The fourth stage is highly nuanced. Understanding it unlocks great potential in us.
The basic paradox seems to be this: How to be frozen and relaxed at the same time? Won’t the effort to remain frozen be a source of tension?
Osho says it beautifully thus:
“A dead person is totally relaxed. He cannot be tense. A dead person cannot be tense – or can he?
“He is relaxed because there is no ego to be tense. Only the ego can be tense. When in the fourth step I say be dead, it means to be so relaxed that you are just like a dead man.
“You are not to try to be frozen and dead. If you try, then you will get the reverse result. Do not try to be frozen; do not make any effort to be dead. Simply relax and be dead.
These are two different things. If you try to be dead, then your whole body will become tense. And when you are tense, you cannot be dead, you cannot relax.
“Simply relax the body as if it is no more, as if it has gone dead. Do not make any effort to make it dead. Simply relax, and feel that it has gone dead and you have nothing to do about it.
“I have been telling you that even if you feel a sneeze coming, do not sneeze, do not cough. But if you feel an irritation in the throat, what will you do? If you try to prevent it, it will become more penetrating.
“If you try to block it, it will become more forcible because this is a sort of suppression. Then you will have to cough. If you feel a sneeze coming, what will you do? If you hold it, it will become more forcible, it will come out with a greater force.
“But there is a way: if you feel that your throat is irritated and you want to cough, relax the throat. Do not prevent it. Simply relax the throat; be indifferent to the irritation.
“Relax the throat. Do not make it tense because tension will create more irritation. Relax the throat and be indifferent; feel as if you are not concerned. Within seconds the irritation will go.
“If you feel that a sneeze is coming, just be indifferent to it; do not do anything about it. Relax the part where you feel that the sneeze is hitting, and be indifferent.“
—
Hence, the sutra for the fourth stage is this: If you react, suppress, or get involved, you get disturbed and “the whole endeavor will be lost.”
The point of meditation is to stay relaxed, unattached, and remain unidentified. Suppression creates tension. Indifference dissolves it.
Relax into it, don’t fight it, don’t do it.
Read complete instructions for OSHO Dynamic Meditation here: CLICK HERE