Osho has long been one of our favourite sources of insight and intrigue. His opinionated, simple and sometimes controversial style keeps readers captivated and thinking. It is rare for us to read even a line without needing to sit back and contemplate his words!
In this particular piece, Osho describes Zazen, the seated meditation that forms the basis of our meditation practice at SheerMind. This meditation is different from all others, as there is no process or application of mind at all. Indeed, it aims to take conscious thought offline so that one may simply 'be'.
"It is not even meditation because when you meditate you are making some sort of effort, you are trying to do something: chanting a mantra, remembering God, or even remembering yourself. But these efforts create ripples, these efforts create vibrations and your sitting becomes corrupted. Then your sitting is not innocent. Zazen means: sit, and just sit, nothing else. There is no doing on the part of the body, no doing on the part of the mind. It’s a state of non-doing. That does not mean that you are fast asleep, because sleep is a doing. That does not mean that you are dead, because if you are dead you cannot just sit. That simply means that you are tremendously alive, intensely alive, a fire of being, but not moving anywhere — a reservoir of energy in a deep awaiting."
In this particular piece, Osho describes Zazen, the seated meditation that forms the basis of our meditation practice at SheerMind. This meditation is different from all others, as there is no process or application of mind at all. Indeed, it aims to take conscious thought offline so that one may simply 'be'.
"It is not even meditation because when you meditate you are making some sort of effort, you are trying to do something: chanting a mantra, remembering God, or even remembering yourself. But these efforts create ripples, these efforts create vibrations and your sitting becomes corrupted. Then your sitting is not innocent. Zazen means: sit, and just sit, nothing else. There is no doing on the part of the body, no doing on the part of the mind. It’s a state of non-doing. That does not mean that you are fast asleep, because sleep is a doing. That does not mean that you are dead, because if you are dead you cannot just sit. That simply means that you are tremendously alive, intensely alive, a fire of being, but not moving anywhere — a reservoir of energy in a deep awaiting."
A truly remarkable idea and a wonderful experience, the emptiness that we glimpse in Zazen truly speaks of the Divine. For more information, as well as an audio recording that will help you get to grips with Zazen, see our meditation exercises.
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