Osho Silence, Publishers in Malayalam, Osho Meditation, Kerala

What is meditation?

"Meditation is a single lesson of awareness, of no-thought, of spontaneity, of being total in your action, alert, aware. It is not a technique, it is a knack. Either you get it or you don't." - Osho

Osho has spoken volumes on the subject of meditation. Virtually all his talks include the importance of meditation in everyday life. And despite the fact that he says meditation is not a technique, he has invented dozens of them, and spoken on dozens more from other traditions.

Ultimately, meditation is an experience which is not easily described, like the taste of cheese or falling in love -- you have to try it to find out. But for sure anyone interested in meditation will find something in what Osho has to say about this topic that "clicks" for them, just like a "knack" -- including his insistence that he can be helpful to you, but ultimately each individual has to create his path by walking it.

Meditation is not concentration

MEDITATION is not concentration. In concentration there is a self concentrating and there is an object being concentrated upon. There is duality. In meditation there is nobody inside and nothing outside. It is not concentration . There is no division between the in and the out. The in goes on flowing into the out, the out goes on flowing into the in. The demarcation, the boundary, the border, no longer exists. The in is out, the out is in; it is a no-dual consciousness.

Concentration is a dual consciousness; that's why concentration creates tiredness; that's why when you concentrate you feel exhausted. And you cannot concentrate for twenty-four hours, you will have to take holidays to rest. Concentration can never become your nature. Meditation does not tire, meditation does not exahaust you. Meditation can become a twenty-four hour thing - day in, day out, year in, year out. It can become eternity. It is relaxation itself.

Concentration is an act, a willed act. Meditation is a state of no will, a state of inaction. It is relaxation. One has simply dropped into one's own being, and that being is the same as the being of All. In Concentration the mind functions out of a conclusion: you are doing something. Concentration comes out of the past. In meditation there is no conclusion behind it. You are not doing anything in particular, you are simply being. It has no past to it, it is pure of all future, It what Lao Tzu has called wei-wu-wei, action through inaction. It is what Zen masters have been saying: Sitting silently doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself. Remember, 'by itself - nothing is being done. You are not pulling the grass upwards; the spring comes and the grass grows by itself. That state - when you allow life to go on its own way. When you don't want to give any control to it, when you are not manipulating, when you are not enforcing any discipline on it - that state of pure undisciplined spontaneity, is what meditation is.

Meditation is in the present, pure present. Meditation is immediacy. You cannot meditate, you can be in meditation. You cannot be in concentration, but you can concentrate. Concentration is human, meditation is divine.

Choosing a meditation

FROM the very beginning find something which appeals to you.

Meditation should not be a forced effort. If it is forced, it is doomed from the very beginning. A forced thing will never make you natural. There is no need to create unnecessary conflict. This is to be understood because mind has natural capacity to meditate if you give it objects which are appealing to it.

If you are body oriented, there are ways you can reach towards God through the body because the body also belongs to God. If you feel you are heart oriented, then prayer, If you feel you are intellect oriented, then meditation .

But my meditations are different in a way. I have tried to devise methods which can be used by all three types. Much of the body is used in the, much of the heart and much of the intelligence. All the three are joined together and they work on different people in a different way.

Body heart mind - all my meditations move in the same way. They start from the body, they move through the heart, they reach to the mind and then they go beyond.

Always remember, whatsoever you enjoy can go deep in you; only that can go deep in you. Enjoying it simply means it fits with you. The rhythm of it falls in tune with you: there is a subtle harmony between you and the method . Once you enjoy a method then don't become greedy; go into that method as much as you can. You can do it once or, if possible, twice a day. The more you do it, the more you will enjoy it. Only drop a method when the joy has disappeared; then its work is finished. Search for another method. No method can lead you to the very end. On the journey you will have to change trans many times. A certain method takes you to a certain state. Beyond that it is of no more use, it is spent.

So two things have to be remembered: when you are enjoying a method go into it as deeply as possible, but never become addicted to it because one day you will have to drop it too. If you become too much addicted to it then it is like a drug; you cannot leave it. You no more enjoy it - it is giving you anything - but it has become a habit. Then one can continue it, but one is moving in circles; it cannot lead beyond that.

So let joy be the criterion. If joy is there continue, to the last bit of joy go on. It has to be squeezed totally. No juice should be left behind….not even a single drop. And then be capable of dropping it. Choose some other method that again brings the joy. Many times a person has to change. It various with different people but it is very rare that one method will do the whole journey.

There is no need to do many meditations because you can do confusing things, contradictory things, and the pain will arise.

Choose two meditations and stick to them. In fact I would like you to choose one; that would be the best. It is better to repeat one that suits you, many times. Then it will go deeper and deeper. You try many things - one day one things, another day another things. And you invent your own, so you can create many confusions. In the book of Tantra there are one hundred and twelve meditations, You can go crazy. You are already crazy!

Meditations are not fun. They can sometimes be dangerous. You are playing with a subtle, a very subtle mechanism of the mind. Something a small thing that you were not aware you were doing can become dangerous. So never try to invent, and don't make your own hotch-potch meditation. Choose two and just try them for a few weeks.

Creating a space for meditation

If you can create a special place - a small temple or a corner in the home where you can meditate every day - then don't use that corner for any other purpose, because every purpose has its own vibration. Use that corner only for meditation and nothing else. Then the corner will become charged and it will wait for you every day. The corner will be helpful to you, the milieu will create a particular vibration, a particular atmosphere in which you can go deeper and deeper more easily. That's the reason why temples, churches and mosques were created - just to have a place that existed only for prayer and meditation.

If you can choose a regular hour to meditate, that's also very helpful because your body, you mind, is a mechanism. If you take lunch at a particular hour

When I say meditate, I know that through meditation nobody reaches; but through meditation you reach to the point where no meditation becomes possible.

Every day, you body starts crying for food at that time. Sometimes you can even play tricks on it. If you take your lunch at one o'clock and the clock says that it is now one o'clock, you will be hungry - even if the clock is not right and it is only eleven or twelve. You look at the clock, it says one o'clock, and suddenly you feel hunger within. Your body is a mechanism.

Your mind is also a mechanism. Meditate every day in the same place, at the same time, and you will create a hunger for meditation within your body and mind. Every day at that particular time your body and mind will ask you to go into meditation. It will be helpful. A space is created in you which will become a hunger, a thirst.

In the beginning it is very good. Unless you come to the point where meditation has become natural and you can meditate anywhere, in any place, at any time - up to that moment, use these mechanical resources of the body and the mind as a help.

It gives you a climate: you put off the light, you have a certain incense burning in the room, you have certain incense burning in the room, you have certain clothes a certain height, a certain softness, you have a certain posture. This all helps but this does not cause it. If somebody else follows it, this may become a hindrance. One has to find one's own ritual. A ritual is simply to help you to be at ease and wait. And when you are at ease and waiting the thing happens; just like sleep, God comes to you. Just like love, God comes to you. You cannot will it, you cannot force it.

Be loose and natural

ONE can be obsessed with meditation. And obsession is the problem: you were obsessed with money and now you are obsessed with meditation. Money is not the problem, obsession is the problem, You were obsessed with the market, now you are obsessed with God. The market is not the problem but obsession. One should be loose and natural an not obsessed with anything, neither mind nor meditation. Only then, unoccupied, unobsessed, when you are simply flowing, the ultimate happens to you.