The Great Path - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 7. MEDITATION IS THE SEED
If you refuse to bathe and if the desire for a bath catches hold of you, then the desire is not the
problem; the problem is you. You are restless. You do not know. You have never meditated. You
have never indulged in this troublesome practice, and you want to eradicate your restlessness? It
can never be eradicated without bathing in meditation.
Meditation is an internal bath. As the body is rid of dust and dirt, and becomes clean and fresh after
a bath, so is meditation a bath of the inner soul; and when everything becomes fresh within, then
where is the turmoil? Where is the sorrow and worry? Then you are thrilled. You are cheerful and
blooming. There are bells on your ankles and your life becomes a dance. Before that you are sad,
tired and distressed. And if you think that the cause of your distress is outside you are mistaken.
There is only one cause for your restlessness: you have not let your seed of meditation develop into
a tree. Try as hard as you will, you will remain restless. Perhaps you imagine that peace will come
if you accumulate the right things – wealth, status, honor, health, sons and daughters... but there is
no end to your restlessness. The more of these things you gather, the more your life will be filled
with restlessness, and the more intense it will be.
A poor man is restless, a rich man more! Why is this so? Why does restlessness increase with
wealth? It doesn’t! The poor man is also restless, but he doesn’t have enough time to know it. The
rich man has the time to notice it; it pricks him like a thorn, and he sees it all around him.
When you have gratified all your needs, you will suddenly realize that the actual need is for
meditation. All other needs were for the body, not for your self.
This sutra says: MEDITATION IS THE SEED.
On your great journey, your quest for life, your pilgrimage to the temple of truth, meditation is the
seed. What is meditation? Why is it so valuable – so valuable that if it flowers you will become
God, and if it rots you will rot in hell? What is meditation? Meditation is the state of no-thought
consciousness, where you are fully conscious but thoughts are absent. You are, but the mind is not.
The death of the mind is meditation.
At present, you are not. There is the mind and mind alone. It should be just the opposite: there
should be only you, without any mind. Right now the mind consumes all your energy. All your
life-energy is being sucked by the mind.
Have you ever seen the air plant? the amar-bel? It is a parasite that attaches itself to a tree and
lives off of it, sucking its energy. The tree ultimately dries up and dies. It is called amar-bel, the
immortal creeper. It is just like the mind. It has no roots. It needs no roots, for it lives off the parent
plant. It sucks the tree dry as it nourishes itself. The Hindus have given it an apt name, the immortal
creeper.
Your mind is also an immortal creeper. It does not die. It lives on indefinitely. It follows you for
countless lives. What is interesting is that it has no roots, no seeds. Its existence is rootless. It
should be dead, but it lives on you.
Your mind envelops you. You are completely smothered by it. All your life-energy is sapped by the
mind. You are almost dried-up. Your mind lets you have just enough to keep you alive. The parasite
The Great Path 124 Osho