Osho on Awareness

 

 

Awareness is a flowering of relaxation

 

Right awareness means not only awareness - because awareness can become a strain - right awareness means awareness without any strain, relaxed. One can try to be aware but can create tension on the way, and that tension will destroy the whole work. So these two things have to be remembered: awareness with no strain, with no tension.

 

Awareness is a flowering of relaxation. Wherever you feel any tension in the body, relax that part. If your whole body is relaxed, your awareness will grow faster. Just watch, just see, make no effort, do not strive; an effortless awareness. In the beginning it looks very paradoxical - effortlessness and awareness - but once you start working on it, slowly slowly the knack is learned. It is a knack. And once you have learned the knack, once you have known even a single moment of awareness without tension, you are on the right track; you will never be the same person again.

 

Just relax and let things be as they are. A very very passive awareness - that is the meaning of meditation. If sometimes you forget watching, perfectly good! When you remember, you watch again. When you forget, you forget. This is relaxation, this is accepting life as it comes. Then great joy arises out of it. You are never tired and you are never distracted because nothing can distract you.

 

- Osho, The Madman's Guide to Enlightenment, Talk #30

 

 

 

Awareness and Ecstasy Become One

 

“When you are flowing with joy, blissfulness, that is the moment to be aware, but people do exactly the opposite. When they are happy who cares about awareness? And when they are in anguish, then certainly they start thinking it is time to be aware and get out of anguish. But nobody has ever been able to get out from anguish directly.

 

“First, one has to get out from ecstasy. If you can be aware of your joyful moments in the first place, the depression, the downs will not come. The door to get out is from ecstasy. So this is the simplest way:

“Be happy and be aware.

“Rejoice and be aware.

“Love and be aware.

 

“Don’t put awareness aside saying, ‘This is a kind of disturbance; I am in such a great ecstasy.’ Awareness becomes like a disturbance; it is not. It may appear like this in the beginning, but soon you will see it will take your ecstasy to higher peaks. Ultimately awareness and ecstasy become one. Then those downs, depressive moments, agonies disappear.”

 

-Osho, Om Shantih Shantih Shantih: The Soundless Sound, Peace Peace Peace, Talk #1

 

 

 

Awareness and Relaxation Are Almost Two Sides of the Same Coin

 

Osho,

Relaxation has always been one of the most valuable states of being for me. Watchfulness seems to be possible only then, or at least so much easier. Would you like to comment on how relaxation is connected to awareness?

 

“They are not only connected with each other, they are almost two sides of the same coin. You cannot separate them. Either you can begin with  awareness and then you will find yourself relaxing…because what is your tension? – your identification with all kinds of thoughts, fears, death, bankruptcy, the dollar going down…! All kinds of fears are there. These are your tensions. They also affect your body. Your body also becomes tense because body and mind are not two separate entities. Body-mind is a single system, so when the mind becomes tense, the body becomes tense.

 

“You can start with awareness; then awareness takes you away from the mind and the identifications with the mind. Naturally, the body starts relaxing; you are no longer attached. Tensions cannot exist in the light of awareness.

 

“You can start from the other end also. Just relax…let all tensions drop…and as you relax you will be surprised that a certain awareness is arising in you. They are inseparable. But to start from awareness is easier; to start with relaxation is a little difficult, because even the effort to relax creates a certain tension.

 

“Hence, in the East we have never started meditation from relaxation; we have started meditation from awareness. Then relaxation comes on its own accord, you don’t have to bring it – because if you have to bring it there will be a certain tension. It should come on its own; then only will it be pure relaxation. And it comes.”

 

-Osho, Satyam Shivam Sundaram: Truth Godliness Beauty, Talk #25

 

 

 

"My Hand Should Have Moved with Awareness"

 

“One morning, Gautam Buddha is passing through a village with one of his most intimate disciples, Ananda. A fly comes and sits on his forehead. He is answering some question of Ananda, and he is so absorbed in answering that, without any awareness, mechanically, he waves his hand. The fly is gone, but then he becomes suddenly aware that the waving of the hand was not done in awareness – it was mechanical. You can do such an act even in your sleep. If you feel something in your sleep creeping on your feet you simply throw it off, and your sleep is not disturbed. It is a mechanical process; your body does it without bothering you.

 

“Buddha stopped in the street and again raised his hand, and with great grace and awareness brought it to his forehead. Ananda said, ‘What are you doing? The fly has gone away.’

 

“Buddha said, ‘I am not concerned with the fly, I am concerned with myself. I acted in unawareness. I was too concerned with your question and with answering it, and my hand moved mechanically; I am trying to see how it should have moved. It has nothing to do with the fly. My hand should have moved with awareness.’”

 

-Osho, Reflections on Khalil Gibrans The Prophet, Talk #34

 

 

 

Awareness Is the Seed of Godliness in You

 

“Risk everything for awareness, but never risk awareness for anything. This is the commitment of a sannyasin: that he is ready to lose his life but not his awareness; he has found a value which is higher than life. There is no other value which is higher than awareness. Awareness is the seed of godliness in you. When it comes to its full growth, you have come to the fulfillment of your destiny. As your goes deeper, your actions may not be efficient but they will have a new quality, the quality of grace, which is far more valuable. No machine can have the quality of grace. Your actions, your words will have a beauty of their own.

 

The way a man of awareness lives, each moment is filled with tremendous grace and beauty. It is reflected in his actions, even in the smallest actions – just in the gesture of his hand or just the way he looks; in the depth of his eyes or the authority of his words or the music of his silence. His very presence is a celebration.”

 

-Osho, Beyond Enlightenment, Talk #11

 

 

 

Awareness Is Simple, Very Innocent

 

Osho,

I have no idea about what “right awareness” is. How to judge that I am going in the right direction?

 

“There is no right awareness, because there is no possibility of wrong awareness. Awareness is right. So first drop the wrong question. Once you are asking a wrong question to yourself you cannot get the right answer.

 

“Don’t ask what is right awareness. Simply ask what is awareness. Your question gives the fallacious impression that you know what awareness is, that the only thing that you don’t know is what is right awareness and what is not right awareness. Erase that fallacy completely from your mind.

 

“Awareness is simple, very innocent. Everyone has it, so it is not a question of achievement. One wrong question leads to another wrong question: first you ask what right awareness is, then you ask how to achieve it. You already have it. When you see the sunset, are you not aware? When you see a rose flower, are you not aware? You are aware of the beautiful sunset, you are aware of the beautiful rose; all that is needed is that you become aware of your awareness, too. That is the only thing that has to be added, the only refinement.

 

“You are aware of objects. You have to be aware of your subjectivity. When you are looking at a sunset, you are so absorbed in the beauty of the sunset that you completely forget that there is a greater beauty which is making it possible for you to know the beauty of the sunset – it is your awareness. But your awareness is focused on an object – the sunset, the sunrise, the moon. Drop the object and just remain engulfed in pure awareness, in silence, in peace. Just be alert.”

 

-Osho, The Osho Upanishad, Talk #5

 

 

 

Awareness Functions Almost Like Magic

 

“Let everything arise out of your awareness. And the miracle of awareness is that without your saying anything, without your doing anything, it simply dissolves all that is ugly in you into all that is beautiful.

 

“Awareness is a transforming force. Whatsoever deepens with your awareness is virtue. Whatsoever disappears with your awareness is sin.

 

“I don’t label any act as sin, virtue, right, wrong – acts don’t have that quality. It is your awareness. Just try it and you will be simply amazed that there are things in you which cannot stand in front of awareness, they simply disappear.

 

“Awareness functions almost like magic.”

 

-Osho, From Misery to Enlightenment, Talk #13

 

 

 

You Are Awareness

 

“Real awareness remains with you; you need not cling to it. Who will cling to it? You are awareness. Who will cling to whom? In awareness there are not two – the clinger and the object of clinging; in awareness you are one. There is only awareness and nothing else. One cannot cling to awareness. But it is bound to happen if you reject the mind; the very first step has gone wrong. Don’t reject it – understand it.

 

“Be more alert, aware, but don’t cling to it. Clinging will destroy the whole beauty of it. Why cling? What is the fear? We cling only out of fear. You are awareness, you cannot lose it. Even now, when you are unaware of the fact that you are awareness, you have not lost it.

 

“Truth cannot be lost. Whether you know it or you know not, it makes no difference. The truth remains the truth, known or unknown. Your innermost being is still pure awareness. You live on the circumference, hence you are not able to see your own center.”

 

-Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 9, Talk #6

 

 

 

A New Synthesis Is Needed: Awareness with Spontaneity

 

“What is the difference between a childish person and a person who is like a child? The difference is the childish person has no awareness at all. Yes, he’s innocent: when he feels hungry he feels hungry and he eats; and when he feels sleepy he sleeps – but his spontaneity has a deep background of unconsciousness. The spontaneity is there, but it is unconscious.

 

“When the spontaneity is there and in the background of consciousness is awareness; when the awareness is there and still you don’t interfere with the spontaneous… You are so disciplined in your consciousness that you don’t create any unnatural discipline for yourself; your awareness helps you to be natural, to be spontaneous, non-interfering, non-repressive, but yet you are aware.

 

“These two things have to be understood. There are people who are unconscious and innocent; they are childish. They will not enter the kingdom of God, they are not sadhus. Then there are people who are conscious and have become unnatural; because of their consciousness they have started interfering with their natural life. These people are so-called monks, sadhus; they are also not ready for the kingdom of God.

 

“A new combination, a new synthesis is needed: awareness with spontaneity. That is what Kabir means when he says sahaj samadhi. Sahaj means spontaneity, samadhi means awareness: spontaneous awareness. If awareness interferes with your spontaneity, you have missed. If your spontaneity goes against awareness, you have missed. A sadhu is one who is both together: sahajai kaya sadho.”

 

-Osho, The Path of Love, Talk #5

 

 

 

Awareness Is the True Path

 

“Awareness is the true path. Neither indulge nor renounce, but be aware. Do whatsoever you are doing – do it with full awareness. If you move into passion, move with awareness; and passion becomes prayerfulness, and passion has a totally different quality to it. In the East we have called that quality tantra.

 

"The same sex is no longer sex – it is no longer sexual at all. Once you move into your passion with awareness, you have changed the very quality of it. It is no longer just physical, it is no longer just a physical release, it is a very deep experience of life, it is a tremendous experience of no-mind. It is a door toward the greatest space possible.”

 

-Osho, Ecstasy: The Forgotten Language, Talk #3

 

 

 

Become More Aware and Less Unaware

 

“This is the beauty of awareness: That which is right is enhanced through it. That which is wrong is destroyed through it. Awareness functions as life energy to good and as death energy to bad. Awareness functions as a blessing to good and as a curse to bad. If you ask me my definition of sin, this is my definition: that which can be done with full awareness is not sin; that which cannot be done with full awareness is sin. Or that which can only be done in unawareness is sin, and that which can only be done in awareness is virtue. So forget about sin and virtue. Remember awareness, unawareness…

 

“The whole point of evolution is between awareness, unawareness. Become more aware and less unaware. Bring your energy to be more aflame with awareness, that’s all.”

 

-Osho, Yoga: The Path to Liberation, Talk #2

 

 

 

Humanity Needs a Synthesis of Love and Awareness

 

“Awareness should become an arrow pointing towards yourself, and love should become an arrow pointing towards others. If you can become this two-arrowed being, everything is achieved. Love for the whole existence, and awareness for one’s being are the same, two aspects of the same coin – and they help each other.

 

“If you try just to be aware and not loving, your awareness will become dry, almost stale…it will not be alive and dancing. If you try love and forget awareness, it becomes like a drunkenness, an addiction. And both have been tried. People have tried love, but then they feel they are lost in it, they lose their moorings, their roots. Then frustrated by love they try awareness, the opposite pole. Then they become closed, like walking tombs; absolutely dry – no leaf, no flower comes, the tree is dead. Both miss. If both can be managed together, one remains in the world and not of it.

 

“And this is my whole effort here, a greater experiment for human growth – a synthesis of love and awareness…and unless it is achieved humanity is lost.”

 

-Osho, Above All, Don’t Wobble, Talk #28

 

 

 

Awareness Should Be Moment to Moment

 

“The first thing to be understood: awareness should be moment to moment, but it can be only when it has become effortless. With effort you will lose contact again and again, with effort you will have to rest. Effort cannot be continuous, it is impossible. How can you make an effort continuously? You will get tired and then you will have to relax. Every effort needs relaxation. So if awareness is through effort, then awareness cannot be a constant, continuous flow. There will be moments when you will have to lose awareness. Those will be the moments of relaxation from the effort.

 

“Life pulsates. Life always moves to the opposite. Effort, then you have to rest. Again you make the effort, then you have to rest. But there is an awareness which goes beyond life – the transcendental. Then there is no pulsation, but it is effortless, it is spontaneous.”

 

-Osho, My Way: The Way of the White Clouds, Talk #10

 

 

 

Take Charge from the Robot

 

“Whatsoever you are doing, do it consciously. Take charge from the robot – with any ordinary thing. When eating, eat consciously. Do not do it mechanically, as you have done every day. When smoking, smoke consciously. Do not allow your hand to move to the packet unconsciously, do not bring the cigarette out unconsciously. Be conscious, alert – and there is a difference.

 

“I can raise my hand mechanically, just without any awareness; I can raise my hand with full awareness flowing in my hand. Try it! You will feel the difference. When you are aware, your hand will be raised very slowly, very silently, and you will feel that the hand is filled with the awareness. And when the hand is filled with the awareness, your mind will be thoughtless, because your whole awareness will have moved to the hand. Now no energy is left to think.

 

“When you raise your hand automatically, mechanically, you go on thinking and your hand goes on moving. Who is moving that hand? Your robot. Move it yourself! Do it in the day at any time, any moment, while doing anything. Take charge from the robot. Soon you will be able to have a mastery over the robot. But do not try it with difficult situations – that is suicidal. We always try with difficult situations, but because of the difficulty you never win. Start with simple situations, where even if you are not so efficient no harm is going to result…

 

“Try! Start with simple things such as walking. Try with this; there is no harm. You can say to the robot that ‘There is not going to be any harm. I am just walking, taking a walk, and I am not going anywhere – just walking. So there is no need of you; I can be non-efficient.’

 

“And then be aware and walk slowly. Be filled with awareness throughout your whole body. When one foot moves, move with it. When one foot leaves the ground, leave the ground with it. When the other foot touches the ground, touch the ground with it. Be perfectly aware. Do not do anything else with the mind; just turn the whole mind into awareness.

 

“It will be difficult because the robot will interfere continuously. Every moment the robot will try and will say, ‘What are you doing? I can do it better than you.’ And he can do it better. So try it with non-serious things, with non-complex things, simple things. Buddha has told his disciples to walk, eat and sleep with awareness. If you can do these simple things, then you will also know how to enter into difficult things with awareness. Then you can try.”

 

-Osho, The Book of Secrets, Talk #28

 

 

 

That Which Grows in Awareness Is Virtue

 

“So to me this is the criterion: if something is deepened by your awareness, it is something good. If something is dissolved through awareness, it is something bad. That which cannot remain in awareness is sin and that which grows in awareness is virtue. Virtue and sin are not social concepts, they are inner realizations.

 

“Use your awareness. It is just as if there is darkness and you bring in light: the darkness will be no more there. Just by bringing light in, the darkness is no more there, because, really, it was not. It was negative, just an absence of light. But many things will become manifest which are there. Just by bringing in light, these shelves, these books, these walls, will not disappear. In darkness they were not; you could not see them. If you bring light in, darkness will be no more there, but that which is real will be revealed. Through awareness all that is negative like darkness will dissolve – hatred, anger, sadness, violence. Then love, joy, ecstasy, will, for the first time, become revealed to you.”

 

-Osho, The Book of Secrets, Talk #33

 

 

 

Be Aware of Yourself

 

“Whatsoever you are doing, go on doing one thing inside continuously: be aware of yourself doing it. You are eating: be aware of yourself. You are walking: be aware of yourself. You are listening, you are speaking: be aware of yourself. When you are angry, be aware that you are angry. In the very moment when anger is there, be aware that you are angry. This constant remembering of the self creates a certain energy, a very subtle energy in you. You begin to be a crystallized being.

 

“Ordinarily, we are just a loose bag. No crystallization, no center really, just a liquidity, just a loose combination of many things without any center, a crowd, constantly shifting and changing, with no master inside. By awareness is meant, be a master. And when I say ‘be a master,’ I don’t mean to be a controller. When I say ‘be a master,’ I mean be a presence, a continuous presence. Whatsoever you are doing or not doing, one thing must be constantly in your consciousness: that you are.

 

“This simple feeling of oneself, that one is, creates a center: a center of stillness, a center of silence, a center of inner mastery, an inner power. And when I say ‘an inner power,’ I mean it literally. That’s why this sutra says the fire of awareness. It is a fire. It is a fire. If you begin to be aware, you begin to feel a new energy in you, a new fire, a new life. And because of this new life, new power, new energy, many things which were dominating you just dissolve.”

 

-Osho, The Ultimate Alchemy, Vol. 2, Talk #1

 

 

 

Use any opportunity to be alert

 

“A Zen master will throw you out of the window and shout from behind: “Be aware!” You have been thrown out, you are in between, you are just passing through the window – and he cries: 'Be aware!' You have fallen onto the ground; your face must change – now the situation is quite different. You had come to ask some metaphysical question, and he has done something absolutely non-metaphysical – he has thrown you out of the window. You were asking whether truth is or not.

 

“It is absolutely irrelevant to throw one through the window. But he says, 'Be aware!' in the exact moment when you were changing faces, changing a state. When you are in between, passing through the window, it is not only your body that is passing through a change. Your state of consciousness will be passing through a change. And the teacher knows exactly when it changes. At that exact moment he will cry: 'Be aware!' And if you can hear him for a moment you will be at the center – thrown out of the periphery.

 

“So, whenever there is any changing situation, be careful to look inside. There is no traveling. There is only a jump from the periphery to the center, and from the center to the periphery. The behavior is just like the electron, or just like dreams. Deepen this awareness. This is all that you can 'do.' This is negative, because awareness is not a doing. Awareness is not an act.

 

“Whenever you are aware, there will be no action. Action will be withheld whenever you are aware. If you become aware, then there will be not even a breath. If I hold a dagger toward you, even the breath stops. You become so aware that everything stops. You are thrown to the center. Awareness is not action. The addiction with action is only the escaping of awareness. And we all have become addicted: one must do something, one must go on doing something. This addiction is helping the continuity.

 

“Use any opportunity to be alert – any opportunity. And there are thousands and thousands of opportunities every day. Be alert, and you will feel the jump from the periphery to the center. When this being at the center becomes easy for you, when this being at the center becomes as easy as coming into the house, or going out of the house… You are outside the house: it has become hot; you come in. Whenever you feel like coming in, you come in. Whenever you are feeling like going out, you go out. There is no difficulty. When this movement from the periphery to the center has become just like this, then you will have the explosion.”

 

-Osho, I Am the Gate, Talk #6

 

 

 

Live the same life, just change your alertness

 

 

That’s what meditation is all about — to become more alert. Live the same life, just change your alertness — make it more intense. Eat the same food, walk the same path, live in the same house, be with the same woman and the children, but be totally different from your inside. Be alert! Walk the same path, but with awareness. If you become aware, suddenly the path is no more the same, because you are no more the same. If you are aware, the same food is not the same, because you are not the same, the same woman is not the same, because you are not the same. Everything changes with your inner change.

 

If somebody changes his within, the without changes totally. My definition of the world is this — you must be living in a deep inner darkness, hence the world. If you light your inner lamp, suddenly the world disappears, and there is only God. The world and the God are not two things but two perceptions of the same energy. If you are unaware, the energy appears to you to be as the world, the sansara; if you are alert, the same energy appears as God. The whole thing depends on your inner awareness or unawareness. That is the only change, the only transformation, the only revolution, that has to be made.

 

-Osho, Ancient Music in the Pines, Ch 6