~♥~
WHEN YOU BREATHE WITH AWARENESS, THINKING DISAPPEARS
BRING AWARENESS TO EACH ACT. Walking on the road, walk fully alert; eating,
eat with awareness. Whatsoever you are doing, don't let the past and the
future interfere. BE IN THE PRESENT; that's what awareness is all about.
Taking a shower, just take the shower. Don't let the mind go far away, into
the past, into the future. Don't allow the mind these faraway excursions,
these journeys. Taking a shower, just take the shower....
TO BE AWARE, ONE NEEDS TO DO ONE THING AT A TIME. And do it with full
awareness, watchfulness.
...
People go on doing things almost in a sleep. Just become a little more
alert. Do whatsoever you are doing, but bring the quality of consciousness
to your actions -- there is no other method. And you can bring that quality
to small things, and that is helpful. SITTING, JUST WATCH YOUR BREATHING.
The breath goes in, watch; the breath goes out, watch. Just go on watching
your breathing. And it is of great help -- because if you watch your
breathing, thinking stops.
This is something to be understood. EITHER YOU CAN THINK OR YOU CAN WATCH
YOUR BREATHING; you can't do both together. Breathing and thinking are such
processes that only one can exist in you -- in awareness. In unawareness,
both can continue: you can go on breathing and you can go on thinking. But
if you become aware, either you can think or you can breathe; AND WHEN YOU
BREATHE WITH AWARENESS, THINKING DISAPPEARS. Your whole consciousness
becomes focused on breathing. And breathing is such a simple process: you
need not do it, it is already happening. You can just bring your
consciousness to it.
BUDDHA BECAME ENLIGHTENED THROUGH THIS SIMPLE METHOD. He calls it vipassana,
insight. BREATHING BRINGS GREAT INSIGHT; and when you are aware of
breathing, the whole thought process simply comes to a stop -- and great
stillness arises. After watching your breathing, it will be easy to watch
your thinking directly, because breathing is a little gross.
THINKING IS MORE SUBTLE. Thoughts have no weight, they are weightless; they
can't be measured, they are immeasurable. That's why the materialists cannot
accept them. Matter means measure -- that which can be measured is matter.
So thought is not matter, because it cannot be measured. It is, and yet it
cannot be measured; hence it is an epiphenomenon. The materialist says, "It
is only a by-product, a side effect, a shadow phenomenon" -- just as you
walk in the sun, a shadow follows you. But the shadow is nothing. You walk
in life and thinking arises -- but thinking is only a shadow. If you watch
this shadow, this epiphenomenon, these thoughts and the processes of
thought... it is going to be a more subtle phenomenon because it is not as
gross as breathing.
But first, LEARN THE PROCESS OF AWARENESS THROUGH BREATHING, and then move
to thinking. And you will be surprised: the more you watch your thinking...
again, EITHER YOU CAN WATCH OR YOU CAN THINK. Both cannot be done
simultaneously. If you watch, thinking disappears.
IF THINKING APPEARS, WATCHING DISAPPEARS. When you have become alert enough
to watch your thoughts and let them disappear through watching, then move to
feeling -- which is even more subtle. And these are the three steps of
vipassana. FIRST BREATHING, SECOND THINKING, THIRD FEELING. And when all
these three have disappeared, what is left is your being.
To know it is to know all. To conquer it is to conquer all.
OSHO
The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha
Vol 6, Ch #6: No going back
~*❤*~
MAN NEEDS TO BE NEEDED. It is one of the most fundamental needs of human beings. Unless one is cared for, one starts dying. Unless one feels that he is significant to somebody -- at least to somebody -- his whole life becomes insignificant. Hence, LOVE IS THE GREATEST THERAPY THERE IS. The world needs therapy because the world is missing love. IN A REALLY LOVING WORLD, NO THERAPY WILL BE NEEDED AT
ALL; love will be enough, more than enough.
HUGGING IS ONLY A GESTURE OF LOVE, OF WARMTH, OF CARING. The very feel of the warmth flowing from the other person melts many illnesses in you, melts the ice-like cold ego. It makes you a child again. Psychologists are well aware of the fact now that unless a child is hugged, kissed, he misses some nourishment. JUST AS THE BODY NEEDS FOOD, THE SOUL NEEDS LOVE. You can give the child all the physical needs, all the physical comforts -- but if hugging is missing, the child will not grow into a wholesome being; he will remain somewhere deep down sad, uncared for, neglected, ignored. He was nursed, but he was not mothered.
It has been observed that if a child is not hugged, he starts shrinking, he can even die. Although everything else was provided for -- as far as the body is concerned every care was taken - - but if no love surrounded the child, he becomes isolated, he becomes disconnected from existence. LOVE IS OUR CONNECTION, LOVE IS OUR VERY ROOT. Just as you breathe... for the body it is absolutely essential -- stop breathing and you are no more -- in the same way love is the inner breath. THE SOUL LIVES BY LOVING.
Analysis won't do it, wit and clarity, knowledge and scholarship won't do it. You can know all there is to know about therapy -- you can become an expert -- but if you don't know the art of love, you remain only on the surface of the miracle of therapy. The moment you start feeling for the patient, for the one who is suffering... OUT OF A HUNDRED CASES, NINETY PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOT BEEN LOVED... If you start feeling the need for love of the patient, and if you can fulfill the need, there will be an almost magical change in the condition of the patient. LOVE IS CERTAINLY THE MOST THERAPEUTIC PHENOMENON!
HUGGING IS ONLY A GESTURE OF ONENESS. EVEN THE GESTURE HELPS! And if the hug is authentic and true -- not just a gesture, but your heart is also in it -- it can be a magical tool, it can be a miracle, it can transform the whole situation instantly. Hugging gives you an immediate contact with the child within. If you hug somebody with warmth, with love -- if it is not just an impotent gesture -- if it is meaningful, significant... If your heart is flowing through it, immediately you come in contact with the child, with the innocent child. And to contact that innocent child is therapeutic.
And the innocent child, surfacing even for a single moment, makes a tremendous difference -- because the innocence of the child is always healthy and whole, uncorrupted. You have reached to the innermost core of the person, where no corruption has ever entered. You have reached to the virgin core. AND JUST MAKING THE VIRGIN CORE THROB AGAIN WITH LIFE IS ENOUGH. You have started, you have triggered a process of healing.
OSHO
The Wild Geese and the Water
Ch #4: Soul: Living by loving
am in Buddha Hall