Osho - Weekly Meditation For The Here And Now
Weekly Meditation - Week 10. Authenticity
March 5
Authenticity
When you want something not to grow, just keep your back to it and it dies if its own accord. Just like a plant that is neglected, not watered, it withers away and dies. So whenever you see something that is phony, just put it aside.
If you are just about to smile, then suddenly you realize that it would be phony, stop, even in the middle of the smile; relax your lips and ask the person to excuse you. Tell them it was a phony smile, and you are sorry. If a real smile comes, then it is okay; if it doesn't, then that is also okay. What can you do? If it comes, it comes; if it doesn't come, it doesn't. One cannot force it.
I'm not saying to just get out of the social formalities. I am saying be watchful, and if you have to be false, be it consciously, Knowing that this person is your boss and you have to smile, smile consciously, knowing well that it is phony. Let the boss be deceived - you should not be deceived by your smile, that's the point. If you smile unconsciously, the boss may not be deceived, because it is difficult to deceive bosses - but you may be deceived. You will pat yourself on the back and think you were perfectly good, such a good boy - but there you are missing.
So if sometimes you trunk it is necessary - because it may be necessary; life is complex and you are not alone; there are many things that you have to do because the whole society exists on phoniness - then be phony consciously. But in your relationships where you can be true, don't allow phoniness.
March 6
Satori
Many times glimpses if satori, illumination, come, but you cannot hold them.
Don't be worried that you could not hold them for longer. Forget all about it. Just remember the situation in which it happened and try to move into that situation again and again.
The experience is not important. How you were feeling, the situation, that is important. If you can re-create that situation, the experience will happen again. Experience is not important. The situation is important; how were you feeling? Flowing, loving... what was the situation?
Music may have been on, people may have been dancing, eating. Remember the flavor of food, or some beautiful person just by your side, a friend talking to you-and suddenly... Just remember the aroma in which it happened, the field. Try to create that field. Just sit silently and try to create that situation again.
Sometimes it happens accidentally, The whole science of yoga developed out of accidents. The first time, people were not looking for satori; how would they know about it? The first time it happened in a certain situation, and they became aware. They started seeking it, searching for methods to reach it. Naturally they became aware that if the situation could be created again, maybe the experience would follow. This is how, by trial and error, the whole science of yoga, tantra, and Zen developed. It took centuries to develop them.
But everybody has to find in what situation his satori starts bubbling, samadhi starts happening. Everybody has to feel their own way. If you are just a little alert, after a few experiences you will become able to create these situations.
March 7
Verbs
Authenticity is a verb. All that is beautiful in life is a verb; it is not a noun. Truth is a verb; it is not a noun. Love is not a noun; it is a verb. Love is in loving. It is a process.
Authenticity is one of the greatest values in life. Nothing can be compared to it. In the old terminology, authenticity is also called truth. The new terminology calls it authenticity - which is better than truth, because when we talk about truth, it seems like a thing, like a phenomenon somewhere that you have to find. Truth looks more like a noun. But authenticity is a verb. It is not something waiting for you.
You have to be authentic, only then is it there. You cannot discover it. You have to create it continuously by being true. It is a dynamic process.
Let this sink into you as deeply as possible, that all that is beautiful in life is a verb; it is not a noun. Truth is a verb; it is not a noun. Language is fallacious. Love is not a noun; it is a verb. Love is in loving, It is a process. When you love, only then is love there, When you don't love, it has disappeared. It exists precisely when it is dynamic. Trust is a verb, not a noun. When you trust, it is there. Trust means trusting and love means loving. Truth means being truthful.
March 8
Okay
Okay is not enough. Okay is not an ecstatic word; it is just lukewarm.
So feel blessed - and it is a question of feeling. Whatever you feel, you become. It is your responsibility. This is what we mean in India when we say, "It is your own karma." Karma means your own action. It is what you have done to yourself. And once you understand that this is what you have done to yourself, you can drop it. It is your attitude; nobody is forcing you to feel that way. You have chosen it - maybe unconsciously, maybe for some subtle reasons that feel good at the time but which turn out to be bitter, but you have chosen it.
Once you understand that it is you, why settle for okayness? That is not much, and your life will not be a life of song and dance and celebration. Just by being okay, how will you celebrate? Just by being okay, how will you love? Why be so miserly about it? But there are many people who are stuck at okayness. They have lost all energy just because of their ideas. Okayness is like a person who is not sick but who is also not healthy, just so-so. He is not ill, but he is not alive and healthy. He cannot celebrate.
I will suggest that if it is too difficult for you to feel blissful, at least feel miserable. That will be something; at least energy will be there. You can cry and weep. You may not be able to laugh, but tears will be possible. Even that will be life. But okayness is very cold. And if there is a question of choosing, why choose misery when you can choose happiness?
March 9
Openness
Let winds come, let the sun come - everything is welcome.
Once you become attuned to living with an open heart, you will never close. But a little time has to be given to it. And you have to maintain that opening, otherwise it will close again.
Openness is vulnerability. When you are open, you feel at the same time that something wrong can enter you. That is not just a feeling; it is a possibility. That's why people are closed. If you open the door for the friend to come in, the enemy can also enter. Clever people have closed their doors. To avoid the enemy, they don't even open the door for the friend. But then their whole life becomes dead.
But there is nothing that could happen, because basically we have nothing to lose-and that which we have cannot be lost. That which can be lost is not worth keeping. When this understanding becomes tacit, one remains open. I can see that even lovers are defending themselves. Then they cry and weep because nothing is happening.
They have closed all the windows and are suffocating. No new light has come in and it is almost impossible to live, but still they drag on somehow. But they don't open, because fresh air seems to be dangerous. So when you feel open, try to enjoy it. These are rare moments. In these moments move out so that you can have an experience of openness. Once the experience is there, solid in your hands, then you can drop the fear. You will see that being open is a treasure that YOU were losing unnecessarily. And the treasure is such that nobody can take it away. The more you share it, the more it grows. The more open you are, the more you are.
March 10
Goals
Life is goal-less... and that is the beauty of it!
If there were a goal to life, things would not be so beautiful, because one day you would come to the very end, and then everything after that would just be boring. There would be repetition, repetition, repetition; the same monotonous state would continue-and life abhors monotony. It goes on creating new goals because it has none! Once you attain a certain state, life gives you another goal. The horizon goes on and on running in front of you; you never reach it, you are always on the way - always reaching, just reaching. And if you understand that, then the whole tension of the mind disappears, because the tension is to seek a goal, to arrive somewhere.
Mind is continuously hankering for arrival, and life is a continuous departure and arrival again-but arriving just to depart once more. There is no finality to it. It is never perfect, and that's its perfection. It is a dynamic process, not a dead, static thing.
Life is not stagnant: it is flowing and flowing, and there is no other shore. Once you understand this you start enjoying the journey itself. Each step is a goal, and there is no goal. This understanding, once - it settles deep into your inner core, relaxes you. Then there is no tension because there is nowhere to go, so you cannot go astray.
March 11
Control
Life is beyond your control. You can enjoy it, but you cannot control it. You can live it, but you cannot control it. You can dance it, but you cannot control it.
Ordinarily we say that we breathe, and that's not true - life breathes us. But we go on thinking of ourselves as doers, and that creates the trouble. Once you become controlled, too controlled, you don't allow life to happen to you. You have too many conditions, and life cannot fulfill any.
Life happens to you only when you are unconditionally accepting it; when you are ready to welcome it. Whatever form it takes. But a person with too much control is always asking life to come in a certain form, to fulfill certain conditions - and life doesn't bother; it just passes these people by. The sooner you break out of the confinement of control the better, because all control is from the mind, And you are greater than the mind. A small part is trying to dominate, trying to dictate. Life goes on moving, and you are left far behind, and then you are frustrated. The logic of the mind is such that it says, "Look, you didn't control it well, that's why you missed, so control more."
The truth is just the opposite: People miss many things because of too much control. Be like a wild river, and much you cannot even dream, cannot even imagine, cannot even hope, is available just around the corner, just within reach. But open your hand; don't go on living the life of a fist, because that is the life of control. Live the life of an open hand. The whole sky is available; don't settle for less.
