not condemning it. All science is cunning!

      It is said that a follower of Lao Tzu – an old farmer – was drawing water from a well. Instead of using bullocks or horses, the old man and his son were working like bullocks and carrying the water out of the well, perspiring, breathing hard. It was difficult.

      A follower of Confucius was passing by. He said to the old man, “Haven’t you heard? This is very primitive. Why are you wasting your breath? Now bullocks and horses can be used. Haven’t you heard that in the towns and cities, nobody is working the way you are working now? It is very primitive. Science has progressed fast.”

      The old man replied, “Wait, don’t talk so loudly. When my son has gone, I will reply.” When the son had gone to do some work, he said, “Now, you are a dangerous person. If my son ever hears about this, he will immediately say, ‘Okay! Then I don’t want to pull this. I can’t do this work of a bullock any longer. A bullock is needed.’”

      The disciple of Confucius said, “What is wrong in that?”

      The old man said, “Everything is wrong in it because it is very cunning. It is deceiving the bullock, it is deceiving the horse. And one thing leads to another. If this boy of mine who is young and not wise discovers that he can be cunning with animals, then he will wonder why he cannot be cunning with man. Once he knows that he can exploit through cunningness, I don’t know where he will stop. Please leave, and never come back again on this road. Don’t bring such cunning things to this village. We are happy.”

      Lao Tzu is against science. He says science is cunning. It is deceiving nature, exploiting nature – and through cunning ways, forcing nature. The more scientific a man becomes, the more cunning he becomes; it has to be so. An innocent man cannot be scientific, it is difficult. But man has become cunning and clever, and Patanjali, knowing well that to be scientific is to be cunning, also knows that man can only be brought back to nature through a new device, a new cunningness.

      Yoga is the science of the inner being. Because you are not innocent, you have to be brought back to nature through a cunning way. If you are innocent, no means are needed, no methods are needed. A simple understanding, a childlike understanding and you will be transformed. But you are not. That’s why you feel that Patanjali seems to be very great. It is because of your head oriented mind and your cunningness.

      The second thing to remember is that he appears difficult. You think Heraclitus is simple? Patanjali appears difficult; that too appeals to the ego. The ego always wants to do something which is difficult because against the difficult you feel you are someone. If something is very simple, how can the ego feed off it?

      People come to me and say, “Sometimes you teach СКАЧАТЬ