When a religion is born in you

                         OSHO Dynamic Meditation                               



 
Amrit Sadhana

One of the radical contentions of Osho is that man cannot be born in a religion, the religion has to be born in the man. Certainly he is not talking about the established religions because every one is born in some religion or the other. Religions that are reduced to cults have harmed the humanity so much, it's time to drop them and graduate into a more refined quality of consciousness which is religiousness. This religiousness doesn't have a label, it is individual, intensely intimate; in fact it is like a love affair. Your own religion is born in you when your inner being goes through the agony, the fire of finding its own unique individuality. People who are born in a particular belief system follow it unconsciously, it is a childhood conditioning, but when somebody carves his own path going against the prejudices imposed on him, battling with his own darkness, the wisdom born through this search illumines his body, his intelligence.

Up untill now I understood the Osho insight only intelectually but its implication dawned on me when I came across an Australian priest called Rami. This guy was born of a Jewish mother and a Christian father in South Africa. He got attracted to Hinduism in his teens and the attraction was strong enough to motivate him to come to India and learn from the noted Hindu priests. He was ordained as Acharya Ramanujachari.And now he is the most popular Hindu priest in Australia!

Those who choose their own religion bring freshness and originality in their approach. They interpret the age-old concepts in a unique, scientific way adding their own flavour to them. Their authenticity is so powerful that those who have discarded their own religon as stale and dead, wake up to the wisdom of the enlightened ones.

If we want to stop the religious atrocities we have to pay attention to the Osho insight : "Religion is not in the tradition, not in the rituals, not Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan. Religion has no adjective to it. Religion is simply religion, as love is love. Do you call love Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan? If love is neither Christian nor Hindu nor Mohammedan, then why should god be Christian, Hindu and Mohammedan? Nobody can be born into a religion, religion has to be born into you. You have to open your soul and receive religion. It is showering all around... but you are carrying toys, substitutes, false coins in your hands, and thinking you are having religion. In the church it is not, in the mosque it is not, in the temple it is not." (The Divine Melody, #1)

Then where is it? It is in the heart of the seeker.Meditation is the key to find it. The most powerful OSHO Dynamic Meditation blasts the conditioning and is the first step to finding your own path.

A journey with no roads

Amrit Sadhana

I had just been to the blue mountains near Sydney. These ancient mountains are clad in vast forests of eucalypts which in the hot sun discharge a fine mist of eucalyptus oil from their leaves. The mist refracts light, which makes the haze look blue at a distance. They look very appealing but scary at the same time. They beckon the visitors amidst their bluish vastness. Adventure always attracts.

Blue Mountains

There was a peculiar sign put up by the government at many points :" Don't get into the forests alone, you may get lost."
This made me think, isn't it the same about life? Isn't life as mysterious as these sprawling blue mountains? Just close your eyes and ponder for a moment, isn't the thing we call life a vast expanse of wilderness ? Can anyone peep into the future? We try to create support systems, guides and safety measures but there are no road maps over here, no charted paths or signs such as: " The way to success" or "The way to fame" or "This road goes to wealth." Those who are successful never know at the beginning of their journey that they are going to reach the top. They just grope in the dark, trust their intelligence and take the jump. People walk their way and make the path by walking, it is not there already built for them. Such a path would be useless. It would be stale and borrowed.

You cannot walk on the path carved by others. It is their path made by their hard labor for themselves. Their personality, their needs and their growth was completely unique, so it will not fulfill your needs. Living means going through the pain of growing, nurturing and evolving the dormant seeds deep inside so that they can bloom into unique flowers. Unless you embark on the journey of the unknown, take risks, your blossoms will not be authentic, your hidden potential will not actualize. There are no shortcuts in life either.

This is why life is like a mountainous terrain full of adventure. Osho says, do not depend on horoscopes and astrologers, do not look for road signs and maps, they are misleading. The insecurity, the adventure is the essence of life. Only death can be secure and safe. If you have a choice between the known and the unknown, always choose the unknown. It may be risky, but the spiritual gains will be immense, for life dwells in danger. It needs rebellion, a spiritual metamorphosis.It sharpens intelligence, creates a center inside, you feel intigrated. More alive, more conscious. Getting lost in the forests may not be advisable but loosing oneself into the vastness of life would be very rewarding.

A Unique Holiday Package

Amrit Sadhana

OSHO International Meditation Resort, Pune

It is a holiday time and everyone must be looking for a good holiday package. You might have noticed that you go on a holiday with great enthusiasm and come back home more exhausted than before. Reason ? The mind had no holiday, it was working over time. While looking for a holiday package would you like to give mind a holiday, too? The mind is at rest only in meditation, so include meditation in your holiday package.

The mind is a bio-computer. Mind collects its data from the parents, from the school, from other children, neighbors, relatives, society ... all around there are sources. And then children start learning to read and write, thus more data is fed in the memory of the computer.

The current education teaches you how to use the mind, it does not teach you how to stop it so that it can relax. So the mind goes on working even when you are asleep. We have forgotten that the mind is a machine, and like any other machine and it needs rest, servicing and recycling. Most of our problems spring out of the overworked mind, and nobody knows how to give it a break.

Osho gives a simple method which can rest the overused mind and make you feel rejuvenated. He says, " It is possible to put a switch on the mind and turn it off when it is not needed. It is helpful in two ways: it will give you a peace, a silence, which you have never known before, and an acquaintance of yourself which has not been possible, because the chattering mind has always kept you engaged. Use the mind when it is needed, after the use put it aside just as you take off your shoes or formal clothes."Beyond Psychology

The method is: introduce silence in your daily schedule. Find time to be silent. Let the mind be unoccupied for a while, which means no TV, no reading, no cell phone or talking of any kind. If you make it a habit, the mind will be restful and relaxed; then it is fresh, young, full of energy and juice. Then whatever you say is full of life, full of authority, full of truth, sincerity, and has tremendous meaning.

What is known in the world as charisma is simply a mind which knows how to relax and let energy collect, so when it speaks it is poetry. But in this society, silence does not pay; words pay, and the more articulate you are, the more you will be paid.

Detach yourself from your thoughts, emotions . Watch them like waves on the sea. This gap is very healthy and restful for the mind. The mind will certainly enjoy this holiday.

Sound: a passage to feeling

Amrit Sadhana

In this environment full of noise polution and artificially produced eletronic sounds we have forgotten the value of natural sounds which can be used as a direct passage to deep feelings and to the silent spaces of the heart. Natural sounds have a calming effect on the mind, the nervous system and the body. Any sound uttered with feeling can lead one to the silent harmony of the heart.

Recently I came across a wonderful sutra, a meditation technique from The Book of Secrets, the ancient treatise of Tantra.

The technique goes like this: Intone a sound audibly and then less and less audibly as feeling deepens into this silent harmony.

It may sound like a scientific formula, difficult to solve. It indeed is a formula. And it needs an enlightened one like Osho to unravel the mystery of this ambiguous sutra. You will come to know the secret if you practise it.

There are some sounds we have a feeling for. For instance the names of our loved ones, or a certain art-form, maybe our birthplace or our mother tounge. When we utter these names which are essentially sounds a deep feeling of love, pride, gratitude or joy wells up. These feelings stem from the heart. Normally we are not aware of them while uttering the sound hence we don't separate the sound from the feeling. But Tantra shows us the way of intoning the sound, and by repeating it continuously we can intensify the feeling hidden in the sound.

Osho gives the clue: " Intone one sound. Go on intoning it, first audibly so that you can hear it, and then by and by, inaudibly. No one else can hear it then, but you can hear it inside. Make it more quiet, make it less and less audible, and then suddenly drop it. There will be silence, an explosion of silence -- but feeling will be there. Now there will be no thought, but simply feeling will be there."

In this way the name you love becomes a mantra. Even your own name can become your mantra. This sound can be used as a passage toward feeling. The mind cannot reach the heart directly, it needs a passage. Repeating a sound creates vibrations and these sound vibrations reach the core of the heart.

Go on dropping the audible sound, make it more subtle and you will feel the change. The more sound will drop, the more you will be filled with feeling. It is like peelingoff the skin of a fruit. When sound disappears, only feeling remains. This feeling cannot be named. It is a deep love, but not towards anyone . It is unaddressed. It is the inner sky-- a cloudless, blue presence.

Corruption: a play of greed and power

 
Amrit Sadhana

The report released by Transparency International ranks India as one of the most corrupt nations. No Indian is surprised. Because it doesn't need an international agency to show us the mirror of our own reality. We are living with this pain.

It is said that one of the biggest causes of corruption is greed and power. It normally thrives in societies where ethical and moral standards are weak and where punishment is lenient, because even the punishing authorities play an important role in perpetuating corruption. We can't get rid of this monster because we don't have a clear vision. We are only treating the symptoms without going to its causes. Poverty may be one of the causes but not the only cause. What compels the rich people to amass money by foul means?

You can go down the history and come across stories of corruption at the highest level of power. Basically corruption is an ingredient of the unevolved human mind.

Can corruption be eradicated? Yes, if the mind is more evolved, more mature than it is right now.

Look deeply into this phenomenon: in every dishonest deal there are two parties involved –– the giver and the receiver.Who is more punishable?

If we ask the enlightened masters, they have a different take on it. Osho cites a story of the Chinese master Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism

Lao Tzu was made the chief justice of the Supreme Court of China. He pleaded with the emperor that he is not the right man. But the emperor knew that LaoTzu was the wisest man alive, so he wanted to benefit from his consciousness.

Lao Tzu said, " My judgement will come from my wisdom. And your judgements cannot be adjusted to my judgements." But the emperor was stubborn.

The first case came: a thief was caught red-handed in the richest man's house. Lao Tzu listened to both the sides, pondered for a moment and gave his verdict, "Both of you, you and the man whose house you have been stealing from, are criminals. The rich man has collected so much money, that almost fifty percent of the wealth of the city is in his possession. This situation creates the possibility of stealing. This thief is a victim; in fact you are the criminal. But I will be very equal: six months of jail for both."

The emperor said, "This is a very strange judgement."

Lao Tzu said, "It is not. If people were living in harmony with nature, if people were compassionate to each other, if they felt a certain brotherhood with each other, how could there be rich people and poor people? There should only be people."

One Less, One More

Robbie Vorhaus is a favorite blogger of a popular American newspaper The Huffington Post. While working with his clients he found that everyone is stressed in todays world. He has floated a new idea to de-stress his clients which can become a lifestyle. It is : One less, one more. It means, one less worry, one more happiness. Osho often jokes about it. "What is your worry?" he asks, " Your worry is, what has happened should not happen, and what is not happening should happen."
This is exactly what everyone is doing. They don't count their blessings, they just go on complaining about things they could not get. If you implement the proposal of 'one less, one more' it will add to your happiness and subtract unhappiness. For example, when you wake up in the morning and start preparing for the day, decide to have one less complaint, and try to have one more gratitude. If the road is jammed with vehicles, don't start swearing or complaining, be grateful that inspite of this jam you reach safely to your office. There may be lots of problems at work or at home, but decide to have one less frown on your forehead, have one more smile on your lips.
An Osho tip could help you change your gestalt: do not call problem a 'problem,' call it a situation. Every problem is a situation, isn't it? If you agree with thi, immediately your attitude will change. Your mind will not be closed to it, on the contray it will be open to look at it and resolve it.
And it is not that you have to do it all at once, things change bit by bit. Add more drops of the positive and less drops of the negative, and soon your cup will overflow with joy, and peace.
Osho suggests very simple steps to achieve this : "Nothing is to be done, just a simple feeling -- allow nature. In the beginning it will be difficult because you have always been jumping in the way, always interfering. For just three weeks allow nature. When you feel hungry, eat; when you feel sleepy, go to sleep. When you don't feel hungry, don't eat. Allow your inner being, give it a chance. Just allow nature."
Excerpted from A Bird On The Wing