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Meditation for Today

“Make Room for Joy”

To know oneself is very elementary. It is not difficult, it can't be difficult; you

have just to unlearn some things. You need not learn anything to know who
you are,
you have only to

unlearn a few things.

First, you have to unlearn being concerned with things.
Second, you have to unlearn being concerned with thoughts.
The third thing happens of its own accord -- witnessing.

The Method

The key is: one, you start watching things. Sitting silently, look at a tree and
just
be watchful. Don't think about it. Don't say, “What kind of tree is this?” Don't

say
whether it is beautiful or ugly. Don't say it is “green” or “dry.” Don't make any
thoughts ripple around it; just go on looking at the tree.

You can do it anywhere, watching anything. Just remember one thing: when a
thought comes, put it aside, shove it aside. Again go on looking at the object.
In the beginning it will be difficult but, after a period, intervals start happening:

there will be no thoughts. You will find great joy arising out of that simple
experience.
Nothing has happened, it is just that thoughts are not there. The tree is there,
you are

there, and between the two there is space. The space is not cluttered with
thoughts.
Suddenly there is great joy for no visible reason, for no reason at all. You have

learned the first secret.

This then has to be used in a subtler way. Things are gross; that's why I say

start
with a thing. You can sit in your room, you can go on looking at a photograph -
- the
only thing to remember is not to

think about it. Just look without thinking.

Slowly,
slowly it happens. Look at the table without thinking and by and by the table is
there,

you are there, and there is no thought between you two. And suddenly -- joy.
Joy is a function of thoughtlessness. Joy is already there; it is repressed behind
so

many thoughts. When thoughts are not there, it surfaces.

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

OSHO is a registered trademark of OSHO International Foundation, www.osho.com/trademarks

Start with the gross. Then, when you have become attuned and you have
started

to feel moments when thoughts disappear and only things are there, start
doing the
second thing.

Now close your eyes and look at any thought that comes by -- without thinking
about the thought. Some face arises on the screen of your mind or a cloud
moves, or

anything -- just look at it without thinking.

This will be a little harder than the first because things are gross; thoughts are
very subtle. But if the first has happened, the second will happen; only time

will be
needed. Go on looking at the thought. After a while... It can happen within
weeks, it
can happen within months, or it can take years -- it depends on you how

intently, how
wholeheartedly you are doing it. Then one day, suddenly, the thought is not
there.

You are alone. Great joy will arise -- a thousandfold greater than the first joy
that
happened when the tree was there and the thought had disappeared. A

thousandfold!
It will be so immense that you will be flooded with joy.

This is the second step. When this has started happening, then do the third

thing -
- watch the watcher. Now there is no object. Things have been dropped,
thoughts have

been dropped; now you are alone. Now simply be watchful of this watcher, be
a
witness to this witnessing.
In the beginning it will again be difficult because we know only how to watch

something -- a thing or a thought. Even a thought is at least something to

watch. Now
there is nothing, it is absolute emptiness. Only the watcher is left. You have to

turn
upon yourself.

This is the most secret key. You just go on being there alone. Rest in this
aloneness, and a moment comes when this happens. It is bound to happen. If
the first
two things have happened the third is bound to happen; you need not worry

about it.

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

OSHO is a registered trademark of OSHO International Foundation, www.osho.com/trademarks

When this happens, then for the first time you know what joy is. It is not
something happening to you so it cannot be taken away. It is you in your

authentic
being, it is your very being. Now it cannot be taken away. Now there is no way
to lose

it. You have come home.
So you have to unlearn things, thoughts. First watch the gross, then watch the
subtle, and then watch the beyond that is beyond the gross and the subtle.