Chapter #1

mind is just the opposite of meditation it is the closing of the heart meditation is the opening of the heart

man can live through the mind but then life will not have any significance any poetry, any song, any music it will be trivial, mundane, superficial ultimately frustrating a sheer wastage of a great opportunity a very ungrateful way to live because god gives us such an opportunity to grow and we only accumulate the non-essential money, power, prestige

there is a famous book by napoleon hill: Grow Rich that is not a way to grow that is a way to remain retarded but that’s what has become the philosophy of the common man all over the world everybody is interested in the very superficial the reason is that the door to the divine is closed and the door to the mundane is open our schools, colleges and universities are in the service of the society they are agents, their function is to close the heart and to open the head

my work here is to reclaim the heart once the heart starts opening your life becomes a celebration

mind divides you from existence gives you the idea of an ego the heart unites gives you the idea of oneness with the whole and to feel one with the whole is the ultimate in joy there is no higher joy it is the ultimate in love there is nothing higher than it it is the ultimate truth itself because it brings harmony, all conflict disappears life becomes a rhythm a rhythm that goes on deepening every moment

the zen people call it

the Sound of one hand Clapping

now there are not two the music is there but it is not a struck music when you play on the sitar two things are needed the instrument is needed and you are needed you have to strike the strings, it is basically a conflict and out of conflict only mundane music can be born

there is another world of music, another dimension in India we have called it anahat nad unstruck music the player and the played-upon are no more two the musician has become the music the dancer has become the dance that is

the Sound of one hand Clapping

the rose cannot become a rose because its whole effort is diverted into becoming a lotus and a lotus it can never become in fact there is no need if god wanted the rose to become a lotus he would have created a lotus he has created enough lotuses

just the other day i was reading if god wanted homosexuality he would have created adam and bruce he didn’t it is so plain but people are trying to improve upon god he has made everybody what he wanted

so the best thing is to discover who am i once you know who you are suddenly all perfectionism disappears because you find you are perfect there is no need to be perfect just as you are, you are perfect

it happens only through meditation because meditation is simply settling into your centre relaxing, resting in your being, to discover who am i?

that very discovery is the only true spirituality all else is mumbo-jumbo

once it is heard all that is worth hearing has been heard

one can think about truth but that is not seeking it is like a blind man thinking about light he can go on thinking for eternity just by thinking about and about he is not going to find light

the word about is beautiful it means around and around he goes around in circles, never touching the centre and that is the way of the mind of philosophy, of theology of all kinds of thinking

it happens only through meditation because meditation is simply settling into your centre relaxing. resting in your being, to discover

the seeker of truth has to stop thinking he has to be utterly silent, in a state of no-thought the whole energy that is involved in thinking has to be released from thinking so that it becomes awareness it is the same energy: you can use it as thought you can use it as awareness

we don’t have many energies we have only one energy but there are different manifestations of the same energy meditation is not using your energy as thinking but using your energy as awareness

just being silent – watching, waiting, seeing

the more you become a seer, the less a thinker the closer you are to the truth, to the light the moment your seeing is absolute you have arrived home

meditation is an inward journey on the outside there are challenges there are adventures but they are nothing compared to the inner challenges and inner adventures there are enemies on the outside but the inner enemies are far bigger only one thing is different, and that is that the inner enemies are our own creation so the moment we decide to destroy them in that very moment they can be destroyed they are our make-believe mind, ego, greed, anger, jealousy, possessiveness all these enemies are there but we have been feeding them, nourishing them we can chop off their heads in a single blow a whole army can be uprooted in a single moment of insight and that’s what meditation is

a moment of insight in which you can see how you have been creating your own enemies and that very seeing becomes the death of all your enemies one reaches to the ultimate truth by using these inner enemies as stepping stones of course only their corpses can be used as stepping stones while they are alive they will create trouble they will pull your legs in every direction they will not easily give way hence just fighting won’t help understanding is the key try to understand the inner enemies and a miracle happens any enemy totally understood evaporates in that very understanding try to understand jealousy and it is no more try to understand the ego and it is no more understanding functions like a light you bring the light into the dark room and darkness is no more

meditation is a bridge between you and the whole mind is a wall between you and the whole and the same bricks are being used you can make a bridge you can make a wall

sannyas means dismantling the wall and using the same bricks in creating a bridge it is a simple phenomenon it is not as difficult as people have been told

the people who have been saying that it is difficult are basically on ego trips themselves of course if it is difficult and you have attained it only then can your attainment be ego-fulfilling so the so-called saints have been trying to say to people that it is very arduous, that it is almost impossible that only very rare people after lives of effort and virtue attain to it and that too only by god’s grace not only you and your effort are going to make it unless god wills it so… god willing that is a necessary condition to it and who knows when he will will it whether he will or not?

these so-called saints have been trying to prove to humanity that meditation is very difficult that is the only way to pretend that they are holier-than-thou that they have attained and you are lives away from that attainment all that you can do is worship them

my approach is totally different meditation is the most simple phenomenon in life there is nothing holy about it there is nothing special about it it is just a small understanding

the same bricks have to be used but arranged in a different way of course and it becomes a bridge

thoughts have the same energy as the state of no-thought desires have the same energy

lust has the same energy as love there is no fundamental difference only the manifestation, the form, has to be changed and that can be easily done if i have been able to do it then anybody can do it because you cannot find a more unholy man in the world

meditation makes you aware of your kingdom of god it is always there you have never lost it it is just that you are not looking at it you are looking outwards and it is inwards you are keeping it at your back it is always there, it cannot go anywhere it follows you like your shadow or even more than that because your shadow disappears in darkness but your inner kingdom is always with you in your misery in your dark nights of the soul even if you go to hell it is with you it is your intrinsic nature but because we don’t look at it we remain beggars

everybody is moving with a begging bowl and the moment you turn inwards – a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn – suddenly the begging bowl drops from your hands the moment you see what inexhaustible treasures are given to you from the very beginning all desires disappear of their own accord

religions have been telling people just the opposite they have been telling people to first become desireless then they will attain the kingdom of god that is putting everything upside-down that is putting the horses behind the cart neither the cart can move nor the horses can move all movement stops it is just a wrong arrangement one cannot drop desiring unless one finds the inexhaustible treasures of one’s being

so my statement is just the opposite i say forget all about desiring, it is natural the begging bowl is bound to be there because you don’t know that you are a king or a queen

so first become acquainted with your nature then it is up to you if you still want to carry the begging bowl it is perfectly okay but i have never heard of anybody carrying a begging bowl once he has seen his infinite treasures

so i don’t say become desireless then you will become a master i say be a master and you will become desireless desirelessness will be a consequence, a by-product hence my insistence on meditation because that is the art of turning around one-hundred-and-eighty degrees

you can stand in the sun with closed eyes the sun cannot force your eyes to open

existence is very non-violent it never shouts it only whispers it never knocks on your doors it simply stands there it waits, it has patience it trusts that one day, sooner or later you will open the door you will open your eyes and you will see the light

meditation means opening your eyes opening your doors to see the light that is always there once you have seen it your whole being is transformed illuminated, enlightened because suddenly you recognize that you are not separate from the source of light that It Is the same light that they are both joined together that feeling of being one with the source of light brings immense freedom fearlessness, desirelessness and after that experience whatsoever you do is right hence I don’t give you any commandments do this, don’t do this – no shoulds, no should-nots i don’t give you any discipline i only give you a simple call to open your eyes and to see the light

and after that it is impossible to do anything wrong then a self-discipline comes of its own accord and when discipline comes of its own accord it has a beauty of its own it has a spontaneity, it has joyfulness it has a dancing quality in it it is festive, playful, innocent, unpretending it does not make you a saint it simply makes you very simple extraordinarily ordinary

meditation is the discovery of the perfect centre within ourselves

the moralists, the priests the politicians, the puritans all kinds of so-called leaders of humanity have been teaching people for thousands of years to be perfect they have driven almost everybody crazy they have created a great fever for perfectionism, and perfectionism is the fundamental source of all neurosis once a person becomes obsessed with being perfect he is a goner

i don’t tell anybody to be perfect perfection is not something that you have to attain it is your nature it has not to be attained but only discovered and the methods of attainment and discovery are totally different the method of attainment is cultivation become more perfect, become more perfect go on improving go on dropping flaws, errors, mistakes go on polishing your ego

the method of discovery is not of cultivation it is becoming silent so that you can feel

who you are before one tries to be perfect one should know who am i? where do i stand? what is my nature? if without knowing that you are a marigold you start trying to be a perfect rose you will go crazy

to become perfect roses roses have the desire to become perfect lotuses this is how the whole world goes on becoming more and more cuckoo everybody is chasing something which is not his nature so all that happens is that the marigold cannot become a marigold and it cannot become a rose either so there is simply misery

every man, every woman, every tree every bird, every flower has its own uniqueness it is incomparable but we are continuously taught to compare this is how the society creates a hierarchy somebody is superior to you somebody is inferior to you of course with the inferior you behave in one way with the superior in another way you are constantly trying to rise higher in the hierarchy and you are constantly preventing others from rising higher than you this is our whole unnecessary life our whole mess, confusion, chaos and all depends on a simple thing the idea of comparison

comparison brings competition comparison brings wounds and ego on the one hand wounds because there are people who are superior to you and wounds are bound to be and on the other hand it brings ego because there are people who are inferior to you and you are crushed between these two rocks and the whole thing is invented

you are simply yourself you don’t belong to any hierarchy nobody is higher than you and nobody is lower than you because nobody is like you hence comparison is impossible and competition is futile

one has just to be oneself that’s my basic message the moment you accept yourself as you are all burdens, all mountainous burdens simply disappear then life is a sheer joy a festival of lights

this discovery of one’s uniqueness happens only when you become a little silent calm and quiet and you drop out of all those imposed ideas which the society has been throwing upon you from the very childhood

these do-gooders they may be parents, they may be teachers they may be priests… and i don’t suspect their intentions their intentions are good but they are unconscious people and unconscious peoples’ good intentions also bring bad results they may like you, they may love you they may desire for you a beautiful life but they have lived in ugliness they have lived in suffering they can only impart their suffering to you they will teach you the same strategies that they have followed they will teach you the same ideas that they have lived by they will give their lifestyle to you and they are enough proof that their lifestyle has been an utter failure but still they will go on giving you the same thing each generation gives its diseases to the other generation generations die, diseases seem to be immortal people come and go but diseases remain and if you decide to get out of that bondage they feel betrayed they would like you to just repeat their life although they have been miserable

so i don’t suspect their intentions but intentions don’t mean anything at all all that has significance is consciousness not unconscious good intentions – and there are very few people who are conscious

to be in tune with a conscious person is to be a disciple to be a sannyasin

a conscious person can help you to discover yourself he does not impose anything upon you he does not programme you he simply deprogrammes you and leaves you open, available, a clean slate so you can make your own signature you can write your own song and you can dance your own dance

and the greatest experience in life is the experience of one’s uniqueness

meditation is not something serious it is a very very long tradition that says meditation is very serious – it is not it is very playful it is closer to song than to anything else closer to dance than anything else closer to love than anything else meditation cannot be serious by its very nature seriousness is part of the mind playfulness is part of the heart. and meditation means slipping out of the head and entering into the heart it is getting out of the serious affairs of life into an attitude of playfulness

the head is old the heart is always new, fresh like dewdrops in the early morning sun as fresh as new roses opening as fresh as the stars in the night it is not old like the old testament it is not old like the ancient vedas it is very young like a just-born baby with fresh eyes unburdened, uncluttered, with no dust a mirror

so that has to be remembered

being here with me simply means being playful non-serious joyous

i don’t teach renunciation i teach rejoicing and the more you rejoice the more you become capable of receiving new gifts from the divine the more you are playful the more god is with you the more you are fresh, young, alive the more stars come down towards you they start filtering into your very being they start reaching your very heart

the serious person is a dead person he has already committed suicide he will live but his life will be only a kind of vegetation he will be a cabbage, a cauliflower, a potato but these people have become saints in the past remember… saint potato, saint cauliflower very serious people look at a potato you will never find a potato non-serious

so beware of seriousness it is the greatest sin live your life as fun and that is the greatest virtue

[!info] Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)