Posts from Life is a dream.

Has anyone read Osho? I'm curious to know what people think about it... "Awareness" Preface "One of the most important things to understand about man is that man is asleep. He is not awake, not even when he thinks he is. His awakening is very fragile; his awakening is so small that it is almost not worth mentioning. His wakefulness is only a beautiful, but utterly empty, name. You sleep at night, you sleep during the day – from birth to death you continue to move from one pattern of sleep to another, but you never really wake up. Don't deceive yourself by thinking you are awake just because you have opened your eyes. Until the inner eyes have opened – until you have become full of light, until you have learned to see yourself, to see who you are – don't think that you are awake. This is the greatest illusion in which man lives. And if you assume that you are already awake, there is no point in making an effort to truly awaken. The first thing that should deeply permeate your hearts is that you are asleep, deeply asleep. Day after day you sleep and dream. Sometimes you dream with your eyes open, sometimes with your eyes closed, but you are dreaming – you are the dream. You are not yet reality. Of course, in a dream, whatever you do is meaningless. Whatever you think is useless, whatever you project remains part of your dream and never allows you to see what is. That is why all the Buddhas have insisted on only one thing: wake up! Consciously, for centuries... all their teaching can be contained in a single phrase: be awake. And they invented methods, strategies; they created contexts, spaces, and energy fields in which they could shock you into awareness. Yes, unless you are shocked, unless you are shaken to the core, you will not wake up. The sleep has lasted so long that it has reached the very roots of your being; you are saturated with it. Every cell of your body and every fiber of your mind is filled with sleep. It is not a small phenomenon. Therefore, it takes tremendous effort to be alert, to be attentive, to be observant, to become a witness. If all the Buddhas in the world were to agree on one thing, it would be this: man, as he is, is asleep, and man, as he should be, must be awake. Awakening is the goal, and awakening is the taste of all their teachings. Zarathustra, Lao-tzu, Jesus, Buddha, Bahauddin, Kabir, Nanak – all the awakened ones taught only one thing... in different languages, in different metaphors, but their song remains the same. Just as all seas taste salty – whether you taste the seawater in the north or in the south, its taste will be salty – so too is awakening the taste of the nature of the Buddha. But if you continue to believe that you are already awake, you will not make any effort. Then there is no point in making any effort – why worry? From your dreams, you have created religions, gods, prayers, rituals – your gods remain as much a part of your dreams as anything else. Your politics is part of your dreams, your religions are part of your dreams, your poetry, your painting, your art – whatever you do, because you are asleep, you do it according to your state of mind. Your gods cannot be different from you. Who will create them? Who will give them shape, color, and form? You create them, you sculpt them; they have the same eyes as you, the same noses – and exactly the same minds! In the Old Testament, God says, "I am a very jealous God!" Who could create a God who is jealous? God cannot be jealous, and if God is jealous, what is wrong with jealousy? Jealousy is divine! In the Old Testament, God says, "I am a very angry God! If you do not follow my commandments, I will destroy you. You will be cast into hell forever. And because I am very jealous," God says, "do not worship anyone else. I cannot tolerate it." Who created such a God? Surely, from your own jealousy, from your own anger, you created such an image. It is your projection, your shadow. It reflects you and no one else. And the same is true of all the gods of all religions. That is why the Buddha never spoke of God. He said: "What is the point of talking about God to people who are asleep? They will listen in their dreams. They will dream about everything they are told, they will create their own gods, which will be completely false, completely powerless, completely meaningless. It is better that such gods do not exist at all." That is why the Buddha is not interested in talking about gods. He is only interested in waking you up. There is a story about a Buddhist enlightened master who was sitting one evening on the bank of a river, enjoying the sounds of the water, the sound of the wind in the treetops... A man approached him and asked: "Could you convey to me in one word the essence of your religion?" The master remained silent, in complete silence, as if he had not heard the question. The man said: "Are you deaf?" "I heard your question and I have already answered it! The answer is silence. I remained silent – this pause, this interval, was my answer." The man said: "I cannot understand such a mysterious answer. Could you express it a little more clearly?" And the master wrote on the sand the word "meditation," with his finger, in small letters. The man said: "Now I can read it. It is a little better than last time. At least I have a word, and I can think about it. But could you express it a little more clearly?" The master wrote again: "MEDITATION." Of course, now he wrote it in larger letters. The man felt a little confused, puzzled, offended, angry. He said: "Again you write 'meditation'? Can't you tell me more clearly?" And the master wrote in large, capital letters: "MEDITATION." "It seems you are crazy!" said the man. "I have already gone too far from the truth," said the master. "The first answer was correct, the second was not quite right, the third was even more wrong, and the fourth is completely wrong – because, by writing 'MEDITATION' in capital letters, you are turning it into a god." That is why "God" is written with a capital letter. Every time you want to make something supreme, ultimate, you write the word with a capital letter. The master said: "I have already committed a sin." He erased all these words and said: "Please listen to my first answer – only in that was I right." Silence is the place where everyone awakens, while the chaos of the mind plunges you into sleep. And if your mind is still asking questions, it means you are asleep. Sitting silently, in stillness, when the mind disappears, you can hear the birds chirping, and there is no work of the mind – complete silence... this is the singing of the birds, the chirping, and no work of the mind, inner silence, then awakening comes to you. It does not come from outside, it grows from within. Otherwise, remember – you are asleep." Osho

Since ancient times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the present moment as the key to the spiritual dimension.

Gautama Buddha says that tanha – desire – is the root cause of all suffering, because suffering creates the mind. Desire means creating the future, projecting oneself into the future, bringing tomorrow. Bring tomorrow, and today will disappear; you will no longer see it; your eyes are clouded by tomorrow. Bring tomorrow, and you will have to bear the burden of all your yesterdays, because tomorrow can only exist if it is constantly nourished by yesterday.
Every desire is born from the past, every desire is projected into the future. The past and the future make up your entire mind. Analyze the mind, dissect it, and you will find only two things: the past and the future. You will not find a single drop of the present in it, not a single atom of the present. And the present is the only reality, the only existence, the only dance that exists.

The present can only be found when the mind has completely ceased. When the past no longer has power over you, when the future no longer controls you, when you are detached from memories and imagination, in that moment – where are you? who are you? In that moment, you are no one. No one can offend you when you are no one; you cannot be hurt – because only the ego is ready to accept wounds. The ego almost seeks opportunities to be wounded; it exists through wounds. All its existence depends on suffering, pain.

When you are no one, pain is impossible, anxiety is simply incredible. When you are no one, a great silence, a peace, no noise inside, descends. The past is gone, the future has disappeared; what else can create noise? And that silence that is heard is heavenly, sacred. For the first time in these spaces of non-mind, you realize the eternal celebration that continues and continues. Everything is made of it.
Except for humans, all existence is blissful. Only humans have fallen out of it, gotten lost. Only humans are capable of this, because only humans have consciousness.
Osho

No one has ever been able to express meditation so beautifully as Buddha did. Many people have attained it, but no one has been so expressive, no one has been able to convey the message so well as Buddha:

He never gives in to desire. He meditates.
And in the strength of his determination, He discovers true happiness. (c) Buddha

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

"We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world.
Speak or act with a pure mind,
and happiness will follow you,
unshakable, like your shadow." (c) Buddha

When someone becomes a Buddha – desire is overcome, the mind is overcome, time is overcome, the ego is transcended – they are no longer part of this earth. They still live on earth, but their soul soars so high that from the sunlit peaks they can see the desperate crowds in the dark valleys of life, stumbling, drunken, struggling, ambitious, greedy, evil, violent... a pure waste of great opportunities. In their being, great compassion arises. All their passion passes through detachment and becomes compassion.

Passion means using another as a means – and this is the basis of immorality. To use someone as a means is the most immoral act in the world, because every person is a goal in themselves. To use them means to exploit them. And this is what we call love: a husband uses his wife, a wife uses her husband; children use their parents, and then parents use their children – this is what we call love!

This is not love. It is a strategy of the mind; it is poison covered in sugar. This love is truly repulsive. That is why you see the world experiencing such disgust. This love is nauseating. It disgusts the entire soul of humanity, because it is not love at all. It is passion, lust, using another as a means.
When you begin to meditate, you move towards the second stage, detachment – love disappears. You enter a neutral phase.
Osho

They tremble, they are unstable, they wander aimlessly. It is good to control them.
And if you master them, it brings happiness." (c) Buddha

Observe, and you will see the trembling mind, the shaking thoughts, chasing each other, running in all possible directions, consistent, inconsistent, meaningful, meaningless.
Just once, sit in your room, close the door, and start writing down the thoughts that come to you. This will help you become aware. Just keep writing down whatever happens.

Don't edit, don't try to make them consistent, beautiful. You don't have to show them to anyone; it's just for observation. Keep writing for fifteen minutes, and then read it, and you will be puzzled: am I crazy or something? What nonsense comes to your mind! All sorts of things, so irrelevant that you can't find any connection between them. One thing leads to another simply by chance.

A dog barks nearby, and your mind starts working. You remember a dog you had as a child, and suddenly the mind jumps from the dog to a friend you had as a child... and from the friend to school, to a teacher. And so the mind continues to jump, and you end up who knows where. And it all started with just the barking of a dog, which knows nothing about you, which is not at all interested in you, but started the whole process. You can end up anywhere! And every time this happens, you will end up in different places.

The mind continues to jump from one place to another; the mind has so much information that it can create all sorts of worlds.

By observing it, you will see the truth in Buddha's words: They tremble, they are unstable, they wander aimlessly. They don't listen to you; they have their own will. Each thought has its own will, and it insists on remaining itself. It doesn't want to be tampered with, it doesn't want you to interfere. If you interfere, it resists, it protests. Every thought wants to have individuality. And these millions of thoughts in your head destroy your individuality because they all claim their own individuality, they claim to be autonomous and free. And if you say anything, they will ask: "Who are you?" And every time, they will put you in your place, they will reduce you to nothing.

Until they are brought under control, says Buddha, there is no possibility of bliss for you. You will remain in chaos.
Osho

Buddha calls a person a fool not because they are ignorant, not because they know little. According to Buddha, a person is a fool if they are unconscious, if they behave unconsciously, if they live in a dream, if they are a sleepwalker. If they constantly behave inattentively, they are a fool. This word has a special meaning, remember: unconsciousness, unawareness, inattentiveness – this is how Buddha defines a fool.

He moves through life like a floating log, surrendering to the mercy of the winds. He doesn't know who he is, he doesn't know where he came from, he doesn't know where he is going. He is random; he lives only by chance. He is not in a conscious, intentional search for being, truth, reality. He follows the crowd; he remains part of the psychology of the crowd.

He is not an individual. He does not have his own authentic mind; he simply follows others. Parents told him something, teachers, priests, politicians, and he continues to follow all sorts of advice. He has no idea why he is here, what for, and what he is doing, and why. He never raises such questions.

These questions are very uncomfortable for him. They create anxiety in him; he avoids these questions. He simply believes the answers that are passed on to him; he never doubts these answers. It's not that he has achieved trust – no, he doesn't even have trust yet – but he simply suppresses his doubts because doubts create discomfort."
(c) Osho

Not a bad read, with a lot of valid points. But one thing remains a bit unclear to me: 1) On the one hand, it talks about how intellect and reflection are destructive, forcing us to look to the future while neglecting the present, and how thoughts confuse and mislead us. 2) On the other hand, we read about the condemnation of people who haven't realized themselves, who simply go with the flow and don't seek the truth – but can't we say that these people are precisely those who don't spend time on reflection and intellectual pursuits?

They don't waste time on pondering and intellectualizing and instead celebrate Student Day.

2) On the other hand, we read about the condemnation of people who have not realized themselves, who simply go with the flow and do not seek the truth - but can it be said that such people do not spend time on reflection and contemplation?

I didn't understand anything, what condemnations of what people are we reading about???


Do you remember that wonderful feeling from childhood when an ordinary cobblestone seemed like a precious stone, a table covered with a sheet was an ancient cave, and the trees outside the window were an enchanted forest?

Would you like to return, even for a short time, to that state when everything around is new, amazing, and full of mysteries? An Indian mystic talks about "childhood" and "adulthood," about naive curiosity and wise experience, about routine and novelty... He talks about how important it is not to lose this wonderful skill - to admire everything that surrounds you.

Chapter 1. Eyes Full of Wonder

Wonder is the source of wisdom, wonder is the source of all that is beautiful, wonder is also the source of searching, of true searching. Wonder makes you set out on a journey in search of life's mysteries.

Childhood experience accompanies wise people throughout their lives. They yearn for it again - for the same innocence, the same amazement, the same beauty. Now it is like a distant echo, a sweet dream. However, all religions are born from the undying childlike desire for wonder, truth, beauty, life dancing everywhere. In the singing of birds, in the colors of the rainbow, in the fragrance of flowers, somewhere deep inside, the child remembers the lost paradise.

It is not by chance that in all the religions of the world there is a parable about how once a person lived in paradise and for some reason was forced to leave it. These are different stories, different parables, but they emphasize a simple truth: these stories poetically tell about the fact that a person was born in paradise, and then lost it. Backward, stupid people have completely forgotten about this. But intelligent, sensitive, creative people still strive to feel that paradise that they once knew and of which, unfortunately, they have only faint memories left. They begin to search for it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJfQ0oVEt7k -Agatha Christie (Gray Sky)

I didn't understand anything.

Sage, you lift your head high to the heavens, but you don't see what's right under your feet...

I suspect this is a bot...

2) On the other hand, we read about the condemnation of people who have not realized themselves.

Where did you read or find this condemnation of people who have not realized themselves?

I suspect it's a bot...

More likely, it's an aripiprazole user.

We just need some Arriputras now.

Where did you read or find here any condemnation of people who haven't realized themselves?

Here:

According to Buddha, a person is foolish if they are unconscious, if they behave unconsciously.