Question 3:

Osho,

What do you mean by understanding something in meditation? how does one go about it, and what part of oneself is involved in the understanding?

 

 

Nigel, meditation and understanding are synonymous. So when I say "understand in meditation," I am simply saying to be silent, quiet, cool, and see. You are not to do anything else, you have to be just silent, cool and calm, and see. And understanding arises on its own accord. It is the fragrance of being silent.

 

Misunderstanding arises because your mind is very cloudy, noisy. Your mind never allows you to see that which is, never allows you to hear that which is said to you.

 

Buddhas come and go but you remain the same. Yes, you become Christians and you become Buddhists, and you become Hindus, but you don't change. These are your strategies to escape change, to avoid the awakened ones.

 

You ask me, "What do you mean by understanding something in meditation?"

 

It is not a great problem. Meditation IS understanding. You are trying to figure it out intellectually, and that is not possible. You are trying to think about it, what it is all about. Whatsoever conclusion you arrive at will be wrong.

 

It is not a question of thinking what is meant by it. Meditate, and experience. It is something to be experienced.

 

You say, "How does one go about it...?"

 

One does not go at all about it, otherwise you will go about and about. The word 'about' means around, and you will go around and around in circles. Don't make it an intellectual question; it is an existential approach. But the very word 'understanding' has misled you, because by 'understanding' we always think 'intellectual understanding'. That is not so. There is nothing like intellectual understanding.

 

Intellectual understanding is pseudo. It is misunderstanding pretending to be understanding. The word 'understand' is beautiful.

 

When you are in meditation everything stands under you, you are so above it. That's the meaning of understanding. Everything is there far below you, so you can see... like a bird's-eye view. You can see the whole from your altitude. Intellect cannot see it; it is on the same plane. Understanding happens only when the problem is on one plane and you are on a higher plane. If you are also on the same plane, understanding is not possible. You will misunderstand only. And that is one of the greatest problems to be encountered by every seeker.

 

Jesus says again and again to his disciples, "If you have ears, hear; if you have eyes, see." He was not talking to blind people or deaf people, he was just talking to people like you. But why does he go on insisting? - for the simple reason that hearing is not listening, and seeing is not true seeing. You see one thing and you understand something else. Your mind immediately distorts it. Your mind is upside down. It makes a mess of everything. It is in confusion, and you look through that confusion, so the whole world looks confused.

 

Old Nugent loved his cat, Tommy, so dearly he tried to teach it to talk.

 

"If I can get Tommy to converse with me," he reasoned, "I won't have to bother with ordinary humans at all."

 

First he tried a diet of canned salmon, then one of canaries. Tommy liked both - but he didn't learn to talk. Then one day Nugent had two extremely talkative parrots cooked in butter and served to Tommy with asparagus and french fries. Tommy licked the plate clean, and then - wonder of wonders - suddenly turned to his master and shouted, "Look out!"

 

Nugent didn't move. The ceiling caved in and buried the old man under a mass of debris. Tommy shook his head and said, "Eight years he spends getting me to talk, and then the dummy doesn't listen!"

 

You go thousands of miles to listen to a master and then "... the dummy doesn't listen."

 

The mind cannot, it is impossible for the mind to listen; it is not in a state of receptivity.

 

The mind is aggressive, it jumps to conclusions so fast, so quickly that it misses the whole point. In fact, it has already concluded, it is simply waiting for its conclusion to be proved right.

 

Nigel, please don't try to understand; rather try to meditate. You must be new here.

 

Dance, sing, meditate, let the mind settle a little bit. Let this stream of the mind, which is full of dead leaves and dirt, settle down a little. Let it become clean and clear, transparently clear; only then will you be able to understand what I am saying. Then it is so simple. I am not talking very complicated philosophy - it is not philosophy at all - I am simply indicating towards certain truths which I have experienced, and you can experience any moment you decide to experience. But it has to be a journey.

 

You say, "How does one go about it, and what part of oneself is involved in the understanding?"

 

It is not a question of any part being involved in it. Your totality is involved.

 

Meditation is not of the body, not of the mind, not of the soul. Meditation simply means your body, your mind, your soul, all functioning in such a harmony, in such wholeness, humming beautifully; they are in a melody... one. Your whole being - body, mind, soul, are all involved in meditation. That's why my effort here is to start every meditation with the body. That is something new.

 

In the ancient days people tried to start meditation directly in your innermost core. That is a difficult process. You don't know anything about your inner center; how can you start your journey from somewhere where you have never been? You can start your journey only from where you already are. You are in the body, hence my emphasis is on dancing, singing, breathing - so you can start from the body. When the body starts becoming meditative.... And don't be puzzled by my use of the word 'meditative' for the body. Yes, the body becomes meditative. When it is in a deep dance, when it is functioning perfectly, undividedly, as a whole, it has a meditative quality about it, a certain grace, a beauty.

 

Then move inwards, then start watching the mind. Then the mind starts settling down.

 

And when the mind has also settled, has become one with the body, then turn towards the center - a one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn - and a great peace will descend on you. It will pulsate from your soul to the body, from the body to the soul. In that pulsation you will be one.

 

So don't ask what part of oneself is involved in the understanding. Your totality is involved. And only when your totality is involved, there is understanding. Your body knows about it, your mind knows about it, your soul knows about it. Then you start functioning in unison, in unity. Otherwise the body says one thing, the mind says another, and the soul goes on in its own way. And you are always moving into different directions simultaneously. Your body is hungry, your mind is full of lust, and you are trying to be meditative. That's why I am not in favor of fasting - unless it is done purely for health purposes, as a dieting for reducing weight, or maybe once in a while just for purifying, so the whole stomach is left for one day to rest, so the whole digestive system can sometimes get a holiday. Otherwise, it is continuously working and working and working - it too gets tired.

 

Now scientists say even machines get tired. They call it metal-fatigue, just like mental fatigue. Even metal needs rest, and your stomach is not made of metal, remember. It is not even made of plastic. It is made of fragile material, very fragile material. But it works your whole life. It is good sometimes to give it a holiday. Even God had to rest one day - after six days work he rested for one day. Even God gets tired.

 

So sometimes, just out of kindness for the poor stomach, who works for you continuously, fasting is okay. But I don't suggest it - that it is going to be helpful in meditation. When you are hungry your body wants you to go to the fridge.

 

I am against repressing your sex, because if you repress sex, whenever you will sit silently your mind will start fantasizing about sex. When you are occupied with other things the mind goes on fantasizing like an undercurrent, but when you are not doing anything it comes into the light. It starts demanding, it creates beautiful fantasies: alluring beauties surround you. How can you meditate?

 

In fact, the old traditions have created all kinds of barriers to meditation, and then they say, "Meditation is very difficult." Meditation is not difficult; meditation is a simple process, a natural process. But if you create unnecessary hindrances, then you make it something like a hurdle race. You create barriers: you put rocks on the way... you hang rocks around your neck, you keep yourself chained, imprisoned, locked from within and the key thrown out.... Then of course it becomes more and more difficult, more and more impossible.

 

My effort here is to make meditation a natural phenomenon. Give to the body what is the body's need, and give to the mind what is the mind's need. And then you will be surprised, they become very friendly. And when you tell the body, "Now for one hour allow me to sit silently," the body says, "Okay. You have been doing so much for me, you have been so respectful towards me, I can do at least this much for you."

 

And when you say to the mind, "Please, keep yourself silent for a few minutes. Let me have a little rest," the mind will understand you. If you have not been repressing, if you have honored the mind, respected the mind, if you have not condemned it, then the mind will also become silent.

 

I am saying this from my own experience. Respect the body, respect the mind, so that they respect you. Create a friendliness. They are yours; don't be antagonistic. All the old traditions teach you to be antagonistic to the body and the mind; they create enmity, and through enmity you cannot move into meditation. Then the mind will disturb you more when you are meditating than at any other time. Then the body will become restless - more in meditation than at any other time. It will take revenge, it won't allow you to sit silently. It will create so many problems for you.

 

If you have tried to sit silently for a few minutes you will know. Imaginary things will start happening. You will think that some ant is creeping on your leg, and when you look there is no ant. Strange.... When you were sitting with closed eyes you felt absolutely that it was there, creeping, coming, coming, coming... and when you open your eyes there is no ant, nothing. It was just the body playing tricks with you. You have been playing tricks with the body. You have been deceiving the body in many ways, so now the body is deceiving you. When the body wants to go to sleep you force it to sit in a cinema hall. The body says, "Okay. When the right opportunity arises I will see to it." So when you sit in meditation the body starts creating problems for you.

 

Suddenly you start feeling your back needs scratching... and you are surprised because it never happens ordinarily.

 

One woman brought for me a plastic hand with a battery attached to it, to scratch your back. I said, "But why have you brought this to me?"

 

She said, "You must be sitting in meditation.... Whenever I sit in meditation the only problem is my back starts... I feel so much like I have to scratch it, and I cannot reach it.

 

So I have purchased this hand. This is very handy! You put it on and it can scratch anywhere. So I was just thinking that you must be sitting in meditation... you will need this!"

 

I said, "I never sit in meditation. I AM in meditation, so I don't need to sit. Whatsoever I am doing I am in meditation. If my back needs scratching I will scratch it meditatively.

 

What is wrong in scratching your own back? You are not scratching somebody else's back."

 

Just take care of the body and the body will repay you tremendously. Take care of your mind and the mind will be helpful. Create friendship, and meditation comes easily.

 

Rather than trying to understand... because understanding is not possible before meditation, only MISunderstanding.

 

A man walked into a pub one night and sat down at the bar to drink a beer.

 

While he was engaged in conversation with the man on the stool beside him, a monkey clambered down one of the bar posts, stopped at his glass and pissed in his beer.

 

The man noticed it too late.

 

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "Did you see that? That monkey just pissed in my beer!"

 

"Well, no use tellin' me about it," said his neighbor. "Tell the barkeeper - he owns this place."

 

The man called the barkeeper over.

 

"Hey!" he said. "Do you know that while I was talking with this gentleman a monkey came over and pissed in my beer?"

 

"Nothin' to do with me," said the landlord. "Go and have a word with the pianist over there - it is his monkey!"

 

The man walked over with his pint mug, tapped the pianist on the shoulder and said, "Hey, do you know your monkey has just pissed in my beer?"

 

"No," said the pianist, "but if you sing the words, I will play it."

 

- Osho, "The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 10, #4, Q3"