In Osho’s words, breath is the bridge between the body and the soul. Medical experts have started acknowledging meditation for providing an effective alternative treatment, says Dr. Vasant Joshi.
The more we care for our well being, the easier it will be for us to live even within the dysfunctional environments. Once we involve ourselves in the process of staying healthy, we can recognize the fact that whatever is happening in any moment is what we need to address it then and there — sensitively and intelligently. Osho points out so many important things about meditation awareness, which can be of immense help in facing the reality and not moving away from it into our imagination justifying ourselves, or even escaping into ones “religious” sanctuary. Meditation is one of the many interventions now being increasingly recommended by physicians. The medical profession is now acknowledging the need for meditation for providing an effective alternative treatment. It is now being accepted as the science of outer needs to interface with the science of the inner with a rhythmic breathing practice — where the breath comes in and goes out. In Osho’s words, breath is the bridge between the body and the soul. Osho suggests simple technique which is very helpful to learn meditation:
Whenever you find time, relax your breathing for a while.
Nothing else needs to be done; no need to relax the whole body. Whether seated in a train, plane or car, simply relax your breathing.
No one would ever come to know what you are doing or trying to do.
Let the breathing go on naturally; just close your eyes and watch the breathing.
No need to concentrate while breathing, otherwise any sound or person sitting next to you can become a disturbance. Meditation is not concentration – it is simply awareness.
Be relaxed and watch your breathing without trying to exclude anything. The car making noise, traffic on the road, person next to you snoring – accept all.
Nothing needs to be avoided; just an accepting awareness will do.
We are used to giving our power away to somebody or something. We give away power to friends, lovers, parents, bosses, husbands, wives, priests, politicians, heroes, icons… Giving away power simply means making someone or something more important than recognising what is important within our own life.
And we do so because we do not value who we are; we seek to find our worth outside. What we don’t realise is that we neither need the power from outside nor do we have to depend on anybody else for it. We are, as Osho says, ‘self-empowered’. What we need, he says, is ‘self-recognition’. We need to drop the nonsense that has been fed into our mind by society. Once all the non-sense is gone, we will be amazed to find out how less we settled for till then. Our infinite potential will gradually emerge from our lives.
Osho makes a point in saying that the power of the atomic bomb is not power coming from outside but from the power of the dormant atom, which has been awakened. He says, “This is possible through an atom, which is a part of electricity, just a small particle… What if we exploded the living being of a man into small particles of his consciousness? If that explodes, it will bring so much light and power!”
Speaking about the real power and its source that we have within, Osho explains: “The power that comes out of meditation does not come as power. It comes as if flowers are showering on you, as fragrance. It comes as love, as compassion. It brings all the great qualities and all the great values of life suddenly to their blossoming. It is the spring of your consciousness.”
