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Osho on watching the
Mind
Question:
How do we reach the state
of blessedness when the mind is empty of Chatter,
defenses, plans and games, and god is?
Osho:
If
you ask how, you ask a wrong Question. The how brings
the chatter in; the how, the technique, brings the
future in. The how brings the methodology and the mind
in. So it is not a question of
How do we reach the state of blessedness when the mind
is empty of Chatter, defenses, plans and games, and god
is?
It is not a question of how, it is not a question of technology at all.
Meditation is not a technique. Once you ask how, you
bring All that you want to drop. How means it cannot
happen right now; the how will need time – tomorrow, the
day after tomorrow, this life or after this life.
Because the Hindus created so many techniques for
meditation, they had to suppose many lives; it was a
necessary corollary. One life was not enough to do Patanjali’s Yoga.
Many more lives were required; it was a basic requirement
– because it is impossible to conceive of a man doing so
many techniques in one life. You need more time. And
when you need more time, you need more mind. Time and
mind are not two things. Mind exists with time. Time is
exactly what mind is! Ask the how and you have brought
future in. Ask the how and you have brought
postponement. Ask the how and you say, ”It cannot be
done right now; first I have to prepare and get trained
and disciplined and all that, and then I will do it.”
And then what will you do, and who will do it? Who will
be trained by the how? – the mind itself will be
trained. The mind will become skillful, the mind will
become very efficient. The mind can become so efficient
that it can even pretend that the no-mind has arrived.
The mind can manage a kind of stillness and can deceive
you that this is what Samadhi is.
A stillness that is brought by any technique.... Those
techniques can be of many kinds: they can be chemical,
they can be drugs; or they can be concerned with your
physiology, they can be hormonal; or they can be through
breathing – but that too is chemistry. You can change
your inner balance of oxygen and carbon-dioxide and you
will find changes happening. You can practise certain
postures of the body and that will change your mind too,
because mind and body are not two; you are
psychosomatic.
You are one – these are two aspects of the same coin,
they affect each other. When you ask how you are
bringing in the whole jargon of technique, yoga, mind
and all kinds of games. The real understanding does not
need any technique; understanding is enough unto itself.
And who will do these techniques? – the mind will do.
And if mind is the doer, you cannot get out of the mind.
The more the mind becomes a doer, the more strengthened
it is. To get out of the mind you cannot take the help
of the mind. No, not at all.
You ask: How do we reach the state of Blessedness...?
And secondly:
it is not something which you have to reach. It is
already there, it is already the case – it has happened!
It is not somewhere far away that you have to reach. It
is not a goal! God is not a Goal! The moment you make
God a goal, you create desire. And from desire God is
far away. God is not a goal. It is not something that
has to be achieved. It is something that is present
there, and you are keeping your eyes shut. It is
something that is already there, and you are avoiding!
It is not a question of how to reach God; the only
question is how not to Avoid, how not to escape, how not
to go on pretending that you don’t know that God is –
how to be just open. That which is... one can be open to
it, or one can be closed to it. And the best way to
remain closed to that which is, is to remain in the
future – somewhere, a faraway goal, distant, in the
Himalayas, or somewhere in the seventh heaven, in the
skies. It is so far away that you can go on desiring.
And with desiring the chatter will exist, the defences
will exist, plans and games will exist.
So two things: There is no how in real religion; Zen
knows no how. And second: the essential religion knows
that God is already the case. There is not even an
inch’s distinction between you and God. Even to say that
God is close is not right, not exactly right – because
closeness, after all, shows a certain distance;
closeness is distance. God is not close – God is you:
you are God. We are already in it just as the fish is in
the ocean – we are in it.
Kabir has said: ”I laugh very much when I see the fish
thirsty in the ocean.” We ARE in it. God is... or call
it blessedness, or call it samadhi, or you name it... is
the ocean in which we are existing. It surrounds us
within and without. Only it is.
How do we reach the state of
blessedness when the mind is empty of Chatter, defenses,
plans and games, and god is?
If
you start working for the how you start forcing the mind
to stop chattering. That can be done; many tricks have
been invented down the ages, shortcuts. Transcendental
Meditation will do. You can repeat a mantra
continuously. If you repeat a mantra it creates a sort
of lullaby, it creates a kind of sleep. Beautiful and
nice! and I am not against it, because sleep is as much
a spiritual activity as any other.
A good sleep is very good, but it has nothing to do with
samadhi. If you repeat a single word constantly... any
word will do; it need not be a very, very traditionally
worshipped sound: Aum, Ram, Allah– any word will do. You
can repeat your own name and that will do. Just the
whole thing is: repeat it fast so there is no gap
between two repetitions – Ram Ram – there should not be
any gap between the two, so that in the gap nothing can
enter. Make the gap smaller and smaller. Let Rams
overlap each other, go fast, go madly into it. Go on
repeating.
It will create a lullaby. The mind will be shut
forcibly, because the mind cannot do two things
together. If you are repeating a mantra then the mind
cannot think; that is not possible – for the mind to do
two things. If you think, you will forget the mantra. If
you do the mantra, you will forget thinking. But mantra
itself is a kind of thinking – and a very stupid kind at
that. You are thinking it may be valuable, but mantra is
very stupid. The East has suffered very much from the
mantra; it turned the whole Eastern consciousness very
stupid.
That’s why the East is not so creative – not so creative
in art, not so creative in science, not so creative in
anything – a kind of dullness, a kind of stupor. And you
can see it. A man who has been doing a mantra for a few
years, you can see around him a kind of stupidity. You
can go around India and you will find many mahatmas who
are simply stupid. But their stupidity is worshipped.
They have managed one thing: somehow they have forced
the mind to be silent; Any how they have forced the mind
to be silent.
They have been trying to force the mind into silence
through fasting. If you don’t give enough food, by and
by energy becomes less and less. And when the energy is
superfluous, only then does it move into the head,
otherwise not – because the head is a luxury in your
body. First other organs have to be taken care of. If
there is a conflict between the heart and the head, the
body will give to the heart first; the head can wait –
the head is not so essential.
If there is a kind of conflict between the stomach and
the head, the stomach will get the energy first; the
head can wait. So whenever you give less energy than is
needed by your body, than your body needs to consume,
naturally the head will not get enough energy. Hence,
fasting became one of the tricks down the ages: Fast!
Don’t give enough energy to the body! When the body is
not getting enough, the mind will not get it. When the
mind is not getting, there will be no thoughts. But this
kind of state is a Negative stillness, it is not
positive.
It is not alive, it is not vibrant with the unknown; it
is just dull and dead. The man has no energy. The man is
really impotent – Dont call it Bhahmacharya! Don’t call
it celibacy. If you fast too much, sex energy will
disappear; a kind a celibacy will appear – which is
false! because it is simply a lack of energy. And the
same way it happens in the head. If the energy is not
enough, the mind will not function. But non-functioning
of the mind is not the thing! The mind Should function
perfectly, should hum like a perfect car, and still
should not spin and weave unnecessary thoughts.
The mind should remain alive and creative, and yet
should be capable of moving into silence when-ever it
wants to. That’s mastery. When you want to think, you
can think; when you don’t want to think, you can go into
non-thinking. A real Master is one who can do both.
There are two kinds of slaves in the world: the ordinary
man who cannot go into non-thinking, who constantly
thinks – he is a slave of the mind.
Then there is another kind who forces the mind into not
thinking by depriving it of energy, aliveness,
opportunity, challenge, struggle – deprives it of all
possibilities. But then this man cannot think. If some
situation arises he will be simply dumb. I am not for
this dumbness. Then what to do?
My whole Approach is
non-technical. You have to
watch your chattering. Don’t be in a hurry to stop it,
just watch it. Watch all the defenses that are there.
Don’t be judgemental, don’t say they are not needed.
And don’t stop playing games – go on playing, but become
more and more watchful. Bring a new consciousness which
goes on watching everything that is happening to you –
inside and outside. You are playing a game? – play it.
Nothing is wrong in the game. Play it perfectly,
skillfully, become a good actor, but deep down remain
alert. Know perfectly well that you are playing – a
mirror like reflectiveness inside. Let the mind
chatter... you be watchful. It is not going to be easy;
mantra is easy.
It is going to be arduous, it is going to be hard,
because you will forget again and again. The chattering
mind is so
much that you will be lost into it again and again. But
nothing to be worried about. The moment you remember,
come back, again start looking at it. And don’t feel
guilt that you missed, and don’t feel condemned, and
don’t start feeling frustrated. This is natural. For
lives together we have trained the mind to think. Now
you will have to watch this whole mechanism functioning
as you have trained it.
Watching, parallel to the
mind something new arises in you. Remember it:
parallel to the mind the witnessing arises in you. That
witnessing has no chattering in it. It is something
Higher than the mind. When you repeat a mantra you are
using the mind. Nothing parallel arises in you; you are
simply forcing the mind. When you watch, something
higher than the mind arises – a watcher on the hills.
You are sitting on the top of a hill and you can watch
the whole valley.
You are not against the valley; the valley is perfectly
beautiful as it is – but you are beyond it. Let it be
repeated: The watcher has nothing to do with the mind.
The watcher is something new; the watcher is a new
growth in your being. It is not mind forced to be still,
it is not mind disciplined to be still. It is something
new, an invitation to something new, which is hiding
inside you and you have not invited before. Invite the
watcher.
First it will be very shy, naturally. Sometimes it will
come and again it will disappear. But even if it comes
for single moments, those moments are of tremendous
value. Even in twenty-four hours, if you can become a
watcher for a single moment – enough that will do – that
will do the miracle. By and by, that watching will start
getting rooted in you. Mind will continue on its own
plane. There is no need to bother with it. It is
perfectly good as it is. Don’t be against the poor mind;
it has been a great help to you. Without it, you would
not have survived.
It is the mind that has helped you to survive up to now
– it is a survival measure. If in the East, particularly
in India, you find it so ugly – poverty, starvation –
can’t you see the reason? India has not developed the
mind, which is a survival measure. It has been against
it, too much against it, very antagonistic towards the
mind. And the ultimate result is an ugly society,
starving people, poor. This should not be so. There is
no need. Mind can be used, it can be one of the most
intricate mysteries of God.
I am not against anything, not even against mind. It has
to be used in its own way, it has its own plane. Just
You have to grow above it! You have to find something
which is higher than the mind in you. And then you start
sitting on that top and from there you watch the mind.
You become a great master! When you want that the mind
should stop, because you would like to listen to the
birds and not to the chattering, you simply say to the
mind, ”Keep quiet! That’s enough. Halt!”... and it
halts.
It will be difficult for you right now to understand
what I am saying. Exactly like that! You simply say
”Halt!” and it halts. You say ”Stop!” and it stops. The
master has come, the servant listens. Dont fight with
the servant – bring the master in! The very Presence of
the master, and the servant immediately understands. The
witness is the master. You invoke the witness, you
invite the witness, you search for the witness, you
discover the witness in you.
Don’t become too much entangled with the mind, otherwise
your whole energy will be pouring into that fight, and
that becomes a constant inner war. And whenever a person
is in conflict with himself.... It may be sex that he is
in conflict with, it may be thought that he is in
conflict with, but When ever you are in conflict with
yourself, you are a schizophrenic, you are split in two.
And constantly at war with yourself, you are dissipating
your energy. It is not going to create something new in
you, it will simply dissipate you; it will simply make
you weaker and weaker
and weaker.
I am not in favour of making you weak, so don’t fight
with the mind. Rise above the mind! There is something
which is already there in you, non functioning. Start
its functioning. That is what Zen people call the
opening of the third eye. It is there, potentially it is
there. Even physiologists agree that there is something
in the head which is not functioning. And it is a
mystery, because why should nature create it? Nature
creates something only when it is needed. There is
something in the head, in the brain, which is not
functioning.
A major part, a very major part is non-functioning. When
you bring the witness in, that part starts functioning.
Our situation is like this – it happened: A primitive
tribe came across an aeroplane – a small air-craft in
the Second World War left by the soldiers. They could
not understand what use it could be put to. They knew
only bullock-carts, so they used it as a bullock-cart,
with four bullocks. And they enjoyed it very much – it
was a beautiful
vehicle!
Then somebody with a more intelligent mind started
looking inside it – there were so many gadgets – and he
started thinking, ”This cannot be just a bullock-cart
because these gadgets are not needed for the
bullock-cart.” So he started fooling around, and one
day, he just accidentally stumbled upon... and the
engine started purring. So they started using it as a
truck. Then somebody else one day was fooling around
with it – because for a truck, also, so many things are
not needed – and only then, one day, they discovered
that it could fly.
That is exactly the case with the human being: we have
been using it as a bullock-cart. Don’t fight with the
bullock-cart: there are other gadgets – look for them.
You can use it as a truck, but there is no need to be
stuck there. You can use it as a flying machine. It can
go to the utmost peak of existence. So fight is not my
way. Befriend the mind! Watch it with great
friendliness, like a mother watches her own child. Watch
the mind with great friendliness, with great love and
compassion. It is your machine! Don’t be angry with it.
Don’t be foolish and don’t fight with a mechanism.
How do we reach the state of blessedness when the mind
is empty of Chatter, defenses, plans and games, and god
is?
Whenever you are alert about it,
the mind stops chattering. The mind is very, very
respectful about awareness. That is the secret. You
sometimes try! The mind is chattering – do one small
thing – the mind is chattering, you cannot go to sleep,
you cannot do anything and it is constantly running
there like a mad dog. You just do one
thing: you sit silently in the chair, relax your body,
and say to the mind, ”Okay – now I will listen.
Tell me what you want to say.” And for a single moment
you will be surprised – the chattering stops. The moment
you say, ”I will listen. Okay....” It will be only for a
single moment, but you know the secret. What happened
when you said, ”I will listen”? – you became aware. And
mind is very respectful towards awareness. Wherever
awareness is, the master is – and the slave simply
follows. Yes, soon the mind will start chattering, but
then you can watch. The Moment you lose that listening
attitude, the mind will start chattering.
If the listening attitude continues, the mind will not
chatter. So a miracle happens when you watch: by and by
the mind stops chattering of its own accord. And when
mind stops of its own accord, there is great beauty,
there is great life, radiant, vibrating, pulsating. It
is not a dull state. Buddha is not a dull man. Buddha is
not a stupid man. Bud&a is not negatively silent –
Buddha is absolutely positively silent. The silence is
not just the absence of thoughts – the silence is the
presence of awareness.
Source: "Zen: The Path of Paradox, Volume 3" - Osho
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