[A visitor -- not a sannyasin -- asked through a translator if Osho could explain to her the meaning of an experience she had had two years ago.
She described the experience as one in which she felt like an empty box, nothing was there. It reached a point where she couldn't remember her name, or who she was. She could not function, couldn't talk or answer people when they asked her what was happening. It was a very beautiful experience.
To Osho's enquiry as to how it started, she replied that she did not know; it just happened. Osho shone a torch on her.]
It has been very significant. It always happens that whenever you suddenly fall into a vacuum you cannot function.
For a few days, a few hours, you have to tell people around you not to disturb you, if it happens again. You should be taken care of. Simply relax: close the room, lie down on the bed, and in deep darkness relax inside; fall into that empty box, allow yourself to be pulled in.
That could have become a great realisation. It will happen again -- it is not predictable when -- but it can happen again any moment.
It is a glimpse of satori. Do you understand what satori is? It is a glimpse of one's real nature.
One's real nature is empty, it is just like non-being. It is like sky, empty space. Whenever that glimpse happens, you lose your identity, you don't know who you are. And your name is just arbitrary, artificial -- your form also.
Within this body you carry emptiness -- that emptiness is your real nature. So you had a glimpse of it. And people can go mad if they don't understand it. If you can understand it, the real sanity arises.
It has been a blessing, mm? It has been good, feel thankful for it. Meditate more and it will happen again some day. It may look like death, but don't be afraid -- it is not. It is really life. Be happy about it!
Prabhat means morning and anand means bliss -- a blissful morning. Morning is going to be your meditation time, so wherever you are, never miss the sunrise.
Just fifteen minutes before the sun rises, when the sky is becoming a little lighter, just wait and watch as one waits for a beloved: so tense, so deeply awaiting, so hopeful and excited, and yet silent. And just let the sun rise and go on watching. No need to stare; you can blink your eyes. Have the feeling that simultaneously inside, something is also rising.
When the sun comes on the horizon, start feeling that it is just near the navel. It comes up over there, and here, inside the navel, it comes up, comes up, comes up, slowly. The sun is rising there, and here an inner point of light is rising. Just ten minutes will do. Then close your eyes. When you first see the sun with open eyes it creates a negative, so when you close your eyes, you can see the sun dazzling inside. And this is going to change you tremendously.
[A seeker expresses his doubts about sannyas.]
They are always there. One has to take the step in spite of them. If you wait for doubts to go and then think you will take the step, then you will never take it, because they never go.
In fact just the contrary happens: when you take the step, then they go. And doubts are human; they should be there. How can it be so easy to have trust? But one takes courage and moves. That's how the whole life has to move. When you fall in love with a woman, are you totally in love? Isn't there a doubt? In spite of that you move, because if you wait for all doubts to clear then you will have to wait for eternity and love will become impossible. And this is a kind of love. So take the jump in spite....
[The boy asked which meditation he should do as he liked the Nataraj (dancing) meditation best in fact that was the only one he felt comfortable with. He felt that he had had too many expectations to begin with.... ]
Sometimes it happens that the meditation you feel most uncomfortable with maybe is the one that is going to help. The discomfort may be because it fights against certain of your habits and deep-rooted things. This is my observation: that the meditation you like is not always the best, and the one you dislike most is not necessarily the worst, because you like something that fits with your mind.
Your mind means the past, and you are trying to change that mind. So you are almost creating a situation where change will be impossible. In fact something that will create a certain conflict inside you, a discomfort, a struggle, friction, is going to help. So don't bother whether you like it or not. Continue Kundalini and Dynamic meditation in the ashram, and do the humming at home, and whatsoever groups are available.
To expect too much always creates a barrier, so never expect. If you really want something to happen, then just go open, in a playful mood, not very serious. When you are serious you become closed. And anything that is going to happen will happen when you are in a mood of fun, relaxed and floating, because then you are like a child -- innocent. So when you do these groups and meditate, be joyful; don't be religious about them! You simply enjoy. Good!
[An elderly sannyasin said to Osho that she felt very much in contact with the universe when she was surrounded by nature. But, she added, she had some problems she needed help with her anger.]
One has to live everything that happens. You are creating a duality within you. One part of you wants to be angry, another part is trying to top-dog it, to manipulate it, so you create a conflict... and that conflict is a sheer wastage of energy, and it is never going to help you. Both parts are you, so a victory is impossible. That's not the way. The way is to be one, unitary.
So when you feel angry, there is no need to be angry against someone; just be angry. Let it be a meditation. Close the room, sit by yourself, and let the anger come up as much as it can. If you feel like beating, beat a pillow....
[She says: That isn't sufficient for me. I'm much more angry than that -- to be helped by hitting a pillow.]
So do whatsoever you want to do; the pillow will never object. If you want to kill the pillow, have a knife and kill it. It helps, it helps tremendously. One can never imagine how helpful a pillow can be. Just beat it, bite it, throw it. If you are against somebody in particular, write their name on the pillow or stick a picture on it.
You will feel ridiculous, foolish, but anger is ridiculous; you cannot do anything about it. So let it be and enjoy it like an energy phenomenon. It is an energy phenomenon. If you are not hurting anybody there is nothing wrong in it.
[She says: But when you are with somebody, you want to hurt them.]
When you try this you will see that the idea of hurting somebody by and by disappears. You make it a daily practice -- just twenty minutes every morning.
Then watch the whole day. You will be calmer, because the energy that becomes anger has been thrown out; the energy that becomes poison is thrown out of the system. You do this for at least two weeks, and after one week you will be surprised to find that whatsoever the situation, anger is not coming up. Just give it a try.
And nature is good, get more and more in tune with it. Whenever you are in nature become more like a child. Talk to the trees....
First do this experiment with anger; then next, if you are sitting beside a tree or a plant, just talk loudly, a dialogue. That too will be ridiculous in the beginning....
[Osho arranges for a small pot plant to be put in front of her.]
Have a little dialogue with the plant. Forget everybody. Only this being is here, so whatsoever you feel, talk to it. You can even answer from his side. You just go into it.
[She turns her eyes to the plant in front of her, saying hesitantly: You and I are nature, and we are the same. I have seen more beautiful plants... but that's the way you are.... ]
Now! From his side say something! Just get in tune with him, because he has to answer you.
[She looks at the plant for a second or two, then says: I think you have much to learn, but I hope it will come one day.]
Right, very good. And he answered you well! Mm! He answered you well. That's exactly what he wanted to say. And the thing that you have to learn is not to compare. That's what he wanted to say that you don't say,'I have seen more beautiful plants than you,' because that is hurtful.
And comparison is meaningless because everything is unique. Comparison is of the mind: when the thought enters and the feeling is lost. That's what the plant told you immediately, and it told you through your unconscious because your unconscious can also feel it -- that you have brought comparison in and it is ugly.
[She says: You have to accept everything.]
Yes. Not only accept, you have to love.
[She continues: There I have difficulty. You see, you say love God, but I think God is so extremely above me that I couldn't feel like loving. It is just like a symphony of Bach: there is no love in it... but it is purity.]
I understand, and your question is relevant.
It depends on how you conceive of God. If He is purity, then He is very far away. If He is taken as an abstract concept, you cannot touch it, feel it, comprehend it -- and you cannot love Him. If you conceive God as manifest in everything, in this plant also, then there is no problem -- then you can love. And when you have touched this plant, you have touched God.
That's what I meant this morning (at the discourse) not the god of philosophers, but the god of Abraham, the god of Jesus, of simple people; not thinkers, very ordinary but sincere people.
In India you have the real God. Somewhere just a. tree -- nothing else -- but they worship the tree as God. Somewhere else a stone -- not even a statue -- they colour red, and it has become God. It has an authenticity. And India has not worried about what God is. It has been simply taken for granted that He is; it is not a question to be decided. He is, so now something has to be done about it.
So you continue talking to plants and trees and much is going to happen out of it. Do the anger meditation, and later I will give you something for love... and it will.
Osho's Commentary
She described the experience as one in which she felt like an empty box, nothing was there. It reached a point where she couldn't remember her name, or who she was. She could not function, couldn't talk or answer people when they asked her what was happening. It was a very beautiful experience.
To Osho's enquiry as to how it started, she replied that she did not know; it just happened. Osho shone a torch on her.]
It has been very significant. It always happens that whenever you suddenly fall into a vacuum you cannot function.
For a few days, a few hours, you have to tell people around you not to disturb you, if it happens again. You should be taken care of. Simply relax: close the room, lie down on the bed, and in deep darkness relax inside; fall into that empty box, allow yourself to be pulled in.
That could have become a great realisation. It will happen again -- it is not predictable when -- but it can happen again any moment.
It is a glimpse of satori. Do you understand what satori is? It is a glimpse of one's real nature.
One's real nature is empty, it is just like non-being. It is like sky, empty space. Whenever that glimpse happens, you lose your identity, you don't know who you are. And your name is just arbitrary, artificial -- your form also.
Within this body you carry emptiness -- that emptiness is your real nature. So you had a glimpse of it. And people can go mad if they don't understand it. If you can understand it, the real sanity arises.
It has been a blessing, mm? It has been good, feel thankful for it. Meditate more and it will happen again some day. It may look like death, but don't be afraid -- it is not. It is really life. Be happy about it!
Prabhat means morning and anand means bliss -- a blissful morning. Morning is going to be your meditation time, so wherever you are, never miss the sunrise.
Just fifteen minutes before the sun rises, when the sky is becoming a little lighter, just wait and watch as one waits for a beloved: so tense, so deeply awaiting, so hopeful and excited, and yet silent. And just let the sun rise and go on watching. No need to stare; you can blink your eyes. Have the feeling that simultaneously inside, something is also rising.
When the sun comes on the horizon, start feeling that it is just near the navel. It comes up over there, and here, inside the navel, it comes up, comes up, comes up, slowly. The sun is rising there, and here an inner point of light is rising. Just ten minutes will do. Then close your eyes. When you first see the sun with open eyes it creates a negative, so when you close your eyes, you can see the sun dazzling inside. And this is going to change you tremendously.
[A seeker expresses his doubts about sannyas.]
They are always there. One has to take the step in spite of them. If you wait for doubts to go and then think you will take the step, then you will never take it, because they never go.
In fact just the contrary happens: when you take the step, then they go. And doubts are human; they should be there. How can it be so easy to have trust? But one takes courage and moves. That's how the whole life has to move. When you fall in love with a woman, are you totally in love? Isn't there a doubt? In spite of that you move, because if you wait for all doubts to clear then you will have to wait for eternity and love will become impossible.
And this is a kind of love. So take the jump in spite....
[The boy asked which meditation he should do as he liked the Nataraj (dancing) meditation best in fact that was the only one he felt comfortable with. He felt that he had had too many expectations to begin with.... ]
Sometimes it happens that the meditation you feel most uncomfortable with maybe is the one that is going to help. The discomfort may be because it fights against certain of your habits and deep-rooted things. This is my observation: that the meditation you like is not always the best, and the one you dislike most is not necessarily the worst, because you like something that fits with your mind.
Your mind means the past, and you are trying to change that mind. So you are almost creating a situation where change will be impossible. In fact something that will create a certain conflict inside you, a discomfort, a struggle, friction, is going to help. So don't bother whether you like it or not. Continue Kundalini and Dynamic meditation in the ashram, and do the humming at home, and whatsoever groups are available.
To expect too much always creates a barrier, so never expect. If you really want something to happen, then just go open, in a playful mood, not very serious. When you are serious you become closed. And anything that is going to happen will happen when you are in a mood of fun, relaxed and floating, because then you are like a child -- innocent. So when you do these groups and meditate, be joyful; don't be religious about them! You simply enjoy. Good!
[An elderly sannyasin said to Osho that she felt very much in contact with the universe when she was surrounded by nature. But, she added, she had some problems she needed help with her anger.]
One has to live everything that happens. You are creating a duality within you. One part of you wants to be angry, another part is trying to top-dog it, to manipulate it, so you create a conflict... and that conflict is a sheer wastage of energy, and it is never going to help you. Both parts are you, so a victory is impossible. That's not the way. The way is to be one, unitary.
So when you feel angry, there is no need to be angry against someone; just be angry. Let it be a meditation. Close the room, sit by yourself, and let the anger come up as much as it can. If you feel like beating, beat a pillow....
[She says: That isn't sufficient for me. I'm much more angry than that -- to be helped by hitting a pillow.]
So do whatsoever you want to do; the pillow will never object. If you want to kill the pillow, have a knife and kill it. It helps, it helps tremendously. One can never imagine how helpful a pillow can be. Just beat it, bite it, throw it. If you are against somebody in particular, write their name on the pillow or stick a picture on it.
You will feel ridiculous, foolish, but anger is ridiculous; you cannot do anything about it. So let it be and enjoy it like an energy phenomenon. It is an energy phenomenon. If you are not hurting anybody there is nothing wrong in it.
[She says: But when you are with somebody, you want to hurt them.]
When you try this you will see that the idea of hurting somebody by and by disappears. You make it a daily practice -- just twenty minutes every morning.
Then watch the whole day. You will be calmer, because the energy that becomes anger has been thrown out; the energy that becomes poison is thrown out of the system. You do this for at least two weeks, and after one week you will be surprised to find that whatsoever the situation, anger is not coming up. Just give it a try.
And nature is good, get more and more in tune with it. Whenever you are in nature become more like a child. Talk to the trees....
First do this experiment with anger; then next, if you are sitting beside a tree or a plant, just talk loudly, a dialogue. That too will be ridiculous in the beginning....
[Osho arranges for a small pot plant to be put in front of her.]
Have a little dialogue with the plant. Forget everybody. Only this being is here, so whatsoever you feel, talk to it. You can even answer from his side. You just go into it.
[She turns her eyes to the plant in front of her, saying hesitantly: You and I are nature, and we are the same. I have seen more beautiful plants... but that's the way you are.... ]
Now! From his side say something! Just get in tune with him, because he has to answer you.
[She looks at the plant for a second or two, then says: I think you have much to learn, but I hope it will come one day.]
Right, very good. And he answered you well! Mm! He answered you well. That's exactly what he wanted to say. And the thing that you have to learn is not to compare. That's what he wanted to say that you don't say,'I have seen more beautiful plants than you,' because that is hurtful.
And comparison is meaningless because everything is unique. Comparison is of the mind: when the thought enters and the feeling is lost. That's what the plant told you immediately, and it told you through your unconscious because your unconscious can also feel it -- that you have brought comparison in and it is ugly.
[She says: You have to accept everything.]
Yes. Not only accept, you have to love.
[She continues: There I have difficulty. You see, you say love God, but I think God is so extremely above me that I couldn't feel like loving. It is just like a symphony of Bach: there is no love in it... but it is purity.]
I understand, and your question is relevant.
It depends on how you conceive of God. If He is purity, then He is very far away. If He is taken as an abstract concept, you cannot touch it, feel it, comprehend it -- and you cannot love Him. If you conceive God as manifest in everything, in this plant also, then there is no problem -- then you can love. And when you have touched this plant, you have touched God.
That's what I meant this morning (at the discourse) not the god of philosophers, but the god of Abraham, the god of Jesus, of simple people; not thinkers, very ordinary but sincere people.
In India you have the real God. Somewhere just a. tree -- nothing else -- but they worship the tree as God. Somewhere else a stone -- not even a statue -- they colour red, and it has become God. It has an authenticity. And India has not worried about what God is. It has been simply taken for granted that He is; it is not a question to be decided. He is, so now something has to be done about it.
So you continue talking to plants and trees and much is going to happen out of it. Do the anger meditation, and later I will give you something for love... and it will.