Is meditation an artificial way of approaching the soul?

Osho, who beholds the soul? How can the Self behold the Self?

As I just said, that lamp is a symbol: a lamp burns, things are seen. When things are not present, what of the lamp? It burns. Then only the lamp is visible there; nothing else. Likewise, the Self knows others. When it knows no other at all, what becomes of its knowing? The lamp of knowing remains lit. The taste of that lamp’s shining has no path of words. Yet something unprecedented is there. For that which could know the other—how can it be that it would not know itself? That which could see the other—how can it fail to see itself? For if one could not know oneself, how could one know anything else? Therefore in that moment there is an occurrence of a knowing in which knower and known are one, not two; of a seeing in which seer and seen are one, not two. In that instant…

It is a delight to see you. In this solitary place you have come together to realize God, to find the truth, to know your own selves. But may I ask you a question? Is what you are seeking separate from you> You can search for someone who is away but how can you seek that which is your own self> Your own self cannot be sought in the sense in which everything else is sought because in this case there is no difference between the one who is seeking and the one who is being sought. You can seek out the world but you cannot seek your self. He who goes out in search of his self goes farther away from his self. It is important to understand this fact fully. Only then the search may be possible.

As you move into meditation this feeling starts becoming stronger every day. That does not mean that you start neglecting the body, on the contrary, you start caring about the body more carefully because it is a beautiful house, a gift of god. You have to keep it clean and beautiful and young and vital, energetic, alive, because you have to live in it for many many years. There is no need to make it ugly, poor, starved. Make it a palace, make it a marble palace, make it a temple, but remember "I am not it," so when it dies you are not dying. The body is born, the body dies; you are never born and you never die. And the method of meditation is very simple: just watching. Three things have to be watched. The first is the body and its actions.

Thought can never lead beyond the objective world. By its own very nature any possibility for thought to perceive the soul is negated, because all thought is born of and experienced through the senses. What exists beyond the senses does not enter into the realm of thought at all. This is why any thought that attempts to describe or depict the soul seems both illogical and incoherent when given utterance. Religion is beyond logic; it is beyond both thought and the senses. And with religion comes coherence. Religion is not an experience that comes through thought, it is an awakening into thoughtless consciousness. The terminal point of a thought is an object; the ultimate perception of a consciousness devoid of objects is the soul. All thoughts that pertain to the soul are, therefore, futile. The only path which is meaningful is the path that leads to thoughtlessness.

What is meditation?

MEDITATION is A STATE OF NO-MIND Meditation is a state of pure consciousness with no content. Ordinarily, your consciousness is too much full of rubbish, just like a mirror covered with dust. The mind is a constant traffic: thoughts are moving, desires are moving, memories are moving, ambitions are moving -- it is a constant traffic! day in, day out. Even when you are asleep the mind is functioning, it is dreaming. It is still thinking; it is still in worries and anxieties. It is preparing for the next day; an underground preparation is going on. This is the state of no meditation -- just the opposite is meditation. When there is no traffic and thinking has ceased, no thought moves, no desire stirs, you are utterly silent -- that silence is meditation. And in that silence truth is known, and never otherwise. Meditation is a state of no-mind. And…