Breathing and walking as meditation | Philosia: The Art of seeing all
While talking on ancient Chinese Buddhist scripture ‘ 42 Sutras of Buddha’ in his book The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 4 Chapter #10 The bear of reason. 9 November 1976 am in Gautam the Buddha Hall, Pune, India.
A disciple of Osho asked this question.
WHAT IS THE TEST OR CONFIRMATION THAT A MAN HAS FOLLOWED THE PATH OF AWARENESS?
IN MY LIFE, ALTHOUGH I AM NOT VERY CERTAIN TO SAY THAT I WAS IN THE PRACTICE OF AWARENESS, AT TIMES I HAVE FELT.
WHY AM I EATING?
WHY AM I DOING THIS AND THAT? PLEASE COMMENT.
Osho replied a lengthy answer about awareness, so a part of it is reproduced here as below:-
Buddha used to say, “Start with breathing, because that is the most simple thing in the world, so simple that you don’t do it at all. It happens on its own.”
You don’t breathe. In fact you are never aware of breathing unless something goes wrong. You have some breathing trouble, then you become aware. Otherwise breathing goes on its own. You can go on sleeping and the breathing continues.
And it is good — otherwise, if you had to take care about it, life would be impossible. Someday you would sleep and you would forget to breathe, and… gone. And there is no way to undo it: once gone you are gone forever.
Breathing is spontaneous, it is a very simple process: the breath just goes in, goes out — nothing much in it.
Buddha says, “Watch it, become aware of it. Sitting silently, simply see the breath going in, the breath going out.”
You will feel very bored because it is very montonous: the same breath coming in, the same breath going out.
So the first problem has to be very simple, like breathing.
And the second problem will be that you will have to face boredom.
And if you can face boredom, boredom disappears and there is tremendous calm behind it. So start awareness with the breathing process.
At least for one hour every day, sit silently just watching your breathing, doing nothing — not even chanting a mantra — because then you are making it complex. You simply see the breathing; it is a natural mantra: it goes in, goes out, goes in, goes out.
You are not to say that the breathing is going out. You have to simply go with the breathing: it is going out, the consciousness goes with it; it comes in, the consciousness comes in.
You simply SENSE its going in and coming out. You try to remember it, and you will find difficulties even in this simple process. For a few seconds you will be aware, then you will forget. Then your mind has taken you away — to your business, to your woman, to your children, or a thousand and one problems are there. Again after a few minutes you will remember: “I have forgotten; I am not watching my breath” — then again come back.
There is no need to repent, there is no need to fuss about having forgotten. Because now if you fuss about it, again this time is being lost. Whenever you recognize that you have lost track of breathing, come back; again start watching it.
Doing it slowly, slowly, one day you will be able to watch your breath. If a person can watch his breath for forty minutes continuously, then there is no problem in life.
He can watch any problem. And by watching, ANY problem can be dissolved.
But first you have to learn how to watch — so don’t start with complex things, but with very simple things.
Buddha says two things: watch either breathing or walking.
Buddha himself did both: for one hour he would sit under the Bodhi Tree and watch’ his breathing, and when his limbs would feel tired, cramped, then he would walk for one hour and watch his walking — one foot goes… another foot, another, then he would turn.
If you go to Bodhgaya where Buddha became enlightened, just near the Bodhi Tree there is a small path on which he used to walk.
The breathing awareness in Buddhist terminology is called ANAPANSATIYOGA, and the walking meditation is called JANKRAMANA.
These are two simple processes — and both are tremendously beautiful: breathing can be watched sitting silently, and walking can be watched being active.
But the walking process is very simple: you need not worry about it, you need not plan about it. Everybody is capable of walking; you need not even learn about it. Small, simple, spontaneous processes have to be made aware first.
And then, when you have attained a certain capacity, you can try it on other things: anger, greed, sex, possessiveness, jealousy. Millions are the problems.
Then you can try on other problems, and you will be surprised by the miracle of it. It is a very magical process: if you watch something silently, it disappears.
A great sexual desire arises in you: simply watch it arising. It is throbbing in your body, it is moving in your mind, it is stirring fantasies in you — just watch, with neither condemnation nor indulgence.
Just watch, and you will be surprised: the more watchful you become, the less power there is in the sexual urge. There comes a moment when you are fully aware; you have become a light unto yourself. In that moment the urge has completely disappeared. AND, this is not repression — because you have not repressed the sexual urge.
If you repress you will be getting into trouble. All repressed people sooner or later are bound to become insane. So this is not repression: you are not against the sexual urge, you don’t have any attitude about it, you simply watch it. And by just watching, the energy changes its quality — the sexual urge becomes a fuel for awareness, and awareness burns bright. And there is no residue, there is no wound, no repression.
This is how SHILA arises, the graceful discipline Buddha talks about: one is no longer indulgent and one is no longer repressive. The world has known only two things up to now: either you indulge or you repress.
Buddha has shown a totally different path: neither do you indulge nor do you repress. You simply watch. But always start from the very small things. Never try the first time on some big enemy, otherwise you will be defeated. And once you are defeated you will lose confidence, and you will lose trust in the miracle of awareness too.
The idiot of the village was employed by the priest as a church cleaner. One day, while he was cleaning the altar, a big crucifix fell on his head. Luckily he was not hurt very badly. The day after, the priest found him in a corner of the church with a heap of small, smashed crucifixes. “What on earth are you doing?” he asked furiously. Said the idiot, “Much better to kill them when they are still small!”
Remember it: it is much better. Just first try with very small things which you can easily destroy through your awareness. Then great confidence arises, great certainty that”Yes, it works”. Trust overwhelms you; now you have a secret key in your hands.
But don’t be in a hurry — go on trying with small things, small problems, simple problems and then go on, by and by.
The tendency of the mind is just to try the most important problem. Once you have the key you want to open the ultimate door immediately, you want to unlock the mystery. Just having the key does not mean anything: you have to learn how to use it.
And the ultimate lock is very complex. You may destroy your key. It may not work. Start with small things, and never ask ‘why’ — because we are not interested in analysis.
That is the difference between the eastern psychology which I call the psychology of the Buddhas, and the western psychology, the analytical process.
The eastern approach is totally different: it says ‘why’ is not the question; the fact is there, the fact is enough. We don’t go into the history of it, it is not going to help. It will make it more complicated.
Why go into the past, or why go into the future?
The fact is here. It is present in front of you: face it, beware of it. ‘Beware’
means: be aware of it.
Just look at it.
This is a totally different approach. And the Buddhas have said — and it is now one of the most existential and experiential foundations of eastern psychology: If you watch a fact rightly, penetratingly, it disappears. Just by observation, exactly as you bring light to your dark room, darkness disappears. And with darkness disappears all those problems that existed with darkness.
For example: if you enter a dark house sometimes you stumble upon the
furniture, and you become angry, and you beat the furniture and you say, “Some enemy exists here!” And then you grope in the dark; a painting falls on you and then you are furious and you want to smash everything. But all these problems are created by darkness.
Bring light, bring awareness, and then suddenly darkness disappears — and with darkness disappearing you no longer stumble upon the furniture, and the painting does not fall on you, and there is no anger and no rage, and you are not furious, and you don’t go insane. Those problems were concerned with darkness; they disappear with darkness.
In the west they start trying to analyze: “Why did this painting fall?” Now, it is a very costly affair to go to a psychoanalyst and get analysis: “Why did this painting fall in the first place?
There must have been something wrong in your childhood between you and your mother — otherwise why did the painting fall?
Why did you stumble on the furniture?
You must be accident-prone — because other people have passed through the same room and they have not stumbled on the furniture. So it shows something about your childhood trauma. Maybe when you were being born you were stuck, and the doctor had to pull you out. So since
then you are stumbling, and you go on stumbling. Now the trauma has to be dissolved.” These things — you laugh — but they have become very serious philosophies in the west. And there are great propounders of them, and everybody claims that he has found the final solution.
In the east we have not worked that way; we don’t ask ‘why’. We say, “The painting has fallen, so the painting has fallen. Now I am struck by it, sol am struck. The problem is not with the painting, the problem is not with the furniture, the problem is that the room is dark.” Of course, you never stumble upon darkness — see the point — you stumble upon the furniture; you never stumble upon, darkness. A painting falls on your head and hurts you; darkness never falls on your head and hurts you, but darkness is the problem. If you pay too much attention to the problems that are happening you will go in a wrong direction, because they are not real problems.
The real problem is that the room is lacking light. Bring light in.
Awareness is not a question; it is just trying to become more alert, more mindful.
My suggestions:-
Awareness Meditation is the way worked for me and I tried it first during brushing my teeth in the morning after trying 8–10 meditations over period of 15 years! So there is no need to reinvent the circle for you. May be you too find it suitable otherwise with Dynamic meditation and/or Kundalini in the evening it is suitable for most of the people. There are 110 other meditation techniques discovered by Indian Mystic Gorakhnath about 500years before and further modified by Osho for contemporary people that one can experiment and the suitable one could be practiced in routine life.
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For references of content on Osho, Copyright © OSHO International Foundation, An MP3 audio file of this discourse can be downloaded from Osho(dot)com or you can listen or watch his discourses @ OSHO International channel of YouTube where you can get subtitles in language of your choice or you can read the entire book online at the Osho Library. Many of Osho’s books are available online at Amazon.
My suggestions:-
Osho International Online (OIO) provides facility to learn these from your home, through Osho Meditation Day @€20.00 per person. You can learn Dynamic meditations from disciples of Osho. OIO rotate times through three timezones NY,Berlin and Mumbai.
Originally published at https://philosia.in on August 18, 2024.
