Will meditation make a difference to one's character and life?

Osho, a friend has asked: the meditation you speak of—will it make any difference to one’s character and life, or not?

Certainly it will! And, in fact, character and life do not change by any other route. Meditation changes the inner consciousness. And when the inner consciousness changes, the outer conduct changes of its own accord. It cannot remain unchanged. When you change, how can your behavior remain old? It will change. Your old behavior was linked to your consciousness. And when consciousness itself has changed within, behavior cannot remain the same. Now, a man is smoking a cigarette. The whole world may advise him, “Don’t smoke.” I say, he won’t stop. And if he does stop, he will start some other, equally useless habit in its place. If he doesn’t exhale smoke, he’ll chew betel; if not betel, he’ll chew mud; if not mud, he’ll sit with people and gossip. But that idle habit of moving the lips will continue. He cannot stop it. Because the smoker is really saying…

"is it not true that an immoral life creates hindrances in meditation?"

A buddha can be angry if he thinks that it is going to help. Because of his love sometimes he may be angry, but that is only a pretension and only fools are befooled by it. Those who know, they will simply laugh. As meditation deepens, says tantra, you start changing. And it is beautiful when change happens to you. If you "do" it, it can never be something very deep because doing is just on the surface. So tantra says, allow it to happen from the being, from the very center. Let it flow from the center towards the periphery; don't force it from the periphery to the center. That is impossible. Tantra will not say moral or immoral. The only thing is if you are asleep try to change it. Allow yourself to become more and more alert, wherever you are. If you are immoral, tantra says, "It…

But concentration is like when you force a child to sit in the corner of a room and be silent. Tell him to be silent, 'Be quiet, don't move,' and see what happens to him. He will force himself, he will close his eyes, his eyes will be clenched shut and he will be boiling within. He will be restless and he will want to jump out of himself. And that's what happens to people who try to concentrate. Meditation is a non-focussed awareness. Meditation is more like a mirror: you simply watch whatsoever goes on happening in the mind. A thought comes, a thought arises, stays there for a time being, then moves, goes out, comes in from this door, goes out from another door; even another thought arises. There is a constant procession, a traffic of thoughts, desires, memories, imagination.

Osho, is the result of meditation useful only for the religious life, or is it also useful in day-to-day practical life? Please explain.

Fundamentally, it is useful for religion. But religion is the soul of a person. And when the soul changes, behavior changes on its own. If the within changes, the without inevitably follows. That change, however, is like a shadow, like an outcome. It walks behind. It is like asking: if a man runs, will only the man run or will his shadow also run? The question is of that kind. If the man runs, the shadow is bound to run. Yes, the reverse is not possible: if the shadow runs, will the man run? First, the shadow cannot run. And even if it appeared to, there is no way for the man to run after it. So, if a person’s practical life changes, it is not necessary that his religious life has changed. It may be that in behavior he is a very good man, and inwardly not good at…

Question: OSHO, IS MORAL CHARACTER ABSOLUTELY USELESS? Morality is invented religion, not discovered religion. Discovered religion has to be your own, then certainly a great revolution happens in you. Then certainly your character has a virtue, but then it is not moral; it is religious, it is spiritual. Moral character has value to those who want to enslave you, but it is AGAINST YOU. You need a spiritual character, and spiritual character is not born out of moral education; it is born out of meditation. You need more awareness, not more moral education. Vadan, that's why I am not emphasizing moral character at all; my whole emphasis is on the essential. If at the very center of your being some knowing, some clarity arises, your life will be different, totally different. It will have a beauty, a grace.