Meditation brings wholeness and health

Osho, is meditation enough to make us whole and healthy? Please explain.

The word "meditation" and the word "medicine" come from the same root. Medicine means that which heals the physical, and meditation means that which heals the spiritual. Both are healing powers.

Another thing to remember is that the word "heal" and the word "whole" also come from the same root. To be healed simply means to be whole, lacking nothing. Another connotation: the word "holy" also comes from the same root. Healing, whole, holy, are not different in their roots.

Meditation heals, makes you whole; and to be whole is to be holy.

Holiness has nothing to do with being a part of any religion. Join any church. It simply means that inside you are whole, complete, nothing is missing, you are fulfilled. You are what existence wanted you to be. You realized your potential.

In the West, meditation has not taken root, because the three main religions of the West Judaism, and the two branches of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are all prayer-oriented.

Prayer and meditation are absolutely opposite, prayer moves outward. Prayer is addressed to some God you don't know, it's just a belief given to you by your parents, society, church, synagogues.

You pray, but there is no one listening to your prayer. There is no one who will answer your prayer. Yes, people who pray feel good; but that doesn't mean their prayer was heard.

Just by praying, they become silent. Just by praying, a certain kind of attitude arises in them; they drop their egos, they drop everything. They become sharply concentrated on the idea of ​​a God. This is their idea, their projection, and it will give them a feeling of well-being. And that well-being is completely illusory, it makes you feel that your prayer is meaningful. And that there must be a God; otherwise, after praying, why do you feel so serene, so calm? Prayer works almost like self-hypnosis.

A God is not needed, you can focus on anything. In India there are people who love trees, and they feel the same way. There are people who love statues, a pile of stone, and they feel the same way. There are people who worship the sun, or the river, and they feel the same way.

The question is not what are you worshipping; the point is that if you concentrate you go into a hypnotic trance. It is a hypnotic and very relaxing trance, it makes you feel good. So if you pray just to feel that well-being, there's no harm in it, it's perfectly fine. But this has nothing to do with the search for truth. It has nothing to do with knowing your being. Meditation moves inward; prayer points outward. That's why I say its dimensions are polar opposites.

To pray to a God you need an object. And you can have whatever object you want. Hindus have thirty-three million gods. Why have just one when it comes to your imagination? Why be sane miserable? Hindus have gods in abundance. You can choose according to your taste any type of god.

To outsiders it seems very strange, but they don't understand the psychology of prayer. It doesn't matter what you are praying for, who your prayer is being addressed to. All that matters is that you must be focused. You can do the same just by lying down and looking at the lamp without blinking your eyes, praying, at least the lamp is not your imagination, it is there and very quickly you will fall into a hypnotic trance. And when you come to, you will feel refreshed, rejuvenated, more alive than ever, younger.

So, there's nothing wrong, as far as these things can benefit you. The problem is that you think that this is religious, that it is spiritual growth, then you will be falling into a very dangerous fallacy.

Religion is an inward journey, and meditation is the way. What meditation actually does is, it takes you, your consciousness, as deep as possible. Even your body becomes something outside. Even your mind becomes something outside. Even your own heart, which is closest to the center of your being, becomes outside.

When your body, mind and heart, all three, are transcended, then you have arrived at the center of your existence. This arrival at the center is like an immense explosion that transforms everything. You will never be the same again, because now you know that your body is just a shell; the mind is a little bit more internal, but it's not really your inner core; the heart is even more inward, but not your deepest center. You are disidentified with all three.

That's why George Gurdjieff used to call his path "the fourth path", because if you are able to transcend these three you will arrive at the fourth, beyond which there is nowhere else to go. You've reached the end.

But it gives you a lot of experiences. You begin to feel, for the first time crystallized, not like that old sick person you always were. For the first time you begin to feel an incredible energy, an inexhaustible energy, that you have never noticed before. For the first time you will know that death only happens to the body, the mind, the heart, not you.

You are eternal. You have always been here, and you will always be here in different forms, and finally in a formless state. But you cannot be destroyed, you are indestructible. It frees you from all your fears. And the disappearance of fear is the appearance of freedom. The disappearance of fear is the appearance of love.

Now you can share. You can give as much as you want, because now you are an inexhaustible source of living water. Many who are thirsty will come to you. They will find you, there will be no need to call them; the headquarters itself will put you in touch with them. They will come closer to you, because as they come closer they will feel the disappearance of thirst and the appearance of great contentment. Just as you are, they are becoming.

Meditation makes you whole, makes you holy, and makes you an inexhaustible source for those who are hungry, thirsty, seeking, searching, groping in the dark.

You become a light, and many can share your light. You can see: a lit candle can light many other candles. And that doesn't dim your light.

One enlightened being can share your luminosity and many can become enlightened. But your enlightenment does not diminish; on the contrary, it increases. The more he gives, the more he has. There comes a time when he surrenders completely. And that's the moment he becomes a master. So those who are ready to take it, who are open, available, can take it whenever they want.

The master is just a light. He is not a teacher, but something transpires between him and the disciple. And the moment the disciple also becomes enlightened, there is no difference between the master and the disciple. And that is the greatest contentment for a master when all his disciples also become masters.

This has been my idea in creating communes around the world. These communes are not like ordinary religious organizations, these communes are not communes of believers. These communes are alchemical laboratories for transformation and creation of more and more masters. With less than masters I will not be satisfied.

Meditation is the path to mastery of your own being. No God is needed, no catechism is needed, no holy book is needed. No one needs to become a Christian, or a Jew, or a Hindu, all of that is pure nonsense. All it takes is for you to find your center, and meditation is the simplest way to find yourself. It will make you whole, spiritually healthy, and it will make you so rich that you can destroy all the spiritual poverty in the world.

And this is real poverty. The physical body's poverty for food, for clothing, for shelter can easily be solved by science and technology. But science and technology cannot give you bliss, it is beyond their reach. And you can have everything the world has to offer, but if you don't have peace, serenity, silence, ecstasy, you will remain poor. In fact, you will feel your poverty more than ever, because the contrast will be there. You will be living in a golden palace, and you will know that you are a beggar. now you can look inside, there is nothing, you are completely empty.

That's why, the more intelligent humanity becomes, the more mature, the more and more people start to feel its insignificance, the more and more people start to realize that life is accidental, that it is simply pointless to go on living.

According to the latest philosophical studies in the West, everything points to one thing, that maybe suicide is the only solution. And of course, if you don't know your inner world, and you have everything the world can give you available, suicide will seem to be the only solution.

Meditation can make you rich inside. So suicide is out of the question; even if you want to destroy yourself, there's no way. Your being is indestructible. And to know this immortality is to be free - from death, from illness, from old age. All these things will come and go, and you will remain untouched, unscathed. Your inner health is beyond any illness. And she's there, she just needs to be discovered.

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OSHO - From Bondage to Freedom