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OSHOEveryday365 DAILY MEDITATIONFOR THE HERE AND NOW

1.ILLUMINATIONThe moment you are illuminated, the whole if existence is illuminated. If youare dark, then the whole if existence is dark. It all depends on you.There are a thousand and one fallacies about meditation prevalent allaround the world. Meditation is very simple: It is nothing butconsciousness. It is not chanting, it is not using a mantra or a rosary.These are hypnotic methods. They can give you a certain kind ofrest-nothing is wrong with that rest; if one is just trying to relax, it isperfectly good. Any hypnotic method can be helpful, but if onewants to know the truth, then it is not enough.Meditation simply means transforming your unconsciousnessinto consciousness. Normally only one-tenth of our mind isconscious, and nine-tenths is unconscious. Just a small part of ourmind, a thin layer, has light; otherwise the whole house is indarkness. And the challenge is to grow that small light so much thatthe whole house is flooded with light, so that not even a nook orcorner is left in darkness.When the whole house is full of light, then life is a miracle; ithas the quality of magic. Then it is no longer ordinary-everythingbecomes extraordinary. The mundane is transformed into thesacred, and the small things of life start having such tremendoussignificance that one could not have ever imagined it. Ordinarystones look as beautiful as diamonds; the whole of existencebecomes illuminated. The moment you are illuminated, the whole ofexistence is illuminated. If you are dark, then the whole of existenceis dark. It all depends on you.

2.AMATEURS AND EXPERTSAll great discoveries are made by amateurs.It always happens that when you start new work, you are very creative, you are deeply involved, your whole being is in it. Then byand by, as you become acquainted with the territory, rather thanbeing inventive and creative you start being repetitive. This is natural, because the more skilled you become in any work, the morerepetitive you become. Skill is repetitive.So all great discoveries are made by amateurs, because a skilledperson has too much at stake. If something new happens, what willhappen to the old skill? The person has learned for years and nowhas become an expert. So experts never discover anything; theynever go beyond the limit of their expertise. On the one hand, theybecome more and more skillful, and on the other hand they becomemore and more dull and the work seems to be a drag. Now there isnothing new that can be a thrill to them-they already know what isgoing to happen, they know what they are going to do; there is nosurprise in it.So here is the lesson: It is good to attain to skill, but it is not good tosettle with it forever. Whenever the feeling arises in you that now thething is looking stale, change it. Invent something, add somethingnew, delete something old. Again be free from the pattern-thatmeans be free from the skill-again become an amateur. It needscourage and guts, to become an amateur again, but that's how lifebecomes beautiful.

3.CHOOSE NATUREWherever you find that society is in conflict with nature,choose nature-whatever the cost. You will never be a loser.The thinking up to now has been that the individual exists for thesociety, that the individual has to follow what the society dictates.The individual has to fit with the society. That has become thedefinition of the normal human being--one who fits with thesociety. Even if the society is insane, you have to fit with it; thenyou are normal.Now the problem for the individual is that nature demands onething, and society demands something contrary. If the society weredemanding the same as nature demands, there would be no conflict.We would have remained in the Garden of Eden. The problemarises because society has its own interests, which are notnecessarily in tune with the interests of the individual. Society hasits own investments, and the individual has to be sacrificed. This isa very topsy-turvy world. It should be just the other way round. Theindividual does not exist for the society; the society exists for theindividual. Because society is just an institution, it has no soul. Theindividual has the soul, is the conscious center.

4.AN ECHOING PLACEThe world is an echoing place. If we throw anger, anger comes back; if wegive love, love comes back.Love should not be demanding; otherwise it loses wings, it cannot fly.It becomes rooted in the earth becomes very earthly; then it is lust andit brings great misery and great suffering. Love should not beconditional, one should not expect anything out of it. It should be forits own sake-not for any reward, not for any result. If there is somemotive in it, again, your love cannot become the sky. It is confined tothe motive; the motive becomes its definition, its boundary.Unmotivated love has no boundary: It is pure elation, exuberance, itis the fragrance of the heart.And just because there is no desire for any result, it does not meanthat results do not happen; they do, they happen a thousand fold,because whatever we give to the world comes back, it rebounds. Theworld is an echoing place. If we throw anger, anger comes back; if wegive love, love comes back. But that is a natural phenomenon; oneneed not think about it. One can trust: It happens on its own. This isthe law of karma: Whatever you sow, you reap; whatever you give,you receive. So there is no need to think about it, it is automatic.Hate, and you will be hated. Love, and you will be loved.

5.RETROSPECTIVE WISDOMThe other is never responsible. Just watch. If you become wise in themoment, there will be no problem. But everybody becomes wise when themoment is gone. Retrospective wisdom is worthless.When you have fought and nagged and bitched and then you becomewise and see that there was no point in it, it is too late. It ismeaningless-you have already done the harm. This wisdom is justpseudo-wisdom. It gives you a feeling "as if" you have understood.That is a trick of the ego. This wisdom is not going to help. When youare doing the thing, at that very moment, simultaneously, theawareness should arise, and you should see that what you are doing isuseless.If you can see it when it is there, then you cannot do it. One cannever go against one's awareness, and if one goes against it, thatawareness is not awareness. Something else is being mistaken for it.So remember, the other is never responsible for anything. Theproblem is something boiling within you. And of course the one youlove is closest. You cannot throw it on some stranger passing on theroad, so the closest person becomes the place where you go onthrowing and pouring your nonsense. But that has to be avoided,because love is very fragile. If you do it too much, if you overdo it,love can disappear.The other is never responsible. Try to make this such a permanentstate of awareness in you that whenever you start finding somethingwrong with the other, remember it. Catch yourself redhanded, anddrop it then and there. And ask to be forgiven.

6.GRATITUDEFeel as grateful to existence as possible-jar small things, not only forgreat things . just for sheer breathing. We don't have any claim onexistence, so whatever is given is a gift.Grow more and more in gratitude and thankfulness; let it becomeyour very style. Be grateful to everybody. If one understandsgratitude, then one is grateful for things that have been donepositively. And one even feels grateful for things that could havebeen done but were not done. You feel grateful that somebody helpedyou-this is just the beginning. Then you start feeling grateful thatsomebody has not harmed you-he could have; it was kind of him notto.Once you understand the feeling of gratitude and allow it to sinkdeeply within you, you will start feeling grateful for everything. Andthe more grateful you are, the less complaining, grumbling. Oncecomplaining disappears, misery disappears. It exists with complaints.It is hooked with complaints and with the complaining mind. Miseryis impossible with gratefulness. This is one of the most importantsecrets to learn.

7.LAUGHTERWhy wait for reasons to laugh? Life as it is should be reason enough tolaugh. It is so absurd, it is so ridiculous. It is so beautiful,so wonderful! It is all sorts if things together. It is a great cosmic joke.Laughter is the easiest thing in the world if you allow it, but it hasbecome hard. People laugh very rarely, and even when they laugh it isnot true. People laugh as if they are obliging somebody, as if they arefulfilling a certain duty. Laughter is fun. You are not obliging anybody!You should not laugh to make somebody else happy, because if youare not happy, you cannot make anybody else happy. You shouldsimply laugh of your own accord, without waiting for reasons to laugh.If you start looking into thing , you will not be able to stop laughing.Everything is simply perfect for laughter-nothing is lacking-but wewon't allow it. We are very miserly . miserly about laughter, aboutlove, about life. Once you know that miserliness can be dropped, youmove into a different dimension. Laughter is the real religion.Everything else is just metaphysics.

8.NONJUDGMENTWhen you judge, division starts.You may be talking in deep conversation with a friend whensuddenly you feel like being silent. You want to stop talking,right in the middle of the sentence. So stop right there, and don'teven complete the rest of the sentence, because that will be goingagainst nature.But then judgment comes in. You feel embarrassed about whatothers will think if you suddenly stop talking in the middle of asentence. If you suddenly become silent they will not understand, soyou somehow manage to complete the sentence. You pretend to showinterest, and then you finally escape. That is very costly, and there isno need to do it. Just say that conversation is not coming to you now.You can ask to be excused, and be silent.For a few days perhaps it will be a little troublesome, but by andby people will begin to understand. Don't judge yourself about whyyou became silent; don't tell yourself that it is not good. Everything isgood! In deep acceptance, everything becomes a blessing. This is howit happened--your whole being wanted to be silent. So follow it. Justbecome a shadow to your totality, and wherever it goes you have tofollow because there is no other goal. You will begin to feel atremendous relaxation surrounding you.

9.THE REAL ROBBERSThere is nothing to fear, because we don't have anything to lose. All thatcan be robbed from you is not worth while, so why fear, why suspect,why doubt?These are the real robbers: doubt, suspicion, fear. They destroy yourvery possibility of celebration. So while on earth, celebrate the earth.While this moment lasts, enjoy it to the very core. Because of fear wemiss many things. Because of fear we cannot love, or even if we loveit is always half-hearted, it is always so-so. It is always up to a certainextent and not beyond that. We always come to a point beyond whichwe are afraid, so we get stuck there. We cannot move deeply infriendship because of fear. We cannot pray deeply because of fear.Be conscious but never be cautious. The distinction is very subtle.Consciousness is not rooted in fear. Caution is rooted in fear. One iscautious so that one might never go wrong, but then one cannot govery far. The very fear will not allow you to investigate newlifestyles, new channels for your energy, new directions, new lands.You will always tread the same path again and again, shuttlingbackward and forward-- like a freight train!