Osho on Waiting a necessary part of Meditation
Question: For the last twelve years i have been waiting for the waters of my mind to clear, But the carts of situations and surroundings keep passing through them constantly. this will go on through out life. should I still keep waiting?
Osho : Waiting is important, necessary, but not enough. Together with waiting one should know how to sit at the bank of the stream of the mind. If we sit in the current of the river and wait, there will be no results. Our very being in the river will bring up the dirt. The art of standing aside from the river is meditation.
Waiting is a necessary part of meditation but it, in itself, is not meditation. He who cannot wait cannot meditate; but he who thinks waiting is meditation is also wrong. Meditation is the art of sitting on the bank. The mind has its own stream of thoughts. No matter how hard you try to watch it with patient waiting, you shall never be able to step out of the mind. Nor will the stream of the mind clear.
Your very presence pollutes the mind. Step out of the mind. Sit on its bank and watch it from a distance, as you would watch the birds in the sky, as you would watch a river flow by. The further you step away from the mind, the clearer and purer will it become. It will become silent, tranquil. This is one thing. The second thing. In the infinite story of existence, twelve years is nothing.
In the boundless saga of existence, what are twelve years? Nothing. So do not think that if you have waited twelve years you have waited long. If you have waited twelve years, you have spent twelve lakh years in polluting the stream. Therefore, I say, eternal awaiting! When I say this, I do not mean you shall have to wait for countless years. What I mean is that you should be prepared to wait indefinitely. The happening can take place in a moment. The greater your preparedness the earlier will be the happening.
Why is it so? It is because impatience agitates the mind. The carts of surroundings and situations, do not stir up the dirt of the stream of our mind as much as our own impatience. Awaiting means: I have attained patience. Let the happening take place whenever it pleases – now or after countless births – I shall wait patiently. I am in no hurry. I am in no haste.
The longer the mind is readily willing to wait, the earlier the happening takes place. So to not think it was a big thing to wait for twelve years. And do not take awaiting alone to be enough. Concentrate more, and give more importance to sitting on the bank, to being alert and being a witness.
Source: “The Way of Tao, Volume 2” – Osho
