Osho - Weekly Meditation For The Here And Now
Weekly Meditation - Week 42. Letting Go
October 14
Letting Go
Once one knows how to let go, for the first time life starts happening.
We are unnecessarily striving to attain something, in fact, the very effort to attain it is the hindrance. Life happens - it cannot be attained. The more one strives for it, the less one has it. One need not go to it; it comes on its own. All that is needed is a total state of receptivity, of openness. One has to become a host to life. Life need not be chased. In chasing is misery; the more you chase it, the farther away it goes.
And life contains all. It contains God, it contains bliss, it contains benediction, it contains beauty, good, truth, whatever you want to call it - it contains all; there is nothing other than life. Life is the name of the totality of existence.
One has to learn to be patiently relaxed, and then the miracle of miracles happens: One day when you are really relaxed, something suddenly changes. A curtain disappears, and you see things as they are. If your eyes are too full of desires, expectation, longing, they cannot see the truth. The eyes are covered with the dust of desire. All search is futile. Search is a byproduct of the mind. To be in a state of non search is the great moment of transformation.
All the meditations 'are just preparations for that moment. They are not real meditations but just preparations so that one day you can simply sit, doing nothing, desiring nothing.
October 15
The Guide
Every river reaches to the ocean without any guide, without any map. We too can reach to the ocean, but we become entangled on the way.
The guide, the master, is not needed to take you to the ocean - that can happen on its own-the master is needed to keep you alert not to get entangled on the way, because there are a thousand and one attractions.
The river goes on moving. It comes to a beautiful tree; the river enjoys the tree and moves on; it does not become attached to the tree, otherwise the movement will stop. It comes to a beautiful mountain but it goes on, utterly thankful, grateful to the mountain, for the joy of passing through the mountain and all the song that happens, and the dance. The river is grateful, certainly grateful, but not attached at all. It goes on moving; its movement doesn't stop.
The problem with human consciousness is that you come across a beautiful tree and you want to make your home there; now you don't want to go anywhere. You come across a beautiful man or a woman and become attached. The master is needed to remind you again and again not to become attached to anything. I don't mean not to enjoy anything In fact, if you become attached you will not be able to enjoy; you can enjoy only if you remain unattached, untethered.
October 16
Right Moments
When you are feeling happy, loving, floating - these are the right moments when the door is very close. Just a knock will be enough.
It almost always happens that when people are miserable, anxious, tense, and nervous, they try meditation-but then it is hard to enter. When you are feeling hurt, angry, or sad, then you think of meditation, but that is almost going against the current and will be difficult.
When you are feeling happy, loving, floating - these are the right moments when the door is very close. Just a knock will be enough. Suddenly one morning you are feeling good, for no visible reason. Something must have happened deep in the unconscious. Something must have happened between you and the cosmos, some harmony; maybe it happened in the night, in deep sleep. In the morning you are feeling good; don't waste that time. Just a few minutes of meditation will be worth more than a few days of meditation when you are miserable.
Or suddenly at night lying on the bed, you feel at home... cozy surroundings, the warmth of the bed. Just sit for five minutes; don't waste that moment. A certain harmony is there-use it, ride on it, and that wave will take you far away, farther than you can go on your own. Learn how to use these blissful moments.
October 17
Oneness
Outside and inside are just false divisions, as all divisions are. They are useful - because it is difficult to talk without words. But then you come to understand that there is only one. It has no outside to it and no inside. It is one, and you are that.
This oneness is the meaning of the Upanishads' Tattwamasi Swetaketu- "that art thou." That means the outside, thou means the inside; they are bridged. That becomes thou, and thou becomes that. Suddenly there is no division.
There is no division - death is life, and life is death. All divisions exist because the mind is incapable of seeing that the contradictory can be one. It is because of its logic that the mind cannot see how a thing can be both. The mind thinks of either/or; it says either this or that. And life is both, existence is both together-so much so that to say that existence is both things together is not right. It is a tremendous oneness.
October 18
Masks
Whatever you are doing, just be conscious. If you are wearing a mask, be conscious; wear it knowingly. It should not be an automatic thing.
If you are in a sad mood and somebody comes and you remain sad, you will make him sad too. And he has not done anything. He has not deserved it in any way, so why make him sad unnecessarily? You smile and talk, and you just manage, knowing well that this is a mask. When your friend goes you become sad again. That was just a social formality.
If you use it consciously there is no problem. If you have a wound, there is no need to go and show it to everybody; it is none of their affair. Why create misery in their minds about your wound? Why be an exhibitionist? Let it be there; take care of it, try to heal it. Show it to the doctor, but there is no need to show it to every passerby on the road. Just be conscious.
One has to use many masks; they function as lubricants. Somebody comes and asks how you are, and you start telling her all your problems. She did not ask for it; she was just saying hello. Now for one hour she has to listen to you. That will be too much! Next time she will not even say hello; she will escape.
In life many formalities are needed, because you are not alone and if you don't live according to the formal patterns of the society, you will create more misery for yourself, nothing else.
October 18
Surprise
All that is beautiful and true always comes as a surprise. So retain the capacity to be surprised. That is one if the greatest blessings of life.
Once you lose the capacity to be surprised, you are dead. If things can surprise you, you are still alive. And the more you are surprised by things, the more alive you are. That is the aliveness of children; they are surprised by trivia. One cannot even believe they are surprised - by just an ordinary tree, or bird, or dog, or cat, or a pebble on the shore.
Children are even more surprised than you would be if you were to find a Kohinoor, a great diamond-even then you won't be surprised. But because children have the capacity to become surprised, each pebble becomes a diamond. If you are not surprised, even a diamond becomes an ordinary pebble.
Life carries as much meaning as you carry the capacity to be surprised, the capacity to wonder. So always remain open. Remind yourself again and again that life is infinite. It is always an ongoing process; it never comes to an end. It is an eternal journey, and each moment is new, each moment is original. When I say each moment is original, I mean each moment throws you back to your origin, each moment makes you a child again.
October 20
The Unknowable
The mind is the known, meditation is to stand in the unknown, and godliness is the unknowable-like a horizon just bordering on the unknown. The closer you come, the further away it recedes. It is always a rainbow; you can never catch hold if it.
You can try to reach the unknowable - every effort should be made to reach it - but it is always unreachable. God is unknowable, and because the unknowable exists, life is beautiful. Because the impossible exists, life is a tremendously bea
When a thing becomes known, possible, it loses its meaning. That's why in the West life is losing more meaning than in the East. Because science has made you more knowledgeable, and because of the dust science has poured on you, the capacity to be surprised is becoming less and less. You are becoming almost insensitive to the unknowable. This is the only grave, the only death - that you think that you have known. Always remain available to the unknown and the unknowable.
