To be aware is a different type of process. Buddha followed it. He called it self-remembering or right-mindfulness. In this age another buddha, George Gurdjieff, followed it; he called it self-remembering. Another buddha, Krishnamurti, goes on talking about awareness, alertness. This is one path. Tilopa belongs to another path, the path of being loose and natural – not even bothering about awareness, just being whatsoever you are, not making any effort for any improvement. And I tell you, Tilopa’s standpoint is higher than Buddha, Gurdjieff, and Krishnamurti, because he creates no conflict. He simply says, “Just be whatsoever you are.” Not even spiritual effort, because that too is part of the ego. Who is trying to improve? Who is trying to be aware? Who is trying to attain enlightenment? Who is this inside you? It is again the same ego. The same ego which was trying to become the president of a country or the prime minister, now is trying to attain buddhahood.

Buddha himself has called enlightenment “the last nightmare.” Enlightenment, the last nightmare? – because it is again a dream, and not only is it a dream but a nightmare, because you suffer through it. Tilopa’s standpoint is the ultimate standpoint. If you can understand it, then no effort of any sort is needed. You simply relax and be, and everything follows on its own accord. One has simply to be non-doing: sitting quietly, and the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.

The second question:

Osho,
It is understood that, in the past, many schools of Yoga taught mainly through suppression. And quite a few did attain through it. Is it not possible that, even today, the technique of suppression may suit a certain type of person?

First thing: never! Nobody who knows has ever taught suppression. Second: never has anybody attained through it.

But false coins exist everywhere. The way of being natural is very simple, but looks very difficult for you because the ego wants something difficult to struggle with, to be challenged by, to conquer it. The ego exists through constant challenge. If something is absolutely simple, the ego flops down. If you have nothing to do but sit quietly and silently and let things be, and let things move where they are moving, no activity on your part, then when and how will the ego exist? There is no possibility.

In being loose and natural, the ego flops down completely, immediately. It disappears because ego needs constant activity. Ego is just like going on a bicycle: you have to pedal it continuously. If you stop pedaling, it may go for a few feet or a few yards because of the past momentum, but it has to fall down. The cycle and the rider will both fall down. The cycle needs constant pedaling. Even if you pedal very slowly, you will fall down. It needs a certain continuous feeding of energy.

The ego is just like cycling – you have to feed it continuously: this challenge, that challenge, this activity, that activity – something has to be attained. Everest has to be conquered, you have to reach to the moon – something always in the future. You have to pedal, and then the ego exists. The ego exists in activity; in inactivity, the cycle simply falls down, and the rider also. Immediately the whole activity disappears and with it the ego.