Only through sensitivity can you discover the universal law

 https://oshofriends.com/religious_inquiry/36506

 

Dharma is a very special sanskrit word. It means exactly what in chinese they mean by tao, or what in greek they mean by logos – the ultimate law. Not any law in particular…. The law of gravitation is a particular law. And then there are many laws – chemical, biological, physical, but they are all particular laws.

 

Dharma is the ultimate law, the law of all laws. So you cannot pinpoint where it is, although it is everywhere. All special laws are just particular manifestations of this universal law. Mm? gravitation is just a limited expression of it. So one that holds all laws in itself is called dharma. Dharmadeva means god of the ultimate law. And you have to start being sensitive towards this tao, dharma, the ultimate law. It is a question of sensitivity.

 

Through intellect you can discover particular laws. Only through sensitivity can you discover the universal law. The universal is not available to the intellect. That’s the difference between science and religion. In India, religion is also called dharma, mm? because it is a discovery of the ultimate law, the universal law. Science will go on discovering but it will never come across the ultimate law it cannot. Its very methodology prohibits it. The very approach is for the particular.

 

So science becomes more and more specialised, and each branch becomes more and more narrow. First there was only science; then there was physics and chemistry. Now chemistry has many branches – the organic chemistry and the inorganic chemistry. And so on, so forth; it goes on becoming more and more specific, particular.

 

Of course any scientific approach knows more, but every day it knows about less and less. It knows more and more, but about less and less – so it can never come to the universal, because there is no way to come to the universal. It will come to the very particular – so it can never come to god, because god is the universal law.

 

So the very methodology of science prohibits it knowing about god, knowing god. And then of course science goes on saying that there is no god. Now this is very irrational. You don’t allow the universal – your very approach is for the particular – and then you say that there is no universal because it never comes in your net… and you have chosen a net. A certain net catches a certain type of fish. The net of science catches the fish of the particular. The universal is such a big fish that no net will be capable of getting hold of it. One will have to go without any nets. That’s what meditation is. That’s what I call sensitivity, understanding.

 

So start feeling for the universal. Just sitting silently, listen to the universal. This silence of the night… these insects making a noise. Just listen…. Listening to this particular noise, if you bring in the intellect, science comes in. Then you start thinking about what type of insect this is and how it makes such a type of noise… what type of throat it must have, and for what reasons – you have moved into the particular.

 

Listening to this noise, not brooding about it, not thinking about it – just listening… just listening, becoming more and more sensitive; not thinking, just listening – suddenly you will see that something of tremendous import is arising out of this simple noise. A universal music can be heard through this noise because all noises contain it… but it is a very still, small voice. When you become very very silent it asserts itself in your consciousness.

 

So remember more and more to be non-intellectual and sensitive, and then you will know that there is a universal law. And to know the universal law is to know all – nothing else is needed. Then by knowing it, one becomes it. By knowing it, one by and by dissolves into it. By knowing it, one is overpowered by it.

 

And when your life is run by the universal law and you are no more a doer, then you have a true life – the life of benediction, bliss. It is not something that you can practice. You can only listen to the universal law and allow yourself to fall into its trap. It is more a sort of let-go.

 

- Osho, “The Buddha Disease, #6”

 

[Title] : Only through sensitivity can you discover the universal law
[Source] : https://oshofriends.com/religious_inquiry/36506

Osho on Karma

 Osho has spoken on virtually every topic that can be discussed. ‘Karma’ is no exception. Out of so many instances, I have mentioned below five of them where he has mentioned ‘law of karma’ and shared his thoughts on the same. Enjoy reading……

1) From the talks titled ‘The Wisdom Of The Sands’

WHAT IS THE LAW OF KARMA ?

It is not in fact a law, because there is nobody behind it as a lawgiver. On the contrary, it is intrinsic to existence itself. It is the very nature of life: whatsoever you sow, you reap. But it is complex, it is not so simple, it is not so obvious.

To make it more clear, try to understand it in a psychological way, because the modern mind can understand only if something is explained in a psychological way. In the past, when the law of karma was talked about – when Buddha talked about it and Mahavira talked about it – they had used physiological, physical analogies. Man has gone far away from that, man has moved far away from that. Now man lives more in the psychological, so this will be helpful.

Every crime against one’s own nature, every one, without exception, records itself in our unconscious – what the Buddhists call ALAYAVIGYAN, the storehouse of consciousness – EACH crime.

And what is a crime? It is not because the court of Manu says it is a crime, because that court is no more relevant; not because the Ten Commandments say it is a crime, that too is no more relevant; not because a certain government says it is a crime, because that goes on changing. Something is a crime in Russia and the same thing is not a crime in America. Something is a crime according to the Hindu tradition and the same thing is not a crime according to the Mohammedan tradition. Then what is crime? There has to be a universal definition for it.

My definition is: that which goes against your nature, that which goes against your self, your being, is a crime. And how to know that crime? Whenever you commit that crime it records in your unconsciousness. It records in a certain way: it records and starts giving you a feeling of guilt. You start feeling yourself despised by yourself, you start feeling yourself unworthy, you start feeling yourself not as you should be. Something inside you becomes hard, something closes inside you. You are no more as flowing as you have been before. Something has become solid, frozen; that hurts, brings pain, and brings a feeling of unworthiness.

Karen Horney has a good word to describe this unconscious perceiving and remembering. She says ”It registers”. I liked it... it registers. Everything that you do registers itself automatically. If you have been loving it registers that you are loving; it gives you a feeling of worth. If you have been hateful, angry, destructive, dishonest, it registers and gives you a feeling of unworthiness, a feeling of being something below human, a feeling of inferiority. And whenever you feel unworthy you feel cut off from the flow of life. How can you flow with people when you are hiding something? Flow is possible only when you expose yourself, when you are available, TOTALLY available.

If you have been cheating your woman and seeing another woman, you cannot be with your woman totally. It is impossible, because it registers: deep in your unconscious you know that you have been dishonest, deep in your unconscious you know that you have betrayed, deep in your unconscious you know that you have to hide it, that you are not to reveal it. If you have something to hide, if you have something to keep secret from your beloved, there will be distance – the bigger the secret, the bigger the distance will be. If there are too many secrets then you are completely closed. You cannot relax with this woman, and you cannot allow this woman to relax with you because your tenseness creates tenseness in her, her tenseness makes you even more tense, and it goes on, creating a vicious circle.

Yes, it registers in our books, in our beings. Remember, there are no books which God is keeping: that was an old way of saying the same thing. Your being is the book! Whatsoever you are and whatsoever you do is constantly being registered. Not that there is somebody writing it; it is a natural phenomenon. If you have been lying it is registered that you are lying, and now you have to protect those lies, and to protect one lie you will have to tell one thousand lies, and again to protect those one thousand lies you will have to go on and on and on. You become, by and by, a chronic liar. Truth becomes impossible for you, because to tell one truth will be dangerous now.

See how things go together: if you tell one lie then many lies are invited – the same attracts the same – and now truth is unwelcome, because the darkness of the lies will not like the light of truth. So even when your lies are not in any danger of being exposed you will not be able to speak truth. If you speak one truth, many other truths are invited – the like attracts the like. If you are naturally truthful it is very difficult to lie, even once, because all that truth protects you. And this is a natural phenomenon. There is no God keeping a book. You are the book. You are the God, your being is the book.

Abraham Maslow says, ”If we do something we are ashamed of, it registers to our discredit. And if we do something good, it registers to our credit.” You can watch it, you can observe it.

The law of karma is not some philosophy, some abstraction. It is simply a theory which explains something true inside your being. The net result: either we respect ourselves, or we despise and feel contemptible, worthless and unlovable.

Every moment, you are creating yourself; either a grace will arise in your being or a disgrace: this is the law of karma. Nobody can avoid it. Nobody should try to cheat on karma, because that is not possible. Watch... and once you understand it things start changing. Once you know the inevitability of it you will be a totally different person.

2) From the talks titled ‘This Very Body The Buddha’

CAN YOU TELL ME SOMETHING ABOUT THE LAW OF KARMA ? WHAT IT MEANS IN RELATION TO TAKING SANNYAS ?

Sannyas is the beginning of getting out of the law of karma. Because sannyas is the beginning of awakening. Sannyas is your effort to get out of the rut in which you have lived for many lives. Sannyas is the insight that ’Enough is enough, and I should get out of the routine life, I should get out of the mechanicalness of it. I should get out into a clearness, into clarity. Enough I have roamed in the jungle of unconsciousness, in the dark night of the soul. I should search for the dawn, for the morning.’

It is the search for the sun, it is the flight towards the sun. That’s why in the East we have chosen ochre as the color for sannyas – it is the color of the sun, the sunrays, the mornings. A search for light, a search for awareness, a search for enlightenment. Once you start becoming more and more aware, less and less will you be part of the law of karma. And once you have enjoyed and tasted a little bit of freedom then nobody can force you back into the prison. You will open your wings and you will fly towards the sun.

3) From the talks titled ‘Philosophia Perennis’

WHAT IS THE DE-ACTIVATION PROCESS OF THE LAW OF NECESSITY AND THE ACTIVATION PROCESS OF THE LAW OF POWER ?

Anurag,

THE LAW OF NECESSITY means you are unconscious, you are functioning like a robot. Only then does the law of necessity apply. So if you want to de-activate the law of necessity, the only way is to become more aware, more alert.

Make your activities de-automatized. And the more aware you are, the more the law of necessity starts disappearing. And when there is no law of necessity functioning, the other law functions automatically, of its own accord -- the law of power.

Become conscious, Anurag. The more conscious you are, the more you are beyond prediction. Then you live EACH MOMENT in freedom -- power means freedom. Power means free from the past karma. Power means you are no more dominated by the past.

The past has no more power over you. Your each moment is free from the past moment. Your each moment is fresh, young, virgin. You LIVE it in total freedom! but it never creates a bondage for the moment that will be following it. Your each moment remains unpolluted, pure, crystal-clear.

And to live in the law of necessity is to live in bondage. That's what is meant by SAMSARA -- the bondage, imprisoned. That is the whole meaning of the law of karma. In fact, the idea that Pythagoras got of the law of necessity is from the law of karma; that is his way of expressing it. The law of karma says: Whatever you have done in the past is still dominating you. You are possessed by the dead past; you are manipulated by the dead past. Whatsoever you have done yesterday has become a pattern, a structure, a character, and you are simply repeating it today. By repeating it, you will be enforcing it. Tomorrow it will become stronger, and the day after tomorrow even stronger. And life after life if you go on repeating a certain thing, it creates grooves in your mind -- and then it becomes an absolute necessity. You simply live like a robot.

The unconscious person reacts: the conscious person acts. And if you can act consciously, TOTALLY in the moment, you don't create any karma, you don't create any structures. You always remain free; you always go on moving beyond the past. You go on slipping out of the past like a snake slips out of the old skin.

Then life has tremendous beauty -- because then there is power. And it is not YOUR power, so there is no question of any ego trip. Ego comes from the past; it is part of the law of necessity. Ego is your character, good or bad, but ego is the prison that keeps you in bondage. Ego arises out of your whole past.

The bridge from necessity to power is consciousness. Anurag, become more and more conscious in whatsoever you are doing. And it is your birthright to enter into the world of power, into the radiant world of power, the luminous world of power.

4) From the talks titled ‘Vijyan Bhairav Tantra’

I have heard. Mulla Nasrudin was filling out a report because he had crashed his car into a parked car. He was filling out a report, and many things were asked. When he came to the part where it was asked what the driver of the other vehicle could have done to avoid the accident, he filled it, ‘He should have parked the car somewhere else. The car was parked there; he should have parked it somewhere else – because of him the accident has happened.’

And this is what you are doing. Always the other is responsible: he should have done something or other and there would have been no suffering. No, the other is not responsible at all. You are responsible, and unless you take this responsibility consciously upon you, you will not change. The change will become possible, easily possible, the moment you realize that you are responsible for it.

If you have suffered, it was your choice. This is what the law of karma is, nothing else: you are wholly responsible. Whatsoever happens – suffering or happiness, hell or heaven – whatsoever happens, ultimately you are totally responsible. This is what the law of karma is: total responsibility is with you.

But don’t be afraid, don’t be scared by it, because if the total responsibility is with you, then suddenly a door of freedom opens – because if you are the cause of your suffering, you can change. If others are the cause, then you cannot change. Then how can you change? Unless the whole world changes, you will suffer. And there seems to be no way to change others – then suffering cannot end.

But we are so pessimistic that even such beautiful doctrines as the law of karma we interpret in such a way that they don’t free and liberate us, but rather, on the contrary, they make us more burdened. In India the law of karma has been known for at least five thousand years or even more, but what have we done? It is not that we have taken responsibility upon ourselves; we have thrown all the responsibility on the law of karma – that it is happening because of the law of karma and we cannot do anything, nothing can be done; because of the past lives this life is such.

The law of karma was to free you. It was giving you total freedom towards yourself. No one else can make any suffering for you – this was the message. If you are suffering you have created it. You are the master of your fate, and if you want to change it, immediately you can change it and the life will be different.

You are totally responsible for whatsoever you are and for whatsoever world you are living in. It is your creation. If this goes deep in you, you can change everything. You need not suffer. Don’t choose, be a witness, and bliss will happen to you. Bliss is not a dead state. Suffering will go on continuing around you. So it is not a question of what happens to you; it is a question of how you are. The total ultimate meaning comes from you, not from the happening.

5) From the talks titled ‘Vedanta - Seven Steps To Samadhi’

Existence is pleased with you when you are real. When you are unreal existence is not pleased with you. Not that there is someone who is pleased and unpleased. The way existence behaves is like any natural law, for example gravitation. If you walk in a balanced way gravitation is pleased with you, the gravitation will not be destructive to you. But if you lose balance you will fall down on the earth. You may become crippled for your whole life, you may break your bones. Gravitation is unpleased with you, not pleased with you. But there is nobody deciding – this is a natural law. If you follow the law you will be happy, if you don’t follow the law you will be unhappy.

This is what in the East has been called the law of karma, the law of action. If your action follows the ultimate law, you will be attaining more and more bliss. If you go against it, immediately you will fall into suffering. There is no one like a grand manager deciding everybody’s actions, who is doing wrong and who is doing good, and who is to be sent to the heaven and who is to be thrown into hell – there is no one. With every movement you create your heaven and your hell. If you follow the ultimate law, you are creating heaven for yourself moment to moment. If you go astray, if you go against the law, you are creating hell, not the law.

 य ओशो के विचारों का सुंदर और भावपूर्ण हिंदी अनुवाद प्रस्तुत है:

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सार - साक्षीभाव ही ध्यान है

"जो कुछ भी मैं कर रहा हूँ, मेरा ध्यान जारी रहता है।
ध्यान कोई अलग से करने वाली चीज़ नहीं है। यह तो केवल देखने की कला है।
जब मैं आपसे बात कर रहा हूँ, तो एक हिस्सा बोल रहा है, दूसरा सुन रहा है, और तीसरा – जो मेरा असली 'मैं' है – वह देख रहा है कि क्या हो रहा है।
यह देखना ही साक्षीभाव है।
और इस साक्षी के साथ निरंतर संपर्क बनाए रखना – यही ध्यान है।"

इसलिए आप कुछ भी कर रहे हों – बस अपने साक्षी से संपर्क बनाए रखें। मैंने धर्म को उसकी मूल आत्मा तक पहुंचा दिया है। बाकी सब तो केवल कर्मकांड हैं। यह साक्षीभाव किसी को भी – चाहे वह ईसाई हो, हिन्दू हो, मुसलमान हो या नास्तिक – किया जा सकता है। इसमें किसी धर्मग्रंथ या विश्वास की आवश्यकता नहीं है।
यह एक वैज्ञानिक पद्धति है – भीतर की ओर धीरे-धीरे यात्रा करने की।
एक बिंदु आता है जब आप अपने अंतरतम केंद्र तक पहुँचते हैं – उस बिंदु तक जहाँ सबकुछ शांत है, केवल साक्षी शेष है।

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साक्षीभाव – ध्यान का मूल तत्व

"आपने पूछा – साक्षीभाव क्या है?

जो भी आप कर रहे हैं, उसे भीतर से देखना।
जैसे अभी आप लिख रहे हैं – आप सामान्य तरीके से भी लिख सकते हैं, और यह भी कर सकते हैं कि आप लिखते हुए देखें कि आप लिख रहे हैं।

आपने पूछा – क्या यह 'विरक्ति' है?

हाँ, एक तरह की दूरी है – आप थोड़े अलग खड़े हैं, स्वयं को लिखते हुए देख रहे हैं।
जैसे मैं हाथ हिला रहा हूँ – मैं उसे देख सकता हूँ।
चलते समय – देख सकता हूँ कि चल रहा हूँ।
खाते समय – देख सकता हूँ कि खा रहा हूँ।

जो भी कर रहे हैं – साक्षी बने रहें।

यदि आपके भीतर अहंकार है, तो यह उसे नष्ट कर देगा, क्योंकि अहंकार देख नहीं सकता।
देखने की शक्ति अहंकार की नहीं है – अहंकार अंधा होता है।

यदि कोई आपको अपमानित करता है और आपको गुस्सा आता है – तो आप देख सकते हैं कि
"मैं क्रोधित हूँ। मेरा अहंकार आहत हुआ है। मैं दुखी हूँ।"
और तब भी आप अलग रह सकते हैं – जैसे किसी पहाड़ी से घाटी को देख रहे हों।

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ध्यान के तीन स्तर

1. शरीर की गतिविधियाँ देखें।

2. मन की गतिविधियाँ देखें – विचार, कल्पनाएँ।

3. हृदय की गतिविधियाँ देखें – भावनाएँ, प्रेम, द्वेष, खुशी, उदासी।

यदि आप इन तीनों को साक्षीभाव से देख सकें – और आपकी साक्षी शक्ति गहराती जाए –
एक क्षण ऐसा आता है कि अब देखने के लिए कुछ नहीं बचता, केवल देखना शेष है।

मन शांत है।
हृदय शांत है।
शरीर विश्राम में है।

तब एक अद्भुत छलांग होती है – आपकी साक्षी, स्वयं को देखने लगती है।
क्योंकि देखने के लिए कुछ और नहीं बचा।
यही आत्मबोध है, यही परमज्ञान है।

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ध्यान – दिनभर किया जा सकने वाला प्रयोग

यह सबसे सरल है – क्योंकि यह आपकी दिनचर्या में बाधा नहीं डालता।
यह कोई एक घंटा बैठकर करने वाला अभ्यास नहीं है – जो बाकी 23 घंटे के विपरीत चला जाए।

यह 24 घंटे चल सकता है – सोते हुए भी।
सोते समय भी आप देख सकते हैं – "नींद आ रही है… आ रही है… शरीर ढीला पड़ रहा है…"
और आप देख सकते हैं – "मैं सो रहा हूँ…"
और तब भी कोई अंतर कोना जागता रहता है।

जब आप स्वयं को 24 घंटे देख सकें – तब आप पहुंच गए।
अब कुछ करना नहीं है।
साक्षीभाव आपकी प्रकृति बन जाता है – जैसे श्वास।

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प्रोजेक्टर और परछाइयाँ – मन की लीला

मैं एक फिल्म देखकर लौटा –
वहाँ देखा, सब लोग परदे पर चल रही छायाओं में खो गए हैं।
वहाँ वास्तव में कुछ नहीं है, और सब कुछ हो रहा है।
स्क्रीन खाली है – पीछे से चित्र डाले जा रहे हैं।
कोई भी नहीं देख रहा कि पीछे क्या चल रहा है।

ऐसे ही, मन के पीछे एक प्रोजेक्टर है –
जिसे मनोविज्ञान अचेतन कहता है –
जो वासनाएं, इच्छाएं, संस्कार वहां संचित हैं –
वे हर पल हमारे चेतन मन पर चलचित्रों की तरह डाले जा रहे हैं।

हमारी चेतना, जो कि देखने वाली है –
वह इस चलचित्र में खो जाती है।
यही भूलना ही अज्ञान है।
यही माया है।
यही जन्म-मरण का चक्र है।

जब यह चलचित्र रुकता है,
देखने वाला, स्वयं को पहचानता है –
और घर लौट आता है।

पतंजलि इसे कहते हैं – चित्तवृत्ति निरोध।
मन का रुक जाना ही योग है।
यदि यह हो जाए – सब हो गया।

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भीतर का कबाड़ख़ाना

मैंने हजारों लोगों में देखा है –
वो अपने मन में अनावश्यक मानसिक कबाड़ इकट्ठा कर रहे हैं।
कोई भी बात सुनी – जोड़ ली।
अखबार पढ़ा – कुछ कचरा मिल गया।
लोगों से बातें की – और जोड़ लिया।
फिर कहते हैं – मन शांत क्यों नहीं होता?

जैसे एक आदमी अपने घर में पुराना सामान भरता जा रहा है –
साइकिल की हैंडल, रेडियो, पहिये – सब इकट्ठा कर रहा है,
कहता है – "कभी तो काम आ सकता है।"

पर वह कभी साइकिल नहीं बना पाया – और कबाड़ के बीच ही मर गया।

ऐसा ही मन का हाल है।
विचारों का कबाड़ इतना है कि वहाँ जीने की जगह नहीं बचती।

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अचानक घटित हुए दिव्य क्षण

कभी-कभी, तारों भरी रात में बैठे-बैठे –
आपके भीतर एक अद्भुत आनंद उठता है –
जैसे वह इस दुनिया का नहीं है।
आप चकित होते हैं।

साधारण लोगों को भी ऐसे क्षण मिलते हैं –
जो बुद्धत्व जैसे होते हैं,
पर उन्होंने किसी से नहीं कहा –
उन्हें लगा, "यह तो कोई भ्रम रहा होगा। मैंने तो कुछ किया नहीं!"

वे अनुभव दबा दिए जाते हैं।
क्योंकि वे हमारी सोच की शैली से मेल नहीं खाते।

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मौन से डर

मैं कहता हूँ – "बस बैठो, मौन रहो।"
लोग पूछते हैं – "गायत्री जप सकते हैं?"
मैं कहता हूँ – "नहीं, बस चुप रहो।"
फिर कहते हैं – "ओंकार तो कर सकते हैं?"

यह मौन से डर है।
कुछ भी भरना है – पर खालीपन न रहे।
यह पीड़ा की बात है।

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ना अत्यधिक भोग, ना कठोर व्रत – मध्य मार्ग

भारत में लोग समझते हैं कि उपवास, मंत्रजाप, ब्रह्मचर्य से ध्यान होगा।
ओशो कहते हैं – "ईश्वर कोई सैडिस्ट नहीं है"।
उपवास ध्यान नहीं लाता – केवल भोजन की ज्यादा सोच लाता है।
बिना ध्यान के ब्रह्मचर्य केवल यौन repression है।
और तब आपका मन और अधिक कामुक हो जाता है।

बुद्ध ने अनुभव से कहा –
"मध्य मार्ग – न ज्यादा, न कम।"
संतुलन में जीओ –
आराम से, सहज रूप से।
तभी ध्यान सहज होगा।

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ध्यान क्या है?

"कुछ मत करो –
बस शांत बैठो, जो हो रहा है उसे देखो।
बिना पूर्वग्रह, बिना निर्णय –
ना कुछ सही, ना कुछ गलत – बस देखना।"

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The Ultimate Key to Success

The Ultimate Key To Success

(1)

Every day, a fatherless boy gazed at the fence separating his family's ramshackle cabin from a plush club's golf course. What chance did a poor Mexican-American who'd dropped out of school after the seventh standard have of being welcomed into that world?

Yet the boy was determined. First, he gained entrance to the grounds as a gardener. Then he began caddying and playing a few holes at dusk. He honed his putting skills by hitting balls with a soda bottle wrapped in adhesive tape.

Today no fence keeps Lee Trevino, one of the world's top golfers, from being welcomed into any club in the United States.

Sure, Trevino had talent. But talent isn't what kept him from quitting after he placed an embarrassing 54th in his first US Open golf tourna­ment. His secret was perseverance.

Persistent people know they can succeed where cleverer and more talented people fail. You can succeed, too, if you follow their strategies. As author Christopher Morley once said, "Bag shots are only little shots that keep shooting."

(2)

Achievers may lose their jobs, get rejected, watch their companies fail or see their ideas founder. But they take advantage of adversity, carving opportunities from change.

In her 30-year career, one American broadcaster has been fired 18 times. But every time, she set her sights on something bigger and better.When no major American radio station would hire her because they thought women couldn't attract an audience, she moved to Puerto Rico and polished her Spanish. When a news agency refused to send her to an uprising in the Dominican Republic, she scraped together money to fly there and sell her own stories.

In 1981 she was fired by a New York radio station for not having kept up with the times and was out of work for more than a year. One day she talked about her idea for a new talk show to a man who worked for NBC radio.

"I'm sure we'd be interested," he said-and then left NBC. She met another man at NBC radio and presented the idea again. He also praised it, and then disappeared. So she persuaded a third man to hire her-but he wanted her to host a show on a political radio station.

"I don't know enough about national politics to make this work," she told her husband. Yet in the summer of 1982 she went on the air. Drawing on her familiarity with a microphone and her easy, confes­sional style, she talked about what America's Independence Day meant to her and invited callers to do the same.

Listeners connected immediately, and she became famous. Today, Sally Jessy Raphael is the two-time Emmy-award-winning host of her own television show, reaching millions of viewers daily throughout the United States, Canada, the UK and Asia.

"I could have let those 18 firings prevent me from doing what I wanted," she says. "Instead, I let them spur me on."

(3)

SUCCESSFUL people radiate a positive attitude that inspires others to help them realize their dreams.

He was the son of a seamstress and an impoverished trunk maker. He worked his way through school in an impoverished New York neighbourhood. He loved theatre and longed to see a Broadway show. But he couldn't afford a ticket.

Through sheer energy and will, he rose to become a television stage manager. But he wanted to produce plays for people like himself, who could never afford to see one on Broadway.

He started a drama group in a church basement and later rented an outdoor amphitheatre. One of his company's early plays, a boisterous production of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, attracted enthu­siastic crowds-but not one drama critic. Without publicity, how could he attract donations?

So one day, he showed up at the New York Times, demanding to see drama critic Brooks Atkinson. Atkinson was in London, his assistant, Arthur Gelb, told the young man.

"Then I'll wait here until Mr Atkinson returns," he said firmly. Gelb decided to hear him out. The trunk maker's son passionately spoke of his fine cast of actors, and the applause of his audience, mostly

immigrants who had never seen live theatre. Yet if the Times didn't review his production, he'd have to pack up by week's end.

Moved by the man's determination and spirit, Gelb agreed to review the production that night.

The evening sky darkened with clouds as Gelb showed up at the outdoor theatre. At intermission, rain drenched the stage. The young man grabbed Gelb as he ran for cover: "I know critics don't normally review half a show, but I beg you to make an exception."

That night, Gelb wrote a small, favourable review of the first half of the play and explained the production company's need for financing. A day later, Herman Levin, prod ucer of My Fair Lady, sent a messenger to the production company with a cheque for 5750--enough in 1956 to keep the show afloat until summer's end. When Brooks Atkinson returned, he saw the play and raved about it in his Sunday column.

Soon Joe Papp was giving free Shakespeare productions to all of New York. He became, until his death last year, perhaps the greatest modern influence in American theatre, producing such shows as A Chorus Line, Flair and The Three-penny opera. He once said the cornerstone of his persistence was a conviction that the theatre is important to other people's lives.

"if you don't believe his, you might as well give up."

(4)

SUCCESSFUL people know that being persistent involves making choices. And choice involves risk, at this 58-year-old American farm-products salesman discovered.

For years, he had experimented with different strains of popcorn to produce a lighter, fluffier variety with few unpopped kernels. When he finally grew his ideal strain, no seed buyer wanted it because it cost more to produce.

"If I could just get the public to try the popcorn, I know they'd buy it," he told his partner.

"If you feel that strongly about it, why don't you sell it yourself?" his partner replied.

If "Red Bow" failed, he might lose lots of money. At his age, did he really want to take such a risk?

He hired a marketing firm to develop a name and image for his popcorn. Soon Orville Redenbacher was selling his Gourmet Popping Corn across the United States. Today, it's the best-selling popcorn in the world-all because Redenbacher was willing to risk what he already had to get what he wanted.

"I think most of my drive comes from people telling me I can't do something," says Redenbacher, now 84. "That just makes me want to prove them wrong."

(5)

AT Times, even the most persistent person feels overwhelmed, and needs the support of others who really believe. Consider this worker in an industrial laundry.

He lived in a caravan and earned $60 a week. His wife worked nights, but even with both jobs they barely made ends meet. When their baby developed an ear infection, they had to give up their telephone to pay for antibiotics.

The laundry worker wanted to be a writer. Nights and weekends the clack-clack of his typewriter filled the caravan. He spent all his spare money on sending his manuscripts to publishers and agents.

Everyone rejected them. The form letters were short and impersonal. He couldn't even be certain his work was being read.

One day, the laundry worker read a novel that reminded him of his own work. He sent his manuscript to Doubleday, the book's publisher. The manuscript was given to Bill Thompson.

A few weeks later, a warm, personal reply came in the mail. The manuscript had too many flaws. But Thompson did believe the laun­dry worker had promise as a writer and encouraged him to try again.

Over the next 18 months, the laundry worker sent the editor two more manuscripts. The editor rejected both. The laundry worker began work on a fourth novel. But with bills mounting, he began to lose hope.

One night, he threw his manuscript into the garbage. The next day, his wiife fished it out. "You shouldn't be quitting," she told him. "Not when you're so close."

The laundry worker stared at the pages. Perhaps he no longer believed in himself, but his wife did. And so did a New York editor he'd never met. So, ever-^,.1 day, he wrote another 1500 words.

When he finished, he sent the novel to Bill Thompson-but he was sure it wouldn't sell.

He was wrong. Thompson's publishing house handed over a $2500 advance, and Stephen King's horror classic, Carrie, was born. It went on to sell five million copies and was made into one of the top-grossing films of 1976.

(6)

SUCCESSFUL people understand that no one makes it to the top in a single bound. What truly sets them apart is their willingness to keep putting one step in front of the other-no matter how rough the terrain.

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good day!

(compiled by g prasad)

Essential Learning

Essence

Whatever I am doing, my meditation continues. It is not something that I have to do it separately; it is just an art of witnessing. Speaking to you, I am also witnessing myself speaking to you. So here are three persons: you are listening, one person is speaking, and there is one behind who is watching and that is my real me. And to keep constant contact with it is meditation.

So whatever you do does not matter, you just keep contact with your witness. I have reduced religion to its very fundamental essence. Now everything else is just ritual. This much is enough. And this does not need you to become a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan or anybody, and this can be done by an atheist, by a communist, by anybody, because it needs no kind of theology, no kind of belief system. It is simply a scientific method of slowly moving inwards. A point comes when you reach to your innermost core, the very center of the cyclone. (The last Testament)

The basic element running through all the methods of meditation is witnessing. You ask me: What is witnessing?

Whatever you are doing. For example, right now you are writing. You can write in two ways. The ordinary way that you always write. You can try another method: you can write it and you can also inside witness that you are writing it.

And you ask: Does that mean some kind of detachment?

A detachment. You are a little distant, away, watching yourself writing. So any act, just moving my hand, I can watch. Walking on the road, I can watch myself walking. Eating, I can watch. So whatever you are doing, just remain a witness.

If you have any ego,. it will destroy it, because this watching is very much poisonous to the ego. It is not ego that watches. The ego is absolutely blind. It cannot watch anything. You can watch your ego. For example, somebody insults you and you feel hurt, and your ego feels hurt. You can watch it. You can watch that you are feeling hurt, your ego is feeling hurt, and that you are angry. And you can still remain aloof, detached, just a watcher on the hills. Whatever goes on in the valley you can see.

So all the methods are basically different ways of witnessing. I have condensed them in a very simple way:

First, watch your actions of the body.

Second, watch your actions of the Mind: thoughts, imaginations.

Third, watch your actions of the heart: feelings, love,hate, moods, sadness, happiness. And if you can succeed in watching all these three, and as your witnessing grows deeper and deeper, a moment comes that there is only witnessing but nothing to witness. The mind is empty, the heart is empty, the body is relaxed. In that moment happens something like a quantum leap. Your whole witnessing jumps upon itself. It witnesses itself, because there is nothing else to witness. And this is the revolution which I call enlightenment, self-realization. Or you can give it any name, but this is the ultimate experience of bliss. You cannot go beyond it.

This is the simplest. And because it can be done without in any way interfering with your everyday life, because it is something that you can go on doing the whole day. Any other

method you have to take some time apart for it. And any method that needs one hour or half an hour to sit and do it is not going to help much, because twenty-three hours you will be doing just the opposite. And whatever you have gained in one hour will be washed away in twenty-three hours. This is the only method that you can continue around the clock. While falling asleep you can go on witnessing, witnessing, that the sleep is coming, coming, coming, that it is getting darker and the body is relaxing. And a moment comes when you can watch that you are asleep. And still there is a corner, a space in you which is awake. When you can watch yourself twenty-four hours, you have arrived. Now there is nothing to be done. Then witnessing has become natural to you. You dont have to do it. It will be simply like breathing, happening to you. This is my basic method. But there are other methods. If people feel that this is difficult for them, they can try other methods. All are available. (The last Testament)

I have returned from a movie show. It is surprising to see how much the light and shade photos projected on the screen captivate people. Where there is really nothing, everything happens! I watched the audience there and it felt as if they had forgotten themselves, as if they were not there, but the flow of electrically projected pictures was everything. A blank screen is in front and from the back the pictures are being projected. Those who are watching it have their eyes fixed in front, and no one is aware of what is happening behind their backs.

This is how leela, the play, is born.

This is what happens within and without.

There is a projector at the back of the human mind. Psychology calls this back side the unconscious. The longings, the passions, the conditionings accumulated unconscious are being continuously projected onto the mind’s screen. This flow of mental projections goes on every moment, non-stop. The consciousness is a seer, a witness, and it forgets itself in this flow of the pictures of desires. This forgetfulness is ignorance. This ignorance is the root cause of maya, illusions, and the endless cycle of birth and death. Waking up from this ignorance happens in the cessation of the mind. When the mind is devoid of thoughts, when the flow of pictures on the screen stops, only then the onlooker remembers himself and returns to his home. Patanjali calls this cessation of the activities of the mind Yoga. If this is achieved, all is achieved. (The Seeds of Wisdom).

This is my observation of thousands of people: I see them carrying such great psychological luggage, and for no reason at all. They go on gathering anything they come across. They read the newspaper and they will gather some crap from it. They will talk to people and they will gather some crap. And they go on gathering. And if they start stinking, no wonder! I used to live with a man for a few years. His house was so full of unnecessary luggage that I had to tell him "Now, where are you going to live?" And he would go on collecting any kind of thing. Somebody would be selling his old furniture, and he would purchase it, and he already had enough. He had no time to use that furniture, and he had no friends to call. His whole house was full of furniture: old radio sets, and all kinds of things. And I said "But, I dont see the point why you collect all this." He said "Who knows, any time it may be useful." One day we went for a walk and

on the road. By the side of the road, somebody had thrown a cycle handle. He picked it up. I said "What are you doing?"

He said "But, it must be worth twenty rupees at least, and I have picked up a few other things also sooner or later I am going to make a bicycle!" And he showed me. He had one wheel, one pedal, that he had picked up from the roads. And he said "What are you saying? Soon you will see!"

This man died. The cycle remained incomplete. And when he died, everybody who came to look was puzzled by what he was doing in this house there was no space even to move.

But this is the situation of your head. I see cycle-handles, and pedals, and strange things that you have gathered from everywhere. Such a small head, and no space to live in! And that rubbish goes on moving in your head; your head goes on spinning and weaving it keeps you occupied. Just think what kind of thoughts go on inside your mind. (The sun rises in the evening).

Sometimes, sitting under the stars, you feel a bliss arising within your heart. It seems not of this world. You are surprised. You cannot believe it.

I have come across simple people who have known many moments in their life which are Buddha-like, which belong to Christ consciousness, but they have never talked about them to anybody because they themselves don't believe that they were possible. They have in fact suppressed them. They have been thinking that they must have imagined them: How can it happen without any effort of my own? How is it possible that suddenly one becomes blissful? You can remember them in your own life and in such moments when you were never expecting them, just going to the office, in the daily routine, the sun is high and you are perspiring and suddenly somethi_.ng strikes home,and for a moment you are not the old you. Paradise is regained. And then it is lost again. You forget about it because it is not part of your style of life. You don't even talk about it, you think, I must have imagined it. How are these things possible? And I have not done anything so how can it happen? It must have been hallucinatory, an illusion or a dream. You don't talk about it. As I have observed thousands of people deeply I have not come across many people who have not found such certain moments in their life. But they have never talked of them to anybody. Even if they tried to, people laughed and they thought: You are foolish, stupid. They don't believe, they repress. Not only has humanity repressed sex,

has humanity repressed death, humanity has repressed all that is beautiful in life. Man has been forced to become like an automaton, a robot. All clues, all doors, have been closed towards the unknown. (Tao-The Three treasures)

It is my continual experience of thousands of people that when they come for the first time to meditate, meditation happens so easily because they don't have any idea what it is. Once it has happened, then the real problem arises, then they want it, they know what it is, they desire it. They are greedy for it; it is happening to others and it is not happening to them. Then jealousy, envy, all kinds of wrong things surround them. (The golden Future)

The inner world is a new world where you have not even looked, where you have never

taken a single step. So I have to teach you how, slowly, you can step inwards.

Even when I say to people to go inwards, immediately they ask questions which show how focused on the outside things they are.

I say to them, "Sit silently."

And they will ask me, "Can I do gayatri mantra?"

Whether you do gayatri mantra or you read the newspaper does not matter, both are outside. I am telling you, "Sit silently."

They say, "That is right, but at least I can repeat omkar," It is pitiable. I feel sad for them, that I am telling them to be silent but they are asking me to fill their silence with something. They don't want to be silent. If nothing else, then omkar will do, anything will do. (The Rajneesh Upnishad).

In India people go on doing all kinds of things. They concentrate, they chant mantras, they fast, they torture their bodies, and they hope that through all these masochistic practices they will realize God. As if God is a sadist! As if God loves you to torture yourself. As if he demands that the more you torture yourself, the more worthy you become. God is not a sadist; you need not be a masochist. I have come across people who think that without long fasting there is no possibility of meditation. Now, fasting has nothing to do with meditation. Fasting will only make you obsessed with food. And there are people who think celibacy will help them into meditation. Meditation brings a kind of celibacy, but not vice versa. A celibacy without meditation is nothing but sexual repression. And your mind will become more and more sexual, so whenever you sit to meditate your mind will become full of fantasies, sexual fantasies. These two things have been the greatest problems for the so-called meditators: fasting and celibacy. They think these two°things are going to help they are the greatest disturbances!

Eat in right proportions^. Buddha calls it "the Middle Way,neither too much nor too little. He is against fasting, and he knows it through hard experience. For six years he fasted and could not attain to anything. So when he says, "Be in the middle," he means it. About celibacy also: dont enforce it upon yourself It is a by-product of meditation, hence it can not be enforced before meditation. Be in the middle there too, neither too much indulgence nor too much renunciation. Just keep a balance. A balanced person will be more healthy, at ease, at home. And when you are at home, meditation is easier. What then is meditation? Just^, sitting silently doing nothing, witnessing whatsoever is happening all around, just watching it with no prejudice, no conclusion, no idea what is wrong and what is right. (The Dhammapada).