What is Meditation?
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Osho
Osho is one of the most provocative and inspiring spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. Known for his revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation, the influence of his teachings continues to grow, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world. He is the author of many books, including Love, Freedom, Aloneness; The Book of Secrets; and Innocence, Knowledge, and Wonder.
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What is Meditation? - Osho
Meditation is PLAYFUL
Meditation is not anything of the mind, it is something beyond the mind. And the first step is to be playful about it. If you are playful about it, mind cannot destroy your meditation. Otherwise it will turn it into another ego trip; it will make you very serious. You will start thinking, I am a great meditator. I am holier than other people, and the whole world is just worldly — I am religious, I am virtuous.
That’s what has happened to thousands of so-called saints, moralists, puritans: they are just playing ego games, subtle ego games.
Hence I want to cut the very root of it from the very beginning. Be playful about it. It is a song to be sung, a dance to be danced. Take it as fun and you will be surprised: if you can be playful about meditation, meditation will grow in leaps and bounds.
But you are not hankering for any goal; you are just enjoying sitting silently, just enjoying the very act of sitting silently — not that you are longing for some yogic powers, siddhis, miracles. All that is nonsense, the same old nonsense, the same old game, played with new words, on a new plane.
Life as such has to be taken as a cosmic joke — and then suddenly you relax because there is nothing to be tense about. And in that very relaxation something starts changing in you — a radical change, a transformation — and the small things of life start having new meaning, new significance. Then nothing is small, everything starts taking on a new flavor, a new aura; one starts feeling a kind of godliness everywhere. One does not become a Christian here, does not become a Hindu, does not become a Mohammedan; one simply becomes a lover of life. One learns only one thing here, how to rejoice in life.
But rejoicing in life is the way towards god. Dance your way to god, laugh your way to god, sing your way to god!
Meditation is CREATIVE
You have lived in a certain way up to now — don’t you want to live in a different way? You have thought in a certain way up to now — don’t you want some new glimpses into your being? Then be alert and don’t listen to the mind. Mind is your past, constantly trying to control your present and your future. It is the dead past, which goes on controlling the alive present. Just become alert about it.
But what is the way? How does the mind go on doing it? The mind does it with this method: it says, If you don’t listen to me, you will not be as efficient as I am. If you do an old thing you can be more efficient because you have done it before. If you do a new thing you cannot be so efficient.
The mind goes on talking like an economist, an efficiency expert; it goes on saying, This is easier to do. Why do it the hard way? This is the way of least resistance.
Remember, whenever you have two things, two alternatives, choose the new one, choose the harder, choose the one in which more awareness will be needed. At the cost of efficiency always choose awareness, and you will create the situation in which meditation will become possible. These are all just situations. Meditation will happen. I am not saying that just by doing them you will get to meditation — but they will be helpful. They will create the necessary situation in you, without which meditation cannot happen.
Be less efficient but more creative. Let that be the motive. Don’t be bothered too much about utilitarian ends. Rather, constantly remember that you are not here in life to become a commodity; you are not here to become a utility, that is beneath your dignity. You are not here just to become more and more efficient — you are here to become more and more alive. You are here to become more and more intelligent; you are here to become more and more happy, ecstatically happy.
But that is totally different from the ways of the mind.
Meditation is ALERTNESS
Whatsoever you do, do it with deep alertness; then even small things become sacred. Then cooking or cleaning become sacred; they become worship.
It is not a question of what you are doing, the question is how you are doing it. You can clean the floor like a robot, a