Osho - Weekly Meditation For The Here And Now
Weekly Meditation - Week 20. Believe In The Eyes
May 13
Believe In The Eyes
Never believe anything unless you have experienced it. Never form any prejudice, even if the whole world is saying that something is so, unless you have encountered it yourself.
The great Indian mystic Kabir said, "Never believe in the ears - just believe in the eyes. All that you have heard is false. All that you have seen is true."
This saying should be carried as a constant remembrance, because we are human beings and we tend to speak fallacies. We are part of this whole mad world, and that madness is inside every human being. Don't let it overpower you. One has to remember continuously. It is arduous, because prejudices are very comfortable and easy; you don't have to pay for them, Truth is costly, precious; you have to pay much.
In fact, you have to put your whole life at stake; then you arrive at it. But only truth liberates. So looking at other people and the functioning of their mind, always remember that the same type of mind is hidden in you also. So never listen to it. It will persuade you; it will argue, it will try to convince you. Just tell it, "I will see for myself. I am still alive. I can encounter whatever is needed."
May 14
Austerity
They have a word in Latin for listening, obeydire. The English word obedience comes from that. if you rightly listen, it creates obedience.
If you rightly see, it brings its own discipline. The basic question is that inside, one should be perfectly empty while listening, perfectly empty while seeing, perfectly empty while touching no prejudice for or against, staying uninvolved, and having no subtle leanings, because that leaning destroys the truth. Having no leanings at all, allowing truth to he, not forcing it to be something else but allowing it, whatever it is.
This is the austere life of the religious person. This is real austerity: to allow truth to have its own say - not disturbing, not coloring, not manipulating, not managing it in some way according to one's own beliefs. When truth is allowed to be itself, naked and new, a great discipline arises in you-obedience. A great order arises in you.
Then you are no longer in chaos; for the first time you start gathering a center, a nucleus, because truth known immediately becomes your truth. Truth known as it is immediately transforms you. You are no -longer the same person. The very vision, the very clarity, and the very experience of what truth is, is a sudden mutation. It is the revolution that real religion is all about.
May 15
Going Into Fear
Whenever there is fear, never try to escape from it. In fact, take hints from fear.
Those are the directions in which you need to travel. Fear is simply a challenge. It calls you: "Come!" Whenever something is really good, it is also scary, because it brings you some insights. It forces you toward certain changes. It brings you to a brink from where, if you go back, you will never forgive yourself. You will always remember yourself as a coward. If you go ahead, it is dangerous. That's what is scary.
Whenever there is some fear, always remember not to go back, because that is not the way to solve it. Go into it. If you are afraid of the dark night, go into the dark night - because that is the only way to overcome it. That is the only way to transcend the fear. Go into the night; there is nothing more important than that. Wait, sit there alone, and let the night work. If you fear, tremble. Let the trembling be there, but tell the night, "Do whatever you want to do. I am here."
After a few minutes you will see that everything has settled. The darkness is no longer dark, it has come to be luminous. You will enjoy it. You can touch it-the velvety silence, the vastness, the music. You will be able to enjoy it, and you will say, "How foolish I was to be afraid of such a beautiful experience!”
May 16
Counterfeit
First one has to realize that one is carrying a counterfeit, a false coin.
Of course, it makes you sad. You feel as if you have lost something — but you never had it in the first place. People simply think they have compassion. Compassion is a very rare quality. Sympathy is possible, but compassion is a very high level thing. But when you come to feel that you don't have any compassion, now there will be a possibility of your having it.
That is the trouble with false things: If your pocket is full of false coins and you think that you are rich, why worry? Once you come to know that you are a beggar and all coins are false, suddenly you become sad because all the money is lost. But now you can find out where and how one gets real money.
Right now you cannot make the distinction between what is real and what is unreal. Only when a very integrated consciousness arises, will you be able to make it. It is not that a few things are real in your life and a few things are unreal. In this state, when you are unaware, everything is unreal like a dream, but everything looks real.
In another state, when you become awakened, become a Buddha, then everything is real; nothing is unreal. So it is not that a few things are real and a few unreal. If you are not aware, then everything is unreal. If you are aware, everything is real. But you will be able to know what was unreal only when you are awake, not before that.
May 17
Become Poetic
A poet comes to know certain things that are revealed only in a poetic relationship with reality.
The poet is foolish as far as worldly cleverness is concerned. He will never rise in the world of wealth and power. But in his poverty he knows a different kind of richness in life that nobody else knows. Love is possible to a poet, and God is possible to a poet. Only one who is innocent enough to enjoy the small things of life can understand that God exists, because God exists in the small things of life: he exists in the food you eat, he exists in the walk that you go for in the morning. God exists in the love that you have for your beloved, in the friendship that you have with somebody. God does not exist in the churches; churches are not part of poetry, they are part of politics.
Become more and more poetic. It takes guts to be poetic; one needs to be courageous enough to be called a fool by the world, but only then can one be poetic. And by being poetic I don't mean that you have to write poetry. Writing poetry is only a small, nonessential part of being poetic. One may be a poet and never write a single line of poetry, and one may write thousands of poems and still not be a poet.
Being a poet is a way of life. It is love for life, it is reverence for life, it is a heart-to-heart relationship with life.
May 18
Anxiety
Create a distance between you and your personality.
All your problems are concerned with your personality, not with you. You don't have any problems; nobody really has any problems. All problems belong to the personality.
This is going to be the work-that whenever you feel anxiety, just remember that it belongs to the personality. You feel a strain, just remember that it belongs to the personality. You are the watcher, the witness. Create distance. Nothing else is to be done.
Once the distance is there, you will suddenly see anxiety disappearing. When the distance is lost, when you have become closed again, again anxiety will arise. Anxiety is getting identified with the problems of the personality. Relaxation is not getting involved, but remaining unidentified with the problems of the personality.
So, for one month, watch. Whatever happens, remain far away. For example, you have a headache. Just try to be far away and watch the headache. It is happening somewhere in the body mechanism. You are standing aloof, a watcher on the hills, far away, and it is happening miles away. Just create a distance. Create space between you and the headache and go on making the space bigger and bigger. A point will come when you will suddenly see that the headache is disappearing into the distance.
May 19
Awareness First
When awareness grows, and you become clearly alert, acceptance is a natural consequence.
Acceptance is an outgrowth of awareness. Greed is there... Watch it.
Ambition is there; watch it. A lust for power is there; watch it. Right now don't complicate things by the idea of accepting it, because if you try to accept and you cannot, you will start repressing. That's how people have repressed. They cannot accept, so the only way is to forget about things and put them in the dark. Then one is okay, one feels that there is no problem.
First, forget about acceptance. Just be aware. When awareness grows, and you become clearly alert, acceptance is a natural consequence. Seeing the fact, one has to accept it because there is nowhere else to go. What can you do? It is there just like your two eyes. They are not four, only two.
Once you accept something, if it is real, only then can it remain. If it is unreal, it will dissolve. Love will remain; hate will dissolve. Compassion will remain; anger will dissolve.
