It’s okay if your mind runs fast—just watch it kindly, notice what it wants, and real silence will come on its own through understanding.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, many years ago, it seems, I used to be able to meditate -- I think. A beautiful, silent, transparent state would arrive from somewhere; I presumed this was meditation. Now, nothing comes except a racing mind. What happened?
The answer that Junnaid gave to his disciples is worthy of being remembered. He said, "For these three days, do you think I cannot see that food has not been given to us, that we have been thrown out, that we have been stoned, that we are thirsty, that for three days we had to remain in the open desert...? Don't you see that I am also aware of it? But this does not mean that he is not taking care of us. Perhaps this is the way he is taking care of us; perhaps this is what we need at this time. "It is very easy, when life is going comfortably, to thank God. That thankfulness means nothing. These three days I have been watching. slowly, slowly, all of you have stopped thanking Him after the prayer; you failed the test. It was a beautiful test. Even if death…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, what is the nature of this chatterbox mind of mine? It has been going on and on now for as long as I can remember. What are its origins? Is its source somewhere in the vast silence it dissolves into when I am in your presence?
There is an idea prevalent in scientific circles: It is a great wastage that a man like Albert Einstein dies and his brain also dies with him. If we could save the brain, implant the brain into somebody else's body, then the brain would go on functioning. It doesn't matter whether Albert Einstein is alive or not; that brain will continue to think about the theory of relativity, about stars and about theories. The idea is that just as people donate blood and people donate eyes before they die, people should start donating their brains too so that their brains can be kept. If we feel that they are special brains, very qualified -- and it is sheer wastage to let them die -- then we can transplant them. Some idiot can be made an Albert Einstein, and the idiot will never know -- because inside the skull of man…Read the full discourse →
Beloved Osho, often while sitting with you or when first waking in the morning, I am in a very silent space. It is like having a secret twinkling smile inside. And with it is the awareness that problems do not exist and this space is always available. I watch the mind surfacing with thoughts and for some beautiful moments it is very easy to not get engaged. But then as the discourse ends or I begin some activity I seem to go completely unconscious, unable to stop the momentum of my mind and my doing. There is just a nagging memory of the silence and a feeling of being uncentered again and miss
There is no need to worry -- and don't be greedy! Whatever is happening is so much. If listening to me a silence descends on you, thoughts disappear, and you feel a center, a new space, and you also feel that this space is always available... it is true. The moment you feel your center, the feeling that this center is always available is part of it. It is part of the experience, an essential part; hence it has an authority. Or, in the morning when you wake up and the mind is silent... and now that you have become aware of silence, you can recognize it. Everybody wakes up in the morning with a silent mind, but that remains for only a few seconds. And even in those few seconds he does not realize that he is without any thought, because he has had no taste of it, no…Read the full discourse →
Osho said that there was no need to try to still the mind, to stop the thoughts. He said that just as the traffic goes by and one remains on the sidewalk, unaffected, just a watcher, so one should simply witness the thoughts as they went by. We are not our thoughts, and recognising that we are the witness is enough. The very acceptance of the thoughts makes one more relaxed. The relaxation helps to create a distance, to separate oneself. To evaluate a thought as good or bad means that you are attached to your thoughts -- so one should not put labels on them.] ... put yourself aside, sit under a tree, and just watch the traffic. Soon, one day, the traffic disappears and the road is empty. Suddenly there is an interval and in that interval is meditation. But that interval cannot be created or cultivated.Read the full discourse →
Osho, while meditating I experience peace and joy, yet alongside a thin stream of thought keeps flowing. In this state, is the peace I feel a trick of the mind?
The mind is very strange. It never doubts; if there is suffering it never asks, “Is this a trick of the mind?” If there is anger, it never asks, “Is this a trick of the mind?” But if a little peace is felt, trust does not arise. The mind says, “It must be a deception. Can you receive more peace? Impossible. Can you experience more joy? That cannot be. Surely there is some mistake somewhere.” You have lost so much trust in yourself. You have tied your destiny to darkness. You have made melancholy your fate. If, in a moment of that melancholy, even a single ray of the sun descends, you think, “It must be a dream. A sunray, and descending upon me? Impossible. Only darkness can descend upon me.” Why have you come to believe this? And if this is your belief, so it will be—because your belief…Read the full discourse →