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A
Sufi generally works upon his sleep, and not on
breathing. For him, night vigil has great significance. He
will keep awake for months; and a situation of
strangeness can arise from long and constant wakefulness, as it
arises from fast and hard breathing. If you can go without sleep for
a full month, you will land in the same state of madness which
comes through deep and chaotic breathing.
Because sleep is a very natural phenomenon -- it is as natural as
breathing -- the Sufi makes a frontal attack on sleep, and thus goes
through very strange and weird experiences.
But night vigil has its own dangers, and they are greater than
those inherent in chaotic breathing. This is a long and drawn out
process: you have to keep waking for months together -- night
vigil of a day or two is useless. And if something goes wrong after
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OSHO WORLD
you keep awake for two months,
the wrong cannot be remedied in a
second or two. But a wrong arising
after ten minutes of breathing can
be remedied in a second. If you go
to sleep after two months of
constant waking, you cannot make
up the loss in twenty-four hours.
Maybe, you will not even be able to
sleep after two months of night
vigil.
The path of the Sufi is more
dangerous, although night vigil is
very useful. The seeker keeps
waking night after night and waits
patiently.
The Sufi also uses dance as a
device. Dance can also be a means
to bring about separation of the
body and soul, but the dance has to
be one that is not learned, practised
and prepared. If you dance in a
practised way, it won't do. Breathing
in the way of pranayam cannot
bring about the separation such a
strange thing that you cannot
The Sufi also uses dance as a device.
Dance can also be a means to bring
about separation of the body and
soul, but the dance has to be one
that is not learned, practised and
prepared
of the body and soul -- because
pranayam is methodological -similarly, if someone repeats a
prepared dance, he will soon
identify himself with the body. But
if I tell one of you here who does
not know dancing that he should
dance, and he suddenly begins
dancing and prancing, he can make
it. This is such a strange thing that
you cannot identify yourself with it,
you cannot know that you are
dancing.
So these are the two methods
that the Sufis use: night vigil and
dancing.. Some other methods have
oollen clothes in the typical hot
also been used. For example, the
Sufis use wool for their garments.
They wear woollen clothes in the
typical hot climate of deserts -- that
is how they go against the body.
Someone who fasts is also going
against the body. Someone is sitting
with one foot placed on a sharp nail,
and another person sleeps on a bed
of thorns. All these are devices to
create that strange psychological
situation where separation can
happen.
-Osho,
In Search of the Miraculous,
Vol 1, Ch 11
AUGUST 2008
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