Meditation is the centre of today’s Mandala. A few days ago, we talked about Gratitude being the key that can unlock the locks of many difficult situations. The same is true with meditation. As Osho says,
“Meditation is the
only answer to all the
questions of man.
It may be frustration,
it may be depression,
it may be sadness, It
may be meaninglessness,
it may be anguish; the
problems may be many,
but the answer is one.
*Meditation is the answer*.”
We were introduced to Osho Meditations at a time when my husband (Dr Manoj Bhatawdekar, Psychiatrist) was suffering from severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. He had inflammation of most of his joints …knees, ankles, jaw, shoulder, elbow, wrists and small joints of the hands. He was in severe pain most of the times, was on a high dose of painkillers; and if he delayed the dose of the painkiller, he used to be in agony. That was the time (18 months after his illness began) when we attended an Osho Meditation camp conducted by Swami Satya Niranjan. Osho meditations are of different types, most of them involving Dance or some physical activity. This was very difficult for Manoj with his physical condition, but with a strong determination, he wholeheartedly participated in the meditations ……..and on the second day of the camp, we realised that Manoj had missed the afternoon dose of his painkiller, but there was no pain!! That’s when we first experienced the Power of Meditation. As Manoj continued to meditate regularly at home even after the camp was over, we could see the positive changes in his health and he made a fast recovery into complete remission ( which continues to date, even after 23 years !)
This is just one small example of the healing effects of Meditation. But meditation can heal not only the body, but also the mind. It can help reduce your anxieties and stresses and can bring Peace to your troubled souls. And even more important, it can connect you to your INNER JOY. Just a word of caution though….. it is best to meditate without any expectations, just to experience the Joy of meditation. If you focus your mind on the expectations, you may be in for a disappointment.
Whenever we think of Meditation, most of us visualise someone sitting with eyes closed and trying to achieve a state of Thoughtlessness. While this is true for the original Vipassana meditation given by Buddha 2500 years ago; for the modern man, sitting quietly like this is next to impossible. That’s why Osho has designed many different kinds of meditations to suit different persons. Most of these meditations involve dancing or physical activity followed by sitting silently. These are better suited for the modern man who is used to running and hurrying all the time. Osho recommends at least one hour of meditation every day, but for busy people, he talks about *work as meditation* ….. i.e. doing your day to day activities or work meditatively. So you can meditate while cooking or cleaning or taking a walk or running or eating! As you delve deeper and deeper into a meditative state, any activity can be converted into meditation. (I am sharing an excerpt from one of Osho’s discourses which talks in detail about this concept…. it’s a little long, but do read it at leisure. )
For me, at the moment, drawing theme-based Mandalas and expressing my thoughts about this theme are like a Meditation! But more about that some other time.
At the moment, hoping that you can get in touch with some form of Meditation which can reduce the stress of coping with the current situation.
Love,
ANJALI BHATAWDEKAR
Osho on Work
You people go on thinking in wrong terms. Work is not work. And without work you will become more rotten, because what will you do? Your whole energy will become just a whirlpool inside and will create a thousand and one problems.
Work is needed… it is a relaxation. You create energy by food, by sleep. Where to put that energy?
You have to be creative about it. And work is a very ugly word, and particularly in the West, it is very ugly. That has created a certain subconscious attitude. In primitive societies, work is taken to be almost a play, a game. Everything is thought to be a game.
…..
Once a man came to see me. He was a bus driver. Of course, to drive a bus in a city like Bombay or Delhi where the whole traffic is neurotic, brings one to be continuously on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He was very nervous, shaking.
He told me, ’I want to get rid of this work. It is too much! I cannot sleep – it gives me nightmares. And the whole day on the wheel in such neurotic traffic I cannot relax for a single moment.’
I told him, ’Try a meditation that I will give you, for seven days. Take this as a challenge – that these people are running into the middle of the road and doing everything in disorder.
Take it that they are just creating a situation for you in which to test your skill. Take it as a play. Take it as a situation in which your energy is put to test, and your whole skill is to be judged.’
This idea appealed to him and after seven days he came and said, ’It has worked… tremendous! Now I am not worrying about the road; I am enjoying it! The more disorderly it is, the more I enjoy it. It is really beautiful how I can avoid all the problems of the traffic. When I come back home, I come almost as a victorious player; like somebody who has won a gold medal in the Olympics!’
Take work as a game and enjoy it. Everything is a challenge. Just don’t go on doing it, dragging yourself because it has to be done. Then you will become ill.
If you have to work for four, five hours a day and those hours are a continuous sub-current of avoiding it, then you are dividing your being. It is not a question of work. It is a question of your whole inner well-being.
You will become divided doing something for four or five hours which you cannot like or don’t like.
So there are only two possibilities: either find work you like or become capable of liking the work, whatsoever it is.
The second is the best alternative because it is very difficult to find work that you like. Sooner or later you will dislike it. In the beginning, maybe you like it.
The first alternative is to find work you like. But that is not going to help for long because every kind of work, by and by becomes boring. You have to repeat everything. The other alternative is best. Bring a capability to like anything that you do; whatsoever the work you can like it.
Try it. Find out ways how to like it.
People want to find out ways how to dislike it, so of course they find ways.
For three weeks, try doing the work and liking it. Enjoy it, and singingly. Let it be just a dance. If you are cleaning, it can be a dance, a singing, an enjoyment, a delight and you will be tremendously benefited by it.
….
Osho
Excerpts from –
Beloved of my Heart
