The Asian Age, New Delhi, 13 April, 2012

There are hundreds of meditation methods being practiced all over the World. But, perhaps, Vipassana is one of the few time-tested methods. Vipassana, which means watching one’s breath, has never failed because it brings our whole consciousness in the moment. Meditation also means the art of being in the moment no past, no future, just this moment.

When we pray or chant a mantra, our mind can wander off in all directions. Thinking continues. Calculations go on. The mind becomes full of market. We may start dreaming or having an inner dialogue with our beloved or wife, friend or an enemy. It does not matter with whom we may even end up talking with the almighty god of our own imagination. We may even create a hallucination.

Everything that our mind does takes us to the past or the future. And what brings us back in the moment? Vipassana, the simple method of watching the breath in its natural rhythm.

We cannot breathe in the past or the future. It is simply impossible. In certain meditation methods, such as Osho Dynamic Meditation, Vigorous breathing takes place. Such methods are really helpful as a preparation watching the breath.

Such methods bring deeper relaxation and when you relax later, you can watch your breath passively and naturally and continue to remain in the moment.

In Vipassana one goes inward with the breath consciously and comes out with it consciously. There’s no time gap in between. You are not thinking of exhaling when you are inhaling. You are not thinking of inhaling when you are exhaling. Go to the terrace or some other solitary place and try this method and see what happens to you in the process.

Just sitting and watching the breath is a traditional method of Vipassana. This method in its purity is very good but body in the beginning. Most people have a lot of tension and they find it difficult to just sit and watch their breath. So I have a suggestion for them. Breathe vigorously for some time - bring all your energy to exhaling and inhaling. A moment will come naturally when you will feel like sitting down or just standing or you may even want to lie down. Do that. Then watch your breath going in and coming out in its natural rhythm. You will feel the deepest rest and total relaxation, and at the same time a glimpse of meditation or expansion of your consciousness. With such techniques you can always find your own rhythm and time limit.

Meditation happens in deep restfulness, in passive alertness; it is not an action. It actually happens when all action stops and ultimately the mind stops. It is an intense feeling of unknown energy that resides within us.

This energy is really a delight and celebration. If you start your day like this you become very light and have a subtle dance in your ordinary walk. An early dose of this energy will work wonders for the rest of the day. You will move with a confidence you have never seen before.

-Swami Chaitanya Keerti

Afternoon Despatch & Courier, 4 April, 2012

I am reminded of the fateful day of twenty first March, 1953. For many livers I had been working – working upon myself, struggling, doing whatsoever can be done- and nothing was happening. Now I understand why nothing was happening. The very effort was the barrier, the very ladder was preventing, and the very urge to seek was the obstacle. Not that one can reach without seeking. Seeking is needed, but then come a point when seeking has to be dropped. The boat is needed to cross the river but then comes a moment when you have to get out of the boat and forget all about it and leave it behind.

Effort is needed, without effort nothing is possible. And also only with effort, nothing is possible. Just before twenty-first March, 1953, seven days before, I stopped working on myself. A moment comes when you see the whole futility of effort. You have done all that you can do and nothing is happening. You have done all that is humanly possible. Then what else can you do? In sheer helplessness one drops all searches. And the day the search stopped, the day I was not seeking for something, the day I Was not expecting something to happen, it started happening. A new energy arose – out of nowhere.

It was no coming from any source. It was coming from nowhere and everywhere. It was in the trees and in the rocks and the sky and the sun and the air – it was everywhere. And I was seeking so hard, and I was thinking it is very far away. And it was so near and so close. Just because I was seeking I had become incapable of seeing the near. Seeking is always for the far, seeking is always for the distant – and it was not distant. I had become far sighted; I had lost the near sightedness. The eyes had become focused on the far away, the horizon, and they had lost the quality to see that which is just close, surrounding you.

The day effort ceased, I also ceased. Because you cannot exist without effort, and you cannot exist without desire, and you cannot exist without striving. The phenomenon of the ego, of the self, is not a thing, it is a process. It is not a substance sitting there inside you; you have to create it each moment. It is like pedaling bicycle. If you pedal it goes on and on, if you don’t pedal it stops. It may go a little because of the past momentum, but the moment you stop pedaling, in fact the bicycle starts stopping. It has no more energy, no more power to go anywhere. It is going to fall and collapse.

- OSHO

The Poineer, Lucknow, 2 April, 2012

No word and absolutely no comparative degree can define the term ‘guru’. We do address him sometimes as teacher, lecturer, professor or an individual who imparts knowledge. However, a mentor can only be considered a guru if his presence can speak louder than words. These were the opening words of meditation guru Rajneesh in movie ‘Satguru Param Rahasya’. The movie was screened at the inauguration of Osho Film Festival at Paryatan Bahawan on Sunday.

Osho underlined the importance of guru in an individual’s life. He said: “Guru sometimes is a moon in clear sky and sometimes he is a moon clouded in the firmament. It is only when the moon is shrouded by clouds, we get to know of his strength called luminance of education and guidance. These clouds are the students with myriad and diversified ethnicities who put the guru under the siege of unending queries and problems but the guru survives the test of time and conquers it all. This leads to ultimate happiness among students with various needs.” Speaking about the relevance of meditation in contemporary situation of life, IAS and chief guest at the meditation-cum-movie festival Sudhir Kumar Srivastava said that people, who practiced meditation in their daily lives, emanated positive energy. “Many of us are not aware but the clarion call of Om naad is very strong. Meditation converts our negativity into positivity. Life does not lead on reason and dispute alone.” he added. The movies, screened on Osho’s life and his journey of meditation, were ‘Satguru Param Rahasya’, Dance your way to God’, Sanysas,’ ‘Mahaprarinirvana’ and ‘Sambuddh Jeevan’.

Voicing Osho’s philosophy on sanyas, Osho’s follower and meditation Guru Swami Aatmoninad said: “Osho’s take on sanyas is different from the traditional path of sanyas that the society follows. While traditional sanyas encompasses relinquishing of worldly needs, the Osho sanyas speaks of absorbing the world like a sponge and it includes the dissemination of positive energy worldwide.”

Elaborating the 30-minute movie capsule ‘Dance Your Way to God’, the meditation guru said that Osho touched many a hearts and influenced several Bollywood celebrities through this charming way of meditation. “This movie includes interviews of LK Advani, Birju Maharaj, Vinod Khanna and others, “he said.

The Times of India, 1 April , 2012

Going on a honeymoon before marriage could put things in perspective, says OSHO

Two people, separately unhappy, create more unhappiness for each other when they come together. That’s mathematical. You were unhappy, your wife was unhappy and you both are hoping that being together you both will become happy? This is such ordinary arithmetic, as two plus two makes four. You both will become unhappy…

My suggestion is that marriage should happen after the honeymoon, never before it.  If everything goes right, only then should marriage happen. The honeymoon after marriage is very dangerous.

Ninety per cent of marriages are finished by the time the honeymoon is over. But then you are caught, you have no way to escape. Then society, law, courts – everybody is against you if you leave the wife or the wife leaves you. In fact, society should create all barriers possible for marriage and no barrier for divorce. Society should not allow people to marry so easily. The court should create barriers – live together for two years at least; only then the court can allow you to go married. Right now they are doing just the reverse. If you want to get married, nobody asks whether you are ready or whether it is just a whim…. Two people should be allowed to live together long enough to become acquainted, familiar with each other. And even if they want to get married, they should not be allowed to do so until some time has lapsed. Then divorces will disappear from the world. Divorces happen because marriages are wrong and forced – and because marriages are done in a romantic mood.

A romantic mood is good if you are a poet…, poets are almost always bachelors. They fool around but they never get ‘caught’, and hence their romance remains alive. They go on writing beautiful poetry. One should not get married to a woman or man in a poetic mood. Let the prose mood come, then settle, because day-to-day life is more like prose than like poetry. One should become mature enough.

Maturity means that you are no more a romantic fool. You understand life and the responsibilities that go with it as well as understand the possible problems of being together with a person. You accept all those difficulties and yet decide to live with the person….

When you have become alert to all of these problems and still you decide that it is worthwhile to risk and be with a person rather than to be alone, then get married. Then marriages will never kill love, because this love is realistic.

Marriage simply brings out whatsoever is hidden in you…I am not saying that love is destroyed by marriage. Love is destroyed by people who don’t know how to love. Love is destroyed because in the first place love is not. You have been living in a dream. Reality destroys that dream. Otherwise love is something eternal, part of eternity. If you grow, if you know the art, and you accept the realities of love-life, then it goes on growing every day. Marriage becomes a tremendous opportunity to grow into love.

Nothing can destroy love. If it is there, it goes on growing. If love is really love... just being in the presence of the other you feel suddenly happy, just the very presence of the other fulfils something deep in your heart, Something starts singing in your heart, you fall into harmony. Just the very presence of the other helps you be together, you become more individual, centred, grounded. Then it is love.

Love is not a passion, love is not an emotion. Love is a very deep understanding that somebody somehow completes you. Somebody makes you a full circle. The presence of the other enhances your presence. .. it is enough to make you happy… a thousand and one lotuses bloom… then you are in love, and then you can pass through all difficulties that reality creates. And your love, by overcoming them, will become more and more strong.

OSHO
The Discipline of Transcendence