Prabhaker

If you can sit, there is no need for meditations. In Japan, for meditation they have the word zazen. It means just sitting, doing nothing. If you can sit, not doing anything, this is the ultimate in meditations. There is no need for any other thing. But can you sit? There is the crux of the whole problem. Can you sit? Can you just sit doing nothing? If that is possible – just sit, do nothing – everything settles by itself, everything simply flows by itself. You are not needed to do anything. But the problem is – can you sit? If it is possible, this is the ultimate in meditation. If it is not possible, then you will have to use techniques because through techniques only this will become possible. Through techniques, one day you will realize the whole absurdity. All techniques of meditation are just like pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. Meditation is absurd but one has to realize it. It is a great realization. When one realizes that his meditation is absurd, then it simply drops. 'Sitting silently, doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.' There are inner seasons of life. So don't be worried - the spring is bound to come.

Can you live life happily for ever ? Are you ready to encounter old age, death ? Can't you see that humanity is in a miserable condition ? Why we need police, courts, jails, military, nuclear bombs, mental asylums, psychiatrists, millions of hospitals ? Men was not peaceful, healthy, loving and intelligent. We now need a new humanity.

If you are walking on the road, and you are also witnessing that you are walking -- not going along just like a robot, mechanical, everyday habit, the road is known, the legs know it, you can even walk with closed eyes. But walking with absolute alertness every step, every fall of a leaf, every ray of the sun, every bird flying in front of you, fully alert... slowly, slowly, you become aware that you are not the body that is walking, you are something inside which is witnessing. You should walk with awareness. Moving your hand, you should move with awareness, knowing perfectly that you are moving the hand. You can move it without any consciousness, like a mechanical thing…you are on a morning walk; you can go on walking without being aware of your feet. You walk at a certain pace; that has become habitual, automatic. Now try to walk slowly. Buddha used to say to his disciples, "Walk very slowly, and take each step very consciously." If you take each step very consciously, you are bound to walk slowly. If you are running, hurrying, you will forget to remember. Hence Buddha walks very slowly. Just try walking very slowly, and you will be surprised – a new quality of awareness starts happening in the body. Eat slowly, and you will be surprised – there is great relaxation. Do everything slowly... just to change the old pattern, just to come out of old habits. Walk in a relaxed way, eat in a relaxed way, talk, listen in a relaxed way. Slow down every process. Don't be in a hurry and don't be in haste. Move as if all eternity is available to you.

@Parki It is reported of one Mohammedan saint, Farid, that he was passing near Benares (In India) where another saint Kabir lived. Followers of Farid said, "It would be just wonderful if you and Kabir met. For us it would be a blessing." The same thing happened to Kabir and his followers. They heard that Farid was passing, so they said to Kabir that it would be good if he would ask Farid to stay a few days in the ashram. Farid's disciples said, "You both talking would be a great opportunity for us, we would like to hear what two enlightened persons say to each other." Farid laughed when they said this and replied, "There will be a meeting, but I don't think there is going to be any talking. But let us see." Farid came; Kabir received him. They laughed and embraced each other. Then they sat in silence. Two days Farid was there, and for many hours they sat together, with the disciples restless, waiting for them to say something, utter something. But not a single word was communicated. The third day Farid left and Kabir came to see him off. They again laughed, embraced each other, parted. The moment they parted Farid's disciples gathered around him and said, "What nonsense! What wastage of time. We were hoping that something was going to happen. Nothing happened. Why did you suddenly become so dumb? You talk so much to us." Farid replied, "All that I know, he knows also. Nothing is to be said. I looked into his eyes, and he is there, where I am. Whatsoever he has seen I have seen; whatsoever he has realized I have realized. There is nothing to be said." Two enlightened persons cannot talk because they know the same. Nothing is to be said. Only one enlightened person and one unenlightened person can have a meaningful communication, because one knows and the other is yet in ignorance.

How ?

How the material brain produces immaterial sense of consciousness ?

@Bruno Why do we reduce the beauty of relating to a relationship? Why are we in such a hurry? Because to relate is insecure, and a relationship is security, a relationship has certainty. Relating is just a meeting of two strangers, maybe just an overnight stay, and in the morning we say goodbye. Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow? And we are so afraid that we want to make it certain, we want to make it predictable. We would like tomorrow to be according to our ideas; we don’t allow it freedom to have its own say. So we immediately reduce every verb to a noun. You are in love with a woman or a man and immediately you start thinking of getting married. Make it a legal contract. Why? How does the law come into love? The law comes into love because love is not there. It is only a fantasy, and you know the fantasy will disappear. Before it disappears, settle down. Before it disappears, do something so it becomes impossible to separate. In a better world, with more meditative people, with a little more enlightenment… people will love, love immensely, but their love will remain a relating, not a relationship. In a better world, with more meditative people, with a little more enlightenment spread over the earth, people will love, love immensely, but their love will remain a relating, not a relationship. And I am not saying that their love will be only momentary. There is every possibility their love may go deeper than your love, may have a higher quality of intimacy, may have something more of poetry and more of godliness in it. There is every possibility that their love may last longer than your so-called relationships ever last. But it will not be guaranteed by the law, by the court, by the policeman. The guarantee will be inner. It will be a commitment from the heart, it will be a silent communion.

If you can change your work into meditation, that’s the best thing. Then meditation is never in conflict with your life. Whatsoever you do can become meditative. Meditation is not something separate; it is a part of life. It is just like breathing: just as you breathe in and out, you meditate also. And it is simply a shift of emphasis; nothing much is to be done. Things that you have been doing carelessly, start doing carefully. Things that you have been doing for some results, for example, money ... That’s okay, but you can make it a plus phenomenon. Money is okay and if your work gives you money, good; one needs money, but it is not all. And just by the side if you can reap many more pleasures, why miss them? They are just free of cost. You will be doing your work whether you love it or not, so just bringing love to it you will reap many more things which otherwise you would miss. Anyone engaged in creative work can make their livelihood a meditation.

We don't no know more than great masters like Gurdjieff , Buddha, Mahavira. Somebody can say , we talk a lot about non-duality, but yet animal species comes up. Gurdjieff has said that a woman cannot attain except through a man – and he is right. He is right because female energy differs from male energy. It is just as if someone says that only a woman can give birth to a child. A man cannot give birth to a child – he can give birth to a child only through a woman. The physical structure of the woman carries a womb; the physical structure of a man is without a womb – he can have a child only through a woman. And the same in reverse order happens in spiritual birth: a woman can get enlightened only through a man. Their spiritual energy differs also, just like their physical part. Why? Why is this so? And remember, this is not a question of equality or of inequality – this is a question of difference. Women are not lower than men because they cannot attain directly; man is not lower than woman because he cannot give birth to a child directly. They are different. There is no question of equality or inequality, there is no question of evaluation. They are simply different, and this is a fact. Love needs another; meditation can be done alone. Man can achieve through meditation – that’s why he can achieve directly. He can be alone. He is alone deep down. Loneliness comes naturally to man. For a woman, to be alone is difficult, very difficult, almost impossible. Her whole being is a deep urge to love, and for love, the other is needed. How can you love if the other is not there? You can meditate if the other is not there – there is no problem. Upto a certain level of spiritual development , male and female energies differ, mystics know about it. After fifth or spiritual body , there is no difference.

When Patanjali was working, a totally different quality of man existed in the world – very simple, primitive, unrepressed, with no neurosis, no enforced pattern; natural, more spontaneous, more in tune with nature. Trust was easy, doubt was difficult. In fact, to find a doubter was almost impossible. Trust was as natural as breathing. Now just the opposite has happened. Trust is almost impossible, doubt is as natural as breathing. And the whole energy is repressed. First a great and intense catharsis is needed.So all repressions have to be released. Before one enters on the path of Yoga, at least now, one has to drop all repressions whatsoever. Act out all your madnesses through Osho dynamic meditation http://www.oshodynamic.com/index.html http://www.oshonisarga.com/?page=dynamicmeditation Reduce the time and intensity of different stages if required.

Normally, so long as you are carried away by your speeding thoughts, you do not feel disturbed by the thoughts. But if you pause in-between, and study your mind, you realize how feverishly it works, and disturbs your peace. This pause is essential for curbing the over-activity of mind. You have to halt and watch your thoughts; for, if your thoughts are running fast, you cannot know your mind. Therefore, I reiterate, your experience is a good omen. Do not be worried about it, on the contrary, be glad. But then take the next step: take a completely impersonal view of the thought process. Be only an observer of thoughts; have nothing to do with them except to observe them. When thoughts cloud your mind, and harass you, ask them, ‘Oh thoughts! To whom do you belong? Do you belong to me?’ You will get no reply to this inquiry! Because the thoughts do not belong to you! Try and find out. Thoughts are your guests. They have made a lodging house of your mind. It is wrong to think of them as yours; and this same mistake comes in the way of getting rid of them. If you identify as yours, you stand in the way of their exit. And the thoughts which are your temporary guests become permanent lodgers. By looking at thoughts impersonally, you sever connection with them. Whenever a thought or desire is born in you, watch its birth, see it grow before the mind’s eye, and then observe its decline, and the final departure. Repeat this observation with the second thought that enters the mind; watch also its birth, and growth, decline and death. Thus, in a quiet and detached manner—that is, as a witness—observe the constant stream of thoughts. Feel nothing about them, good or bad. Form no opinions about them, favourable or unfavourable. Just watch. Thus, by silent choiceless observation, the traffic of thoughts slows down; and finally, a state of thoughtless Bliss is achieved.

Relax, these are tricks of mind, don't listen to it, mind will give up, don't hurry. On the path nothing more is needed than patience.

When you are really aware & not thinking, you are just aware, you have no mind to tell anything. Without thinking you can't conclude that awareness is fake.

Real women don't do sacrifice by fighting with naked sword in hand, killing as many men as possible. Women are not like Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, Nadirshah, Alexander, Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong. Yes, there are men who are far more feminine than any woman, and there are women who are far more masculine than any man. But this is not a beautiful state. The woman, to be really a woman, has to be more and more feminine, has to touch the heights of softness and vulnerability. And the man, to be really a man, has to move into his masculinity as deeply as possible. What is happening now is a kind of uni-sex: men becoming more and more feminine, women becoming more and more masculine.

Even if you have chosen women as teacher , they have qualities of man that are in the woman. For example, Joan of Arc had all the qualities of man. The Queen of Jhansi in India had all the qualities of man: she could fight with a naked sword, could kill people without any problem. Such women don’t represent women. Now, women are trying to become more like men, but the female energy, reaches the meditative state through love; and the male energy reaches love through meditation.

How long can you stop ? Thinking cannot be stopped. Not that it does not stop, but it cannot be stopped. It stops of its own accord. This distinction has to be understood, otherwise you can go mad chasing your mind. The very effort to stop will create more anxiety, it will create conflict, it will make you split. You will be in a constant turmoil within. This is not going to help. And even if you succeed in stopping it forcibly for a few moments, it is not an achievement at all -- because those few moments will be almost dead, they will not be alive. You may feel a sort of stillness, but not silence, because a forced stillness is not silence. Underneath it, deep in the unconscious, the repressed mind goes on working. So, there is no way to stop the mind. But the mind stops -- that is certain. It stops of its own accord. Watch -- don't try to stop. There is no need to do any action against the mind. In the first place, who will do it? It will be mind fighting mind itself. Look with deep reverence. Don't be a fighter -- be a lover. Watch! -- the subtle nuances of the mind; the sudden turns, the beautiful turns; the sudden jumps and leaps; the games that mind goes on playing; the dreams that it weaves -- the imagination, the memory; the thousand and one projections that it creates. Watch! Standing there, aloof, distant, not involved. The deeper your watchfulness becomes, the deeper your awareness becomes, and gaps start arising, intervals. One thought goes and another has not come, and there is a gap. One cloud has passed, another is coming and there is a gap. In those gaps, for the first time you will have glimpses of no-mind,

Each act of the devotee or the meditator becomes suffused with his meditation or love. Slowly slowly, there is no doer left. The meditator is in meditation unselfconsciously and the lover is in love unselfconsciously. Selfconsciousness is the disease; in fact, to be unselfconscious is to become realized. That's what enlightenment is all about: to be unselfconscious. To be conscious mean being alert and with no thought. The unconscious is not really unconscious. Rather, it is only less conscious. So the difference between conscious and unconscious is not of polar opposites, but of degrees. Consciousness is a quality of your mind, but it is not your total mind. Your mind can be both conscious and unconscious.

There is a difference between the male mind and the female mind; their functioning is different. They are polar opposites — never forget that. Spiritually they are exactly the same, but physiologically they are poles apart; they function in different ways.

When a woman arrives she becomes a Mistress, not a Master. The fulfilment of a woman is love. The flowering of a woman is love. Mastery is not the goal of the feminine mind; they don't become Masters, they become Mistresses. To be a Master is basically a male effort. Awareness is the way of man, love is the way of woman. On the path of awareness it is possible to teach; one can become a Master. On the path of love, how can you teach love? You can flower, you can bloom in love, but how can you teach it? Yes, if somebody wants to learn from you, he will learn it, but you will not be a Master. And such women have existed: Rabiya, Meera, Mallibai, Magdalen, Teresa. Such women have existed: Sahajo, Daya, Lalla. Many women have existed, but they were not Masters. They were so surrendered to God that they became Mistresses. Meera says 'I am a mistress to you. My Lord' - a mistress to Krishna, to God himself. She sings the song of the glory of her Lord, she dances. If somebody can catch something from her, it is overflowing; but she cannot be a teacher. She is surrendered, her surrender is absolute. Yes, if you are in her company, you will learn what surrender is... but you will have to learn, she will not teach. A woman cannot be a teacher.

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. 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.

@Jhonny Exactly the same number of women attain to enlightenment as men, but they don't fuss about it as much as men - that's all. They don't advertise it as much as men. They enjoy it. That is how woman, the feminine being, is. Man enjoys talking about his enlightenment more than enlightenment itself. He is interested in how many people have come to know that he has become enlightened. Women are not worried. They are not worried at all. If it has happened they enjoy it, they nourish it deep inside.

@mikeyy The basic structure of the family is of possessiveness: the husband possesses the wife and they both possess the children; and the moment you possess a human being you have taken away his dignity, his freedom, his very humanity. You have taken away all that is beautiful and you have given him only handcuffs; perhaps made of gold – beautiful cages in place of his wings – but those golden cages cannot give him the sky and the freedom of the sky.

Yoga says we have seven bodies: the physical, the etheric,the astral, the mental, the spiritual, the cosmic, and the nirvanic. As there are seven bodies, so there are also seven chakras, energy centres, and each chakra is connected in a special way with its corresponding body. Psychic powers become possible as you go deeper into purities and perfection. For example, if you can move your astral body out of the gross body you can do many things which will be miraculous. You can visit people. They can see you but they cannot touch you. You can even talk to them by your astral projection. Astral body is beyond gravitation. Gravitation has no power over it. In the astral realm, you can travel not only in space but also in time. The astral body can trespass the barrier of time -- but only toward the past, not toward the future. During a spiritual journey it is not necessary to pass through psychic realms. But that does not mean that you will not pass through them. You can pass through them with such speed that you do not notice them. Patanjali in has a complete section of these sutras devoted to vibhuti pada -- to this dimension of power. And he has written the whole part just to make you beware that don't become a victim of it, because ego is very subtle.

I don't know about flying monk, but I personally know some meditators having psychic powers. It happens that when for the first time a meditator attains to some psychic energy, some psychic power, the tendency, a natural tendency, is to exhibit it. And if he exhibits, sooner or later he will lose the power. These psychic powers are the greatest obstacle on the way to realization. The mind is always hankering. The mind is nothing but hankering, desiring something to happen. Sometimes it is thinking about money, to have more money, to have bigger houses, to have more respectability, to have more political power. Then you turn towards spirituality; the mind remains the same. Now you want to have more psychic powers -- telepathy, clairvoyance, and all sorts of nonsense. But the mind remains the same -- you want more. And if you want more you will remain ill. Somebody went to Ramakrishna and said: "My Master is a great man. He can walk on the water." Ramakrishna said: "Foolish! Because I can simply go to the ferryman, and with just two paisa he takes me to the other side. How many years did your Master have to practice to do this miracle?" He said: "Eighteen years." He said: "This is too much; just two paisa is the value of it! Your Master is a fool. Go and make him aware that he should not waste his life. It can be done so easily." Yes, this is what Ramakrishna is saying: all miracles are ego-trips.

Zen the only living religion because it is not a religion, but only a religiousness. It has no dogma, it does not depend on any founder. It has no past; in fact it has nothing to teach you. It is the strangest thing that has happened in the whole history of mankind—strangest because it enjoys in emptiness, it blossoms in nothingness. Zen is pure meditation. The very word `Zen' means meditation. It has nothing else, it requires no rituals. Just as you are, the only requirement is to go in and discover your eternal self. Zen does not require any faith. It requires of you only an intense inquiry into yourself, a deepening of consciousness, not concentration—a settling, a relaxing of consciousness.