Does it matter if I can't distinguish between moments of meditation and pleasant feelings, as long as I keep observing?

Beloved Osho, I'm not sure whether I'm having some moments of meditation or I'm simply producing something which feels very pleasant inside. Does it matter if I don't know which is which, as long as I just keep trying to watch it all?

No, it does not matter. If it feels pleasant, it does not matter. One need not bother which is which. If it is pleasant just go on producing it. That is a clear indication of getting closer to meditativeness. So every moment you can create of pleasantness, sweetness, blissfulness within you, is enough; you need not bother or think about it and waste time asking: "What is it?"... because in thinking you may get lost, lose track, lose the knack that you were using to produce it. So don't waste time in thinking about it. If it is pleasant, it is good. If it is pleasant, it will end in blissfulness. The pleasantness should be taken as an absolutely certain indication: it is arrowed towards meditation. So no need to think about it. All that time that you will think about it has to be given to producing it more…

Osho, when we sit in meditation we feel bliss. But later, when we return to work and daily dealings, we forget. The mind gets caught again in activity. By what way can the experience of bliss remain constant?

The essential point is this—the essential point is this: that which comes for a little while in meditation and then is lost is not joy, first of all. It is only the absence of misery. One must understand the difference. It is not bliss. In fact, for an hour you simply forget the web of your life’s suffering—your occupations, anxieties, shop, market, relationships—because your energy is moving in a different direction. From this forgetting the illusion arises that bliss is being attained. Bliss is not being attained; only the usual suffering is, for the time being, not being felt. Hence the misunderstanding. That is not the bliss of meditation. It is only that, because the mind moves in another direction, it forgets the directions in which it is ordinarily entangled. The day the bliss of meditation happens, you will not say that it has gone. It does not go; the…

Osho, on the path of meditation many seekers find it difficult to know clearly whether they are making any progress or whether they are just suspended on one plane, simply moving in repetitions. Will you please explain in detail about those factors which indicate the meditator's constant progress?

I do not say that every experience of that type is imagination, but if you are concerned, it is going to be imagination. Forget it completely. Be concerned with meditation, with your changing relationships, with your silence, with your contentment, with your love. Be concerned with these, and suddenly sometimes, there will be an upsurge of energy into your spine. But do not be concerned with it. Note it down and forget it. Suddenly, you will see a particular light: note it and forget. Suddenly a particular chakra will begin to revolve: note it and forget it. Do not be concerned with it. Your concern is harmful. Remain concerned with contentment, peace, silence, love, compassion, meditation. These things will go on happening. Then they are real. When you are not concerned and they happen, then they are real. And they show many things, but you need not know what they…

Osho, in meditation a kind of dullness has begun to set in. Thoughts don’t particularly bother me, yet full awareness is also not there. What is this state, and what should I do?

Let only one remembrance remain—do not stop; keep going. There are many possibilities, because each person is different; so the stages cannot be described too precisely. It is uncertain where rivers and mountain gorges will be met. Guidelines can be given, but each person is very distinct, very different. Where you meet mountains, another may not. Where you meet dullness, another may not. It depends on your habits in life, on the structure of your living. One who has always lived in the mountains will not feel dullness there; for him the mountains are just fine. You go there and you feel dullness—you belong to the market. You are a creature of the bazaar. Then it will be very hard. Bring a mountain man to the market and he will feel derangement: this is madness. He will want to run away. Gurdjieff once experimented with his disciple Ouspensky. He kept…

Beloved Osho, for me the most beautiful meditation is to sit in a corner and watch the children playing around the ashram. But I'm in trouble: is this a meditation at all?

Sometimes, for no reason at all, just swimming in the river, or running around in the hot sun, or just relaxing on the beach and listening to the wild roar of the ocean, something started happening inside you, some inner alchemical change, as if your body was creating LSD. Something inside... and you were moving in a totally unknown dimension -- as if you had wings and you could fly. You became afraid, you started clinging to the earth. It has happened many times when people come to be initiated into sannyas. Sometimes, if I see very perceptive people, very receptive, and I touch their head, immediately they become scared. Just a few days ago the daughter of Ashok Kumar, one of the very famous film actors, took sannyas. The moment I touched her head she started crying, "Stop, Osho! Stop! Stop!" And her whole body was shaking. She started…