OSHO: A Course in Meditation

21 – Day Workout for your Consciousness Mentors Channel

Meditation for Today

From:

“The Book of Secrets”

by Osho

.

The following is adapted from

The Book of Secrets by Osho. It is a simple technique to

give you a taste and experience of bringing awareness to activities you do every day.
As you experiment with this technique, you can start to reclaim your natural meditative
state from all the noise and traffic of the mind.

Osho says:

When I say that awareness cannot be attained by mind, I mean that you cannot attain
it by thinking about it. It can be attained only by doing, not by thinking.

So don’t go on thinking about what awareness is, how to achieve it or what will be the
result. Don’t go on thinking – start doing it. When walking on the street, walk with
awareness. It is difficult, and you will go on forgetting, but don’t be discouraged.
Whenever you remember again, be alert.

Take every step with full alertness, knowingly.
Remaining with the step, not allowing the mind to move somewhere else.
While eating, eat. Chew your food with awareness.

Whatever you are doing, don’t do it mechanically. For example, I can move my hand
mechanically. But then I can also move my hand with full alertness. My mind is
conscious that my hand is being moved.

The Method

Do it, try it – right now. Reach for something nearby, pick it up. Do it once

mechanically, as you would normally do. Now put it back again

.

And now... become aware of your hand, feel it from the inside out. If there is any
tension in the hand, in the fingers, let the tension go.

Now, remaining with the awareness of your hand, with your full attention on your hand,
reach for the object again. Pick it up. Feel the texture of it, the weight of it. How it feels
in your hand. See how your hand wants to respond to this object… to turn it over, to
weigh it, to play with it… or simply to hold it still. With alertness, aware of each

movement

.

Now put it down, staying alert and aware of the movement of your hand.
You will feel the change. The quality changes immediately.

Walk with alertness, and you walk differently; a different grace comes to your walking.
Do whatsoever you are doing with alertness, and feel the difference.
And when I say, “feel,” I mean observe. First do it mechanically, and then with

awareness, and feel the difference. And you will be able to feel the difference.
For example, if you eat with awareness, then you cannot eat more than is needed by
the body.

OSHO: A Course in Meditation

21 – Day Workout for your Consciousness Mentors Channel

Copyright © 2014 OSHO International Foundation, www.osho.com/copyrights

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Osho says:

“People go on coming to me and they say, “Put me on a diet. My weight is constantly

increasing.” I tell them, “Don’t think of diet, think of consciousness. By dieting nothing
will happen. You will do it one day and the next day it will go, you cannot continue it.
Rather, eat with awareness.

“The quality changes. If you eat with awareness, you will chew more.
With unconscious, mechanical habits, you simply go on pushing things into your
stomach. You are not chewing at all, you are just stuffing. Then there is no pleasure.
And because there is no pleasure, you need more food in order to get the pleasure.

There is no taste, so you need more food.
“Just be alert and see what happens. If you are alert, you will chew more, you will feel
the taste more, you will feel the pleasure of eating. And much more time will be taken.

If you normally take half an hour to eat your meal, then by taking the same quantity of
a meal with full awareness you will need one and a half hours – three times as long.

In

half an hour you will have eaten only one-third of the quantity – but you will feel more

fulfilled. You will have enjoyed the meal more.
“And when the body enjoys, it tells you when to stop.
“When the body has not enjoyed at all, it never says when to stop, so you go on.
“Then the body becomes dull. You never hear what the body is saying.”

Try this today and in the coming days, in different situations – no need to set extra time
aside for this meditation. You just meditate while doing these normal activities – only

this time, doing them in a space of awareness.

Tomorrow's program No. 2 will help us to bring awareness and meditation to our love
and relationships.