Osho - Weekly Meditation For The Here And Now
Weekly Meditation - Week 33. Keep Jumping
August 12
Keep Jumping
One day - it is going to happen. I can see it, just below the horizon. Any moment the sunrise is possible. But keep jumping; don't fall asleep.
Somebody asked Rothschild, "How did you become so rich?" He answered, "I always waited for my opportunity, and when it came, simply jumped on it." The man said, "I am also waiting for an opportunity, but 1 only know when it has gone! It is such a rare moment that it comes and by the time 1 am ready to jump on it, it is gone.
Rothschild laughed and he said, "Keep jumping, otherwise you will miss! That's what I have been doing all my life - jumping. An opportunity may come or not - that is not the point; I keep on jumping. When it comes, it finds me always jumping. It comes and goes in a moment, and if you are thinking about it you will miss it."
So keep jumping - that's all that meditation is about. Some day the coincidence will happen. You will be jumping and the right moment will be close by. Something clicks, and something happens. It is a happening; it is not a doing. But if you are not jumping, you will miss it. It is difficult and sometimes boring too, because you come again and again to the same space, and it becomes circular. But keep jumping.
August 13
Medicinal Use
Whenever there is pressure from the outside, direct entry into meditation becomes difficult. So before meditation, for fifteen minutes, do something to cancel the pressure.
For fifteen minutes, simply sit silently and think of the whole world as a dream-and it is! Think of the whole world as a dream and that there is nothing of any significance in it. Second, remember that sooner or later everything will disappear you also. You were not always here, you will not always be here. So nothing is permanent. And third: You are just a witness. This is a passing dream, a film. Remember these three things - that this whole world is a dream and everything is going to pass, even you. Death is approaching and the only reality is the witness, so you are just a witness. Relax the body, witness for fifteen minutes, and then meditate. You will be able to get into it, and then there will be no trouble.
But whenever you feel that this meditation has become simple, stop it; otherwise it will become habitual. It has to be used only in specific conditions when it is difficult to enter meditation. If you do it every day, it will lose the effect, and then it will not work. So use it medicinally. When things are going wrong, do it so it will clear the way and you will be able to relax.
August 14
Doing Good
Do whatever is needed in life; just remain aloof from it. Let it happen on the periphery; the center remains unattached to it.
One has to do things, so one goes on doing them, but one should not be disturbed by them. It is exactly an act, a performance. Once this is understood you can be anywhere, in any kind of work, and keep your cool; you can keep yourself absolutely uncontaminated.
The problem is that down the ages we have been taught to do good, not to do bad, to do this, not to do that. We have been given commandments, do's and don'ts. I don't give you any commandment. I'm not concerned with what you do-my whole concern is with your being.
If you are silent, blissful, centered, do whatever is needed to be done, and there is no problem. If you are not centered, if you are not collected, integrated inside, if you are not in a meditative state, then even doing good is not going to help. That's why so many people who go on doing good are nothing but do-gooders. Their ultimate result is harm.
The emphasis has to be not on the doing but on being, and being is a totally different phenomenon. It doesn't matter whether you are an attorney or a doctor - or an engineer or a prostitute or a politician; it doesn't matter what you are doing. All that matters is: Are you centered in your being? And that will change many things.
August 15
Dying And Meditation
Once you know that you are doing to die within days, immediately this world-the money, the bank, the business, this and that - becomes useless. Now everything is no more than a dream, and you are already awakening.
Once someone learns that he is going to die within a certain time period-the person is already dead in a way, and he starts thinking about the future - then meditation is possible. Once a person knows he is going to die, he will drop much rubbish of his own accord. Immediately his whole vision is transformed.
If you have to leave tomorrow, you start packing your suitcases and you are no longer worried about this room in the hotel. In fact you are no longer here; you are managing your suitcases and things, and you are thinking about the journey. The same happens to a person when you tell him that he is going to die, that death is certain and cannot be avoided and he should not go on fooling around; now the decisive moment has come and he has already wasted enough life.
Immediately the person turns his back on the world and starts peeking into the darkness of the future. At that moment, if you tell him about meditation he will be willing to do it-and that can be one of the greatest gifts.
August 16
Necessary Evil
When you live with blind people, live like a blind person. You cannot change the whole world.
I know bureaucracy exists, but it has to exist because people are absolutely irresponsible. There is no way suddenly to drop the bureaucracy and the court and the law and the police officers. There is no way, because you will not be able to live for a single moment. It is a necessary evil. One just has to learn to live with people who are not alert, who are fast asleep, who are snoring. It may be disturbing to you, but nothing can be done about it.
At the most, the one thing you can do is not to enforce the same stupid behavior that has been forced on you by society. Don't force it on anybody else. You may have a wife, a husband, children don't force it on them or on your friends. That's all you can do. But you have to live in society and you have to follow the rules.
So don't just condemn things. Try to understand. There are many evils that are needed; they are necessary. The choice is not between right and wrong. In real life the choice is always between a bigger evil and a lesser evil, a bigger wrong and a lesser wrong.
August 17
Life And Death
These two - the life and death meditations - can help you tremendously.
In the night before you go to sleep, do this fifteen-minute meditation. It is a death meditation. Lie down and relax your body. Just feel like dying and that you cannot move your body because you are dead. Create the feeling that you are disappearing from the body. Do it for ten, fifteen minutes, and you will start feeling it within a week.
Meditating that way, fall asleep. Don't interrupt it. Let the meditation turn into sleep, and if sleep overcomes you, go into it. In the morning, the moment you feel you are awake-don't open your eyes - do the life meditation. Feel that you are becoming more wholly alive, that life is coming back and the whole body is full of vitality and energy. Start moving, swaying in the bed with eyes closed. Just feel that life is flowing in you. Feel that the body has a great flowing energy-just the opposite of the death meditation. With the life meditation you can take deep breaths. Just feel full of energy, that life is entering with the breathing. Feel full and very happy, alive.
Then after fifteen minutes, get up. These two - the life and death meditation - can help you tremendously.
August 18
Shortcut
One thing has to be remembered about meditation: It is a long journey, and there is no shortcut. Anyone who says there is a shortcut is befooling you.
Meditation is a long journey because the change is very deep and is achieved after many lives, many lives of routine habits, thinking, desiring, and the mind structure. Those you have to drop through meditation. In fact, it is almost impossible but it happens.
Becoming a meditator is the greatest responsibility in the world. It is not easy. It cannot be instant. So from the beginning never start expecting too much, and then you will never be frustrated. You will always be happy, because things will grow very slowly.
Meditation is not a seasonal flower that blooms after weeks. It is a very big tree. It needs time to spread its roots.
