Meditation: The Only Medicine

 

 

 

Question 1

Beloved Osho,

What is the relationship between meditation and witnessing? in what way are mind and ego dissolved by them? is surrender possible without attaining complete egolessness? to what extent are orange clothes and the mala helpful for meditation and witnessing? also please explain the difference between witnessing, wakefulness and right remembering.

 

Human life can be divided into four circles.

The first circle is of action, the world of doing. It is the outermost. Moving within a little we come to the world of thought. Move a little further in we come to the world of feeling, devotion, love. Moving still further within we reach the center – the world of the witness.

The witness is our nature, because there is no way to go beyond it. No one ever has, and no one ever can. To become the witness of the witness is impossible. The witness is simply the witness.

You cannot go deeper than it. It is our foundation. Our house is built on the foundation of witnessing – built of feeling, of thought, of action.

This is why there are three Yogas: Karma Yoga, Gyan Yoga, Bhakti Yoga – the Yogas of action, knowledge and devotion. These are the three methods of meditation. Through these three one can make efforts to reach the witness.

The Yoga of action means action plus meditation. Karma Yoga is the effort to go directly from doing to witnessing.

Meditation is the process and witnessing is the goal.

You have asked, “What is the relationship between meditation and witnessing?” Meditation is the path, witnessing is the destination.

Witnessing is the culmination of meditation.

And meditation is the beginning of witnessing.

A Karma Yogi is one who adds meditation to doing, who links meditation to the world of action – action plus meditation.

Then Gyan Yogi is one who adds meditation to thought. He links meditation to the world of thought. He begins to think meditatively. A new practice is added: whatever one does is done with awareness. When the state of thought plus meditation is established the journey towards witnessing begins.

Meditation is a change of direction.

Whatever meditation is joined to becomes a vehicle for moving towards witnessing.

And the third path is Bhakti Yoga – adding meditation to emotion, a deep joining of meditation and emotion, the whirlpool of meditation and feeling! While feeling become meditative.

Through these three paths one can approach the witness. But the method that brings you is meditation, the fundamental thing is meditation. It is just like a doctor giving you medicine, saying to take it with honey, and you say you don’t eat honey, you are a Jaina. Then he says to take it with milk, and you say you cannot drink milk because milk is a form of blood, you are a strict Quaker – you don’t drink milk, it is like eating meat. So the doctor says take it with water. But the medicine is the same – honey, milk or water, it doesn’t make any difference. They are only to help swallow the medicine, to get it down the throat. Medicine won’t go down by itself.

Meditation is medicine.

There are three types of people in the world. Some people cannot live without doing. Their whole life flow is in working. If they try to sit quietly, they cannot; they have to do something or other. There is energy, flowing energy. There is no harm in this. But the master says try swallowing the medicine of meditation with activity. You can’t stop doing but you can add meditation to doing. You say, “I can’t sit a single moment without doing something. I just can’t. Sitting is not within my power, it’s not my nature.”

Psychologists call them extroverts: they are always occupied; they need to do something or other. Until they fall down exhausted and sleep it is not natural for them to stop working. Activity is their nature.

The master says, “Good. Do it riding on action. Make this your horse. Mix your medicine with this and swallow it. The real question is the medicine. Start working meditatively. Whatever you do, don’t do it unconsciously, do it with awareness. Stay awake while doing.”

Then there are some who say doing has no attraction for them, but thoughts come rushing in waves. They are thinkers-they have no juice for doing. They have no interest in the outer, but great waves arise within, a great tempest. And they cannot be inside for a single moment without thoughts. They say, “If we sit silently more thoughts come. When we sit silently more thoughts than usual come. Just mention worship, prayer, meditation, and a great deluge of thoughts – armies – come in wave after wave and drown us. What should we do?”

The master says, “Drink meditation mixed in with your thoughts. Don’t stop your thoughts, but when thoughts come observe them. Don’t get lost in them; stand a little apart, at a distance. Calmly watching your thoughts, you will gradually attain witnessing. Add meditation to your thoughts.”

Then there are some who say, “We have no trouble with thoughts, no trouble with doing. We have an excess of feeling. Tears flow, the heart is overwhelmed, drowning – in love, in affection, in trust, in devotion.”

The master says, “Make this your medicine, add meditation to this. Let tears flow – flow filled with meditation. Let the thrill be there, but filled with meditation. The essence is meditation.”

These differences between bhakti, karma and gyan are not differences in medicine. The medicine is one. You can see this in Ashtavakra. Ashtavakra says take a direct leap. Swallow the medicine straight. He says what use are these practices?

That is why Ashtavakra is not a Gyan Yogi or a Bhakti Yogi or Karma Yogi. He says to drop straight into witnessing. These crutches are no use – this medicine can be swallowed directly. Drop these crutches, drop these vehicles – you can run directly. You can be the witness directly.

As far as Ashtavakra is concerned the witness and meditation are not different. But as far as other methods are concerned, the witness and meditation are different. Meditation is the process and witnessing is the destination.

For Ashtavakra the path and destination are one. So he can say to be blissful right now. One whose path and goal are different cannot say “right now.” He will say, “Move! The journey is long; climb, then you will reach the mountain.” Ashtavakra says, “Open your eyes: you are sitting on the mountain! Where are you going? How to go anywhere?”

Ashtavakra’s sutra is extremely revolutionary.

Neither gyan, nor bhakti, nor karma – none of these have reached to his height. It is pure witnessing. Look at it like this: the medicine doesn’t even need to be swallowed, understanding is enough, awareness is enough. There is no need for help – you are already there. But it happens that people are incapable of understanding it.

A Sufi story…. A man went in search of truth. The first religious man he met was sitting under a tree, just outside his own village. He asked, “I am searching for a true master. Please tell me the characteristics of a true master.” The fakir told him the characteristics. His description was very simple. He said, “You’ll find him sitting under such and such a tree, sitting in such and such posture, his hands making such and such gestures – that is enough to know he is the true master.”

The seeker started searching. It is said that thirty years passed while he wandered the whole earth. He visited many places, but never met the master. He met many masters, but none were true masters. He returned to his own village completely exhausted. As he was returning he was surprised, he couldn’t believe it: that old man was seated under the same tree, and now he could see that this was the very tree that the old man had spoken of “… he will be sitting under such and such a tree…..” And his posture was exactly as he had described. ”It was the same posture he was sitting in thirty years ago – was I blind? The exact expression on his face, the exact gestures….!”

He fell at his feet saying, “Why didn’t you tell me in the first place? Why did you misdirect me for these thirty years? Why didn’t you tell me that you are the true master?”

The old man said, “I told you, but you were not ready to listen. You were not able to come home without wandering away. You had to knock on the doors of a thousand houses to come to your own home, only then could you return. I said it, I said everything – beneath such and such a tree. I was describing this very tree, the posture I was sitting in, but you were too fast, you couldn’t hear correctly, you were in a hurry. You were going somewhere to search. Searching was very important for you, the truth was not so important.

“But you have come! I was feeling tired, sitting continuously in this posture for you. You were wandering for thirty years, but think of me sitting under this tree! I knew some day you would come, but what if I had already passed away? I waited for you – you have come! You had to wander for thirty years, but that’s your own fault. The master was always here.”

It happens many times in our life that we cannot see what is near, and what is far attracts us. The distant drum sounds sweeter, we are pulled by distant dreams.

Ashtavakra says that you are what you are seeking.

And you are it right here, right now.

What Krishnamurti has been telling people is exactly Ashtavakra’s message. No one understood

Ashtavakra, nor has anyone understood Krishnamurti. And your so-called saints and sannyasins are very angry because Krishnamurti says there is no need for meditation. He is absolutely right

– No need for devotion, no need for action, no need for knowledge. Ordinary sadhus and saints become very nervous: “No need whatsoever? He is misleading people!” It is these sadhus who mislead.

Krishnamurti is straightforwardly giving Ashtavakra’s message. He is saying there is no need because there is only a need if you have lost something. Just get up and shake off the dust! Splash a little cold water on your eyes; what more is needed?

In Ashtavakra’s vision witnessing and meditation are one, because the goal and the path are one. But for all other paths and religious schools meditation is a method; witnessing, its final fruit.

“In what way are mental blocks and ego dissolved by them?”

Mind and ego are not dissolved by witnessing: in witnessing you find out that they never existed. They can be dissolved only if they exist.

It is like this: you are sitting in a dark room and think there is a ghost. It is only your shirt hanging there but you are scared, and in fright your imagination adds hands and feet to it. He is standing there frightening you! Someone says light a lamp, and you ask how will lighting a lamp make ghosts go away. But lighting a lamp does drive away the ghost because there isn’t one there! If there were, lighting a lamp wouldn’t drive it away. What has a lamp got to do with scaring away ghosts? If there were a ghost a lamp would not drive him away. But he doesn’t exist, he is illusory – that’s why he goes away.

You suffer from thousands of diseases which are not there. This is why the ash from some sadhu will cure you, not because ash has driven out your illness. Are you mad? Has ash ever cured a disease? If so, the whole science of medicine would be useless. Ash cannot cure illness, it only gets rid of the idea that you were ill.

I have heard a story about a doctor – he himself told it to me. He was living near the Bastar tribal area and a tribal man came to him from deep within Bastar. The doctor was visiting a village, a tribal village. This man was sick, but the doctor had nothing to write with; there was no pen or paper in the village. He found a cloth and wrote the name of the medicine on it with a piece of rock, and told him, “Take it with milk for a whole month, and you will be fine.” The man came back after a month. He was completely okay – healthy, robust. The doctor asked, “Did the medicine work?

He said, “It worked great. Now write on one more cloth for me.”

The doctor asked, “What do you mean?”

He said, “The cloth is finished. I drank it all up! Such great medicine.”

He had come to him completely cured! Now it wouldn’t be right for the doctor to explain anything; that would be inappropriate. He told me, “Since he was cured I didn’t say anything: medicine is what makes you well. Why should I confuse him by telling him, ‘You idiot, I just wrote out the name of the medicine, but you never bought it!’ He drank the prescription, but it worked.” The disease must have been false, imaginary.

Psychologists say ninety out of a hundred illnesses are imaginary. And as understanding increases it is possible that ninety-nine percent are imaginary. One day perhaps one hundred percent diseases will be found to be imaginary.

This is why the world has so many medical systems that work. Use western medicine and the patient gets well. Use Ayurveda or Homeopathy or the Greek-Islamic system, or Naturopathy – the patient is cured. Even a charm or talisman will cure him.

It is surprising. If he were really sick then only one particular method would work to cure the disease, every method could not work. There is no disease. It is only what you believe in: someone believes in western medicine so it works…. And the doctor’s name is more important than the medicine.

Have you ever noticed that when you return from seeing a great doctor, your pockets empty from paying such huge fees, you are already half cured? If this same doctor wrote you free prescriptions it wouldn’t have any effect on you. The fees you have paid out do more than his medicine. Once you have the idea that he is a great doctor – the greatest – it is enough.

You ask, “In what way are mind and ego dissolved by them?” They are not dissolved. If they existed, they would be dissolved. In witnessing you find out, “Idiot, you are needlessly lost! Your own imagination has projected mirages – it was all imagination.” They don’t dissolve. In witnessing you become alert and find out that they never existed.

 

"Is surrender possible without attaining to complete egolessness?" This is a significant question. The questioner asks, "Is surrender possible without attaining to complete egolessness?" But the questioner's mind is being tricky -- perhaps unconsciously. He has added "complete" to "egolessness," but not to "surrender." Without complete egolessness, complete surrender is not possible. As much ego as you drop, that much surrender is possible. If you drop fifty percent of your ego then fifty percent surrender is possible. Are dropping the ego and surrender two different things? They are two ways of saying the same thing.

 

You say that without completely dropping the ego then surrender is not possible, that complete surrender is not possible. Don't deceive yourself. What is the need of surrender when the ego is completely dropped? And when will it drop? How will it drop?

 

Surrender is possible to the extent that the ego drops. Don't wait for completeness: do as much as you can. Do that much and the next step becomes available.

 

It is like a man traveling on a dark night. He has a small candle in his hand that shines light only four paces ahead. If the man says, "How can one travel ten miles with this? Four paces of light and ten miles of darkness -- I will get lost." Then we tell him, "Don't worry, take four paces, and when you have taken four paces the light goes ahead four more paces. You don't need ten miles of light for walking. Four paces is enough."

 

How much ego.... Let go of one drop, then let go of another. In letting go of one drop the opportunity to let go of the next drop comes. Walk four paces, and the light goes four paces ahead. Don't make the excuse that you will surrender only when the ego is completely dropped. Then you will never do it. You have made your protection very carefully. You surrender as much as your ego drops -- it is true. Then drop as much as you can -- gather as much surrender as you can. Perhaps the taste of if will make you more ready; its bliss, its ecstasy will give you more courage. Courage comes from tasting.

 

A man can say,"Until I have completely learnt swimming I will not go in the water." He is right; his calculation is right, his logic is correct. "What if I go in the water without learning, and drown? Why get into so much trouble? First learn to swim perfectly." But where will you learn it perfectly? On your bed? Where will you completely learn swimming? You have to go in the water.

 

But no one is telling you to plunge into the ocean -- go in at the edge, go in up to your neck, go in only as far as your courage tells you. Learn to swim there and gradually your courage will increase. You can go a foot deeper each time, until you are able to swim in the full depth of the ocean. Once you know swimming... and to know it you will have go in. Stay near the shore. I am not saying to jump straight off a mountain into a deep river. Stay near the shore, make friends with the water. Become acquainted with the water, move your arms and legs.

 

What is swimming? The skillful thrashing about of your arms and legs. Everyone knows how to thrash around. Even if you throw someone who has never swum before into the water he will start thrashing around. The difference between this and a swimmer is only of a little skill; there is no difference in what they are doing. The person who has never swum before is also throwing his hands and feet about but he has no trust in the water, no trust in himself. He is afraid he is going to drown. That fear will drown him -- water has never drowned anyone.

 

You may have seen that a dead body floats to the surface, a corpse will float on water. Ask the corpse, "What trick did you learn? When you were alive you drowned; dead, you are afloat!" The corpse is not afraid: how can the river drown it? It is not the nature of water to drown anything, water lifts things up. This is why in water weight decreases. In water you can lift up and carry a man who is heavier than you. In water you can lift a huge rock. The weight of things is less in water. Just as the earth has gravitation, the earth pulls down, water raises upward. Water has the nature of raising things. If you are drowning you are causing it, water has never drowned anyone. Don't unknowingly blame the water. Water has never drowned anyone.

 

Ask a scientist: he also will say that it is a miracle that a man can drown, because water uplifts. You drown in your freak-out. You scream and shout, you open your mouth, you drink in water and take on more weight -- and you drown. You cause your own death. A swimmer learns only this: Water uplifts! His trust in water becomes stronger. He understands that weight decreases in water. Our weight in water is much less than on land.

 

You must have seen when you throw a bucket into a well that while the bucket is filling and is in the water it is weightless. Start pulling it up and it becomes heavy. The water supports you; how can it drown you? A learner slowly, slowly becomes acquainted with this fact. Trust arises. Trust comes that water is not an enemy but a friend. It won't drown you.

 

A skilled swimmer doesn't thrash his arms, doesn't move them but can remain on the surface -- like a lotus flower. He is a man just like you; there is no difference except that trust has arisen in him. He trusts himself, he trusts the water -- a friendship has arisen between them.

 

It happens the same way in surrender. In surrender the fear is that you may drown, so you want to climb out onto the bank. I am not telling you to surrender one hundred degrees -- one degree will do. Doing it gradually you will come to know, the taste will grow, juice will arise, the energy will flower.

 

You will be surprised how much has been wasted due to the ego, how much comes from a tiny bit of surrender. New doors open -- doors of light. New breezes flow in your being... a new thrill, a new spirit. All is fresh. You will see life for the first time. For the first time you remove the smoke-screen from your eyes. The presence of God will begin manifesting itself. Surrender, and god comes near. Because you begin to be erased, god begins to manifest.

 

Is existence far away? You don't see it because of your heavy ego. You don't see it because your eyes are filled with ego. Become capable of seeing it with your naked eye. Gradually courage will increase -- trust, self-confidence. You will surrender more and more. One day you will take the total leap. One day you will say "Enough!" Up until now you have wasted yourself in trying to save yourself. One day you will understand and let go, then you will let yourself drown and be saved.

 

Blessed are those who are ready to be drowned, because no one can drown them. Unfortunate are they who are saved because they are already drowned -- if not today, tomorrow their boat will crash and be broken up.

 

And there is one more thing to consider about ego and surrender. Mind is very clever -- it finds excuses. Mind says, "So who is first? Is dropping the ego first or is surrender first? Should I surrender so the ego drops, or should I drop the ego so surrender happens?"

 

When you go to the market to buy eggs you don't ask, "Which is first, the chicken or the egg?" If you ask this you will never return home with your eggs. You just buy your eggs and come without first making sure which is first -- the chicken or the egg.

 

Many people have debated it. The question of the chicken or the egg is very ancient. Which comes first? It is very difficult to find an answer. As soon as you say the egg comes first, difficulties begin, because the egg must have come from a chicken -- so the chicken comes first. As soon as you say the chicken came first, again the problem arises because how will the chicken come without an egg? It is a circle. The question is misleading. The question is misleading because the chicken and the egg are not two.

 

The chicken and the egg are two stages of the same thing. You raise a question by putting one ahead of the other, making them two. The chicken is a form of the egg -- the completely manifested form. The egg is a form of the chicken -- the unmanifested form -- like seed and tree.

 

Egolessness and surrender are just like this.

 

Which comes first? -- don't waste time arguing. If you bring up the chicken you have brought up the egg. If you bring up the egg you have brought up the chicken. If one comes, the other comes along with it, wherever you begin from. If you can drop the ego, start by dropping the ego. If you can't drop the ego then start by surrendering. If you surrender, the ego drops. I am not saying it will completely drop; it will drop as much as you surrender. If surrendering appears difficult then drop the ego. Surrender will come as much as you drop the ego.

 

There are two kinds of religion. One is the religion of egolessness, the other is the religion of surrender. One type of religion gives emphasis to the chicken, the other to the egg. Both are correct because when there is one, the other comes by itself.

 

For instance both Mahavira's religion and Buddha's religion have no place for surrender; they say just drop the ego. Where will you surrender? There is no God in front of whom you can surrender. Mahavir says, "No shelter, no divine feet: there is no place you can go to surrender. To whose feet can you go? Go without surrender, just drop the ego."

 

Hindus, Muslims, Christians -- these are religions of surrender. They don't say much about dropping the ego, they say, "Surrender to God. Find shelter somewhere, feet where you can bow your head -- the ego will go by itself."

 

Both are right because they are two sides of the same coin. If you take the "heads" side of the coin home or the "tails" side home what difference does it make? -- the coin will come home. They are two sides of one coin. But you have to start somewhere. Don't just sit around figuring it out.

 

"To what extent are orange clothes, and the mala helpful for meditation and witnessing?" If you are ready, everything can be helpful. If you are ready a path can be made from very small things.

 

It is said that when Rama was building his bridge across the ocean to Sri Lanka the squirrels brought tiny stones and grains of sand. They too had a hand in it, they too helped build the bridge. There were others who brought huge rocks. The small squirrels did what they could.

 

Don't expect much from changing the color of your clothes, because if everything were changed just by changing one's clothes it would be very easy. Don't expect that just by putting a mala around your neck much will happen, transformation will happen. Transformation is not so cheap. But also don't think it is only a squirrel's job; what can it do? Rama thanked the squirrels too.

 

These small devices are helpful too. Helpful like this: you return abruptly to your village in orange clothes. The whole village will look at you in amazement. You will not be able to sit in that village the way you used to. You will not be able to remain hidden in that village the way you used to. You will bring an individuality to the village. Everyone will ask what happened. Everyone will remind you that something has happened. Each one will question you. Each one will awaken your remembering. Each one will give you an opportunity, reminding you again and again to become the witness.

 

One friend took sannyas and when he began weeping -- a simple person. And he said, "There is just one problem: I am a wine drinker, and certainly you will ask me to drop it."

 

I said, "I never ask anyone to drop anything. Drink, but drink meditatively."

 

He said, "What do you mean? I can drink wine even as a sannyasin?"

 

I said, "It's up to you. I have given you sannyas; now you explore it."

 

He came back a month later, saying, "You tricked me! I was standing in the tavern when a man came and touched my feet, saying, 'What are you doing here, Swamiji?' I ran away from there, saying to myself, "A swamiji in the tavern?"

 

He told me, "You tricked me. Now I am afraid to even go towards the tavern. What if someone does something like touch my feet or bow down to me? Now it's fifteen days since I've been there." A remembering happened. Mindfulness was awakened! In these orange clothes you won't be able to get angry the same way you did up until yesterday. Something will tug on you. Something will tell you to just forget it. It feels very awkward in these orange clothes.

 

I give you orange clothes just to provoke a little harassment, nothing else. If you are a thief you won't be able to remain a thief so easily. If you are mad for money, greedy, then your greed will not have the same strength. If you are in politics, running after the prestige of political office, you will suddenly find it is meaningless. These small clothes will become very symbolic. They have no significance of their own, but when you dress yourself in them you gradually find that what was a very small thing -- the seed was very small -- has gradually become big, has gradually changed everything. It will change your activity, it will change your habits, it will change your style of moving. There will be a new grace in your life. People's expectation of you will change. Peoples eyes will look at you differently.

 

Changing your name you will become disconnected from your old name. Changing the clothes you will become free of your old pattern. This mala around your neck will go on reminding you of me. It will become a bridge between you and me -- you will not be able to forget me so easily. And people will start setting you apart. And their separating you apart will be a great help in your being a witness.

 

But I am not saying that just by doing this everything will happen: just change the clothes, put on the mala and know it is over, the journey is complete. It all depends on you. These are like signposts, like milestones on the side of the road on which is written "Twelve miles," "Fifty miles," "One hundred miles to Delhi." The stone doesn't have much significance. Milestone or not, if it is one hundred miles to Delhi it is one hundred miles. But these lines written on stone are encouraging, these arrow signs make the traveller lighter. He says, "Okay only one hundred miles to go, twenty-five miles to go, fifty miles to go."

 

In Switzerland in place of milestones they have put "minutestones." If you stop you car on some mountainous place you will be surprised looking at the post how far the last station was -- thirty minutes away. The next station -- fifteen minutes away. It is a meaningful indication -- if Swiss people are skillful at making watches it is no great surprise. Their awareness of time is very deep. They don't write miles, they write time: "Fifteen minutes' distance"! It conveys how deep the awareness of time is in these people.

 

If you wear orange clothes it conveys something about you. Everything conveys a message. How you sit, how you move, how you look -- everything conveys something about you.

 

We never dress soldiers in loose clothes, no one in the world does. If they were dressed in loose clothes they would be defeated. Dressing soldiers like that could prove dangerous. We dress soldiers in tight cloths, so tight that they always feel uncomfortable and they want to just jump out of them.

 

Tight clothes arouse fighting instincts. Sitting in tight clothes one is always ready to fight. Wearing loose clothes one is a little relaxed. Only an emperor wears loose clothes, or a sannyasin or fakir. Have you ever noticed that when you climb stairs wearing loose cloths, you go one step at a time; wearing tight clothes you take them two at a time. Wearing tight clothes you are filled with anger. If anyone says some small thing you are upset. In loose clothes you remain relaxed.

 

Small things make a difference. Life is made of small things. The bridge of life is constructed with tiny little stones brought by the squirrels. What you eat, what you wear, how you rise and sit -- ultimately all these have their effect. You are the combination of all these. Here a man is walking along wearing flashy, gaudy, colorful clothes -- it conveys a message. A woman is walking along wearing vulgar, obscene, clothes that show off her curves -- it conveys a message. A man is wearing plain and simple clothes, loose, comfortable -- a message is conveyed about him.

 

Psychologists says that if you quietly observe someone for half an hour -- how he wears his clothes, how he gets up, how he sits, how he looks -- you will learn so many things about the man you won't be able to believe it. Our every way of moving, every gesture, is ours. We are changed by a change in gesture; our gestures change because of a change in us.

 

... So these are just signs. These will be with you. These will go on directing you. These will give you a little help in keeping alert.

 

"And please explain the difference between witnessing, wakefulness and right remembering." There is no difference; these are all synonyms. They have been used by different traditions. Krishnamurti uses "wakefulness," Buddha has used "right remembering," "mindfulness"; Ashtavakra, the Upanishads, the Gita, all use "witnessing." The difference is only of tradition, but they all indicate the same direction.

-Osho, "The Mahageeta, Vol 1, #4, Q1"