By Osho
From "The Everyday Meditator"
Twenty-five centuries ago Gautam Buddha gave this method of inner witnessing to his thousands of disciples, many of whom became enlightened. Vipassana is simply a way of witnessing.
It is an invitation to watch yourself- your mind, your emotions, your body, your environment -without reacting to what you observe. It is an invitation to get to know yourself honestly and sincerely, to make friends with yourself, and to realize that the witnessing self is not identified with what is being seeing. Success and failure are not part of meditation, and nothing special is supposed to happen. There is nothing to expect.
Mind is tricky, and is not used to being observed at work and play. Excuses not to meditate, not to sit, not to have time, not to be comfortable will arise at first. It helps to meditate at a regular, pre¬selected time and place. But anytime is better than no-time, and anywhere is better than nowhere.
Sitting with a friend makes things easier. Remember that silence does not mean you can't enjoy, and having a group of friends meditate together is a beautiful experience.
Vipassana is the meditation that has made more people in the world enlightened than any other, because it is the very essence. All other meditations have the same essence, but in different forms; something non-essential is also joined with them. But Vipassana is pure essence. You cannot drop anything out of it and you cannot add anything to improve it.
Vipassana is such a simple thing that even a small child can do it. In fact, the smallest child can do it better than you, because he is not yet filled with the garbage of the mind; he is still clean and innocent. Vipassana can be done in three ways - you can choose which one suits you best.
The first is: awareness of your actions, your body, your mind, your heart. Walking, you should walk with awareness. Moving your hand, you should move with awareness, know¬ing perfectly that you are moving the hand. You can move it without any consciousness, like a mechanical thing... you are on a morning walk; you can go on walking without being aware of your feet.
Be alert of the movements of your body. While eating, be alert to the movements that are needed for eating. Taking a shower, be alert to the coolness that is coming to you, the water falling on you and the tremendous joy of it - just be alert. Any of these activities should not go on happening in an unconsc¬ious state.
And the same about your mind. Whatever thought passes on the screen of your mind, just be a watcher. Whatever emotion passes on the screen of your heart, just remain a witness - don't get involved, don't get identified, don't evaluate what is good, what is bad; that is not part of your meditation.
The second form is breathing, becoming aware of breathing. As the breath goes in, your belly starts rising up, and as the breath goes out, your belly starts settling down again. So the second method is to be aware of the belly: its rising and falling. Just the very aware¬ness of the belly rising and falling... and the belly is very close to the life sources because the child is joined with the mother's life through the navel. Behind the navel is his life's source. So, when the belly rises up, it is really the life energy, the spring of life that is rising up and falling down with each breath. That too is not difficult, and perhaps maybe even easier because it is a single technique.
In the first, you have to be aware of the body, you have to be aware of the mind, you have to be aware of your emotions, moods. So it has three steps. The second approach is a single step: just the belly, moving up and down. And the result is the same. As you become more aware of the belly, the mind becomes silent, the heart becomes silent, the moods disappear.
And the third is to be aware of the breath at the entrance when the breath goes in through your nostrils. Feel it at that extreme - the other polarity from the belly - feel it from the nose. The breath going in gives a certain coolness to your nostrils. Then the breath going out... breath going in, breath going out.
That too is possible. It is easier for men than for women. The woman is more aware of the belly. Most of the men don't even breathe as deep as the belly. Their chest rises up and falls down, because a wrong kind of athletics prevails over the world. Certainly it gives a more beautiful form to the body if your chest is high and your belly is almost non-existent. Man has chosen to breathe only up to the chest, so the chest becomes bigger and bigger and the belly shrinks down. That appears to him to be more athletic.
These are the three forms. Any one will do. And if you want to do two forms together, you can do two forms together; then the effort will become more intense. If you want to do all the three forms together, you can do all three forms together. Then the possibilities will be quicker. But it all depends on you, whatever feels easy. Remember: easy is right.
As meditation becomes settled and mind silent, the ego will disappear. You will be there, but there will be no feeling of "I". Then the doors are open.
Just wait with a loving longing, with . welcome in the heart for that great moment -the greatest moment in anybody's life - I enlightenment.
It comes... it certainly comes. It has neva delayed for a single moment. Once you are i the right tuning, it suddenly explodes in you transforms you. The old man is dead and i new man has arrived.
Sitting meditation
Find a place where you can sit comfortably undisturbed, without sleeping for 40-60 mint Although this is the ideal time you can also ! just 20 minutes - anywhere, anytime. Your and head should be straight. If needed it is fine use a chair. Your eyes are best closed, and your breathing should be as it usually is; easy is right. Stay as still as you can, moving only if it is really necessary. If you move, notice how and why you are moving.
While sitting the primary object of attention is the rise and fall of your belly -just above the navel - caused by breathing in and out. It is not a concentration technique, so when other things come into the field of your awareness, while watching your breath, these too are part of your meditation. Nothing is a distraction in Vipassana. When something takes your attention go with it. Place your whole attention on it, whatever it is. When your attention is free, then go back to your breathing.
It is the process of watching which is the meditation, not what you are watching. Remember not to become identified with, or lost in whatever comes up: thoughts, feelings, judgments, body sensations, impressions from outside, and the whole world which constantly snatches your attention from yourself.
If questions or problems arise which require an answer, let them remain a mystery until your meditation time is over.
Walking meditation
In this technique you bring your whole attention to your feet as they touch the ground. Walk slowly, ordinarily, with your awareness focused on your feet as they touch the earth.
Walk in a circle or a straight line, indoors or outdoors, it doesn't matter. Do whatever you enjoy most. Keep your eyes lowered so that you can only see the ground a few steps ahead. If other things take your attention, notice them, give them all your awareness. When they have lost their attraction return your attention to your feet.
As in sitting, witnessing is the process, but the primary objects are the feet as they walk, not the belly as it breathes. The period for walking should be 20-30 minutes or it can be combined with 45 minutes of sitting followed by 15 minutes of walking.
General awareness meditation
Anything can become your primary object for witnessing. Slowing down, doing one thing at a time you can become aware of what you are doing, while you are doing it. This can include not only actions but intentions too. Everything in your daily routine: eating, washing up, cleaning the house, smoking, telephoning, chatting over a cup a tea, dancing, flirting, reading, everything can become a meditation; all you need is awareness. Meditation can be fun and can enrich the quality of ordinary life.
Zazen
Zazen is deep unoccupiedness, it is not even meditation, because when YOU meditate you are trying to do something: remembering being God or even remembering yourself. These efforts create ripples.
You can sit anywhere, but whatsoever you are looking at should not be too exciting. For example things should not be moving too much. They become a distraction. You can watch the trees - that is not a problem because they are not moving and the scene remains constant. You can watch the sky or just sit in the corner watching the wall.
The second thing is, don't look at anything in particular - just emptiness, because the eyes are there and one has to look at some¬thing, but you are not looking at anything in particular. Don't focus or concentrate on any¬thing -just a diffuse image. That relaxes very much. And the third thing, relax your breath¬ing. Don't do it, let it happen. Let it be natural and that will relax even more.
The fourth thing is, let your body remain as immobile as possible. First find a good pos¬ture - you can sit on a pillow or mattress or whatsoever you feel, but once you settle, re¬main immobile, because if the body does not move, the mind automatically falls silent. In a moving body, the mind also continues to move, because body-mind are not two things. They are one... it is one energy.
In the beginning it will seem a little difficult but after a few days you will enjoy it tremen¬dously. You will see, by and by, layer upon layer of the mind starting to drop. A moment comes when you are simply there with no mind.
Bodhidharma sat for nine years just facing the wall, doing nothing -just sitting for nine years. The tradition has it that his legs withered away. To me that is symbolic. It simply means that all movements withered away be¬cause all motivation withered away. He was not going anywhere. There was no desire to move, no goal to achieve - and he achieved the greatest that is possible. He is one of the rarest souls that have ever walked on earth. And just sitting before a wall he achieved everything; not doing anything, no technique, no method, nothing. This was the only technique. When there is nothing to see, by and by your interest in seeing disappears. By just facing a plain wall, inside you a parallel emptiness and plainness arises. Parallel to the wall another wall arises - of no-thought.