Meditation is the source; compassion is its overflow. This practice leads you from inner silence to an effortless radiation of love. Drawing on Atisha’s direct, heart-centered wisdom as celebrated by Osho, it unites two essential pivots: taking total responsibility for your inner state and being grateful to everyone and everything that reflects your mind back to you. When blame dissolves and gratitude opens, the heart becomes a clear lamp whose flame does not depend on circumstance.
In this sequence you first bridge to the inexhaustible within, then consciously own your suffering without guilt, offer gratitude to all your mirrors, and finally let compassion spread—beginning with yourself and moving outward to loved ones, strangers, and those you find difficult. The method is simple, experiential, and deeply practical: turn inward, kindle the inner light, and allow its fragrance to touch the whole.
Phase Instructions
First Stage: Enter the Source Within (10 minutes)
Sit comfortably with a straight yet relaxed spine. Let your hands rest on your thighs or in your lap. Close your eyes and release the jaw, shoulders, and belly. Breathe naturally through the nose and feel each exhale softening the chest. With each breath, sense that you are turning from the outer toward the inner. If thoughts arise, acknowledge them and return to the felt rhythm of the breath at the heart center, as if you are approaching a quiet, luminous spring within.
Second Stage: Take Total Responsibility (10 minutes)
Bring to mind a current knot of suffering—an irritation, fear, or resentment. Notice the impulse to blame circumstances or others. Gently, without self-attack, whisper inwardly: “I take full responsibility for my inner state.” Let the words sink below the neck into the body. Track sensations—tightness in the chest, heat in the face, flutter in the gut—without fixing or resisting them. Breathe into these places and let them be held by awareness. Responsibility here is not guilt; it is the key that returns your energy to you.
Third Stage: Be Grateful to Everyone (10 minutes)
Bring before your heart one person or situation related to this knot. Silently say: “Thank you for showing me my mind.” Feel how even difficulty becomes a teacher. Let a soft inner bow happen. Expand the circle: include helpers, loved ones, strangers, and finally the person you find most challenging. To each, simply offer: “Thank you.” Notice the heart warm, ache, or resist; keep breathing and allow gratitude to melt whatever it touches. If emotions surge, let them pass through like a wave and return to the simple thank-you.
Fourth Stage: Bridge to the Inexhaustible Flame (10 minutes)
Sense a steady, unborn light in your chest—like a lamp that does not depend on oil. On each inhale, feel you are drawing clarity from an infinite ocean of life; on each exhale, let it pool as warmth in the heart. If helpful, breathe in for 4 counts, softly pause for 2, breathe out for 6. With every cycle, relax the heart’s edges. Let the inner flame brighten without strain, illuminating the felt sense of being. Rest as the one who is aware, not as the passing thoughts or moods.
Fifth Stage: Compassion Overflow (Sending and Receiving) (15 minutes)
Begin with yourself. Inhale as if gathering your own pain and fatigue as a dark mist into the heart; let the inner flame receive and transmute it. Exhale a cool, tender light back through the body, suffusing every cell with ease and love. After a few minutes, shift to someone you love: inhale their burdens (dark mist) into the transforming heart; exhale relief and joy (soft light) to them. Then a neutral person. Then someone difficult. Finally, include all beings in every direction—breathing in the world’s heaviness and breathing out boundless well-being. Let the process be gentle, like a tide guided by the heart’s intelligence.
Sixth Stage: Silent Radiance (5 minutes)
Drop all techniques. Sit utterly at ease. Nothing to do, nowhere to go. Simply be the lamp whose light naturally spreads. If attention wanders, smile inwardly and rest again as spacious presence. End with a soft breath, rub your hands, and place them over your heart. Carry this fragrance—responsibility, gratitude, and compassion—into your next step.
Core Benefits
- Leads from inner silence to an effortless radiation of love
- Unites taking total responsibility for your inner state and being grateful
- Dissolves blame and opens gratitude
- Transforms the heart into a clear lamp
- Allows compassion to spread from self to others
What Osho Said About This Technique
One winter day, a masterless samurai came to eisai's temple and made an appeal: 'I'm poor and sick,' he said, 'and my family is dying of hunger. Please help us, master.'
DEPENDENT AS HE WAS ON WIDOWS' MITES, EISAI'S LIFE WAS VERY AUSTERE, AND HE HAD NOTHING TO GIVE. HE WAS ABOUT TO SEND THE SAMURAI OFF WHEN HE REMEMBERED THE IMAGE OF YAKUSHI-BUDDHA IN THE HALL. GOING UP TO IT HE TORE OFF ITS HALO AND GAVE IT TO THE SAMURAI. 'SELL THIS,' SAID EISAI, 'IT SHOULD TIDE YOU OVER.' THE BEWILDERED BUT DESPERATE SAMURAI TOOK THE HALO AND LEFT. 'MASTER!' CRIED ONE OF EISAI'S DISCIPLES, 'THAT'S SACRILEGE! HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING?' 'SACRILEGE? BAH! I HAVE MERELY PUT THE BUDDHA'S MIND, WHICH IS FULL OF LOVE AND MERCY, TO USE, SO TO SPEAK. INDEED, IF HE HIMSELF HAD HEARD THAT POOR SAMURAI HE'D HAVE CUT OFF A LIMB FOR HIM.' Even if you feel, or you think you feel, or you pretend that you feel, compassion, just go deep and analyze it and you will always find…Read the full discourse →
The monk zuigan used to start every day by saying out loud to himself, "master, are you there?" and he would answer, "yes sir, I am." then he would say, "better sober up." and he would reply, "yes sir, I'll do that." then he would say, "look out now, don't let them fool you." and he would answer, "oh no sir, I won't, I won't."
In America, the whole market depends on how you can befool the customer, how you can create an idea in the minds of others. Now, a two-car garage is a must if you want to be happy; in America, a two-car garage is a must. Nobody asks why. If you are not happy with one car, how can you be happy with two cars? If there is fifty percent happiness with one car, how can you be happy with two cars? With one car you are unhappy; with two cars you will be doubly unhappy, that's all. The mathematics is simple. But there is advertisement, propaganda; the whole society exists by manipulating others. Happiness is something like a commodity in the market -- you go and purchase it, it has to be purchased. How can happiness be purchased? Happiness is not a commodity, it is not a thing; it is…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, buddha was saying again and again to his disciples that meditation and compassion should grow side by side. These days I have been feeling your compassion as never before, and I have also been feeling the urge to start learning from it, at least the abc. For now, the only thing that makes me feel close to it are those warm tears that flow down my cheeks as I look at you. Beloved, can you please talk about compassion, and how to go into it from the stage I'm at.
Chidananda, Gautam Buddha's emphasis on compassion was a very new phenomenon as far as the mystics of old were concerned. Gautam Buddha makes a historical dividing line from the past; before him meditation was enough, nobody had emphasized compassion together with meditation. And the reason was that meditation brings enlightenment, your blossoming, your ultimate expression of being. What more do you need? As far as the individual is concerned, meditation is enough. Gautam Buddha's greatness consists in introducing compassion even before you start meditating. You should be more loving, more kind, more compassionate. There is a hidden science behind it. Before a man becomes enlightened, if he has a heart full of compassion there is a possibility that after meditation he will help others to achieve the same beautitude, to the same height, to the same celebration as he has achieved. Gautam Buddha makes it possible for enlightenment to be…Read the full discourse →
When they were left along with their disciples their disciples said, 'Master, this is too much! For two days we waited and waited and waited, and we have been waiting for this opportunity for years, thinking that at the meeting of two great enlightened persons something would be bound to transpire. We were thrilled, so excited, but you both remained utterly silent.' Farid said, 'When two mirrors face each other, nothing is reflected or only nothing is reflected, again and again. He is silent, I am silent; he knows, I know; I am not, he is not. We have both disappeared into the ultimate. what is there to say? Who is there to say it?' And the same was said by Kabir. When his disciples asked him, 'Lord...' he said, 'If either of us had spoken, that would have proved that he knew nothing.Read the full discourse →
When bankei held his seclusion-weeks of meditation, pupils from many parts of japan came to attend. During one of these gatherings a pupil was caught stealing. The matter was reported to bankei with the request that the culprit be expelled. Bankei ignored the case.
LATER THE PUPIL WAS CAUGHT IN A SIMILAR ACT, AND AGAIN BANKEI DISREGARDED THE MATTER. THIS ANGERED THE OTHER PUPILS, WHO DREW UP A PETITION ASKING FOR THE DISMISSAL OF THE THIEF, STATING THAT OTHERWISE THEY WOULD LEAVE IN A BODY. WHEN BANKEI HAD READ THE PETITION HE CALLED EVERYONE BEFORE HIM. 'YOU ARE WISE BROTHERS,' HE TOLD THEM. 'YOU KNOW WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS NOT RIGHT. YOU MAY GO SOMEWHERE ELSE TO STUDY IF YOU WISH, BUT THIS POOR BROTHER DOES NOT EVEN KNOW RIGHT FROM WRONG. WHO WILL TEACH HIM IF I DO NOT? I AM GOING TO KEEP HIM HERE EVEN IF ALL THE REST OF YOU LEAVE.' A TORRENT OF TEARS CLEANSED THE FACE OF THE BROTHER WHO HAD STOLEN. ALL DESIRE TO STEAL HAD VANISHED. I was reading in some history book that twenty persons were expelled from England; they were sea robbers.…Read the full discourse →
Common Questions
The main principle is moving from inner silence to an effortless radiation of love, following Atisha’s heart-centered wisdom as celebrated by Osho.
This meditation involves consciously owning your suffering without guilt, which is a key step in facilitating personal healing.
Compassion is first developed within oneself and then intentionally extended outward to loved ones, strangers, and those found difficult.
Yes, the method is designed to be simple, experiential, and deeply practical.
Gratitude is offered to all reflective mirrors in one's life, helping to dissolve blame and open the heart.