Osho : When I say that awareness cannot be attained by mind, I mean that you cannot attain it by thinking about it. You can go on thinking about and about, but you will be moving in a circle. When I say that it cannot be attained by the mind, I mean that it cannot be attained by thinking. You have to practice it, you have to DO it.
It can be attained only by doing, not by thinking; that is the first thing. So don’t go on thinking about what awareness is, how to achieve it or what will be the result. Don’t go on thinking; start doing it. When walking on the street, walk with awareness. It is difficult and you go on forgetting, but don’t be afraid.
Whenever you remember again, be alert. Take every step with full alertness, knowingly, remaining with the step, not allowing the mind to move somewhere else. While eating, eat; chew with awareness. Whatsoever you are doing, don’t do it mechanically – and that is different. And when I say that it can be felt only, the meaning is this: for example, I can raise my hand mechanically, but then I can also raise my hand with full alertness.
My mind is conscious that my hand is being raised. Do it, try it – once mechanically and then with alertness. You will feel the change. The quality changes immediately. Walk with alertness, and you walk differently; a different grace comes to your walking. You move more slowly, more beautifully. If you walk mechanically – only because you know how to walk and there is no need to be alert, then the walking is ugly, there is no grace in it.
Do whatsoever you are doing with alertness, and feel the difference. When I say ”feel,” I mean observe. First do it mechanically and then with awareness, and feel the difference. And you will be able to feel the difference.For example, if you eat with awareness, then you cannot eat more than is needed by the body.
People go on coming to me and they say, ”Put us on a diet. My weight is constantly increasing, the body is constantly hoarding. Put us on a diet.” I tell them, ”Don’t think of diet, think of consciousness. By dieting nothing will happen. You cannot do it. You will do it one day and the next day it will go. You cannot continue it. Rather, eat with awareness.”
The quality changes. If you eat with awareness, you will chew more. With unconscious, mechanical habits, you simply go on pushing things into your stomach. You are not chewing at all, you are just stuffing. Then there is no pleasure, and because there is no pleasure you need more food in order to get the pleasure. There is no taste, so you need more food.
Just be alert and see what happens. If you are alert, you will chew more, you will feel the taste more, you will feel the pleasure of eating, and much more time will be taken. If you take half an hour to eat your meal, then by taking the same quantity of a meal with full awareness you will need one and a half hours – thrice the time. In half an hour you will have eaten only one-third of the quantity, and you will feel more fulfilled; you will have enjoyed the meal more.
And when the body enjoys, it tells you when to stop. When the body has not enjoyed at all, it never says when to stop, so you go on. Then the body becomes dull. You never hear what the body is saying. You are eating without being there; that creates the problem. Be there, and every process will be slowed down. The body will itself say, ”No more!”
And when the body says it, that is the right moment. If you are aware, you cannot trespass the body’s order. You will stop. So allow your body to say something. The body is saying things every moment, but you are not there to hear it. Be alert and you will hear it.