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What is meditation?
It doesn't mean thinking about something; the English word misleads you. There is no word in English that accurately corresponds to the translation of the Buddha's word, *sammasati*. It has been translated as meditation, as right mindfulness, as awareness, consciousness, vigilance, observation, witnessing – but in reality, there isn't a single word that possesses the quality of *sammasati*.
*Sammasati* means: there is awareness, but without any content. There is no thought, no desire, nothing is stirring within you. You are not thinking about God and great things... about nature and its beauty, about the Bible, the Quran, the Vedas, and their immeasurably important assertions. You are not thinking! Nor are you concentrating on any particular object. You are not reciting a mantra, because all of this is the mind's paraphernalia, the mind's content. You are not doing anything! The mind is completely empty, and you are here, in this emptiness. A kind of presence, pure presence, and there is nowhere to go – you are completely relaxed in yourself, you are at peace, you are home. This is the meaning of the Buddha's meditation.
Bliss is true happiness. What you call happiness is only suffering and illusion. What you call happiness is nothing more than entertainment, pleasure. It is momentary – it cannot be true. Truth must possess one quality, and that quality is eternity. If something is true, it is eternal; if something is untrue, it is momentary.
True happiness is found only when the mind completely ceases to function. It does not come from outside. It begins to flow within your being, it begins to overflow you. You become radiant. You become a fountain of bliss. (c) Osho
What does the Buddha mean by "desire"?
Desire means your entire mind. Desire means moving somewhere into a future that doesn't yet exist. Desire means a thousand and one ways of escaping from the present. Desire is equivalent to the mind. In the Buddha's terminology, desire means the mind... Desire is also time. When I say that desire is time, I don't mean clock time; I mean psychological time. How do you create the future in your mind? – through desire. You want to do something tomorrow: you have created tomorrow; otherwise, tomorrow is nowhere, it hasn't arrived yet. But you want to do something tomorrow, and by wanting to do something tomorrow, you have created a psychological tomorrow.
People create futures for themselves years in advance, lifetimes in advance. They even think about what to do after life, after death. They even prepare for it! And these people are considered religious; they are completely unreligious. Desire takes you away from here and now, and here and now is the only reality.
Therefore, the Buddha says: he never gives in to desire. He never moves into the future; he lives in the present. Living in the future means living a false life, a fictitious life.
Osho
It doesn't mean thinking about something; the English word misleads you. There is no word in English that accurately corresponds to the translation of the Buddha's word, *sammasati*. It has been translated as meditation, as right mindfulness, as awareness, consciousness, vigilance, observation, witnessing – but in reality, there isn't a single word that possesses the quality of *sammasati*.
*Sammasati* means: there is awareness, but without any content. There is no thought, no desire, nothing is stirring within you. You are not thinking about God and great things... about nature and its beauty, about the Bible, the Quran, the Vedas, and their immeasurably important assertions. You are not thinking! Nor are you concentrating on any particular object. You are not reciting a mantra, because all of this is the mind's paraphernalia, the mind's content. You are not doing anything! The mind is completely empty, and you are here, in this emptiness. A kind of presence, pure presence, and there is nowhere to go – you are completely relaxed in yourself, you are at peace, you are home. This is the meaning of the Buddha's meditation.
Bliss is true happiness. What you call happiness is only suffering and illusion. What you call happiness is nothing more than entertainment, pleasure. It is momentary – it cannot be true. Truth must possess one quality, and that quality is eternity. If something is true, it is eternal; if something is untrue, it is momentary.
True happiness is found only when the mind completely ceases to function. It does not come from outside. It begins to flow within your being, it begins to overflow you. You become radiant. You become a fountain of bliss. (c) Osho
What does the Buddha mean by "desire"?
Desire means your entire mind. Desire means moving somewhere into a future that doesn't yet exist. Desire means a thousand and one ways of escaping from the present. Desire is equivalent to the mind. In the Buddha's terminology, desire means the mind... Desire is also time. When I say that desire is time, I don't mean clock time; I mean psychological time. How do you create the future in your mind? – through desire. You want to do something tomorrow: you have created tomorrow; otherwise, tomorrow is nowhere, it hasn't arrived yet. But you want to do something tomorrow, and by wanting to do something tomorrow, you have created a psychological tomorrow.
People create futures for themselves years in advance, lifetimes in advance. They even think about what to do after life, after death. They even prepare for it! And these people are considered religious; they are completely unreligious. Desire takes you away from here and now, and here and now is the only reality.
Therefore, the Buddha says: he never gives in to desire. He never moves into the future; he lives in the present. Living in the future means living a false life, a fictitious life.
Osho