When there is no mind, you are in yoga, says OSHO explaining Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
What is the mind? Ordinarily we think that mind is something substantial there inside the head.Patanjali doesn’t agree…. Mind is just a function, just an activity. You walk and I say you are walking.What is walking? If you stop, where is walking? If you sit down,where the walking has gone? Walking is nothing substantial; it is an activity. So while you are sitting,no one can ask,“Where you have put your walking? Just now you were walking,so where the walking has gone?”You will laugh.You will say,“Walking is not something substantial, it is just an activity. I can walk.I can again walk and I can stop. It is activity.” Mind is also activity, but because of the word mind,it appears as if something substantial is there. It is better to call it ‘minding’— just like ‘walking’. Mind means ‘minding’, mind means thinking. It is an activity. Bodhidharma went to China, and the emperor of China went to see him. And the emperor said,“My mind is very uneasy, very disturbed.You are a great sage, and I have been waiting for you. Tell me what I should do to put my mind at peace.
”Bodhidharma said,“You don’t do anything. First you bring your mind to me.” The emperor could not follow he said,“What do you mean?” He said,“Come in the morning at four o’clock when nobody is there.Come alone,and remember to bring your mind with you.” The emperor couldn’t sleep the whole night.
Many times he cancelled the whole idea: “This man seems to be mad. What does he mean, ‘Come with your mind; don’t forget?’ “ But the man was so enchanting, so charismatic that he couldn’t cancel the appointment. As if a magnet was pulling him, at four o’clock he jumped out of the bed and said,“Whatsoever happens, I must go. This man may have something; his eyes say that he has something. He looks a little crazy, but still I must go and see what can happen.” So he reached, and Bodhidharma was sitting with his big staff. He said, “So you have come? Where is your mind? Have you brought it or not?” The emperor said,“You talk nonsense. When I am here my mind is here, and it is not something which I can forget somewhere. It is in me.” So Bodhidharma said,“Okay. So the first thing is decided — that the mind is within you.”The emperor said,“Okay, the mind is within me.” Bodhidharma said,“Now close your eyes and find out where it is. And if you can find out where it is, immediately indicate to me. I will put it at peace.” So the emperor closed his eyes, tried and tried, looked and looked.The more he looked, the more he became aware there is no mind, mind is an activity. It is not something there so you can pinpoint it.
But the moment he realised that it is not something, then the absurdity of his quest became exposed to him:“If it is not something, nothing can be done about it. If it is an activity, then don’t do the activity;that’s all.If it is like walking,don’t walk.” He opened his eyes.He bowed down to Bodhidharma and said, “There is no mind to be found.” Bodhidharma said,“Then I have put it at peace.And whenever you feel that you are uneasy, just look within, where that uneasiness is.” The very look is anti-mind, because look is not a ‘thinking’.And if you look intensely your whole energy becomes a look, and the same energy becomes movement and thinking. Yoga is the cessation of mind.This is Patanjali’s definition.When there is no mind, you are in yoga
