Is there anything one can do except watch and wait?

Osho, you always emphasize experience. I have done everything—worship and rituals, yoga and meditation, vows and fasting! And for some years I even lived like an old-style sadhu. Yet nothing came of all that. What should I do now?

You have done nothing. Do you even know what fasting is? Fasting—upavas—means to dwell near, to sit close to the Divine. It does not mean starving. Yes, it often happens that sitting close to Him you forget food; you forget to eat. In real fasting, food is not in the focus—God is; and God is so much in focus that you forget the body. Then food does not come to mind: that is fasting. When you fast, the exact opposite happens. What you do should not be called upavas; that is why we have another word—anashan, a hunger strike. You go on a hunger strike: “Today I will not eat.” But have you seen what a man does when he decides to fast? “Tomorrow I mustn’t eat”—so tonight he stuffs himself. He makes up for tomorrow today. Is that fasting? And what will you do tomorrow all day? You will…

You say, Osho, don’t try to be something, to become, to attempt “becoming”—just be, just being. Please explain in detail how this is to be attained.

The very moment you ask how to practice it, you miss the understanding. Because “to practice” already means the effort to become something has begun. When I say, remain as you are, just as you are, the question of practice does not arise. Practice means you have started trying to be what you are not. So you have not understood. Any practice implies discontent; there is no fulfillment in being as you are. The mind says, let something more happen. A little money—let’s gather more. A little knowledge—accumulate more. A little renunciation—become a great renunciate. A slight taste of meditation—let’s manufacture the taste of samadhi. It is all the same; there is no difference. The issue is neither money nor meditation; the issue is the demand for “more.” So whether you ask for wealth you remain worldly, and even if you ask for meditation you remain worldly. Wherever there is…

Beloved Osho, being with you I feel so blissful and liberated, and there seems to be no end to it. You must have tricked me. What is your secret?

And in fact the no seems to be more rational, more loving, more meaningful, more humane. Rather than arguing with that man, Arjuna had just to say: "I have accepted your idea that whatsoever happens, happens according to God" -- and then should have left for the Himalayas. He wanted to be a sannyasin, a meditator in the Himalayas. Krishna would not have been able to stop him -- just because of his own argument. Arjuna could have said, "If war is to happen, God will bring me back -- but you keep quiet." Hence Hindus would not like anybody else to be accepted as a prophet of God. Mohammed talks nonsense. You cannot expect anything better from an uneducated man who could not write, who could not read, who had never been in any way a meditative man. He married nine women. Now, I cannot support that, because in…

So simply wait, watch. Let the confusion be there. Don't try to sort things out, don't try to figure things out, because whatsoever you do is not going to help now. Simply watch. This is a great parting of the ways. The way you have walked up to now is no more going to be your way in the future. You have come to a crossroads. A great decision, a moment of decision is bound to create much turmoil. So simply watch. There is no need to do anything now. One meditation you can start every night before you go to sleep.... Just sit in your bed -- sit in a relaxed way -- and close your eyes. Feel the body relaxing.... If the body starts leaning forwards, allow it; it may lean forward.

Osho, to go beyond the gunas you have suggested the practice of witnessing. It seems the central element of all your teaching is witnessing. For years I have been listening to you, and perhaps I have also been practicing witnessing. But like the horizon, it seems to stay just where it is—always at a distance. Please tell me where I am going wrong.

Just this one mistake: you have turned witnessing into a doing. You think you are practicing witnessing. Witnessing appears to you as something to do. That is the mistake. Witnessing is not an act; it is the awareness toward all acts. Therefore witnessing itself is not a doing. Nothing needs to be done for witnessing. Whatever you do, simply see it. And if you make witnessing into a deed, then you will have to watch that too. Behind that you would again have to be a witness. The witness is final; there is no going behind it. So do not make witnessing a doing—let it be natural. It is a little difficult, because we turn everything into doing. We try to “practice” witnessing as well. It is like telling a man that nothing needs to be done to bring sleep. And he does not get sleep. He asks me, “That…