Osho,
Not "keeping the mind still," but mindlessness.
Though you may not fully know whether the teachers of the various localities are wrong or right, if your own basis is solid and genuine, the poisons of wrong doctrines will not be able to harm you, "keeping the mind still" and "forgetting concerns" included. If you always "forget concerns" and "keep the mind still," without smashing the mind of birth and death, then the delusive influences of form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness will get their way, and you'll inevitably be dividing emptiness into two. Let go and make yourself vast and expansive. When old habits suddenly arise, don't use mind to repress them. At just such a time, it's like a snowflake on a red-hot stove. For those with a discerning eye and a familiar hand, one leap and they leap clear. Only then do they know lazy Jung's saying: right when using mind, there's no mental activity. Crooked talk defiled with names and forms, straight talk without complications. Without mind but functioning, always functioning but non-existent -- the mindlessness I speak of now is not separate from having mind. These aren't words to deceive people.
There has been a long
misunderstanding about these two things: keeping the mind still andmindlessness. There
have been many people who have thought that they are synonymous. They appear
to be synonymous, but in reality they are as far apart as two things can be,
and there is no way to bridge them.
So first let us try to find the
exact meanings of these two words, because the whole of Ta Hui's sutra this
evening is concerned with the understanding of the difference.
The difference is very delicate. A
man who is keeping his mind still and a man who has no mind will look exactly
alike from the outside, because the man who is keeping his mind still is also
silent. Underneath his silence there is great turmoil, but he is not allowing
it to surface. He is in great control.
The man with no mind, or
mindlessness, has nothing to control. He is just pure silence with nothing
repressed, with nothing disciplined -- just a pure empty sky.
Surfaces can be very deceptive.
One has to be very alert about appearances, because they both look the same
from the outside -- both are silent. The problem would not have arisen if the
still mind was not easy to achieve. It is easy to achieve. Mindlessness is
not so easy to achieve; it is not cheap, it is the greatest treasure in the world.
Mind can play the game of being
silent; it can play the game of being without any thoughts, any emotions, but
they are just repressed, fully alive, ready to jump out any moment. The
so-called religions and their saints have fallen into the fallacy of stilling
the mind. If you go on sitting silently, trying to control your thoughts, not
allowing your emotions, not allowing any movement within you, slowly slowly
it will become your habit. This is the greatest deception in the world you
can give to yourself, because everything is exactly the same, nothing has
changed, but it appears as if you have gone through a transformation.
The state of no-mind or
mindlessness is just the opposite of stilling the mind -- it is getting
beyond the mind. It is creating such a distance between yourself and the mind
that the mind becomes the farthest star, millions of light years away, and
you are just a watcher. When the mind is stilled you are the controller. When
the mind is not, you are the watcher. These are the distinguishing marks.
When you are controlling something
you are in tension; you cannot be without tension, because that which is controlled
is continuously trying to revolt against you, that which is enslaved wants
freedom. Your mind sooner or later will explode with vengeance.
A
story I have loved....
In a village there was a man of a
very angry and aggressive type, so violent that he had killed his wife, for
something trivial. The whole village was afraid of the man because he knew no
argument except violence.
The day he killed his wife by
throwing her into a well, a Jaina monk was passing by. A crowd had gathered,
and the Jaina monk said, "This mind full of anger and violence will lead
you to hell."
The situation was such that the
man said, "I also want to be as silent as you are, but what can I do? I don't
know anything. When anger grips me I'm almost unconscious, and now I have
killed my own beloved wife."
The Jaina monk said, "The
only way to still this mind, which is full of anger and violence and rage, is
to renounce the world." Jainism is a religion of renunciation, and the
ultimate renunciation is even of clothes. The Jaina monk lives naked, because
he is not allowed to possess even clothes.
The man was of a very arrogant
type, and this became a challenge to him. Before the crowd he threw his clothes
also into the well with the wife. The whole village could not believe it;
even the Jaina monk became a little afraid, "Is he mad or
something?" The man fell down at his feet and said, "You may have
taken many decades to reach the stage of renunciation…. I renounce the world,
I renounce everything. I am your disciple -- initiate me."
His name was Shantinath, and shanti means
"peace." It often happens...if you see an ugly woman, most probably
her name will be Sunderbhai, which means "beautiful woman." In India
people have a strange way...to the blind man they give the name Nayan Sukh.
Nayan Sukh means "one whose eyes give him great pleasure."
The Jaina monk said, "You
have a beautiful name. I will not change it; I will keep it, but from this
moment you have to remember that peace has to become your very
vibration."
The man disciplined himself,
stilled his mind, fasted long, tortured himself, and soon became more famous
than his master. Angry people, arrogant people, egoistic people can do things
which peaceful people will take a little time to do. He became very famous,
and thousands of people used to come just to touch his feet.
After twenty years he was in the
capital. A man from his village had come for some purpose, and he thought,
"It will be good to go and see what transformation has happened to
Shantinath. So many stories are heard -- that he has become a totally new
man, that his old self is gone and a new, fresh being has arisen in him, that
he really has become peace, silence, tranquility."
So the man went with great
respect. But when he saw Muni Shantinath, seeing his face, his eyes, he could
not think that there had been any change. There was none of the grace which
necessarily radiates from a mind which has become silent. Those eyes were
still as egoistic -- in fact they had become more pointedly egoistic. The
man's presence was even more ugly than it used to be.
Still, the man went close.
Shantinath recognized the man, who had been his neighbor -- but now it was
beneath his dignity to recognize him. The man also saw that Shantinath had
recognized him, but he was pretending that he did not. He thought, "That
shows much." He went close by Shantinath and asked, "Can I ask you
a question? What is your name?"
Naturally, great anger arose in
Shantinath because he knew that this man knew perfectly well what his name
was. But still he kept himself in control, and he said, "My name is Muni
Shantinath."
The man said, "It is a
beautiful name -- but my memory is very short, can you repeat it again? I
have forgotten...what name did you say?"
This was too much. Muni Shantinath
used to carry a staff. He took the staff in his hand...he forgot everything
-- twenty years of controlling the mind -- and he said, "Ask again and I
will show you who I am. Have you forgotten? -- I killed my wife, I am the
same man."
Only
then did he recognize what had happened....
In a single moment of
unconsciousness he realized that twenty years have gone down the drain; he
has not changed at all. But millions of people feel great silence in him....
Yes, he has become very controlled, he keeps himself repressed, and it has
paid off. So much respect and he has no qualification for that respect -- so
much honor, even kings come to touch his feet.
Your so-called saints are nothing
but controlled animals. The mind is nothing but a long heritage of all your
animal past. You can control it, but the controlled mind is not the awakened
mind.
The process of controlling and
repressing and disciplining is taught by all the religions, and because of
their fallacious teaching humanity has not moved a single inch -- it remains
barbarous. Any moment people start killing each other. It does not take a
single moment to lose themselves; they forget completely that they are human
beings, and something much more, something better is expected of them. There
have been very few people who have been able to avoid this deception of
controlling mind and believing that they have attained mindlessness.
To attain mindlessness a totally
different process is involved: I call it the ultimate alchemy. It consists
only of a single element -- that of watchfulness.
Gautam Buddha is passing through a
town when a fly comes and sits on his forehead. He is talking to his
companion, Ananda, and he just goes on talking and moves his hand to throw
off the fly. Then suddenly he recognizes that his movement of the hand has
been unconscious, mechanical. Because he was talking consciously to Ananda,
the hand moved the fly mechanically. He stops and although now there is no
fly, he moves his hand again consciously.
Ananda says, "What are you
doing? The fly has gone away...."
Gautam Buddha says, "The fly
has gone away...but I have committed a sin, because I did it in
unconsciousness."
The English word "sin"
is used only by Gautam Buddha in its right meaning. The word "sin"
originates in the roots which mean forgetfulness, unawareness,
unwatchfulness, doing things mechanically -- and our whole life is almost
mechanical. We go on doing things from morning to evening, from evening to morning,
like robots.
A man who wants to enter into the
world of mindlessness has to learn only one thing -- a single step and the
journey is over. That single step is to do everything watchfully. You move
your hand watchfully; you open your eyes watchfully; you walk, you take your
steps alert, aware; you eat, you drink, but never allow mechanicalness to
take possession over you. This is the only alchemical secret of
transformation.
A man who can do everything fully
consciously becomes a luminous phenomenon. He is all light, and his whole
life is full of fragrance and flowers. The mechanical man lives in dark
holes, dirty holes. He does not know the world of light; he is like a blind
man. The man of watchfulness is really the man who has eyes.
Ta Hui slowly, slowly is
penetrating into the deeper secrets of inner transformation. He says, Though
you may not fully know whether the teachers of the various localities are
wrong or right, if your own basis is solid and genuine, the poisons of wrong
doctrines will not be able to harm you.…
He says it is useless to think who
is right and who is wrong. There are thousands of doctrines, hundreds of
philosophies, and if you go on searching for truth in those words, you will
be lost in a jungle where you cannot find the path. All that you know is to
attain to a solid basis within yourself.
...."Keeping
the mind still," and "forgetting concerns" included. If you
always "forget concerns" and "keep the mind still,"
without smashing the mind of birth and death, then the delusive influences of
form, sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness will get their way,
and you will inevitably be dividing emptiness into two.
Let go and make yourself vast and
expansive....
It is not a question of
controlling yourself separate from existence; it is a question of letting-go
and becoming vast -- as vast as existence itself. And in watchfulness you
become infinite: that is the only thing within you which has no limits.
Just have a look at your watching,
witnessing. It is unlimited. No beginning, no end...it is formless.
This absolute stillness of the
mind is exactly no-mind or mindlessness. It is not control, it is not
discipline; it is not that you are putting all your pressure on your mind and
keeping it silent. No, it is simply not there. The house is empty. There is
nobody to control and there is nobody to be controlled. All concerns for
control have disappeared into a simple watchfulness. This watchfulness is
expansive. Once you have tasted it a little, it goes on expanding to the very
limits of the universe.
When old
habits suddenly arise, don't use your mind to repress them. At just such a
time, it's like a snowflake on a red-hot stove.
He is reminding you that even when
you are moving on the path of watchfulness, sometimes old habits may revive.
But don't be concerned; they are like snowflakes on a red-hot stove, they
will disappear of their own accord. You simply watch. Don't get concerned,
don't get disturbed, don't be worried.
Sometimes there will be anger,
sometimes there will be a desire, sometimes there will be an ambition, but
they cannot disturb your watchfulness. They will come and they will go
without leaving a trace on your mirror-like purity. But you have only to
remember one thing: not to start fighting with them, smashing them,
destroying them, throwing them away. It comes very naturally to the mind that
if something wrong is happening, jump on it and destroy it. This is the only
thing you have to be aware of, because this is what never allows a man to get
beyond the mind. Old habits will come -- and old habits are very old, many,
many lives old. Your awareness is very fresh and very new; your
mechanicalness is ancient, so it is very natural that it will come back.
Somebody insults you -- you don't
have to be angry, but suddenly you find anger arising. It is not an effort,
it is just an old habit, an old reaction. Don't fight with it, don't try to
smile and hide it. Just watch it, and it will come and it will go...Like
a snowflake on a red-hot stove.
For those with a discerning eye
and a familiar hand, one leap and they leap clear. Only then do they know
lazy Jung's saying: right when using mind, there's no mental activity. If a
man has learned the art of watchfulness he can use his mind too, and still he
has no mental activity.
I
am talking to you, and I am using my mind because there is no other way.
Mind is the only way to convey any
message in words; that is the only mechanism available. But my mind is
absolutely silent, there is no mental activity: I'm not thinking what I'm
going to say, and I'm not thinking what I have said. I'm simply responding to
Ta Hui spontaneously without bringing myself into it.
It is as if you go into the
mountains and you shout and the mountains echo: the mountains are not doing
any mental activity, they are simply echoing. When I am talking on Ta Hui, I
am just a mountain echoing.
Right when
using mind, there's no mental activity. Crooked talk defiled with names and
forms, straight talk without complications. Without mind but functioning.… This is a strange experience, when you can use mind
without any mental activity.… Without mind but functioning, always
functioning but non-existent.
I
was from my very childhood in love with silence.
As long as I could manage I would
just sit silently. Naturally my family used to think that I was going to be
good for nothing -- and they were right. I certainly proved good for nothing,
but I don't repent it.
It came to such a point that
sometimes I would be sitting and my mother would come to me and say something
like, "There seems to be nobody in the whole house. I need somebody to
go to the market to fetch some vegetables." I was sitting in front of
her, and I would say, "If I see somebody I will tell...."
It was accepted that my presence
meant nothing; whether I was there or not, it did not matter. Once or twice
they tried and then they found that "it is better to leave him out, and
not take any notice of him" -- because in the morning they would send me
to fetch vegetables, and in the evening I would come to ask, "I have
forgotten for what you had sent me, and now the market is closed…." In
villages the vegetable markets close by the evening, and the villagers go
back to their villages.
My mother said, "It is not
your fault, it is our fault. The whole day we have been waiting, but in the
first place we should not have asked you. Where have you been?"
I said, "As I went out of the
house, just close by there was a very beautiful bodhi tree" -- the kind
of tree under which Gautam Buddha became awakened. The tree got the name
bodhi tree -- or in English, bo tree -- because of Gautam Buddha. One does
not know what it used to be called before Gautam Buddha; it must have had
some name, but after Buddha it became associated with his name.
There
was a beautiful bodhi tree, and it was so tempting for me.
There used to be always such
silence, such coolness underneath it, nobody to disturb me, that I could not
pass it without sitting under it for some time. And those moments of peace, I
think sometimes may have stretched the whole day.
After just a few disappointments
they thought, "It is better not to bother him." And I was immensely
happy that they had accepted the fact that I am almost non-existent. It gave
me tremendous freedom. Nobody expected anything from me. When nobody expects
anything from you, you fall into a silence.... The world has accepted you;
now there is no expectation from you.
When sometimes I was late coming
home, they used to search for me in two places. One was the bodhi tree -- and
because they started searching for me under the bodhi tree, I started
climbing the tree and sitting in the top of it. They would come and they
would look around and say, "He does not seem to be here."
And I myself would nod; I said,
"Yes, that's true. I'm not here."
But I was soon discovered, because
somebody saw me climbing and told them, "He has been deceiving you. He
is always here, most of the time sitting in the tree" -- so I had to go
a little further.
There
used to be a Mohammedan cemetery....
Now people ordinarily don't go to
graveyards. Of course, everybody has to go once, but except that, people
don't like going to graveyards. So that was the most silent place...because
dead people don't talk, they don't create nuisance, they don't ask you
unnecessary questions, they don't even ask you who you are or for
introductions.
I used to sit in the Mohammedan
graveyard. It was a big place, with many graves, with trees, very shadowy
trees. When my father came to know that I was sitting there he said,
"This is too much!" He came one day to find me and he said,
"You can start sitting in the bodhi tree, or under the bodhi tree, and
nobody will disturb you. This is too much, this is dangerous -- and in fact,
when somebody goes to the graveyard he should take a bath and change his
clothes. You have been sitting here the whole day and sometimes at night, and
when you come home we don't know from where you are coming."
This is usual, that when you come
back from the graveyard.... Ordinarily nobody goes there unless they are
sent, and they have to go; so, reluctantly they go. From the graveyard people
normally go directly to the river to take a bath, to change their clothes,
and only then do they enter the house. So my father said, "I don't know
how long you have been doing this."
I said, "Since you disturbed
me on the bodhi tree. I had to find some place...." And I told him,
"Even you will enjoy it once in a while. When you get tired and too
tense, just come here -- no dead man disturbs anybody."
He said, "Don't talk to me
about dead men -- and particularly in a Mohammedan grave...."
Mohammedans are poor; their graves are mud graves. In the rain, sometimes a
dead body will appear. The mud has washed away and you can see the dead body
-- somebody's head is showing, somebody's leg is showing. He said, "Don't
ever tell me to go there. Just the idea that one day I will be in such a
position, with my head showing out of a grave, makes me feel so
frightened...you are a strange boy!"
I said, "What is wrong with
it? The poor fellow is dead, he cannot do anything. It is raining, he cannot
manage to have an umbrella, what can he do? If one of his legs is showing,
what can he do? He cannot pull it in -- if he pulls it in then too there will
be trouble, so he keeps silent and lets things be as they are."
A love of silence and a love of
being absent has helped me so tremendously that I can understand when he
says, Always functioning but non-existent -- the mindlessness I
speak of now is not separate from having mind. These are not words to deceive
people.
Ta Hui is saying, "I am not
using these words to deceive anyone; I am not trying to show my knowledge; I
am not trying to pretend that I am more knowledgeable than you are. I am
saying these words just to share my experience that no-mind and mind can
exist together. There should be no repressive methods used, only pure
watchfulness...and slowly, slowly mind loses all content. It becomes
no-mind."
So mindlessness and mind are not
separate. Mindlessness is mind without any content, without any thought. It
is just like a mirror not reflecting anything.
The silence of being a mirror not
reflecting anything is the greatest bliss that existence allows man to have.
And from there things go on expanding -- mysteries upon mysteries...no
questions, no answers, but tremendous experiences...nourishing, fulfilling,
giving contentment to the hungry soul which has been wandering for lives upon
lives.
It is time to stop this wandering.
To stop this wandering there is a
simple method, and that is to start watching your mind, your body, your
actions. Whatever you are doing or not doing, one thing you have to be alert
of -- that you are watching. Don't lose the watcher -- then it doesn't matter
whether you are a Christian or a Hindu or a Jaina or a Buddhist.
The
watcher is no one. It is just pure consciousness.
And this pure consciousness can
only bring a new humanity, a new world, where people will not discriminate
against each other for stupid reasons. Nations, races, religions, doctrines,
ideologies -- those are just for children to play with, not for mature
people. For mature people there is only one thing in existence, and that is
watchfulness.
...A monk is going to spread
Gautam Buddha's message. He himself is not enlightened yet; that's why Gautam
Buddha calls him and tells him, "Remember, I have to say this because
you are not enlightened yet...you are articulate, you speak well, you can
spread the message. You may not be able to sow the seeds but you may be able
to attract a few people to come to me -- but use this opportunity also for
your own growth."
The monk asked, "What can I
do, how can I use this opportunity?"
And Buddha said, "There is
only one thing that can be done in every opportunity, in every situation, and
that is watchfulness. You will sometimes find people irritated by you, angry
because you have hurt their ideologies, their doctrines, their prejudices.
Remain silent and watchful. You may have days when you cannot get food
because the people are against you, they will not even give you water.
Watch...watch your hunger, watch your thirst...but don't get irritated, don't
get annoyed. What you will be teaching people is of less importance than your
own watchfulness.
If you come back to me watchful, I
will be immensely joyful. How many people you approached does not matter; how
many people you spoke to does not matter. What ultimately matters is whether
you have come home, whether you yourself have found the solid basis of
witnessing. Then all else is insignificant."
This is the only meditation there
is; all other meditations are variations of the same phenomenon.
So this sutra of Ta Hui is one of
the most fundamental ones.
Okay, Maneesha?
Yes, Osho.
Osho: The
Great Zen Master Ta Hui, Chapter 28
|
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Osho - The Only Meditation There Is: Watching
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