摘譯自奧修書“Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy”(中譯本“靜心冥想”)
第19章“奧修重新設計的傳統技巧”
1972年7月3日的演說


安那般那念瑜珈

一朵從未見過太陽的花與一朵已和太陽相遇過的花是不同的。它們無法相同。不曾遇過日出的花朵永遠不會體驗到太陽在自己裡面升起。它是死的；它只是個潛在的可能。它從來不知道自己的靈魂。然而已經見過太陽升起的花朵也會見到某種事物在它裡面升起。它知道了自身的靈魂。此時這朵花不再只是一朵花了；它已經知道一個深刻的，撼動心靈的內在。

我們如何才能在自己裡面創造出這樣的內在呢？佛陀發明了一個方法，最強而有力的方法之一，能夠創造出一個內在覺知的太陽。而且不僅是為了創造它：這方法是如此殊勝，不僅創造出內在的覺知，同時還讓這覺知穿透到甚至是身體的細胞，進到人的整個存在。佛陀所用的這個方法被稱為安那般那念(Anapana-sati)瑜珈──覺知入出息的瑜珈。

我們在呼吸，但那是無意識的呼吸。氣是普拉那(prana)，氣是生命的脈動(elan vital)──生命力，生命本身──然而它仍是無意識的；你不用覺知到它。如果你必須先覺知到呼吸然後才能呼吸，那麼你一定會死掉。因為遲早你就會忘記：你無法持續記得任何事情。

呼吸是我們自主系統和非自主系統之間的一個連結。我們可以控制自己的呼吸到一定的程度，我們甚至能停止自己的呼吸一些時間，但我們無法永久停止它。不需要我們它也會持續下去；它並不依靠我們。即使你昏迷了好幾個月，你仍然會繼續呼吸；它是一種無意識的機制。

佛陀以呼吸為媒介同時進行兩件事情。第一件，創造出意識，另一件，讓那意識能穿透到身體細胞本身。他說：「有意識地呼吸」。這並非是指要做瑜伽調息(pranayama)──瑜珈的呼吸方法；這只是將呼吸當成覺知的對象，沒有改變它。不需要改變你的呼吸。保留它原本的，自然的樣子；不要改變它。然而在你將氣吸進來時，要有意識地吸氣；讓你的意識隨著進來的氣一起移動。當氣出去時，讓你的意識隨著它移動出去。

與呼吸一起移動。將你的注意力與呼吸同步；隨著它流動。連一次呼吸都不要忘掉。據說佛陀講過如果你能覺知到你的呼吸即使只是一個小時，你就已經成道了。然而是連一次呼吸都不能錯過。

一小時就足夠了。它看起來是這麼短的一段時間，其實不然。當你真的試著去覺知，一小時可以像是一千年之久，因為通常你的覺知並不會超過5,6秒鐘。甚至只有非常警覺的人才能覺知那麼久。我們大多數人是每一秒都在錯過。你可能一開始會覺知到氣在進來，然而當它進來後你已跑到別的地方了。突然間你想起來氣正在出去。事實上它早就出去了，但你並不在那裡。

意識到呼吸的意思是一點念頭都不能出現，因為思緒會分散掉你的注意力。佛陀不曾說過「停止思想」。他說的是「有意識地呼吸」。自然而然地，思想就會停止；你無法同時有意識地去想和呼吸。當一個思緒出現在你腦海中，你的注意力就會從呼吸上面撤出來。只要一個念頭你就無法意識到那呼吸的過程。

佛陀使用這個技巧。它是很簡單，卻充滿力量的一個。他會對他的比丘，他的僧侶們說：「做任何你在做的，然而不要忘記一件簡單的事情：記得進來的氣和出去的氣。隨著它移動，與它一起流動。」

你越試著去做它，你越盡力去做它，你就會變得越覺知。它是費力的，它是困難的，然而一旦你做到了，你就會變成一個全然不同的人，在不同世界中的一個不同的存在。

這個技巧也會以另一種方式產生作用。當你有意識地吸氣吐氣時，漸漸地你會來到你的中心，因為你的呼吸所碰觸的正是你存在的中心。每一刻當氣進來時，它會碰觸到你存在的中心。

生理上你認為呼吸只是為了血液的淨化，它只是身體層面的作用。然而如果你開始覺知到你的呼吸，漸漸地你將走得比生理學更深。於是有一天你會開始感覺到你的中心，就在靠近你肚臍的地方。

這個中心只能在你持續不斷地與呼吸一起移動時才感覺得到，因為你越接近這中心，就越難保持住覺知。當氣在進來時你是可以開始。當它剛進到你的鼻子時，你可以開始去覺知它。然而當它進到越裡面，覺知就會變得越困難。念頭會出現，或是某種聲音，或是某種事情會發生，你就跑掉了。

如果你真的能去到那個中心，有個短暫的片刻呼吸會停止，空隙出現了。氣進來，氣出去：在這兩者之間有個細微的空隙。那個空隙就是你的中心。

只有練習過很長時間的呼吸覺知後──當你終於能夠一直與呼吸在一起，覺知到呼吸──當呼吸不再有任何移動，你才會開始覺知到這空隙；氣既不是在進來也不是在出去。就在這氣息之間的細微空隙中，你是位於你的中心。所以呼吸的覺知被佛陀用為能夠越來越趨近這中心的一個方法。

當你吐氣時，也要保持對氣的覺知。再次會出現一個空隙。存在著兩個空隙：一個空隙是在氣進來後與它再出去前，而另一個空隙是在氣出去後與它再進來前。這第二個空隙會更難以覺知。

在進來的氣和出去的氣之間就是你的中心。然而還有另一個中心，宇宙的中心。你可以將它稱之為“神”。在氣出去與再進來之間的空隙裡就是宇宙的中心。這兩個中心並不是兩個不同的事物。首先你將開始覺知到你內在的中心，然後你將開始覺知到外在的中心。最終，你將能夠了解這兩個中心是一體的。於是“外”與“內”不再具有它們原本的意義。

佛陀說「有意識地與呼吸一起移動，於是你將在你裡面創造出覺知的中心。」一旦這中心創造出來了，覺知就會開始移動到你的細胞上面，因為每個細胞都需要氧氣，可以說，每個細胞都在呼吸。

現今科學家們說連地球都在呼吸。當整個宇宙在吸氣時，它就會膨脹；當整個宇宙在吐氣時，它就會收縮。在古老的印度神話典籍，往世書(puranas)裡，據說宇宙的創造即梵天的一次呼吸──進來的氣──而毀滅，普拉亞(pralaya)，世界的終結，則是出去的氣。一次呼吸即是一次創世。

以非常細密的方式，以非常原子般的方式，同樣的事情正發生在你身上。當你的覺知能夠與呼吸合而為一時，呼吸就會帶著你的覺知到達你的細胞。這時候你整個身體就變成了宇宙。真的，這時你完全沒有了物質的身體。你就只是覺知。

Excerpt from OSHO’s book “Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy”
Chapter 19“Traditional Techniques Reinvented by Osho”
Discourse in 1972,7,3

ANAPANA-SATI YOGA

A flower that has never known the sun and a flower that has encountered the sun are not the same. They cannot be. A flower that has never known the sunrise has never known the sun to rise within itself. It is dead; it is just a potentiality. It has never known its own spirit. But a flower that has seen the sun rise has also seen something arise within itself. It has known its own soul. Now the flower is not just a flower; it has known a deep, stirring innerness.

How can we create this innerness within ourselves? Buddha invented a method, one of the most powerful methods, for creating an inner sun of awareness. And not only for creating it: the method is such that it not only creates this inner awareness but simultaneously allows the awareness to penetrate to the very cells of the body, to the whole of one’s being. The method that Buddha used is known as Anapana-sati Yoga──the yoga of incoming and outgoing breath awareness.

We are breathing, but it is unconscious breathing. Breath is prana, breath is the elan vital── the vitality, the very life──and yet it is unconscious; you are not aware of it. And if you had to be aware of breathing in order to breathe, you would die. Sooner or later you would forget: you cannot continuously remember anything.

Breathing is a link between our voluntary and our involuntary systems. We can control our breathing to a certain extent, we can even stop our breathing for a while, but we cannot stop it permanently. It goes on without us; it does not depend on us. Even if you are in a coma for months, you will go on breathing; it is an unconscious mechanism.

Buddha used breath as a vehicle to do two things simultaneously: one, to create consciousness, and another, to allow that consciousness to penetrate to the very cells of the body. He said, “Breathe consciously." This does not mean to do pranayama──yogic breathing; it is just to make breath an object of awareness, without changing it. There is no need to change your breath. Leave it as it is, natural; do not change it. But when you breathe in, breathe consciously; let your consciousness move with the ingoing breath. And when the breath goes out, let your consciousness move out with it.

Move with the breath. Let your attention be with the breath; flow with it. Do not forget even a single breath. Buddha is reported to have said that if you can be aware of your breath for even a single hour, you are already enlightened. But not a single breath should be missed.

One hour is enough. It looks like such a small fragment of time, but it is not. When you are trying to be aware, an hour can seem like a millennium, because ordinarily you cannot be aware for more than five or six seconds. Only a very alert person can be aware for even that long. Most of us miss every second. You may start by being aware as the breath is going in, but no sooner has it gone in when you are somewhere else. Suddenly you remember that the breath is going out. It has already gone out, but you were somewhere else.

To be conscious of the breath means that no thoughts can be allowed, because thoughts will distract your attention. Buddha never says,“Stop thinking.” He says,“Breathe consciously.” Automatically, thinking will stop; you cannot both think and breathe consciously. When a thought comes into your mind, your attention is withdrawn from the breathing. A single thought and you have become unconscious of the breathing process.

Buddha used this technique. It is a simple one, but a very vital one. He would say to his bhikkhus, his monks,“Do whatsoever you are doing, but do not forget a simple thing: remember the incoming and the outgoing breath. Move with it, flow with it.”

The more you try to do it, the more you endeavor to do it, the more conscious you will become. It is arduous, it is difficult, but once you can do it, you will have become a different person, a different being in a different world.

This works in another way, too. When you consciously breathe in and out, by and by you come to your center, because your breath touches the very center of your being. Every moment that the breath goes in, it touches the center of your being.

Physiologically you think that breath is just for the purification of the blood, that it is just a bodily function. But if you begin to be aware of your breath, by and by you will go deeper than physiology. Then one day you will begin to feel your center, right near your navel.

This center can be felt only if you move with the breath continuously, because the nearer you reach to the center, the more difficult it will be to remain aware. You can start when the breath is going in. When it is just entering your nose, begin to be aware of it. The more inward it moves, the more difficult awareness will become. A thought will come, or some sound, or something will happen, and you will move away.

If you can go to the very center, for a brief moment breath stops and there is a gap. The breath goes in, the breath goes out: between the two there is a subtle gap. That gap is your center.

Only after practicing breath awareness for a long time──when you are finally able to remain with the breath, to be aware of the breath──will you become aware of the gap when there is no movement of breath; breath is neither coming in nor going out. In the subtle gap between breaths, you are at your center. So breath awareness was used by Buddha as a means of coming nearer and nearer to the center.

When you breathe out, remain conscious of the breath. Again there is a gap. There are two gaps: one gap after the breath has come in and before it goes out again, and another gap after the breath has gone out and before it comes in again. This second gap is more difficult to be aware of.

Between the incoming breath and the outgoing breath is your center. But there is another center, the cosmic center. You may call it “god”. In the gap between when the breath goes out and when it comes in is the cosmic center. These two centers are not two different things. First you will become aware of your inner center, and then you will become aware of the outer center. Ultimately, you will come to know that both these centers are one. Then “out” and “in” will lose their meaning.

Buddha says,“Move consciously with the breath and you will create a center of awareness within you.” Once this center is created, awareness begins to move to your very cells, because every cell needs oxygen, every cell breathes, so to speak.

Now scientists say that even the earth breathes. When the whole universe is breathing in, it expands; when the whole universe breathes out, it contracts. In old Hindu mythological scriptures, puranas, it is said that creation is Brahma’s one breath──incoming breath──and destruction, pralaya, the end of the world, will be the outgoing breath. One breath is one creation.

In a very miniature way, in a very atomic way, the same thing is happening in you. And when your awareness becomes one with breathing, breathing takes your awareness to your very cells. Then your whole body becomes the universe. Really, then you have no material body at all. You are just awareness.