Let me say a thing or two about meditation, and then we will enter it.
First: apart from the lack of your own resolve, there is no other obstacle in meditation. If you truly want to go into meditation, no power in the world can prevent you. So if you find yourself obstructed, know that the flaw is in your resolve. Perhaps you do not really want to go in. This will sound strange, because anyone who says, “I want to meditate but I can’t,” assumes he does want it. But there are very deep inner reasons because of which we do not notice that, in fact, we do not want it.
For example, anyone who says, “I want to go into meditation,” should first understand clearly: is he ready to drop both pleasure and pain?
Everyone is ready to drop pain. Those who want to meditate usually want it so that pain falls away and pleasure is attained. But you must be clear: the moment you enter meditation, both pleasure and pain fall away. What is attained is not pleasure but supreme peace.
So if you want to meditate to gain pleasure, you do not want meditation at all. Because pleasure is a tension, a restlessness. It may feel agreeable, but it is an agitated state. Pain is also an agitated state. In pleasure sleep does not come; in pain sleep does not come. In pleasure the mind is restless; in pain the mind is restless. Pleasure is an excitement. It too tires and breaks you. So if you want to meditate to gain pleasure, you do not want meditation. Understand it well: only by dropping both pleasure and pain can you enter meditation.
Second: anyone who wants to enter meditation out of mere curiosity will never be able to. Just out of curiosity—“let’s see what happens”? With such a childish wish no one will ever enter meditation. No. Only one who feels, “Without meditation my life has been wasted.” Not, “Let me see what happens in meditation,” but “I have seen that without meditation nothing happens; now I must enter meditation—there is no other option left for me.” Only with such a decision will you be able to go in. Because meditation is a great leap. One has to jump with one’s whole energy.
Curiosity never requires your total energy. Curiosity is like pressing your ear to a neighbor’s door to overhear the talk, then going your way; or peeping through someone’s window to see what is happening inside, then going your way. That is not the stream on which your life can float. Your life cannot rest on it.
We do many things out of curiosity. Meditation is not curiosity. If there is only curiosity, it will not work. Inquiry is needed.
So I would say to you: you have already lived without meditation—some for thirty years, some for forty, some for seventy. Do you still wish to go on living without meditation? What have you gained?
Look back over your life: without meditation, have you really gained anything? You may have gained wealth, you may have gained fame. Yet inside, everything is empty, hollow. Nothing has been gained. Your hands are still empty. And all who have known say that apart from meditation, that jewel is not found, that precious stone is not found, which, once attained, makes you feel there is nothing more to attain—you have attained all.
So do not make meditation a curiosity; make it mumuksha—a deep thirst, a burning longing. Only then will you be able to enter. If you cannot enter meditation, look for the lack in your resolve.
You will ask: how to complete the lack of resolve?
This is slightly tricky. The one who lacks resolve cannot even resolve to complete that lack; this is his knot. He asks, “How should I complete my resolve? How to fill this lack?” He cannot even be fully resolved about that. And if he tries, his effort will also be partial, because he is a man of partial resolve. Then what is to be done?
I say, don’t try—jump. Effort will not happen through you; jump. Jumping is one thing; trying is another. Trying takes time—years, months. Jumping can happen now.
This is why I emphasize mass, group meditation. Where so many people are entering meditation, perhaps the wave will catch you too and you will find yourself thinking, “Let me jump and see—what is happening?”
Jump. You will not be able to prepare; jump without preparation. And I tell you, the Divine is ready to receive you even without preparation—just jump.
People come to me and say, “Where is our worthiness?”
These are all excuses. Do not think they are being humble by saying, “Where is our worthiness?” They are only trying to hide their lack of jumping. They say, “Where is our worthiness?”
I tell you, the Divine is ready to accept you even in your unworthiness. Jump. Do not look for excuses. The mind loves to hunt for excuses—so many that they cannot be counted. And the mind knows how to rationalize. It knows how to persuade itself: give yourself arguments, give yourself reasons, and say, “I am perfectly right; how could it be otherwise?”
If you want to remain entangled in arguments, then don’t come here at all. If you have come here, be brave—take the leap and see. Once you get the taste, the taste itself keeps pulling you. If even a single ray flashes in a glimpse, you will not be able to stop.
And don’t worry about others. In my experience, in meditation the concern about others becomes the biggest obstacle—“Someone will see me. They will call me mad.” At most they will call you mad—nothing more. So be ready for that: those who see will call you mad.
Do not live under the illusion that the people who know and watch you do not already consider you mad. And do not be under the delusion that what they say to your face is what they truly believe.
Freud mentions a small point in his autobiography: if every friend and loved one were to speak aloud what he really thinks about his friends and loved ones, not a single lover or friend would remain in this world. There would be no friends left.
What the son thinks about his father when he touches his feet—the father has no idea. What a friend says about you behind your back—you never know. What a student does with his face the moment the teacher turns around—the teacher never knows. Do not remain in the illusion that anyone considers you very wise.
In this world everyone considers himself wise; no one considers another wise. And the one who considers himself wise considers everyone else unwise. Your greatest un-wisdom will not be a new event for others—they already know you are unwise. Don’t worry about it.
Remember, the greatest madness in this world is to think oneself intelligent and others mad. On this ground the first madness that breaks is in the one who considers himself mad and everyone else wise. Then madness breaks.
So consider everyone else wise, and yourself mad. And if someone says, “What madness were you up to?” say, “I am mad—what else could I do!” Simply, courageously, jump.
I want to add a new element in today’s meditation. For those who have gone deep these past three days, it will be revolutionary. I was waiting for this. Some have shown great courage; for them it will be a breakthrough.
For fifteen minutes there will be kirtan. Become absolutely mad in it. Do not hold back even a grain. If you hold back, you remain outside. In the second fifteen minutes the collective kirtan will stop, the music will continue. Float with that melody and let it carry you. Express personally whatever comes in your joy—jump, sing, dance. Do both stages with a feeling of delight.
Our condition has become such, and we have made our faces so gloomy and sad, that even when we laugh, our laughter sounds like crying. Even when we smile, there is a shadow of sorrow at the corners of our lips.
Do it with joy. One can go toward the temple of the Divine only dancing, not weeping.
Yes, sometimes there is a weeping of joy—that is a different matter. As I said, we are such people that even when we laugh, it is only a form of crying. But if one truly learns to be joyful, then even his tears become tears of joy. The very quality of his crying changes.
Do both stages in a mood of joy. And when the third stage begins, here is the new step I want to add today: after the two stages I will give you the signal, and each person should place his right hand on his forehead between the eyes, rub side to side and up and down, and continue rubbing for one minute, until I ask you to stop.
Place the hand on the forehead between the two eyes, the area of the third eye. Rub sideways and up and down, and keep rubbing for one minute. Let the fleshy pad of your palm keep rubbing. While rubbing, keep all your attention exactly where the pad of your hand is rubbing; keep your whole awareness there.
Those who have completed the first two stages rightly will have awakened their energy. And when they place the pad of the hand on the forehead, the whole energy will begin to rush toward the forehead. And as they rub, the veil lying over the third eye will slowly begin to slide away. After one minute we will again enter the third stage.
All who complete the two stages can descend today into a unique experience. If you cannot, no one but you is responsible.
Now let us prepare for the experiment.
Two things: some have come just to watch—please go outside. And stand far apart so that you can dance. Do not stand crowded together. Spread out. And the women’s group, please be mindful to spread out—do not stand clustered here. And those who only want to watch should go outside. Those standing outside also must not talk.
(First stage: for fifteen minutes, kirtan continues with the rhythm of the music.)
Chant Govind, chant Hari Gopal… Chant Govind, chant Hari Gopal… Chant Govind, chant Hari Gopal…
Chant Radha-Raman, Hari Gopal… Chant Radha-Raman, Hari Gopal… Chant Radha-Raman, Hari Gopal…
(Second stage: for fifteen minutes only the melody continues, and in the intense expression of feeling there is crying, laughing, dancing, shouting, etc. After thirty minutes, in the third stage Osho begins suggesting again.)
Be silent, be silent. If you want to sit, sit; if you want to lie down, lie down. Close your eyes and place your right hand on your forehead between the two eyes, and for one minute rub up and down and side to side.
Place your right palm on your forehead between the eyebrows, and rub it sideways, up and down, continuously for one minute. Keep your awareness on the spot and let your whole body’s energy flow toward it.
Rub between the eyebrows for one minute. Up and down, side to side. Keep your attention there, on the third-eye point. Let all the energy of the body that has been awakened flow toward that center.
Rub it, with full awareness of the third-eye spot… rub it, be conscious of it, and let your body’s energy flow toward it…
Rub to remove the veil over the third eye—up and down, to both sides… a door will open, an unfamiliar door…
Rub it, be conscious of it, and a new door opens suddenly… rub it, rub it, and a new door opens suddenly… rub, rub, and keep your attention on the third eye… suddenly a new door opens, and then entry within…
Now stop rubbing. Stop rubbing and just be as if you are dead… become like a corpse, let everything drop… no sound, no movement, be like a corpse… inside, only light upon light will spread. Infinite light will spread. A light never known, never seen. Infinite light spreads within—as if a thousand suns were to rise at once…
Infinite light… infinite light keeps spreading, and spreading, and spreading… infinite light… it goes on spreading… as a drop falls into the ocean, so you have fallen into an ocean of light. Just like a drop, you have dropped into this ocean of light.
Only light, nothing but light… infinite light… only light… infinite light… lost in an ocean of light. And following the light, a current of bliss begins to flow through the whole body-breath… a stream of bliss begins to circulate through body and life… bliss follows the light… experience that bliss…
Feel the bliss that follows the infinite movement of light… feel the bliss flowing inside and outside… feel the bliss…
Experience the bliss, experience the bliss that follows the light and pervades body and breath… everything becomes quiet, everything becomes silent… you are in deep silence… everything is quiet, everything is silent…
Silence, silence… a deep hush… the space is filled only with light, and the current of bliss is flowing… drown in it, drown completely, drown… become one with this bliss…
Be one with this bliss, be one with this light… become one, become one… such bliss you have never known… something unknown, something absolutely unknown descends… the Unknown descends… lose yourself, lose yourself, lose yourself…
And the moment you are lost, you begin to feel the presence of the Divine all around, inside and outside. The moment you are lost in this bliss and light, you will feel the presence of the Divine around you, inside and outside… lose yourself, lose yourself, and feel the Divine all around… Only That is—within and without only That is… in the incoming breath He is, in the outgoing breath He is… on every side, only He is.
Osho's Commentary
First: apart from the lack of your own resolve, there is no other obstacle in meditation. If you truly want to go into meditation, no power in the world can prevent you. So if you find yourself obstructed, know that the flaw is in your resolve. Perhaps you do not really want to go in. This will sound strange, because anyone who says, “I want to meditate but I can’t,” assumes he does want it. But there are very deep inner reasons because of which we do not notice that, in fact, we do not want it.
For example, anyone who says, “I want to go into meditation,” should first understand clearly: is he ready to drop both pleasure and pain?
Everyone is ready to drop pain. Those who want to meditate usually want it so that pain falls away and pleasure is attained. But you must be clear: the moment you enter meditation, both pleasure and pain fall away. What is attained is not pleasure but supreme peace.
So if you want to meditate to gain pleasure, you do not want meditation at all. Because pleasure is a tension, a restlessness. It may feel agreeable, but it is an agitated state. Pain is also an agitated state. In pleasure sleep does not come; in pain sleep does not come. In pleasure the mind is restless; in pain the mind is restless. Pleasure is an excitement. It too tires and breaks you. So if you want to meditate to gain pleasure, you do not want meditation. Understand it well: only by dropping both pleasure and pain can you enter meditation.
Second: anyone who wants to enter meditation out of mere curiosity will never be able to. Just out of curiosity—“let’s see what happens”? With such a childish wish no one will ever enter meditation. No. Only one who feels, “Without meditation my life has been wasted.” Not, “Let me see what happens in meditation,” but “I have seen that without meditation nothing happens; now I must enter meditation—there is no other option left for me.” Only with such a decision will you be able to go in. Because meditation is a great leap. One has to jump with one’s whole energy.
Curiosity never requires your total energy. Curiosity is like pressing your ear to a neighbor’s door to overhear the talk, then going your way; or peeping through someone’s window to see what is happening inside, then going your way. That is not the stream on which your life can float. Your life cannot rest on it.
We do many things out of curiosity. Meditation is not curiosity. If there is only curiosity, it will not work. Inquiry is needed.
So I would say to you: you have already lived without meditation—some for thirty years, some for forty, some for seventy. Do you still wish to go on living without meditation? What have you gained?
Look back over your life: without meditation, have you really gained anything? You may have gained wealth, you may have gained fame. Yet inside, everything is empty, hollow. Nothing has been gained. Your hands are still empty. And all who have known say that apart from meditation, that jewel is not found, that precious stone is not found, which, once attained, makes you feel there is nothing more to attain—you have attained all.
So do not make meditation a curiosity; make it mumuksha—a deep thirst, a burning longing. Only then will you be able to enter. If you cannot enter meditation, look for the lack in your resolve.
You will ask: how to complete the lack of resolve?
This is slightly tricky. The one who lacks resolve cannot even resolve to complete that lack; this is his knot. He asks, “How should I complete my resolve? How to fill this lack?” He cannot even be fully resolved about that. And if he tries, his effort will also be partial, because he is a man of partial resolve. Then what is to be done?
I say, don’t try—jump. Effort will not happen through you; jump. Jumping is one thing; trying is another. Trying takes time—years, months. Jumping can happen now.
This is why I emphasize mass, group meditation. Where so many people are entering meditation, perhaps the wave will catch you too and you will find yourself thinking, “Let me jump and see—what is happening?”
Jump. You will not be able to prepare; jump without preparation. And I tell you, the Divine is ready to receive you even without preparation—just jump.
People come to me and say, “Where is our worthiness?”
These are all excuses. Do not think they are being humble by saying, “Where is our worthiness?” They are only trying to hide their lack of jumping. They say, “Where is our worthiness?”
I tell you, the Divine is ready to accept you even in your unworthiness. Jump. Do not look for excuses. The mind loves to hunt for excuses—so many that they cannot be counted. And the mind knows how to rationalize. It knows how to persuade itself: give yourself arguments, give yourself reasons, and say, “I am perfectly right; how could it be otherwise?”
If you want to remain entangled in arguments, then don’t come here at all. If you have come here, be brave—take the leap and see. Once you get the taste, the taste itself keeps pulling you. If even a single ray flashes in a glimpse, you will not be able to stop.
And don’t worry about others. In my experience, in meditation the concern about others becomes the biggest obstacle—“Someone will see me. They will call me mad.” At most they will call you mad—nothing more. So be ready for that: those who see will call you mad.
Do not live under the illusion that the people who know and watch you do not already consider you mad. And do not be under the delusion that what they say to your face is what they truly believe.
Freud mentions a small point in his autobiography: if every friend and loved one were to speak aloud what he really thinks about his friends and loved ones, not a single lover or friend would remain in this world. There would be no friends left.
What the son thinks about his father when he touches his feet—the father has no idea. What a friend says about you behind your back—you never know. What a student does with his face the moment the teacher turns around—the teacher never knows. Do not remain in the illusion that anyone considers you very wise.
In this world everyone considers himself wise; no one considers another wise. And the one who considers himself wise considers everyone else unwise. Your greatest un-wisdom will not be a new event for others—they already know you are unwise. Don’t worry about it.
Remember, the greatest madness in this world is to think oneself intelligent and others mad. On this ground the first madness that breaks is in the one who considers himself mad and everyone else wise. Then madness breaks.
So consider everyone else wise, and yourself mad. And if someone says, “What madness were you up to?” say, “I am mad—what else could I do!” Simply, courageously, jump.
I want to add a new element in today’s meditation. For those who have gone deep these past three days, it will be revolutionary. I was waiting for this. Some have shown great courage; for them it will be a breakthrough.
For fifteen minutes there will be kirtan. Become absolutely mad in it. Do not hold back even a grain. If you hold back, you remain outside. In the second fifteen minutes the collective kirtan will stop, the music will continue. Float with that melody and let it carry you. Express personally whatever comes in your joy—jump, sing, dance. Do both stages with a feeling of delight.
Our condition has become such, and we have made our faces so gloomy and sad, that even when we laugh, our laughter sounds like crying. Even when we smile, there is a shadow of sorrow at the corners of our lips.
Do it with joy. One can go toward the temple of the Divine only dancing, not weeping.
Yes, sometimes there is a weeping of joy—that is a different matter. As I said, we are such people that even when we laugh, it is only a form of crying. But if one truly learns to be joyful, then even his tears become tears of joy. The very quality of his crying changes.
Do both stages in a mood of joy. And when the third stage begins, here is the new step I want to add today: after the two stages I will give you the signal, and each person should place his right hand on his forehead between the eyes, rub side to side and up and down, and continue rubbing for one minute, until I ask you to stop.
Place the hand on the forehead between the two eyes, the area of the third eye. Rub sideways and up and down, and keep rubbing for one minute. Let the fleshy pad of your palm keep rubbing. While rubbing, keep all your attention exactly where the pad of your hand is rubbing; keep your whole awareness there.
Those who have completed the first two stages rightly will have awakened their energy. And when they place the pad of the hand on the forehead, the whole energy will begin to rush toward the forehead. And as they rub, the veil lying over the third eye will slowly begin to slide away. After one minute we will again enter the third stage.
All who complete the two stages can descend today into a unique experience. If you cannot, no one but you is responsible.
Now let us prepare for the experiment.
Two things: some have come just to watch—please go outside. And stand far apart so that you can dance. Do not stand crowded together. Spread out. And the women’s group, please be mindful to spread out—do not stand clustered here. And those who only want to watch should go outside. Those standing outside also must not talk.
(First stage: for fifteen minutes, kirtan continues with the rhythm of the music.)
Chant Govind, chant Hari Gopal…
Chant Govind, chant Hari Gopal…
Chant Govind, chant Hari Gopal…
Chant Radha-Raman, Hari Gopal…
Chant Radha-Raman, Hari Gopal…
Chant Radha-Raman, Hari Gopal…
(Second stage: for fifteen minutes only the melody continues, and in the intense expression of feeling there is crying, laughing, dancing, shouting, etc. After thirty minutes, in the third stage Osho begins suggesting again.)
Be silent, be silent. If you want to sit, sit; if you want to lie down, lie down. Close your eyes and place your right hand on your forehead between the two eyes, and for one minute rub up and down and side to side.
Place your right palm on your forehead between the eyebrows, and rub it sideways, up and down, continuously for one minute. Keep your awareness on the spot and let your whole body’s energy flow toward it.
Rub between the eyebrows for one minute. Up and down, side to side. Keep your attention there, on the third-eye point. Let all the energy of the body that has been awakened flow toward that center.
Rub it, with full awareness of the third-eye spot… rub it, be conscious of it, and let your body’s energy flow toward it…
Rub to remove the veil over the third eye—up and down, to both sides… a door will open, an unfamiliar door…
Rub it, be conscious of it, and a new door opens suddenly… rub it, rub it, and a new door opens suddenly… rub, rub, and keep your attention on the third eye… suddenly a new door opens, and then entry within…
Now stop rubbing. Stop rubbing and just be as if you are dead… become like a corpse, let everything drop… no sound, no movement, be like a corpse… inside, only light upon light will spread. Infinite light will spread. A light never known, never seen. Infinite light spreads within—as if a thousand suns were to rise at once…
Infinite light… infinite light keeps spreading, and spreading, and spreading… infinite light… it goes on spreading… as a drop falls into the ocean, so you have fallen into an ocean of light. Just like a drop, you have dropped into this ocean of light.
Only light, nothing but light… infinite light… only light… infinite light… lost in an ocean of light. And following the light, a current of bliss begins to flow through the whole body-breath… a stream of bliss begins to circulate through body and life… bliss follows the light… experience that bliss…
Feel the bliss that follows the infinite movement of light… feel the bliss flowing inside and outside… feel the bliss…
Experience the bliss, experience the bliss that follows the light and pervades body and breath… everything becomes quiet, everything becomes silent… you are in deep silence… everything is quiet, everything is silent…
Silence, silence… a deep hush… the space is filled only with light, and the current of bliss is flowing… drown in it, drown completely, drown… become one with this bliss…
Be one with this bliss, be one with this light… become one, become one… such bliss you have never known… something unknown, something absolutely unknown descends… the Unknown descends… lose yourself, lose yourself, lose yourself…
And the moment you are lost, you begin to feel the presence of the Divine all around, inside and outside. The moment you are lost in this bliss and light, you will feel the presence of the Divine around you, inside and outside… lose yourself, lose yourself, and feel the Divine all around… Only That is—within and without only That is… in the incoming breath He is, in the outgoing breath He is… on every side, only He is.