From ‘In Search of the Miraculous’ by Osho

The mind has a faculty ……. to dream, to create illusions, to project. That is why it is good to proceed in meditation completely unaware of kundalini, of chakras. If you stumble upon them, then it is good…….. do not make any intellectual effort to understand beforehand; no pre-notion is needed. Not only is it not needed, but it is positively harmful.



….it is not necessary to pass through chakras…… one can just bypass them. It is also not necessary that you will feel kundalini before enlightenment. …… kundalini is only felt if you do not have a very clear passage. If the passage is completely clear-cut, then the energy flows but you cannot feel it….. So the person who feels more kundalini is really blocked: there are many blocks in the passage.



Buddha never talked about kundalini…..he never felt it. Mahavira never talked about kundalini.



The space where the life force is stored is like a kunda, a pool near the sex center; that is why the energy is known as kundalini …..it looks like a snake coiled and sleeping.



…with the upward rise of this energy, many things will happen. Please see that you don’t get scared when they happen, because new experiences are frightening.



Look at the trees and the clouds and the seas; they don’t give rise to any thoughts in you.



…if during meditation your body begins to twist and turn in a particular way and you try to prevent it, you will damage the inner state of meditation, and then it cannot make any headway.



If possible, have a separate room for meditation, and use it exclusively for meditation …… It may be a small room, but keep it under lock and key. If any members of your family want to join you, allow them on the condition that they meditate with you and not do anything else….. a separate room for meditation will have many advantages….. it will be charged with meditative energy. And whenever you enter it you will find that it is not an ordinary space.

We continually radiate our energy all around us; we send out rays of our mental energy all around us. And the space around us, even inside a room, absorbs this energy. That is the reason that some places remain holy for thousands of years. If a man like Mahavira, Buddha or Krishna sits in a particular place, it takes on their extraordinary vibe, their unearthly impact, which can last for thousands of years. From such a place one’s entry into the other world, the spiritual world, becomes much easier.



….the kundalini will awaken. And with its awakening, extraordinary experiences will begin to happen, because all the experiences of all your past lives are associated with the kundalini.



Now if the kundalini, as you are breathing and asking “Who am I?” reaches the spot where your experiences as a tree are located, you will suddenly come to know exactly what this tree experienced when it was raining. You will really feel that it is raining. And then you will be frightened, very frightened…… And only then you will understand why sometimes you feel like an ocean and sometimes like the winds …. As a result, your aesthetic capacity – and many other capacities, of which you had no idea whatsoever – will begin to unfold.



……ways of hammering the kundalini….the way of shaktipat, or transmission of energy. ….it needs a medium…. The other person does not have to do anything, just his presence is enough. He becomes a vehicle, a catalytic agent.



Shaktipat works like a flash of lightning. A flash of lightning does not light your path….it only gives you a flash, a glimpse of the road ahead and its surroundings. But this single glimpse is very precious; now your feet are firm, now your will is strong, now your resolve to reach your destination is hardened. You have seen the road and you know it is there, and that you are not wandering aimlessly…… So the effect of shaktipat is indirect, and therefore you need it again and again



For shaktipat to happen, it is essential that the seeker is in the right state to receive it, and that the medium is a right medium….this is a matter of technique.

Grace comes uninvited….. You cannot ask for it, you cannot order it. …. It is an event that happens once in a great while, and happens on its own.



Firstly, I will say only as much publicly as can be recorded without any risk…. And what needs to be treated and preserved as secret teachings will never be disclosed to the public. I will transmit them to deserving individuals who will keep them in their memory.



There are techniques which awaken the energy instantly and suddenly; they are called the techniques of sudden enlightenment. And there is always some inherent danger in practicing such techniques, because the onrush of energy may be too much for you to bear; you may not be prepared for it.



….two kinds of religions evolved throughout the world – one based on meditation and the other based on prayer. Religions committed to prayer are those that experience God to be above, in the skies….. On the other hand, there are religions which believe that we have to raise something up from within ourselves, that there is something asleep at our roots, and it can be raised only if we do something about it…… over time, religions of prayer have been losing ground and dying out. There is no future for them….. And religions of meditation are growing daily, they have an enormous future ahead.



Oxygen is a great help in awakening the kundalini. This is why we have always given such great importance to morning meditation. The reason is that in the morning, even a small breath carries a large amount of oxygen with it. The earth happens to be in a very unique and extraordinary state for a full hour after sunrise, and to take advantage of this situation, morning has been chosen all over the world as the finest time for meditation.

The more you hammer the kundalini with your fast and intense breathing, the more quickly it will awaken.



The cave is used because it provides many kinds of protection to the seeker. It not only protects him from the din and bustle of the outside world; it also protects him from various vibrations that are harmful to yoga. A cave of a particular kind of stone is very significant. Particular stones, like marble, prevent many vibrations from entering the cave. That is why marble has been widely used in the construction of temples…. There are stones which absorb special kinds of vibrations, preventing them entering the temples. Othe stones deflect or repel these vibrations. And there are stones that attract vibrations conducive to spiritual discipline.



If a number of seekers have used a particular cave for their sadhana, that cave acquires extraordinary significance, and new seekers can benefit a lot from it. So some caves have been used continuously for thousands of years.



In Tibet, dead bodies of great bodhisattvas, highly advanced souls, some of which are thousands of years old, have been preserved in very deep and secret caves.



As you go deeper into meditation your breathing becomes slower and slower; as if it has rarefied. It is because you don’t need any oxygen at that depth of meditation. …. As long as the kundalini is not awake, you will have to use the key of breathing with all your strength. But as soon as it is awakened, breathing becomes unnecessary.



For Samadhi, breath has no meaning …… Samadhi is where everything comes to a stop.

So when a seeker enters deeper states of meditation, every precaution and care should be taken to keep him alive. Many people are needed to help him through that critical hour, otherwise he may disappear, he may be lost in that immensity known as Samadhi. … Ramakrishna often reached this state. For days he used to be in Samadhi …. and it became difficult for him to come back to life.



There are ancient temples and caves which have hardly any doors and windows, they have no ventilation at all……This is because those who lived in them did not need much air. In fact, they did not want much air to enter their sanctuaries, because the vibrations of the outside world carried in the air could have destroyed the astral vibrations of the cave…..



And once in a great while, in a state of extreme weightlessness, the body actually levitates.



When your mind senses imminent danger and panics, be aware that it is the most decisive and precious moment of meditation – the moment of fulfillment ….. It is precisely the moment when you have to bring all your energy into action. If you miss that moment you may miss for years.



So if by chance a person suddenly happens to be in a state in which grace can suddenly descend on him or a sudden situation is created in which shaktipat happens to him without a medium, then there is every possibility of his going crazy or becoming insane.



In the case of shaktipat the chances of an accident are very few, almost nil, because there is a person who is functioning as a medium …. Passing through a medium the energy becomes gentle and mild, and the medium can also regulate the intensity of the energy.



So it has happened time and time again that many people like Ramakrishna left this world without giving their message. They could not. It is a very rare combination for a person to know and be able to convey. When this rare combination takes place we call such a person a tirthankara, an avatar, a prophet. It does not mean that there have not been any other such people; there have been, but they could not communicate.



…the significance of solitude is to relax your ego and help it to let go. It is for this reason that you are more at ease near a tree than in the company of another person.

This is why, in countries where tensions between people are becoming greater, they tend to live with pets. It is easier to live with animals than with men, because they have no “I”.



Gradually man tries to break his relationship with others and establish relationships with objects because they are easier to handle. So the mass of objects is increasing day by day. There are more articles in the house than people ….objects give no trouble. ….The presence of trees, rivers, and mountains is no trouble, so we feel at peace near them. The reason is simply that the “I” is not standing in full strength before us, so we feel relaxed.



The greater the crowd, the harder and more condensed your ego is. Therefore, it has long been a practice to get out of the crowd and try to drop the ego in solitude. But man is strange: if he stays under a tree for long he will begin to talk to it and address it as “you.”



When you approach a plant in anger, its psychic state changes, and when you approach it in love then again it changes. So it will not be out of place if we discover in the next fifty years that we can also talk to plants – but this will be a gradual development.



The custom of cremation was also the idea of psychic people, because they believed that the soul had difficulty in taking a new birth if the body of the previous life still remained: it then hovered around the old body. If the body is burned to ashes the soul will be rid of this encumbrance – because once it sees the body turning to ashes, in the next body it will perhaps realize that what is considered to be its own was after all only a destructible object.



…..words that produced beautiful vibrations…… Words are thoughts that are manifested. However, unmanifested words also carry a resonance and we call them thoughts. When you think about something, a particular kind of resonance is created around you, a particular kind of vibration surrounds you. This is why you find sometimes that when you go near a particular person you feel sad for no apparent reason …. All around you there are thought waves, and the whole twenty-four hours they keep on entering you.



Our thought waves touch matter and transform it …. The waves are so subtle that it takes them millions of years to be discharged from the object. This is why graves and samadhis came to be constructed.



….in India we have the custom of burning our dead but not our dead sannyasins. An ordinary man’s body is burned so that his soul does not go on hovering around him. But the sannyasin is not cremated because his soul had already stopped hovering around his body while he was still alive. …. We wish to conserve his body, because the body of a man who has spent years experiencing the divine will diffuse the same thought waves for thousands of years. His burial spot will be meaningful; it will yield results…



…this country has made many more discoveries in the spiritual field than other countries, because in other countries the seeker was all alone. ….this country had at one time employed thousands of its geniuses and intellectuals, in the science of the soul.



The energy always flows from the male to the female. …the male body is …..not receptive; it is always aggressive … The female is receptive. She can take but she cannot give….

…since the female is receptive she can never become the giver of shaktipat; shaktipat cannot take place through her. This is the reason why there are so few female masters in the world, nor are there any female gurus of the stature of Buddha and Mahavira. …. not a single woman of the stature of Krishna was ever born. …..Therefore, though it is man who is the herald of religion it is woman who always protects and preserves it; it is woman who saves religion on earth. Men only pioneer religion.

…shaktipat is also difficult from man to man because the male meditator is not receptive…. There are cults in which a man performs his spiritual practice taking himself to be a woman. This is a method of making him receptive….. A woman….is already surrendered; it is in her nature…. She is very receptive. Therefore, shaktipat from a man takes place easily within her. From man to man it is very difficult and from woman to man nearly impossible. From man to man, thought difficult, it is possible. If there is a powerful man he can reduce the other man to a near female condition. Shaktipat through a woman is practically impossible, because in the moment of transmission she tends to absorb the vital energy herself.



….the use of wooden platforms for meditation had no other purpose than the fact that they were nonconductors. Deerskins and leopard skins were used for the same reason; so that the energy that is released through meditation should not give a shock. … A man can be killed by this electric shock. Therefore, the meditator put on wooden sandals and slept on a wooden platform.



…the body has its own magnetic force. If it can be properly aligned with the magnetic force of the earth, it is very beneficial…..So if you are in a particular state seated in a particular posture at a certain special moment, a particular star will cause your body to become especially magnetized.



…..if everything in the room were coloured red, the blood pressure of all of you sitting here would rise ……..The colour blue causes the blood pressure to fall….The water in the blue bottle will remain fresh for days whereas the water in the yellow bottle will turn foul immediately. The yellow color is the color of death and it brings about disintegration.



If a person dies after his fourth body is activated he is born on the plane of the devas, the gods …..If the fourth body is merely activated and one is not conscious we call it the plane of the pretas, evil spirits; if it is activated as well as fully conscious we call it the plane of the devas, godly spirits …..the preta can cause a great deal of harm both to itself and to others with the activity of its fourth body; because unconsciousness can only bring harm……. He whose fifth body becomes active goes beyond the existence of devas. The fifth is the spiritual body. …..The preta has to return in order to break its unawareness, because for this a human form is absolutely essential. The devas have to return, because in their existence there is no suffering whatsoever…. When there is no suffering there is no thought of transformation or of attainment….. In the lives of Mahavira and Buddha there are descriptions of devas coming to them in order to be taught, but these are very exceptional happenings. It is strange that devas should come to human beings because it is an existence above the human existence. It seems strange but it is not, because the existence in heaven is a static existence from where there is no growth. If you wish to go ahead then just as you take a step back before you jump you have to step back into the human condition and then take a jump….. The realm of the devas is very peaceful, there is no disturbance of any sort. So ultimately the return from the realm of the devas can only be out of boredom….. This is why it is said in the Puranas, the ancient texts, that the gods yearn to be born as human beings…. Human existence is at the crossroads; all journeys are possible from it.



From the viewpoint of Yoga, when inner intercourse becomes possible the instinct for outer intercourse immediately disappears. The reason is that this inner union is completely satisfying and fulfilling. The images of coitus depicted on temple walls are indications in this direction.



…..many surprising methods have been developed in Tantra…… For instance, when there is intercourse between a complete man and a complete woman there will be no loss of energy; there cannot be, because each forms a complete circuit within his or her own self….

The pleasure experienced in the physical intercourse at the time of orgasm is invariably followed by the experience of pain. The gloom, the anguish, the fatigue, the remorse that follows the loss of energy is inevitable. The pleasure passes in a moment but the loss of energy takes twenty-four to forty-eight hours or more to be regained……

If intercourse without ejaculation is possible….Tantra has worked very courageously in this direction, with amazing results….It becomes difficult to talk about tantric practices openly and directly, because our moral beliefs have made this very difficult.



….there are methods and systems for prolonging intercourse. If intercourse exceeds half an hour the electrical circuit can be seen encircling the couple. ….. The more tension-ridden the mind, the more momentary the intercourse

……As soon as the circuit is formed the couple engaged in intercourse is no longer two separate entities. They become a flow of one energy, one power…… Depending on the intensity of this circuit, the desire for intercourse will lessen and its interval will increase. It can happen that once the circuit is formed, for one full year there may not be any desire for repetition, because such fulfillment has happened.



Sex is not such a problem for a female seeker as for a male seeker ….The reason is that a woman’s sex is passive. Once it is awakened it becomes a problem; if it is not awakened she can go through a lifetime and never feel that there is any problem.



When the kundalini awakens within, the body will have to assume all kinds of unusual positions to make way for the energy. The spine will bend itself in various ways to allow the energy to ascend… The body assumes such postures as have never been adopted before.



………..entering the gurudwara or mosque with the head covered. …. It has its uses. When the energy awakens there is a possibility of the head becoming very heavy. If you have covered your head with a cloth, this energy is not likely to flow out……If you meditate with your head covered you will feel the difference at once. Then what can be accomplished in fifteen days can be accomplished in five.