Prabhaker

Meditation is not a separate process. Meditation is simply the name for life lived with awareness. Meditation means being in the moment, not leaving this moment. Someone asked Buddha, ”How shall we meditate?” Buddha replied, ”Whatsoever you do, do it with awareness; this is meditation. Walking, walk attentively, as if walking is everything; eating, eat with awareness, as if eating is everything; rising, rise with awareness; sitting, sit with awareness; all your actions become conscious, your mind does not travel beyond this moment, it remains in the moment, settles in the moment – this is meditation.” So understand well that meditation is not just one of life’s innumerable activities. It is not just one link in the chain of man’s endless doings. Meditation is a lifestyle, not an activity.

@electroBeam Osho's books are not written but are transcribed from audio and video recordings of his discourses.

Meditation is enough to solve your problems, but something is missing in it — compassion. If compassion is also there, then you can help others solve their problems. It happened in China: When Bodhidharma went to China, a man came to him. He said, "I have followed your teachings: I meditate and then I feel compassion for the whole universe - not only for men, but for animals, for rocks and rivers also. But there is one problem: I cannot feel compassion for my neighbor. No - it is impossible! So you please tell me: can I exclude my neighbor from my compassion? I include the whole existence, known, unknown, but can I exclude my neighbor? - because it is very difficult, impossible. I cannot feel compassion for him." Bodhidharma said, "Then forget about meditation, because if compassion excludes anybody then it is no more there." Compassion is all-inclusive - intrinsically all-inclusive. So if you cannot feel compassion for your neighbor~ then forget all about meditation - because it has nothing to do with somebody in particular. It has something to do with your inner state. Be compassion! unconditionally, undirected, unaddressed. Then you become a healing force into this world of misery.

There are few who's life is a celebration. There are only two kinds of people in the world says Sadhguru, mystics and mistakes. When renowned Indian classical dancer, Mrinalini Sarabhai, died at the age of 97 on 21 January 2016, her equally renowned daughter, Malika Sarabhai, burst into a spontaneous dance to offer her mother an appropriate farewell. Even death is celebrated in many cultures.

The habit is the easier way to do a thing. The whole mechanism of a habit is that you need not be conscious about it. It has become a mechanical part of you, a part of your robot mind: it does things by itself. You can go on thinking other things, dreaming other dreams, and the habit takes every action to its end – with more perfection because a habit is mechanical, and machines don’t commit mistakes. So everybody is dominated by habit. And it is one of the most important things, to get out of this domination. It is moving from mechanicalness to consciousness. In the beginning it is very arduous. You are doing one thing, and at the same time you have to remain conscious – so you are divided. Because of your division, your action may not be as perfect as when the habit does it alone; it simply knows how to do it. For example, if you learn bicycling, in the beginning it is very difficult, for the simple reason that you are too conscious, and there are many things to be conscious of. You have to take care of the handles, where they are moving, the direction. You have to take care of your legs, whether they are working on the pedals. You have to take care whether there are people on the road, cars or trucks. There are so many things to take care of, and you don’t have any habit. This is a natural way to make things simple, but as far as your growth of consciousness is concerned, it is against you. It is efficient, in tune with nature, but not in tune with a higher nature, where every action has to be conscious.

I have always struggled to live life of a 'seeker of truth', now fortunately I have managed to live almost like a mystic. If detachment is seen as being the opposite of attachment, then it is wrong. But if detachment is freedom from attachment, then it is right. Actually aversion is also one form of attachment, it's a negative.

If there is ache in your chest , it can be due reasons other than a heart problem, you can go to other specialist for your satisfaction. If you are convinced that it is only a fear, just simply look – don’t call it fear. Become afraid and tremble, face it. Fear is one of the doors from where one enters into one’s being.

Ache is not a fear, it is not an emotion, it can be real, if this type of problem persists, you can always consult a doctor.

If you start meditation and you do not suffer, it means it is not meditation, but just a hypnosis. With a real, authentic meditation you will suffer more, because you will become more aware. You can see the ugliness of your anger, you can feel the cruelty of your jealousy, you will now know the evidence of your behaviour. When you meditate, hidden fears can bubble up, you will suffer. But this is how one grows. Growth is a painful birth. Allow fear, and don’t give it a label – remain ignorant. Ignorance is a tremendously meditative state. Insist on being ignorant, and don’t allow the mind to manipulate. Don’t allow the mind to use language and words, labels and categories, because it has a whole process. One thing is associated with another, and it goes on and on and on. Just simply look – don’t call it fear. Become afraid and tremble – that is beautiful. Fear is one of the doors from where one enters into one’s being.

If you don′t escape, if you allow the suffering to be there, if you are ready to face it, if you are not trying somehow to forget it, then you are different. Suffering is there but just around you; it is not in the center, it is on the periphery. It is impossible for suffering to be in the center; it is not in the nature of things. It is always on the periphery and you are the center. So when you allow it to happen, when you don′t escape, you don′t run, you are not in a panic, suddenly you become aware that suffering is there on the periphery, as if happening to someone else, not to you, and you are looking at it. A subtle joy spreads all over your being because you have realized one of the basic truths of life: that you are bliss and not suffering. I am not saying be a masochist; I am simply saying suffering is there, you need not seek for it. Enough suffering is there already, you need not go in search. Suffering is already there; life by its very nature creates suffering. Illness is there, death is there, the body is there - by their very nature suffering is created. See it, look at it with a very dispassionate eye. Look at it - what it is, what is happening. Don′t escape. Immediately the mind says, "Escape from here, don′t look at it." But if you escape then you cannot be blissful. Through suffering you become aware of the opposite pole, the blissful inner being. So when I say enjoy, I am saying: Watch. Return to the source, get centered. Then, suddenly, there is no agony; only ecstasy exists. Those who are on the periphery exist in agony. For them, no ecstasy. For those who have come to their center no agony exists. For them, only ecstasy. Spirituality means not escaping from suffering but living with it: living with it, not escaping! And if you live with it, you will become more and more aware. If you want to escape, then you will have to leave awareness. Then, somehow, you will have to become unconscious. There are many methods. Alcohol is the easiest, but not the only method and not even the worst. You can go and listen to music and become absorbed in it; then you are using music as alcohol. Then for the time being, your mind is diverted toward music and you have forgotten everything else. Music is working as alcohol for everything else. Or, you can chant a mantra. You can use these things as alcohol, as an intoxicant. Anything which makes you less aware of your suffering is anti-spiritual. Anything that makes you more aware of your suffering, and which helps you encounter it without escaping, is religious. That is what tapas – austerity – means. tapas means this: not escaping from any suffering, but remaining there and living with it with full awareness. If you do not escape, if you remain there with your suffering, one day suffering will disappear and you will have grown into more awareness. Suffering disappears in two ways. You become unconscious; then suffering disappears for you. But, really, suffering remains there. It cannot disappear. It remains there! Really, your consciousness has disappeared, so you cannot feel it, you cannot be aware of it. If you become more conscious, in the meantime you will have to suffer more. But accept suffering as a part of growth, as a part of training, as just a discipline, and then one day, when your consciousness has gone beyond your suffering, suffering will disappear not just for you – it will disappear objectively. Use suffering as a stepping-stone; do not escape from it. If you escape from it, you are escaping from your destiny, from the possibility of going beyond knowledge by using suffering as a device.

Meditation needs great work. It is arduous, it is an uphill task. To remain non-meditative is easy in a way. You have not to do anything about it, you are already non-meditative, everybody is born non-meditative. But to become meditative really needs great courage, great determination, great patience, because to go beyond the mind is the most complicated phenomenon. We don't know anything except the mind.

There are no smileys in these posts, can I assume these posts are serious ?

Love happens, when your meditation is not an activity. When meditation is not a separate process. when meditation is simply the name for life lived with awareness. An individual is awakened the day when he begins to live meditatively. So understand well that meditation is not just one of life’s innumerable activities. It is not just one link in the chain of man’s endless doings. If you are living twenty-three hours a day without awareness, and only one hour with awareness, then you will never attain it. It is very arduous to attain.

When mystics talk about bliss, they are not referring towards happiness. In Indian languages we have different words for bliss and happiness.

You can force your mind to be still by practice. You can start living in isolation, do minimal physical activity, when there is nothing to agitate your mind, naturally you will feel silence, you will experience a difference. This meditation can be disturbed easily.

Bliss is not happiness, happiness has excitement in it, bliss is serene, cool , calm. Bliss is ecstasy without excitement.

When you meditation does not brings blissfulness and love, it is not true meditation. It is easy to meditate if you don’t want to be blissful — it is very easy to meditate. If you want just to be blissful and you don’t want to be in meditation, that too is easy. The rarest combination is meditation plus bliss. Meditation minus bliss is easy; bliss minus meditation is easy. But meditation minus bliss is not true meditation and bliss minus meditation is not true bliss either. They are true only when they are together. Many people have tried to meditate without bliss because it is simple, less complex. You have to take only one work upon yourself: that you have to still your mind. And you can force your mind to be stilled, but you will become sad, you will have a long face. You can meditate, force yourself to be silent, but you will the real thing. And you can also try to be blissful; that means you can pretend, you can practice, you can rehearse bliss. You can always try to be blissful, smiling, at least looking happy. Slowly slowly, it becomes so practiced. You can practice it. You can practice blissfulness too, but a practiced blissfulness is false. Anything practiced is false, remember it — never forget it. Things have to be spontaneous and natural, not practiced, not cultivated. Cultivated blissfulness is only a mask. You are smiling, but the smile is not in the heart. You are showing joy, but you are not joyous. Bliss PLUS meditation. It is difficult of course, arduous, to manage both. Why? — because they seem to be polar opposites. Meditation means silence and bliss means dance. Meditation means stillness and bliss means a song. Meditation means escaping from the world and bliss means sharing with the world. Meditation you can do in a Himalayan cave, but to be blissful you will have to come back to the world. Bliss needs to be shared; it exists only in sharing. It can’t exist when you are alone, it disappears. It is a communion. Meditation can exist in aloneness and bliss can exist in togetherness. But when both exist then you have to learn a totally new way of life.

If we collect the opinions of the all blind men and put all those opinions together, and say, "This is the right thing. I have made the synthesis, this is the truth." This is not the way to find the truth. By putting all blind men's opinions together, you don't arrive at the real elephant. The real elephant needs EYES to be seen. Blind men are feeling parts of the elephant. And the elephant of life is really huge, enormous.

I was talking about silence of mind. You learn a meditation technique to make your mind more silent. When meditation happens , it happens in silence of mind. If you mind is chattering , and you are watching your thoughts, it means meditation has not happened to you. You are still doing a technique to grow towards meditation.

When I was living in society I have uncountable friends, but now I live alone.

Truth liberates. Nothing else liberates. If truth can't give you freedom, blissfulness, love, it is a deception.

I have experienced life in all possible ways, I have seen all heaven and hell of life, that's why I am seeking eternal truth.

Jesus must be rolling over in his grave !

I hope, one day you will learn.

Why celibacy ? Is their God a sadist ?