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Part V : First Talk in English to Westerners*
The first occasion Osho speaks publicly in English to a Western
audience is in September 1969 at Pahalgam in Kashmir, where followers
of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi invite Osho to talk to them. Maharishi
teaches 'Transcendental Meditation', a 20-minute repetition of
a mantra.
When I started using English, for two or three months I was thinking
in Hindi and speaking in English. It was a double trouble. last413
I don't know English but I manage. I am surprised myself because
English is such an unscientific language and I am not acquainted
with it in any way, but when you have to say something, when you
have something to say, then the language follows. If you have
just a little bit of an acquaintance with the words they follow,
they fall in line. dark14
I don't care. What does it matter if a word here and there is
mispronounced? My whole life I have been mispronouncing. books07
I have met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi just by accident. I was having
a camp in Pahalgam in Kashmir and he was also having a camp in
Pahalgam. His disciples became very much interested and they wanted
me to come to them and to talk to them, so I went there. We met.
The man is simply ordinary, nothing special. And what he is teaching
in the West is a very traditional thing in India; any stupid person
knows about it. ggate208
Osho answers questions from disciples of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi:
Really, there can be no method as far as meditation is concerned.
Meditation is not a method. Through technique, through method,
you cannot go beyond mind. When you leave all methods, all techniques,
you transcend mind. So meditation itself is not a method. Truth
cannot be achieved through method.
Method is our own invention. We, who are ignorant, have achieved
knowledge through methods constructed, created, projected, in
our ignorance. Through method you can achieve a sort of self-hypnosis,
a sort of auto-hypnosis. Any method, whatsoever it's name, can
only give you an illusory kind of peace. Through method you cannot
go beyond yourself, because the method is yours, and it will strengthen
you, your ego, your state of mind. If you leave all methods and
all paths, and all ways, and remain in a total vacuum, doing nothing,
thinking nothing - only then what we call meditation can be
achieved.
But if you are following some method. some path, some guru, then
you are going nowhere because it cannot lead you anywhere. It
can only lead you into an illusory state of auto-hypnosis....
The mind, through old habits and through old patterns, needs
constant occupation.
The mind needs constant occupation. If you give it some occupation,
then it is all right. You may be doing "jap" (chanting
a mantra); that too is an occupation. If you don't do anything,
and even for a single moment can remain without doing anything - not
even a single thought, not even doing any mantra, if you can remain
for a single moment alone, not doing anything, that very moment
leads through into inner depths....
The person who thinks is a man of non-understanding. A person
who knows doesn't think. It is not a question of thinking. He
sees, he is aware, but not in thinking. Thoughts are not opening,
thoughts are closing; they close your mind. The more you are in
a thinking mood, the more you are closed and isolated from the
whole. If you are not thinking, if you just are, if you are in
a state of being, then something comes. That is not thinking,
that is the realization. That is not thinking, you have not thought
it. And the more you have thought about it, the less is the possibility
for its coming. The known must go for the unknown to come. The
thinking must go for the truth to be revealed.
One is to be aware of the mechanism of the mind, how the mind
works, how the mind needs constantly occupation. Every moment
mind needs to be occupied. It has become a mechanical tendency;
you need occupation. Once you leave the so-called worldly occupations
you become occupied in spiritual affairs, but you remain occupied.
One is to be aware of this very process of the mind. That awareness
of the mechanical process stops the process. Moments come - they
break through - and you see something, that is not your thinking,
not a by-product of your thought.... early07
I am against the so-called transcendental meditation of Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi. It is very destructive. It is a lullaby; it only
gives you good sleep, at the most. It can't awaken you. It can
cool you, it can give you a little calmness; it is good for people
who are suffering from nervousness, tension, anxiety. It is a
psychological device, it is a psychological drug - a non-medicinal
tranquilizer. But it is not meditation, no. It is neither meditation
nor transcendental; it is not at all. It simply soothes you, consoles
you, helps you to go into good sleep.
And it is not accidental that America has become very much interested
in the so-called transcendental meditation of Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi, because America is suffering tremendously from insomnia.
People have lost their sleep. They want sleep at any cost; they
are ready to try anything. And transcendental meditation can help
you to have a good sleep.
But meditation is just the opposite. Meditation is waking up.
It is not a lullaby, it is diametrically the opposite. It is a
shock, it shatters your sleep and your dreams. If you are a beggar,
you are no more a beggar; it shatters the idea of your beggarhood.
If you are a prime minister, you are no more a prime minister;
it shatters your illusion of being a prime minister. It shatters
all identities. It simply reveals one fact, that you are God.
It only reveals your reality and takes all illusions away. secret04
People come to me saying, "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says that
one who meditates will receive abundantly in that world and will
receive in this world too. There will be worldly gain also. What
do you say?"
If there were worldly gain from meditation then this country
would be at the peak of prosperity. This country has meditated
more than anyone else has. Buddha meditated, attained samadhi.
The story says that flowers showered. I have not heard that dollar
bills showered. Rewrite the story so that it can be related to
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Rewrite the story.
But I understand Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's reasons. If you want
to propagate something in America, the American craze is for money,
not for meditation. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is a shrewd salesman.
He is ready to give whatever you want. He has to give whatever
the customer wants - a businessman does not bother with what
the customer needs. What the demand is - if something wrong
is demanded, then the wrong is given. He agrees with whatever
is asked. A shrewd businessman believes that the customer is always
right. What he says is right, right exactly like he says it.
In America he is selling meditation - and sales are moving
there - he is selling meditation. America says we want health,
so they will get health. If money is needed they will get money.
If professional skill needed they will get professional skill.
I cannot give support to this kind of idiotic nonsense. death06
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