Meditation
The Awareness
Lifestyle
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"By using the word "meditation" there is a possibility of
moving in a wrong direction – because English has no exact word for "dhyana,"
meditation only comes close to it.
"English has three words:
concentration, contemplation, meditation. Concentration is of the mind. You
focus your mind on a particular object, you exclude everything else, you just go
on narrowing your vision. Hence in concentration everything can become a
distraction. A dog starts barking and you will be distracted because you were
excluding everything and now the barking dog has come in. Hence the concentrator
is always angry because small things – a mosquito – can disturb his
concentration. Anything is capable of distracting you because you are doing
something unnatural.
"Concentration is unnatural. It is enforced, a
regimentation. It is something military-like; violently forcing the mind to
remain pinpointed on one thing. And the nature of the mind is constantly
flowing, moving. It is natural for the mind to move, it is a dynamic process,
and you are trying to make this dynamic process stagnant.
"Because it is
against nature any excuse and the mind will immediately jump in and start
moving. Even if you force the mind to be still for long periods you will be
sitting on a volcano. It will be like a small child: you can force the child by
saying, 'I will not give you food today. Sit in the corner and sit silently.' He
can do it. You can tell him 'Close your eyes,' and he can. But just see: he is
fidgeting, he is screwing up his eyes, afraid to open them but with every desire
to. You can see the turmoil that is inside, but he is somehow holding himself
back. He is in great trouble. That is the situation, when one is in the process
of concentration.
"Meditation is not concentration; it is not
contemplation either. Contemplation means you are a little more fluid, a little
more flowing, but you have to remain tethered to a particular subject. In
concentration you have to remain pinpointed; in contemplation you have a little
longer rope. You can roam around but you are tethered. For example, you are
thinking about love. Mm? – you can go on but you are only allowed to think about
love.
"Certainly it has more freedom than concentration but still the
freedom is limited. You are in a bigger prison, that's all, but you are
imprisoned. And still distractions will come – less than in concentration but
they will still come.
"In English even “meditation” gives a wrong idea;
it is as if you have to meditate upon something. But “dhyana,” the word in
Sanskrit out of which the Japanese word “zen” has come, means there is no
object, no subject, no concentration, no contemplation. You are simply sitting
silently, witnessing whatsoever is. A dog starts barking, you witness it – it is
not a distraction. Music is being played, you listen to it – it is not a
distraction because you are not making any effort to concentrate. You are
all-inclusive, nothing is excluded. The freedom is absolute. The only thing that
has to be remembered is not to get identified with anything. Listen to the music
but don't become the music, remain a witness.
"So meditation can be
defined as witnessing, not getting identified. Now this is a totally different
phenomenon; there is no question of concentration, no question of contemplation.
"You are just sitting by the side of the road and watching the traffic
of the mind; allowing the mind whatsoever it wants to do fearlessly, allowing it
wherever it wants to go – to Timbuktu, to Toronto... wherever it wants to go.
You just remain alert, aware, watchful.
"And then a miracle starts
happening: you start becoming aware of godliness in everything. Even the barking
of the dog starts having a divine quality to it. Maybe the dog is a little bit
upside-down, but still the dog is god – just written wrongly, that's all. You
have to read it the other way, otherwise there is no difference. And then
everything starts having a new message, a new feel, a new splendor.
"When the whole is transformed through your witnessing it becomes
fragrant. There is no flower but there is immense fragrance. You have entered
into the unmanifest.
Osho, I Am Not As Thunk As You Drink I Am,
Talk #12
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