Osho Quotes on Mind
- Mind is vacillation. The
discipline of a meditator is to become so watchful of the
mind, so alert to the mind and its stupidities -- its
hesitations, its tremblings, its vacillations -- to become
so watchful that you are cut off. That is the whole purpose
of watching: watching cuts you off. Watch anything in the
mind, and you are cut off. Watching is a sword. If a thought
is moving in your mind, just watch it -- and suddenly you
will see the thought is there, you are here, and there is no
bridge left. Don't watch, and you become identified with the
thought, you become it; watch, and you are not it. Mind
possesses you because you have forgotten how to watch. Learn
it.
Just looking at a roseflower, watch it; or at the stars, or the people passing on the road, sit by the side and watch. And then slowly slowly close your eyes and see the inner traffic moving -- thousands of thoughts, desires, dreams, passing by. It is always rush hour there. Just watch as somebody watches a river flowing by, sitting on the bank. Just watch -- and watching, you will become aware that you are not it.
- Mind is being identified with it.
No-mind is being disidentified with it. Don't be a mind,
because in fact you are not a mind. Then who are you? You
are consciousness. You are that watchfulness, you are
witnessing, you are that pure observation, that mirrorlike
quality that reflects everything but never becomes
identified with anything.
Remember, I am not saying that you are conscious. I am saying you are consciousness: that is your true identity. The day one knows, "I am consciousness," one has come to know the ultimate, because the moment you know, "I am consciousness," you also know all is consciousness, on different planes. The rock is conscious in its own way, and the tree is conscious in its own way, and the animals and the people. Everybody is conscious in his own way, and consciousness is a multifaceted diamond. The day you know, "I am consciousness," you have known the universal truth, you have come to the goal.
- By meditation Atisha never means
concentration, remember. Concentration and meditation are
polar opposites. Concentration narrows down your mind; it is
focusing on one point. It includes only something and
excludes everything else. Meditation is all-inclusive, it
excludes nothing. It is not a narrowing down of the mind, it
is an expansion of consciousness. Concentration is of the
mind, meditation is of consciousness. Concentration is mind,
meditation is no-mind. Concentration is a tension: you will
be tired of it sooner or later. You cannot concentrate for a
long time, it is effort. But one can be meditative
twenty-four hours, because it is relaxation.
- Mind means past. Mind has no idea
of the present, cannot have any idea of the present. Mind
only means that which has been lived, known, experienced --
the accumulated past. It cannot have any contact with the
present; it will have that contact only when the present is
no more present and has become past. And life moves ahead.
We live in the present and we move in the future, and mind
never lives in the present and always clings to the past.
This is the dichotomy, the greatest calamity. This is the
knot that has to be cut.
- Your mind will vacillate. Mind is
vacillation, mind is either/or, mind is always in that space
of "to be or not to be." If you really want to grow, mature,
if you really want to know what this life is all about,
don't vacillate. Commit, involve! Involve yourself with
life, get committed to life, don't remain a spectator. Don't
go on thinking whether to do or not -- "Should I do this or
that?" You can go on vacillating your whole life, and the
more you vacillate, the more trained you become in
vacillation. Life is for those who know how to commit -- how
to say yes to something, how to say no to something
decisively, categorically. Once you have categorically said
yes or no to something, then you can take a jump, then you
can dive deep into the ocean.
- The
mind is a robot. The robot has its utility; this is the way
the mind functions. You learn something; when you learn it,
in the beginning you are aware. For example, if you learn
swimming you are very alert, because life is in danger. Or
if you learn to drive a car you are very alert. You have to
be alert. You have to be careful about many things -- the
steering wheel, the road, the people passing by, the
accelerator, the brake, the clutch. You have to be aware of
everything. There are so many things to remember, and you
are nervous, and it is dangerous to commit a mistake. It is
so dangerous, that's why you have to keep aware. But the
moment you have learned driving, this awareness will not be
needed. Then the robot part of your mind will take it over.
- And
the mind is skillful; it is a very beautiful machine, it
functions well. In fact all our science, together with all
our so-called progress in knowledge, has not yet been able
to create something so sophisticated as the human mind. The
greatest computers in existence are still rudimentary
compared to the mind.
The mind is simply a miracle.
- Mind loves the nonessential; it is
always hungry for gossip. Something utterly useless, and it
listens so attentively.
- Ego
is the state of utter unawareness. The mind has taken
possession of your whole being; it has spread like a cancer
all over you, nothing is left out. The ego is the cancer of
the inner, the cancer of the soul.
And the only remedy, the only remedy I say, is meditation. Then you start reclaiming a few territories from the mind. And the process is difficult but exhilarating, the process is difficult but enchanting, the process is difficult but challenging, thrilling. It will bring a new joy into your life. When you reclaim territory back from the robot you will be surprised that you are becoming a totally new person, that your being is renewed, that this is a new birth.
- My
approach is totally different. I don't say be afraid -- that
is the strategy of the priest, that is his trade secret. I
say there is nothing to fear, because God is in you. There
is nothing to fear. Live life fearlessly, live each moment
as intensely as possible. Intensity has to be remembered.
And if you don't live any moment intensely, then what
happens? Your mind hankers for repetition.
You love a woman, your mind hankers for repetition. Why? Why do you hanker for the same experience again and again? You eat certain food, you enjoy it, now you hanker for the same food again and again. Why? The reason is that whatsoever you do, you never do it totally. Hence something remains discontented in you. If you do it totally, there will be no hankering for repetition and you will be searching for the new, exploring the unknown. You will not move in a vicious circle, your life will become a growth. Ordinarily people only go on moving in circles. They appear to move, but they only appear to.
- The
mind is not separate from your body, it is the inner part of
the body. You are separate from the body and the mind, both.
You are an entity, transcendental, you are a witness to the
mind and the body, both. But your mind and your body are
both one and the same energy. The body is visible mind, the
mind is invisible body. The body is the exterior mind, and
the mind is the interior body.
- The
mind and the body both are sexual. The body has come out of
sex, and the mind is always hankering for objects, hence it
is sexual. But both can be purified through creativity. My
message, my key, my golden key to transform your energies,
is creativity. Be more and more creative, and slowly slowly
you will see a transformation happening of its own accord.
Your mind will disappear, your body will have a totally
different feel to it, and constantly you will remain aware
that you are separate, that you are a pure witness.
And that pure witness is pure desire and nothing else. I am not against desire. I am all for desire, but I am not for desires with objects. Let objects disappear, and then you will have a desire like a flame without any smoke. It brings great liberation.
- The
mind is very traditional, conventional, conformist,
orthodox. The mind is never revolutionary; it is against all
change.
-
That's why there is a great attraction to move into
dangerous situations. People climb Everest. It is a deep
meditation, although they may or may not understand this.
Mountaineering is of great importance. Climbing mountains is
dangerous -- the more dangerous it is, the more beautiful.
You will have glimpses, great glimpses of egolessness.
Whenever danger is very close, the mind stops. Mind can
think only when you are not in danger; it has nothing to say
in danger. Danger makes you spontaneous, and in that
spontaneity you suddenly know that you are not the ego.
-
Concentration is not awareness, and the person of
concentration will never show compassion. Compassion is not
a consequence of concentration. Concentration means the
focusing of the mind, the narrowing of the mind on only one
point. The concentrated mind becomes a very powerful mind --
but remember it is mind, and very powerful, hence more
dangerous than ever. Concentration is the method of science.
Awareness is totally different; it is not focusing, it is unfocused alertness. For example, right now you are listening to me. You can hear in a concentrated way, you can be focused on me; then you will miss the birds and their songs, then you will miss this noise on the road. Then you are not aware, then your mind has become very narrow. Awareness is not the narrowing of the mind but the disappearance of the mind. The narrowing of the mind makes the mind more of a mind.
- Awareness
means to listen to me unfocused -- alert of course, not
fallen asleep, but alert to these birds, their chirping,
alert to the wind that passes through the trees, alert to
everything that is happening. Concentration excludes much,
includes little. Awareness excludes nothing, includes all.
Awareness is a state of no-mind. You are, yet you are not
focused.
- The
mind creates so many temptations -- so alluring they are, so
magnetic is their power -- that unless you are in the
power-field of someone whose magnetism is far more powerful
than any other kind of temptation, it is impossible to
reach. That is the meaning of disciplehood.
-
Slowly slowly, learn the ways of living in mystery. Mind
continuously hankers to demystify everything; there is a
deep urge in the mind to demystify. Why? -- because it can
control only when something is demystified. Mystery starts
controlling it, hence mind escapes from mysteries. Mind
wants explanations, because once something is explained it
can be manipulated; once something is no more a secret, then
the mind is the master. In the presence of a secret the mind
feels simply impotent. The greater the secret, the more the
impotence of the mind.
- Past
and future are two aspects of the same coin. The name of the
coin is mind.
- If you try to watch your own mind you will find a Jew hidden there. Whenever you calculate and whenever you start living mathematically, whenever your life becomes just a business, just a logic; whenever you lose love, whenever you lose the quality to share, to risk, to gamble; whenever you lose the quality of giving wholeheartedly for the sheer joy of giving, beware of the Jew within.
