Astrall
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1. Why do I always daydream about the future?
Everyone does this. The human mind as such is the capacity to daydream. Until you move beyond the mind, you will continue to daydream. The mind cannot exist in the present — it can exist either in the past or in the future. For the mind, there is no way to exist in the present. To be in the present means to be outside the mind.
Try this. If a silent moment occurs when no thought crosses your being, your consciousness — when the screen of consciousness is absolutely free from clouds — and suddenly you are present... This moment, this real moment — a moment of reality, a moment of truth. But there is no past, and there is no future.
Usually, time is divided into three times: past, present, future. This division is essentially wrong, unscientific, because the present is not part of time. Only the past and the future are parts of time. The present is beyond time. The present is eternity.
The past and the future are parts of time. The past is that which no longer exists, and the future is that which does not yet exist. Both are non-existential. The present is that which is. The essential cannot be part of the inessential. They never meet; their paths can never cross.
And time is the mind; the accumulated past — that is exactly what your mind is. What is your mind? Analyze it, look into it. What is it? — merely a heap, an accumulation of your past experiences. Your mind is only a collective term, like an umbrella under which all your past is held, nothing more. If little by little you start taking the past out of the bag, the bag will disappear.
If the past remains the only reality for the mind, what can the mind do? One possibility: to continue chewing and re-chewing the past over and over again. This is exactly what you call memories, reminiscence, nostalgia. You can return to the past again and again; again and again — to past moments, beautiful moments, moments of happiness. They are rare and scattered among many others, but you cling to them. You avoid the ugly moments, the unhappy moments.
But this cannot go on forever, because it is futile; this activity seems meaningless. Therefore, the mind creates a "meaningful" activity — this is exactly what daydreaming about the future is.
The mind says: "Yes, the past was good, but the past is over; nothing can be done with it. But something can be done with the future, because it is yet to come." Thus, you choose from your past experiences those that you wish to repeat again, and you discard the experiences that were very unhappy, painful, which you do not want to repeat in the future. Your daydreams about the future are nothing other than a modification of the past: better arranged, more decorated, more acceptable, less painful, more pleasant. This is what your mind continuously does, and thus you continue to miss reality.
Meditation simply means a few moments when you are not in the mind, a few moments that you slip out of the mind.
You slip into reality, into that which is. These existential moments are so immeasurably ecstatic that once you have tasted them, you will stop daydreaming.
Daydreaming will continue until you begin to taste meditation. Until you start receiving nourishment from meditation, you will continue to suffer from hunger and thirst for some food in the future. And you know that the future will not bring it, because today was the future once before. Yesterday, today was the future, and you daydreamed about it. Now it has arrived. What happens? Are you happy? Yesterday was also once the future. All the past was once part of the future, and it slipped away — and this future will slip away too. With daydreams, you fool yourself.
Become a little more aware and try to bring consciousness more and more toward the factuality of existence.
See this flower, do not think about that flower. Listen to this word I am speaking, not the word I am going to speak. Look right now. If you delay even for a fraction of a second, you will miss it, and then it will become a habit, and the habit will embed itself deeply within you. Tomorrow you will also miss it, and the day after — because you yourself will remain the same. And moreover — the habit of daydreaming will become stronger.
The other day I read a wonderful Japanese story. Such stories exist in all the folklores of the world; their features are similar. It is a beautiful story. Listen to it.
Once there lived a man who carved stones from a cliff. His labor was very hard, and he worked much, but the pay was low, and he was dissatisfied.
Who is satisfied? Even emperors are not satisfied, what to say of a stonecutter? His work, undoubtedly, was very hard, and the pay negligible.
He sighed because his labor was so hard, and exclaimed:
— Ah, if only I were rich, I could rest on a sofa with silk covers.
And an angel descended from heaven, and he said:
— You have become what you said.
And this actually happens — not only in parables and stories; it happens in real life. Everything you think about yourself happens. You create your world with your own thought, create your world with your own desires. Everything you insist upon begins to happen. Reality constantly cooperates with you. It awaits that moment, that day when you begin to cooperate with it. Until then, it continuously cooperates with you.
And the angel said:
— You have become what you said.
And he was rich, and rested on a sofa with silk covers.
The king of this country passed by among his riders, who rode in front of his chariot and behind it, and over the king's head they held a golden sun umbrella. When the rich man saw this, doubts were born within him: no one held a golden umbrella over his head, and he was dissatisfied. He sighed and exclaimed:
— I wish I were the king. Again the angel descended and said:
— You have become what you said.
And he was the king, and many riders galloped before his chariot, and riders galloped behind his chariot, and over his head they held a golden sun umbrella, and the sun shone with hot rays, scorching the earth, and the shoots of grass withered. And the king complained that the sun burned his face, and that it surpassed all in power, and he was dissatisfied. He sighed and exclaimed:
— I wish I were the sun. And the angel came, and he said:
— You have become what you said.
And he was the sun, and directed his rays up and down, right and left, everywhere, and scorched the shoots of grass on the earth, and disturbed the peace of earthly kings. And then a cloud passed between the sun and the earth, and the sun's rays reflected off it, and the sun grew angry that the cloud resisted its power. It complained that the cloud surpassed it in power, and it was dissatisfied. It wished to be a cloud possessing such power, and the angel appeared and said:
— You have become what you said.
And he became a cloud and passed between the sun and the earth, and caught the sun's rays so that the grass became green again. The cloud poured great drops of rain upon the earth, causing rivers to swell, and floods began, and houses were washed away by water, and the water destroyed fields because there was too much of it. Water fell on a cliff that stood firm, watering it with stormy torrents, but the cliff did not yield, and the cloud flew into a rage because the cliff did not submit to its power, and the power of its torrents was futile, and it was dissatisfied.
Understanding the Roots of Suffering
It exclaimed:
— This cliff is given so much power, and its power surpasses mine. I want to be the cliff.
And the angel appeared, and the cloud became a cliff, and the cliff did not move from its place, whether the sun shone or heavy rain fell. But then came a man with a pickaxe, a chisel, and a heavy hammer, and he began to carve stones from the cliff, and the cliff said:
— How can it be that this man's power surpasses mine and he carves stones from my body? — And he was dissatisfied.
He exclaimed:
— I am weaker than him. I want to be this man. And the angel appeared from heaven with the words:
— You have become what you said.
And he became a stonecutter again. With great effort, he carved stones from the cliff and worked to exhaustion for a meager pay — and he was satisfied.
I disagree with the conclusion. This is the only thing in this story I disagree with; in everything else, it is beautiful. I disagree with the conclusion because I know people: they do not become satisfied so easily. The wheel has come full circle, and this story in a certain sense has come to a natural end, but real life stories do not come to any natural ends. The wheel of the story continues to move.........
Osho
Everyone does this. The human mind as such is the capacity to daydream. Until you move beyond the mind, you will continue to daydream. The mind cannot exist in the present — it can exist either in the past or in the future. For the mind, there is no way to exist in the present. To be in the present means to be outside the mind.
Try this. If a silent moment occurs when no thought crosses your being, your consciousness — when the screen of consciousness is absolutely free from clouds — and suddenly you are present... This moment, this real moment — a moment of reality, a moment of truth. But there is no past, and there is no future.
Usually, time is divided into three times: past, present, future. This division is essentially wrong, unscientific, because the present is not part of time. Only the past and the future are parts of time. The present is beyond time. The present is eternity.
The past and the future are parts of time. The past is that which no longer exists, and the future is that which does not yet exist. Both are non-existential. The present is that which is. The essential cannot be part of the inessential. They never meet; their paths can never cross.
And time is the mind; the accumulated past — that is exactly what your mind is. What is your mind? Analyze it, look into it. What is it? — merely a heap, an accumulation of your past experiences. Your mind is only a collective term, like an umbrella under which all your past is held, nothing more. If little by little you start taking the past out of the bag, the bag will disappear.
If the past remains the only reality for the mind, what can the mind do? One possibility: to continue chewing and re-chewing the past over and over again. This is exactly what you call memories, reminiscence, nostalgia. You can return to the past again and again; again and again — to past moments, beautiful moments, moments of happiness. They are rare and scattered among many others, but you cling to them. You avoid the ugly moments, the unhappy moments.
But this cannot go on forever, because it is futile; this activity seems meaningless. Therefore, the mind creates a "meaningful" activity — this is exactly what daydreaming about the future is.
The mind says: "Yes, the past was good, but the past is over; nothing can be done with it. But something can be done with the future, because it is yet to come." Thus, you choose from your past experiences those that you wish to repeat again, and you discard the experiences that were very unhappy, painful, which you do not want to repeat in the future. Your daydreams about the future are nothing other than a modification of the past: better arranged, more decorated, more acceptable, less painful, more pleasant. This is what your mind continuously does, and thus you continue to miss reality.
Meditation simply means a few moments when you are not in the mind, a few moments that you slip out of the mind.
You slip into reality, into that which is. These existential moments are so immeasurably ecstatic that once you have tasted them, you will stop daydreaming.
Daydreaming will continue until you begin to taste meditation. Until you start receiving nourishment from meditation, you will continue to suffer from hunger and thirst for some food in the future. And you know that the future will not bring it, because today was the future once before. Yesterday, today was the future, and you daydreamed about it. Now it has arrived. What happens? Are you happy? Yesterday was also once the future. All the past was once part of the future, and it slipped away — and this future will slip away too. With daydreams, you fool yourself.
Become a little more aware and try to bring consciousness more and more toward the factuality of existence.
See this flower, do not think about that flower. Listen to this word I am speaking, not the word I am going to speak. Look right now. If you delay even for a fraction of a second, you will miss it, and then it will become a habit, and the habit will embed itself deeply within you. Tomorrow you will also miss it, and the day after — because you yourself will remain the same. And moreover — the habit of daydreaming will become stronger.
The other day I read a wonderful Japanese story. Such stories exist in all the folklores of the world; their features are similar. It is a beautiful story. Listen to it.
Once there lived a man who carved stones from a cliff. His labor was very hard, and he worked much, but the pay was low, and he was dissatisfied.
Who is satisfied? Even emperors are not satisfied, what to say of a stonecutter? His work, undoubtedly, was very hard, and the pay negligible.
He sighed because his labor was so hard, and exclaimed:
— Ah, if only I were rich, I could rest on a sofa with silk covers.
And an angel descended from heaven, and he said:
— You have become what you said.
And this actually happens — not only in parables and stories; it happens in real life. Everything you think about yourself happens. You create your world with your own thought, create your world with your own desires. Everything you insist upon begins to happen. Reality constantly cooperates with you. It awaits that moment, that day when you begin to cooperate with it. Until then, it continuously cooperates with you.
And the angel said:
— You have become what you said.
And he was rich, and rested on a sofa with silk covers.
The king of this country passed by among his riders, who rode in front of his chariot and behind it, and over the king's head they held a golden sun umbrella. When the rich man saw this, doubts were born within him: no one held a golden umbrella over his head, and he was dissatisfied. He sighed and exclaimed:
— I wish I were the king. Again the angel descended and said:
— You have become what you said.
And he was the king, and many riders galloped before his chariot, and riders galloped behind his chariot, and over his head they held a golden sun umbrella, and the sun shone with hot rays, scorching the earth, and the shoots of grass withered. And the king complained that the sun burned his face, and that it surpassed all in power, and he was dissatisfied. He sighed and exclaimed:
— I wish I were the sun. And the angel came, and he said:
— You have become what you said.
And he was the sun, and directed his rays up and down, right and left, everywhere, and scorched the shoots of grass on the earth, and disturbed the peace of earthly kings. And then a cloud passed between the sun and the earth, and the sun's rays reflected off it, and the sun grew angry that the cloud resisted its power. It complained that the cloud surpassed it in power, and it was dissatisfied. It wished to be a cloud possessing such power, and the angel appeared and said:
— You have become what you said.
And he became a cloud and passed between the sun and the earth, and caught the sun's rays so that the grass became green again. The cloud poured great drops of rain upon the earth, causing rivers to swell, and floods began, and houses were washed away by water, and the water destroyed fields because there was too much of it. Water fell on a cliff that stood firm, watering it with stormy torrents, but the cliff did not yield, and the cloud flew into a rage because the cliff did not submit to its power, and the power of its torrents was futile, and it was dissatisfied.
Understanding the Roots of Suffering
It exclaimed:
— This cliff is given so much power, and its power surpasses mine. I want to be the cliff.
And the angel appeared, and the cloud became a cliff, and the cliff did not move from its place, whether the sun shone or heavy rain fell. But then came a man with a pickaxe, a chisel, and a heavy hammer, and he began to carve stones from the cliff, and the cliff said:
— How can it be that this man's power surpasses mine and he carves stones from my body? — And he was dissatisfied.
He exclaimed:
— I am weaker than him. I want to be this man. And the angel appeared from heaven with the words:
— You have become what you said.
And he became a stonecutter again. With great effort, he carved stones from the cliff and worked to exhaustion for a meager pay — and he was satisfied.
I disagree with the conclusion. This is the only thing in this story I disagree with; in everything else, it is beautiful. I disagree with the conclusion because I know people: they do not become satisfied so easily. The wheel has come full circle, and this story in a certain sense has come to a natural end, but real life stories do not come to any natural ends. The wheel of the story continues to move.........
Osho