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The Mental Body

2/28/2013

The third is known as the
mental body,as the mind-body. This third is constituted of thoughts. But the science of yoga believes
that thoughts are not only thoughts, they are things, they are substantial; they ARE. They have an
existence of their own –a very subtle existence,but there is existence.So whenever a thought goes
into you,you are changing your mind-body;you are giving food to it. And we are so unaware about
this phenomenon, that the mind is being fed every moment, and we are giving it anything, without
anychoice – it is just a confusion.

Whatsoever we go on giving to the mind, we are only concerned that it must remain occupied;
that’s all. Occupation in itself becomes an aim. One should not be unoccupied, so go on reading
anything, go on listening to anything, go on seeing anything, go on... do something with the mind!
So whatsoever is around, we are vulnerable to it. This is fatal, because then you create a very
confused mind-body, very confused – with contradictions, with infinite contradictions. And that’s the
reason there is so much anguish, so much tension, and so much misery inside. That’s the reason
the mind is just mad.

Now psychologists say that really no one is normal, and there are only two types of abnormalities:
one, normal abnormality – another, abnormal abnormality. So there are two types of insane people:
one, who are insane in a socially accepted way – another, who are insane in their individual whims.

But everyone seems to be insane. And it is because we have never thought that our mind-body
requires an inner harmony, an inner music. Thoughts should not be in contradiction; thoughts must
be in a certain harmony,in a certain inner balance; otherwise,you become just a crowd – you are
a crowd!C.J.Jung came to realize that no one has a mind: everyone is many minds;everyone is
polypsychic.We go on talking about”mymind” – never talk about it again!You are just a crowd, not
even a group,but a crowd; and not even a crowd,but a warring crowd – each thought fighting with
someone else.

Gurdjieff used to say that man is just like a palace where there are so many slaves,but the master
has gone out. And he has been out for such a long time that the slaves have now completely
forgotten that there was a master.Now,whenever someone passes by the palace... and it is such
a beautiful palace that everyone wants to enquire to whom it belongs.So any slave who happens
to be on the door says, ”It belongs to me. I am the master.” But another time, the same person
passes by; some one else is on the door,and he asks,”To whom does this palace belong?”He says,
”It belongs to me,I am the master.” So the whole city is confused, ”Who is the master?”Everyone
says, ”I am the master” – every slave.

Gurdjieff used to say, ”Such is the condition of man.Every thought that passes,even on your surface
mind, becomes the master; and the master is either asleep or has gone for a long journey and has
not come back. And it has been so long....”

That’s why we have no will.We cannot have a will if we are just a crowd.You decide to do something,
and the second moment you decide not to do it. And the third moment, neither you are decisive to
doit,nor even not to do it– you are simply indecisive.You decide that you are going to be awake
in the morning at four o’clock; and then at four o’clock you yourself say, ”There is no need.”Another
slave is on the surface of your mind,not you–the same one is not here who decided.In the morning
when you are awake at eight o’clock,you beg into repent,”Why,when I had decided...why couldn’t
I get up? Why? This is the third. And these three will never meet; they have no dialogue– they are
just atomic thoughts. And any atomic thought on the surface becomes the master.You cannot have
the will; really,you cannot have any soul.You are not an individual.

You must know the meaning of the word ”individual.” It means indivisible, that which cannot be
divided. But we exist in division, so we cannot be said to be individuals. We are just a divided
crowd.Yoga is the science of individuation.It is how to create the individual,how to crystallize this
crowd into one, how to create a center which can be the master always, and how to put every slave
in its place.

Then you will need a purification of your mind;you will need a catharsis –a deep catharsisis
needed then.You have to throw out all that is just contradictory;you have to create a harmony in
your thoughts. And don’t allow any thought to come in, because to allow it to be in is easy,but then
to displace it from there is very difficult.

So the first thing is don’t allow inside, thoughts which are not going to help create a harmony, and
then go on searching for, and observing what contradictory thoughts you have. Be the chosen.
Emphasize the thoughts which can create an inner peace and inner silence – then you have a
purified mental body. And with this body-transparent you can look beyond, and you can go to
another body.

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2 - The Vital Body - Pranamaya Kosha

2/24/2013

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The second body is the vital. The vital body is the energy body, the electricity body, or whatsoever
name we like to use for it– the bio-energy body.One thing is certain,it is not material,it is energy.
But energy can be transformed into matter, and matter can be transformed into energy.

Energy means not static, moving.

Energy means vibrant, waves.

Energy means alive.

Instead of just a physical body,a tree has two bodies,the physical and the vital. Some energy current
is running, and sometimes a tree is more alive and sometimes less alive. Now, even scientists are
ready to agree that when someone is near a tree who loves the tree, the tree is more alive. And
when someone is near the tree who doesn’t love it, the tree is sad and less alive.

When the gardener comes in, the whole garden is happy. And it is not just a poetry; now, it is a
scientific fact.It has been a poetry always,but not it is not a poetry at all;it is a scientific fact.When
a person who loves a tree is nearby, the tree is different; and now that difference can be detected by
machines.It is more alive;it feels something more –love is flowing.it is vice versa also.If you can
love trees when you are under them,you are more, because it is reciprocal. When you are near a
flower,you are not just the same. If you have love, then you have an opening, and the flower and
you become deeply related in a communion.

This vital body can be purified, and when it is purified it becomes transparent, and then you can
look beyond.How is it purified?it is purified by PRANAYAMA.It is purified if you can have a deep
breathing system. Less carbon dioxide inside your lungs, and more oxygen inside you – the more
vitality you will create. The vital body can also be purified by pure vibrations. In a crowd you are
creating many impurities for your vital body. That’s why, whenever one comes back from a crowd,
one feels a bit less, less than oneself. Going out of the crowd,far away from man into the nature,
one becomes more alive, because up to now there are no sinner trees, no sinner oceans, no sinner
sky.

But man has divisions,so in a crowd you are sucked!Your energy has been sucked.You fall down
to a lower level. But there are some people –a few, very few – with whom you can feel that you have
been refilled;you have been filled,you have been vitalized.To be in the company,in communion,
and communication with someone with whom your vitalbody is charged, recharged,is what is meant
by SATSANG– is what is meant to be near a master. There need not be any verbal communication;
there need not be any communication at all outwardly.Just to be near and intimate... just to be open
and near,and your vital body increases;it begins to be more –it begins to be richer and purified.

So seek company where your vitalbody becomes transparent. And sometimes it happens that even
a dead master can help; even the place, the bodhi tree, can help. Buddhists have tried to save
this tree continually for twenty-five centuries – that same tree. It is not just infatuation; it is not just superstition; it is not just a memorial, mm? There are subtle reasons, more significant reasons to save this tree; Buddha has been near it once, and the tree has absorbed something of the buddha. The tree has been in a very deep relation with the buddha;the tree has a subtle buddhahood itself.
Now, it vibrates with a different vibration. No other tree on this earth vibrates like that, cannot.
It is a rare tree; it had a rare opportunity: Buddha has walked around it for days and for nights.
Buddha has been lying, sleeping, sitting.... And Buddha could not help loving; and Buddha could
not help being compassionate.And the tree was a constant companion; and the tree has imbibed
the very spirit.And still todayTHIS tree is totally different!When you are around it,and if you are
receptive,in a subtle way you are again in the intimacy of Buddha himself.

So shrines can help, temples can help, mosques can help, SAMADHIS can help. It is better not to
be in the company where you are sucked vitally, even the person is alive. It is better to be in the
company of a dead one,if you can feel vitally recharged.

So remember this, remember this continuously: avoid all that which destroys your vital body. And
much IS destructive. In a cinema hall it is not only the film which destroys you;rather, deeply, the
film is relevant,but the whole crowd destroys you more. And it is a particular crowd – it is not just
a crowd,it is a particular crowd– with a particular type of mind,with particular stone bodies.They
destroy you more.it is not the film really,the film cannot destroy you so much,but the crowd around you.... And continually for three hours,they are in a very rapt attentive mood –it is very dangerous because you become vulnerable. For three hours continually, without blinking the eyes you are vulnerable!Anything can penetrate you,and all around,just bad vibrations –they go inside.

When you are out of a cinema hall,you have a very much lessened vital body, coming out from a
temple,you have something plus.So be aware,not only of the physical body and its purification,be
aware of the second, vital body also.

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The Physical Body & Food .

2/23/2013

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A COLLECTION OF SHEATHS COMPOSED OF NOURISHING FOOD, IN THE FORM OF THE
PHYSICAL BODY IS CALLED THE ANNAMAYA KOSH, OR THE FOOD BODY.
Now, we have to go into an enquiry about the bodies. Man is not one body, man has many bodies –
layers of bodies. The body we know is only the outermost; inside it there is another, and inside that,
another. Rishis have divided these layers into five.

The first is known as the food body, the physical body. Ordinarily,we remain attached to this body.
We are in a deep illusion and are identified with the physical one. This attachment to the physical
body will not allow you to move inside. But why this attachment? – because we don’t know that
there is another; we have never become aware that inside this body there is another. This body is
so solid,so non-transparent,you cannot have any glimpse within. This solidity of the body means
that we have been using foods which make it solid. This body can be made transparent also –just
like a glass body in which you can have a glimpse inside.

The change of food is bound to change the qualities of your physical body.Food is not just energy,
it is also a qualitative thing.Food is not just a fuel,it contributes more than fuel –it gives you either
transparency, or non-transparency. The insight into this phenomenon can mutate, and you can have
altogether a different type of body. And it is not so difficult to change this body, because the body is
a flux,every moment changing itself;it is a process,it is not a static thing. The moment you came
here,you had another body;now the body has changed.It is changing constantly, every moment;it
is riverlike, moving and changing – it is not a static thing.

If you change direction,the body takes a jump;only the direction has to be changed.One should
become aware, that whatsoever one is eating must be such that it doesn’t make one’s body heavy.
This heaviness is not concerned with weight: sometimes you feel that you weightless as if you
can fly.So the food that can give you the feeling of weightlessness is the right food. The food that
gives you the feeling of being burdened is not theright food. All non-vegetarian foods makeyou
more rooted in the earth;you cannot fly.Vegetarian foods give you wings;you have an inner feeling
that you can just levitate,you can just go out of gravitation.

Food is right if it is non-gravitational. If you can feel non-physical in it,it is good. Really,the body
is felt only when it is heavy; when you have the feeling of heaviness inside, only then you feel the
body.When the body is not heavy with wrong foods,you are bodiless. That’s why when the body is
diseased,when the body is ill,you feel it;when it is healthy,you don’t feel it.You feel your head only
when there is a headache; when there is no headache, there is no head.

So to define health positively,there is only one way:A person who is not feeling his body,is healthy.
The more you feel your body, the more ill you are, because when the body is really healthy, there is
no need to feel it.Only pain is felt.And if you even feel pleasure,it must be a sort of pain.Pleasure
is never felt, because only a disturbance is felt. Silence is never felt really,only noise is felt. And if
you begin to feel silence....

Real, authentic silence is not felt. Really, when you are not feeling any noise, it is silence. When
you are not feeling your body, it means you are not feeling any disturbances;you are healthy. So
the feeling of bodilessness is healthy.Any food that gives you a feeling of bodilessness is good,is
right food. So be discriminative; be consciously discriminative. Don’t eat anything which makes you
more embodied, which makes you more of a body.Go on eliminating all that gives you a bodiness,
and then you will begin to transform your body towards a transparency.

This may look paradoxical,but this is true. When you are really healthy,you are desireless – illness
and unhealthiness create desires.This is one of the basic distinctions between Eastern and Western
thinking. They say, in the West, that to be filled with desire means you are healthy. But their
understanding is very superficial, because desire is a disturbance. Something is still incomplete,
that’s why the desire. Something is incomplete, so there is the urge to fulfill it. But when you are
really healthy you are so fulfilled,you are so complete – the circle is so complete –that there is no
desire.

Desire means you are incomplete.Some where, something is still lacking; somewhere, something is
absent; somewhere,you are feeling a vacuum.

This is what illness means: a vacuum. Health means: so much fulfilled, so much filled there is
no more space. When there is no inner space, there is no desire; so a really healthy person is
desireless,and a really healthy person is bodiless. These both are associated:To be a body is to
be in desire; to be in desire is to be heavy with the body.

Make the body as if it is not.The more absent,the better;the more present,the more you are falling
downwards.You can just become a stone, and many are that – just stones. They only feel awake when

the body demands something; otherwise, they are asleep. When the body demands, they feel awake;

then the demand is fulfilled – they again fall deep into sleep.

One should create a body which has needs but not demands. Needs are natural; demands
become crazy and obsessions. Demands mean you are addicted; the body is the master. All
the austerities were not meant as suicidal methods, they were not masochist – they were really an
inner transformation,they were really a change of power.

When a buddha is fasting,it is not to destroy the body;it is to destroy the demands. Understand it
very clearly: when a buddha is fasting,he is not destroying his body,but he is changing the seat of
power, who the master is. The body must not be the master;otherwise,you cannot go inwards. The
master is outside.How can you go inwards?You are just a slave,and you have to be around the
master. The power seat must be transformed; the body must become a slave. A slave has needs,
but no demands; a slave has needs, but no commandments. The commanding must remain with
the master, and the master must be inside, not outside. The deeper the master, the more is your
freedom. The mastery of the body is really unnatural; it is not healthful – even to the body – because

the body has no consciousness, and goes on demanding; the body has no discrimination and goes on
demanding.It goes on doing things which are not even good for it. Consciousness becomes the
slave; and the material desires, the mechanical ones, becomes the master.

This is the deepest accident, the deepest misery that has happened to humankind. But in a way,
it had to, because we have developed from an animal existence. We have developed from animal
existence. There is no need for a Darwin to prove this–we have known it always. Because an animal
has no consciousness, the body has to be the master. There is no one other to claim the mastery
– the body has to be the master. But when consciousness grows inside, the body goes on, mm? –
Just as a old habit.

You have to change it.Now you are not in the animal world;now you are not animals. Austerity
means that now we declare we have passed the state of animal hood. The suffering that one goes
through in austerity is just a birth pain–nothing else.And that suffering is good and healthy,because
out

But it should not be done as a masochist – that’s altogether a different matter, a very diseased thing.
You can make your body suffer and enjoy it. If you are enjoying it, then you are suicidal: then it is
not austerity.Then it is not austerity;then you are really a very impotent, violent mind.You cannot
do violence to others, so you are doing violence to yourself. So you can fast as a masochist, as a
person who enjoys suffering. This is not austerity; this is very abnormal, this is really a mental case.

Out of one hundred, ninety-nine percent of the people who go on austerities are masochists, but
they can deceive;they can deceive others and themselves also.To deceive others is irrelevant,but
to deceive oneself is very dangerous.You can deceive yourself. The point to understand is that one
must not enjoy suffering; one must take it as a necessary measure – that’s another thing. One must
go through it as a cleansing; one must go through it as a purity, as a catharsis, as a change, as a
mutation.One must accept it,but not ENJOY it! That is the thing:If you are enjoying it,then this is
not austerity at all; this is madness.

This is the point to be remembered: never enjoy suffering because that is abnormal. To suffer
suffering is normal,but to accept it as a necessity,as an inevitability,is another thing. Accept it,go
through it; don’t enjoy it.You have to do it, because as you have an animal heritage, one day you
have to assert your humanity. Against the animal heritage you have to assert yourself. You have
to make your body know exactly,NOW,that the body is not the master. And once the body has
know it, the body is adjusted. And really the body is freed from a responsibility it cannot carry. It
CANNOT be the master because it has no consciousness; it has no awareness. It is an automata,
it is a mechanical device.

The body is an automatic device, so it goes on working. If you make it the master it goes on
demanding without any consciousness, without any discrimination, without any intelligence. It has a
mechanical intelligence just like a computer:it goes on demanding...it goes on demanding.It has a
built-in process of how to demand,but without any consciousness: without any consciousness it tells
you when you are hungry,it tells you what to eat,it tells you what to do.But this whole arrangement
is just mechanical – it goes on repeating.

That’s why a person who lives with the body feels life as a boredom, because the body can only
repeat; it can only repeat continuously. So we are just repeating everyday the same thing. It is a
circle, a closed circle: the same things, the same demands, the same desires, the same lusts – the
body goes on repeating and repeating, and in the end one feels just bored,but still one cannot do
anything. Even if you feel bored, again the second day, the body will demand the same thing; and
you will have to supply,because you have never been in command.

This physical layer is the first,is the primary layer –the outermost. If you can be aware that you
are unnecessarily the slave and need not be,then change your body habits consciously.By and by,
change. Change the seat of power;be more in control. And give to the body all that is needed by
it,but never fulfill any addictions. It will be painful in the beginning,but it is a bliss when you have
reached beyond the body and have become the master. And when you are on the throne, it is one
of the deepest blisses possible.

SARVASAR UPANISHAD : Commentary by OSHO

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The Mental Body

2 - The Vital Body - Pranamaya Kosha

The Physical Body & Food .

ArchivesThe 5 Bodies1-The Physical Body 2-The Vital Body3-The Mental BodyCyberchondriasis

Archives
The 5 Bodies
1-The Physical Body
2-The Vital Body
3-The Mental Body

Cyberchondriasis