Osho - Meditation is simply going beyond Mind
Osho - Philosophy is contemplation. Science is concentration.
Religion is meditation. But meditation means you don't have anything,
any object to think about. You are just in a state of absolute
aloneness. You don't have anything on which you can focus yourself --
not a sutra, not a mantra, not any great value of life, just pure space
all around you. Then you are in meditation.
Meditation is never about something. Meditation is a state. You can be in it; it is not something that you have to do -- not even thinking, not even contemplating. There are beautiful ways of contemplation, and I will give you sutras to contemplate. But it has to be made absolutely clear that there is nothing in the world that you can meditate upon.
Meditation is simply going beyond mind, beyond the functioning of the mind, beyond all the fetters of the mind, and just entering into this silence, unmoving, unwavering -- just a pure awareness, a silent flame, a great joy... but nothing to see. A great clarity of seeing, a vast openness... the whole sky is yours, but nothing objects to you, nothing prevents you. For the first time the nothingness has opened its doors to you. You simply are, utterly centered, without even a single thought flying across your mind. Then you are in meditation.
There are many moments here when you are in meditation in spite of yourself. I am not an orator, I speak only to create silence for you. I speak only so that between two words you can feel the gap... that between two words you can fall into the silence. The speaker, the orator, the philosopher, the teacher, they emphasize the words; I emphasize the silences between the words. They emphasize the lines; I emphasize between the gap between two lines. It is a change of gestalt from word to wordlessness.
If you make an effort, you miss the whole point, because making an effort your mind comes in. Perhaps nobody has ever spoken the way I am speaking to you. They had a message to give to you; I have an experience to share. They had a certain philosophy to convince you, to convert you; I don't have any philosophy, any nonsense. I have simply a device: I am not saying anything to you, I am just giving you chances of being in silence without any effort on your part. Once you have learned these moments and their beauty, and their benediction and their blessing, it will not be difficult to find the same spaces anywhere. Just the first experience is the most difficult.
An ancient Chinese proverb says, The first step is the only problem, because the whole journey is complete in the first step. You don't have to take another step.
For thousands of years there have been masters telling people to be silent, to go beyond mind. People have listened to them and they have tried also -- but they go on failing again and again, because effort will not lead you to it. The master's function is not to give you a certain technique. The master's function is to give you a glimpse, just a little taste: the sweetness of silence on your tongue. Then you will be able to find it on your own.
Meditation cannot be taught, it can only be caught. I am meditation.
If you are available you can catch it. It is just as contagious as any
disease -- it is not a disease, it is a cure of all diseases; it is the
ultimate health. But nobody has thought that health can also be
contagious. The whole of medical science goes on thinking about
infections, about diseases. Nobody bothers to make health infectious, to
create healthy people who move anywhere and make other people healthy,
just by their presence.
My own experience is -- I am not a physician, the body is not my world -- that spirituality, religiousness, is certainly contagious. I give you moments to feel the presence, to feel the nothingness surrounding you. This is meditation; it does not need any object.
Source - Osho Book "The Great Piligrimage: From Here to Here"
Meditation Quotes Home
Related Osho Discourses on Meditation