Osho - How Can Meditation Solve Life Problems or Prevent Wars?

ISBN: 978-0-88050-717-2

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How Can Meditation Solve Life Problems or Prevent Wars? , by Osho

From a series of OSHO Talkstitled: Sufis: The People of the Path,Vol. 2 #12, Question 2

How Can Meditation SolveLife Problems or Prevent Wars? is also available as an original audio recording, spoken by Osho

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ISBN: 978-0-88050-717-2

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You believe that man should live more meditatively. How canthis solve life problems or prevent wars?

First, I dont believe a thing. I am not a believer at all. Neverjoin the word belief with me.

It is not my belief that man should live more meditatively, itis my understanding that man can live only in meditation otherwise there isno life. Meditation is life. Not to be in meditation is not to live. Then youonly pretend that you are living; then your life is just a mask. It has noauthenticity in it, it has no depth; it is just the surface, the facade.

So first, I dont believe that man should live more meditatively.Second, I have no shoulds and should nots. Never bring those words in whereI am concerned. I dont give you any should, because all shoulds bringguilt. If I say that you should do this, I am creating guilt in you. If youcannot do it, there will be guilt. You will feel that you have missedsomething; you will become more miserable. And the should means future. I amnot concerned with the future at all. Look at the lilies in the field. Theythink not of the morrow, hence they are beautiful. Listen to the birds in thetrees. They dont think of the morrow, hence they are fantastic, gorgeous. Eachmoment is so joyful.

I dont give you any should. Should means the future,should means you have to do something tomorrow, or the next moment. Shouldcannot be related to the present, should brings the future in. My wholeconcern is with the present this moment. I dont give you any dreams.Shoulds are all utopian. They say, If you do this, then this will happen.They are conditions. And I say to you that God is unconditionally given to you.It is a gift. There is no way to earn God, there is no way to become worthy ofhaving God God is not a possession. God is a gift, and an unconditional gift.It is available to each and every one, there is no should to be fulfilled.

So even meditation is not a should.

And thirdly, how can you do meditation? It is not a question ofdoing. You can be in meditation but you cannot do it. It is like love. You canbe in love, but you cannot do it. Have you ever tried doing love? Then you goon doing something else, and there is no flow, there is no glow, there is nojoy. It becomes a duty. You go into empty gestures, impotent movements, butthere is no soul in it. You cannot do love. Love is a state, not an act. So ismeditation.

Meditation is a state of silence; meditation is a state of nodesire; meditation is a state of no past, no future; meditation is a state whenyou are not doing anything, just cherishing your being. You are just happy thatyou are, happy that you are breathing, simply happy for no reason at all. Inthose moments there is meditation.

I cannot say to you that meditation is a should, that youshould do it. I can only explain to you what meditation is. If you understandme, you will be in meditation. There is no should to it. It you dont understandme, you will not be in meditation. But then too you need not feel guilty. Guiltcomes when you do something and you fail. Now meditation can become the sureway to create guilt. If you do it, you will fail! Thats how people are guilty.

They try to make love and it doesnt happen they feel guilty.They start thinking, I am unloving, Im trying my hardest and it is nothappening. Naturally they think that something is wrong with them. Nothing iswrong. The only thing wrong is that you are trying to do something which cannotbe tried. You are trying to do something which can only be spontaneous itcomes when it comes. At the most the only thing you can do is not resist it when it comes, dont resist it. When it comes, keep your doors open, thats all.But that is not much of a doing, it is more of a non-doing. You can allowmeditation to happen or you can resist meditation and not allow it to happen.Should cannot be made out of it.

I dont give you any commandment; I am not a commander. All commandersare dangerous people; they have destroyed humanity. All commandments havecorrupted man because they have created guilt. A should is a goal.

I am simply sharing my understanding with you. I am in no wayconcerned with improving upon you. I am not trying to fix you. If you want tobe fixed you should go to a psychiatrist, a psychoanalyst, a therapist. Theyare the people who fix you.

But the very idea of fixing a person is insulting. It means youhave been taken as a thing. Yes, a car can be fixed in the garage, and whenyour bathroom is leaking a plumber can fix it but man is not a thing. Youcannot fix man.

First the priest used to do it, now the psychotherapist is doingit. The priest has failed. The psychoanalyst is failing, not because somethingis wrong with the priest or something is wrong with the psychoanalyst, no. Thewhole effort is wrong. You cannot fix anybody. Man is freedom. The idea offixing him reduces him to a thing, kills his spirit. I dont give you anyshould and I dont want to fix you. In fact, I am not interested in yourspiritual growth at all.

What I am interested in is sharing that which has happened to me.It is not that I have done it, it has happened to me. And because it hashappened to me, how can I give a should to you? It happens. I can only makeyou alert about how it happens. It has nothing to do with you or with yourdoing. You have to be receptive. Understanding makes you receptive,understanding makes you more relaxed, understanding brings you to a kind of let-go.And in that space, meditation simply is.

Meditation is a state when you are not trying for anything, noteven for meditation. Meditation is a state of non-striving, utter relaxation.There is no goal, nowhere to go, nothing to be done. The sheer joy of being iswhat meditation is. How can you do it? By doing it you will destroy it.

So I cannot give you a should.

You ask: You believe that man should live more meditatively.No. All that I want to say to you is that meditation is your birthright. It isthere waiting for you to relax a little bit so that it can sing a song, sothat it can become a dance. The flower is there but you are so worried aboutother things that you cant see it. It has already happened. It happened themoment you were born, it happened the moment you became alive. The moment youentered into existence, meditation bloomed in you.

And sometimes there are moments when you become aware of it. Justhidden beneath the surface of your day-to-day activities, have you not becomeaware of a substratum deep down where nothing ever happens and all is silent?In the Upanishads they say that life is like two birds sitting on a tree. Onebird is sitting high on the top of the tree, unmoving, silent, as if not.Another bird is jumping from one branch to another, from this fruit to thatfruit, is fighting, is struggling, is trying to reach, is very tense, tired,frustrated. The Upanishads say that these two birds are you. On the lowerbranch the one bird goes on jumping, rushing, in a hurry, doing this and that.On a higher branch the other bird goes on sitting, just watching the lower birdand the foolish efforts that he is making. And both are you.