Question – Beloved Osho, Is the Watcher amused?

Osho – The watcher cannot do anything except watch. If it is amused, it has lost its watching. There may be amusement but that will be part of the mind. The watcher will watch it, too.
The watcher cannot do anything else but be a watcher. The moment it does anything else, the watcher slips back and it is the mind.

The watcher is not amused. And there is nothing in the world for the watcher to be amused about. The world is so miserable that if the watcher could weep and shed tears that may have been the right thing for it to do, but it has no eyes, no tear glands.

So remember it: even when you are feeling blissful, it is not the watcher who becomes blissful. The watcher is still watching the blissfulness. Whatever happens, the watcher simply reflects it. That’s why, ultimately, when everything has gone, only the watcher remains. Its experience can be compared with no experience of your mind. Blissfulness, ecstasy, benediction — they are all below it; it is always behind them. It is simply the watching.

There is one temple in India. In that temple there is no statue. Just on a marble rock there are two eyes. They signify the watcher. No expression in those eyes.

That’s why the ultimate experience cannot be expressed, because it is only a mirror which reflects nothing. So the watcher is not amused. He is the mind which can be amused. The watcher is still watching it.

Source – Osho Book “The Path of the Mystic”

Question – Beloved Osho, When I was a student at a Japenese Buddhist University, I heard the word Consciousness. Beloved Osho, What does it mean?

Osho – Kranti Satbodha, consciousness you already have, but only in a very small proportion. It is just like an iceberg — one tenth is above water and the rest is under water. Just a little bit is conscious in you.

I am saying something and you are listening to it; without consciousness it is not possible. These pillars of Chuang Tzu Auditorium are not listening — they don’t have consciousness. But we are aware only of a very small piece of consciousness.
Meditation is the whole science of bringing more and more consciousness out of darkness.

The only way is to be as conscious as possible twenty-four hours a day. Sitting, sit consciously, not like a mechanical robot; walking, walk consciously, alert to each movement; listening, listen more and more consciously, so that each word comes to you in its crystal clear purity, its definitiveness. While listening, be silent, so that your consciousness is not covered by thoughts.

Just this moment, if you are silent and conscious you can hear small insects singing their song in the trees. The darkness is not empty, the night has its own song; but if you are full of thoughts then you cannot listen to the insects. This is just an example.

If you become more and more silent, you may start listening to your own heartbeat, you may start listening to the flow of your own blood, because blood is continuously flowing all through your body. If you are conscious and silent, more and more clarity, creativity, intelligence, will be discovered. There are millions of geniuses who die without knowing that they were a genius. There are millions of people who don’t know why they have come, why they lived and why they are going.

It happened… George Bernard Shaw was traveling from London to some other place in England. The ticket checker came and Bernard Shaw looked in all his pockets, opened his suitcase — he was perspiring — the ticket was missing.

The ticket checker said, “I know you, everybody knows you, there is no need to be worried. You must have put it somewhere, don’t be so tense”. Bernard Shaw said, “Who is being tense about the ticket?” The ticket checker said, “Then why are you perspiring and looking so nervous?”

He said, “The problem is that now the question arises of where I am going. It was written on the ticket. Now, are you going to tell me where I am going? Who is going to tell me?” The ticket checker said, “How can I tell you where you are going?”

So Bernard Shaw said, “Then you should go and leave me alone. I have to find the ticket. It is a question of life and death. Where am I going? I must be going somewhere, because I have come to the station, purchased the ticket, entered the compartment. So one thing is certain, I must be going somewhere.”

This is the situation most people never come to know — their consciousness is a hidden treasure. One does not know what it contains unless you awaken it, unless you bring it into light, unless you open all the doors and enter into your own being and find every nook and corner. Consciousness in its fullness will give you the idea of who you are, and will also give you the idea of what your destiny is, of where you are supposed to go, of what your capacities are. Are you hiding a poet in your heart, or a singer, or a dancer, or a mystic?

Consciousness is something like light. Right now you are in deep darkness inside. When you close your eyes there is darkness and nothing else.

One of the great philosophers of the West, C.E.M. Joad, was dying, and a friend, who was a disciple of George Gurdjieff, had come to see him. Joad asked the friend, “What do you go on doing with this strange fellow, George Gurdjieff? Why are you wasting your time? And not only you… I have heard that many people are wasting their time.”

The friend laughed. He said, “It is strange that those few people who are with Gurdjieff think that the whole world is wasting its time, and you are thinking that we are wasting our time.” Joad said, “I don’t have much longer to live; otherwise I would have come and compared.”

The friend said, “Even if you have only a few seconds more to live, it can be done here, now.” Joad agreed. The man said, “You close your eyes and just look inside, and then open your eyes and tell me what you find.”

Joad closed his eyes, opened his eyes and said, “There is darkness and nothing else.” The friend laughed and he said, “It is not a time to laugh, because you are almost dying, but I have come at the right time. You said that you saw only darkness inside?” Joad said, “Of course.”

And the man said, “You are such a great philosopher; you have written such beautiful books. Can’t you see the point, that there are two things — you and the darkness? Otherwise, who saw the darkness? Darkness cannot see itself — that much is certain — and darkness cannot report that there is only darkness.” Joad gave it consideration and he said, “My God, perhaps the people who are with Gurdjieff are not wasting their time. This is true, I have seen the darkness.”

The friend said, “Our whole effort is to make this “I,” the witness, stronger and more crystallized, and to change the darkness into light. And both things happen simultaneously. As the witness becomes more and more centered, the darkness becomes less and less. When the witness comes to its full flowering, that is the lotus of consciousness — all darkness disappears.”

Satbodha, we are here in a mystery school, doing nothing else than bringing more and more crystallization to your witness, to your consciousness; so that your inner being, your interiority, becomes a light, so full and overflowing that you can share it with others. To be in darkness is to be living at the minimum. And to be full of life is to live at the maximum.

Source – Osho Book “The Razor’s Edge”

Osho – The only thing that has to be learned is watchfulness. Watch! Watch every act that you do. Watch every thought that passes in your mind. Watch every desire that takes possession of you. Watch even small gestures — walking, talking, eating, taking a bath. Go on watching everything. Let everything become an opportunity to watch.

Don’t eat mechanically, don’t just go on stuffing yourself — be very watchful. Chew well and watchfully…and you will be surprised how much you have been missing up to now, because each bite will give you tremendous satisfaction; if you eat watchfully, it will become more tasteful. Even ordinary food tastes if you are watchful; and if you are not watchful, you can eat the most tasteful food but there will be no taste in it, because there is nobody to watch. You simply go on stuffing yourself.

Eat slowly, watchfully; each bite has to be chewed, tasted. Smell, touch, feel the breeze and the sunrays. Look at the moon and become just a silent pool of watchfulness, and the moon will be reflected in you with tremendous beauty. Move in life remaining continuously watchful.

Again and again you will forget. Don’t become miserable because of that; it is natural. For millions of lives you have never tried watchfulness, so it is simple, natural, that you go on forgetting again and again. But the moment you remember, again watch.

Remember one thing: when you remember that you have forgotten watching, don’t become repentful, don’t repent; otherwise, again you are wasting time. Don’t feel miserable: “I missed again.” Don’t start feeling, “I am a sinner.” Don’t start condemning yourself, because this is a sheer waste of time.

Never repent for the past! Live in the moment. If you had forgotten, so what? It was natural — it has become a habit, and habits die hard. And these are not habits imbibed in one life; these are habits imbibed in millions of lives. So if you can remain watchful even for a few moments, feel thankful to God — feel thankful. Even those few moments are more than expected.

Source – Osho Book “The Dhammapada, Vol1″

Question – Beloved Master, Any marks for Choiceless UnAwareness?

Osho – Anand Buddha, even if you are aware of that, that will do. Are you aware of choiceless unawareness? That will destroy that choiceless unawareness. Make it an object of awareness and it will disappear, evaporate. And no marks can be given for it, because if marks have to be given for it then everybody will succeed in getting marks — everybody, because everybody is living it.

A huge bully sauntered into the dimly lit saloon. “Is there anybody here called Kilroy?” he snarled. Nobody answered. Again he sneered, “Is there anybody here called Kilroy?”
There was a moment of silence and then a little Irishman stepped forward. “I am Kilroy,” he said.
The tough guy picked him up and threw him across the bar. Then he punched him in the jaw, kicked him, slapped him around and walked out.
About fifteen minutes later the little fellow came to. “Boy, didn’t I fool him,” he said. “I ain’t Kilroy!”

A pretty young girl stretched out on the psychiatrist’s couch. “I just can’t help myself, Doctor. No matter how hard I try to resist, I bring five or six men with me into my bedroom every night. Last night there were ten. I just feel so miserable, I don’t know what to do.”
In understanding tones the doctor rumbled, “Yes, I know, I know, my dear.”
“Ah!” the surprised girl exclaimed. “Were you there last night too?”

People are living in unconsciousness, doing all kinds of things in unconsciousness. Everybody is an unconscious robot. We are just pretending that we are conscious; we are not conscious.
The moment you become conscious, all unconscious actions disappear from your life. Your life starts moving in a new dimension. Your each act comes out of inner clarity; your each response is virtuous, is virtue.

To live unconsciously is to live in sin; to live consciously is to be virtuous, is to be religious. And to live in total awareness is to be a buddha, is to be a christ.

It will be good if we start calling Christ “Joshua the Buddha.” His real name was Joshua; from Joshua has come Jesus. And ‘christ’ has become ugly because of the Christian church; the word has lost its beauty. It will be good if we change, if we start calling him Joshua the Buddha — because they are all buddhas, they are all awakened people. They live through inner light. You only grope in inner darkness.

Anand Buddha, I have given you the name Buddha. If you feel you are living in choiceless unawareness, make it a point to be aware of it.

A thief asked a great Buddhist mystic, Nagarjuna, “Can I meditate and still remain a thief?”
Nagarjuna said, “Yes. Just do one thing: while you are stealing remain alert, aware, conscious.”
The thief was very happy. He said, “You are the right master! I have gone to many people, and they all say, ‘First stop stealing, then you can be a meditator.’”

Nagarjuna said, “Those are not masters — they must be ex-thieves. I am a master. I am concerned with meditation, not with other things. What you do is YOUR business; whether you steal or donate, that is your business. My business is to tell you to be alert, and do whatsoever you want to do.”

Of course the thief was very happy — happy because now he could have both worlds. But after fifteen days he came back, fell at the feet of Nagarjuna, and he said, “You are a very sly fellow! You destroyed my whole profession — because if I try to be alert I cannot steal; my hands simply won’t move. Last night I entered into the king’s palace; this was such an opportunity that it happens only once in a lifetime. It was very difficult to enter — my whole life I have tried — but it must be because of your blessings: last light I entered, and all the guards were fast asleep. I opened the treasure and such precious diamonds I have never seen in my life! I could have become the richest man, and everything was within my grasp, but you were standing between me and the treasure. You were telling me, ‘Be aware!’ You were shouting at me, ‘Be aware!’ And if I tried awareness, those precious stones looked just like stones, not worth bothering about. If I forgot about awareness, they were again precious stones, tremendously valuable.

“It changed many times. I became aware and they were ordinary stones; I became unaware and they were great riches. But finally YOU were victorious. I have come back to you. Now initiate me into sannyas.”

Nagarjuna must have been a man like me; otherwise, ordinary teachers can’t accept a thief.
Sometimes a drunkard comes to me and he says, “I am a drunkard. Can I also be a sannyasin?”
I say, “Don’t be bothered about small things. Sannyas will do! You first be a sannyasin, then we will see.”
He seems to be puzzled, he can’t understand. But once he becomes a sannyasin, things start changing. Sooner or later he comes and reports that “You did the trick. I cannot drink anymore; it has become more and more impossible. It is so repulsive, disgusting.”

One drunkard told me — he has become a sannyasin just a few months ago — he said, “It has become so difficult. Now I know the strategy and the trick behind these orange clothes, because when I go to the pub people start touching my feet! They say, ‘Swamiji, this is a pub! You must have come thinking it is some other place.’ And I say, ‘Yes — is this a pub?’ And I have to turn back! I can’t even go in.” He was really angry at me; he said, “I can’t even go to the movie, because standing in the queue people start touching my feet, and they say, ‘Swamiji, what are you doing here?’ And I have to escape!”

Just a small bit of awareness and it will affect your whole life. Just a small bit of awareness and your total life as you have lived up to now will be shattered, will collapse, and a new life will start arising around that small center of awareness.

Source – Osho Book “The Dhammapada, Vol8″

Question – Sometimes I feel aware and sometimes not. Awareness seems to pulsate. Does this pulsating slowly disappear or does it go suddenly

Osho – In life everything is a rhythm. You are happy and then follows unhappiness. Night and day, summer and winter; life is a rhythm between two opposites. When you try to become aware the same rhythm will be there: sometimes you are aware and sometimes not.

So don’t create a problem, because you are such experts in creating problems that out of the blue you can create a problem. And once you have created a problem then you want to solve it. And then there are people who will supply you with answers. A wrong problem is always answered by a wrong answer. And then it can go on ad infinitum; then a wrong answer again creates questions.

From the very beginning one has to be aware not to create a wrong problem. Otherwise the whole of life goes on and on in the wrong direction. Always try to understand not to create a problem. Everything pulsates into a rhythm, and when I say everything, I mean everything. Love, and there is hate; awareness, and there is unawareness. Don’t create any problem: enjoy both.

While aware enjoy awareness, and while unaware enjoy unawareness — nothing is wrong, because unawareness is like a rest. Otherwise, awareness will become a tension. If you are awake twenty-four hours, how many days you think you can be alive? Without food a man can live for three months; without sleep, within three weeks he will go mad, and he will try to commit suicide. In the day you are alert; in the night you relax, and that relaxation helps you in the day again to be more alert, fresh. Energies have passed through a rest period; they are more alive in the morning again.

The same will happen in meditation: few moments you are perfectly aware, at the peak; few moments you are in the valley, resting — awareness has disappeared, you have forgotten. But what is wrong in it? It is simple. Through unawareness will arise again awareness, fresh, young, and this will go on. And if you can enjoy both you become the third, and that is the point to be understood.

If you can enjoy both it means you are neither — neither awareness nor unawareness, you are the one who enjoys both. Something of the beyond enters. In fact, this is the real witness. Happiness you enjoy — what is wrong when happiness has gone and you have become sad? What is wrong in sadness? Enjoy it. And once you become capable of enjoying sadness, then you are neither.

And this I tell you: that if you enjoy, sadness has its own beauties. Happiness is a little shallow; sadness is very deep, it has a depth into it. A man who has never been sad will be shallow, just on the surface. Sadness is like a dark night — very deep. Darkness has a silence into it, sadness also. Happiness bubbles, there is a sound in it. It is like a river in the mountains; sound is created. But in the mountains, river can never be very deep; it is always shallow. When the river comes to the plain it becomes deep, but the sound stops. It moves as if not moving. Sadness has a depth.

Why create trouble? While happy, be happy, enjoy it. Don’t get identified with it. When I say be happy, I mean enjoy it. Let it be a climate which will move and change. The morning changes into the noon, the noon changes into the evening, and then comes night. Let happiness be a climate around you. Enjoy it, and then comes sadness… enjoy that too. I teach you enjoyment, whatsoever the case. Sit silently and enjoy sadness, and suddenly sadness is no more sadness; it has become a silent peaceful moment, beautiful in itself, nothing wrong in it.

And then comes the ultimate alchemy, the point where suddenly you realize you are neither — neither happiness nor sadness. You are the watcher — you watch peaks, you watch valleys; you are neither.

Once this point is attained, you can go on celebrating everything. You celebrate life and you celebrate death. You celebrate happiness, you celebrate unhappiness. You celebrate everything. Then you are not identified with any polarity. Both the polarities have become available to you together, and you can move from one to the other easily. You have become liquid-like, you flow. Then you can use both, and both can become a help into your growth.

Remember this: don’t create problems. Try to understand the situation, try to understand the polarity of life. In summer it is hot, in winter it is cold — so where is the problem? In winter enjoy cold, in summer enjoy heat. In summer enjoy the sun; in the night enjoy the stars and the darkness, in the day the sun and the light. You make enjoyment your continuity, whatsoever happens. In spite of it you go on enjoying. You try it, and suddenly everything is transfigured and transformed.

Source – Osho Book “Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol3″

Question – Beloved Osho, You describe Witnessing as a knack. often, late at night, when i am in a very relaxed state, witnessing happens. at other times, though, it just seems to be mind watching mind watching mind. please comment on this knack.a

Osho – The moment I say that witnessing is a knack, it implies that there is no way to explain it, no way to teach someone about it, no way to train someone in it.
That’s the whole meaning of the word “knack.”

I can say things which are close enough, but they can never be exact descriptions of the knack. It is not an art, not a craft that can be explained in detail, step by step. But if it is happening to you, there is no problem. You should know what it is, you should know the taste of it.

The problem is arising because you must be trying to do it; not allowing the knack to happen, but trying to make an art of it, so that you can control it. Man wants to control everything; it is part of his basic ego.

The knack cannot be controlled. Either you know it or you don’t know it. You can play around it, and sometimes by chance you stumble upon it: suddenly you have come to know it. That is the moment when you have to be aware in what situation it is happening.

In the night, when you are relaxed, you find it happening. That gives you a clue that relaxation, not an effort to attain witnessing, allows the knack to happen. At other times when you are trying, making an effort, an endeavor to get it, then it is mind watching mind watching mind. It is always the mind. Mind cannot get the knack. Mind can learn any art, any technique, any craft: a knack is beyond it. It is not its language, it is not its world. A knack is something beyond mind.

So you have to be clearly aware: the thing is happening to you, the failure of the mind is happening to you. Whenever you are trying, you watch — then you find that it is mind watching another part of the mind. And then you find the one who has found this is also another part of the mind. And this can go on ad infinitum. Mind is capable of dividing itself infinitely. But finally you will find only mind — you will not come to meditation, you will not come to witnessing.

So your failure is helpful. It says, “Don’t make the effort, don’t try.” Your success indicates that it happens when you are relaxed, when you are not trying. In relaxation, mind is no longer functioning. The mind is going to be in sleep, it is ready to go into sleep; it is not going into an effort because effort will keep you awake. You cannot fall into sleep by effort.

Sleep and witnessing have something in common. You cannot make the effort — one thing. Every effort is going to be a failure — another thing. Unless you learn that every effort fails, you cannot get the knack. But once in a while when your mind is getting ready to go to sleep — inbetween, when you are still awake, and the mind is relaxing to go into sleep — suddenly, witnessing happens. You have got the knack!

Now don’t ask me what it is. That may destroy even your night witnessing, because you may start trying it. Just let it happen as it is happening in the night. You can, at the most, create the same atmosphere whenever you want it to happen, and wait. You cannot force it.

One has to learn a great lesson — that there are things beyond you which you cannot force; you can only remain open, available, waiting, and they come. The moment you become tense to get hold of them, they slip away. It is just like, in the open fist you have all the air possible. With the closed fist all the air disappears. You may be thinking that with a closed fist you are catching hold of the air. No, it has slipped out. It does not belong to the closed fist, it belongs only to the open hand — and it is easily available. You just have to see when it happens, what the surroundings are.

The surroundings mean you are going into sleep, you are tired of the whole day’s work — you don’t want to work anymore. In the gap, before the mind slips into sleep and you lose consciousness — the mind is preparing, is getting ready to go into sleep, but you are still awake — in that minute gap, witnessing happens. Now, you cannot try the knack.

You can simply create the outer situation. In the day, anytime, let the mind go into relaxation. Don’t try — as if you are going to create witnessing: you are simply allowing mind to rest. And at a certain point, that same gap will appear, and in the gap descends the witness. This is the mystery of a knack — its strangeness and its simplicity too.

Source – Osho Book “Light on the Path”

Question: Beloved Osho, you describe witnessing as a knack. Often, late at night, when I am in a very relaxed state, witnessing happens. At other times, though, it just seems to be mind watching mind watching mind. Please comment on this knack.

Osho: The moment I say that witnessing is a knack, it implies that there is no way to explain it, no way to teach someone about it, no way to train someone in it. That’s the whole meaning of the word ”knack.”

I can say things which are close enough, but they can never be exact descriptions of the knack. It is not an art, not a craft that can be explained in detail, step by step. But if it is happening to you, there is no problem. You should know what it is, you should know the taste of it.

The problem is arising because you must be trying to do it; not allowing the knack to happen, but trying to make an art of it, so that you can control it. Man wants to control everything; it is part of his basic ego. The knack cannot be controlled. Either you know it or you don’t know it.

You can play around it, and sometimes by chance you stumble upon it: suddenly you have come to know it. That is the moment when you have to be aware in what situation it is happening. In the night, when you are relaxed, you find it happening. That gives you a clue that relaxation, not an effort to attain witnessing, allows the knack to happen.

At other times when you are trying, making an effort, an endeavor to get it, then it is mind watching mind watching mind. It is always the mind. Mind cannot get the knack. Mind can learn any art, any technique, any craft: a knack is beyond it. It is not its language, it is not its world. A knack is something beyond mind.

So you have to be clearly aware: the thing is happening to you, the failure of the mind is happening to you. Whenever you are trying, you watch – then you find that it is mind watching another part of the mind. And then you find the one who has found this is also another part of the mind.

And this can go on ad infinitum. Mind is capable of dividing itself infinitely. But finally you will find only mind – you will not come to meditation, you will not come to witnessing. So your failure is helpful. It says, ”Don’t make the effort, don’t try.” Your success indicates that it happens when you are relaxed, when you are not trying. In relaxation, mind is no longer functioning.

The mind is going to be in sleep, it is ready to go into sleep; it is not going into an effort because effort will keep you awake. You cannot fall into sleep by effort. Sleep and witnessing have something in common. You cannot make the effort – one thing. Every effort is going to be a failure – another thing.

Unless you learn that every effort fails, you cannot get the knack. But once in a while when your mind is getting ready to go to sleep – inbetween, when you are still awake, and the mind is relaxing to go into sleep – suddenly, witnessing happens. You have got the knack! Now don’t ask me what it is.

That may destroy even your night witnessing, because you may start trying it. Just let it happen as it is happening in the night. You can, at the most, create the same atmosphere whenever you want it to happen, and wait. You cannot force it. One has to learn a great lesson – that there are things beyond you which you cannot force; you can only remain open, available, waiting, and they come.

The moment you become tense to get hold of them, they slip away. It is just like, in the open fist you have all the air possible. With the closed fist all the air disappears. You may be thinking that with a closed fist you are catching hold of the air. No, it has slipped out. It does not belong to the closed fist, it belongs only to the open hand – and it is easily available.

You just have to see when it happens, what the surroundings are. The surroundings mean you are going into sleep, you are tired of the whole day’s work – you don’t want to work anymore. In the gap, before the mind slips into sleep and you lose consciousness – the mind is preparing, is getting ready to go into sleep, but you are still awake – in that minute gap, witnessing happens.
Now, you cannot try the knack. You can simply create the outer situation. In the day, anytime, let the mind go into relaxation. Don’t try – as if you are going to create witnessing: you are simply allowing mind to rest. And at a certain point, that same gap will appear, and in the gap descends the witness. This is the mystery of a knack – its strangeness and its simplicity too.

Source: “Light on the Path” – Osho

Osho – As you become a witness, as you become aware, you simply come to know that you are not the body, not the mind, not even the heart. You are simply a watcher, different from all that surrounds you. The body is your outermost boundary; the mind a little more inner, the heart still more inner, but at the innermost core you are just a consciousness.

Knowing this you become detached from your own body, your mind, your heart; and that detachment brings mastery. Not that you become destructive to the body — you take every care of it, it is a beautiful instrument, it is a great gift of God. But now you know that it is only the house you live in. Just as you take care of your house, you take care of your body; it is the temple. Your consciousness is your reality; you become disidentified, and to be disidentified is to be the master.