buddha

When Gautam Buddha was alive, he used to always sleep in the same posture; and the whole night, he would not move from side to side, he would not change his posture, not even an inch. Just nearby, in the Ajanta caves, in the last cave there is a sculpture of Gautam Buddha sleeping. That pose has become known as the ‘Lion’s pose’ because the lion also sleeps on its side without moving.

Ananda was very much troubled because every night he could see – sometimes in the middle of the night he would wake up – that Buddha was absolutely still, just as he had always been. One night, he could not resist the temptation.

He said, ”It is not good to disturb you in the night, because the whole day you have been walking and teaching, but I cannot resist. For twenty years I have been watching. You can understand how long I have waited, but now I have to ask it anyway. How do you manage to remain in the same posture that you go to sleep in, the same posture for the whole night? Do you sleep or do you simply go on keeping the posture? – because I have to move continuously.”

Gautam Buddha said, ”I have found the right posture. Now there is no need to change it. And I am as awake as anyone, even while my body is asleep. I have found the right posture for the body ... you are still searching for it. It is not simply a question of tossing and turning the body, it is because your mind is tossing and turning. I have gone beyond – there is no mind. The body simply lies down like a corpse. Have you ever seen any corpse changing its posture?”

It is your mind. Once your mind is at rest, once it disappears, your body can remain asleep but your inner eye, your inner sensitivity, your awareness, can remain burning like a small flame – not only watching your body, but also watching the silent mind, and the stillness surrounding you. The enlightened man cannot sleep in the same way that the unenlightened one sleeps. When the unenlightened man sleeps, he is simply unconscious. The enlightened man sleeps but he is not unconscious.

OSHO