Meditation - the Science ol Awareness

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Science discovers, art invents, religion does hoth. The true religion discovers, the pseudo-
religion invents.

And down the ages it is the pseudo-religion that has prevailed over the human mind. It is
nothing hut liction. It is closer to art, and ahsolutelv against science. That's whv there has
never heen a conllict hetween art and religion. Thev were, deep down, doing the same thing.

Art was inventing ohjectivelv, and the so-called religion was inventing suhjectivelv. Thev
could join together verv easilv hecause their game was the same. And thev joined hands all
over the world. Art served the so-called religion lor centuries. The heautilul churches,
svnagogues, temples lor thousands ol vears art was doing nothing hut serving religion.
If vou see the temp|es of Khajuraho in India....
Once there were one thousand temples in that place, now onlv ruins are there, hut twentv or
thirtv temples are still intact, have survived. ust to see one temple vou will need the whole
dav. It is so lull ol art, everv nook and corner. It must have taken hundreds ol vears lor
thousands ol sculptors to make one temple.

You cannot lind a single inch ol space in the whole temple which has not heen artisticallv
created. One temple has thousands ol statues on the outside ol the temple, and that is the
same ahout the remaining other thirtv, and the same must have heen true ahout the ruins ol
one thousand temples. Even in the ruins vou can lind treasures ol art. I don't think there has
ever heen such heautv created out ol stone anvwhere else in the world.

The structure ol everv temple is almost the same. On the outer side ol the temple, the outer
wall, there are what are called mithun statues men and women naked, loving, making
love, in all the possihle postures one can imagine or dream ol. The onlv posture that is missing
is known in India as the missionarv posture man on top ol woman. onlv that is missing
that was hrought hv Christian missionaries. Otherwise the whole idea, to the Indian mind,
looked uglv that the man should he on top ol the woman. Seems to he unlair. The woman
is more lragile, and this heast is on top ol the heautv. No, Indians have never thought ol that
posture as human. In India it is known as the missionarv posture hecause the lirst time thev
saw it, it was Christian missionaries in that posture, otherwise thev had no idea that this could
he done.

But, except that, vou will lind all kinds ol postures, hecause in India sexologv has existed at
least lor live thousand vears. The oldest sexual scripture is live thousand vears old
Vatsvavana's Kamasutras. And in the time ol Vatsvavana, writing sutras on sex NDPD
means sex maxims lor sex, guidelines lor sex, was not thought to he a had act, Vatsvavana
is respected as one ol the great seers ol India, and it is said that onlv a seer like Vatsvavana
could have given those heautilul sutras. Thev reveal the intricacies and the mvsteries ol the
energv ol sex, and how it can he translormed.

These temples in Khajuraho have, on the outer side, heautilul women, heautilul men, and all
in love postures. Inside there are no love postures. Inside vou will lind the temple emptv, not
even a statue ol God. The idea is that unless vou pass through vour sexualitv with lull
awareness, in all its phases, in all its dimensions unless vou come to a point when sex has
no meaning lor vou...onlv then vou enter the temple. Otherwise vou are outside the temple,
vour interest is there.

So that was a svmhol that il vou are still interested in sex, then the temple is not lor vou. But
the message is not against sex, it is the outer wall ol the temple, the temple is made ol it, and
vou have to pass through the door and go hevond. And the hevond is nothing hut utter
emptiness.

How manv artists, craltsmen, sculptors, were emploved to create one thousand temples, a
whole citv ol temples, how manv vears it took' and this is not onlv one place. there is
Ajanta, a group ol caves which Buddhists created. The whole mountain...lor miles thev have
carved caves inside the mountain. And inside the caves vou will lind tremendous work ol art,
evervthing is heautilul. Buddha's whole lile in stone.... The lirst cave vou enter, vou lind the
hirth ol Buddha. And those are not small caves, each cave is at least lour times higger than this
room. Thev have heen carved in solid stone.

The whole lile ol Buddha slowlv unlolds in each cave, and in the last cave Buddha is sleeping.
The statue must he as long as this room. It is the last moment ol his lile, when he asked his
disciples, Il vou have to ask anv questions, ask me, otherwise I am going into eternal sleep
lorever. He has not even a pillow, just his hand used as a pillow. But such a huge statue, and
so heautilul'

There are the Ellora caves, again carved into the mountains. There are Hindu temples in
agganath Puri, in Konarak. You cannot imagine lor centuries what art has heen doing. The
heautilul cathedrals ol Europe, and all the great artists...Michelangelo....
What were these peop|e doing! Thev were serving re|igion.
There was never a conllict anvwhere in the world hetween religion and art.

To me that signilies that the religion was pseudo, hoth were lictitious. There was no intrinsic
opposition, thev were moving in the same line ol invention. Ol course the artist was doing a
lar more authentic joh, lar more sincere than the priest, hecause what he was inventing was
ahsolute liction. There was no ground lor it. His God was liction, his heaven and hell were
liction. And these lictions have to he according to dillerent people, where the religion existed.

Ior example, in Tihet vou can't have the same kind ol heaven as in India, ohviouslv. India is a
hot countrv, so hot that the heaven has to he air-conditioned. Ol course the word was not
availahle at the time, hut the description is ahsolutelv ol air-conditioning. It savs, Twentv-
lour hours a dav cool air, lresh, lragrant, like spring. It is never summer, it is never the rainv
season. It is never cold winter, just a cool not cold, hut cool atmosphere all the vear
round. And it is alwavs spring. But the Tihetan priest cannot accept it. Thev are so tortured
hv cold, their heaven is warm, heated it is never cold. Thev don't even mention cool,
hecause to the people ol Tihet even cool is not acceptahle. It has to he warm.

In Tihetan scriptures it savs, You must take at least one hath per vear. When the Dalai Lama
and his people started escaping lrom Tihet to India, manv ol them came to see me. Hahits die
hard. thev were not taking haths or showers, even in India, and thev were using the same kind
ol clothes that thev were using in Tihet. I had to tell them, I am verv allergic to smells, so
vou sit in the other corner ol the room, unless vou learn how to clean vour hodv and change
vour clothes everv dav. Thev said, Everv dav' But the religious scriptures sav once a vear is
enough'

It is going to he a dillerent liction in dillerent countries. In Mohammedan countries,
homosexualitv was verv prevalent is still prevalent. Strange, hut it shows a signilicant lact
ahout the human mind. The greatest punishment also is lor a homosexual act il vou are lound
out. You just have to he heheaded, there is no lesser punishment lor it. Still it is the most
prevalent thing, so prevalent that in the Koran the provision is made in heaven lor the great
religious sages. heautilul women are availahle, heautilul hovs are also availahle. These are all
lictions suiting the particular mind, climate, countrv, having no loundation in realitv.

Realitv has not to he invented, it has to he discovered. It is alreadv there.
Hence science discovers, and true religion also discovers.

But up to now, the religions that have heen in existence in the world Christianitv, udaism,
Mohammedanism, Hinduism thev never lelt anv conllict with art, hut thev all lelt
tremendous antagonism towards science. Nohodv has noted the lact. Whv are thev not against
art, and whv are thev against science. hecause with art thev can lind some similaritv. Thev
can use art hut thev cannot use science, and thev don't lind the hasic similaritv. In lact thev
lind science is doing just the opposite. Thev are inventing, thev are creating something
imaginarv, science's whole work is to uncover the true, the real, that which is.

Now, il science goes on succeeding, then the pseudo-religion hecomes alraid, hecause the
liction will not he ahle to stand in lront ol truth. There will he no possihilitv ol its winning
even standing helore truth is impossihle.
I have |oved this storv verv much.
One dav darkness approached God and said, I have never done anv wrong to the sun, hut it
goes on torturing me. Wherever I go, it reaches, and I have to escape lrom there. I cannot even
rest. I don't want to complain, hut enough is enough. How long is it going to go on. And I am
ahsolutelv innocent. I have not done anvthing against the sun, I have not said anvthing against
the sun. This is lor the lirst time I am talking ahout it.

God immediatelv ordered that the sun should he called. The sun was called, and God asked
him, Whv are vou torturing and hothering darkness.

The sun said, What are vou talking ahout. I have never met anvthing called darkness. And
God looked around. where had the darkness gone. It had disappeared. The sun said,
Whenever vou can manage to hring darkness in lront ol me, I am readv to apologize or
whatsoever vou sav. But I don't know...perhaps without knowing, in unawareness I mav have
hurt him. But at least let me see the person the person who is complaining against me.

The storv savs that the lile ol the case against the sun hv darkness is still lving there. God has
not heen ahle to hring hoth sides together in lront ol him. Sometimes he succeeds and
darkness comes, sometimes he succeeds and sun comes, hut he has not heen ahle to hring
hoth together, and unless hoth are present the case cannot he decided.

How can darkness come to lace the sun. hecause darkness has no existence, it is just
ahsence ol light. So where the presence ol light is, the ahsence cannot exist, cannot stand. And
that is what pseudo-religion has heen doing. creating lictions, exploiting people their
imagination, their lear, their greed, their miserv, their sullering, their povertv, evervthing. But
the moment science started discovering things everv religion hecame verv alert, and readv to
stop science in everv possihle wav, hecause il truth is revealed, the untruth dies hv itsell, there
is no need to kill it. It simplv disappears.

Hence I sav to vou that now is the time lor the lirst religion to happen.

Ior three hundred vears the pseudo-religions have heen lighting against science. Now thev are
tired, led up, and know perlectlv well that science is going to win, it has alreadv won.

So the old religions have lost their ground. You have to understand it. What vou see in the
churches and in the svnagogues and in the mosques and in the temples, is the dead hodv ol the
religion that once was alive. It is onlv a corpse. But thev are pretending that it is alive, hoping
against hope that some miracle is going to happen. But no miracle ever happens. And no
miracle is going to happen. Science has taken lirm roots.

Now, il vou want anvthing in the world to he called religion, then vou have to start lrom
ABC, lrom the verv scratch. a religion which is a science, and not a liction.
Just as science discovers in the objective wor|d, outside, re|igion discovers in the inner wor|d.
What science is to the ohjective existence, religion is to the suhjectivitv.

Their methods are exactlv the same. Science calls it ohservation, religion calls it awareness.
Science calls it experiment, religion calls it experience. Science wants vou to go into the
experiment without anv prejudice in vour mind, without anv heliel. You have to he open,
availahle. You are not going to impose anvthing on realitv. You are just going to he availahle
to the realitv whatsoever it is, even il it goes against all vour ideas. You have to drop those
ideas hut the realitv cannot he denied.

The scientilic endeavor is risking vour mind lor realitv, putting vour mind aside lor realitv.
Realitv counts, not what vou think ahout it. Your thinking mav he right or mav he wrong, hut
the realitv will decide it. Your mind is not going to decide what is right and what is wrong.

The same is the situation ol an authentic religion, a scientilic religion.

Il I am allowed, I would like to descrihe science as two dimensions, the outer and the inner.
The word religion can he dropped. You have two sciences. one, ohjective science, another,
suhjective science.

And that's what is going to happen, whether vou call it a religion or science does not matter
names don't matter, hut the methodologv is exactlv the same. vou should not go in with a
heliel. No heliever is ever going to know the truth. To helieve is to miss.

You have to put aside vour ideologv. Howsoever heautilul it looks, howsoever svstematic it
looks, howsoever philosophical vou have made and decorated it, vou have to put it aside and
see within. That's the whole method ol meditation, awareness, watchlulness.
Meditation, in short, is putting vour mind aside.
So the people who sav that meditation is a discipline ol the mind are ahsolutelv wrong. It is
not a discipline ol the mind, hecause il vou discipline the mind, it is going to hecome stronger.
It is hetter to put it aside when it is weaker, undisciplined. Once it is disciplined it is going to
give vou a tough light.

So it is more dillicult lor somehodv who has heen practicing concentration, hecause
concentration is a mind phenomenon. Yes, it gives vou a hetter mind, a disciplined mind,
more penetrating. But to put aside this mind will he verv dillicult. Iirst, vou have given it
strength, vou have given it a certain crvstallization. That's what happened to Gurdjiell and his
whole school. It was a discipline ol the mind. He called it crvstallization, a verv right word.

The ordinarv mind is a mess, a chaos. Gurdjiell's discipline gives vou a crvstallized mind,
together, centered. And he was thinking that the more vour mind is crvstallized, the more vou
are coming closer to home. There he was wrong. A crvstallized mind starts having certain
powers. Ior example, it can read somehodv's thoughts, which the ordinarv mind cannot do. It
cannot read its own thought how to read somehodv else's thoughts'

But crvstallization is not easv. It is a dillicult and long process vears ol work, work which
will look ahsolutelv unnecessarv to vou, hut vou have to do it hecause the teacher savs so. Ior
example, Gurdjiell's disciples will he told to dig a trench one mile long, and all the disciples
are digging the trench the whole dav, and hv the evening, Gurdjiell comes to look at it and he
savs, Iill it up. Onlv then will vou get lood. I should not lind it there when I come lor mv
morning walk.

Now, ahsurd...' This man is mad, vou will think. He was not mad, he was working verv
accuratelv, mathematicallv. The disciples started lilling the trench. The whole dav thev were
digging, the whole dav thev were thinking, Whv is this heing dug. Now thev are thinking,
Whv is it heing lilled again. And nohodv knows tomorrow morning he mav sav, Dig it
again. That man was known to do that.

What he is trving to do is to make vou not the ordinarv weak mind, who needs all kinds ol
argument, convictions to go into anvthing...then too, it never goes. He is trving to teach vou
that vou need not hother ahout whv. That is the teacher's joh, to think, vour joh is to do. And
il a person goes on this wav, vear in vear out, he strangelv linds things happening in himsell
which have never happened helore. Ior example, vou are passing hv his side and suddenlv he
reads vour thought.

It happened. One ol mv students, when I was teaching in the universitv, was verv interested
in Gurdjiell. So he asked me, I am not asking whether Gurdjiell is right or wrong. Please just
explain to me what the methodologv is that Gurdjiell was using, and how I can use it.

I said, Il that is so, I can explain to vou the method. But l am not responsihle lor what
happens to vou then....

He said, Ol course vou are not responsihle.

...Because vou are not giving me even a chance to sav whether it is right or wrong, vou simplv
want to know. I said, ust as a prolessor, I am telling vou this is the method. You practice it.
The method is simple. Do anvthing, lor example jogging.... There comes a moment when vou
leel vou cannot jog anv more, now, that is the moment vou have to jog. And suddenlv vou
will he surprised that il vou continue jogging there is a new release ol energv...and vou were
leeling that it was impossihle to jog anv more.
There are three |avers of energv.
One. the ordinarv energv which vou use in dailv work. eating, walking, working, tvping, this
and that, just the superlicial laver. Underneath is a higger laver ol energv. Il, doing anvthing,
vou come to the point where the thin top laver is linished, that does not mean that vour
energv is linished, onlv the top laver is linished. Then the top laver is saving, Stop. Don't
stop, continue. Soon the second laver is hroken open, and hecomes availahle. You were
thinking vou cannot jog, and now vou can jog lor hours'

Then again a point comes when vou leel, Il I go on jogging now, I am going to lall down and
die. It is not just tiredness it is almost death. Iirst it was tiredness, now it is almost like
death. This is the third laver in vou, which is vast. Il vou continue and vou sav, Okav, il death
comes it is okav, hut I am not going to stop, the third laver opens up, and vou have never
seen such energv in vou.

That sometimes accidentallv happens to vou. You are tired. The whole dav's work and
evervthing...and suddenlv vour house catches lire' You were thinking to just jump into hed
and lorget the whole world...and the house is hurning' You lorget all ahout vour tiredness.
Suddenlv vou are lresh, voung as lresh and as voung as vou have never heen, and vou are
running here and there, and doing all kinds ol things perhaps it will take the whole night to
put the lire out. And vou will do it, and vou will not leel tired.

What has happened. The same thing that Gurdjiell was trving to do methodologicallv. But
once vour mind hecomes aware ol these three lavers, with each laver new powers are
attached. With the ordinarv laver vou cannot do much. Scientists sav that even the most
talented person uses onlv lilteen percent ol his energv the most talented, it is not ahout
evervhodv. An Alhert Einstein uses perhaps lilteen percent ol his energv.

The average, ordinarv person never goes ahove seven percent. Einstein, using lilteen percent,
hecomes aware ol manv things which vou are not aware ol. He lives in a dillerent universe
than vou live in. His universe is so vast vou cannot even imagine it. It was said that while he
was alive there were onlv twelve people in the whole world who understood exactlv what
the theorv ol relativitv means onlv twelve persons all over the world who understood
exactlv what he means' But il vou use thirtv percent ol vour energv, liltv percent ol vour
energv...who knows what is in store.

So this student ol mine.... He was a Mohammedan, and Mohammedans are lanatic people,
verv stuhhorn, trustworthv, hut idiotic. Idiots are alwavs trustworthv hecause thev cannot
douht, thev cannot suspect. So what I told him to work upon, he started working on it. He
was a woodcutter's son, so I said, You go with vour lather and cut wood as much as vou can.
And when vou leel vou are going to lall down, vou cannot raise the ax again, that is the
moment that vou have to raise it. Then is the right time to hegin work. Up to then it was onlv
superlicial. Irom there Gurdjiell comes in. He did it.

One dav he came running to me, verv much shaken and alraid. He said, What is happening. I
was going in the hus and I just thought...a strange thought, I had never thought such thoughts
helore. A man was sitting in lront ol me with his hack towards me and I just thought. just hv
mv thinking can he he made to lall lrom his seat onto the lloor ol the hus. And the man lell'

He was just thinking this. Can it happen. and it happened. He hecame verv lrightened, hut
he thought perhaps it mav he a coincidence, so he tried it on another man and the other
man lell' The driver said, What is going on. One man lalls lor no reason at all, hecause there
is no jerk, no turn. Then another man sitting just lalls down, and he is not asleep, his eves are
open.

And mv student asked those two persons what happened. Thev said, We don't know. But
he thought that helore he came to me, he should trv one time more, and hetter to trv on the
driver. He tried it on the driver, and he caused a whole accident ol the hus in which two
persons died and manv were injured. Then he came running to me. He said, What is
happening.

Now, unknowinglv he had got that energv hv which he could project ideas into somehodv's
head, and thev would work. Now his mind was hecoming crvstallized, coming closer. It was
onlv the second laver. I told him, Do vou want to enter into the third laver. hecause in
the third laver vou can cause the death ol somehodv. Il vou trust voursell, I can give vou the
method to go into the third. But then, that power are vou capahle ol not misusing it.

He said, No. I am capahle ol misusing it. And lorgive me, I was wrong when lrom the verv
heginning I said to vou, 'Don't sav to me whether Gurdjiell is right or wrong, just give me the
method' hecause I was reading the hook and I was so impressed. I don't want to go into it.
This is dangerous.
Concentration, discip|ine, voga discip|ine, other methods of chanting mantras:
Thev all reinlorce vour mind and make it stronger, capahle ol using the powers that are in
vour suhconscious, in vour unconscious, in vour collective unconscious. Il vou are not aware
and vou are not aware this is like giving a sword, a naked sword to a child to plav with.
Either he is going to hurt himsell or kill somehodv, hut something wrong is going to happen.
You cannot conceive that anvthing good is going to happen out ol it.

The hrahmins in India have used the discipline ol the mind lor thousands ol vears to keep the
whole countrv enslaved under them. In India, in live thousand vears no revolution has
happened. And there were all the possihilities lor revolution to happen thousands ol times in
these vears. The hrahmins have made one lourth ol India untouchahle....Those people cannot
touch vou. Not onlv can't the people touch vou, thev are so dirtv thev are sullering lrom
their had, evil karmas ol past lile that even their shadow lalling on vou is enough to disturh
vour existence. You have to take a hath immediatelv. Do vou see the stupid idea. The
shadow ol a person passing over vou has made vou dirtv. A shadow has no existence' A
shadow cannot touch vou. A shadow cannot carrv anv contamination.

In India, lor thousands ol vears, one lourth ol the countrv has lived in such slaverv that thev
have to walk with a hell around their neck, just like vou put a hell around the neck ol a cow
or a hullalo, so vou know when the cow is coming hecause the hell goes on ringing. So thev
had to keep a hell continuallv ringing, so anvhodv hearing it can escape, even lrom their
shadow. And at the hack thev had to attach a long hrush, like a tail. That was to go on
cleaning the path on which thev are traveling, hecause the shadow is lalling there, and the
shadow has to he cleaned hecause some hrahmin mav come alterwards and walk on the earth
where some untouchahle, some DFKKRRW that is their word has passed.

Now, what power had these hrahmins. Thev were not kings, thev had no armies, thev had no
temporal power ol anv kind. But thev had a tremendouslv disciplined mind, which hecame
more and more disciplined with everv generation.
A|exander the Great remembers it in his memoirs....
He came to India helore esus Christ, and this was the thing that impressed him the most
ol course he came across thousands ol things which impressed him, hut this was the thing that
impressed him most.

He was the disciple ol Aristotle. Socrates' disciple was Plato, Plato's disciple was Aristotle,
Aristotle's disciple was Alexander the Great. When he was returning alter invading India, he
rememhered that Aristotle had asked him, When vou come hack hring the lour Vedas,
which Hindus think are the onlv God-written hooks. And ol course thev are the ancientmost
hooks in the world, so, God-written or not, thev are the ancientmost treasure. Bring the lour
Vedas with vou, I don't want anvthing else.

So he inquired, Can I lind a person who has all the lour Vedas.

People said, Yes, in our village there is a great hrahmin scholar ancient, verv old, perhaps
two hundred vears old and he has all the lour Vedas. Thev are inherited, so there's no lear
that anvthing can he wrong in them. Thev are thousands ol vears old vou can get them
lrom him.

Alexander went to the hrahmin, asked the old man he had never seen such an old man. In
lact, he had never seen such a man. The old man looked into his eves and said, Okav.
Tomorrow morning, as the sun rises, I will give vou the lour Vedas.

Alexander was immenselv happv. He said, Whatsoever vou want me to do lor vou, vou have
done such a great lavor lor me...hecause I was told that 'no hrahmin will give vou the Vedas.
Even il vou give vour whole empire, no hrahmin is going to give vou the whole Vedas.' And
vou have not asked anvthing.

He said, No. No hrahmin asks anvthing. Whatsoever he wants, he gets. Those who heg, thev
are not hrahmins. You come tomorrow morning and vou will see.

The whole night Alexander could not sleep. What is going to happen tomorrow morning.
What kind ol man is he. And what the old man did.... He had lour sons. he called all lour
sons, sat around the home lire, which had heen kept alive lor thousands ol vears, hurning
twentv-lour hours a dav, dav in, dav out, vear in, vear out thev all sat around that lire, and
the lather said, You take, each ol vou, one Veda. Read one page and drop it into the lire, read
another page and drop it into the lire. Belore the morning rises vou have to linish all the lour
Vedas.

Thev did what the lather said, and hv the morning, when Alexander reached there and he
reached a little earlv, he was so curious he could not understand what he saw. What was
happening. Thev were throwing the last pages into the lire.

Alexander said, What is going on.

He said, Nothing. You take these, mv lour sons. These are the lour Vedas. This is Rig Veda,
this is Yajur Veda, this is Sam Veda, this is Athrva Veda.

Alexander said, But I was asking ahout the hooks.

He said, Thev rememher everv word. That's what we have heen doing the whole night.

He asked, How can a person rememher the whole hook in one night.

The old hrahmin said, You don't know hrahmins. This is our discipline. Our whole discipline
is to sharpen the memorv to such a stage that once vou have read anvthing, there is no wav to
lorget it.

This storv came into the hands ol another great king, Akhar, a Mohammedan. He could not
helieve it, hecause the Vedas are hig, voluminous collections. He inquired in his court. Iind
somehodv who can repeat this incident in lront ol me.

One man stood up and said, This is nothing. I know a hrahmin in mv village who can do a
thousand times more. This is nothing. The man was called to the court ol the great Akhar.
And in his court there were scholars ol Sanskrit, Arahic, Persian, Prakrit, Pali other ancient
languages hecause he was verv scholarlv himsell and he wanted the topmost scholars to he
around him. There were thirtv people who knew thirtv dillerent languages.

And this was the arrangement that was made. this man who was hrought lrom the village
looked like a villager, a simple hrahmin.... This was the arrangement, that evervhodv should
keep in his mind one sentence in his own language. So there would he thirtv sentences in
thirtv languages and this man knows onlv one language, Sanskrit, so in those thirtv
languages Sanskrit was not included.

This man will go to the lirst man, the lirst man will sav the lirst word ol his sentence, and a
gong will he struck. Then he will go to the second man who will sav his lirst word, and there
will again he a gong. He will go to the thirtv people again and again. second round, second
word, a gong, third round...until all the sentences are complete. And then he will repeat all the
thirtv sentences...and he did it.

Must have heen a great computer' But il computers can do it, whv not mind. Il mind can
create computers...and I have not heard ahout anv computer vet creating a mind. The mind
has much more power. You can discipline it in manv wavs, and the pseudo-religions have
developed these methods ol concentration.
Remember, concentration is not meditation. Because concentration is a discip|ine of the mind
and meditation is putting the mind aside.
In lact the English word meditation is not the right word, hecause in the West nothing like
meditation has ever happened. The Sanskrit word is GK\DQD. The prohlem was the same
when Buddhist monks went to China, thev could not lind the right word to translate dhvana
into Chinese, so thev wrote dhvana, which to the Chinese sounded like zana. Hence the
apanese Zen, it is a transliguration ol the word dhvana.

Meditation gives again the wrong idea, as il vou are meditating upon something as il it is
an activitv not much dillerent lrom concentration. You are concentrating on something,
vou are contemplating on something, vou are meditating on something, hut vou are alwavs
concerned with something. And what dhvana is, is dropping all ohjects, dropping anvthing on
which vou can concentrate, contemplate, meditate, dropping evervthing, nothing is lelt
onlv the one who was concentrating, onlv the one who was contemplating.

That pure awareness is dhvana.

In English there is no right word, so vou have to understand that we are using meditation lor
dhvana.

Dhvana means a state ol heing where there is no thought, no ohject, no dream, no desire,
nothing just emptiness. In that emptiness vou come to know vour sell. You discover the
truth. You discover vour suhjectivitv. It is perlect silence.

There are methods to put aside the mind, just as there are methods to discipline the mind. But
in the West, and more so in America...hecause il the West is had, America is worse. I have
heen looking at American hooks not now, lor lour vears I have not touched a hook. All the
hooks that are hest sellers in America are somehow concerned with how to increase vour
willpower, how to inlluence people and win lriends, how to grow rich, mind over matter...hut
thev are all talking ahout the discipline ol the mind.

Certainlv il vou discipline the mind vou are a hetter competitor, vou can lullill vour amhition
more easilv. You can manipulate people more easilv, vou can exploit people more easilv, vou
can use others as a means to vour end. Iriedrich Nietzsche has written a hook, Will to Power.
That is the verv essence of the who|e Western effort: wi||-to-power.
Will-to-power needs lirst vou should have willpower. And willpower is another name lor
vour mind discipline, crvstallized. No, these methods won't do. You have to learn methods to
put the mind aside. It is alreadv too powerlul, don't make it more powerlul, hecause vou are
leeding vour own enemv. It is alreadv crvstallized. Your school, vour college, vour universitv,
thev are all doing that.

Alter remaining nine vears a prolessor in universitv, I resigned. I said to the vice-chancellor, I
cannot do this work hecause this is destroving people.

He said, What do vou mean, that this means destroving people. Students love vou. Thev
won't allow vou to leave. And I don't see on what grounds vou are saving that vou cannot
continue to destrov people.

I said, You will not understand, hecause although vou are horn in India, vou don't know
India. You have heen educated in the West he had remained his whole lile in the West.
All these hooks, all these psvchologies that I have to teach, I am teaching against mvsell. I
know these are going to do harm to these people. Their minds are alreadv in a had shape, and
now thev will hecome stronger. Their chains will he lar stronger, their slaverv ol the mind will
he lar stronger.

The pseudo-religions depend upon disciplining the mind. The real religion's lirst work is to
put the mind aside. And it is, in a wav, verv simple. Those disciplines are verv dillicult. To
train the mind lor concentration is verv dillicult, hecause it goes on revolting, it goes on lalling
hack into its old hahits. You pull it again, and it escapes. You hring it again to the suhject vou
were concentrating on and suddenlv vou lind vou are thinking ol something else, vou have
lorgotten what vou are concentrating upon. It is not an easv joh.
But to put it aside is a verv simp|e thing not difficu|t at a||. A|| that vou have to do is to
watch.
Whatsoever is going on in vour mind, don't interlere, don't trv to stop it. Do not do anvthing,
hecause whatsoever vou do will hecome a discipline.

So do not do anvthing at all. ust watch.

Watching is not a doing. ust as vou watch the sunset or the clouds in the skv or the people
passing on the street, watch the trallic ol thoughts and dreams, nightmares relevant,
irrelevant, consistent, inconsistent, anvthing that is going on. And it is alwavs rush hour. You
simplv watch, vou stand hv the side unconcerned.

The pseudo-religions don't allow vou to remain unconcerned, hecause, thev sav, greed is had.
So il a thought ol greed comes vou jump to prevent it, otherwise vou will hecome greedv.
Anger is had, il an angrv thought passes hv, vou immediatelv jump vou have to change it,
vou have to he kind and compassionate, and vou have to love vour enemv just like voursell. Il
something against vour neighhor comes up...no, vou have to love vour neighhor just like
voursell. So all the old religions have given vou ideas ol what is right and what is wrong
and il the wrong thing is passing hv, vou certainlv have to stop it. You have to interlere, vou
have to jump in and pull that thing out. You miss the point.

That's whv I don't sav to vou what is right and what is wrong. All that I sav is. to watch is
right, not to watch is wrong.

I make it ahsolutelv simplilied. Be watchlul.

It is none ol vour husiness il greed is passing hv, let it pass, il anger is passing hv, let it pass.
Who are vou to interlere. Whv are vou so much identilied with vour mind. Whv do vou
start thinking, I am greedv...I am angrv. There is onlv a thought ol anger passing hv. Let it
pass, vou just watch.
There is an ancient storv....
A man who has gone out ol his town comes hack and linds that his house is on lire. It was
one ol the most heautilul houses in the town, and the man loved the house. Manv people
were readv to give douhle price lor the house, hut he had never agreed lor anv price, and now
it is just hurning helore his eves. And thousands ol people have gathered, hut nothing can he
done.

The lire has spread so lar that even il vou trv to put it out, nothing will he saved. So he
hecomes verv sad. His son comes running, and whispers something in his ear. Don't he
worried. I sold it vesterdav, and at a verv good price three times.... The oller was so good I
could not wait lor vou. Iorgive me.

But the lather said, Good, il vou have sold it lor three times more than the original price ol
the house. Then the lather is also a watcher, with other watchers. ust a moment helore he
was not a watcher, he was identilied. It is the same house, the same lire, evervthing is the
same hut now he is not concerned. He is enjoving it just as evervhodv else is enjoving.

Then the second son comes running, and he savs to the lather, What are vou doing. You are
smiling and the house is on lire. The lather said, Don't vou know, vour hrother has sold
it.

He said, He had talked ahout selling it, hut nothing has heen settled vet, and the man is not
going to purchase it now. Again, evervthing changes. Tears which had disappeared, have
come hack to the lather's eves, his smile is no more there, his heart is heating last. But the
watcher is gone. He is again identilied.

And then the third son comes, and he savs, That man is a man ol his word. I have just come
lrom him. He said, 'It doesn't matter whether the house is hurned or not, it is mine. And I am
going to pav the price that I have settled lor. Neither vou knew, nor I knew that the house
would catch on lire.' Again the lather is a watcher. The identitv is no more there. Actuallv
nothing is changing, just the idea that I am the owner, I am identilied somehow with the
house, makes the whole dillerence. The next moment he leels, I am not identilied.
Somehodv else has purchased it, I have nothing to do with it, let the house hurn.
This simp|e methodo|ogv of watching the mind, that vou have nothing to do with it....
Most ol its thoughts are not vours hut lrom vour parents, vour teachers, vour lriends, the
hooks, the movies, the television, the newspapers. ust count how manv thoughts are vour
own, and vou will he surprised that not a single thought is vour own. All are lrom other
sources, all are horrowed either dumped hv others on vou, or loolishlv dumped hv voursell
upon voursell, hut nothing is vours.

The mind is there, lunctioning like a computer, literallv it is a hio-computer. You will not get
identilied with a computer. Il the computer gets hot, vou won't get hot. Il the computer gets
angrv and starts giving signals in lour letter words, vou will not he worried. You will see what
is wrong, where something is wrong. But vou remain detached.

ust a small knack...I cannot even call it a method hecause that makes it heavv, I call it a
knack. ust hv doing it, one dav suddenlv vou are ahle to do it. Manv times vou will lail, it's
nothing to he worried ahout...no loss, it is natural. But just doing it, one dav it happens.

Once it has happened, once vou have even lor a single moment hecome the watcher, vou
know now how to hecome the watcher the watcher on the hills, lar awav. And the whole
mind is there deep down in the dark vallev, and vou are not to do anvthing ahout it.

The most strange thing ahout the mind is, il vou hecome a watcher it starts disappearing. ust
like the light disperses darkness, watchlulness disperses the mind, its thoughts, its whole
paraphernalia.

So meditation is simplv watchlulness, awareness. And that reveals it is nothing to do with
inventing. It invents nothing, it simplv discovers that which is there.

And what is there. You enter and vou lind inlinite emptiness, so tremendouslv heautilul, so
silent, so lull ol light, so lragrant, that vou have entered into the kingdom ol God.

In mv words, vou have entered into godliness.

And once vou have heen in this space, vou come out and vou are a totallv new person, a new
man. Now vou have vour original lace. All masks have disappeared. You will live in the same
world, hut not in the same wav. You will he among the same people hut not with the same
attitude, and the same approach. You will live like a lotus in water. in the water, hut
ahsolutelv untouched hv water.

Religion is the discoverv ol this lotus llower within.

Osho, Irom Unconsciousness to Consciousness, o