Catch yourself red-handed!

                                             Courtesy Osho International Foundation

Gurdjieff was a great Russian mystic who was very down to earth. And a strange man too. He was extremely good at giving shock treatments to his disciples. His basic premise was that everybody is dreaming all the time; whether they are awake or asleep, doesn't matter. He used to take his disciples right in the buzz of the market and ask them to experiment with their meditation. He asked them to watch people walking on the street. Just stand by the side and look at people with passing by. When the disciples started watching alertly they found that  that  the people were sleepwalkers. They were walking like somnambulists. They looked awake because their eyes were open but they were walking in  trance. Their feet followed the road mechanically because they have trodden it many times. They were walking but their consciousness was not present in their walk. Their lips were moving as if they were talking to somebody, and there was nobody around! They were even found making gestures to somebody who was not present. Their faces had an invisible cloud of daydreaming, a dullness, a dark shadow, as if somehow they are forcing themselves to be awake, ready to fall any moment into dreaming, into sleep.  

Gurdjieff would say to his  disciples, "Unless you realize in your dreams that they are dreams, you will not be able to awake during the day." A tough criterion indeed. In the first place watching oneself during the day is so difficult, how can one watch in the dream?

Osho gives a clue, he says, "catch  yourself red-handed."  Start in the daytime.The moment you feel you are daydreaming, shake yourself and take note of it. You can even make a code word for waking yourself up. Like, ' not again!' or ' wake up!" or anything that suits you. It is a delightful game. You will start enjoying yourself like a child, every moment will be a new moment. You may even giggle or clap or dance. Bring more liveliness to it.

When you start becoming alert and awake you will find the activities and people all around are also part of a dream, they stop being real. If you can deepen this experience during the daytime this awareness will sink into your dream.

Osho says: " The dream has power only because you impart power to it. The more you become alert about your dreams, the more you will see gaps arising in your consciousness. But we have great investments in our dreams. We may be afraid of nightmares, but we are not yet fed-up of dreaming. We still go on cherishing sweet dreams."

So the only alternative is, catch yourself read handed while daydreaming.

Sadhana

Osho International Foundation felicitated for 'enlightening lives' across the globe

                              The trophy awarded to Osho International Foundation

In an event called " Public Service Week" organized by the Lions Club International Mumbai a gorgeous trophy was awarded to OSHO International Foundation recognizing their contribution to awakening many souls by sharing Osho meditations and his words internationally.

Amrit Sadhana, one of the trustees of Osho International Foundation received the award on behalf of the foundation.

In a letter to the trustees of Osho International Foundation, the district governer Lion Dinesh Shah wrote," We are very happy to know that your foundation is  spreading and imparting education in Yoga, meditation and various other forms to participants without any restrictions of cast, creed or special status for the full development of mind, body and soul and make them conscious human beings. The foundation is also imparting formal training in the field of art, science and humanities to make complete self development of human beings as  ideal citizens of the world."

Business the Osho way

While addressing the students of University of Pune a few weeks back, Wipro chief Aziz Premji shared some secrets of his success. He said that for him life is an eight-lane expressway — if you use these lanes intelligently, you are bound to zoom ahead.

One of Mr Premji’s commandments was “respond, don’t act”. It was significant to note that a top-notch businessman like him advised students to be aware of their emotions and to manage them. But you cannot learn this lesson in any of the management schools; one has to learn this from life. It can be learnt if you are watchful and observe the difference between people who react impulsively and those who disengage themselves from their emotions and respond objectively. By reacting emotionally, you are letting the other person control your behavior and by using your will and reason you are looking at the issue directly.

Most people are afraid of taking a decision because they want to avoid making mistakes. This thought is an obstruction to both personal and professional growth because making mistakes is an essential ingredient of learning. Osho says, “Don’t be afraid of making a mistake, but don’t make the same mistake again. Make a new mistake!” What people forget is that making a decision is an intuitive flash, it is a gift of the heart. Intuition is to be in tune with oneself. And out of that tuning, solutions arise. It is not a logical conclusion, it is a leap of consciousness. Once your intuition has started functioning, you need not go and ask a guide for any advice.

When the brain works in sync with the heart you arrive at the right decision. But that also means living dangerously.

Heed Osho’s suggestion: “Whenever you have alternatives to choose, always choose the unknown, because the known you have already lived. The known is known, so you will simply be repeating it. Never miss the unknown. Always choose the unknown and go headlong. Even if you suffer, it is worth it, it always pays off.”

The more decisive you become, the more integrated you become. Of course there are possibilities of going astray, but the risk is worth taking.

By going astray you will become richer. You will be happy that you went astray, because there are many things that can be learnt from the new experience. From all this struggle you will emerge a winner.

But playing to win does not mean winning all the time; it means putting all your energy with maximum intensity. Then whatever happens, you will not be a loser.