What are the specific requirements for a meditator's practice?

Osho, in the last two verses there remains a small yet special point. It says that for the meditator there should be a specific seat, a pure place, an upright body, the gaze fixed on the tip of the nose, and the vow of brahmacharya. Then it says: fearless, and with an inner being properly quieted. What does fearless mean for a seeker? Please clarify.

Fearless, and with a properly quiet mind! This is important—very important. Because the one who carries fear will not be able to enter into the Divine. Why? Then we must understand fear a little. What is fear? What is its fundamental basis? Why are we afraid? What is the root cause from which all fear arises? There is fear of illness. Fear of going bankrupt. Fear of losing reputation. There are a thousand fears. But deeply there is only one fear—the fear of death. Illness frightens, because in illness a partial glimpse of death begins. Poverty frightens, because in poverty too a partial glimpse of death appears. Disrepute frightens, because in losing status a partial taste of death begins to show. Wherever there is fear, look closely and you will see some trace of death. Even if not immediately obvious, scratch the surface a little and it will be revealed:…

Osho, I am frightened of meditation. Please explain what the reasons might be. And how can I be free of this fear?

Fear of meditation is natural—it will be there. Because meditation means: to lose yourself, to dissolve. Meditation means: to be effaced. Your entire familiar ground will vanish. You will move in an unfamiliar realm. The world of your thoughts—which has been your home for ages, for lifetimes—will be left behind. Suddenly you will be homeless. The shade of thoughts will be removed, the roof torn away. You will descend into the void, you will be submerged in no-mind—there is danger in it. It is like taking a tiny canoe into the ocean. The far shore is not visible and you have to leave this shore. Naturally there will be fear. The waves are high, and you carry no map. You have no firm assurance that someone has reached the other bank, because no one returns. Meditation is a very deep journey. So fear will arise. Fear is natural; nothing unnatural…

Kill out all sense of separateness.

If you are afraid of death you will be afraid of meditation also. But if you love meditation, you will not be afraid of death. If you enter meditation unafraid, fearless, you will become deathless, because there will be no death for you. You are already dead, so how can you die again? One who has entered meditation is already dead. Now you cannot die again, now death cannot destroy you. You have already surrendered; you are no more. Death will enter an empty house. You will not be found there. Only the ego dies, not you. Your life is eternal, but the ego is transitory. The ego is just a created, composed phenomenon. You have created it. It is needed, it has some utility. In society, you need an ego; but in life, in existence, that same ego becomes a barrier. Sannyas means going beyond society, because it means…

Question: when I meditate I usually repeat a mantra or a namokar, but the mind remains restless. How can one best occupy one's mind while meditating?

Mind itself means projection, so unless you transcend the mind, whatever you come to experience is projection. Mind is the projecting mechanism. If you experience any visions of light, of bliss, even of the divine, these are all projections. Unless you come to a total stopping of the mind you are not beyond projections; you are projecting. When mind ceases, only then are you beyond the danger. When there is no experience, no visions, nothing objective -- the consciousness remaining as a pure mirror with nothing reflected in it -- only then are you beyond the danger of projections. Projections are of two types. One type of projection will lead you to more and more projection. It is a positive projection; you can never go beyond it. The other type of projection is negative. It is a projection, but it helps you to go beyond projections. In meditation you use…

In 1969 followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi invited Osho to talk to them. This was the first occasion on which Osho addressed a western audience, and the first time he talked publicly at length in English. The discourse has been published in OTI January 1 & 16, 1991; and February 1, 1991. Osho: Really, there can be no method as far as meditation is concerned. Meditation is not a method. Through technique, through method, you cannot go beyond mind. When you leave all methods, all techniques, you transcend mind. So meditation itself is not a method. Truth cannot be achieved through method. Method is our own invention. We, who are ignorant, have achieved knowledge through methods constructed, created, projected, in our ignorance. Through method you can achieve a sort of self-hypnosis, a sort of auto-hypnosis. Any method, whatsoever it's name, can only give you an illusory kind of peace.