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Any Activity can be Meditation
Man is the only species in the whole world who always tries to change the
world. Some people may argue with the fact that man is the only intelligent
species but still after centuries of change, man is not satisfied with its
effort. Overall Man and the earth both have suffered because of this change.
With time a few people understand that it’s futile to change world. Only
person whom we can change and we have the power to change is ourselves. The
moment we change ourselves the world also changes with us. In reality we are
the center of our world and the only way to change the world is to change
ourselves.
Meditation does not intend to change anything with the outside world or day
to day activities in our life. Meditation aims at changing the way we do
things. Meditation is an inner journey and it changes the inner quality with
which we do things. We do the same things as we are doing before but
meditation only changes the way we do those things. Meditation is not an Act
but it does add grace to our actions. No wonder meditative people carry
certain grace and aura of tranquility around them.
Before going further I wanted to share one beautiful story from the life of
Guru Nanak Dev. Guru Nanak Dev was once roaming in an Arabic country. Guru
Nanak Dev Ji wanted to visit a city which had many saints. But when he was
entering inside the city, Guards stopped Guru Nanak dev and handed him a
Glass full of Milk. Symbolically Saints of that city had passed the message
to Guru Nanak dev that this city is already full of good people and there is
no space for him.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji gently placed some Rose petals on top of milk with out
spilling the Milk yet at same time adding some thing beautiful to it. Saints
of the city understood the symbolic message of Guru Nanak Dev Ji and came to
the gate of City to welcome Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
Similarly many of us may feel that our life is so much hectic that we don’t
have time for meditation. But if we use wisdom to give little space to
meditation then it will change the whole quality of our life.
When we say anything can become meditation then it does not means meditation
is an activity but it means any activity of life can become meditation. Many
people believe that meditation is related with sitting cross-legged with
eyes closed or chanting some mantras or moving to jungles. This is not true.
Meditation means doing every act with awareness. Awareness means staying in
present moment. Most of us feel that we are awake but in reality our mind is
either in past or future. Meditation means to enjoy the present moment and
to enjoy the present moment we have to be in present moment.
E.g. we have a desire to eat Pizza so we are walking to nearest pizza
corner. On the way we are constantly imagining about the look of pizza,
taste of pizza in our mouth and so on. But when we actually sit to eat pizza
then rarely we pay attention to the pizza. While eating pizza our attention
moves to some other thing. Again a new desire catches us and we start
imagining about it yet eating the pizza mechanically. Meditation means while
eating the pizza our attention should be on eating only. We taste every
bite, we know we are raising our hand, cutting a bite from pizza and then
now we are putting it in our mouth and then we taste the pizza with all our
attention on the taste. This is meditation.
What ever we do in life does not matter, what matters is how we do it. If
our attention is in the act while doing it, then we are meditating. A Sage
meditates twenty-four hours a day because a Sage always lives in present
moment. Time does not exist for them. Time is related with Mind. Mind lives
either in Past or future. Living in present moment means to have no thought
about any thing. Because moment any thought arises in us we move to future
or past. One can try; it’s very difficult to have a single second in which
we have no thought in our mind. Every moment many thoughts are seeking our
attention but one amongst them wins and takes our attention towards it.
Meditation means just watching that thought and no need to analyze it or get
involve with it.
Most of time we do the things mechanically as our attention is not in the
present moment but has moved into past or future. This shift of attention to
past/future happens with some thought. In fact it’s a Myth to believe that
we think. Actually No thought is ours. Thoughts come from outside. We cannot
even stop these thoughts from coming to us but we can stop giving attention
to them. This process of stop giving attention to thoughts is called as
witnessing of thoughts. When we witness the thoughts then they can not
affect/distract us. So if we are witnessing the thoughts then we will be in
present moment doing every day activities yet at the same time meditation is
happening.
Slowly as we become mature in witnessing thoughts then one day they stop
bothering us or with time thought may be there but we don’t have any
interest in them as we have become skilled in witnessing them. As we become
more skillful in detaching ourselves from thoughts, in same proportion
misery start running away from us.
To develop this skill of witnessing thoughts one can start with sitting
meditation with closed eyes for half an hour initially or 15 minutes as per
one convenience. Once we become good in witnessing thoughts while sitting
then we can slowly witness thoughts while doing day to day activity also.
Slowly as we understand the Mind and its games then things become clearer to
us. We come to know how we are trapped by Mind again and again.
Any activity of life can become meditation. But initially we can start with
the activity which we like. E.g. when ever we listen any thing we focus our
attention to one sound which we are listening and we ignore all other
sounds. This is so much mechanical in us that we are not even aware of this
fact. This focusing on one sound is done by Mind. Another direction through
which we enter into meditation is UNFOCUSING our attention.
Try to listen
all sound with out blocking any sound. Similarly we while seeing we focus
our attention on one thing. Our vision becomes narrow. If we sincerely pay
attention to vision then we will realize that our vision is in much bigger
circle as compare to what we actually look. Unfocussed vision and hearing is
the key.
Moment we see any thing we verbalize it. This is a computer, this is a book,
this is a website. What is the need to verbalize, why we give names to
things? This is again done by Mind. Just look at things with out
verbalizing. With out giving them any name like a small child who is looking
at things for the first time. If we can look at things with out giving any
name then again we are doing meditation. In fact We regain our innocence
back.
Every child is curious to know things because child does not know any
thing. But we adult feel we have known every thing. We have become expert in
verbalizing things, coming to the conclusions quickly.
E.g. we are going for a morning walk and its very beautiful day. Immediately
we will start talking about the beautiful day. What is the need to talk?
This talking or verbalizing is again done by Mind.
Meditation is not against talking. In fact talking can also be used as
meditation. One should listen to its own words as some one else is speaking.
But initially it’s not easy. But if one tried then it happens spontaneously.
Slowly petal after petal flowers of meditation blooms in our life and fill
our life with fragrance.
To start with one can start witnessing the incoming breath and Outgoing
breath and then witnessing of thoughts and then witnessing of Desires,
Desires are just a cluster of Thoughts. As this Witnessing deepens we become
more conscious and thumb rule of Meditation is to be more aware in every
thing we do. It does not matter what we do what matter is - Are we are Aware
in that Activity
Related Meditation Links
How to stop Thinking
Osho on what is
Meditation
What is Mind and Mind Conditioning
Introduction to
Meditation for Beginners
Meditation
Tips for going deep in to meditation
Whatsoever you do with
awareness is meditation
Meditation is a
state of Awareness, Watchfulness, Witnessing
Osho Quotes on Mind
Conditioning - Mind1,
Mind2,
Mind3,
Mind4
Osho Meditation Quotes
- Meditation1,
Meditation2,
Meditation3,
Meditation4
Master's Quotes -
Meditation 1,
Meditation2,
Meditation3,
Meditation4
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