Osho - Weekly Meditation For The Here And Now
Weekly Meditation - Week 29. Vulnerability
July 15
Vulnerability
Existence in the body is very precarious. Any moment, with just a little more oxygen or a little less, and you are gone!
A little less sugar in the blood and you are gone... a little dysfunction in the brain and you are gone!
Life exists in vulnerability, it exists in danger, insecurity. There is no security, and there cannot be. Security is only for dead people. They are very strong. Can you kill a dead person? you cannot. Can you destroy a dead person-you cannot. Dead people are very strong!
The higher the quality of life, the more fragile. Look at a rose, look at a poem, look at a song, look at music-it vibrates for a second and then is gone! Look at love: One moment it is there, next moment it is not. Look at meditation. As you go higher you will find that things become more and more vulnerable. So there is nothing wrong with vulnerability; it is understanding how life is. To pretend to be strong is foolish. Nobody is strong, nobody can be strong; it is just an ego game. Even Alexander the Great is not strong - one day comes and all his strength is gone.
So just learn to accept your vulnerability, and then there will be a very deep understanding and a deep flow of energy. You will not feel it as a problem. It is not a problem; it is something very significant.
July 16
Different Angles
It is always good to feel the other from different angles, because people have multiple aspects.
We all carry a world within us, and if you really want to know a person you have to know him or her from all the angles possible. Then two people can remain charmed by each other for infinity, because then no role is ever fixed. And after a few days when you are again in the roles of wife and husband, for a change sometimes, then it is beautiful, it is something new! Then it feels as if you are meeting after many days.
Change is always good. Always find new ways and means to relate with a person, new situations. Never get into a routine. Then the relationship is always flowing. There are always surprises; it is good to surprise and to be surprised by the other; then the relationship is never dead.
July 17
Truth
Truth is achieved only through awareness. It is not a mind process at all.
You are not to think the truth; rather, you have to stop all thinking to know truth; you have forget all about truth to know truth. You have to unburden yourself of all the theories, hypothesizes, philosophies, and ideologies that you have learned. The process of achieving the truth is a process of unlearning, it is a process of unconditioning. Slowly, one has to get out of the mind, to slip out of the mind; and one has to become just a pool of consciousness, a pure awareness. Just a sheer watchfulness: Do nothing, just watch, watch all that is happening in the outside world and in the inside world.
When one can just watch without any judgment interfering, without any old ideas coming in, then truth is revealed. And the miracle is that it does not come from somewhere else to you, it does not descend from above; it is found within you - it is your intrinsic nature. It is really a great revelation to know truth, because you are it and you have never lost it-even for a single moment. You have always been it. It is impossible to lose it, because it is your nature and your nature cannot be lost. That's why we call it nature. That which cannot be lost is the very definition of nature. That which can be lost is not nature but nurture. Truth is your nature, your very being, your very existence, your very center.
July 18
Insecurity
The human being is a fragile flower. Any stone can crush you.
Any accident and you are Bone. Once you understand it... When you feel very afraid, what to do? The night is dark, the path unknown, no light to light the path, nobody to guide you, no map, so what to do? If you like crying and weeping, cry and weep, but that helps nobody. Better to accept it and grope in the dark. Enjoy while you are alive. Why waste this time in hankering after security, when security is not possible. This is the wisdom of insecurity. Once you understand it, accept it, you are freed from fear.
It always happens when soldiers go to war that they are very afraid, because death is waiting for them. Maybe they will never come back again. They tremble, they cannot sleep, they have nightmares. They dream again and again that they have been killed or crippled. But once they reach the front, all fear disappears. Once they see that death is happening, people are dying, other soldiers are dead, that their friends may be dead, that bombs are falling and bullets passing - within twenty-four hours they settle, and all fear is gone. They accept reality; they start playing cards while bullets are passing. They drink tea, and they enjoy it as they have never enjoyed it before, because this may be their last cup. They joke and laugh, they dance and sing.
What to do? When death is there, it is there. This is insecurity. Accept it, then it disappears.
July 19
Words
Words are not just words. They have moods, climates of their own.
When a word settles inside you, it brings a different climate to your mind, a different approach, a different vision. Call the same thing a different name, and you will see: Something is immediately different.
There are feeling words and there are intellectual words. Drop intellectual words more and more. Use more and more feeling words. There are political words and there are religious words. Drop political words. There are words that immediately create conflict. The moment you utter them, argument arises. So never use logical, argumentative language. Use the language of affection, of caring, of love, so that no argument arises.
If one starts being aware in this way, one sees a tremendous change arising. If one is a little alert in life, many miseries can be avoided. A single word uttered in unconsciousness can create a long chain of misery. A slight difference, just a very small turning, and it creates a lot of change. One should become very careful and use words when absolutely necessary. Avoid contaminated words. Use fresh words, noncontroversial, which are not arguments but just expressions of your feelings.
If one can become a connoisseur of words, one's whole life will be totally different. If a word brings misery, anger, conflict, or argument, drop it. What is the point in carrying it? Replace it with something better. The best is silence. The next best are singing, poetry, love.
July 20
No Words
If it is possible, live an experience and don't fix it with any words, because that will make it narrow.
You are sitting... it is a silent evening. The sun has gone, and the stars have started appearing. Just be. Don't even say, "This is beautiful," because the moment you say that it is beautiful, it is no longer the same. By saying beautiful, you are bringing in the past, and all the experiences that you said were beautiful have colored the word.
Why bring in the past? The present is so vast, and the past is so narrow. Why look from a hole in the wall when you can come out and look at the whole sky? So try not to use words, but if you have to, then be very choosy about them, because each word has a nuance of its own. Be very poetic about it.
July 21
Devices And Principles
All religions are basically nothing but methods of awakening. But all the religions have gone astray because of doctrines.
Those doctrines are not important; those doctrines are nothing but props to the methods. They are arbitrary. Christians believe in only one life. This belief is a device to make people aware. You will be surprised, because ordinarily we think it is a principle. It is not a principle; it is just a device to force the idea to hit home. It is a way of hammering: "Don't lose time in unnecessary things. Don't go on chasing after power, money, prestige, because you have only one life. Death is coming. So be alert, be watchful, and see what you are doing." This is a device; it is not a principle.
But that's where things go wrong: Christians thought it was a principle, so they started making a great philosophy out of it. Then certainly it is against Hinduism, because Hinduism says that there are many lives-a long chain of lives, zillions of lives. Now there is a problem: If these are principles, then there is a conflict. Then only one can be right, not both.
But that idea too is a device created for a different kind of people who have known much, who have seen many changes, and who have noted the fact that history repeats itself. But the goal is the same. The East says, "You have been doing these things again and again and again for many lives. Are you going to continue this vicious circle, this boring repetition? Already you have been here for a very long time, doing the same stupid things again and again. It is time - become alert!"
