Worlds smallest meditation

Osho Meditation - Stop Exercise

Osho - Start doing a very simple method at least six times a day. It takes only half a minute each time so it is three minutes a day. It is the shortest meditation in the world (she laughs). But you have to do it suddenly – that’s the whole point of it.

Walking on the street – suddenly you remember. Stop yourself, stop yourself completely, no movement. Just be present for half a minute. Whatsoever the situation, stop completely and just be present to whatsoever is happening. Then start moving again. Six times a day. More you can do but not less. It will bring much opening. It has to be done suddenly.

In my childhood when I entered high school, I had a teacher who was a little eccentric about a few things. One was that whenever he took the attendance, he would not allow anybody to say, ’Yes, Sir.’ When he called the names he would insist that we would say, ’Present, Sir.’ And I loved it, because  I started meditating. This is what I used to do: when he called my name, I would say, ’Present, Sir,’ and I would be really present. I would forget everything and just stop and be present, pure presence.

He became aware by and by that I was doing something else. One day he called me after the class and said. ’What are you doing? You seem to be mysterious. When you say, ”Present, Sir,” what do you do exactly? – because suddenly your face changes, your eyes change, your movements stop, and I have started feeling some energy coming towards me. What are you doing? I feel very pulled,’ he said, ’and sometimes now I have even started remembering you. In my home sometimes I suddenly hear you calling, ”Present, Sir,” and something happens to me. But what are you doing?’

If you just become present suddenly, the whole energy changes. The continuity that was going on in the mind stops. And it is so sudden that the mind cannot create a new thought so immediately. It takes time; the mind is stupid. It cannot work without time, so when you do it suddenly.... Gurdjieff used to call this exercise, the ’Stop Exercise’.

His disciples would be working – somebody might be digging in the garden, somebody might be cleaning the floor, somebody might be cooking, and suddenly he would shout loudly, ’Stop!’ And everybody had to stop – whatsoever he was doing. If your mouth was open and you were going to say something, it had to remain open; you were not to close it. If your eyes were open they had to remain open. If you were moving and you had taken one step up, it had to remain there; whether you feel or not, that was not the question. You were not to manage anything; you were simply to stop as you were.

It was one of the most beautiful methods that he developed. In that stopping, suddenly the mind stops, and for a single moment there is a clearing. All thoughts disappear – there is emptiness, and in that emptiness there is an opening.

So start this – call it ’Present, Sir’ or ’Stop Exercise’ as you like. Anywhere, the moment you remember, just give a jerk to your whole being and stop. Not only you will become aware. Soon you will feel that others have become aware of your energy – that something has happened; something from the unknown is entering you. That will open your closedness.

There is something that man can do but there is something that only God can do. Whatsoever you can do, you have done. It is as if a tree has brought buds – that’s all the tree can do. But for the opening of the bud, for the petals to open, it will have to wait for the sun. Then with the sunrise the petals will open. This ’stop’ exercise is to allow the sun to enter you. It is always there but you are so occupied with the  mind that the rays of the sun never enter you.

So six times or more... and don’t prolong it because after half a minute the old mind will come back and the whole thing will be destroyed!

Source: " God Is Not For Sale, Chapter 14 " - Osho