TREASURES OF THE HEART #00

"Is Tantra Better Than Yoga? Which Should I Choose?"

"While I am here, I will be talking about many things because you are many, and I will be talking about many dimensions because you are many. But absorb only that which is nourishment to you, and digest it.

Just the other day a sannyasin came, a sincere seeker but puzzled because I talked about Yoga and Tantra, and said that Tantra is the higher teaching and Yoga is a lower teaching; and he has been practicing hatha yoga for two years and feeling good. He became puzzled what to do. Don’t get so easily puzzled. If you are feeling good with Yoga, follow your own natural inclination. Don’t allow me to confuse you.

I can be confusing to you; simply follow your natural inclination: loose, natural. If it is good, it is good for you. Why bother whether it is higher or lower? Let it be lower. The ego comes in; the ego says, “If it is a lower thing, then why follow it?” That will not help. Follow it; it is right for you. Even if it is lower what is wrong in it? A moment will come, when, through the lower, you will reach to the higher.
The staircase has two ends: on one end it is the lowest, on the other it is the highest. So Tantra and Yoga are not opposites but complementary. Yoga is the primary, the basic, from where you have to start. But then one should not cling. A moment comes when one has to transcend Yoga and move into Tantra; and finally you have to leave the whole staircase: both Yoga and Tantra. Alone in yourself, deep in rest, one forgets everything.

Look at me: I am neither a yogi nor a tantrika. I do nothing: no practice, no non-practice. I cling neither to method nor to no-method. I am simply here resting, not doing anything. The staircase doesn’t exist for me now, the path has disappeared; there is no movement, it is absolute rest. When one comes home there is nothing to do; one simply forgets everything and rests. Godliness is ultimate rest.

Remember this. Sometimes I will be talking of Tantra because there are many who will be helped through it; and sometimes I will be talking about Yoga, and there are many who will be helped by it.

Just think of your own inclination, your own feeling – follow it! I am here to help you to be yourself, not to distract you. But I have to talk about many things because I have to help many. So what will you do? Just go on listening to me. Whatsoever you find nourishing, digest. Chew it well, digest it; let it become your blood and bones, the very marrow of your bones, but follow your inclination." – Osho