Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
silence shared in words
presents
Meditation A Dancing Silence
Why is it
that, apart from sitting with you twice a day,
I only find myself meditating
when I am down
or confused?
Why is that I rarely meditate out of my joyousness?
Your question
touches very deeply
the human heart and its workings.
In the old way
people used to pray only
when they were in misery,
suffering,
some trouble.
When they were happy,
joyous,
successful
they never bothered God.
It can make you aware
of an intense involvement
of all the religions with suffering,
because only those who are suffering
become victims in the hands of the priests.
Otherwise, who cares about priests,
who cares about
holy books?
When you are happy,
contented,
joyful,
you want to enjoy your life.
You don't want to waste your time
praying in a church or a temple
This must have been discovered by the priest
long, long ago.
All religions are based
on the exploitation of this
discovery.
Bertrand Russell
is right when he says,
"If we can
destroy poverty,
sickness,
old age,
inequality
and make people happy and joyous,
religions will die
on their own accord."
He is perfectly right in his analysis,
because the joyous man has never been
in any way concerned with so-called religions.
But Bertrand Russell was
an agnostic.
My standpoint is totally different.
To me it is natural
that when you are sick you will go to the doctor
and when you are sick you will need medicine.
You don't go to the doctor when you are healthy.
You don't go to the
druggist
for some medicine
when you are perfectly healthy.
And it is not that the so-called religions
have helped you in any way to get out of misery
that would be destroying their whole business.
They want you to remain in misery,
hoping
that in the next life
you will enjoy
the blessings of God,
because you suffered
so contentedly,
you suffered without revolt
against the vested interests.
Politicians became interested
in religion
and kings
were very much supportive of organized religion,
because they could see a simple arithmetic.
Religion provides *** to the people,
a consolation,
and if this *** is not provided for the people,
revolt
is going to happen.
So those who are in power
are deeply interested
that you should remain
sad,
miserable,
in anxiety,
because your anxiety and your sadness will take you to the priests
and they will give you the *** called hope.
"Don't be worried, pray.
And if you pray
with a pure heart,
and if you pray
with absolute belief,
your prayer will be answered."
Now, it is a very tricky game.
Nobody can have absolute belief.
Belief as such
is borrowed from somebody else,
you don't know anything about it.
How can you
be absolute in your belief?
At the most you can repress your doubt
with the belief, but the doubt is there.
So when your prayers are not heard,
you know it is not the fault of God
or the fault of prayer:
your belief is not total,
your trust
has doubt underneath it.
Although you are praying,
you know
deep within you,
"Who knows
whether there is a God
who is listening
or going to answer?"
This helps the priest to keep you
in your miserable situation.
If your prayer is not heard,
then fast,
purify
do all kinds of disciplines
and certainly your prayer will be answered.
Nobody's prayer has ever been answered.
But because of this strategy,
they have planted in you
that when your prayer is not answered, you are at fault.
So you have to be absolutely pure.
They demand perfectionism.
And because of their demand of perfectionism
they have driven the whole of humanity neurotic.
Nobody can be perfect.
Perfection
is simply out of the question;
perfection means death.
You have to go on trying to be perfect
in this way evolution moves.
You will be coming closer and closer to perfection, but you will never be perfect.
The moment you are perfect you are finished,
evolution has come to an end.
The ideas of evolution and perfection are antagonistic.
But all over world,
through all the ages, civilizations and cultures,
every child has been forced to be perfect.
And once this cancer of being perfect enters your mind,
you will always feel you are not perfect,
you will always feel guilty.
You will pray, but you know your prayer will not be heard.
But the religions have completely diverted your attention.
Your suffering is being caused by the vested interests here, now,
and they have shifted
the whole idea
to the future
and not even to the near future...
after death.
Different religions have tried different strategies, but the basic thing is
to divert your mind from the exploitation which is going on
right now.
If all
kinds of consolations are dropped,
you will be able to see
that your problem,
your suffering,
your misery is being created,
manufactured by man.
It has nothing to do with prayer.
And this
is a very
dangerous situation
because all the religions
and almost everybody belongs to some religion
are trying to divert you
from the actuality of things
in to dreams of paradise and heaven
and all kinds of joys.
These people are sellers of dreams
and they fill your mind with dreams so much
that you stop seeing the reality.
The reality is that a few vested interests
politicians,
the rich people,
the priests
they are the cause
of your suffering, of your anguish, of your misery,
and they can be removed.
But who is going to remove them?
because the people who are suffering
they never think
that these good people
can be the cause of their suffering.
Secondly,
you have
found it
very clearly
in your own meditations
that when you are in suffering
you want to meditate,
but when you are happy
you don't even think about it.
You are using meditation again
as a new hope,
as a new
consolation
You are not really a meditator.
You are using meditation also as medicine.
It will give you some relief,
but it cannot
transform you
to a state
where ecstasy becomes your
moment-to-moment experience.
You will have to learn
something which has been forcibly
killed by all the religions and all the politicians
and all the powers;
it was in their favor.
We have forgotten completely
that to be joyous
in fact is the basic condition of meditation.
When you are joyous, that is the right moment to meditate.
Then you can ride on the wave of joy
into higher realms.
When you are suffering, meditation may help to bring you out of your suffering,
but that is not much.
When you are feeling a well-being,
when you are feeling
ready to dance,
that is the moment to meditate.
Then you can ride
on higher waves
of dancing, music,
into meditation
Meditation has to be taken out of the hands of the religions.
They are using it for wrong reasons,
for exploitation,
and they have done it for so many centuries
that it has become almost an inbuilt program in us.
In China
a strange experiment
was done.
The emperor was very much impressed by Lao Tzu,
Chuang Tzu,
Lieh Tzu.
He lived long
enough to be in contact
with the master Lao Tzu, then his disciple Chuang Tzu, then his disciple Lieh Tzu.
These three people impressed
on the emperor
a very novel,
original idea,
but it has not been followed.
The moment the emperor died
the old
vested interests came back
and destroyed something of tremendous value.
Lieh Tzu,
Chuang Tzu
Lao Tzu
had a strange idea:
that no doctor should be paid by his patients,
because if the patient has to pay the doctor,
knowingly or unknowingly the doctor would like
the patient to remain sick as long as possible
that is his business.
If he cures him
quickly
he cannot earn much.
A famous story Chuang Tzu used
to tell was about an old doctor.
His three sons were studying medicine.
The first son came back from the university
and he said, "Now you are too old,
you rest.
I will take care of your patients."
So the father
allowed him
to take care of his patients.
After two days
the young man came to the old father
and said,
"It is very strange.
You are such an experienced doctor
and a woman you have been treating for thirty years,
I have cured her in two days.
And I am
fresh from the college,
I don't know much."
The father said, "You idiot,
it is that woman
who has paid all your expenses
in medical college.
She was going to pay for your two other brothers.
She was rich enough,
there was no need for her to be healthy.
And she was my main source of income."
Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu impressed on the emperor
that if the patient has to pay the doctor,
you are creating a very dangerous situation.
The doctor's interest will be that the patient remains a patient as long as possible.
And he will apparently show concern that he wants to cure you.
He will be in a dilemma himself.
The emperor asked Lao Tzu,
"Then what is your suggestion? -- because this has been always the case."
He said, "The solution is very simple.
All doctors should be paid by the government,
and the whole population should
pay the government
nothing to do with the doctor.
The doctor has not to be paid because he has cured a patient;
the doctor has to be paid if his patient has remained healthy.
Every month the patient has to report, 'I am healthy, you can pay my doctor.'
If the patient falls sick,
then the doctor cannot be paid: 'What business are you doing here?
If people are falling sick,
then what use is your medicine, your knowledge, your experience?'"
So a very strange system...
but the emperor was impressed, it was absolutely logical. And in my understanding,
one day it is going to be the system in the whole world,
because its logic is very clear.
The doctor should be paid for health, not for sickness.
And if his patients are sick, then his salary should be cut.
His interest
should be in the health of the patient, not in his disease.
And the patient has not to pay him,
the patient has to pay a certain fee
to be kept healthy to the government .
The government pays the doctor to keep people healthy,
and if they are not healthy, he misses his salary.
But once the emperor was dead,
the system disappeared,
the old
idea came in again
which is absolutely foolish.
The priest,
the religions
have learned the strategy
perhaps
from people suffering from diseases,
that they are the most
vulnerable sources for exploitation.
Just give them hope;
all that they need is consolation.
This has corrupted the whole human psychology.
So when you are sick
you think of meditation,
when you are suffering
you start meditating.
But when you are down
and confused,
to meditate is very difficult; it is going against the current.
So, on the one hand you have chosen a wrong situation in which to meditate.
At the most meditation can pull you out, somehow from your downgoing,
your suffering, but it cannot give you joy or ecstasy.
It is enough if it can take you out of your misery.
The real situation is
a healthy, happy, joyous
state of mind.
But at that time you think of playing football,
at that time you want to go to the movies,
at that time you want to watch television;
that is the time to go
to a discotheque.
In fact that is the time to meditate.
When you are suffering you can go to hell:
any discotheque,
any restaurant,
any game -- boyfriend, girlfriend game.
When you are suffering, these are the things to do.
But when you are happy,
feeling good,
in tune,
surrounded with a certain well-being,
don't waste it in stupid things.
This is the right springboard from where you can take a jump
into higher realms
of consciousness,
of blissfulness,
of peace and ecstasy.
This idea is just an old
conditioning, forced upon you
by those
who were immensely profited by it.
You have to understand it
and change the situation.
Use your joyful moments
in discovering the truth,
in discovering yourself,
and it will be a very easy thing.
People have been discovering
at wrong times, in wrong seasons, and against the current.
My whole approach is, go with the current
no effort, just floating,
not even swimming. There is no need.
In water the gravitation of the earth is less,
because water functions under a different law -- levitation.
That's why in water
you can pick up a big rock without any effort
because the gravitation is not the same,
but the moment you come out of the water you cannot hold that rock.
You will be amazed how much difference it makes.
The water takes much of the gravitation.
But even on the earth,
if you are joyful,
in a mood of dancing,
meditation is very easy.
So it is up to you
to make your meditation easy and successful,
or difficult
and unsuccessful.
Paddy's at the bar
and he's drunk so much
that the bartender asks him to leave.
Paddy insists that he is not drunk, and he will prove it.
"See that cat coming in the door?"
he says. "Well that cat has only one eye and that proves I am not drunk."
"You are drunker than I thought!"
says the bartender.
"That cat is not coming in, it's going out."
Just be joyful.
And life is so hilarious...all around.
You have just to look joyfully
and you will not find time for suffering and agony.
In this beautiful life
there is every possibility for you to become a great meditator.
But you have to learn to see
the joyous side of life.
It is full of juice,
full of laughter,
and if you can also laugh with it,
nobody can prevent your meditativeness.
Meditativeness will come on its own accord,
following your joy like a shadow.
What is meditativeness? Just a silence, a dancing silence.
Copyright© OSHO International Foundation, Switzerland
www.OSHO.com/copyright
OSHO is a registered Trademark of OSHO International Foundation