Prabhaker

When meditating, working on yourself, if you wonder whether you are making any progress or not, know well that you are not making any progress – because when progress is made you know it. Why? It is just as when you are ill and you are taking medicine. Won’t you be able to feel whether you are getting healthy or not? If you do not feel it and the question arises of whether you are getting well or not, know well that you are not getting well. Well-being is such a clear feeling that when you have it you know it. But why does this question arise? This question arises for so many reasons. One, you are not really working. You are just deceiving yourself. You are playing tricks with yourself. You are less concerned with what you are doing and more concerned with what is happening. If you are really doing it, you can leave the result to existence. But our minds are such that we are less concerned with the cause and more concerned with the effect – because of greed. Greed wants to have everything without doing anything. So the greedy mind goes on moving ahead. Then the greedy mind asks, 'What is happening? Is something happening or not?' Be really concerned with what you are doing, and when something happens you will know it. It is going to happen to you. You need not ask anyone. There is no fixed road. Everyone is on a different road; we are not on one road. Even if you are following one technique of meditation, you are not on the same road as someone else who is doing the same technique; you cannot be. There is no public path. Every path is individual and personal. So no one’s experiences on the path will be helpful to you; rather, they may be damaging. Someone may be seeing something on his path. If he says to you that this is the sign of progress, you may not meet the same sign on your path. The same trees may not be on your path; the same stones may not be on your path. So do not be a victim of all this nonsense. Only certain inner feelings are relevant. For example, if you are progressing, then certain things will begin to happen spontaneously. One, you will feel more and more contentment. Really, when meditation is completely fulfilled, one becomes so contented that he forgets to meditate – because meditation is an effort, a discontent. If one day you forget to meditate and you do not feel any addiction, you do not feel any gap, you are as filled as ever, then know it is a good sign. Do not make meditation a habit. Let it be alive! Then discontent will disappear by and by; you will feel contentment, and not only while you are meditating. If something happens only while you are meditating, it is false, it is hypnotic. It does some good but it is not going to be very deep. It is good only in comparison. If there is nothing happening, no meditation, no blissful moment, do not worry about it. If something is happening, do not cling to it. If meditation is going rightly, deep, you will feel transformed throughout the whole day. A subtle contentment will be present every moment. With whatsoever you are doing, you will feel a cool center inside…contentment. Of course there will be results. Anger will be less and less possible. It will go on disappearing. Why? – because anger shows a non-meditative mind, a mind that is not at ease with itself. With meditation you will be more and more happy with yourself – remember, with yourself. These will be signs, the general signs. So do not think you are achieving much if you are beginning to see light or if you go on seeing beautiful colors. They are good but do not feel satisfied unless real psychological changes are there: less anger, more love; less cruelty, more compassion. Unless this happens, your seeing lights and colors and hearing sounds are child’s play. They are beautiful, very beautiful; it is good to play with them – but that is not the aim of meditation. They happen on the road, they are just by-products, but do not be concerned. In a relationship, observe what is happening. How are you behaving toward your wife now? Observe it. Is there any change? That change is meaningful. How are you behaving with your servant? Is there any change? That change is significant. Meditation for me is not a child’s play. It is a deep transformation. How to know this transformation? First you will feel your inner transformation in your outer relationships, and then you will go deep. Then only will you begin to feel something inner. So probe into, penetrate your relationships, and look there to see whether your meditation is progressing or not. If you feel a growing love, unconditional love, if you feel a compassion without cause, if you feel a deep concern for everyone’s welfare, well-being, your meditation is growing. Then forget all other things. With this observation you will also observe many things in yourself. You will be more silent; you will have less noise within. When there is a need you will talk, when there is no need you will be silent. You will feel more at ease, relaxed. Whatsoever you are doing, it will be a relaxed effort; there will be no strain. You will become less and less ambitious. Ultimately, there will be no ambition. Even the ambition to reach moksha will not be there. Even the desire for liberation is a bondage. Even the desire to be desireless is a bondage. One thing more: whatsoever you are doing, do not think that results will be coming in the future. If you are doing something real, results are here and now. In inner work, if you have meditated today, results are not going to be tomorrow. If you have meditated today. the perfume of it, howsoever little, will be there. If you are sensitive you can feel it. Whenever something real is done, it affects you here and now. So meditation is not just a certain thing which you do for one hour and forget. Really, the whole of life has to be meditative. Only then will you begin to feel things. And when I say that the whole life is to be meditative, I do not mean to go and close your eyes for twenty-four hours and sit and meditate – no! Wherever you are you can be sensitive and that sensitivity will pay. Then there will be no need to ask, 'Am I progressing or not?' Only with this capacity of being aware of all things happening around you will you develop the capacity to feel what is happening within. Osho, The Ultimate Alchemy, Vol 2, Talk #18

Kindly elaborate.

In some societies , it could cost your life.

Now I understand why we Indians are tense and sad !

If you are not ready for physical death, there is no shortcut.

Everybody can't resonate with Osho, I post only selected teachings of Osho. Many of his teaching are suitable for mystics, I don't post them. Leo is honest, he is a good teacher for western people.

I am blind but I have experience of more than two decades. From my experience I can say that only an enlightened master can be the best teacher. When I was not much experienced , I thought that I can teach others.

A blind man can't guide a blind man, at the most you can help another person to the level of your understanding, by chance.

Everybody is unique, everyone is at different stage. Even if two persons are following same technique , problems will be different, result will be different. An enlightened master know about you more than you know about yourself. He knows how to teach.

I am not enlightened, only teaching of an enlightened master can help many people. Everybody can't be a spiritual teacher, teaching is a quality, it needs preparation , only enlightenment is not enough.

I don't live a life suggested by Osho, I live in isolation. Still I need a master like Osho to keep me busy, as I can't remain unoccupied twenty-four hours.

The East has also missed many things - it has missed the scientific mind, it has missed the technological progress. It has remained poor, it has been invaded by anybody. The East has tried the first extreme — of meditation. It became life-negating and escapist — hence the poverty, the ugliness. Some individuals have evolved: a Buddha, a Krishna, but they are exceptions; they are not the rule. Man is coming to a very unique point from where a quantum leap will be possible. The moment is coming closer, because for the first time, particularly in the west, the society has come to such a state where it is feasible, it is practical. Otherwise in the east people have lived in such starvation – how to think about consciousness? The East was also interested in meditation when the East was rich; this has to be understood.

Celebrate! With music and dance express whatsoever is there. Carry your aliveness with you throughout the day.

Excerpts from ~ Osho, Ancient Music in the Pines, Talk #7 "What is meditation? Is it a technique that can be practiced? Is it an effort that you have to do? Is it something which the mind can achieve? It is not. "All that the mind can do cannot be meditation – it is something beyond the mind, the mind is absolutely helpless there. "The mind cannot penetrate meditation; where mind ends, meditation begins. This has to be remembered, because in our life, whatsoever we do, we do through the mind; whatsoever we achieve, we achieve through the mind. "And then, when we turn inwards, we again start thinking in terms of techniques, methods, doings, because the whole of life's experience shows us that everything can be done by the mind. Yes – except meditation, everything can be done by the mind. "Everything is done by the mind except meditation. Because meditation is not an achievement – it is already the case, it is your nature. It has not to be achieved; it has not only to be recognized, it has only to be remembered. It is there waiting for you – just a turning in, and it is available. You have been carrying it always and always. "Meditation is your intrinsic nature. It is you, it is your being, it has nothing to do with your doings. You cannot have it. You cannot not have it. It cannot be possessed, it is not a thing. "It is you. It is your being."

Excerpts from ~ Osho, Philosophia Perennis, Vol. 2, Talk #5 Osho ~ What is meditation? “Meditation is a state of no-mind. Meditation is a state of pure consciousness with no content. Ordinarily, your consciousness is too much full of rubbish, just like a mirror covered with dust. The mind is a constant traffic: thoughts are moving, desires are moving, memories are moving, ambitions are moving – it is a constant traffic! Day in, day out. Even when you are asleep the mind is functioning, it is dreaming. It is still thinking; it is still in worries and anxieties. It is preparing for the next day; an underground preparation is going on. This is the state of no meditation – just the opposite is meditation. When there is no traffic and thinking has ceased, no thought moves, no desire stirs, you are utterly silent – that silence is meditation. And in that silence truth is known, and never otherwise. Meditation is a state of no-mind. “And you cannot find meditation through the mind because mind will perpetuate itself. You can find meditation only by putting the mind aside, by being cool, indifferent, unidentified with the mind; by seeing the mind pass, but not getting identified with it, not thinking that “I am it.” “Meditation is the awareness that “I am not the mind.” When the awareness goes deeper and deeper in you, slowly slowly, a few moments arrive – moments of silence, moments of pure space, moments of transparency, moments when nothing stirs in you and everything is still. In those still moments you will know who you are, and you will know what the mystery of this existence is.

Excerpts from ~ Meditation The First And Last Freedom - OSHO Osho: What Is Meditation? Meditation is not an Indian method; it is not simply a technique. You cannot learn it. It is a growth: a growth of your total living, out of your total living. Meditation is not something that can be added to you as you are. It can come to you only through a basic transformation, a mutation. It is a flowering, a growth. Growth is always out of the total; it is not an addition. You must grow toward meditation. This total flowering of the personality must be understood correctly. Otherwise one can play games with oneself, one can occupy oneself with mental tricks. And there are so many tricks! Not only can you be fooled by them, not only will you not gain anything, but in a real sense you will be harmed. The very attitude that there is some trick to meditation – to conceive of meditation in terms of method – is basically wrong. And when one begins to play with mental tricks, the very quality of the mind begins to deteriorate. As mind exists, it is not meditative. The total mind must change before meditation can happen. Then what is the mind as it now exists? How does it function? The mind is always verbalizing. You can know words, you can know language, you can know the conceptual structure of thinking, but that is not thinking. On the contrary, it is an escape from thinking. You see a flower and you verbalize it; you see a man crossing the street and you verbalize it. The mind can transform every existential thing into words. Then the words become a barrier, an imprisonment. This constant transformation of things into words, of existence into words, is the obstacle to a meditative mind. So the first requirement toward a meditative mind is to be aware of your constant verbalizing and to be able to stop it. Just see things; do not verbalize. Be aware of their presence, but do not change them into words. Let things be, without language; let persons be, without language; let situations be, without language. It is not impossible; it is natural. It is the situation as it now exists that is artificial, but we have become so habituated to it, it has become so mechanical, that we are not even aware that we are constantly transforming experience into words. The sunrise is there. You are never aware of the gap between seeing it and verbalizing. You see the sun, you feel it, and immediately you verbalize it. The gap between seeing and verbalizing is lost. One must become aware of the fact that the sunrise is not a word. It is a fact, a presence. The mind automatically changes experiences into words. These words then come between you and the experience. Meditation means living without words, living nonlinguistically. Sometimes it happens spontaneously. When you are in love, presence is felt, not language. Whenever two lovers are intimate with one another they become silent. It is not that there is nothing to express. On the contrary, there is an overwhelming amount to be expressed. But words are never there; they cannot be. They come only when love has gone. If two lovers are never silent, it is an indication that love has died. Now they are filling the gap with words. When love is alive, words are not there because the very existence of love is so overwhelming, so penetrating, that the barrier of language and words is crossed. And ordinarily, it is only crossed in love. Meditation is the culmination of love: love not for a single person, but for the total existence. To me, meditation is a living relationship with the total existence that surrounds you. If you can be in love with any situation, then you are in meditation. ———————- oooOooo ——————– Society cannot exist without language; it needs language. But existence does not need it. I am not saying that you should exist without language. You will have to use it. But you must be able to turn the mechanism of verbalization on and off. When you are existing as a social being, the mechanism of language is needed; but when you are alone with existence, you must be able to turn it off. If you can’t turn it off – if it goes on and on, and you are incapable of stopping it – then you have become a slave to it. Mind must be an instrument, not the master. ———————- oooOooo ——————– Language must be dropped. I don’t mean that you have to suppress it or eliminate it. I only mean that it does not have to be a twenty-four-hour-a-day habit for you. When you walk, you need to move your legs. But if they go on moving when you are sitting, then you are mad. You must be able to turn them off. In the same way, when you are not talking with anyone, language must not be there. It is a technique to communicate. When you are not communicating with anybody it should not be there. If you are able to do this, you can grow into meditation. Meditation is a growing process, not a technique. A technique is always dead, so it can be added to you, but a process is always alive. It grows, it expands.

Meditation Is Living Joyously Meditation is rest, absolute rest, a full stop to all activity - physical, mental, emotional. When you are in such a deep rest that nothing stirs in you, when all action as such ceases, as if you are fast asleep yet awake, you come to know who you are. Suddenly the window opens. It cannot be opened by effort, because effort creates tension, and tension is the cause of our whole misery. Hence this is something very fundamental to be understood that meditation is not effort. One has to be very playful about meditation, one has to learn to enjoy it as fun. One has not to be serious about it - be serious and you miss. One has to go into it very joyously. And one has to keep aware that it is falling into deeper and deeper rest. It is not concentration, just the contrary, it is relaxation. When you are utterly relaxed, for the first time you start feeling your reality; you come face to face with your being. When you are engaged in activity you are so occupied that you cannot see yourself. Activity creates much smoke around you, it raises much dust around you; hence all activity has to be dropped, at least for a few hours per day. That is only so in the beginning. When you have learnt the art of being at rest you can be both active and restful together, because then you know that rest is something so inner that it cannot be disturbed by anything outer. The activity goes on at the circumference and at the center you remain restful. So it is only for beginning that activity has to be dropped for a few hours. When one has learned the art then there is no question : for twenty-four hours a day one can be meditative and one can continue all the activities of ordinary life. But remember, the key word is rest, relaxation. Never go against rest and relaxation. Arrange your life in such a way, drop all futile activity, because ninety per cent is futile; it is just for killing time and remaining occupied. Do only the essential and devote your energies more and more to the inner journey. Then that miracle happens when you can remain at rest and in action together, simultaneously. That is the meeting of the sacred and the mundane, the meeting of this world and that, the meeting of materialism and spiritualism.

Meditation Is in the Present Mind concentrates: it acts out of the past. Meditation acts in the present, out of the present. It is a pure response to the present, it is not reaction. It acts not out of conclusions, it acts seeing the existential. Watch in your life: there is a great difference when you act out of conclusions. You see a man, you feel attracted - a beautiful man, looks very good, looks innocent. His eyes are beautiful, the vibe is beautiful. But then the man introduces himself and he says, "I am Jew" - and you are a Christian. Something immediately clicks and there is distance: now the man is no more innocent, the man is no more beautiful. You have certain ideas about Jews. Or, he is a Christian and you are a Jew; you have certain ideas about Christians - what Christianity has done to Jews in the past, what other Christians have done to Jews in the past, how they have tortured Jews down the ages... and suddenly he is a Christian - and something immediately changes. This is acting out of conclusions, prejudices, not looking at this man - because this man may not be the man that you think a Jew has to be... because each Jew is a different kind of man, each Hindu is a different kind of man, so is each Mohammedan. You cannot act out of prejudices. You cannot act by categorizing people. You cannot pigeonhole people; nobody can be pigeonholed. You may have been deceived by a hundred communists, but when you meet the hundred and first communist don't go on believing in the category that you have made in your mind: that communists are deceptive - or anything. This may be a different type of man, because no two persons are alike. Whenever you act out of conclusion, it is mind. When you look into the present and you don't allow any idea to obstruct the reality, to obstruct the fact, you just look into the fact and act out of that look, that is meditation.

Meditation Is Relaxation Meditation is rest, absolute rest, a full stop to all activity - physical, mental, emotional. When you are in such a deep rest that nothing stirs in you, when all action as such ceases, as if you are fast asleep yet awake, you come to know who you are. Suddenly the window opens. It cannot be opened by effort, because effort creates tension, and tension is the cause of our whole misery. Hence this is something very fundamental to be understood that meditation is not effort. One has to be very playful about meditation, one has to learn to enjoy it as fun. One has not to be serious about it - be serious and you miss. One has to go into it very joyously. And one has to keep aware that it is falling into deeper and deeper rest. It is not concentration, just the contrary, it is relaxation. When you are utterly relaxed, for the first time you start feeling your reality; you come face to face with your being. When you are engaged in activity you are so occupied that you cannot see yourself. Activity creates much smoke around you, it raises much dust around you; hence all activity has to be dropped, at least for a few hours per day. That is only so in the beginning. When you have learnt the art of being at rest you can be both active and restful together, because then you know that rest is something so inner that it cannot be disturbed by anything outer. The activity goes on at the circumference and at the center you remain restful. So it is only for beginning that activity has to be dropped for a few hours. When one has learned the art then there is no question : for twenty-four hours a day one can be meditative and one can continue all the activities of ordinary life. But remember, the key word is rest, relaxation. Never go against rest and relaxation. Arrange your life in such a way, drop all futile activity, because ninety per cent is futile; it is just for killing time and remaining occupied. Do only the essential and devote your energies more and more to the inner journey. Then that miracle happens when you can remain at rest and in action together, simultaneously. That is the meeting of the sacred and the mundane, the meeting of this world and that, the meeting of materialism and spiritualism.

Meditation Is Understanding You will have to understand one of the most fundamental things about meditation - that no technique leads to meditation. The old so-called techniques and the new scientific bio-feedback techniques are the same as far as meditation is concerned. Meditation is not a byproduct of any technique. Meditation happens beyond mind. No technique can go beyond mind. But there is going to be a great misunderstanding in scientific circles and it has a certain basis. The basis of all misunderstanding is: When the being of a person is in a state of meditation, it creates certain waves in the mind. These waves can be created from the outside by technical means. But those waves will not create meditation - this is the misunderstanding. Meditation creates those waves; it is the mind reflecting the inner world. You cannot see what is happening inside. But you can see what is happening in the mind. Now there are sensitive instruments... we can judge what kind of waves are there when a person is asleep, what kind of waves are there when a person is dreaming, what kind of waves are there when a person is in meditation. But by creating the waves, you cannot create the situation - because those waves are only symptoms, indicators. It is perfectly good, you can study them. But remember that there is no shortcut to meditation, and no mechanical device can be of any help. In fact, meditation needs no technique - scientific or otherwise. It is not a question of sitting silently, it is not a question of chanting a mantra. It is a question of understanding the subtle workings of the mind. As you understand those workings of the mind a great awareness arises in you which is not of the mind. That awareness arises in your being, in your soul, in your consciousness. Mind is only a mechanism, but when that awareness arises it is bound to create a certain energy pattern around it. That energy pattern is noted by the mind. Mind is a very subtle mechanism. And you are studying from the outside, so at the most you can study the mind. Seeing that whenever a person is silent, serene, peaceful, a certain wave pattern always, inevitably appears in the mind, the scientific thinking will say: if we can create this wave pattern in the mind, through some bio-feedback technology, then the being inside will reach the heights of awareness. It is not a question of cause and effect. These waves in the mind are not the cause of meditation; they are on the contrary, the effect. But from the effect you cannot move towards the cause. It is possible that by bio-feedback you can create certain patterns in the mind and they will give a feeling of peace, silence and serenity to the person. Because the person himself does not know what meditation is and has no way of comparing, he may be misled into believing that this is meditation - but it is not. Because the moment the bio-feedback mechanism stops, the waves disappear and the silence and the peace and the serenity disappear. And you may go on practicing with those scientific instruments for years: it will not change your character, it will not change your morality, it will not change your individuality. You will remain the same. Meditation transforms. It takes you to higher levels of consciousness and changes your whole lifestyle. It changes your reactions into responses to such an extent that it is unbelievable that the person who would have reacted in the same situation in anger is now acting in deep compassion, with love - in the same situation. Meditation is a state of being, arrived at through understanding. It needs intelligence, it does not need techniques.

Meditation Is Awareness And remember each situation has to become an opportunity to meditate. What is meditation? Becoming aware of what you are doing, becoming aware of what is happening to you. Somebody insults you: become aware. What is happening to you when the insult reaches you? Meditate over it; this is changing the whole gestalt. When somebody insults you, you concentrate on the person - "Why is he insulting me? Who does he think he is? How can I take revenge?" If he is very powerful you surrender, you start wagging your tail. If he is not very powerful and you see that he is weak, you pounce on him. But you forget yourself completely in all this; the other becomes the focus. This is missing an opportunity for meditation. When somebody insults you, meditate. Gurdjieff has said, "When my father was dying. I was only nine. He called me close to his bed and whispered in my ear. 'My son, I am not leaving much to you, not in worldly things, but I have one thing to tell you that was told to me by my father on his deathbed. It has helped me tremendously; it has been my treasure. You are not grown up yet, you may not understand what I am saying, but keep it, remember it. One day you will be grown up and then you may understand. This is a key: it unlocks the doors of great treasures.'" Of course Gurdjieff could not understand it at that moment, but it was the thing that changed his whole life. And his father said a very simple thing. He said, "Whenever somebody insults you, my son tell him you will meditate over it for twenty-four hours and then you will come and answer him." Gurdjieff could not believe that this was such a great key. He could not believe that "This is something so valuable that I have to remember it." And we can forgive a young child of nine years of old. But because this was something said by his dying father who had loved him tremendously, and immediately after saying it he breathed his last, it became imprinted on him; he could not forget it. Whenever he remembered his father, he would remember the saying. Without truly understanding, he started practicing it. If somebody insulted him he would say, "Sir for twenty-four hours I have to meditate over it - that's what my father told me. And he is here no more, and I cannot disobey a dead old man. He loved me tremendously, and I loved him tremendously, and there is no way to disobey him. You can disobey your father when he is alive, but when your father is dead how can you disobey him? So please forgive me, I will come back after twenty-four hours and answer you." And he says. "Meditating on it for twenty-four hours has given me the greatest insights into my being. Sometimes I found that the insult was right, that that's how I am. So I would go to the person and say, 'Sir, thank you, you were right. It was not an insult, it was simply a statement of fact. You called me stupid: I am.'" "Or sometimes it happened that meditating for twenty-four hours, I would come to know that it was an absolute lie. But when something is a lie, why be offended by it? So I would not even go to tell him that it was a lie. A lie is a lie, why be bothered by it?" But watching, meditating, slowly slowly he became more and more aware of his reactions, rather than the actions of others.

Meditation Is Not Escapist The man who lives in the future, lives a counterfeit life. He does not really live, he only pretends to live. He hopes to live, he desires to live, but he never lives. And the tomorrow never comes, it is always today. And whatsoever comes is always now and here, and he does not know how to live here-now. The way to escape is called "desire." Tanha - that is Buddha's word for what is an escape from the present, from the real into the unreal. The man who desires is an escapist. Now, this is very strange, that meditators are thought to be escapists. That is utter nonsense. Only the meditator is not an escapist - everybody else is. Meditation means relaxing in the moment, in the present. Meditation is the only thing in the world which is not escapist thing. People who condemn meditation always condemn it with the argument that it is escape, escaping from life. They are simply talking nonsense; they don't understand what they are saying. Meditation is not escaping from life: it is escaping into life. Mind is escaping from life, desire is escaping from life.

Meditation Is Fun Millions of people miss meditation because meditation has taken on a wrong connotation. It looks very serious, looks gloomy, has something of the church in it, looks as if it is only for people who are dead, or almost dead, who are gloomy, serious, have long faces, who have lost festivity, fun, playfulness, celebration. These are the qualities of meditation. A really meditative person is playful; life is fun for him, life is a leela, a play. He enjoys it tremendously. He is not serious. He is relaxed.

Meditation Is a Knack It is the simplest art in the world, to be silent. It is not a doing, it is a non-doing. How can it be difficult. I am showing you the way of enlightenment through laziness! Nothing has to be done to attain it, because it is your nature. You have already got it. You are just so busy with outer business that you cannot see your own nature. Deep within you is exactly the same as outside you: the beauty, the silence, the ecstasy, the blissfulness. But please, sometimes to be kind to yourself: just sit down and don't do anything, either physically or mentally. Relax, not in an American way.... because I have seen so many American books titled "How To Relax". The very title says that the man knows nothing about relaxation. There is no "how". Yes , it is okay - How to repair a Car; you will have to do something. But there is no doing as such, as far as relaxation is concerned. Just don't do anything. I know you will find it a little difficult in the beginning. That is not because relaxation is difficult, it is because you have become addicted to doing something. The addiction will take a little time to disappear. Just be, and watch. Being is not doing, and watching is also not doing. You sit silently doing nothing, witnessing whatsoever is happening. Thoughts will be moving in your mind; your body may be feeling some tension somewhere, you may have a migraine. Just be a witness. Don't be identified with it. Watch, be a watcher on the hills, and everything else is happening in the valley. It is a knack, not an art. Meditation is not a science, it is not an art, it is a knack - just that way. All that you need is a little patience. The old habits will continue; the thoughts will go on rushing. And your mind is always in a rush hour, the traffic is always jammed. Your body is not accustomed to sitting silently - you will be tossing and turning. Nothing to be worried about. Just watch that the body is tossing and turning, and that the mind is whirling, is full of thoughts - consistent, inconsistent, useless - fantasies, dreams. You remain in the center, just watching. All the religions of the world have taught people to do something; stop the process of thought, force the body into a still posture. That's what yoga is - a long practice of forcing the body to be still. But a forced body is not still. And all the prayers, concentrations, contemplations of all the religions do the same with the mind: they force it, they don't allow the thoughts to move. Yes, you have the capacity to do it. And if you persist you may be able to stop the thought process. But this is not the real thing, it is absolutely fake. When stillness comes on its own, when silence descends without your effort, when you watch thoughts and a moment comes when thoughts start disappearing and silence starts happening that is beautiful. The thoughts stop of their own accord if you don't identify, if you remain a witness and you don't say, "This is my thought." You don't say, " This is bad, this is good." "This should be there" and "This should not be there". Then you are not a watcher; you have prejudices, you have certain attitudes. A watcher has no prejudice, he has no judgment. He simply sees like a mirror. When you bring something in front of a mirror it reflects, simply reflects. There is no judgment that the man is ugly, that the man is beautiful, that, "Aha! What a good nose you have got." The mirror has nothing to say. Its nature is to mirror; it mirrors. This is what I call meditation: you simply mirror everything within or without. And I guarantee you... I can guarantee because it has happened to me and to many of my people; just watching patiently - maybe a few days will pass, maybe a few months, maybe a few years. There is no way of saying because each individual has a different collection. You must have seen people collecting antiques, postal stamps. Everybody has a different collection: the quantity may be different, hence the time it takes will be different - but go on remaining witness as much as you can. And this meditation needs no special time. You can wash the floor and remain silently watching yourself washing the floor. I can move my hand unconsciously, without watching, or I can move it with full awareness. And there is qualitative difference. When you move it unconsciously it is mechanical. When you move it with consciousness there is grace. Even in the hand, which is part of your body, you will feel silence, coolness - what to say about the mind? With your watching and watching, slowly the rush of thoughts starts getting less and less. Moments of silence start appearing; a thought comes, and then there is silence before another appears. These gaps will give you the first glimpse of meditation and the first joy that you are arriving home.

Meditation Is Remembrance Wherever you are remember yourself, that you are: this consciousness that you are should become a continuity. Not your name, your caste, your nationality - those are futile things, absolutely useless. Just remember that "I am." This must not be forgotten. This is what Hindus call self-remembrance, what the Buddha called right-mindfulness, what Gurdjieff used to call self-remembering, what Krishnamurti calls awareness. This is the most substantial part of meditation, to remember that "I am." Walking, sitting, eating, talking, remember that "I am." Never forget this. It will be difficult, very arduous. In the beginning you will keep forgetting; there will be only single moments when you will feel illuminated, then it is lost. But don't get miserable; even single moments are much. Go on, whenever you can remember again, again catch hold of the thread. When you forget, don't worry - remember again, again catch hold of the thread, and by and by the gaps will lessen, the intervals will start dropping, a continuity will arise. And whenever your consciousness becomes continuous, you need not use the mind. Then there is no planning, then you act out of your consciousness, not out of your mind. Then there is no need of apology, no need to give any explanation. Then you are whatsoever you are, there is nothing to hide. Whatsoever you are, you are. You cannot do anything else. You can only be in a state of continuous remembrance. Through this remembrance, this mindfulness, comes the authentic religion, comes the authentic morality.