Osho - Weekly Meditation For The Here And Now
Weekly Meditation - Week 45. Atomic Moment
November 4
Atomic Moment
Each moment is atomic. There is no need for two moments to have any sequence.
It is the one-dimensional mind that continuously asks for some meaning, some meaning that runs through all moments, that wants everything to be connected by a cause-and-effect chain, that wants everything to move somewhere, to reach somewhere, to conclude somewhere. That is the logical mind, the one-dimensional mind.
Life is multidimensional. It has no goal really, no destiny. And it has no meaning, in fact-meaning in the sense that all the moments are following each other in a queue, reaching somewhere. No, life is not moving anywhere. It is simply dancing here. The right word is dance, not movement.
Each moment is a dance, and one should enjoy each moment as it comes, as it happens. Then your burden will disappear completely. That's what freedom is - to be in the moment, to be of the moment, never worried about the past, never worried about that which has not come yet, and never trying to make a logical sequence out of anything.
November 5
Twilight
Many people have entered into existence through twilight.
In India, the word sandhya-twilight-has become synonymous with prayer. If you approach an orthodox Hindu who is praying, he will say, "I was doing sandhya - I was doing my twilight." When the sun rises, just before sunrise, there is a great change. The whole passive existence becomes active. Sleep is broken; dreams disappear. The trees and birds and life everywhere arise again. It is a resurrection. It is a miracle every day. If you allow yourself to float with it in that moment, you can rise to a very high peak.
And the same change happens again when the sun sets. Everything quiets, calms. A tranquility, a deep silence, pervades existence. In that moment, you can reach to the very depths. In the morning you can reach to very great heights; in the evening you can reach to very deep depths, and both are beautiful. Either go high or very deep. In both ways you transcend yourself.
November 6
Inner Mountain
When one is utterly silent and still, and there is no movement in the mind, one starts feeling like a great peak of the mountain, snowcapped.
The mountain has always attracted meditators. There is something in the mountains - the silence, the stillness, the absolute unmoving, almost a timelessness. The' mountain remains almost permanent, and the way the mountain sits represents a kind of centering. It is as if the mountain is in deep centering; all is centered within. Buddha sitting under a tree looks like a mountain. And it is no accident that the first statues ever made in the world were made of Buddha and were made of stone-of just a rock, unmoving, timeless, deathless, centering in its self.
The movements of the mind - thought, desire, imagination, and memory - all these create misery. When there is no movement of thought and desire, the mind has disappeared. You are, but there is no mind in it. That state of no-mind will give you the glimpse of the inner mountain.
November 7
Metaphysics
The word meta means beyond. Physics is not all, and matter is not all, and those who think that it is are satisfied with the circumference of life.
They will keep moving round and round, but they will never come home, because home exists at the center. Metaphysics means coming home, knowing that you are consciousness, knowing that the whole of existence is full of consciousness, that consciousness is not a byproduct of matter. It is not. Matter is only the body of consciousness - its clothing, its shelter, its abode, its temple - but the deity is consciousness, and the temple is created for the deity, not vice versa. Matter exists because consciousness exists, not vice versa.
Matter is consciousness asleep; consciousness is matter become awakened. There is ultimately only one thing - call it x, y, or z or God or truth or whatever you wish. Ultimately there is one thing, but that one thing can have two states: one of sleep and one of awakeness. When matter becomes aware of itself it is consciousness. When consciousness forgets itself it is matter.
So those who think that matter is all remain asleep. Their lives remain just a groping in darkness. They never know what light is, they never reach the dawn. And naturally in darkness they stumble much and hurt themselves and others too, and their whole life consists only of conflict, friction, violence, war. They never come to know what love is, because love is possible only when you are full of light.
Metaphysics is a kind of sweet wisdom. Logic is bitter, quarrelsome; philosophers continuously quarrel. The one who has known himself is sweet; his very presence is like honey.
November 8
A Knack
Real meditation consists if a knack, not an art - the knack of falling into spontaneous silence. If you watch, in twenty-four hours, every day, you will find a few moments in which you are falling automatically into silence.
These moments come on their own; it is just that we have not watched. The first thing to be aware of is when these silent moments come. And when they come, simply stop all that you are doing. Sit silently, and flow with the moment. And they do come - they are natural. A few windows always open on their own, but we are so occupied that we never notice that the window has opened and the breeze is coming in and the sun has penetrated; we are so occupied with our work.
So watch... early in the morning when you are fresh after a long, deep sleep, and the world is just awakening and the birds have started singing and the sun is rising. If you feel a moment surrounding you, a space growing in you, just fall into it. Sit silently under a tree, by the side of the river, or in your room, and just be... nothing to be done.
Just cherish that space-and don't try to prolong it. Once you have known the knack of it, it will come more and more. Then you start falling into a kind of harmony with it. A love affair starts between you and that space called silence, serenity, tranquility, stillness. And the bond becomes deeper and deeper. Finally, ultimately, it is always there. You can always close your eyes for a moment and look at it; it is there. You can almost touch it - it becomes tangible. But it is a knack, not an art. You cannot learn it: You have to imbibe it.
November 9
Unstruck Music
In Sanskrit the word nada means "music," but in Spanish it means "nothing." That too is a beautiful meaning, because the music I am talking about is the music of nothingness, it is the music of silence. The mystics have called it unstruck music.
There is a music that is uncreated, that is just there as an undercurrent in our being; it is the music of inner harmony. There is also a music in the outer sphere-the harmony of the stars, the planets; the whole of existence is like an orchestra. Except for human beings, nothing is out of tune; everything is in tremendous harmony. That's why trees have so much grace, and the animals and the birds. Only humanity has become ugly, and the reason is that we have tried to improve on ourselves; we have tried to become something.
The moment the desire to become arises, one becomes ugly, one falls out of tune, because existence knows only being; becoming is a fever in the mind. Human beings are never contented. That discontent creates ugliness, because people are full of complaints, only complaints and nothing else. People want this, they want that, and they are never fulfilled; even if they get, they want more. The "more" persists - the mind goes on asking for more and more. Becoming is the disease of man.
The moment one drops becoming, suddenly a music is heard. And when that music starts overpouring, starts flowing all over you and then beyond you to other people, it becomes a sharing. That is the grace of the Buddhas. They are full of inner music, harmony, and the harmony goes on overflowing; it reaches other people also.
November 10
Fearlessness
To grow to your destiny requires great courage and fearlessness. Fearlessness is the most religious quality.
People who are full of fear cannot move beyond the known. The known gives a kind of comfort, security, and safety because it is known. One is perfectly aware. One knows how to deal with the situation. One can remain almost asleep and go on dealing with it there is no need to be awake; that's the convenience of the known.
The moment you cross the boundary of the known fear arises, because now you will be ignorant, now you will not know what to do, what not to do. Now you will not be so sure of yourself, now mistakes can be made; you can go astray. That is the fear that keeps people tethered to the known, and' once a person is tethered to the known, he or she is dead.
Life can only be lived dangerously - there is no. other way to live it. It is only through danger that life attains maturity, growth. One needs to be an adventurer, always ready to risk the known for the unknown. That's what being a seeker is all about. But once one has tasted the joys of freedom and fearlessness, one never repents because then one knows what it means to live at the optimum. Then one knows what it means to burn your life's torch from both ends together. And even a single moment of that intensity is more gratifying than a whole eternity of mediocre living.
