Yoga and the Mind

Yoga and the Mind

By Desmond Yeoh

Ceramic Products

Sujata brought her 3-month old baby daughter to her beloved Master at his ashram for blessings.

The Master was delighted to see Sujata and her baby daughter. With a booming voice, he said, “Sujata! I am so glad to see you!”

“Guruji, I have been looking forward to visit you for months… I brought my daughter for you blessings”.

The Master smiled and had a cheeky look, “What do you wish for me to bless her with”.

Sujata was taken by surprise. She did not expect that question. She was just expecting the Master to place his hands on the baby and grant his blessing. The Master sensing that Sujata is thinking hard about the question, closed his eyes and started to meditate.

The first thing that came to Sujata’s mind was wealth. But can wealth bring happiness? No, it will just fill her baby with so much distraction that she will be too occupied to seek God. She will be suffering and will not even be aware of it. Sujata herself is happy with just a comfortable middle-class life. More wealth will not add to her happiness.

What about intelligence, power and fame? Again she saw that these will not bring happiness. Power and fame will only attract false friends to her daughter and some of them will even plot her downfall. Everyone will want to meet with her and she will not have time to herself. She will not be able to go wherever and whenever she pleases.

Many things crossed Sujata’s mind but she could not see anything that can guarantee lasting happiness. She began to feel frustrated but suddenly, Osho’s teachings came to the forefront of her mind: ‘One can enter Yoga only when one is totally frustrated with one’s own mind’. These words did not carry any meaning to her when she first heard it but now it became clear.

Osho’s teaching all came back to her as if he was seated in front of her and talking to her:

“We live in a deep illusion — the illusion of hope, of future, of tomorrow. As man is, man cannot exist without self-deceptions. Nietzsche says somewhere that man cannot live with the truth: he needs dreams, he needs illusions, he needs lies to exist!

The present is almost always a hell. You can prolong it only because of the hope that you have projected into the future. You can live today because of the tomorrow. You are hoping something is going to happen tomorrow — some doors of paradise will open tomorrow. They never open today, and when tomorrow comes, it will not come as a tomorrow. It will come as today, but by the time your mind has moved again. You go on moving ahead of you: this is what dreaming means. You are not one with the real, that which is nearby, that which is here and now, you are somewhere else — moving ahead, jumping ahead.

And that tomorrow, that future, you have named it in so many ways. People call it heaven, some people call it moksha, but it is always in the future. Somebody is thinking in terms of wealth, but that wealth is going to be in the future. And somebody is thinking in terms of paradise, and that paradise is going to be after you are dead — far away into the future. You waste your present for that which is not: this is what dreaming means. You cannot be here and now. That seems to be arduous, to be just in the moment.

You can be in the past because again that is dreaming — memories, remembrance of things which are no more or you can be in the future, which is a projection, which is again creating something out of the past. The future is nothing but past projected again — more colourful, more beautiful, more pleasant, but it is the past which has been refined.

This mind cannot enter on the path of yoga because yoga means a methodology to reveal the truth. Yoga is a method to come to a non-dreaming mind. Yoga is the science to be in the here and now. Yoga means now you are ready not to move into the future. Yoga means you are ready now not to hope, not to jump ahead of your being. Yoga means to encounter the reality as it is.

So one can enter yoga, or the path of yoga, only when he is totally frustrated with his own mind as it is. If you are still hoping that you can gain something through your mind, yoga is not for you. A total frustration is needed — the revelation that this mind which projects is futile, the mind that hopes is nonsense, it leads nowhere. It simply closes your eyes; it intoxicates you; it never allows reality to be revealed to you. It protects you against reality.

Become totally hopeless — no future, no hope. This is difficult. One needs courage to face the real. But such a moment comes to everyone, some time or other. A moment comes to every human being when he feels total hopelessness. Absolute meaninglessness happens to him. When he becomes aware that whatsoever he is doing is useless, wheresoever he is going, he is going nowhere, all life is meaningless — suddenly hopes drop, future drops, and for the first time you are in tune with the present; for the first time you are face to face with reality.

Yoga is an inward turning. It is a total about-turn. When you are not moving into the future, not moving toward the past, then you start moving within yourself — because your being is here and now, it is not in the future. You are present here and now, you can enter this reality. But then mind has to be here.

Start understanding your desires. Through understanding, many of them simply disappear because they are simply stupid. They have not led you anywhere except into more and more frustration. They have opened doors for hell and nothing else — more anguish, more anxiety, more pain and agony. Just look at them; they will disappear. First, desires which have led you into frustration will disappear, and then you will attain to a more keen perspective. Then you will see that desires which you thought will lead you into pleasure, have not really led you into pleasure — because whatsoever seems to be pleasant finally, eventually, turns sour and bitter.

So pleasure seems to be a trick of desire: to trick you into pain. First the painful will drop, and then you will be able to see that the pleasure is illusory, unreal, a dream. Ninety-nine point nine per cent of desires will disappear through understanding, and then the final happens. It happens simultaneously: a hundred per cent of desires disappear, and the original mind arises in a single moment, not as cause and effect, but simultaneous, together”.

Sujata thought to herself, “Is the mind something bad?” Again, the distant memory Osho’s words came back to her:

“You needed a mind to survive, and every society tries to force every child because all children, as born, are wild. They have to be tamed, they have to be framed. They come frameless. It will be difficult for them to survive and live in a world where much struggle goes on, where survival is a continuous problem. They have to become efficient in certain ways to protect themselves. They have to be armoured, protected, sealed against the inimical forces in the world. They have to be taught to behave like others; they have to be taught to be imitative. The mechanical mind is created through imitation. The original mind is created by dropping imitation.

There is no way to avoid the mind, but there is a way to come out of it. It has to be accepted as a necessary evil of being born in a society, of being born out of parents. It is a necessary evil to be tolerated. Of course, make it as loose as possible, that’s all. Make it as liquid as possible, that’s all. A good society is the society which gives you a mind, and yet keeps you alert that one day this mind has to be dropped — This is not any ultimate value; it has to be gone through but gone beyond also. It has to be transcended. A mind has to be given, but there is no need to give an identity with the mind. If the identity remains a little relaxed, when people are grown up they will be able to come out of it more easily, with less pain, less agony, less effort”.

Sujata shook herself out from her reverie. She saw that she was looking for mental projections of the future and that is why she could not find the right answer. She asked herself, what will be lasting? What will not end with death? What always exist when one is conscious of the present moment? Then the answer came to her….

The Master opened his eyes, “Have you decided?”

Sujata laughed, “Guruji, you turn everything into a lesson! Yes, I have decided. I wish that whenever my little Sanchita faces a problem, she will always have friends or mentors to give her wise counsel”.

The Master smiled, “Hmmm…why do you wish for that?”

“Nothing is more valuable than wisdom and awareness. Problems give us the opportunity to gain wisdom. With wisdom, we are more able to remain aware of the present moment because it enables us to remain calm. This awareness in turn allows us to observe ourselves and others to gain further wisdom or insights. Wisdom and awareness moves in a cycle and reinforces each other until we achieve self-realisation. That is why I wish that she will always have wise counsel so that her wisdom continues to grow and she becomes more and more conscious of the present moment. The wisdom and awareness that she gains will stay with her even after death”.

Sujata paused and continued, “I don’t want Sanchita to chase after wealth, power, fame or any other illusory goals which she thinks can bring her happiness. We get caught up with the imaginary future happiness at the expense of our happiness in the present moment. This is a habit shared by humanity from which very few have transcended. I think most of us know that these things will not guarantee happiness but we cannot see any other option…” Sujata giggled and then sighed,  “I, for one, am still caught up with that habit”.

A realisation sudden dawned on Sujata and a wide smile crossed her face, “Guruji, all the spiritual techniques you taught me….they were meant to help me find happiness NOW! All this talk about enlightenment and self-realisation is just to appeal to my habit of looking forward to an imaginary future happiness!”

The Master laughed heartily, “Well said! Well said!”

He smiled and touched the baby’s cheeks lovingly, “You know Sujata, your wish has already been fulfilled the day she was born”.

Sujata’s eyes narrowed, “What do you mean?”

“She has you as her mother…There is no one more fitted to give her wise counsel”.

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