Beloved Osho,
. , II,IPP 'n in life, it happens to life. Meditation is just il, III tile lI11nd, as death is to life. We can say that medita, .1. . I" 1 d 'ath - not physical but psychic. The deeper the i111 .II \"P 'f i. the possibility to be reborn. When there is I ".I. "t h, you will be reborn physically. But as far as you are III' .I lIothing will have happened at all, nothing. You will I III I hI ',1111 - the same continuity, the same old one.
III' dcc'p 'I' the death, the deeper is the resurrection. If you die I ,11..111 I" lIy, if the mind dies, then you are reborn. And this reII tll I', 1I0t just like physical rebirth. ., because then the body is re1'1 I' , .I, ,I n 'w one replaces it. But when there is a mental, psychic ,I. 'Ih, Ih· mind is not replaced. Consciousness remains without ii" 11I11Id.
, 0 meditation is con.sciousness without the mind - an open sky '1lilOut any walls around it. We can destroy the walls of this house, hilt not the room, because 'room' means nothing but space. So now II, ' room will be the roomness. The room will be there under the 01' 'n sky. Of course you will no longer see it as the room, because Jl w you cannot define it, it has become one with the sky. But the foom is there more than before, only the walls are not. So if you define the room as the room ness, the emptiness between the walls, then without the walls the room will still be there. It will have become greater, infinite. So as th<. mind dies - when I say the mind dies, I only mean the walls of the mind - the emptiness within this space remains, becomes greater. That is consciousness. How does meditation really work? How can olle achieve II constant meditative state? And in what way does kunda/illi practice relate to meditation7 MEDITATION IS AN adventure, an adventure into till' III known -- the greatest adventure that the human 11111111 can take. And by adventure I mean that you cannot I" cultivated in it. First, you cannot know anything beforeh.llul Unless you know it, you cannot know it. Everything said ultim t('1 means nothing: truth remains unsaid. Much has been said, mUl h has been said about nothing; however, not a single word of truth has been uttered. Unless you know it, you cannot know it. Hut something about it can be indicated. It will never be to the point, it cannot be. Th· nature of the thing is such that this is impossible. You cannot say that this is meditation. All that is possible is to say that this is not meditation, this is ;lot meditation, that is not meditation. The remaining is. And the remaining is left unindicated. There are many reasons for it. Meditation is something greater than the mind. It is not something which happens in the mind. It is something which happens to the mind, not in the mind; otherwise 108 109 I Am the Gate The Greatest Adventure Make a distinction: I call the emptine ~ willi II and the walls around it the mind. Or you i:l11 ....1 II Iii with a small '.m' dies, mind with a capital 'M' got", 1111 II I is not your mind, it cannot be yours. If these wall"'.I1t II I room will not be mind. The room will be th r " IIIIt II mind, because mind can only be the walls, mind 1.111 11111 limitations. This pure emptiness cannot be mind. So tI,. II I with a small 'm' dies, and the mind with a capital 'M' I. tll' I are not there. And you are not replaced by any oth .\ 11111111 , not repiaced at all. Meditation is a subtle death - a deep death of y II, VII'" Ii your ego, of all that makes you defined. But that whit" 1 remains. That is pure consciousness. So firstly, the walls of the mind, the mental proce s ...., .111 I meditation. They are the obstacles. What are walls o( thl 1111" How has the mind defined itself? How has it become I 1111111 I thing? Where are the boundaries, the walls, due to which till" '"111.1 has become separated from the Mind? There are three things: the first is memory. The greater P,li t III the mind is memory. And this ~emory is a long one, it goes hili I to all the infinite lives that you have lived. The mind accumul.lll everything, not only that which you have collected consciou,ly When you arc asleep the mind is collecting. Even when you are III a coma, completely unconscious, the mind is collecting. The mind goes on collecting, nothing escapes it. The unconscious mind is a great Chinese wall of memories - a very long one. This memory is not only a part of your brain, but in fact a part of each and every cell of your being, of each and every cell of your body. That is why twenty-four cells from the male and twenty-four t II, I, lIl.d . begin to create you. They have a built-in II" \' h.lvl· a built-in memory. One day we will be capable II ,1t.11 type of a nose you will have even when you are 11111. till" first day. The new egg will indicate what type of ill h.lve, how great will be your age, how much intelliI,,, '"I1'h ego. I I ",.I,"ple-Iooking cell is as complex as you are. It is all the I 0' I" III the whole race; it carries on the collective mind. And I '1111 ...nul, your ego, your mind, penetrates into it. So the I I,,\,. 1[<., memories, and your mind has its own memories. You II III'Moads - a mind with so many memories, and a body with III,IIIV memories of the whole collective race, the whole collec1I1111d, Bodily memories are stronger than the mind, so you .IY', ,re a victim to them. Howsoever you may think against I,. ,", when the moment comes the body wins. Your mind is nothIII h ·fore it, because it is a racial mind. That is why all the 1,llgll)nS fell in a trap when they began to fight the body. You . ,IIlnot fight it. If you begin to fight it, you will only be wasting YOllr life. You cannot fight with the body because, in fact, it is the race 11 t only the race, it is the whole history of the being itself. Things HO on living in you; everything that has existed goes on living in you body. Your own self carries everything within it. That is why a child in the womb has to pass through all those stages through which the human being passes in evolution. Those nine months in the womb are the whole of evolution compressed. One begins just as an amoeba, the first primitive cell. One begins just in the same situation as the amoeba had to begin in sea water. The womb contains the same chemical conditions as 110 111 I Am the Gate The Greatest Adventure the sea water. The womb water in which the II II same components as the sea water exactly tI In th b . ' 1(' \.11111 e wom , evolutIOn begins again Of I' B . OIIJ\1 II I evo utlOn. ut the whole thing has to be . ' I has a me . gm ag,lIl1, II' III mory, It cannot work otherwise It'll the same process The time '1 . WI H"II 1111 millions of . h' WI I be short. The al1lOe ,. 1 I, ,.I years, t en It was able to come h I This cell this egg cell 'th' h on t e dl \ 1,11111 ifn thos~' ~even days t::lre l:i~1 ~:~;:b~:~ ~:~I:~~~::II I rom mllltons of years, and the same sta . ' 1111'11" compressed evolution, and the cell has a ~es.'It~ese nln 111111111 So in a UI -m progr. III way your body is the whole evoluf I pressed, atomic state the bod h Ion. n VI I " d y as a memory of it ( ) esires or longs to b' d" s own, III . e m me ItatlOn will first h hIS body memory the h . I . I ave to ullde I III. I If ' p YSIO oglCa memory Do t f' h you begin fighting yo k' . no Ig l Willi II U are ta mg the wrong t more and more disturb dB' s epi you will I, Let the body be com ~ t' I e cooperatIve, there is no oth " w.. b pee y at ease Do not etween you and the b d v '. create any l II.. 1111 o y. lour real ftght is t . h h not with the body m b' no WIt t e nod\ emory, ut With ego me your mind. And that is anothe thO mory - your psy'll( not fight with the body. r mg, completely different. So do When we fight with the bod . the mind And 'f b' y, we never have tIme to fight with . I we egm to fight with the b d . '11 on. It will be suicidal it w'll b d . 0 y, It WI go on and , I e estructlve't '11' its own defeat. One is b d b d f ,I WI Just sow seeds of oun to e e eated .] the whole humanity f' h . h - a smg e cell fighting . ' Ig tmg t e whole b . h Impossible. emg as sue i that is So do not take bodily memories as your memories. For example, 112 I Am the Gate 1 Id Ill' II lOry. You can fight with it, but to win win be II ' I Y .11 duous, nearly impossible. If you win, your '111\1 lotal defeat, because if you can win over your , I.Ik 'n a suicidal step. Within ninety days you wiJl lilt' body win not indicate to you that now is the . ,III 0 it is good that you never win over it, otherwise 1111111,\1. Then between you and your body memories 11\1" 110 bridge. That is the only way to win - but you are 11111111 I (',Illy, you are going to murder yourself. tilt I' .II" methods which can break the bridge between you I 111\1 hody. There are methods, so many hatha yoga methods I, I~ \ It ' bridge. The body goes on crying hunger, hunger, III I I hut you never know, the bridge is broken. The body goes . 1.111 you never know about it, you become insensitive to it. " ilIa tice anything which makes your body or you insensi\w :ause meditation is total sensitivity. It 'n you become meditative, your body win become so sensiII 'c you cannot conceive noW how sensitive the body organs can I" We never hear exactly, we never see exactly - just so-so. You ",1\\ through a garden, you seem to be looking but you just look, you do not see. The eyes have become insensitive, you have been Illo\hting with the eyes. The body has become insensitive, you have been fighting the body. The whole culture is against the body - this whole culture, wherever it is, East or West, it makes no difference. The culture that has developed on this planet is, in a way, diseased. It is against the body, and the body is a great mystery. lf you go against the body, then in a way you have gone against the universe; it is a miniature universe. Your relationship to the universe, your bridge 113 The Greatest Adventure to the universe, your instruments to the univ 'I'o( "' the body. Your body is just a midway station. ' So do not fight with the body. Always mak ,I lie II ,II of what is the body memory and what is th' 111111.1 II Hunger is the body memory, and you can know It 11111 11\ has its own memories also. They are not existential, till 1\ \ survival value, in fact. Body memories have a surviv,1I till that is the basic distinction. If you deny the body m n1(111I II fight against them, you will not survive. But psycholo/I\.II III I ries have no survival value really. They are simply wast· .111 11111111 tion - something which is to be thrown if you have a 11111111 II· it, something which needs to be thrown. You have only hllld. II yourself with it. And these mind memories are long. Whenever you are in anger, there are two possibilities: it 111,1 I" a body memory, it may be a mind memory. A certain di.till\ llilll has to be made between them. If your anger has a survival v Illc II you cannot survive without it, then it has a bodily medium. Bill II your anger has no survival value, then it is just a habit of the milld just a mechanical repetition of the mind. Then it is a milll! memory. You have been angry so many times, it has becom' .1 conditioning with you. Whenever someone just pushes you, ju~t pushes the button, you are angry again. So be aware. One who is never mentally angry, not habitually angry... his bodily anger will have a beauty of its own. It will never be ugly. Then It wtll only mean that someone is living, not dead. But the more you are habitually angry, the less will be your capacity to be bodily angry, and your anger will be just ugly. It will not add anything to you, it will just be disturbing to yourself and to others. We can understand it from another route also, for example, sex. , .,,111 . 1I\1'1II0ry, then it has a survival value. But it an I III II, 1I1l'1I\;1I, just out of habit. Then it has no urvival " 1111' who has become trapped in the habitual pattern, ill \'" 'llllt' an ugly thing. Neither will it have any love, 1111 1,1 I .IIIY beauty. Neither will it have any music, nor will III dl C'P 'r response. The more cerebral the sex, the less I "I wdl h' capable. You will think about it more, and y u I I I" .Ihl· ~o know what it is exactly, what is its deep c;\ I I hI' mind will go on thinking about sex, and the body 111\1 I III follow the mind. And whenever the body follows th . III I till 1\' I~ n-;'ife in it; it is just dragged along as a dead wight. II IIIoIV h' anything - sex or anger or greed. Always mak' a I 1111\ \ IIlII a to whether it has a survival value; then you d not 1\ I III lIght with it. If it is just :'I mental habit, then be aware of i~. 'Iii IIll'ntal memory of all our past actions has become a cond,· 1111111 d thing: you go on repeating them, you act just like a 111.11 hine. Be conscious of this. You will be surprised to know, if dIe', . is no mind in your anger and if it is just a total response to a llllation with the whole body in it and no mental precondition. IlIg, then there will be no repentance. You have acted totally in th . "'Iwation, as the situation required. Then there need be no repen \, nce at aIL Another thing: when there is no repentance, there will be no psychological accumulation. Nothing will be a habit with you. You need not accumulate anything. Why does the mind nf ed to accu· mulate memories? Because it is not confident whether it can a t totally in a situation. It prepares, it has to go through so many rehearsals. If there is such and such a situation, it is not conftdent of what it will do It must know all of what happened, it must sort 115 t t 4 The Greatest Adventure I Am the Gate things out, it must make programs of wh . partICular situation Th t . h at IS to I1\' dllll' . a IS wythe mind I .lI1d the more it accumul t hI' accumu at~', Ill. Itl· 1\ d a es, t e ess IS your . n the less your capacit t . capacIty to .Il I 1", Y 0 act totally th h 11 ' ded. ' e more t e milld III o act with the body, do not act with . ,(rnnge, like someth' the mInd. This wI/II" lIng never expected f I' . rom the body. Then th " rom a re IglOUS mdll I I ) e act IS Immeasurable th o not let your mind co . Th ,e response: /'. 1"1 Ii II II me In. en there '11 b lCre wi be no mental I . WI e no 111 '111," 'I accumu atlOn the '11 b I 1 act is just over Thing ,re WI e no repCIlI.1I111 . s were such th 't . It'tcd totally with no pa t '. ,e Sl uatlon was su h '1111 V r remaInIng behind S I Oll were total to it 0 h' .' 0 no one can r ')lI III . t erwlse th h ..t 'r n. ' e part t at is withheld rcp("l1 I'h body can act totally; the mind " .t1WtYS divided mind k' . can never act totally. MIlld , wor s In dlchot . S 1IIIId i angry anoth '. omles. 0 one part of th, , er part IS slmultaneo I . III{ to repent. This sho ld I b us Y repentIng or prep I u a so e noted - wh, . oll,lantly against an th ene ler there IS a pal t I' 0 er part, know that . \(' Illlnd, not through th b d you are actIng through ot, l dividedly Th b ed 0 y. The body is always total· it canVI . e 0 y IS Just a flo th ' I 'n you fall in love it' th h w, ere are no divisions. , IS e w ole bod h' h IV' You cannot make any d'" y W IC has fallen in 1.lt thc hands began to f IstlTnchtlon, that the head has fallen or I lOve. e whole bod . . . 11l( an never be totall h' y IS In It. But the / ' y In anyt Ing A pa t f' tl 'Izing, judging c d' r 0 It will always be , omman Ing ap . W lY b '. ' preClatlng. a p-II·t f' II , e sittIng in th h ' ( 0 It WI e c aIr to Judge to cond S III S 'c that some part of y d' emn 0 whenever I our OlIn IS work' lOW t lat you are doing 't b II Ing against the act I cere ra y, mentally. , I" dllll~ '. Ililddy. When you are eating, eat bodily. The II IWIl to top, but the mind never knows. One 1111 , ,11111/\ ilnd another part will go on condemning. ill ~" !III \aying stop, and another part will go on I,,,dy " total, so ask the body. Do not ask the mind II "II III Ilot to eat, to stop or not to stop. Your body I, 'I I Iwed 'd. It has accumulated the wisdom of centuries I Itill" It knows when to stop. "," I ~ tit· mind, ask the body. Rely on the body's wisdom. I, "I I'. IllOre wise than you. That is why animals live more I d'lll \1\, They live more wisely, but, of course, they do not III IIII' moment they think they will be just like us. This is a " ,I, tI'oIt animals can live more wisely than human beings! It 111 "h',lIro. They know nothing, but they go on living more I ,I, I 'It , only ability in which the human being has become III' I. III I'> to interfere with everything. You go on interfering with ,,111 hody. Do not interfere, let the body work. Do not come in its I\', ..nd then you will have a clear distinction of what is mental 1\If 1I101Y and what is body memory.
M 'mory in the body is a help to :survive; mental memory is I IIh,tructive. This mental memory is to be destroyed. When I say I , d(',troyed, I do not mean that you will not remember anything In 1,1 t, when I say to destroy the memory, I mean th3ft you should I not be identified with the memory, you should not become one , I with it. The memory must not be an autonomous affair, it must not perpetuate itself.
It goes on perpetuating itself. You are sitting, and the memory is working. You are sleeping, and the memory is working. You are working, and the memory is working. The memory goes on
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continuously working. What is it doing?
can only desire the same for the futur '. II 1,111 .\,' I can perpetuate and project itself into th· lulull 1\ " should be again, or something that has b TII ·,IHold.! I memory is always weaving a pattern for L1H' II1II11I l' And once you allow it to weave a pattern for YOII, be free. You will always be in a pattern.
That pattern constitutes the wa1l5 around I hi I 1 IJ" consciousness. Before you take one step into lht' lullill II has taken many. The path is not an open path, it 1,,1', I", I imprisonment; the memory is always narrowing it dt 1\\ II III are deceived by it because we think that the mem ty 1'. 11.1""1 to live the future better. It is not helping, it is just h ·Ipllli " make your future the same as the past.
The memory cannot project anything which it has not klltl II I can only project the known - it will project it. Do not lilll 11111' tli trap. Do not allow the mind to project for the future eVI'1l I1I1 I moment. Of course, it will take time to be without this de
Krishnamurti will say, "Do not remember this way, It ill become a tense effort. Just be aware of the totality. Do not t h. If I .
that you are here and he is there. Do not choose. Just let th 'J( I" an all-inclusive awareness. Do not focus it - unfocused awar 'Il( I,' I am speaking; you are sitting; the horn is there; the car i p,"", ing.... Things are - and awareness is unfocused. Do not makt It arrowed, make it unfocused." The route is the same, but till method is quite different.
Tantra used the same method, the same route, in a different way.
It was unimaginable. They used intoxicants - bhang, charas, ganja, wine. And the method was this: take the intoxicant, and be aware. Do not lose awareness. Go on taking the intoxicant, and be aware that you are aware. Do not lose consciousness. There are methods in which no intoxicant will be of any effect, so snake poison was used. The snake is made to bite on the tongue. And when the snake bites on the tongue and you are still aware, only then have you taken the jump - otherwise not. The route is the same, but the method is quite different.
In this Tantra practice, if no intoxicants work and you go on remaining conscious, you behave consciously, then something has
1111 "'I 'lIl111dhing has gone beyond body chemII. ,II' tlll',lIy will affect you. Now you are beyond I,. 1I"-oIIY It; somewhere working in the body, but , . 11111111 touch you.
" 11"lllY routes, and each route can be used with so 1\ Iy III ,thod is not directly concerned with any III , I ~. .1 vehicle which can fly, swim and go on the I'll ., I to. th' need of your personality, the need will II" 1I\llllnd, the route. You may call it a multi method. It is I II I ,1I1110t be direct. I give you the method; your body, , will Hive the route. And the awakened energy can use I.lIltri , Buddhist, Jaina, Gurdjieffian, Sufi...it can use I 'llt. t\lId when I say this, it is not just a hypothesis. When I "'1', I II,lve worked so.
I! "1,1. "'Ive come to me who have worked on different routes.
I" II IIwy u e this method, it begins to help them in their route. If ""11 '111(' i working on kundalini and coines to me, then works II" tills method, it helps him on his own route. He says, 'This "" 1110 I i wonderful; the previous kundalini method was not workIII ',0 intensely and so intently." And this is not a kundalini method II .tll, but this is flexible. The method will find out the route. You 11(' to do it, and all else will be done by the method itself.
For the coming world, and also for today's world, only such II 'xible methods can be used because there are so many types of people now. In the old world, that was not the case. In a particular region, a particular type existed. If there were Hindus, there were only Hindus, there were no Moslems. In fact, they never heard about one another. They never knew about each other's practices, so they were never confused. They were of a single type. If they
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were ltbetan Buddhists, they were ltbetan Buddhl!.l·" II, heard about anything else. Everyone's conditioning w,!, 111' everyone was brought up in the same milieu. So one 1111 II, I needed that worked.
Now that is all di fficult. Minds are confused; in fact, 11 II I' I 'single type. Everyone is a multi type. There are so many ill/h. II' contradictory influences. All religions say, "00 not study 1111,. I Do not go to other teachers." That is not simply dogm.!tl III I looks like it is dogmatic, it was basically just to protect th 'II IVI" This would lead to unnecessary' confusion. No method w "Id I" used fully, neither that nor this. This was done so that one ..hClllld not be confused.
But now that is impossible. Now everyone is confused, ,lIld there is no help. Now there can be no single type, and a lyp.
cannot be protected. So we need new methods which belong to no type and can be used by every type. So this method is f1exibl .
I am not particularly concerned with kundalini, not particularly concerned with anything, but deeply concerned with all.
You use this method, and the method will find the route - th route which can be worked out in you. I leave this to the method.
The method finds it, and it finds it more exactly than you can find it. But this finding is unconscious. It just puts you in a situation, just like there is fire in the house. You are in a situation. If you can run, run. If you can jump, jump. The situation is there, and the situation will push you toward whatever is possible for you.
And the unconscious mind always chooses the route of least resistance. That is necessarily the mathematics, the inner economy of mind. You never unconsciously choose any long route, you . always choose the shortest. Only with the conscious mind do you
I HI" ''It " Ie ,ulllowh 're, or are so much longer .t I" I"" Y"II I ',\ 'h. Uul the unconscious always 1,111 I I lillie 0 lhi method will create the situaII 1111' """ 11111\ will take the route which is potentially
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