Go beyond bondage and freedom

What the Method Is

The core instruction for this method is: “Since, in truth, bondage and freedom are relative, these words are only for those terrified with the universe. This universe is a reflection of minds. As you see many suns in water from one sun, so see bondage and liberation.” This sutra challenges the conventional understanding of liberation as something separate from or opposite to bondage, asserting that both are relative concepts arising from the mind’s reflections.

How It Is Done

Practising “Go beyond bondage and freedom” involves cultivating a deep understanding and a shift in one’s existential perspective:

  • Comprehend Relativity: The first step is an intellectual comprehension that bondage and liberation are not two separate things, but rather two facets of the same phenomenon, much like hot and cold are degrees of temperature. This technique is “difficult to comprehend, not difficult to experience. But first comprehension is needed”.
  • Cease Oppositional Thinking: Actively stop perceiving life and experiences through rigid dualities such as good/bad, pure/impure, moral/immoral, or virtue/sin. Recognise that all such distinctions are “man-created”. By dissolving these dualities in your mind, you naturally transcend the conflict.
  • Be Liberated from Both: The true goal is not to move from bondage to freedom, but to be liberated from both bondage and liberation. As the sutra implies, if you are not free from both, you are not truly free.
  • Cultivate the Feeling of Sameness: Through this understanding, develop a deep “feeling that both poles are the same”. As this feeling deepens, the mind’s tendency to choose or desire one opposite over another diminishes.
  • Cease Desire and Seeking: When the perception of opposing poles as fundamentally the same is internalised, the mind finds nowhere to move, and desiring ceases. As desire is seen as bondage, its cessation leads to liberation. This means embracing a state of choicelessness.
  • Observe the Universe as a Reflection: Continuously recognise that the “universe is a reflection of minds”. Any perception of it as either bondage or liberation is a projection of your own mind.
  • Be Authentic with Experience: Osho emphasises being authentic in all experiences, whether it be hate, love, or anger. Only what is real can be transcended; pretending or suppressing hinders the process. Total acceptance is key.
  • Endure Suffering: If misery or suffering arises, instead of fighting it or trying to escape, remain with it fully and be a witness. This non-interference allows the experience to be consumed and transmuted naturally, leading to unburdening without direct effort.
Commentaries and Insights

Osho’s commentaries illuminate the profound philosophical underpinnings and practical implications of this method:

  • Tantra’s Non-Dual Approach: Unlike many traditional paths that advocate fighting against desires or the world, Tantra proposes a total acceptance of reality as it is, without division or condemnation. This acceptance allows energy to be relieved from conflict and directed inwards for transformation. This is a “no fight” philosophy, central to Tantra, in contrast to Yoga’s path of struggle and will.
  • The Nature of Hope and Dreaming: Osho clarifies that living in “hope” is akin to living in a “dream”, a postponement of present reality. This method encourages one to “be hopeless” by withdrawing energy from future-oriented desires, leading to an immersion in the ‘here and now’ where dreams cannot arise.
  • Authentic Knowing vs. Borrowed Knowledge: The instruction to “mother particular knowings” implies a rejection of borrowed knowledge, scriptures, or theories in favour of direct, personal experience. Blindly adopting external beliefs is seen as dangerous and can be more detrimental than pure ignorance.
  • Transcending the Ego: The mind’s tendency to create problems and cling to dualities is seen as a manifestation of the ego. By dissolving the belief in fixed opposites, the ego (which relies on boundaries and definitions) begins to dissolve. True liberation is seen as “freedom from yourself” or the disappearance of the “I”.
  • The Unburdened State: When one fully embraces experiences like misery without fighting, the energy is consumed, leading to a state of being “unburdened”. This reveals that both misery and bliss are mental creations, and the enlightened one ceases to ‘cause’ either, existing in a state beyond both. This is why Buddha spoke of the ultimate state as the “absence of misery” rather than “bliss”, to prevent the mind from clinging to another object of desire.
  • Simplicity and Ego’s Resistance: The method’s simplicity might ironically be a barrier, as the ego often seeks difficult challenges to feel a sense of achievement. Tantra asserts that transformation is not a causal phenomenon requiring a long, arduous process, but a sudden remembering of what is already present.
  • Mind as the Disease: For Tantra, the mind itself, with its constant conceptualisation, dualities, and conditioning, is the “disease”. The goal of these techniques is not to adjust the mind but to transcend it entirely, allowing a glimpse of the “no-mind” state.
  • Connection to Zen: This technique is deeply rooted in Zen philosophy, which also emphasises the direct, non-dual experience of reality and the importance of awareness in the present moment.
  • Trusting One’s Own Experience: Personal experience is the ultimate authority. Doubting external scriptures or teachings is acceptable, but one should never doubt one’s own mind, as it constantly rationalises and escapes from direct experience and doing.
  • Master’s Role and Initiation: While these methods can be tried individually, Osho notes that a master’s guidance and initiation can significantly accelerate the process by providing individualised techniques and a living energy transfer. The master helps the disciple surrender their ego and face their inner fears, particularly the fear of death, which is central to moving beyond the mind.