Meditation the Art of Ecstasy

A practical handbook in simple and clear language which is ideal for everyone from complete beginners to experienced meditators. The book contains a scientific explanation of meditation, a humorous discussion of obstacles to watch out for, answers to questions from meditators and 60 step-by-step descriptions of meditation techniques. Some techniques have been drawn from ancient traditions such as Zen, Sufi, Tantra, Tao, and the Upanishads, others include the revolutionary techniques created by Osho especially for the modern man who finds it difficult to quieten his mind.

W; train a child to focus his mind, to concentrate, because without concentration he will not be able to cope with life. Life requires it; the mind must be able to concentrate. But the moment the mind becomes able to concentrate, it becomes less aware. Awareness means a mind that is conscious but not focused. Awareness is a consciousness of all that is happening.

Concentration is a choice. It excludes all except its object of concentration; it is a narrowing. If you are walking on the street, you will have to narrow your consciousness in order to walk. You cannot ordinarily be aware of all that is happening because if you are aware of everything that is happening you will become unfocused. So concentration is a_ need. Concentration of the mind is a need in order to live — to survive and exist. That is why every culture, in its own way, tries to narrow the mind: of the child.

Children, as they are, are never focused; their consciousness is open from all sides. Everything is coming in, nothing is being excluded. The child is open to every sensation, every sensation is included in his consciousness. And so: much is coming in! That is why he is so wavering, so unstable. A child’s unconditioned mind is a flux — a flux of sensations — but he will not be able to survive with this type of mind. He must learn how to narrow his mind, to concentrate.

The moment you narrow the mind you become particularly conscious of one thing and simultaneously unconscious of so many other things. The more narrowed the mind is, the more successful it will be. You will become a specialist, you will become an expert, but the whole thing will consist of knowing more and more’ about Jess and less.

The narrowing is an existential necessity; no one is responsible for it. As life exists, it is needed, but it is not enough. It is utilitarian, but just to survive is not enough; just to be utilitarian is not enough. So when you become utilitarian and the consciousness is narrowed, you deny your mind much of which it was capable. You are not using the total mind, you are using a very small part of it. And the remaining — the major portion — will become unconscious.

In fact, there is no boundary between conscious and unconscious. These are not two minds. "Conscious mind" ‘means that part of the mind that has been used in the narrowing process. "Unconscious mind" means that portion that has been neglected, ignored, closed. This creates a division, a split. The greater portion of your mind becomes alien to you. You become alienated from your own self; you become a stranger to your own totality.

A small part is being identified as your self and the rest is lost. But the remaining unconscious part is always there as unused potentiality, unused possibilities, unlived adventures. This unconscious mind — this potential, this unused mind — will always be in a fight with the conscious mind; that is why there is always a conflict within. Everyone is in conflict because of this split between the unconscious and the conscious. But only if the potential, the unconscious, is allowed to flower can you feel the bliss of existence; otherwise not.

If the major portion of your potentialities remains unfulfilled, your life will be a frustration. That is why the more utilitarian a person is, the less he is fulfilled, the less he is blissful. The more utilitarian the approach — the more one is in business life — the less he is living, the less he is ecstatic. The part of the mind that cannot be made useful in the utilitarian world has been denied.

The utilitarian life is necessary but at a great cost: you have lost the festivity of life. Life becomes a festivity, a celebration, if all your potentialities come to a flowering; then life is a ceremony. That is why I always say that religion means transforming life into a celebration. The dimension of religion is the dimension of the festive, the nonutilitarian.

The utilitarian mind must not be taken as the whole. The remaining, the greater — the whole mind — should not be sacrificed to it. The utilitarian mind must not become the end. It will have to remain there, but as a means. The other — the remaining, the greater, the potential — must become the end. That is what I mean by a religious approach.

With a nonreligious approach, the businesslike mind, the utilitarian, becomes the end. When this becomes the end, there is no possibility of the unconscious actualizing the potential; the unconscious will be denied. If the utilitarian becomes the end, it means that the servant is playing the role of the master.

Intelligence, the narrowing of the mind, is a means toward survival, but not toward life. Survival is not life. Survival is a necessity — to exist in the material world is a necessity — but the end is always to come to a flowering of the potential, of all that is meant by you. If you are fulfilled completely, if nothing remains inside in seed form, if everything becomes actual, if you are a flowering, then and only then can you feel the bliss, the ecstasy of life.

The denied part of you, the unconscious part, can become active and creative only if you add a new dimension to your life — the dimension of the festive, the dimension of play. So meditation is not a work, it is a play. Praying is not a business, it is a play. Meditation is not something to be done to achieve some goal — peace, bliss — but something to be enjoyed as an end in itself.

The festive dimension is the most: important thing to be understood — and we have lost it totally. By festive, I mean the capacity to enjoy, moment to moment, all that comes to you.