According to Osho, samayik is the art of equanimous awareness—resting as a witness in the present. Practice by sitting silently, relaxing the body, watching the breath and thoughts without interference, neither repressing nor following them. Let likes and dislikes pass like clouds. Begin with short periods, return often to this centeredness until it pervades daily actions.
Sit quietly, notice your breath and thoughts come and go, and stay calm in the middle.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Not to fall either! Yes, not to fall in this sense—then you won’t be hurt. And secondly, when the other attacks, you swallow his attack; you consent to it.
Exactly this is what samayik means: the mind is being assailed from all sides—thought attacks, anger attacks, lust attacks—say yes to them all. Do nothing; let whatever is happening happen, and remain quietly. Even if this occurs for a single moment—yet even a single moment is difficult, because we are so eager to do that no sooner does a thought arise than we mount it, either going with it or opposing it. We are absolutely ready to fight. When I want to explain, I can only say: do nothing; for a while just watch whatever is happening. For twenty-three hours we keep doing; make one hour such that we will do nothing—just sit; whatever happens, let it happen; see that it is happening. It is only to be seen; remain a witness. The very state of witnessing gives entry into samayik.
Stand sometime by the roadside and watch how unconsciously people walk. As if in sleep—drowsy, sluggish. Some move their lips—no one beside them, yet they are talking. Some make gestures with their hands; nod 'yes' to some invisible companion, shake the head 'no.' They are not walking alone—they are doing many things. Catch yourself again and again. Let this thief—the swoon—be caught. And install in its place a sentinel of upayoga. Then all becomes possible. This is the beginning. 'Become absorbed in the act of walking; giving it the primary importance, walk usefully.' When we walk, we are doing something else. When we are doing something else, we may begin thinking about walking. Our mind is in great disarray. Sometimes, standing on the shore, we long to clash with the storms— sometimes, amidst the storm, we fret that the shore is not found.
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…
A: Hm mm. To be meditation means an effort to be aware. To be aware of the whole process of life, but in the beginning one can chose some object like breathing. It is a very natural object to be aware: The ingoing and the outgoing of the breath. Be aware constantly: the breath has gone out, it has come in; and the rhythm and the process and the in and out going phenomena, be aware of it. The moment you will be aware, you feel a certain change, a certain chemical change within your mind. Because when you become aware of the breathing process, mind becomes silent. The silence is automatically created. Because your total mind is engaged in seeing, in witnessing the breathing. And the rhythmic circle of breath creates an inner music. That inner music too leads you to more and more silent and sweeter moments within.
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.