First I would like to welcome you, because you have a longing for the divine; because you desire to rise above ordinary life towards the life of a seeker and because, despite your worldly desires, you have a thirst for truth. The people who have felt the thirst for truth are fortunate; out of the millions of people who are born, only a few ever feel the longing for truth. To know truth is a great blessing -but even to have the longing for it is as great a blessing. Even if you don't attain it that is okay, but to never have experienced the thirst at all would be a great misfortune. I would like to say that it is not important to know truth. What is important is that you have the longing for it, that you make every effort towards experiencing it, that you work hard for it and yearn for it, and that you are determined and do everything you can possibly do towards this end. If in spite of this you don't attain it that does not matter. But never to have experienced this thirst at all - that would be the greatest tragedy.
I would also like to say that to know truth is not as important as to have an authentic yearning for it. That yearning is a joy in itself. If the desire is for something insignificant, there will be no joy even if you get it; but if you long for the significant, the ultimate and you don't get it, then you will be filled with joy even if you don't get it. I repeat: if you desire a small thing and you get it, you will still not be as happy as when you long for the ultimate and you don't get it... you will still be filled with joy and happiness. The divine will be born in you according to the intensity with which you seek it. That does not mean that some supreme soul or energy from outside will enter your being. The seed is already present within you, and it will start growing. But it will grow only if you are able to give some warmth to your thirst, some heat and some fire to your thirst. The more you long for the divine, the more is the possibility that the seed which is hidden within your heart will grow, that it will sprout and become the divine; that it will break open, that it will blossom. If you have ever thought of experiencing the divine, if you have ever experienced a desire for silence, for truth, then know that the seed within you is longing to sprout. It means that some hidden thirst within you wants to be fulfilled. Try to understand that a very significant struggle is taking place within you; you will have to help this struggle and support it. You will have to support it because it is not enough that the seed has sprouted: a more nourishing environment is also needed. And even if the seed has sprouted, it does not mean that it will also bloom. For that, much more is needed. Out of the many seeds scattered on the ground, only a few will grow into trees. There is this possibility in all of them: they could all sprout and grow into trees and each could in turn produce many more seeds. One small seed has the power, the potential to produce a whole forest; it contains the potential to cover the whole earth with trees. But it is also possible that the seed with this immense power and potential will be destroyed and that nothing will come out of it. And this is only the capacity of a seed - man is capable of much more than this. One seed can create something so vast.... If a small stone can be used to create an atomic explosion.. .immense energy can be produced out of it. When someone experiences this fusion within his being, within his consciousness, this blossoming, this explosion, the energy and light are the experience of the divine. We don't experience the divine from the outside. The energy that we produce through this explosion of consciousness, the growth, the flowering of our being, that energy itself is the divine. And you have a thirst for this energy: this is why I welcome you. But it does not necessarily follow that just because you have come here that you have this thirst. It is possible that you are here merely as a spectator. It is possible that you are here out of some vague curiosity - but no doors can be opened through superficial curiosity, and no secrets will be revealed to mere spectators. In life, one has to pay for everything one receives, and much has to be sacrificed. Curiosity is of no value; this is why curiosity will not get you anywhere. Curiosity will not help you to enter into meditation. What is needed is an essential thirst for freedom, not curiosity. Last evening I was saying to someone that if you are near an oasis and you are dying of thirst, if your thirst is intense and you reach a state where you feel that soon you will die if you don't get water, and if at that point someone offers you water but with the condition that after drinking the water you will die - that the price of the water will be your life - you will even be willing to accept this condition. When death is certain, then why not die with your thirst quenched? If you carry this intense longing and hope within you, then under this tremendous pressure the seed within you will break open and start growing. The seed will not sprout on its own, it needs certain conditions. It needs much pressure, much warmth for its hard outer skin to crack and the tender sprout inside to grow. Each of us has this hard covering, and if we want to come out of it, just curiosity will not do. So remember this: if you are here simply out of curiosity you will leave with that curiosity, and nothing can be done to help you. And if you are here as a spectator you will leave as one, and nothing can be done for you. So it is necessary that each one of you look within himself to see whether or not he has an authentic longing for the divine. Each of you should ask himself this question: "Do I want to know truth?" Be very clear if your thirst for the divine is authentic, whether you have a yearning for truth, for silence, for bliss. If not, then understand that whatsoever you do here will have no meaning; it will be meaningless, without any purpose. If your meaningless efforts don't bear any fruits, meditation will not be responsible - you will be responsible for it. So to begin, it is necessary that you look for an authentic seeker within you. And be clear about it: do you really seek something? And if you do, then there is a way to find it.
Buddha was once visiting a village. A man asked him, Every day you say that everyone can become enlightened. Then why doesn't everyone become enlightened?" "My friend," Buddha replied, "do one thing: in the evening make a list of all the people in the village and write down their desires next to their names."
The man went into the village and he asked everyone; it was a small village with only a few people, and they gave him their answers. He returned in the evening and gave the list to Buddha. Buddha asked, "How many of these people seek enlightenment?" The man was surprised because not a single person had written that he wanted enlightenment. And Buddha said, "I say that every man is capable of enlightenment, I do not say that every man wants enlightenment."
That every man is capable of enlightenment is very different from every man wanting to be enlightened. If you want it, then consider it to be possible. If your quest is for truth, there is no power on earth that can stop you. But if you don't long for truth, then too there is no power which can give it to you. So first you need to ask if your thirst is a real one. If so, then rest assured that a path is available. If not, then there is no path - your thirst will be your path to truth. The second thing I would like to say by way of an introduction is that you often have a thirst for something, but you are not hopeful of ever getting what you desire. You have a desire, but you are not optimistic about it. There is the desire, but with a sense of hopelessness. Now if the first step is taken optimistically, then the last step will also end optimistically. This too should be understood: if the first step is taken without any optimism, then the last step will end in despair. If you want the last step to be a satisfying and successful one, the first step should be taken with optimism. Do you realize that as far as your state of consciousness is concerned, much depends on whether your acts are rooted in positivity or negativity? If you are a pessimist to begin with, then it is as if you are sitting on the branch of a tree, and cutting the branch at the same time. So I say to you that to be open is very important in this search. To be optimistic means you feel that if there has been a single person on this earth who has understood truth, if there has been a single person in the history of mankind who has experienced divine bliss and peace, then there is no reason why you also cannot experience it.
Don't look at the millions of people whose lives are filled with darkness, whose hopes have never seen the light of day: look at the people in history who have experienced truth. Don't look at the seeds which never grew into trees, which rotted and were wasted: look at those few who were successful and who experienced the divine. And remember, what was possible for those seeds is possible for every seed. What one man can experience, every other man can also experience. Your capacity as a seed is the same as that of Buddha, of Mahavira, of Krishna or Christ. Where enlightenment is concerned nature has shown no favoritism; every man has an equal possibility. But it does not appear to be so because there are many among us who have never even tried to turn this possibility into a reality. So to be optimistic is a basic necessity. Carry this assurance with you that if anyone has ever experienced peace, if anyone has ever experienced bliss, it is also possible for you. Don't humiliate yourself by being pessimistic. To feel pessimistic is insulting to yourself. It means that you don't see yourself as worthy of experiencing truth. And I say to you, you are worthy and you will certainly achieve it. Try it and see! You have lived your whole life with a sense of hopelessness; now for these three days of the meditation camp nourish a feeling of optimism. Be as optimistic as possible that the ultimate will happen, that it will definitely happen. Why? In the outer world it is possible to approach something with optimism and not be successful. But in the inner world optimism is a very useful device. When you are full of optimism, every cell of your body is filled with optimism, every pore of your skin is filled with optimism, every breath is filled with optimism, every thought is highlighted with optimism, your lifeforce throbs with optimism and your heartbeat is suffused with optimism. When your whole being is filled with optimism, then this will create a climate in you in which the ultimate can happen. Pessimism also creates a personality, a character where every cell is crying, is sad, is weary, is in despair, lifeless, as if one is living only in name but is dead in spirit. If this person sets out on a journey to seek something.... And the journey on the spiritual path is the greatest journey - no man has climbed a mountain peak higher than this, no man has ever dived into a deeper ocean. The depth of the self is the deepest, and the height is the highest. Someone who wants to walk this path has to be very optimistic. Tonight, when you go to bed, fall asleep filled with optimism. And sleep with the assurance that tomorrow morning when you get up something will happen, something can happen, something can be done. Have an optimistic attitude, and along with it I would also like to say this: after many years of experience I have come to the conclusion that man's negativity can be so strong that even if he begins to achieve something, he may not be able to see it because of his negativity. Some time ago a man used to come to me, and he would bring his wife. The first time we met he told me that his wife could not sleep. He described her condition to me: "She cannot get any sleep without medicines, and even with medicine she can only sleep for three or four hours. And my wife is afraid; strange fears seem to trouble her. She is afraid to step out of the house, and if she is in the house she is afraid that the house will collapse. If there is no one around she is afraid that if she is alone she will die, so she constantly needs someone around. At night she keeps all her medicines close to her just in case there is an emergency." I suggested that she start doing a small meditation that would be helpful. She began to do the experiment. After seven days I met him and I asked him, "What happened? How is your wife?" He said, "There has not been much progress - she just sleeps better." After a week I met him again and asked him, "Any change?" And he said, "Her condition has not changed very much, but she is a bit less afraid." I met him again after another seven days and asked him, "Has anything happened?" "Nothing significant," he said. "She manages to get some sleep now, is less fearful and doesn't keep the medicines close to her anymore - nothing much." I call this a negative outlook. Even if this man were to experience something he would not be able to see it, to recognize it. And this outlook is built into this person. It means that a negative person will not experience anything, and even if he does experience something he will not be able to recognize it - and much that might otherwise be possible will be obstructed. In addition to having a positive approach, I also suggest that during these three days you think only about what is happening to you - don't try to think about what is not happening. In these three days whatsoever happens, watch. And forget about what does not happen, what could not happen. Just remember what you did experience. If you have even a little taste of peace, of silence, nourish that. It will give you hope and it also will push you forward. Because if you nourish something that didn't happen your momentum will be lost, and what actually did happen will also be destroyed. So in these three days, in your experiments with meditation, pay attention to every little thing you experience and make that the basis for your progress. Don't give any energy to what doesn't happen. Man has always been unhappy because he forgets what he has and tries to get what he cannot get. To have this kind of basis for life is absolutely wrong. Be someone who understands what he has and live on the basis of that. I read somewhere that one man was complaining to another, "I am a very poor man, I don't have anything." So the second man said, "If you are that poor you can do one thing: I want your right eye. I will give you five thousand rupees for it. Take these five thousand rupees and give me your right eye."
And the first man said, "That is very difficult. I cannot give my right eye." So then the other man offered, "I will give you ten thousand rupees for both of your eyes." Again the first man replied, "Ten thousand rupees! But still, I cannot give my eyes." At which point the other man offered, "I will give you fifty thousand rupees if you will give me your life." At this the first man said, "But that is impossible! I cannot give my life." The first man said, "This shows you have many valuable things. You have two eyes which you will not sell for ten thousand rupees, and you have your life - and you were saying that you don't have anything!" I am talking about this kind of person and this kind of thinking. Value what you have, and also what you experience through meditation, even the small things. Think about it, talk about it, because whether or not you will experience more depends on this way of thinking - and your optimism will create more. And what you don't get.... A woman used to come to me - she was well educated, a professor in a college, a Sanskrit scholar. She was attending a seven-day meditation camp, and on the first day of the camp after the meditation she came out and said to me, "Forgive me , but I did not have any communion with the divine." It was just the first day of the experiment and she said she did not meet with the divine! So I said, "If you had met the divine it would have been dangerous, because if you could meet the divine so easily you would not value it." And I also said, "A person would have to be really stupid to think that by sitting silently with his eyes closed for ten minutes, he will then be ready to know the divine." So if you experience even the smallest ray of silence, consider that you have seen the whole sun because even the smallest experience of light will help you to reach to the sun. If I am sitting in a dark room and I see a thin ray of light, there are two ways I can relate to it. One way would be to say, "What is this small ray of light compared to the deep darkness surrounding me? What can one small ray of light do? - there is so much darkness all around me." The other way would be to think, "In spite of all this darkness, there is at least one ray of light available to me, and if I go towards that ray of light I may reach the source where the sun is." This is why I am telling you not to think about all the darkness; if there is even the faintest, the tiniest ray of light, concentrate on that. It will give rise to a positive vision in you. Usually, your life is just the opposite. If I show you a rosebush you might say, "What is there to see? Existence is so unfair, there are only three or four roses and thousands of thorns." This is one approach: to see a rosebush and say, "Existence is so unfair! There are thousands of thorns and only a few roses." This is one way of perceiving, one approach. Another way would be to say, "Existence is so mysterious: amidst those thousands of thorns it creates a rose." You could also see it like this and say, "A rose among all those thorns....Isn't this a mysterious world! It really seems like a miracle, the possibility of a rose blooming amongst all those thorns." So I would like to ask you to take the second approach. In these three days make your foundation from the slightest ray
of hope that you see in your meditation, and let it become stronger.
The third thing is that during these three days of meditation you will not be living in the same way that you have been living up until this evening. Man is a robot, full of habits, and if one remains within the confines of one's habits, the new path to meditation will be very difficult. Hence, I suggest that you make a few changes.
One change will be that during these three days you are to talk as little as possible. Talking is the greatest affliction of this century! And you are not even aware of just how much you talk. From morning to night, until you go to sleep, you go on talking. Either you are talking to somebody else, or if there is nobody to talk to, you talk to yourself. During these three days be conscious about stopping your habit of continuously talking. And it is just a habit. For a meditator, this is vital. During these three days I would like you to talk as little as possible, and when you do talk, it should be pure, not the ordinary chitchat that you do every day. What in fact do you talk about every day? Does it have any value? Would it be harmful to you if you didn't talk? You are simply chattering; it is not worth much. And if you didn't talk would it be harmful to others? Would others feel something is missing by not hearing what you have to say? During these three days remember that you are not to talk much with anyone. This will be tremendously helpful. And if you do talk, it would be better if it were connected with meditation and nothing else. But it would be so much better if you did not talk at all: be in silence as much as possible. I don't mean it to be so strict that you force yourself to be in silence, that you write what you want to say. You are free to speak, but not to chitchat. Talk consciously, and only when necessary. This will help you in two ways. One benefit will be that you will save all the energy that is wasted by talking. Then that energy can be used for meditation. And the second benefit will be that it will disconnect you from the others and you will be in your aloneness during this time. We have come to this mountain place, and it would be a waste if all two hundred people that are gathered here were to just talk with each other, chat with each other. Then you would still be in a crowd, as you were before, and you will not be able to experience silence. To experience silence just to be in the mountains is not enough. It is also necessary to separate yourself from others and be alone. You should make contact only if it is absolutely necessary. Imagine that you are the only person on this mountain and there is no one else around. You have to live as if you have come here alone, you are staying alone and moving around alone. Sit under a tree, alone. Don't go about in groups of people. Live separately and alone for these three days. The truth of life has never been known through living in a crowd, and it cannot be experienced like that. No experience of any significance has ever happened in a crowd. Whosoever has had a taste of silence has tasted it in absolute solitude, in aloneness. When you stop talking to others and when all your chattering inside and outside stops, nature starts communicating with you in a mysterious way. Nature is continuously communicating with you, but you are so engrossed in your chatter that you don't hear her soft voice. You will have to quieten yourself so that you can hear the voice speaking within you. So in these three days, talking has to be consciously reduced. If you forget and start talking out of habit and then remember again, stop right then and apologize. Be alone. You will be experimenting with this here, but you will also have to try it on your own. Go anywhere you like, sit under a tree; you have completely forgotten that you are part of nature. You also don't know that being close to nature makes it easier to experience the ultimate; nowhere else is it easier. So make full use of these three incredible days. Be in isolation, solitude, and don't talk unless necessary. And even if everyone is quiet, continue to be alone. A meditator has to be alone. There are very many people here, so when we all sit for meditation it may look as if there is a gathering of people meditating. But all meditation is individual, a group cannot meditate. Sitting here you are in a large group, but when you go inside yourself you will all feel alone. When you close your eyes you will feel alone, and when you are silent there will no longer be any group. There will be two hundred people here, but each one will be only with himself and not with the other one hundred and ninety-nine meditators. Meditation cannot be done collectively. All prayer, all meditation is individual, is private. Be alone here, and also when you leave here. And spend most of your time in silence. Don't talk. But it will not be enough to simply stop talking, you will also need to make a conscious effort to stop the constant chattering that goes on inside you. You talk to yourself, you answer yourself -quieten yourself and drop that too. If it is difficult to stop this inner chatter, then firmly tell yourself to stop this noise, tell yourself that you don't like the noise. Talk to your inner self. As a meditator, it is important to give suggestions to yourself. Try this sometime. Sit alone somewhere, tell your mind to stop its chatter, tell your mind that you don't like it, and you will be surprised to see that for a moment your inner chattering will stop.
For three days give yourself the suggestion that you will not talk. In three days you will notice the difference.. .that step by step, slowly, slowly the chatter is lessening. The fourth point: you may have some complaints, some problems - you are not to pay any attention to them. If you experience a small problem or difficulty, don't give it any attention. We are not here for entertainment. Recently, I read the story of a Chinese nun. She was visiting a village where there were only a few houses, and as it was getting dark and she was all alone she went to the area in front of all the houses and asked the villagers, "Please let me stay in one of your houses." She was a stranger to them, and besides that she was of a different religion, so the villagers closed their doors to her. The next village was very far away, and it was dark and she was alone. So she had to spend the night in a field and she slept under a cherry tree. In the middle of the night she woke up - it was cold, and because of this she could not sleep. She looked up and saw that the flowers had all blossomed; the tree was covered with flowers. And the moon had risen, and the moonlight was very beautiful. She experienced a moment of immense joy. In the morning she went back to the village and thanked all the people who had refused to give her shelter for the night. When they asked her, "For what?" she said, "For your love, for your compassion and kindness in closing your doors to me last night. Because of this I was able to experience a moment of unbelievable joy. I saw the cherry flowers in bloom and the moon in its glory, and I saw something that I had never seen before. If you had given me shelter I would not have seen it. That's when I realized your kindness, your reason for closing all your doors to me." This is one way to look at things. It is possible that you also might have been sent away from each door that night, and that you might have felt angry all night. You might have felt so much hatred, so much anger towards those people that perhaps you might not have noticed the flowers blossoming in the cherry tree and you would not have seen the moon rising, let alone experienced a feeling of gratitude. You would not have experienced any of these things. There is another way to relate to life - and that is when you are filled with gratitude for everything in life. And you must remember that during these three days, feel gratitude for everything. Feel gratitude for what you receive and don't be bothered about what you don't receive. This is the basis of gratitude. It is on this base that carefreeness and simplicity are born inside you.
To summarize, I would like to say that in these three days you will relentlessly try to go inside, to meditate and to enter silence. On this journey, a very firm resolve is needed. The conscious mind where all the thought processes take place is only a small part; the rest of the mind is still deeper. If we were to divide the mind into ten parts, the conscious mind would be only one part, the other nine parts are the unconscious mind. Our thinking and reasoning take place in only one part, but the rest of the brain is not aware of this. The rest of the brain has no sense of it. When we make a conscious resolution to meditate, to enter into samadhi, ultimate bliss, the major part of our brain remains ignorant of this resolution. This unconscious part will not support us in this resolution. But if we don't get support from it we cannot succeed. To get the support, a determined, conscious effort is needed. I will now explain how to make this conscious effort. When you wake up, let it be with determination, and at night when you go to bed, when you lie down on your bed, think over your resolution for five minutes and repeat it to yourself as you go to sleep. I would like to explain this exercise for becoming determined, and you will be practicing it here as well as in your normal life. As I explained, with this resolution your whole mind, conscious and unconscious both, is to decide that, "I will be silent, I am determined to experience meditation." The night Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment, he was sitting under his bodhi tree and he said, "I will not get up from this place until I am enlightened."
You might think, "But what is the connection? How will not getting up help him to get enlightened?" But the resolution, "I will not..." spreads all through the body - and he did not get up until he became enlightened! Amazingly, he became enlightened the same night. And he had been trying for six years, but never before did he have such intensity. I will give you a small exercise to intensify your resolve. We will do this exercise here and also at night before sleeping. If you exhale completely and then stop yourself from inhaling, what will happen? If I exhale completely and then pinch my nose shut and don't inhale, what will happen? In a little while my total being will struggle to inhale. Won't every pore of my body and those millions of cells scream for air? The longer I try to hold my breath, the deeper the longing for breath is going to spread into my unconscious mind. The longer I hold my breath, the more the innermost part of my being is going to ask for air. And if I hold it to the last moment, my whole being will demand air. Now it is not a simple desire anymore; the top layer is not the only one affected. Now it has become a question of life and death; now the deeper layers, the layers underneath, are also going to demand more air. In that moment, when you reach the state where your whole being is starving for air, you should repeat to yourself, "I am going to experience meditation." In that moment, when your life is demanding air, you should repeat the thought, "I will enter into a state of silence. This is my resolution: I will experience meditation." In this state, your mind should repeat this thought; your body will ask for air and your mind will repeat this thought. The stronger the demand for air, the deeper your resolution will enter inside. And if your whole being is struggling and you are repeating this sentence, then the strength of your resolution will increase many times over. In this way it will reach to your unconscious mind. You will be making this resolution every day before the daily meditation, and at night you will do it before going to sleep. Repeat the sentence, and then go to sleep. When you are falling asleep, at that moment also let it be constantly ringing in your mind: "I will experience meditation. This is my resolution. I will enter into silence." This resolution should go on ringing in your mind so that you don't even realize when you are falling asleep. In sleep your conscious mind is inactive and the doors are open for the unconscious mind. If your mind repeats this idea again and again while the conscious mind is inactive, it can then enter the subconscious mind. And in time you will observe a significant change - you will see it even in these three days. So now try to understand the method by which you can strengthen the resolution. This is the way to do it: first take slow, deep breaths, filling yourself up, filling your lungs up as deeply as you can. When you have inhaled as much as you can, continue to hold the thought, "I will experience meditation," and keep repeating this sentence. Then exhale, and at one point you will feel that there is no more air to exhale. But there is - so throw that out too and repeat the sentence. Now you will feel that there is absolutely no more air left - but still there is, so throw that out. Don't be afraid: you will never exhale completely That's why, when you feel that there is no more breath left in you, there always is - so try also to exhale that. Exhale as totally as you can, and keep repeating, "I will experience meditation." It is a strange phenomenon: through it a thought process is triggered in your unconscious mind. An intense resolve will arise and you will already see its effects tomorrow, so you have to make your resolution very strong. We will start the experiment before we leave this place this evening. You are to do it five times, that is, you should inhale and exhale five times and repeat the thought inside five times. If anyone has a heart problem, or any other problem, don't do it strenuously, do it softly. Do it as gently as possible, don't make yourself uncomfortable. I have talked about the will to experience. You must practice it every night during these three days, before sleeping. Lying on your bed, repeat the sentence as you gradually fall asleep. If you follow this process diligently and your voice reaches the unconscious, the result is easy to induce and is unmistakable.
I wanted to talk about these few things today, and I hope you have already understood the points that are relatively important. As I have said, there should be no talking. Naturally, you will not read the newspaper or listen to the radio, because that would also be a kind of talking. Or when I said you will be silent and alone...this means that you avoid the company of people as much as you can. Except for the time when we gather here, or when we eat... but then too you will be quiet and in silence. There should be total silence, as if you are not there at all. When you come here to meditate, then too you will come in silence. You will see the results of three days in silence. When you walk on the street be quiet; when sitting, standing, moving around, be quiet. And most of the time try to be alone. Select a beautiful place and sit there quietly. And if there is someone with you, they too should sit quietly; don't talk, otherwise the mountains are wasted, the beauty is wasted. You will not see that which is right in front of you. You will destroy everything with your talking. Be alone.I wanted to mention these few things which are important for everyone. If there is no thirst within you, and there seems to be no way to awaken this thirst, then tell me about this tomorrow. Let me know if you are not very hopeful about yourself and you don't feel there can be any hope, or if you find it difficult to strengthen your resolve and feel it is not possible for you to meditate. So tomorrow you can ask me about the difficulties that you think you will face in the next three days, so that no time is wasted later on.
If you have any personal problem, any pain or sorrow which you want to be relieved of which is preventing you from meditating, or if you are coming across any difficulty while meditating, remember this: you can ask your question separately. It will not be for everyone; it will be for you individually, that you follow a separate procedure. And whatever problem you may have, be clear about it tomorrow morning so that we will be prepared for the next three days. I wanted to say these few things. You have to maintain a single-pointed vision. And then from tomorrow we will start with what is to be done, we will begin the real work tomorrow. Now we will sit a little apart from each other - the hall is big enough so that everyone can spread out - and we will make our resolutions before we leave here. .. .Not so jerkily, very slowly, slowly filling the lungs completely. When you fill your lungs, repeat to yourself, "I will experience meditation." Repeat this sentence. Then, when the lungs are filled to the maximum, hold your breath for a while, repeating the sentence. You may get nervous, you will feel like exhaling, but continue to hold your breath and repeat the sentence. Then slowly start exhaling, again repeating the sentence. Keep exhaling until you feel you are empty, and then go on exhaling and repeating the sentence. When you feel absolutely empty, hold this emptiness. Don't inhale yet, and go on repeating the sentence as long as you can. And then, slowly begin to inhale. An inhalation plus an exhalation is one round. Everyone should follow this procedure slowly, step by step. After doing it five times straighten your back, breathe slowly, sit quietly and relax for five minutes. We will do this exercise for ten minutes and then everyone will leave this place silently. Remember, you are not to talk, and this is from now on. In that sense the meditation camp begins right now. When you go to bed repeat this exercise from five to seven times, as long as you feel comfortable, then switch off the light and fall asleep. Fall asleep thinking, "I will be in silence, this is my aim." And when sleep envelops you this thought will be with you. When you have finished doing the exercise five times, rest quietly for a while and breathe softly. Now keep your back straight. Let your body be loose. Your back is straight and your body relaxed. Close your eyes. Quietly take a deep breath and do as I have just said five times: "I will experience silence. I will experience meditation. I am determined that I will experience meditation." Let your whole being make this oath that you will enter into meditation. Let your whole being resonate with it. This should reach to the deepest layer of your consciousness. After doing this five times, very softly, very relaxedly, sit UP, straighten your back and slow down your breathing. Exhale slowly and keep on watching your breathing. Rest for five minutes. During this rest period the resolution that you have made will sink deeper inside you. Make the resolution five times, then, sitting quietly, watch your breath for five Minutes and take slow breaths.
OSHO, T H E PATH OF MEDITATION
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