Watching

 

 

Meditation starts by being separate from the mind, by being a witness. That is the only way of separating yourself from anything. If you are looking at the light, naturally one thing is certain, you are not the light, you are the one who is looking at it. If you are watching the flowers, one thing is certain, you are not the flower, you are the watcher.

Watching is the key of meditation:

Watch your mind.

Don't do anything -- no repetition of mantra, no repetition of the name of God -- just watch whatever the mind is doing. Don't disturb it, don't prevent it, don't repress it; don't do anything at all on your part. You just be a watcher, and the miracle of watching is meditation. As you watch, slowly, slowly mind becomes empty of thoughts; but you are not falling asleep, you are becoming more alert, more aware.

 

As the mind becomes completely empty, your whole energy becomes a flame of awakening. This flame is the result of meditation. So you can say meditation is another name of watching, witnessing, observing -- without any judgment, without any evaluation. Just by watching, you immediately get out of the mind.

 

The watcher is never part of the mind and as the watcher becomes more and more rooted and strong, the distance between the watcher and the mind goes on becoming longer and longer. Soon the mind is so far away that you can hardly feel that it exists... just an echo in faraway valleys. And ultimately, even those echoes disappear. This disappearance of the mind is without your effort, without your using any force against the mind -- just letting it die its own death.

 

Once mind is absolutely silent, absolutely gone, you cannot find it anywhere. You become for the first time aware of yourself because the same energy that was involved in the mind, finding no mind, turns upon itself. Remember: energy is a constant movement."

 

-Osho, "The Invitation, #21" 

 

 

⯎

 

 

What then is meditation?

Just sitting silently doing nothing,

Witnessing whatsoever is happening all around;

just watching it with no prejudice, no conclusion,

no idea what is wrong and what is right.

 

-Osho, "The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 8, #2“

 

 

⯎

 

 

Essentially you are pine, so anything that happens to you is only a passing moment. Don't be distracted by it.

 

If it is pleasure, watch it.

If it is pain, watch it.

 

Pleasure passes,

Pain passes.

 

These are just like clouds moving in the infinite sky of your being. The sky is not affected by the clouds. They may be dark clouds, they may be white clouds, it doesn't matter – the sky remains unscathed.

 

To remember that 'I am god' means to remember 'I am the sky.' and all the experiences that happen in life are like small clouds: they come and go. they are not worth paying much attention to. take no notice. let that be your meditation.

 

Remember always You are the sky, the infinite sky. No clouds can distort you.

 

- Osho, “Eighty Four Thousand Poems, #18”

 

 

⯎

 

 

Spiritual or otherwise, wise or otherwise -- whenever you have some experience, remember, you are not it. It is a content in consciousness -- and all contents have to be dropped. Only then does the mind disappear. The mind is nothing but all the contents together; the accumulation of contents is the mind.

 

Just look, watch. What is your mind? What is meant by the word mind? What exactly does it consist of? All your experiences, knowledge, the past, accumulated -- that is your mind. You may have a materialist's mind, you may have a spiritualist's mind, it doesn't matter a bit; the mind is the mind. The spiritual mind is as much a mind as the materialist mind. And we have to go beyond the mind.

 

Don't trust in the content -- watch it, and let it pass. And yes, sometimes the content is so tremendously enchanting, so hypnotizing, that one would like to cling to it. When spiritual, so-called spiritual, experiences start happening, it is really very tempting -- more tempting than anything in the world. When you see great light inside, it is so tempting to cling to it, to claim, "I have arrived" -- or at least to believe deep inside yourself, "I have arrived. While everybody else is groping in darkness, light has happened to me."

 

This is just a new kind of darkness, because you are again being caught, trapped, by the content. These two things have to be remembered: the content and the consciousness. The consciousness never becomes content, and the content never becomes consciousness. The consciousness is a pure mirror, it only reflects.

 

Now, what does it matter to the mirror whether a beautiful woman is standing before it, or an ugly woman? Do you think it matters? Do you think the mirror starts thinking of clinging to the reflection of a beautiful woman -- Sophia Loren? "Don't let her go, cling." Or do you think the mirror feels very repulsed if some ugly woman is there? It doesn't matter. What does it have to do with the mirror?

 

The mirror remains unaffected; it simply goes on reflecting whatsoever is the case. If it is darkness it reflects darkness, if it is morning it reflects morning. If somebody is dead it reflects death. If a child starts giggling, laughing, jumping, it reflects that. A roseflower is reflected with the same quality as it reflects a thorn; no distinction is made.

 

This state is really spiritual.

 

- Osho, “The Book of Wisdom, #7”

 

 

⯎

 

 

 

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."

 

- Osho, “From the False to the Truth, #3”