Meditation: The First and Last Freedom

Meditation is based on a simple understanding: Rather than fighting with darkness, which is impossible anyway, switch on the light. Rather than fighting with ourselves, trying to improve ourselves, trying to live up to others’ ideas of who or what we should be, we can start by simply accepting ourselves as we are now.

Osho often reminds us that if existence has invited us to be here, who else’s permission do we need to accept ourselves as we are? Once we relax into this acceptance, once we stop pretending to be other than who and how we are, once we stop struggling to impress others (who are struggling equally hard to impress us), once we stop trying to defend ourselves, justify ourselves.… Once we stop trying to hide our wounds, even from ourselves, but rather open them to the air and the light, the healing happens on its own.

The knack of remaining relaxed in the midst of our busiest day is what has been called “alertness with no effort”—the essential experience of meditation. So even if you are convinced you have absolutely no time to set aside for meditation, you’ll find plenty of techniques in this book that can be seamlessly integrated into your day.

Someone insults you. Imagine being able to choose when and how to respond, free from the usual knee-jerk reaction to strike back, creating those endless vicious spirals in which our relationships can slowly drown.

And what of freedom? There is no greater freedom than to be that which we were meant to be. There is no greater freedom than to be free of others’ expectations, to be able to live our lives spontaneously, with awareness.

Here, there is something for every type of modern mind, uniquely tailored for these hectic times.

As Osho puts it: “The long drawn-out yoga practices will not do for the world; now people do not have days or even hours to spare. We need methods that yield quick results. If a man makes a seven-day commitment, by the end of that period he should begin to feel that something has happened to him. He should become a different man in seven days’ time…. So, I say, practice today and feel the result immediately. Now it is the jet age; now meditation cannot afford to be slow. It has to pick up speed.”

It is exactly for the modern mind that these techniques have been devised—a contemporary approach to suit contemporary people.

Most of us have been taught that in order to be successful in life we need to struggle, to fight, to focus, to concentrate. The trouble with this approach is that the more we struggle, the more tense we become. And the more tense we are, the worse we perform. The meditative approach is to understand that in order to be at our best, in order to give each moment our best—and to receive the best from each moment—we need to be as aware as possible. And to be aware we need to be relaxed.

Usually we think that in order to relax, we have to go out. Meditation offers another possibility: to go in to relax.

Meditation in its essence is the art of being aware—aware of what is going on inside you and around you.

Although meditation itself is not a technique, there are many methods here to help you learn this awareness, and as you acquire this knack, it can be your companion wherever you are—at work, at play, wherever.

We don’t make any condition that you have to believe, we say only that you have to experiment. Just try. One day it happens: thoughts are not there. And suddenly, when thoughts disappear, the body and you are separate, because thoughts are the bridge. Through thoughts you are joined with the body; it is the link.

Finally, eventually, one day, you become master. Then when you want to think, you think; if thought is needed, you use it; if thought is not needed, you allow it to rest. Not that mind is simply no longer there—mind is there, but you can use it or not use it. Now it is your decision. Just like legs: if you want to run you use them; if you don’t want to run you simply rest—legs are there. In the same way, mind is always there.

No-mind is not against mind; no-mind is beyond mind. No-mind does not come by killing and destroying the mind; no-mind comes when you have understood the mind so totally that thinking is no longer needed. Your understanding has replaced it.