The OSHO Evening Meeting

 

 

The Evening Meeting is the time when everyone can dance and celebrate and then sit silently.
About the Evening Meeting Osho says:

 

"Every night, these few moments are the most valuable in your life. Every evening, when so many living buddhas gather here, this place becomes the most important in the whole world. Because nowhere are so many people meditating together - digging so deep that they can find the very life source, the eternity, the deathlessness."

 

And:

"That which cannot be said has to be experienced. This is a great experience of getting into the inner space. Something is experienced in this gathering which no one has been able to define. This is the highest peak of the whole day's working, meditating or doing groups."

 

- Osho

 

 

 
The meeting starts with 20 minutes of high-energy music for dancing with totality by yourself, “a wild celebration of energy.” Let the energy of celebration build up inside you. Don’t waste this energy in shouting or whistling or looking around at others. This period of dancing includes shouts of “OSHO” three or four times, and ends with three shouts of “OSHO.”

 
As Osho describes this sound: “It is a sound without meaning. It is simply using sound to reach soundless silence.” 
 

 

The raising of the hands to the stars indicates the longing for higher consciousness. It “should be really sharp. And to make it sharp your hand has to be there!”

 
“It goes just like a sword. It all depends with how much intensity, urgency, totality, you do it. It is not a mantra. It is simply using sound to reach the soundless silence.”

“It has to be said exactly like the lion’s roar, which comes from the belly. It is not just from your tongue – not even from your throat or your heart. It hits just under your navel. That’s where you are coming from. The life center is just under your navel, two inches under the navel. You have to watch from what source it is coming. You have to go inward to that source. It not only hits your center, your very being, it also brings in you a tremendous feeling of joy, laughter, dance. It is celebration.”

 

- Osho

 

 
And:
“You have to watch from what source it is coming. You have to go inward to that source.
So every night before the meeting, I help to show you the way without saying anything. Then in the meditation you are amazed that this is the same path. And as I leave, I remind you again of your origin.

 

“A sound that can thrill each fiber and cell of your being can give you a dancing quality; it can give you a music unheard, a life that was asleep. An authentic sound penetrates so deep that you cannot remain asleep.”

 

And:

The sound… not only hits your center, your very being, it also brings in you a tremendous feeling of joy, a laughter, a dance. It is celebration. About this period before sitting down, Osho explains, “The more total people are beforehand, the deeper the silence will go in the meditation.”

 

The three shouts of OSHO are followed by sitting silent . This begins with intermittent pieces of Indian music, up until three “explosive” drumbeats. The sitting silently then continues through the Osho Talk on video until the Gibberish and Let-Go. Osho has described the shouts of OSHO, the sudden interruptions of the Indian music as “stop exercises.”

 

About the unexpected gaps during his speaking, Osho describes how the TV interviewers would keep asking him to give byte size answers to their questions: “Why can't you speak like everybody else? Why do you suddenly become silent? You speak a word and then you leave a gap.” He explains:

 
 “I said, ‘This is the way I am going to speak, because it is a question not only of speaking, it is a question of giving moments of meditation to the people who are listening to me.

"’While I am speaking they are engaged, their minds are filled with me. When suddenly I stop for a moment, their minds also stop, waiting.... And those are the most beautiful moments, when they have a taste of meditation without knowing that they are meditating.’"

- Osho, The Sword and the Lotus, #24

 

 
About the Evening Meeting Osho says:
 
"Every night, these few moments are the most valuable in your life. Every evening, when so many living Buddhas gather here, this place becomes the most important in the whole world. Because nowhere are so many people meditating together - digging so deep that they can find the very life source, the eternity, the deathlessness."

 

 
The Art of Listening

The art of meditation
Is the art of listening 
With your total being
 

 
"If one can learn how to listen rightly, one has learned the deepest secret of meditation."

 
The essential function of the Osho talks is to provide an easily accessible way of learning this art of listening. An opportunity to experience, "silence with no effort," the key to bringing sharpened awareness to your daily life. 
 

Whether you want to listen quietly at home, or while sitting on the train to work, or sitting in the park, never has meditation been more simple, or more widely available to anyone anywhere.
 

Once you have selected an Osho talk, make yourself comfortable, relax and, in your own time, allow your eyes to close.
 

 

The purpose of these talks:
 
“The way I talk is a little strange. No speaker in the world talks like me. Technically it is wrong; it takes almost double the time! But those speakers have a different purpose – my purpose is absolutely different from theirs. They speak because they are prepared for it; they are simply repeating something that they have rehearsed. Secondly, they are speaking to impose a certain ideology, a certain idea on you. Thirdly, to them speaking is an art; they go on refining it.

 
“As far as I am concerned, I am not what they call a speaker or an orator. It is not an art to me or a technique; technically I go on becoming worse every day! But our purposes are totally different. I don´t want to impress you in order to manipulate you. I don´t speak for any goal to be achieved through convincing you. I don´t speak to convert you into a Christian, into a Hindu or a Mohammedan, into a theist or an atheist. These are not my concerns. 

 
“My speaking is really one of my devices for meditation. Speaking has never been used this way: I speak not to give you a message, but to stop your mind functioning. 

 
“I speak nothing prepared. I don´t know myself what is going to be the next word; hence I never make any mistake. One makes a mistake if one is prepared. I never forget anything, because one forgets if one has been remembering it. So I speak with a freedom that perhaps nobody has ever spoken with. 

 
“I am not concerned whether I am consistent, because that is not the purpose. A man who wants to convince you and manipulate you through his speaking has to be consistent, has to be logical, has to be rational, to overpower your reason. He wants to dominate through words. 

 
“My purpose is so unique: I am using words just to create silent gaps. The words are not important so I can say anything contradictory, anything absurd, anything unrelated, because my purpose is just to create gaps. The words are secondary; the silences between those words are primary. This is simply a device to give you a glimpse of meditation. And once you know that it is possible for you, you have traveled far in the direction of your own being. 

 
“Most of the people in the world don´t think that it is possible for mind to be silent. Because they don´t think it is possible, they don´t try. How to give people a taste of meditation was my basic reason to speak, so I can go on speaking eternally; it does not matter what I am saying. All that matters is that I give you a few chances to be silent, which you find difficult on your own in the beginning. 

 
“I cannot force you to be silent, but I can create a device in which spontaneously you are bound to be silent. I am speaking, and in the middle of a sentence, when you were expecting another word to follow, nothing follows but a silent gap. Your mind was looking to listen, and waiting for something to follow, and does not want to miss it – naturally it becomes silent. What can the poor mind do? If it was well known at what points I will be silent, if it was declared to you that on such and such points I will be silent, then you could manage to think; you would not be silent. Then you know: ‘This is the point where he is going to be silent; now I can have a little chit-chat with myself.’ But because it comes absolutely suddenly.... I don´t know myself why at certain points I stop. 

 
“Anything like this, in any orator in the world, will be condemned, because an orator stopping again and again means he is not well prepared, he has not done the homework. It means that his memory is not reliable, that he cannot find, sometimes, what word to use. But because it is not oratory, I am not concerned about the people who will be condemning me – I am concerned with you. 

 
“With me, to be silent is easier because of one other reason. I am silent; even while I am speaking I am silent. My innermost being is not involved at all. What I am saying to you is not a disturbance or a burden or a tension to me; I am as relaxed as one can be. Speaking or not speaking does not make any difference to me. 

 
“Naturally, this kind of state is infectious. 

 
“Because I cannot go on speaking the whole day to keep you in meditative moments, I want you to become responsible. Accepting that you are capable of being silent will help you when you are meditating alone. Knowing your capacity...and one comes to know one´s capacity only when one experiences it. There is no other way. 

 
“Don´t make me wholly responsible for your silence, because that will create a difficulty for you. Alone, what are you going to do? Then it becomes a kind of addiction, and I don´t want you to be addicted to me. I don´t want to be a drug to you. 

 
“I want you to be independent and confident that you can attain these precious moments on your own. 

 
“If you can attain them with me, there is no reason why you cannot attain them without me, because I am not the cause. You have to understand what is happening: listening to me, you put your mind aside. 

 
“Listening to the ocean, or listening to the thundering of the clouds, or listening to the rain falling heavily, just put your ego aside, because there is no need... The ocean is not going to attack you, the rain is not going to attack you, the trees are not going to attack you – there is no need of any defense. To be vulnerable to life as such, to existence as such, you will be getting these moments continuously. Soon it will become your very life."

Osho, The Invitation, #14
 

 

"And listening to sounds will be very helpful. Not to any sound in particular, because that becomes a concentration. Mm? this noise of the train... the traffic, some dog starts barking... an airplane passes by; all have to be accepted. Not that you have to concentrate on any sound – listen to all sounds from everywhere. You have just to be alert, listening, with no choice. That will help you immensely and that will become your meditation."

Osho, Only Losers Can Win in This Game, #6

 

 
"Start listening to sounds, let music be your meditation. Listen to the sounds, all kinds of sounds. They are all divine – even the market noise, even the sounds that are created in the traffic. This airplane, that train, all sounds have to be listened to so attentively and silently and lovingly... as if you are listening to music. And you will be surprised: you can transform all sounds into music; they are music. All that is needed is our attitude: if we are resistant, the sound becomes noise; if we are receptive, loving, the sound becomes music. The same thing can be noise to somebody and to somebody else, music. If you have not heard Indian classical music it will be just noise. If you love it and you have sympathy for it, it is just out of this world, it is of the beyond. People in the East who are not acquainted with the Western music think this is just crazy noise. Whenever you don't fall in tune with something it becomes noise; when you fall in tune with it, when you start vibrating with it, when there is a harmony between you and it, it becomes music. And great is the joy when you can convert all sounds into music. Then your whole life starts becoming a rhythm."

 
Osho, Don't Bite My Finger, Look Where I'm Pointing, #16

 

 
 
"My speaking is really one of my devices for meditation. Speaking has never been used this way before; I speak not to give you a message, but to stop your mind functioning…

 
"And it is not only here, but far away...anywhere in the world where people will be listening to the video or to the audio, they will come to the same silence. As you listen to music, listen to me that way. Don't listen to me as you listen to a philosopher; listen to me as you listen to the birds. Listen to me as you listen to a waterfall. Listen to me as you listen to the winds blowing through the pines. Listen to me not through the discursive mind, but through the participant heart. And then something that you are continuously feeling is missing will not be missed.

Osho, The Invitation, #14

 

 
 
"Put the mind aside. While listening to me, don't try to understand, just listen silently. Don't figure out whether what I am saying is true or not true. Don't be bothered with its truth or untruth. I am not asking you to believe in it so there is no need to think about its truth or untruth. Listen to me as you listen to the birds singing or the wind passing through the pine trees or the sound of running water." 

 
Osho, Tao: The Golden Gate, Vol.1, #14

 

 

 

 
Gibberish and Let-Go
 
"Gibberish is to get rid of the active mind, silence to get rid of the inactive mind and let-go is to enter into the transcendental."

 

- Osho
 

 

 
First Stage: Gibberish
 
While sitting, close your eyes and begin to say nonsense sounds – any sounds or words, so long as they make no sense. Just speak any language that you don't know! Allow yourself to express whatever needs to be expressed within you. Throw everything out. The mind thinks, always, in terms of words. Gibberish helps to break up this pattern of continual verbalization. Without suppressing your thoughts, you can throw them out. Let your body likewise be expressive.
 

 
Second Stage: Moving In
 
After some minutes of Gibberish, there is a drumbeat, at which point the Gibberish stops. Osho’s voice then guides the listener into a space of deep silence, stillness and relaxation, saying, for example, “Be silent, close your eyes...no movement of the body – feel frozen. Go inwards, deeper and deeper, just like an arrow. Penetrate all the layers and hit the center of your existence.”
 

 
Third Stage: Let-Go
 
Another drumbeat and, without arranging yourself, just allow yourself to fall down "like a bag of rice," so you are lying utterly still and relaxed, as you are guided even more deeply into a silent stillness.
 
 

Fourth Stage: Coming Back and Celebrate
 
At the final drumbeat, Osho brings us back to a sitting position, with the reminder to carry this same experience of witnessing into all our everyday activities.

 
“Every night, these few moments are the most valuable moments in your life.” Osho
“If you can remain aware and relaxed around the clock, you will know the beauty and the grace of every moment, of every inch of life. What is possible in this moment is possible in every moment. This is simply to show your potential. You have to bring all this silence and peace and this awareness to your day-to-day life.” 

 

- Osho

 

 

 
The Evening Meeting ends with a few minutes of celebration and dance.

 
“It is not without any reason that I want you to end up your meditation every day with celebration, with rejoicing. Slowly, slowly, as meditation becomes deeper, your celebration will have more splendor, it will become more majestic, more miraculous.”

 

- Osho

 

 

 

“Remember, the first step of the meditation is Gibberish. Gibberish simply means throwing out your craziness, which is already there in the mind, piled up for centuries. As you throw it out you will find yourself becoming light, becoming more alive, just within two minutes.

 
“You will be surprised that when Nivedano [the drummer] gives his second beat, to enter into silence, you enter into silence as deeply as you have never done before. Just those two minutes have cleaned the way. In fact in those two minutes, if you put your total energy ... the more you put into it, the deeper will be the following silence.
 

“Any child can do Gibberish, it doesn´t need any training. From the very first moment you are almost trained. Gibberish needs no training, nor does laughter need any training. If you can do Gibberish you are cleansing your mind of all kinds of dust that goes on gathering. And as the mind becomes silent...there is nowhere to go other than inwards. All roads are forgotten; there remains a single one-way traffic.

 
“Just for a day or two you may hesitate to go that much inside. Who knows whether you will be able to come back or not? It is a playful, joyful exercise. There is nothing to be worried about, you can go as deep as you want… not knowing Chinese but speaking Chinese, not knowing what they are saying but saying it very emphatically, not bothering at all who is listening.... Nobody is listening, so you can say anything you want, you are not going to offend anybody. There is nobody other than you. 

 
“That will make you saner than you have ever been, because you throw so much garbage that you were holding. Do you think your gibberish is coming from the sky? You are carrying all that garbage, throw it! Just do it totally, enthusiastically. Don´t be bothered whether it is Arabic or Hebrew or Chinese; you are allowed to speak any language that you don´t know. Just avoid the language that you do know, because the language that you do know will not bring your nonsense out, it will be very grammatical. Meaning is not at all the requirement. Just for two minutes give an opportunity to your existence to be meaningless. And you will be immensely shocked to know that just within two minutes you become so light, so ready to enter into silence.”

- Osho, The Miracle, #2