Osho Vedanta: Seven steps to Samadhi, Discourses Series Chapter 7 You Become the Offering, Question 3

The third question:

Question 3

BELOVED OSHO,

THOUGH WE CAN BE AWARE OF ANGER AND REFRAIN FROM HURTING OTHERS WITH IT, INNER ANGER SEEMS TO REMAIN IN A DORMANT STATE, AND AT TIMES IT BECOMES AROUSED BY OUTER HAPPENINGS. IT DOESN'T SEEM POSSIBLE TO ENTIRELY THROW IT AS IT IS DEEP-ROOTED IN EARLY, WRONG TRAINING, AND A LIFETIME OF STRUGGLE IN THE WORLD. ISN'T THE TOTAL DISAPPEARANCE OF ANGER SIMULTANEOUS WITH ENLIGHTENMENT? DOES AN ENLIGHTENED ONE EVER HAVE ANY ANGER?

The first thing: if you feel angry and if you think that it is needed for it to be suppressed, suppress it for the time being -- because it is useless just to be angry with someone and then create a chain. Then he will be angry and then more anger will be created, and this can continue even for lives. Everything has a continuity of cause and effect; it becomes a chain.

So if you feel anger and you see it is going to be destructive to you and to the other person, smile, have a false face. And move to your room, close the doors, take your pillow and beat it. Write the name of the person on the pillow and do whatsoever you wanted to do with the person. Don't suppress it in the system because that is too dangerous. Anger is poison, and when the body is ready to fight the blood is filled with poison -- you have to act it out. If you don't act it out, if you don't go through a catharsis then you will have to suffer for it. It may become a physical disease, it may cripple your body, and it may poison your relationships -- because you were not angry, but the anger was there.

Your boss insulted you and you couldn't reply to him, so you will come home and you will find some excuse to get angry with the wife. And you will think that she has done something wrong, but that is just rationalization; you wanted someone who is weaker than you, to whom you can be the boss. You will throw the anger on the wife, and she will wait for the child to come back from the school. Suppressed anger finds outlet towards the weaker person. She will wait for the child to come and she will find something -- and you can always find something, there is no problem. She can say, "Why are your clothes dirty?" They have always been dirty; every day he comes with dirty clothes from the school. He is a child, not an old man -- he doesn't care about clothes. He can play with the dirt; that is more valuable than those clothes. Then the mother is going to beat the child. And what is the child supposed to do? He will go, take his dog and beat it, or throw his book into the street, or do something that he can do. This way anger goes on moving and moving, it creates ripples, and a single phenomenon becomes multidimensional, unnecessarily.

So I say to you, there is no need to be angry with the person by whom anger has come into you -- there is no need. But there is no need to suppress it also. Express it in the vacuum. Have a room in your home, your meditation room, so whatsoever happens, go in that room and do it. And you will enjoy it so much, you cannot imagine; the whole exercise is so beautiful. In the beginning it will look absurd, but soon you will get into it and you will enjoy it. And the pillow is not going to answer, the pillow is not going to create any chain. Rather, on the contrary, the pillow will be very happy that you related with it.

Never suppress, but never create chains -- this is the rule. Remember not to suppress, and remember not to create any chain. Once you learn the art you can be free of all these madnesses which come into you, without creating any disturbance in life. Every day catharsis is needed. Life is complex, and many things come into the mind which have to be thrown. That's why I emphasize Dynamic Meditation so much. You don't know what you are doing here. When you get into it you are doing all sorts of things. Somebody is throwing anger, somebody is throwing jealousy, somebody throwing hatred, somebody throwing his sadness, screaming -- the whole life of misery is being thrown in it.

Make it a point every day: just as you clean your body every day, clean your mind. This is a bath for the mind. Throw everything, but don't throw upon anybody; that is violence. Throw it into the vacuum. And the vacuum is big enough, the space is big enough. Don't you get worried about what will happen to the pillow, what will happen to the space -- nothing is going to happen, all that you throw into it is absorbed. And then it never replies to you, there is no chain created. The act simply ends, no karma is created through it. Do things in such a way that no future is created through them.

Whatsoever has happened to you, relief is needed, you need that it should be thrown out, but don't throw it on persons. If you can remember that, soon you will realize that it was absolute foolishness to throw it on persons when it could be thrown just on a pillow. And the same relaxation is felt -- even more, because whenever you throw on a person you will feel repentance in the end. You will feel bad, you will feel that you have not done good; then you will feel that it would have been better if you had not done it. But now nothing can be done, and you cannot undo something which has happened. Whatsoever you do, it is there now, you cannot wash it away. There is no way, because you cannot move to the past; it will remain always there.

That's what Hindus have called the theory of karma: whatsoever you do will remain and will have its influence on your future. A catharsis is necessary, and every day it is necessary unless you have become enlightened, then you don't gather the past. Now you gather, you collect dust. Throw it every day. In the night, every day for one hour, just throw the past, the whole day. Whatsoever has been done to you and you have done to others, or you wanted to do with others... emotions, anger, hate -- many things are there -- drop them before you go to sleep.

In the West sleep has become a problem, and in the East also it is becoming a problem. And the problem is only this: you don't know how to get rid of the day. It follows you, it continues in the mind, and you cannot stop it. You cannot stop unless you throw it. Whosoever is suffering from insomnia should try this dynamic meditation in the night. Just before going to sleep have an inner bath; throw everything and then go to sleep. You will feel like a child again -- innocent, unburdened. Sleep will be totally different, the quality will change. But don't suppress -- express. But don't express to persons.

VEDANTA: SEVEN STEPS TO SAMADHI

Chapter-7

You Become the Offering