Meditation: Krishnamurti, Osho, Ramana Maharshi and my experience

When I was in college, I met Krishnamurti through a book. After my Brahma Kumaris’ days; Krishnamurti took much of my interest of well known spiritual “teachers.” A few months ago, his teachings no longer resonated with me. How is that possible? Krishnamurti gave my mind “food” for thought. I could understand where he was coming from as what he was saying was my experience most of the time; but as “I” abandoned the mind and into the heart, Ramana Maharshi and Osho had significant impact to explain what “I” was going through.

I wasn’t looking for answers or new things to learn. I was looking without knowing, to read in their teachings my own experience. That is affirmation in some way.

If while in the Brahma Kumaris my main “goal” was to know God, Now it is to “know myself.” That is a big change isn’t it?

Not quite. I shall stop here with my experience because I could be misunderstood.

Krishnamurti mentioned that there was no method for Meditation. In fact, for him meditation was living.On the other hand, Osho taught methods for meditation. One must be “right,” right? and the other “wrong.” Who is “right”? Those who do not have any experience whatsoever in “meditation” (which I call contemplation) will look for the right answer through a bona fide “expert” and follow that in order to be “right.”

J. Krishnamurti wasn’t interested in followers. He shared about his experiences and realizations. Osho on the other hand, had many followers and he was guiding them. The issue is the audience.

As Osho later mentioned, there is no need for methods to meditate BUT for the “normal” individual, there is a need for methods for otherwise, it will be very difficult to experience meditation.

In fact, Osho had 112 methods for meditation which he mostly took from the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra (https://o-meditation.com/shivas-112-meditation-techniques-vigyan-bhairav-tantra/) a well known book which Osho used and explained those techniques (BTW, that website has very interesting material.)

As a matter of fact, the Brahma Kumaris meditation method is somehow related with techniques # 18,23 and 51. Check it out!

Why do most individuals need a method? Because they are living in the mind and “meditation” is awareness, consciousness outside of the mind. In other words, to experience it, the mind needs to be out of the way or very little of it.

I have shared that the first time I received a glimpse of it was in 2013. Now, it happens more often when I am not moving, but as Brahma Baba used to say: “Remember ME alone while walking and moving around.” That “ME,” to understand it…. is a matter of experience not belief. The same with the word “REMEMBER.” Why is that? Simply because to “REMEMBER” means to use the mind.

A word to the wise is sufficient.

Is “meditation” an effort? Only until it happens, until it becomes “normal.”

What do you “gain” through it? 🙂 When we experience it, we will know. In the meantime, it can be used to gain “peace of mind” (as it is usually sold) for enlightenment, yoga, self-realization, to get a break from the rat race, for mindfulness, to listen to nice music, to sleep quickly, etc.

As Ramana Maharshi mentions, “…to know the self requires energy. ” If we are tired, sleepy, a busy bee… it will not happen, so if we want for that to happen…

Oh yeah! Who was right J. Krishnamurti or Osho? 🙂

Experience, truth and Osho

The “world out there”as known for most is a place where competition rules, where “skills” matter and where your “value” as human being is compared and assessed by “experts” on what “you bring to society” or to “yourself.” An inventor, a “saint” or a multimillionaire have “value.” Most think that perhaps they are not cut to be a famous inventor or a saint, but definitely, most would like to try to become a millionaire, that is “successful.” Thus, most chase “success” for themselves which mean to compete, to fight, to conquer and “win.” We could group these individuals into nations, ethnic groups and religions. They are most everywhere.

Observe the mind setting of a person conditioned in this lifestyle. Keep that in mind.

The other day I watched some videos about Osho’s life. It was interesting to hear what some of the “disciples” were commenting.
“ A enlightened individual wouldn’t say that…” said one. Another: “ I loved him very much… I couldn’t keep up with his demands for expensive watches and Rolls Royce.”

Osho had a dream of a different society, which he called “an experiment.” People working for no compensation. People having free sex without the moral standards of a regular society, and the unconventional view that Life was a celebration and not something serious to “think about.” He wanted for his followers to be “rich inside and outside,” meaning that they did not have material needs. This last point clashed with the typical view of mainstream religion which values someone not needing material things (a.k.a poor.)

How do we think someone conditioned by mainstream society will “judge” Osho’s view of his “experiment”?
First, they will call the outcome a “failure.” Then, they will go on about the conditions of “slavery,” working for nothing. Although most enjoyed the “candy” there (free sex) all of the sudden jealousy, envy and fights appear when switching mates was no longer what they wanted. Do we see how the old conditioning pops up?

How hard it is to look at yourself and see what needs to “improve” in yourself, given the conditions? How easy it is to blame someone else and voice your disappointment? How easy it is to judge from our own vantage point and come up with some “conclusion” which then we can call the “truth”?

Our experience is not the truth. It is only our experience. It has value for us. We can share it; but that is not a judgment or a conclusion, for if we do that; we are using our own conditioning to “save face.” However, when things go our way, that is according to our expectation, then everything is “godly,” “good,” etc.
The above is known as “ego-mind.”

In my experience ( I am not calling it, “the truth is…”) any spiritual group or setting is worthwhile if only helps me to observe my own limits, my own ego. If I want to pamper my ego, then “regular” society has all of that. This may seem controversial or even many could disagree; but when someone is deeply interested in “knowing themselves,” then this may make sense. On the other hand if I join a religious group or some other society different than mine, because I want to fulfill a need that I have, then I will be disappointed. To know yourself, is the most important aspect of this Life in my view, because we only “live here” for a short time. Right?

Osho played a controversial role at that time. Notice that ultimately he had to face all of those things that he voiced to be “against:” That is politics, religions, marriage and his belief in being the “guru of the rich,”( brought homeless people into his ashram when it was necessary and convenient.)

What do I learn from that? Not to be against anything. In fact, harmonize everything that “is.” That could be the new spirituality. We are so segmented and divided in society that the game of duality of being against something is no longer valid. That is my experience. It is not “my truth.”

Many may ask if Osho was “enlightened”? He was. Meaning that he self realized. (How do I know that? That is for another writing.) He played like Gurdjieff the role of the “very smart but crazy” guru to take away some ingrained values of “regular society” in his followers like respectability, shame and other aspects of the egoic mind. They played the role of “de-condition” agents.

Keep in mind that after all the attempts of murder that went on in his ashram, no one died. That is truly a miracle!! That is help “from up-above.” His vow of “being silent” for 3 years helped to expose the “problems” within his ashram by themselves.
He died in a mysterious way, although he claimed that he was poisoned. That was his role in the duality of Life. Similarly, Siddhartha Buddha died of food poisoning although, it is said it was accidental.

When “values” from our “regular” society are used to judge something different, we will be biased. Any form of judgment does not bring benefit to know the self, but on the contrary, it is “pure” poison. The appreciation of the roles of every actor that we encounter in Life or know about, is what brings harmony within, in my experience.

Change: The gist of everything

Today is a special day in my “spiritual” development and wanted to share this article. If you read something in this blog, I highly recommend this article. In my view, it is worthwhile to read and understand.

Last article was about Tilopa’s “six nails.” He wasn’t “teaching” anything but merely describing a state of BEING which is known as “no-mind.” To understand that, we need to go first into the mind.

If you are “new” or “seasoned” in the path of “spirituality,” or “searching for truth,” the most important thing someone could do in my experience, is to have a deep look at their own mind AND to be aware of their own emotionality or unresolved traumas. That is all. 🙂

How deep you go into those 2 rabbits’ holes is what will give you a state of BEING.

Most psychologists or psychiatrists studying the mind, would like to understand the mind from the mind. Their approach is very limited. It is only a description, a comparison against something idealized as “normal.” In “spirituality” however, there is a need to be aware of the mind but from AWARENESS itself, which is completely different than the mind. How do you get there?

By sitting and looking at the wall. Literally. Doing “nothing.” The caveat is that if “you” DO something, awareness will not be known.

That is, if you sit with the purpose of knowing awareness, you are gone! Sit there without a purpose. Just for the heck of it. Thoughts arrive, outside noises appear, inside noises arrive, watch.That is hard to do for mind-driven individuals, who want to “achieve” something for “time is money.” That is why, these individuals are into another path which is not self-realization.

There is no purpose. No motive other than perhaps rest and relax. (If we want to call that a purpose. That is the “sixth nail” of Tilopa.)

Here is a nice explanation from Osho:

Notice that he calls that “meditation.” I like to call it “contemplation,” someone else may call it “mindfulness,” or whatever label. How about “sit there and do nothing.” Labels are not important, but the experience, “your” experience is.

In this state, things happen to you. Change happens as we develop the habit. Nobody does anything. Little by little, awareness appears as a shy rabbit sticking its nose from its rabbit hole, then the head, ears, etc. It is in that state how we can look, observe, watch, become aware of the mind, so it looses its grip on us by doing nothing. Just by becoming aware of it. Becoming AWARE is not a DOING. It happens.

Then, I recommend this video:

You will fully understand it when you have experienced a bit of the above.

Some may want to use their thoughts to change another. Some may want to use their thoughts to change themselves. Others do not want thoughts to interfere and fight with them, but yet others become AWARE of thoughts and drop their identity from what the mind says, reacts, imagines or recalls. Then, CHANGE happens without changing anything.

Good to remember: “When we DO something (intentionally, with purpose,) we do not allow for change to happen naturally, for Change is all there is.” When we sit, rest, relax, allow… then Change happens… 🙂

Every “spiritual” teaching is according to time

Religions have different views/ belief systems and each one will say that they have the “truth.” Philosophies have their ways of making sense of Life. Followers and disciples have a strong belief that their religion has the “truth” and consequently,  they “have it,” and this “truth” cannot change.
However; Life is change but a dogmatic belief is not.
Every self-realized being who has lived among us had a particular “teaching” which has been misrepresented by disciples and followers as the “truth.” That misrepresentation happens unavoidably, because our language cannot match the experience coming from a different conscious level of a self-realized being.

There are plenty of “teachers” out there. A self-realized being is a master. Masters do not teach, for they know that there is nothing to teach. Nevertheless, others will learn from them. What they learn,  they will put in words. They will call that ‘truth.’
Every self-realized being had a perspective. Their perspective is not the whole of Life, but a partial view which may hold true for a limited time and for particular individuals.

For example, Osho disseminated his experience of Tantra among the masses. At the time, sex was very repressed, a huge taboo. His “teachings” were welcomed by those who felt repressed. Osho had a historical purpose. Later on his “teachings” were misrepresented and now they are part of a way to indulge in sex without “feeling guilt” by labeling it as “spiritual,” to earn profits and become a “successful” teacher with the support of certifications, tools and all the paraphernalia of our money driven society. According to time, someone will appear to mitigate that extreme misunderstanding. His language may be the extreme opposite of Osho’s, for our language is like digital time and Life is like analog time. We can “see” time moving on an analog time. Digital time, will only give us a numeric representation.

Life balances itself out. If things are moving too much on the right side, then a push to the left will be given. Therefore, in Life, what is to be “right”? Not to choose a side, but to be in balance, in harmony.

The same phenomena has happened with Brahma Kumaris. There are many teachings which had a purpose 80 years ago in India and Pakistan, back then. Now, many of those teachings may be outdated. The BK organization will decide what goes and what stays according to the organization’s interests. The interest of every religion or organization is to remain. The language used is “to help others.”

Observe Christianity. It has evolved in 2000 years, however; to be a Christian is the easiest thing to do. Nothing is required out of the follower (except occasional money support, of course) other than to believe in a belief system. After 2000 years, is very little what we could rescue of the “teachings” of Jesus Christ. Christianity now, is the outcome of popes and clergy who haven’t the consciousness of a self-realized individual such a Jesus Christ, but the “normal” type.

What could we rescue out of all these beliefs systems?
That depends on the individual involved with them. However, for most this is only an opportunity to be “special,” among everyone else. Defending a belief system becomes like defending ourselves and our need to be “right,” to have the “truth,” and to “teach that to others.” That is the egotistical trip of believing that an intellectual understood part or a perspective is the same as the whole, Life. The perspective is labeled as “truth.”
That is the childish act which has been used throughout history to dominate and conquer other human beings, all in the name of “helping others.”

Questions: BapDada’s ways…

..Although I have left BKs completely, don’t do amrit vela, no more morning murli classes thrice a week… 🙂 But recently, I started reading murli’s again from a different consciousness, not the judgemental consciousness but with inquisitive awareness 🙂
So recently, bapdada has spoken about comparison between double foreigners and Indians (Bharatwasis), first bapdada goes on a tour with his children for something that he only knows!

Now the first question here is, does that tour actually happens or it is a way of bapdada teaching something to his children through some way of telling a story kind of thing?

Thank you for your question. “Inquisitive awareness” is not a different type of consciousness. It is your same consciousness with a different belief system. That is all.
Your first answer is BOTH. BapDada moves in a different level (subtle) which most individuals in the physical plane are unaware of. The subtle level has great impact on the physical level.

He goes ahead and states that on his tour he saw that Westerners have started becoming more spiritual than Indians, although spirituality belongs to Indians and not westeners!
Now second question is, why baba is comparing at first and secondly how come spirituality belongs to only Indians and not to entire humanity? Why Indians are said by baba to be of highest thing, and westerner of low clan! Isn’t it prejudice!

Second answer: Baba is making a point by using a comparison. Yes, “Spirituality” was made up by Indians. The Guru that could walk on water, the one who could be buried alive for many days and still live, the one who could project his image to many followers in different cities at the same time, the one who could get favors from spirits, the one who could do many “miracles,” the one who could predict the future etc… and their methods to be “more spiritual” such as mortifying the body, denying pleasure to the senses, controlling eating, sleeping, breathing, sex, etc. Who invented all that “spirituality”? Indians for the most part. That is the spirituality exported to Westerners.
Most “normal” people will look for those “spiritual masters” for show value or need.
Ahnanda has shared that he does not see any value in the word “spirituality” but rather in “living Life with joy.” That kind of “spirituality” does not belong to Indians, but to the whole world.

I have never heard in a Murli, that Baba is making the point that Indians “are higher and Westerners of lower clan.” As far as I see, that “prejudice” may be only a distortion of your mind unless you could show more evidence.

He goes further and says that today, countries are being run helplessly (in majbori), politicians are not willing to run the countries but they still for the sake of just doing it!
Third question is, why God is interfering in politics and all, here on earth, people who attain enlightenment don’t speak about politics at all! That’s what my knowledge about enlightened beings says! How God can comment on politics! He says that we need souls of flying stage (udti kala) to run a country properly!

The answer of your third question is : You are generalizing through a belief that enlightened beings do not speak about politics.
An enlightened individual could speak about politics and say any words he wishes to, depending on the need of time and circumstances. Jesus was part of the politics of his time. His crucifixion was all politics. Similarly, Osho was in jail in the USA for political reasons. Enlightenment does not mean to be restricted to comply with some belief that “this is spiritual” and “that is not.”

Well, I request you to take these questions that I have asked and please help us in understanding from a different consciousness.

I cannot help anyone understand from a different consciousness. Consciousness happens.

For the common good.

Question: Is the mind separate from the soul?

“It is about mind and soul. Are mind and soul two different entities or the same entities?
Now when I practice Rajyoga, it is believed that when soul does the task of creating thoughts, the soul itself is acting as a mind, in other words in the very first lesson, they give a statement that “Mind is one of the three faculties of the soul”.
However, after exploring you and Osho, I practiced “Awareness”, just being aware of all my “Doings” and sometimes “thinking”. So, in that practice I experienced my own mind as a separate entity than me. Because as soon as I was getting a thought of any kind of judgement, I was able to distinguish that I did not create it, it is my mind who created that judgmental thought….”

Thank you for your well elaborated question, Dinesh.
Whenever the mind is looking for an answer such as: Is the soul separated from the mind? Yes/No. The answer becomes the important thing. Although it will not affect you at all. It is about “being right,” that becomes truly the thing.
In self-realization, the intellectual answer is not important at all. What matters is what you found out: ” I experienced my own mind as a separate entity than me. Because as soon as I was getting a thought of any kind of judgement, I was able to distinguish that I did not create it, it is my mind who created that judgmental thought.”

That is the most important thing. Please do not put that as an “answer” or even worse as “the answer.” Forget about answers and keep observing. Observe how the thoughts could change your mood, the way you feel, observe how they make you react when you identify with them as being “my thoughts.”
Some people will be aware that those in fact are their thoughts. They will swear that they are creating them. That is their level of awareness. You have found something different, something crazy… If those are not your thoughts, whose thoughts those are ?

“Wrong” question. It does not matter. Just be AWARE of them.
Every belief has a counter belief. To illustrate, let me give a BK example:
It is the belief in Brahma Kumaris that a happy world, is a world WITHOUT God.
No? 🙂
What is the Golden age, then? A happy world without God.
Therefore, how could there be any happiness with God?
That is the other Brahma Kumaris belief: We can be happy now, because there is a God.

One belief about happiness cancels the other. Do you see that?

Is the power of yoga something that happens in a connection with God?
Yes?
Then, how do babies are born in the Golden age?
Through the power of yoga, as the Sakar Murli says.
But, how can that be yoga if there is no God there?
That is the enigma of the “power of yoga.” It is a connection with God and a connection with no God.

A BK who is “knowledgeable” has a baggage of beliefs based on a story which hasn’t been experienced many times. It is a “Baba says” world.
Nonetheless, what is believed to have been spoken by Baba, is just another belief. Belief upon belief, we could build a dogma to be taken as truth by followers.

The intellectual stuff that I wrote as examples, do not mean a thing for those interested in self-realization. It is just a bunch of ideas, beliefs. The core of AWARENESS is observation. That is what matters, to be AWARE.

AWARENESS is not a practice, although in the beginning we may “practice it,” all you need to be AWARE of, is how you feel during different scenes that Life will bring. What happens, does not matter. What matters is to be AWARE of how you feel in front of those things that are happening. Why?
Because that is how you discover who you ARE. From that point, who you ARE could change. Tomorrow, I will share an article about this in “Exploring the Depth of Living.”

Purposely, I haven’t given you an answer to your question… but I have. Either way whether “Yes, the mind is part of the soul or No. It isn’t” have no importance at all. In Life, in the Universe everything is together, but the mind is always trying to separate things, for that makes an intellectual answer.

Here is an article that could help in your observation:
https://avyakt7.com/2014/11/23/positive-thinking-viewed-from-a-different-consciousness/

For the common good.