Osho Quotes on Vipassana Meditation

 

 

1

“Vipassana simply means watching your breath, looking at your breath. It is not like YOGA PRANAYAMA: it is not changing your breath to a certain rhythm -- deep breathing, fast breathing. No, it does not change your breathing at all; it has nothing to do with the breathing. Breathing has only to be used as a device to watch because it is a constant phenomenon in you. You can simply watch it, and it is the most subtle phenomenon. If you can watch your breath then it will be easy for you to watch your thoughts.”

 

 

 

2

“Buddha's religion is tremendously beautiful -- no ritual, no so-called ordinary religious performances -- simply, you remain watchful. But that is something inside you, nobody else can even detect what you are doing. You can be driving your car, you can be sitting in your office and you can be doing it. It is not even deep breathing -- that others can feel, that you are doing some deep breathing. It is simply vipassana, it is simply watching, watching everything -- outside, inside.”

 

 

 

3

“In these simple words he (Gautam Buddha) has given to the world the greatest meditation: vipassana. More people have become enlightened through vipassana than through any other method. There are thousands of methods but vipassana seems to be the easiest, the most perfect, and very natural. It does not demand any unnaturalness from you.”

 

 

 

4

“Buddha used to call it vipassana. The word is beautiful, simple, meaningful. It means just watching. pashya means to see and passana means to see very carefully. Vipassana means to see carefully but without thinking. You are just there, sitting silently, doing nothing.”

 

 

 

5

“when I say watch, don't TRY to watch, otherwise you will become tense again, and you will start concentrating on the breath. Simply relax, remain relaxed, loose, and look...because what else can you do? You are there, nothing to be done, everything accepted, nothing to be denied, rejected, no struggle, no fight no conflict, breathing going deep -- what can you do?

 

You simply watch. Remember, simply watch. Don't make an effort to watch. This is what Buddha has called VIPASSANA -- the watching of the breath, awareness of the breath -- or SATIPATTHANA -- remembering, being alert of the life energy that moves in breath. Don't try to take deep breaths, don't try to inhale or exhale, don't do anything. You simply relax and let the breathing be natural -- going on its own, coming on its own -- and many things will become available to you.“

 

 

 

6

“If you want the silent meditation that Gautam Buddha has given to the world, vipassana, you have to be vegetarian. A non-vegetarian will find it very difficult, because the meditation is for a very sensitive person, and a meat eater is hard. He is not very sensitive; he is insensitive. He has been eating it from childhood so he has no awareness; he has become accustomed to it.”

 

 

 

7

“Vipassana is not a concentration. In concentration, everything is a distraction. When you are trying to concentrate, narrowing your mind, anything can become a distraction, but vipassana is awareness. It is not concentrating on anything exclusively. It is all inclusive. It is just awareness. Awareness knows no distraction. That is the beauty of awareness.”

 

 

 

8

“Vipassana simply means witnessing. And that has been my whole life's effort: to teach you awareness, witnessing, alertness, consciousness. I am using contemporary words.”

 

 

9

“Vipassana becomes isolation if you are suppressing something. It is a withdrawal and a fear-oriented thing; basically ill. Vipassana can be very healthy and wholesome if you are not withdrawing but just going in to come back again. It is not a renunciation, a rejection of the world -- it is just a rest into oneself.”

 

 

 

10

“I never give vipassana to people in the beginning -- first I give them catharsis; they should pass through a few cathartic groups. When they start feeling that now nothing is coming up, now even if somebody is shouting and they don't feel anger arising, then is the moment to go into vipassana. Now the body is ready to receive it. It is a great gift; first one has to be ready to receive it.”

 

 

 

11

“In Vipassana remember it -- many moments will come when you will be thrown so totally into the herenow that you will find who you are for the first time. Vipassana is one of the deepest-going methods”

 

 

 

12

“In Vipassana it can happen sometimes that one feels very very sensual, because you are so silent and energy is not dissipated. Ordinarily much energy is dissipated and you are exhausted. When you simply sit, not doing anything, you become a silent pool of energy, and the pool goes on becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. It almost comes to a point where it is overflowing... and then you feel sensuous. You feel a new sensitivity, sensualness, even sexuality... as if all the senses have become fresh, younger, alive... as if the dust has fallen from you and you have taken a bath, and are being cleansed with the shower. That happens.

 

That's why people -- particularly buddhist monks who have been doing Vipassana for centuries -- don't eat much. They don't need to. They eat once -- and that too a very meagre meal, very small; you may call it at the most a breakfast... and once a day. They don't sleep much but they are full of energy. And they are not escapists -- they work hard. It is not that they are not working. They will chop wood and work in the garden, in the field, on the farm; they will work the whole day. But something has happened to them, and now the energy is no more being dissipated.“

 

 

 

13

“Buddha used to call it vipassana. The word is beautiful, simple, meaningful. It means just watching. pashya means to see and passana means to see very carefully. Vipassana means to see carefully but without thinking. You are just there, sitting silently, doing nothing.”

 

 

 

14

“The same is the process of vipassana. You have to watch your breathing - that is the method that Buddha used, a very simple and very scientific method. You just watch the breath going in, you go with it; it is coming out, you come out with it. You don't forget at any time the watching; you don't go astray. If you can manage it for forty-eight minutes, that very day you will become enlightened, in this life! There is no need to wait for another life and there is no need even to wait for one hour. Those twelve extra minutes may be too difficult. Just forty-eight is the exact right time.

 

To attain those forty-eight minutes may take years, but it need not be postponed for another life, it can happen in this life. It all depends on your intensity. It all depends how much you are ready, willing, open, receptive, vulnerable.“

 

 

 

15

“Vipassana simply means watching your breath -- the art of watching your breath without disturbing it at all. It is a subtly art, because the moment you watch you start disturbing. Slowly slowly the knack is learned. Once you know how to watch the breath without disturbing it you have found the right key.”

 

 

 

16

“Vipassana is not a concentration. In concentration, everything is a distraction. When you are trying to concentrate, narrowing your mind, anything can become a distraction, but vipassana is awareness. It is not concentrating on anything exclusively. It is all inclusive. It is just awareness. Awareness knows no distraction. That is the beauty of awareness.”