Is the Hajj pilgrimage in Islam a form of meditation?

Question: ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A MAN STANDING ON A HIGH HILL. THREE TRAVELLERS, PASSING IN THE DISTANCE, NOTICED HIM AND BEGAN TO ARGUE ABOUT HIM. ONE SAID, 'HE HAS PROBABLY LOST HIS FAVOURITE ANIMAL.' ANOTHER SAID, 'NO, HE IS PROBABLY LOOKING FOR HIS FRIEND.' THE THIRD SAID, 'HE IS UP THERE ONLY IN ORDER TO ENJOY THE FRESH AIR.' THE THREE TRAVELLERS COULD NOT AGREE AND CONTINUED TO ARGUE RIGHT UP TO THE MOMENT WHEN THEY ARRIVED AT THE TOP OF THE HILL. ONE OF THEM ASKED: 'O FRIEND, STANDING ON THIS HILL, HAVE YOU NOT LOST YOUR FAVOURITE ANIMAL?' 'NO, SIR, I HAVE NOT LOST HIM.' THE OTHER ASKED: 'HAVE YOU NOT LOST YOUR FRIEND?' 'NO, SIR, I HAVE NOT LOST MY FRIEND EITHER.' THE THIRD TRAVELLER ASKED: 'ARE YOU NOT HERE IN ORDER TO ENJOY THE FRESH AIR?' 'NO, SIR.

This is why places of pilgrimages are necessary, but the real ones are kept hidden. The false places are created to keep you off the track until such a time when you are ready for the real. No wrong person should reach the authentic place, but the right person will always find it. Every place of pilgrimage has its own key. If you want to find the pilgrimage place of the Sufis, you won't be able to with the keys of the Jainas, and the Jaina places of pilgrimage can't be found with the use of Sufi keys. Every religion has its own keys. I do not want to name it, but I shall tell you about the key of one place of pilgrimage. The Tibetans have special mystical diagrams or yantras. These are keys. Hindus also have such instruments, thousands of them.

Osho, what is meditation?

In the second world war, I don't know why, they started calling the places where they were keeping the prisoners "concentration camps." They had their own meaning -- they were bringing all kinds of prisoners and concentrating them there. But concentration is actually bringing all the energies of your mind and body and putting them into a narrowing hole. It is tiring. Contemplation has more space to play around, to move around, but still it is a bounded space, not unbounded. Meditation, according to me and my religion, has all the space, the whole of existence available. You are the watcher, you can watch the whole scene. There is no effort to concentrate on anything, there is no effort to contemplate about anything. You are not doing all these things, you are simply there watching, just aware. It is a knack. It is not a science, it is not an…

Beloved Osho, is worshipping in the commune related to meditation? Why don't we have any meditation time separate from worshipping?

But all the religions have been doing prayers in the name of meditation. And what kind of stupid prayers! In fact any prayer that a man can do is going to be stupid. "Don't let my wife die" -- do you think that is something very intelligent? If that dodo was a little bit intelligent -- God was making him free, and he is praying against his own freedom. But if you look in the scriptures you will be surprised what kind of prayers are there. In the VEDAS, the most holy scriptures of the Hindus, the great seers.... I cannot even conceive how for centuries those people have been called great seers. They should be called the great blind men! Seers! -- they were praying to God: "Please increase the milk of my cow, decrease the milk of the cow of my enemy, my neighbor. This time let rains…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, AND AN OLD PRIEST SAID, SPEAK TO US OF RELIGION. AND HE SAID: HAVE I SPOKEN THIS DAY OF AUGHT ELSE? IS NOT RELIGION ALL DEEDS AND ALL REFLECTION, AND THAT WHICH IS NEITHER DEED NOR REFLECTION, BUT A WONDER AND A SURPRISE EVER SPRINGING IN THE SOUL, EVEN WHILE THE HANDS HEW THE STONE OR TEND THE LOOM? WHO CAN SEPARATE HIS FAITH FROM HIS ACTIONS, OR HIS BELIEF FROM HIS OCCUPATIONS? WHO CAN SPREAD HIS HOURS BEFORE HIM, SAYING, "THIS FOR GOD AND THIS FOR MYSELF; THIS FOR MY SOUL AND THIS OTHER FOR MY BODY"? ALL YOUR HOURS ARE WINGS THAT BEAT THROUGH SPACE FROM SELF TO SELF. HE WHO WEARS HIS MORALITY BUT AS HIS BEST GARMENT WERE BETTER NAKED. THE WIND AND THE SUN WILL TEAR NO HOLES IN HIS SKIN.