With the fourth stage in the morning meditation, in order to keep the body frozen or dead, one tends to be tense. As this is the step of relaxation and total let-go, how is one to be relaxed and frozen at the same time? Rather than ecstasy it becomes a tension.

     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. So when in the fourth step I say to be dead, it means to be so relaxed, 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. Don't try to be frozen, don't 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: it has gone dead. Don't make any effort to make it dead; simply relax and feel that it has gone dead.

     I have been telling you that even if you feel a sneeze is coming, don't sneeze, and don't cough. But if you feel 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 forceable because this is a sort of suppression and you will have to cough. Or if you feel a sneeze is coming, what will you do? If you hold it, it will become more; it will come out with a greater force.
     But there is a way: if you feel like that your throat is irritated and you want to cough, relax the throat. Don't prevent it; simply relax the throat. Be indifferent to the irritation and relax the throat. Don't be tense, because tension will create more irritation.
     Relax the throat and be indifferent; feel as if you are not concerned and, within seconds, the irritation would have gone. 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 the sneeze is hitting, and be indifferent.
     In that indifference, out of one hundred times, ninety– nine times the sneeze will disappear. Out of a hundred times there is only one possibility that the sneeze will come, but that too will not disturb you because you are so indifferent that even if it happens you will feel that it is happening to someone else. You will be so unconcerned that even if it comes it makes no difference. You will remain unperturbed within.
     I am not saying to you not to sneeze because others will be disturbed – no! I am not saying not to cough because others will be disturbed. That is not the point. You will become disturbed. You will lose the whole point of the effort; the whole endeavor will be lost.

Osho: "The Supreme Doctrine"

...Back For More Articles on Stage For

Back to the top