Meditation
is a way of settling in oneself, at the innermost core of your
being. Once you have found the center of your existence, you will
have found both your roots and your wings. The roots are in existence,
making you a more integrated human being, an individual. And the
wings are in the fragrance that is released by being in contact
with existence. The fragrance consists of freedom, love, compassion,
authenticity, sincerity, a sense of humor, and a tremendous feeling
of blissfulness.
One thing has to be remembered about meditation;
it is a long journey and there is no shortcut. Anyone who says
there is a shortcut is befooling you. It is a long journey because
the change is very deep and is achieved after many lives - many
lives of routine habits, thinking, desiring. And the mind structure;
that you have to drop through meditation. In fact it is almost
impossible - but it happens.
A man becoming a meditator
is the greatest responsibility in the world. It is not easy. It
cannot be instant. So from the beginning never start expecting
too much and then you will never be frustrated. You will always
be happy because things will grow very slowly.
Meditation is not a seasonal flower which within
six weeks is there. It is a very very big tree. It needs time
to spread its roots. - "OSHO".
What is meditation?
"Meditation is a single lesson of awareness,
of no-thought, of spontaneity, of being total in your action,
alert, aware. It is not a technique, it is a knack. Either you
get it or you don't." - Osho
Osho has spoken volumes on the subject of meditation.
Virtually all his talks include the importance of meditation in
everyday life. And despite the fact that he says meditation is
not a technique, he has invented dozens of them, and spoken on
dozens more from other traditions. Ultimately, meditation is an
experience which is not easily described, like the taste of cheese
or falling in love -- you have to try it to find out. But for
sure anyone interested in meditation will find something in what
Osho has to say about this topic that "clicks" for them,
just like a "knack" -- including his insistence that
he can be helpful to you, but ultimately each individual has to
create his path by walking it.
Meditation is not concentration
MEDITATION is not concentration. In concentration
there is a self concentrating and there is an object being concentrated
upon. There is duality. In meditation there is nobody inside and
nothing outside. It is not concentration . There is no division
between the in and the out. The in goes on flowing into the out,
the out goes on flowing into the in. The demarcation, the boundary,
the border, no longer exists. The in is out, the out is in; it
is a no-dual consciousness.
Concentration is a dual consciousness; that's
why concentration creates tiredness; that's why when you concentrate
you feel exhausted. And you cannot concentrate for twenty-four
hours, you will have to take holidays to rest. Concentration can
never become your nature. Meditation does not tire, meditation
does not exahaust you. Meditation can become a twenty-four hour
thing - day in, day out, year in, year out. It can become eternity.
It is relaxation itself.
Concentration is an act, a willed act. Meditation
is a state of no will, a state of inaction. It is relaxation.
One has simply dropped into one's own being, and that being is
the same as the being of All. In Concentration the mind functions
out of a conclusion: you are doing something. Concentration comes
out of the past. In meditation there is no conclusion behind it.
You are not doing anything in particular, you are simply being.
It has no past to it, it is pure of all future, It what Lao Tzu
has called wei-wu-wei, action through inaction. It is what Zen
masters have been saying: Sitting silently doing nothing, the
spring comes and the grass grows by itself. Remember, 'by itself
- nothing is being done. You are not pulling the grass upwards;
the spring comes and the grass grows by itself. That state - when
you allow life to go on its own way. When you don't want to give
any control to it, when you are not manipulating, when you are
not enforcing any discipline on it - that state of pure undisciplined
spontaneity, is what meditation is.
Meditation is in the present, pure present. Meditation
is immediacy. You cannot meditate, you can be in meditation. You
cannot be in concentration, but you can concentrate. Concentration
is human, meditation is divine.
Choosing a meditation
FROM the very beginning find something which
appeals to you. Meditation should not be a forced effort. If it
is forced, it is doomed from the very beginning. A forced thing
will never make you natural. There is no need to create unnecessary
conflict. This is to be understood because mind has natural capacity
to meditate if you give it objects which are appealing to it.
If you are body oriented, there are ways you
can reach towards God through the body because the body also belongs
to God. If you feel you are heart oriented, then prayer, If you
feel you are intellect oriented, then meditation .
But my meditations are different in a way. I
have tried to devise methods which can be used by all three types.
Much of the body is used in the, much of the heart and much of
the intelligence. All the three are joined together and they work
on different people in a different way.
Body heart mind - all my meditations move in
the same way. They start from the body, they move through the
heart, they reach to the mind and then they go beyond.
Always remember, whatsoever you enjoy can go
deep in you; only that can go deep in you. Enjoying it simply
means it fits with you. The rhythm of it falls in tune with you:
there is a subtle harmony between you and the method . Once you
enjoy a method then don't become greedy; go into that method as
much as you can. You can do it once or, if possible, twice a day.
The more you do it, the more you will enjoy it. Only drop a method
when the joy has disappeared; then its work is finished. Search
for another method. No method can lead you to the very end. On
the journey you will have to change trans many times. A certain
method takes you to a certain state. Beyond that it is of no more
use, it is spent.
So two things have to be remembered: when you
are enjoying a method go into it as deeply as possible, but never
become addicted to it because one day you will have to drop it
too. If you become too much addicted to it then it is like a drug;
you cannot leave it. You no more enjoy it - it is giving you anything
- but it has become a habit. Then one can continue it, but one
is moving in circles; it cannot lead beyond that.
So let joy be the criterion. If joy is there
continue, to the last bit of joy go on. It has to be squeezed
totally. No juice should be left behind….not even a single
drop. And then be capable of dropping it. Choose some other method
that again brings the joy. Many times a person has to change.
It various with different people but it is very rare that one
method will do the whole journey.
There is no need to do many meditations because
you can do confusing things, contradictory things, and the pain
will arise.
Choose two meditations and stick to them. In
fact I would like you to choose one; that would be the best. It
is better to repeat one that suits you, many times. Then it will
go deeper and deeper. You try many things - one day one things,
another day another things. And you invent your own, so you can
create many confusions. In the book of Tantra there are one hundred
and twelve meditations, You can go crazy. You are already crazy!
Meditations are not fun. They can sometimes be
dangerous. You are playing with a subtle, a very subtle mechanism
of the mind. Something a small thing that you were not aware you
were doing can become dangerous. So never try to invent, and don't
make your own hotch-potch meditation. Choose two and just try
them for a few weeks.
Creating a space for meditation
If you can create a special place - a small temple
or a corner in the home where you can meditate every day - then
don't use that corner for any other purpose, because every purpose
has its own vibration. Use that corner only for meditation and
nothing else. Then the corner will become charged and it will
wait for you every day. The corner will be helpful to you, the
milieu will create a particular vibration, a particular atmosphere
in which you can go deeper and deeper more easily. That's the
reason why temples, churches and mosques were created - just to
have a place that existed only for prayer and meditation.
If you can choose a regular hour to meditate,
that's also very helpful because your body, you mind, is a mechanism.
If you take lunch at a particular hour
When I say meditate, I know that through meditation
nobody reaches; but through meditation you reach to the point
where no meditation becomes possible.
Every day, you body starts crying for food at
that time. Sometimes you can even play tricks on it. If you take
your lunch at one o'clock and the clock says that it is now one
o'clock, you will be hungry - even if the clock is not right and
it is only eleven or twelve. You look at the clock, it says one
o'clock, and suddenly you feel hunger within. Your body is a mechanism.
Your mind is also a mechanism. Meditate every
day in the same place, at the same time, and you will create a
hunger for meditation within your body and mind. Every day at
that particular time your body and mind will ask you to go into
meditation. It will be helpful. A space is created in you which
will become a hunger, a thirst.
In the beginning it is very good. Unless you
come to the point where meditation has become natural and you
can meditate anywhere, in any place, at any time - up to that
moment, use these mechanical resources of the body and the mind
as a help.
It gives you a climate: you put off the light,
you have a certain incense burning in the room, you have certain
incense burning in the room, you have certain clothes a certain
height, a certain softness, you have a certain posture. This all
helps but this does not cause it. If somebody else follows it,
this may become a hindrance. One has to find one's own ritual.
A ritual is simply to help you to be at ease and wait. And when
you are at ease and waiting the thing happens; just like sleep,
God comes to you. Just like love, God comes to you. You cannot
will it, you cannot force it.
Be loose and natural
ONE can be obsessed with meditation. And obsession
is the problem: you were obsessed with money and now you are obsessed
with meditation. Money is not the problem, obsession is the problem,
You were obsessed with the market, now you are obsessed with God.
The market is not the problem but obsession. One should be loose
and natural an not obsessed with anything, neither mind nor meditation.
Only then, unoccupied, unobsessed, when you are simply flowing,
the ultimate happens to you.
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