Tag Archives: vitality

Only the mind that has emptied itself of the known is creative

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If you are hearing for the first time this statement that you must be free of thought, you may say, ” Poor chap, he is crazy.” But if you have really listened, not only this time but for the many years during which some of you have perhaps read all about it, you will know that what is being said has an an extraordinary vitality, a penetrating truth. Only the mind that has emptied itself of the known is creative. That is creation. What it creates has nothing to do with it. Freedom from the known is the state of a mind that is in creation. How can a mind that is in creation be concerned with itself? Therefore, to understand that state of mind, you have to know yourself, you have to observe the process of your thinking – observe it, not to alter it, not to change it, but just observe it as you see yourself in a mirror. When there is freedom, then you can use knowledge and it will not destroy humanity. But when there is no freedom and you make use of knowledge, you create misery for everybody, whether you are in Russia, in America, in China or anywhere else. I call that mind serious that is aware of the conflict of the known and is not caught in it, not trying to modify it, to improve the known; for on that path there is no end to sorrow and misery. – J. Krishnamurti On Freedom The Collected Works Vol. V

PRANA CONTROL

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Prana is expended by thinking, willing, acting, moving, talking, writing, etc. A healthy and strong man has an abundance of prana, nerve force, vitality. Prana is supplied in water, in food, in air and in solar energy. Excess prana is stored in the brain and nerve centres. Seminal energy, when sublimated or transformed, supplies an abundance of prana to the system. It is stored in the brain in the form of `ojas’.

The yogi stores abundant prana by regular practice of pranayama. The yogi who has stored up a large supply of prana radiates strength and vitality. Those who come in close contact with him imbibe prana from him and get strength, vigour, vitality and exhilaration of spirits. Just as water flows from one vessel to another, prana flows, like a steady current, from a developed yogi to a weaker person. This may actually be seen by one who has developed his inner, psychic vision.

Breath is the external manifestation of gross prana. Correct habits of breathing must be established by the regular practice of pranayama. If you can control prana, you can completely control all the forces of the universe, mental and physical. The yogi can also control the omnipresent, manifesting power out of which all energies take their origin. He can control magnetism, electricity, gravitation, cohesion, nerve-currents, vital forces or thought vibrations. In fact he can control the total forces of the universe, both physical and mental.

A yogi can withdraw prana from any area. That area then becomes numb; it becomes impervious to heat and cold. He can send prana also to any area, and make it oversensitive. He can send prana to the eyes and see distant objects. He can send prana to the nose and can experience divya gandha (supernatural scent). He can send prana to the tongue and can experience supersensuous taste.

There is great significance in the order of the angas (limbs) of raja yoga. Practice of asana (posture) controls rajas (restlessness). Brahmacarya (celibacy) purifies the prana. Pranayama purifies the nadis (astral tubes). Pranayama it steadies the mind and makes it fit for concentration. It removes rajas and tamas (dullness). The practice of yama (self-restraint), niyama (discipline), asana and pranayama are all auxiliaries in the practice of concentration. Pranayama reduces the velocity of the mind. It makes it run and smaller and smaller circles.

- Swami Sivananda

Beyond Violence

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Can I look at you if I am antagonistic to you or if I am thinking what a marvelous person you are? I can see you only when I look at you with a certain care in which neither of these things is involved. Now, can I look at anger in the same way, which means that I am vulnerable to the problem, I do not resist it, I am watching this extraordinary phenomenon without any reaction to it? It is very difficult to look at anger dispassionately because it is a part of me, but that is what I am trying to do. Here I am, a violent human being, whether I am black, brown, white or purple. I am not concerned with whether I have inherited this violence or whether society has produced it in me; all I am concerned with is whether it is at all possible to be free from it. To be free from violence means everything to me. It is more important to me than sex, food, position, for this thing is corrupting me. It is destroying me and destroying the world, and I want to understand it, I want to be beyond it. I feel responsible for all this anger and violence in the world. I feel responsible – it isn’t just a lot of words – and I say to myself, `I can do something only if I am beyond anger myself, beyond violence, beyond nationality’. And this feeling I have that I must understand the violence in myself brings tremendous vitality and passion to find out.

- Freedom from the Known, by: JKrishnamurti

Fear of Change

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I feel alone, which is good, but I am confused. I don’t know what is happening. Things are changing around inside me so sometimes I feel frightened, sometimes there is a floating feeling.

It is natural. Whenever you feel frightened, just relax. Accept the fact that fear is there, but don’t do anything about it. Neglect it; don’t pay any attention to it. Watch the body. There should not be any tension in it. If tension doesn’t exist in the body, the fear disappears automatically. Fear makes a certain tense state in the body, to get rooted in it. If the body is relaxed, fear is bound to disappear. A relaxed person cannot be scared. You cannot frighten a relaxed person. Even if fear comes, it will come like a wave…it will not get roots.

Fear coming and going like waves and you remaining untouched by it, is beautiful. When it gets rooted in you and starts growing in you, then it becomes a growth, a cancerous growth. Then it cripples your inner organism.

So whenever you feel frightened, the one thing to look at is that the body should not be tense. Lie down on the floor and relax — relaxation is the antidote for fear — and it will come and go. You simply watch.

That watching should not be of interest — indifferent. One just accepts that it’s okay. The day is hot; what can you do? The body is perspiring…one has to pass through it. The evening is coming close, and a cool breeze will be blowing…. So just watch it and be relaxed.

Once you have the knack of it, and you will have it soon — that if you are relaxed, fear cannot get attached to you, that it comes and goes and leaves you unscarScenery 01ed — then you have the key. And it will come. It will come because the more we change, the more fear will be coming.

Every change creates fear, because every change is putting you into the unfamiliar, into a strange world. If nothing changes and everything remains static, you will never have any fear. That means, if everything is dead, you will not be afraid.

For example, you are sitting down and there is a rock Lying down. There is no problem: you will look at the rock, and everything is okay. Suddenly the rock starts walking; you become frightened. Aliveness! Movement creates fear; and if everything is unmoving, there is no fear.

That’s why people, afraid of getting into fearful situations, arrange a life of no change. Everything remains the same and a person follows a dead routine, completely oblivious that life is a flux. He remains in an island of his own making in which nothing changes. The same room, the same photographs, the same furniture, the same house, the same habits, the same slippers — everything the same. The same brand of cigarettes; even a different brand you won’t like. Between this, amidst this sameness, one feels at ease.

People live almost in their graves. What you call a convenient and comfortable life is nothing but a subtle grave. So when you start changing, when you start on the journey of inner space, when you become an astronaut of the inner space, and everything is changing so fast, every moment is trembling with fear. So more and more fear has to be faced.

Let it be there. By and by you will start enjoying the changes so much that you will be ready at any cost. Change will give you vitality…more aliveness, zest, energy. Then you will not be like a pond…closed from everywhere, not moving. You will become like a river flowing towards the unknown, and towards the ocean where the river becomes lost.

Osho,
Be Realistic: Plan for a Miracle (No Longer Available at Osho’s Request)
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