How can an ordinary unenlightened being find enough energy to stay in awareness as much as possible?

You spoke convincingly about awareness being the only virtue and unawareness the only sin. How can an ordinary unenlightened being find enough energy to stay in awareness as much as possible?

IN FACT, MORE ENERGY IS NEEDED TO BE MISERABLE than to be blissful. Because blissfulness is a state of nature. No energy is needed to be blissful! It is natural. Energy is needed to be miserable, because it is unnatural. The more natural you are, the less energy is needed; the more unnatural you want to be, the more energy will be needed. If you are standing on your feet, it needs less energy; try to stand on your head, it needs more energy. Wherever you see more energy is needed, know well that you are trying to do something unnatural. Meditation needs no energy! because meditation is passive, inaction, silence. You are not doing anything -- why should you need any energy? Anger needs energy, thinking needs energy, violence needs energy -- because you are doing something against nature, you are fighting against nature. It is like you are…

Beloved Osho, as you know, the old zen custom was that a monk should stay with his master for ten years before he went out on his own teaching. There is a zen story about a monk who had completed his ten years in the monastery. One rainy day the monk visited his master, nan-in. After nan-in had greeted him, he said to the monk, "no doubt you have left your shoes in the vestibule. On which side of your umbrella did you leave your shoes?" for a moment the monk hesitated, and through that hesitation realized that he was not in every-minute zen.

YOU HAVE TOLD US THAT LIFE HAS A PULSATION -- IN AND OUT, YIN AND YANG. DO WE HAVE TO KEEP TRYING FOR EVERY-MINUTE AWARENESS, OR CAN WE TOO PULSATE WITH LIFE, AND AT TIMES LET GO OUR TRYING? You can rest with restlessness inside you. You can lie down on the ground, but the restlessness goes on inside. So you are simply lying down, but it is not a rest. You may sit like a buddha and inside the child is running -- the mind is working and functioning. Inside you are going mad: outside you are sitting in a buddha posture. You can be totally static outside, not moving, no activity, and inside, the turmoil goes on. This won't help. Finish the turmoil in effort. Run as fast as you can. Be exhausted! Hence, my emphasis on Dynamic Meditation. It is both effort and effortlessness. It is both…

Osho, you say that if there is awareness, then how are the two to be brought into harmony?

That is precisely the practice of active meditation: awareness. Awareness is the very means of going into emptiness in relation to all actions, to the movements of the mind as well. For example, if you lie there for half an hour—what will you do? In that half hour, whatever thoughts are moving in your mind, you are to be simply aware of them. Simply a witness—what else will you do? Just become a witness. Keep silently watching; let them move. But obstacles arise in our seeing. We become absorbed. We fail to remain a witness. We don’t even notice when we have become one with those very thoughts. That sense of awareness fades; a kind of stupor, a moorchha, comes in. A thought comes, a memory arises, and we stop being the watcher. We become part of that thought and of its flow. That is moorchha. And the opposite is…

I feel a conflict between being loose and natural and being aware.

THERE IS NO conflict, but you can create a conflict. Even where no conflict exists the mind creates the conflict, because the mind cannot exist without being in conflict. Being loose and natural will give you a spontaneous awareness. There is no need to make any effort for awareness; it will follow like a shadow. If you are loose and natural, it will come. There is no need to make any other effort for it because being loose and natural automatically flowers in being aware. Or, if you are aware, then you will become loose and natural. They both go together. But if you try for both, then you will create the conflict. There is no need to try for both together. What does it mean when I say: Be loose and natural? It means: make no effort. Just be whatsoever you are. If you are unaware, then be unaware…

Osho, we feel that to penetrate and transform the deeper layers of the unconscious only through awareness is difficult and not enough. What else should one do other than the practice of awareness? Please explain more about the practical dimensions on this matter.

Silence is energy. Brahmacharya is energy. Not to be angry is energy. But this is not suppression. If you suppress anger, you have used energy again. Don't suppress -- observe and follow. don't fight -- just move backwards with the anger. This is the purest method of awareness. But certain other things can be used. For beginners certain devices are possible. So I will talk about three devices. One type of device is based on body awareness. Forget anger, forget sex -- they are difficult problems. And when you are in them, you become so mad that you cannot meditate. When you are angry you cannot meditate; you cannot even think about meditation. You are just mad. So forget it; it is difficult. Then use your own body as a device for awareness. Buddha has said that when you walk, walk consciously. When you breathe, breathe consciously. The Buddhist method…