The good news is, we are no longer facing a time of crisis. The bad news is, we’re right in the middle of it. 12 noon has chimed in with hollow sounds.

Besides being dangerously overpopulated with not many signs of birth control being truly implemented, our planet is well on its way to being depleted in food and water. It is also well on its way to being poisoned by ruthless and greedy conglomerates such as Monsanto, supported by various governments and some deranged scientists. Radiation covers the entire globe yet plans for several new nuclear power stations are already being drawn up. The dramatically changed weather patterns of the last few years have brought a heavy increase in more powerful storms and rain; floods and landslides are headline news almost every day.

There’s also a global war raging which is being watered down in the media to ‘armed conflicts’ and ‘military interventions’, and presently being fought in numerous countries from the Middle East to Africa, Asia and beyond. Millions of people have been displaced, are hungry, seeking refuge in other countries and often die on the escape route to dubious freedom. We are looking at global suffering.

So where does this leave me as an individual living amid all this? I cannot think of the future as it is totally unpredictable and I blessedly live mainly in the here-now; whenever I do get a thought or two about what could happen any moment, I do not permit my mind to linger in that bubble and return it to base. Yet there is this niggling sense of urgency that is present within and without, day in and day out.

Osho instilled the word ‘urgency’ into our collective unconscious and conscious by initiating a new meditation that took place at the end of each discourse shortly after the series YAA-HOO! The Mystic Rose, preparing us for the then upcoming series of Zen. During every evening meditation after a few minutes of ‘gibberish’,  Osho urged us to move to “the inner center of being which is just two inches below the navel, inside you...” – powerfully supported by Nivedano’s epic drumming.

There were ongoing subtle changes in Osho’s directions and a few months later he suddenly included every day the words ‘urgency’ and then ‘last moment of your life’. From then on the evening meditations even intensified as Osho expressed more and more urgency until his last discourse – and thus ending the series, The Zen Manifesto.

It is to those meditations I turn to. In our so uncertain times they offer tremendous help to go within. And to always remember… sammasati…

It is time, Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

(Gibberish)

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Be silent... Close your eyes... and feel yourself completely frozen.

This is the right moment to enter inwards.

Gather all your energy, your total consciousness,

and rush towards the inner center with deep intensity and urgency.

The center is just two inches below the navel, inside the body.

Faster... and faster... Deeper... and deeper...

As you come closer to the center of being,

a great silence descends over you, and inside a peace, a blissfulness,

a light that fills your whole interior. This is your original being.

This is your buddha.

At this moment, witness that you are not the body, not the mind, not the heart,

but just the pure witnessing self, the pure consciousness.

This is your buddhahood, your hidden nature, your meeting with the universe.

These are your roots.

Relax...

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Relax... and just be a silent witness.

You start melting like ice in the ocean.

Gautama the Buddha Auditorium becomes an oceanic field of consciousness.

You are no longer separate – this is your oneness with existence.

To be one with existence is to be a buddha, it is your very nature.

It is not a question of searching and finding,

you are it, right now.

Gather all the flowers, the fragrance, the flame and the fire,

the immeasurable,

and bring it with you as you come back.

Nivedano...

(Drumbeat)

Come back peacefully, silently, as a buddha.

Just for a few seconds close your eyes and remember the path and the source you have found,

and the buddha nature that you have experienced.

This moment you are the most blessed people on the earth.

Remembering yourself as a buddha is the most precious experience,

because it is your eternity, it is your immortality.

It is not you, it is your very existence.

You are one with the stars and the trees and the sky and the ocean.

You are no longer separate.

The last word of Buddha was, sammasati.

Remember that you are a buddha – sammasati.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Osho.

Osho, The Zen Manifesto Ch 11, Q 4

Listen to the audio here

The problem today is that
nine out of ten times,
you want the mirror to respond, “You.” Yes, you.

This is because you are so full of yourself, your ego and your qualities that you cannot imagine anyone else could be better.

The mirror merely reflects exactly what you are: beautiful or ugly, healthy or sick, happy or sad. If you are beautiful, it does not plead with you to remain in front of it and if you are ugly, it does not force you to leave.
The mirror is empty.

This emptiness makes us uncomfortable. An empty mind is the devil's workshop. Not at all, says Osho. In fact, an empty mind is God's temple, he declares. In this emptiness, the divine can descend.

So the question arises: how can I empty my mind? Meditation, thoughtless awareness. Meditation makes you a hollow bamboo an apt description of your body and mind which is open to divinity.

Osho says, “When the poet creates he is only a medium, a hollow bamboo on the lips of God. And suddenly the hollow bamboo is no longer a hollow bamboo -- it becomes a flute.”
Lord Krishna's flute. Let the divine play its song on your flute.
A hollow bamboo is not enough. Put your mind, ego aside
and let God take over. Then you have no need
to ask the mirror anything.