|
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
| |
OSHO Informatie Centrum Rotterdam
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
| |
 | | |
Making progress |
 |
When meditating, working on yourself, if you wonder whether
you are making any progress or not, know well that you are
not making any progress – because when progress is made you
know it. Why? It is just as when you are ill and you are
taking medicine. Won’t you be able to feel whether you are
getting healthy or not? If you do not feel it and the
question arises of whether you are getting well or not, know
well that you are not getting well. Well-being is such a
clear feeling that when you have it you know it.
But why does this question arise? This question arises for
so many reasons. One, you are not really working. You are
just deceiving yourself. You are playing tricks with
yourself. You are less concerned with what you are doing and
more concerned with what is happening. If you are really
doing it, you can leave the result to existence. But our
minds are such that we are less concerned with the cause and
more concerned with the effect – because of greed. Greed
wants to have everything without doing anything. So the
greedy mind goes on moving ahead. Then the greedy mind asks,
"What is happening? Is something happening or not?" Be
really concerned with what you are doing, and when something
happens you will know it. It is going to happen to you. You
need not ask anyone.
There is no fixed road. Everyone is on a different road; we
are not on one road. Even if you are following one technique
of meditation, you are not on the same road as someone else
who is doing the same technique; you cannot be. There is no
public path. Every path is individual and personal. So no
one’s experiences on the path will be helpful to you;
rather, they may be damaging. Someone may be seeing
something on his path. If he says to you that this is the
sign of progress, you may not meet the same sign on your
path. The same trees may not be on your path; the same
stones may not be on your path. So do not be a victim of all
this nonsense. Only certain inner feelings are relevant. For
example, if you are progressing, then certain things will
begin to happen spontaneously. One, you will feel more and
more contentment.
Really, when meditation is completely fulfilled, one becomes
so contented that he forgets to meditate – because
meditation is an effort, a discontent. If one day you forget
to meditate and you do not feel any addiction, you do not
feel any gap, you are as filled as ever, then know it is a
good sign.
Do not make meditation a habit. Let it be alive! Then
discontent will disappear by and by; you will feel
contentment, and not only while you are meditating. If
something happens only while you are meditating, it is
false, it is hypnotic. It does some good but it is not going
to be very deep. It is good only in comparison. If there is
nothing happening, no meditation, no blissful moment, do not
worry about it. If something is happening, do not cling to
it. If meditation is going rightly, deep, you will feel
transformed throughout the whole day. A subtle contentment
will be present every moment. With whatsoever you are doing,
you will feel a cool center inside…contentment.
Of course there will be results. Anger will be less and less
possible. It will go on disappearing. Why? – because anger
shows a non-meditative mind, a mind that is not at ease with
itself. With meditation you will be more and more happy with
yourself – remember, with yourself. These will be signs, the
general signs. So do not think you are achieving much if you
are beginning to see light or if you go on seeing beautiful
colors. They are good but do not feel satisfied unless real
psychological changes are there: less anger, more love; less
cruelty, more compassion. Unless this happens, your seeing
lights and colors and hearing sounds are child’s play. They
are beautiful, very beautiful; it is good to play with them
– but that is not the aim of meditation. They happen on the
road, they are just by-products, but do not be concerned.
In a relationship, observe what is happening. How are you
behaving toward your wife now? Observe it. Is there any
change? That change is meaningful. How are you behaving with
your servant? Is there any change? That change is
significant.
Meditation for me is not a child’s play. It is a deep
transformation. How to know this transformation? First you
will feel your inner transformation in your outer
relationships, and then you will go deep. Then only will you
begin to feel something inner. So probe into, penetrate your
relationships, and look there to see whether your meditation
is progressing or not.
If you feel a growing love, unconditional love, if you feel
a compassion without cause, if you feel a deep concern for
everyone’s welfare, well-being, your meditation is growing.
Then forget all other things. With this observation you will
also observe many things in yourself. You will be more
silent; you will have less noise within. When there is a
need you will talk, when there is no need you will be
silent. You will feel more at ease, relaxed. Whatsoever you
are doing, it will be a relaxed effort; there will be no
strain. You will become less and less ambitious. Ultimately,
there will be no ambition. Even the ambition to reach moksha
will not be there. Even the desire for liberation is a
bondage. Even the desire to be desireless is a bondage.
One thing more: whatsoever you are doing, do not think that
results will be coming in the future. If you are doing
something real, results are here and now. In inner work, if
you have meditated today, results are not going to be
tomorrow. If you have meditated today. the perfume of it,
howsoever little, will be there. If you are sensitive you
can feel it. Whenever something real is done, it affects you
here and now.
So meditation is not just a certain thing which you do for
one hour and forget. Really, the whole of life has to be
meditative. Only then will you begin to feel things. And
when I say that the whole life is to be meditative, I do not
mean to go and close your eyes for twenty-four hours and sit
and meditate – no! Wherever you are you can be sensitive and
that sensitivity will pay. Then there will be no need to
ask, "Am I progressing or not?" Only with this capacity of
being aware of all things happening around you will you
develop the capacity to feel what is happening within.
Osho: The Ultimate Alchemy, Vol 2, #18
|
|
| | |
 | |
|
|
 |
|
 | | |
Quotes taken from
the works of Osho, Descriptions of OSHO Meditations, photos of Osho and
photos of OSHO International Meditation Resort
used with permission of the copyright holder © 1953 to 2007 OSHO
International Foundation, www.osho.com - All rights reserved. | |
| |
|
