Osho – Man is a potentiality, a possibility. We can miss it millions miss it, and the reason why we miss is very simple: we think that we have already attained life. We make birth synonymous with life — that is our fundamental misunderstanding. Birth is only an opportunity to be alive, it is not synonymous with life. One can live a very unalive life. One can go on dragging; one can go on moving through life in deep sleep, one can be a somnabulist.
In fact that’s how man is: a machine. Man is not yet alive, has not yet been touched by God, has not allowed God to touch him, has not been available to God. Hence we carry great seeds which can become trees and can blossom, and a great fragrance can be released into existence. We can beautify existence, we can be a grace and a blessing to existence, but that rarely happens — only once in a while is there a Jesus, a Buddha, a Zarathustra. But millions and millions of people are born and die without living at all.
To be a sannyasin means being aware of this basic misunderstanding. Once you are aware you start seeking and searching for a second birth; and the second birth becomes possible only through meditation; hence in old, ancient scriptures, meditation is called the real mother.
Jesus says to his disciples: Unless you are born again you will not enter into my kingdom of God. In the East, the person who has attained to God is called dwija, twice-born. The second birth releases the fragrance.
And by meditation, concentration is not what is meant. Concentration is of the mind. It has its own utility: it is needed in scientific work, in accumulating knowledge. It is useful — I am not against concentration — but it has its own limitations. It cannot take you beyond the mind; it is a mind effort.
Meditation is not contemplation either. Contemplation is a little higher than concentration. If concentration is at the very center of the mind, contemplation is at the very circumference of the mind. It is more subtle. One has to be more artful, more intelligent, to be contemplative. Concentration is a little crude. It is needed by the beginner, in the schools, colleges, universities. But when one has become capable of concentrating one starts moving towards contemplation. Contemplation means an effortless awareness; concentration is great effort, it is almost forced, violent. Contemplation is nonviolent, more fluid, less enforced, more relaxed.
But meditation is still higher. It goes beyond the mind. Meditation is a state of no-mind; it is neither at the center of the mind nor at the circumference. It is simply not of the mind — it is watching the mind from the outside.
That is exactly the meaning of the English word “ecstasy” — to stand out. To stand out of the mind is ecstasy, and that’s what meditation is. Just be a watcher from the outside, no more a participant, no more identified with the mind — just as one watches the traffic on the road, sitting silently by the side under a tree: who passes is not the concern. One simply watches whatsoever is happening, with no like, no dislike, no justification, no condemnation, with no prejudice at all.
When one can watch the mind without condemning it, without appreciating it, without saying “This is good” and “This is bad,” and “This I don’t want” and “That I want,” without uttering a single statement about the mind, when one can watch it in deep silence, that is meditation. A miracle happens with meditation, and it happens only with meditation: when you are simply standing out, not participating, no longer active in any way, utterly inactive and silent, the mind disappears. Slowly slowly it goes farther and farther away, slowly slowly you hear only noises coming from a distance; and suddenly a moment comes: there is no mind. It has faded out, it has withered away.
And when the mind is not there and you are left alone without the mind, the fragrance is released. You have come home, you have become fulfilled. The onethousand-petaled lotus of your being has opened. You have offered your fragrance to existence. That is prayer. That’s the only gift we can give to God, and that is the only gift which can be accepted by God.
Source – Osho Book “Source – Osho Book “Even Bein’ Gawd Ain’t A Bed of Roses”