How is meditation necessary after enlightenment?

After being enlightened, how is meditation necessary?

He ran out, asked his wife what to do. The wife said, "You are a fool! You need not kill a rat. Have you ever heard of anybody killing a rat by a sword? You just take our cat inside." And the cat was brought inside. It was no ordinary cat, it was the great warrior's cat. She was also trained in many things; she was one of the most famous rat-catchers. She came with all her art, with all her skill. She tried, but the rat was really extraordinary. He jumped exactly into her eyes! And the cat escaped out. She had never seen such a rat -- attacking the cat?! And she was also trembling like the warrior. The warrior said, "This is too much!" Then the king's cat was called. She was a master cat, very well-known all over the country; of course, she was the king's…

"enlightenment is my true nature; there is no need to do anything." "only when effort is completely exhausted and one feels utterly useless does grace come." what is all this? I am confused. What should I do? Should I continue with meditation or should I just sit and let things happen?

Meditation's work is negative. It takes things away from you. It does not give you anything; it simply goes on taking things away from you. Anger disappears, greed disappears, desire disappears, and you start losing whatsoever you had. You become every day poorer and poorer. That's what Jesus means when he says: Blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Anger is not there, greed is not there, ambition is not there. Slowly slowly, chunks of your being are cut from you. And one day suddenly nothing is there -- or, ONLY NOTHING IS THERE. That very moment, light penetrates. All those things greed, anger, passion, lust, hatred, ambition, ego -- they were hindering the path. They were not allowing the light to penetrate in you. They were functioning like a rock between you and God. All those removed... suddenly God enters into you and you enter into God. If…

All that we do here is to help you to put the mind aside. All the meditations are nothing but devices to put the mind aside. And once you have got even just a glimpse of your inner light, then things become very easy. Then you know that the light is inside. And then to put the mind aside is not difficult because now you know there is no risk -- it is worth putting it aside. Only in the beginning is it difficult because you only know the mind. You have been identified with it, you think you are the mind so to put it aside feels very dangerous. It feels like committing suicide, because it is you! But you are not it. It is just a deep-rooted misconception, a wrong calculation. You are simply making a mathematical mistake. Two plus two are four, and you are putting five.

Beloved Osho, watching the mind, it seems to me there is an infinite ocean of thoughts. Meditation gives me more peace and grounding, but hearing you speak about enlightenment -- it seems to me far, far away. Can you give me some advice?

Dhyan Jashan, enlightenment is as far away as you are from yourself; hence the distance differs from individual to individual. You are certainly in a difficult position: first, you are a German, and nobody has ever heard of any German becoming enlightened. Only one of my German sannyasins used to become once in a while enlightened, and again he understood, "What am I doing? It is not for me," and he dropped the idea. That happened many times. Just now I have heard that he is washing dishes in a Zorba the Buddha restaurant. The person who told me about him had asked him, "What happened? You had become enlightened...." He said, "Forget all about it. Five times I became enlightened, and then I dropped the whole idea. I am feeling far happier washing dishes in the restaurant." What was happening was that whenever he would come here he would…

Questioner: will it be necessary to make efforts to breathe deeply and ask "who am I?" even after shaktipat or transmission of energy has happened, or will they happen naturally and on their own?

When breathing and asking become natural, the question does not arise. Then this question itself will seem to be unnatural. The matter ends with everything being natural. But many times, much before it happens, the mind will persuade you to believe that it has already happened and that it is now no use continuing the effort. So long as the mind continues to persuade you, you should not relax, you should not give up effort. Till then you have to continue with asking, "Who am I?" because the mind is still there, it still survives. It is the mind that argues with you and tries to persuade you. A day, however, will come when you will find that it is no longer necessary to do anything. Then you will not be able to do a thing even if you want to, because you can ask "Who am I?" only as…