Saying 'Osho' Meditation

 

 

[A sannyasin says: I’m going back to Bombay tomorrow. I just wanted to ask you about my meditation. I’ve been doing the Gourishankar followed by a hot and cold bath as you told me to do. I feel to do meditation but I have this problem that my whole body starts throbbing. If I don’t meditate, the whole Bombay scene and work gets too heavy for me. And I don ’t seem to be able to sleep very well.]

 

 

Drop Gourishankar. Start another meditation. And many times meditations have to be changed, because the body, the mind, go on changing. So sometimes one meditation helps, sometimes another. One has to be very much aware, otherwise one can get attached to meditation too.

 

When something becomes uneasy, there is no need to carry on with it. Never be a masochist; don’t torture yourself in any name whatsoever. People have tortured themselves very much in the name of religion, and the name is so beautiful that you can go on torturing yourself.

 

So remember – I teach happiness, not torture! If you feel sometimes that something is becoming heavy, becoming rough going, just tell me – it has to be changed. You will have to change many times. By and by you will come to a point where no change will be needed. Then something will fit absolutely – not only with your mind, with your body, but with your soul. Now it is a very complicated thing. Sometimes something fits with the soul, does not fit with the body.

 

Sometimes something fits with the mind, does not fit with the soul. It is complicated because there are three layers of your being. If it were a question of one layer, there would be no problem – one thing would fit. But there are three demands and on different levels and different planes. So it may be fitting your mind – as I see, it fits with your mind, so you feel good and Bombay does not bother you. But it doesn’t fit with your body so the body starts getting into trouble.

 

Then again if the body is in trouble, the mind will be in trouble. So you choose one thing to avoid one problem; another problem arises out of your choice. So change it. Start one simple meditation.

 

[Osho said that he could do the meditation sitting in a chair, or in whatsoever position was comfortable; comfort should be the prime consideration, otherwise trouble is created for the body. Lights should be dim so there is no tension for the eyes and breathing should be left completely to fall into its own natural rhythm.

Our breathing is affected by many different emotions through the course of a day – sadness, anger, happiness. In this meditation it should be just natural – not particularly with an effort to be deep. Each day there will be a slight variance as one may not have slept so well or something may be happening in the body which affects the rhythm.]

 

Within three, four minutes you will feel that the body has relaxed; the breathing has come into a rhythm. Then with each outgoing breath, simply say, ’Osho’ inside; not very loudly – just a whisper, but inside so that you can hear it. When the breath comes in, just wait. When the breath goes out, you call, and when the breath comes out, allow me to come in. Don’t do anything – simply wait; so your work is only when the breath goes out.

 

When the breath goes out, go into the universe. The outgoing breath is almost like dropping a bucket into a well. And when the breath comes in, it is like the bucket being pulled out of the well. This is only for twenty minutes. So four, five minutes to get into it, and then twenty minutes to remain in it. So in all twenty-five minutes at the most.

 

You can have music, but something classical. Try without it also. In Bombay there is so much traffic noise, but try both ways. Try without music.

 

If you feel good, good. You can try with music also, but the music has to be forgotten. You are not to consciously listen to it, otherwise this meditation won’t work. Let it be just a background. It is there, it will be relaxing, but you are not to listen to it.

 

So put on some music that you have listened to many times so you know what it is; there is no curiosity. Never put on new music, but something that you have listened to thousands of times. You are almost fed up with it, bored with it; you already know what it is. Then it becomes just a background – and that’s a good background. Just like incense, music is a good background. But the whole point is that you are not to listen to it.

 

You can open your eyes after twenty minutes and look at the clock, but have no alarm and don’t tell anybody to knock after twenty minutes. That will be very disturbing because you will be in such a deep state of sleep and awakening both. You will be so relaxed that anything sharp can go through you like a knife and can be very disturbing.

 

[The sannyasin asks: And incense? Use the incense like music – as a background?]

 

Yes, just as a background. It will become a background. Fragrance always becomes a background. Nobody attentively smells; it is a very unconscious phenomenon. Maybe for the first time when you enter a room, you smell, but after two, three minutes it becomes a background; one settles with it.

 

The nose is not so nosey, and the mind does not function much from the nose. In fact because the mind cannot function much from the nose, the nose has become almost dull, because the mind doesn’t need it; the mind can go on without it very well. So people don’t have noses. And don’t be deceived by appearances – the nose exists there physically, but the smell capacity is completely lost.

 

So smell, fragrance, music – everything in the background. Just close your eyes and go into it.... You can do it anytime. You can do it during the day, in the night. It’s no problem.

 

-Osho, "God Is Not For Sale , #15"