Finding stillness

Finding stillness

Now yoga is a certain kind of practice of exercises, exercise, not something mysterious through exercises, one has to do it to keep the body supple.

BENGALURU: There are various practices to make the body still. Again these practices imply suppression: the body wants to get up and go away, walk, and it says, ‘No, I must sit quiet’, and the battle begins, wanting to go out and wanting to sit still. And in this there is this whole thing called yoga – you have heard about it? Oh, Lord, you are rather – I suppose you know the whole world is upside down, when one is concerned only with social activities, social reform, revolution, all the other things escape, or are put aside. But if you want to understand the whole business of life, you have to understand everything that is contained in it, human life, psychologically.

The word ‘yoga’, you will find dozens of books all over the world, written by all the specialists, means to join together. The very word ‘join together’ is wrong, which implies duality. You understand? Therefore it has quite a different meaning, which we won’t go into now. Probably it was invented, this particular series of exercises and breathing many thousands of years ago in India. It is to keep the glands and the nerves and the whole system functioning very healthily, without medicine, and keep it highly sensitive. And the body needs to be sensitive otherwise you can’t have a very clear brain. You know, if you stuff yourself with wine, meat and all the rest of it, how can your brain function clearly? Your smoking, drugs and all the rest of it, becomes such superficial immediate satisfactions without any understanding what is beyond it.

Now yoga is a certain kind of practice of exercises, exercise, not something mysterious through exercises, one has to do it to keep the body supple. You understand? The brain has to have all the blood it needs, and therefore right breathing. You understand all these things? If I may be a little personal, we do it every day for two hours, regularly. Not the regularity of machinery – I won’t go into all that, it doesn’t matter.
So one has to have very good healthy, sane body, and therefore a brain that is capable of thinking rationally, healthily, objectively, non-personally, therefore efficiently, and a brain that is absolutely quiet - not mechanically made quiet. Now you can see the truth of this, can’t you, the simple fact of it, that one needs to have a very good healthy, sensitive, alert body, a brain that functions very clearly, non-emotionally, non-personally, and such a brain to be absolutely quiet. You can see the fact of that, the simple logical fact of it.

Now how is this to be brought about? You understand what I mean? How can the brain, which is so tremendously active, not only during the day time but when you have gone to sleep, how can this brain be so completely relaxed and completely quiet? You understand my question? No method will do it, obviously. Please follow all this. No method. Right? Do you see that? Because method implies mechanical repetition, which stupefies the brain, and therefore makes the brain dull, and during that dullness you think you have marvellous experiences. So how is this brain, which is so tremendously active, which is never still, because it’s always chattering, to itself or with others, judging, evaluating, liking, disliking, you know, turning over all the time, how can that brain be completely still? Do you understand the importance of a brain being still, the importance, not what the speaker says is important, for yourself do you see the real importance, the extraordinary importance that this brain should be completely quiet? Because the moment it acts it can only act in response of the past.

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