How can the mind be emptied?

Someone asks, Osho, the mind itself is the obstacle; because of it one cannot realize the Self. How can this mind be emptied?

Be alert about this. Be alert about the filling. Drop the worry about emptying. You will not be able to empty it. No one has ever emptied it. Just drop the preoccupation with filling. And one day you will suddenly find that the filling has stopped and, from below, the flour has stopped coming out of the mill; it lies empty. Keep watch over the filling—where and how you are filling! First be aware; do not hurry to stop. First be aware of all the ways you fill and all the channels through which you fill! And man is such that till his last breath he goes on filling. Mulla Nasruddin was bitten by a mad dog. For two or three days he paid no attention. People said, “It’s a mad dog; go to a doctor.” When he went, the poison had already spread. The physicians met and decided they…

Someone has asked, "mind alone is the barrier on account of which we cannot stand face to face with the self. How is this mind to be emptied?"

Forever have we been asking this question. This question is wrong. Because it is wrong, whatever answers accrue, are of no use to us. To ask a correct question, is very difficult and to get the correct answer is even more difficult. If a correct question is asked, the correct answer is bound to follow. We always ask how to tame the mind, how to empty it. We should ask only this: how not to fill the mind. The question is not how to empty it because empty it is! You have not to empty it. It is enough that you do the kindness not to fill it. But we are for ever busy trying to empty it and in the process we evolve such methods that eventually fill it more. Whatever you do, you will fill it more. So it is better to ask, how not to fill it.…

A friend has asked: Osho, it is said that not even a leaf moves without God’s will. If that is true, then our whole life runs according to His will. Then the good and bad thoughts that arise in us, the good and bad actions that happen—are they also according to His will?! Then what is the purpose of sadhana? What meaning is there in changing oneself?

If this point truly lands, then sadhana has no further purpose. Sadhana has begun. If only this much occurs to you—that whatever is being done, God is doing it—then my sense of doership is finished. All of sadhana is only this: that my ego dissolve. Then He is doing the good, He is doing the bad. Then there is no question of good and bad at all. He is doing it—both are His doing. He gives suffering; He gives joy. Birth is His, death is His. Bondage His, liberation His. Then there is no question of me. There is no need for me to come in between. Then there is no need for sadhana—because sadhana has happened; it has begun. This very understanding becomes the supreme sadhana. This very insight cuts the root of life’s disease. For the whole disease is the ego, the notion that “I am doing.” This…

The japanese master nan-in gave audience to a professor of philosophy. Serving tea, nan-in filled his visitor's cup, and kept pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he could restrain himself no longer: stop! The cup is overfull, no more will go in. Nan-in said: like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you zen unless you first empty your cup?

In the night, just the opposite of the morning -- be completely unconscious; don't bother at all. The night has come, the sun has set, now everything is moving into unconsciousness. Move into unconsciousness. This whirling, Sufi whirling, is one of the most ancient techniques, one of the most forceful. It is so deep that even a single experience can make you totally different. You have to whirl with open eyes, just like small children go on twirling, as if your inner being has become a center and your whole body has become like a wheel, moving- a potter's wheel, moving. You are in the center, but the whole body is moving. Start slowly, clockwise. If somebody feels it is very difficult to move clockwise then anti-clockwise, but the rule is to move clockwise. If a few people are left-handed then they may feel it difficult; they can move anti-clockwise.…

Live the emptiness... because whatsoever you do can never be greater than you. Whatsoever the mind is going to do is going to be part of the mind. Mm? It is going to be a game. Once you start feeling empty there is no need to do anything on your own. Let emptiness be lived, and things start happening. Not that you do them -- they happen. Emptiness is hard in the beginning, because one starts feeling a little depressed, sad, with nothing to do. For the whole life we have been occupied with this and that, improving ourselves, reaching for, achieving, some goal... excitement, misery, failure, success -- but one is occupied. Then suddenly one feels emptiness settling -- nothing to do, nowhere to go, nowhere to hide; no ambition that can give one excitement and can create fever.