Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Meditation is an inner bath
It is customary in India to take a bath, wear clean clothes before entering a temple
It is customary in India to take a bath, wear clean clothes before entering a temple or performing a religious ritual. It is a good practice but nobody bothers to inquire what is the necessity of a bath? This outer bath is symbolic, it is an indicator of the inner bath, the bath of the mind. Unless one goes inside and looks at the immense dirt the mind has gathered one cannot conceive of the need of the inner bath. The human mind is a junk yard. There is anger, hatred, miseries, anxieties and all kinds of insanities buried in there. All these wounds release poison in the body. For example those who suppress their anger have very bad teeth and nails. As soon as anger arises, the poison begins to spread towards your nails and teeth. This happens with every negative emotion that emerges in the mind. The affect different parts of your body. No detergent has been found to cleanse this inner filth!
However, Osho has found a highly effective method of cleansing the mind which is called catharsis. He is the first mystic who has introduced catharsis into meditation.
He says, " Release your anger, your pain, your miseries, your anxieties into the emptiness. And do not do this only mentally, let it be expressed by your whole body. If you can do it whole heartedly then you will not only find your mind becomes pure but your body will also achieve new dimensions of health, you will find that many illnesses are suddenly released by your catharsis. So many diseases which had firmly gripped you have suddenly disappeared.
"For example if you have an asthma, it means that somewhere the relation between breathing and the mind has become unnatural, somewhere the link is broken, some obstacle has arisen. If you can rightly experiment with the deep and chaotic breathing, that obstacle will dissolve. Or if you suffer from a constant headache, it means that some kind of anxieties have entered which are eating away your brain like worms from within. And you are overburdened. If those anxieties are dropped, suddenly you will find that your head has become light. "
It will be a real purification if one cleanses the mind by this meditation and then cleanses the body before entering any religious place. In fact if the mind and the body is clean there will be no need to go to any sacred place, you become the sacred place! Just close your eyes and sit silently. All the mystics have said it again and again, don't search for any religious place, just look within. A purified mind and body is the abode of the whole.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Who posseses the river?
There is a popular saying that "whiskey is for drinking
and water is for fighting over." It is usually attributed to the great writer
Mark Twain, but whoever actually said it could hardly have known just how
intense that fighting would become as water gets scarcer.
Fighting over water is not new, it is as ancient as human beings on earth.Even
in Buddha's times people had the possessive attitude towards natural resources.
Osho tells a penetrating story how Gautama Buddha resolved the water dispute between two
kings.
Buddha was holding
his camp by the side of a river, and he was surprised to see armies standing on
both sides of the river. There were two kingdoms and the river was their
boundary, and they had been fighting for generations over which kingdom the
river belonged to . And they had not been able to decide -- so many times they
had made the river red with blood and the fight had continued. Buddha had his
camp there and the generals of both the armies came to seek his guidance. Just
by chance, they entered his camp at the same time. They were shocked at this
strange coincidence, but now there was no way to go back.
Copyright Osho International Foundation |
Buddha said, "Don't be worried; it is good that you
have come together. You both are blind, your predecessors have been blind, too.
The river goes on flowing, and you go on killing people. Can't you see a simple
fact: you both need water, and the river is big enough. There is no need to
possess the river; and who can be the possessor? All the water is flowing into
the ocean. Why can't both of you use it? One side belongs to one kingdom, the
other side belongs to the other kingdom -- there is no problem. And there is no
need even to draw a line in the middle of the river because lines cannot be
drawn on water. And use the water; rather than fighting."
The generals understood that their fields and their crops
were dying because they had no one to take care of them. Everyone was busy
fighting. First they had to decide who possesses the river, only then could
they water their fields. The stupid human mind thinks only in terms of
possession. The man of insight thinks of utility.
Buddha simply said, "Use it! And come to me again when
you have used all the water. If there is
still be a problem, we will see what to do about it. But come to me again only
when you have finished all the water."
The warriors looked at each other, they felt trapped but
they had no answer. They went back feeling like fools. We don't know what the
outcome was, whether they saw their folly and ended the war or they are still
fighting. But the water is still flowing as abundantly, as compassionately as
ever.
Friday, March 7, 2014
A woman's day, every day
International day for women is round the corner. Here are
some chocolates and ribbons from Osho to both women and men . Enjoy!
*The new woman does not have to compete or compare herself with man, she just have to be herself. It may look like an uphill task, but a change of gestalt will help her reclaim her lost power.
* Femininity is indeed very powerful. It is the power of creation, the power of a flower, the power of the water element; of the patience and resilience so essential for sustenance.
* I will continue
to give woman every possible opportunity which she has been denied in the past.
And there will be more women who will come to the surface. And they will prove
my point that you are absolutely equal to men, there is no question of
inferiority.
For the new men:
* Never argue with a woman.You may be right but she can
never be wrong!
* A woman has to be loved, not to be understood.
* The male mind, the
Berliner; the female mind, the Viennese. The female mind has a grace, the male
mind has efficiency. and of course, in the long run, if there is a constant
fight, the grace is bound to be defeated -- the efficient mind will win.
because the world understands the language of mathematics not of love. But the
moment your efficiency wins over your grace, you have lost something
tremendously valuable: you have lost contact with your own being. You may
become very efficient, but you will be no more a real person. You will become a
machine, a robot-like thing.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Participate in your child's misery
let the child cry |
Why is he miserable? |
When kids go astray, parents ask, " Where did we go
wrong?" but when the parents go astray, what can the kids ask, to whom?
They suffer silently or maybe they are silenced by their own parents.
And yet nobody dares to look with fresh eyes into this vital issue of bringing
up children.
The repressive attitude of the past generations to their
children will not work any longer. Osho endorses the new studies of
psychologists who say that the screaming and shouting of a child is very
healthy. Those children who cannot scream and shout in their childhood, who
cannot throw tantrums, cannot show their displeasure openly become mentally
sick forever. This screaming and crying of a child is a deep process, it is a
method of relieving his pain.
Osho has suggested a meditation for parents or elders who
are bringing up children.
" If a child is crying, neither you scold him, nor pat
him, nor advise him, just sit with him silently, go on watching him
meditatively, lovingly. But do not stop him from crying or try to make him
sleep by patting his head. Do not give him toys because it means you are
bribing him. Do not distract his mind by
showing him a beautiful sparrow sitting on a tree. By doing this you are
distracting him from his natural way. Just be silent without getting angry –
because your anger too can function as suppression for the child. Go on looking
at the child silently and lovingly, then you will be amazed. As long as you
give attention to a child lovingly, he would cry heartfully, he would scream.
The child will vent out his feelings for
a while and afterwards will become light. He will start smiling, will become
happy. He is not smiling to please you. Now this laughter is arising from the
release of his pain. Now he has become light-hearted.
Participate in the emotional cleansing |
If we silently cooperate with the children's emotional needs the perversion, the madness would be greatly
reduced in this world. Parents should participate in the emotional cleansing of their children, it will help their own
cleansing, too. The children will start trusting their parents and a deep intimate bond will be created between
both. So when the children mature sexually and they have strange sensations and
attractions in their body and mind they will feel free to ask their parents
about it, and the parents will not doubt their children's intentions.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Osho tips for loving and living beautifully
Copyright Osho International |
Hi! Looking for the best roses for your loved ones?
Enjoy the Valentine's Day by sharing these lovely Osho roses with your friends and beloveds.
If you practice these tips you will not need any roses to gift, you yourself will bloom like a rose.
* Love is never a relationship; love is relating. It is
always a river, flowing, unending. Love knows no full stop; the honeymoon
begins but never ends. It is not like a novel that starts at a certain point
and ends at a certain point. It is an ongoing phenomenon. Lovers end, love
continues. It is a verb, not a noun.
* The moment love becomes attachment, love becomes a
relationship... the moment love becomes demanding, it is a prison. It has
destroyed the freedom; you cannot fly in the sky, you are encaged.
* No relationship can satisfy, because every relationship
begins with great hope, and that is not possible to be fulfilled. Yes, that
hope can be fulfilled, but it can be fulfilled only when you have fallen in
love with the whole. No part can fulfill it.
* Remember well, the technological mind is a mathematical
mind. The mind of the lover is non-mathematical; the mind of the lover is the
mind of the poet. Love is a romance, not a technique. Love is a dream. not a
technique. Love has a totally different approach to life.
* If you meditate and then make love, your love will have a
tremendously new depth to it. Love and then meditate and suddenly you will see:
when your energy is full of love, meditation goes so deep and so easily. You
simply ride on the wave -- you need not make any effort. You simply float and
reach higher and higher and higher.
* Sex creates jealousy but it is a secondary thing. It is
not a question of how to drop jealousy; you cannot drop it because you cannot
drop sex. The question is how to transform sex into love; then jealousy
disappears.
Osho guest house |
* The man who invented the double bed was one of the
greatest enemies of humanity. Even in the bed, no freedom! You cannot move; the
other is by the side. And mostly the other takes most of the space. If you can
manage a small space you are fortunate !
* Love exists but you cannot possess it. If you try to
possess it, you belong to the objective dimension and you are killing love --
that's why possession is destructive. If you possess a woman, if you say, 'She
is my wife and I possess her' then she is no longer a person. You have reduced
her to be a thing and she will never be able to forgive you.
* There are two ways of discovery. One is meditation --
without the other you search for the depth; another is love -- with the other
you search for the depth. He becomes a root to reach to yourself. The other
creates a circle, and both lovers help each other. The deeper love goes, the
deeper they feel they are; their inner-beings are revealed.
Excerpted from Osho books/Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Win the war with your love and joy
Photo Osho International Foundation |
Is it really necessary to
worry? Osho says, " worry is like a rocking-chair -- it keeps you going
but gets you nowhere!"
I think worrying is a defense
mechanism of the mind to avoid facing reality. The chronic worriers are anxiety
ridden and have physical effects of constant worrying like difficulty
swallowing, dizziness, dry mouth, fast heartbeat,fatigue,headaches ,inability
to concentrate to name the few.
So instead of worrying about the
situation of the world or about our future Osho's advise is to start
meditating.
He says, " We don't need
bigger nuclear weapons to stop the war. We need something totally different.
Love will provide the energy, meditation will provide you with tremendous
strength. And you will not feel so insignificant, you will feel dignified and
significant, because your love, your meditation, your blissfulness is going to
save the world.
Explosion of joy |
It is enough. More is not needed; more will keep you unnecessarily worried. And worry is like a rocking-chair -- it keeps you going but gets you nowhere! There is no need to worry and there is no need to feel desperate, helpless. A few idiots have prepared death for the planet; there are millions of intelligent people who can prevent it just by their love, by their joy, by their beauty, by their ecstasy. These are far more powerful experiences, because atomic energy, or nuclear energy, is part of the material world. It is the explosion of the atom, the lowest, smallest particle of matter.
We have not understood yet that nature has an absolute balance. If a small atom exploding can destroy... Have you ever thought about a living atom of your being and its explosion? In other words, we have been calling it enlightenment. It is nothing but an explosion of your being into light. And then suddenly you have a far higher and superior power. It need not fight with the lower, its very presence will make the lower impotent."
Excerpted from Hari Om Tatsat/Copyright Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com
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