START FROM THE CENTER

OSHO

`One thing to be understood is that silence is not part of mind. So whenever we say, "He has a silent mind," it is nonsense. A mind can never be silent. The very being of mind is anti-silence. Mind is sound, not silence. So when we say: "He has a silent mind," it is wrong. If he is really silent, then we must say that he has no mind.'
A "silent mind" is a contradiction in terms. If mind is there. it cannot be silent; and if it is silent, it is no more. That is why Zen monks use the term "no-mind", never "silent mind". No-mind is silence! And the moment there is no-mind you cannot feel your body, because mind is the passage through which body is felt. If there is no-mind, you cannot feel that you are a body; body disappears from consciousness. So in prayer there is neither mind nor body -- only pure Existence. That pure Existence is indicated by silence -- mouna.
How to attain to this prayer, to this silence? How to be in this prayer, in this silence? Whatsoever you can do will be useless; that is the greatest problem. For a religious seeker this is the greatest problem, because whatsoever he can do will lead nowhere -- because doing is not relevant. You can sit in a particular posture: that is your doing. You must have seen Buddha's posture. You can sit in Buddha's posture: that will be a doing. For Buddha himself this posture happened. It was not a cause for his silence; rather, it was a by-product.
When the mind is not, when the being is totally silent, the body follows like a shadow. The body takes a particular posture -- the most relaxed possible, the most passive possible. But you cannot do otherwise. You cannot take a posture first and then make silence follow. Because we see a Buddha sitting in a particular posture, we think that if this posture is followed then the inner silence will follow. This is a wrong sequence. For Buddha the inner phenomenon happened first, and then this posture followed.
Look at it through your own experience: when you get angry, the body takes a particular posture, your eyes become blood-red, your face takes a particular expression. Anger is inside, and then the body follows. Not only outwardly: inwardly also, the whole chemistry of the body changes. Your blood runs fast, you breathe in a different way, you are ready to fight or take flight. But anger happens first, then the body follows.
Start from the other pole: make your eyes red, create fast breathing, do whatsoever you feel is done by the body when anger is there. You can act, but you cannot create anger inside. An actor is doing the same every moment. When he is acting a role of love, he is doing whatsoever is done by the body when love happens inside -- but there is no love. The actor may be doing better than you, but love will not follow. He will be more apparently angry than you in real anger, but it is just false. Nothing is happening inside.
Whenever you start from without, you will create a false state. The real always happens first in the center, and then the waves reach to the periphery. That is why this sutra says that prayer is silence. The innermost center is in prayer. Start from there.

TIME YOURSELF INTO TIMELESSNESS

If you just put a watch with a second hand in front of you and keep your eyes on the second hand, you will be surprised: you cannot continue to remember even for one minute completely. Perhaps fifteen seconds, twenty seconds, at the most thirty seconds, and you will forget. You will get lost in some other idea -- and then suddenly you will remember that you were trying to remember.
Even to keep awareness continuous for one minute is difficult, so one has to be aware that it is not child's play. So when you are trying to be aware of the small things of life, you have to remember that many times you will forget. You will go far away into something else. The moment you remember, don't feel guilty -- that is one of the traps.
If you start feeling guilty, then you cannot come back to the awareness that you were practicing. There is no need to feel guilty, it is natural. Don't feel repentance. It is simple, and it happens to every seeker. Accept it as natural; otherwise you will be caught in repentance, in the guilt that you cannot remember even for a few moments and you go on forgetting.
Mahavira is the first man in history who has actually worked out that if a man can remember, be aware for forty-eight minutes continuously, that's enough -- he will become enlightened, nobody can prevent him. Just forty-eight minutes... but it is difficult even for forty-eight seconds -- so many distractions.
No guilt, no repentance -- the moment you remember that you have forgotten what you were doing, simply come back; simply come back and start working again.
My emphasis is: simply come back. Don't cry and weep for the spilled milk, that is stupid.
It will take time, but slowly you will become aware that you are remaining alert more and more, perhaps for a whole minute, perhaps two minutes.
And it is such a joy that you have been aware for two minutes -- but don't get caught in the joy.
Don't think that you have attained something. That will become a barrier. These are patterns where one is lost. Just a little gain and one thinks one has come home. Go on working slowly, patiently. There is no hurry -- you have eternity at your disposal.
Don't try to be speedy. That impatience will not help. Awareness is not like seasonal flowers that grow in six weeks' time and are then gone. Awareness is like the cedars of Lebanon which take hundreds of years to grow; but they remain for thousands of years and rise to one hundred and fifty feet, two hundred feet high in the sky. They are really very proud people.
Awareness grows very slowly, but it grows. One has to just be patient.
As it grows you will start feeling many things which you have never felt before. For example, you will start feeling that you are carrying many tensions in your body of which you have never been aware because they are subtle tensions. Now your awareness is there you can feel those very subtle, very delicate tensions.
So wherever you feel any tension in the body, relax that part. If your whole body is relaxed, your awareness will grow faster because those tensions are hindrances.
As your awareness grows even more, you will be surprised to know that you don't dream only in sleep; there is an undercurrent of dreaming even while you are awake. It goes just underneath your wakefulness -- close your eyes any moment and you can see some dream passing by like a cloud in the sky. But only when you become a little more aware will it be possible to see that your wakefulness in not true awakenedness.
The dream is floating there -- people call it daydream. If they relax in their chair for a moment and close their eyes, immediately the dream takes over. They start thinking that they have become the president of the country, or they are doing great things -- or anything, which they know at the very moment they are dreaming is all nonsense. You are not the president of the country, but still the dream has something in it, that it continues in spite of you.
Awareness will make you aware of layers of dreams in your waking state. And they will start dispersing, just as you bring light into a dark room and the darkness starts dispersing

Humans are not simply animals

• MUKUL SHARMA

AS FARas reproductive behaviour and sexuality is concerned, science has a lot to say about the moral and ethical issues apparently involved. In the animal world, for instance, the idea of what is “normal” and what is not is so frequently breached that it makes mockery of human mores. Cloning — as in the many instances of virgin birth where no males are needed — is common among many species of lizards, fish and some amphibians. Gender determination is not fixed from birth either; there are reptiles whose sex is decided only by the incubation temperature. Others can switch from male to female and back again easily during their lifetimes and, often, even depending on behavioural cues coming from their social group. The scientific notion underlying such “unnatural” activity is that animals will do anything to make sure their kind is propagated through progeny into future generations. Genetically speaking, that is the only obvious and overarching consideration and, here, human beings are no exception. A mother’s love for her baby is actually hardwired into her brain’s circuitry and she can, in general, behave in no other way than she does. In fact, researchers have found that the same wiring exists in all adults’ nervous systems too. Imaging scans indicate that when grownups are shown even random pictures of infants who are not related to them, a part of their brain responsible for facial recognition and behavioural reaction, lights up almost instantaneously, leaving no time for thought processes to mediate. It just means there is no conscious control over such instinctive traits, and biologists say the immediacy of this kind of bonding is necessary for lineages to continue. This could very well be the explanation for things like sacrifice, altruism and even love but, unfortunately, where science has consistently failed to derive a material substrate to a huge range of observed behaviour among humans is in their profession of a divine relationship. It’s far more difficult to drum up a survival value for the existence of a spiritual bonding between an individual and his or her perception of a personal God without stretching the bounds of credibility. And that is exactly the reason why a higher grade of ideals and values has managed to develop within most of humanity than can be explained by animal behaviour, innate programming or brain scans.

What Makes You A Leader Is Complete Awareness

Shri Shri Nimishananda

Today, no one is functioning with full potential. That is why we are anonymous. Usually, one notices three patterns in the lives of people. Some lead, others follow, while many quit. Leaders are those who have self-motivation, zeal and dedication. They have the ability to tune in to their inner Self, so they can guide and motivate others. Those who follow must have the enthusiasm to comprehend and implement the mission and vision placed before them. They must also work at transforming their own shortcomings. We see many quitters around us. They have plenty of complaints and grievances; they rarely enjoy life. They flow with worldly currents and lead mechanical lives. What quality prevents life from becoming mechanical? What ingredient ignites zeal and keeps boredom at bay? Awareness. If we are constantly aware, life is always interesting. We enjoy everything for everything inspires us. Awareness is not alertness. Alertness requires effort and has an element of stress and tension. Awareness is alertness without tension. When we are in this relaxed state, zeal and interest are spontaneous. From interest come memory and dedication. We should do nothing mechanically. Even stirring a spoon of sugar into a cup of tea should be done with complete awareness. Then there is always a deep sense of joy and connectivity with Divinity. We should be aware of what we are doing every second. You may feel that this will produce tension. No. We are always aware of our name and family. Does this make us tense? Awareness is a relaxed and expansive state that eliminates tension. If we are constantly aware, we give cravings no scope to take root. Even drinking a cup of tea can be done with complete awareness so that we savour every sip. Then the tea is enjoyed by the body, senses and mind. There is satisfaction and no craving. When we fulfil a desire mechanically, the deeper levels of our being are not satisfied and we develop an obsessive craving for that object. Lack of awareness also generates indifference for others, while awareness creates complete connectivity with Divinity and all beings. Without this connectivity we are not open to divine grace though it is flowing to us constantly. When we are conscious of connectivity, we live in a state of heightened awareness. We often strive to amass property for future generations. Physical property may be lost. It may lead to strife and litigation. The best legacy we can leave behind is awareness and wisdom. Mahatmas are remembered with reverence not for the property they amassed, but for the principles by which they lived. The outer world is constantly changing. The cars that are today’s status symbols will be the bane of tomorrow. All material things lose their value after a while. Divinity never changes. God is ever the same. Divinity transcends time and space. Awareness of Divinity takes us to the only state that is worthwhile — constant bliss that is independent of bodily existence. When we stop imposing conditions on life, we surrender to the divine tempo. Then our life becomes a feast of bliss. We embrace life with open arms. We become natural leaders who inspire and ignite the flame of awareness in every heart.

10 WAYS TO REVERSE THE AGEING PROCESS

After his Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, people expect Deepak Chopra to dole out lists and ways and tips. He had one ready at the Delhi talk.

1. Change your perception of your physical body. Your body is a field of information and energy. This field is constantly influenced by breathing, eating, digestion, metabolism, elimination, and how we experience the world through our five senses. Also, how we metabolise that through our inner world of thought, feeling, emotion and desire.

2. Change your perception of time. If you can do that, you can accomplish much more—because you are creative, not stressed. You can do a lot more if you can sit back, become non-reactive, and see the world as if for the first time. Lord Shiva, the first yogi, said: "If you want to create a new body, step out of the river of memory and conditioning, and see the world as if for the first time." He said: "I use memory, but I do not allow memory to use me." Now change your perception of time, you have all the time in the world. Time is the movement of consciousness—put your attention on that, it's timeless. And what is timeless? Not the human body, not the human mind, but the soul.

3. Change your perception of ageing itself. To grow old is to be wiser. To grow old is to have more responsibility. To grow old is to change your inner dialogue from 'me, mine' to 'What can I do? How can I help?' And as you change your perception of ageing, your biology will change. Those are the three most important things.

4. Keep active, exercise.

5. Improve mind-body coordination through yoga, breathing techniques, martial arts.

6. Get rid of the toxicity in your life—toxic emotions, relationships, habits.

7. Pay attention to literature—on nutritional supplements, ayurveda and all these great rasayanas, which are some of the great anti-oxidants known that directly affect the ageing process.

8. Learn to be flexible. Vedanta says: "Infinite flexibility is the secret of immortality." Studies show that the primary thing that distinguishes healthy older people from those less healthy, is the ability to be flexible.

9. Make love the most important thing in life. To understand our 'inter-beingness in the inter-isness', to understand love not as a mere emotion or sentiment, but as the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.

10. Be aware of your mortality, because in the awareness of mortality is the glimpse of immortality. Be aware that death is stalking you in every moment of your existence. And once one becomes aware of that, one's life becomes magical. Because now one's priorities are not the same.

The God Delusion?

DEEPAK CHOPRA

Ultimately, Richard Dawkins can fight with religion all he wants and it will be only a sideshow. He is a color commentator sitting in the bleachers, not a player in the game. Skepticism offers critiques, not discoveries. Ironically, this is a shared fate with religion, which has ceased to play a progressive and vital role in modern society. The two are locked in a sterile embrace. So how can a new conception of God change this situation? The answer centers on the last point from Dawkins in our discussion.7. The universe is full of wonder and mystery, but these will be solved, one at a time, until science has a complete understanding. In this way the entire supernatural tradition--and God himself--will be erased.This is a powerful and optimistic claim that seems plausible in an age of heady discoveries in physics and biology. The famous Theory of Everything draws closer to fulfillment than ever. In fact, science has become even more ambitious. The original Theory of Everything belonged solely to physics. It had no intention of explaining the evolution of life. But with the completion of the human genome project, life will also cease to be a mystery, so Dawkins assures us. Every mechanism hidden inside DNA will be mastered and used for human good.It's hard for materialists not to thump their chests, as Dawkins so brazenly does. Unfortunately, the Theory of Everything has hit a brick wall. Quantum physics lacks the power to cross the border into the invisible world that lies beyond subatomic particles, the so-called virtual domain. Not only is this the realm of 'dark matter' and 'dark energy'--mysterious shadows of the matter and energy we see around us--but all possible universes also lie across the same boundary, as well as the "zero point" where space and time are born.Genetics seems to be riding higher, but behind the display of public triumph, biology has not solved the existence of mind, and therefore the same obstacle faces both fields. An invisible world lies sealed off from investigation, leaving us to trace its footprints and echoes. MRIs and CAT scans are impressive but limited. As someone once commented, brain research is like putting a stethoscope to the outside of the Astrodome and trying to figure out the rules of football. Dawkins finds consciousness (as well as quantum physics) totally irrelevant, a comment on his own intellectual limitations rather than reality. If God is going to become viable again, he will have to be a God who solves some key mysteries in the virtual domain:--What separates life from inert matter?--What part does the observer play in creating reality?--How does the infinite quantum field organize and govern every event in the universe?--How does chaos relate to order? Are they enemies or secret allies?--How did evolution overcome entropy, the ceaseless march of the physical universe toward chaos and the deep freezer of "heat death"?--Why is the universe so amazingly hospitable to human life?This last question is the most pressing one, for both believers and non-believers. To claim that the swirling, chaotic quantum soup that erupted from the Big Bang evolved into human life by random chance is only believable because science has no urgent need to find a credible alternative. As long as a scientist stands outside nature with his nose pressed against the glass like a child peering through a bakery shop window (to borrow an image from the noted physicist John Wheeler) we get a false picture of the cosmos. The only advantage of isolating yourself in this way is that it fits the scientific method. But no matter how many rats run through the maze, it's futile to pretend that we are outside the experiment. The truth is completely different:--We are imbedded in the universe. What we observe is ourselves reflected back at us.--Every sight, sound, texture, taste, and smell is the product of an observer. As the observer changes, so do all these qualities.--We perceive imagination, beauty, creativity, etc. in ourselves and thus we see the same in Nature. Every attribute of the human mind is imbedded in the universe.Why can you remember your birthday and the face of someone you love? Because DNA can remember how to produce generations of human beings. Why does DNA remember? There's the mystery. We can link memory as a human attribute to chemical memory. But when we ask where chemicals learned to remember, science is baffled. Dissecting DNA is one thing. Asking the "why" of DNA is another.Dawkins feels that why is a foolish, probably meaningless question, totally devoid of scientific interest. So be it. But why is the single most important question humans ask, particularly when it comes to ourselves. Ultimately we want to know who we are and our purpose for being here. Dawkins doesn't seem to have any doubt about who he is: he's the evolutionary byproduct of chemical forces, physical laws, random events, natural selection, competition, adaptation, and survival. So is an amoeba. Sadly, this reductionist picture of human life is devoid of meaning. It's merely a map of how a physical machine called the body came to be built. Such knowledge is like knowing everything about a computer except how to plug it in.What if memory is an attribute of Nature itself? All around us we see memory at work. The insulin that functions in primitive organisms retains the same function in higher mammals. The chemical reaction that propels a butterfly's wings to beat is duplicated to make human heart cells beat. Once we take seriously the notion that we are inside the bake shop, not standing outside with our noses pressed up against the glass, it becomes obvious that memory isn't a separate, isolated attribute.

Nature is constantly remembering. Nature is constantly creating, exercising imagination, discovering quantum leaps. When hydrogen and oxygen combined, the result wasn't another inert gas. It was water, and water represents a huge imaginative leap on the part of the universe. The reason one can say this with confidence is simple: if the universe didn't have imagination, neither would we. That's what it means to be imbedded in the field. Nothing we know about ourselves can be separated from what Nature displays.Which finally, at long last, breathes new life into God. Dawkins is absolutely right to declare a requiem service over the God of organized religion and to warn us about the dangers of superstition, dogma, and pseudo-science. (Too bad he isn't wise enough to heed the words of a right-wing fundamentalist on CNN: "As long as you hate us, we're not going away.") But what Dawkins tragically misses holds far more optimism for the future than he ever could: the universe is renewing itself through us. Science is God explaining God to God using a human nervous system. Or as one wit put it, God created scientists to prove that he doesn't exist--and failed.There is nothing outside the field. It displays omnipresence and omnipotence, being all-pervasive and containing all matter and energy. Soon science will come to terms with the presence of consciousness in the field (advanced systems theory as well as information theory is hard at work already) and we will add omniscience to the list. This new God will be the source of mind. Its ability to orchestrate evolution will make sense because it must. Humans cannot have any knowledge except knowledge of ourselves. Every facet of the cosmos is a mirror. The fact that the chemical reaction driving a butterfly's wings also keeps you and me alive is no accident--it's part of a design.Contrary to what Dawkins thinks, this design isn't a blueprint or a diagram set down by a fictitious God. It's a vital, ever-evolving, imaginative, dramatic process. Strangely enough, so is human existence. The similarity isn't a coincidence--there is nothing we call human that isn't, quite literally, transcendent. Beyond the physical world lies the womb of creation, and whether we call it God is irrelevant. We came from a source, we are forever in contact with our source, and we are constantly returning to our source. This is the real mystery of existence that Dawkins trivializes with his over-heated skepticism. Far more profound are the words of T.S. Eliot:And what you thought you came forIs only a shell, a husk of meaningFrom which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled.

In the final post on this topic I will address some of the responses I have recieved to this subject.
P.S.Some responders have problems with a sentence from this post: "When hydrogen and oxygen combined, the result wasn't another inert gas. " I meant, of course, another inert gas like radon or neon. If I thought that oxygen and hydrogen were inert gases, I wouldn't have stated that they combine, since by definition inert gases can't combine. They have no free electron(s) in their outer orbits with which to combine. This discussion will be more productive if we all grant each other the respect we would like to receive.

Love, Deepak

We are not what we think we are!

PARAMAHAMSA SRI NITHYANANDA

WE ARE not labels. We are all beings living inside the labels. We are not doctor, husband, friend, or anything. We are more than that. We are a total of all that. We are so deeply attached to the labels. We wear labels very proudly. When people don’t notice and appreciate our labels we feel slighted, neglected, and annoyed. Our labels say things such as ‘I am a manager’ or that ‘I am a big businessman’ or that ‘I own many cars.’ When we associate ourselves with these well-known labels, it makes us feel part of the world. It makes us feel successful. We are no longer alone. We feel pride in the fact that we are somebody well known. We are continuously partying, shopping or watching TV. We are constantly busy. Why? We are afraid to face ourselves. Our chief entertainment is running away from ourselves. We believe that all this activity is the path to joy. We have always believed that we will be joyful at some point or other. We think it is only a matter of time. By the time we are about forty we may get everything we have always wanted. What we don’t understand is why we wanted all this. This question haunts us because we continue to be deeply unhappy. This is the ‘depression of success.’ This is a peculiar disease of the rich and successful. The more affluent we are, greater are the chances of being afflicted with this kind of depression. The depression of success is the greatest illness in developed western countries. Material success fails to make people happy. We are restless. We need to keep experimenting in search of happiness. So, we tend to change or acquire new possessions. We change cars every year, we change houses every second year, and we change wives every third year. Still, we stay deeply unhappy. At some point in the journey we have forgotten that we are not the labels. If we are a parcel travelling from the US to India, various stamps and identification marks will be placed on it to route and speed it on its way. The parcel may think that these external stamps are its true identity. The parcel is wrong. It is not what is outside, but the stuff inside that makes the parcel what it is. Dive within. Let go of the labels and seek the inner being. This is the way to bliss.

A Yoga Technique That Opens Doors

Swami Kriyananda

Most efforts to transform oneself involve a laborious struggle to correct an endless array of individual faults like a tendency to gossip, craving for sweets and laziness. We must, of course, fight such battles as they present themselves. But purely psychological efforts at self-transformation are a never-ending task. Even after one has succeeded, finally, in turning a few mental habits in the right direction, there is no guarantee that they’ll remain turned that way once we leave them to work on the next lot. The correlation between spiritual awakening and a directional movement of energy can be observed in ordinary human experience. When a person feels an increase of happiness or inspiration, he will, if he introspects, observe an accompanying upward flow of energy to his brain. He may find himself standing or sitting more erect, holding his head higher, looking upward, turning the corners of his mouth up in a smile. If he feels depressed or discouraged, he will note a corresponding flow of energy,downward, away from the brain. He may even slump a little, look down at the floor, turn the corners of his mouth downward, and actually feel physically a little heavier. Spiritual awakening takes place when all one’s energy is directed upward. But this upward flow is obstructed in most people by countless eddies of desires which, once formed, get distributed along the spine according to their anticipated level of fulfilment. The lower the level, the more materialistic the desire. The higher the level, the more spiritual. These eddies can be dissipated by a flow of energy through the spine strong enough to neutralise their centripetal force. Numerous techniques of yoga have as their main objective the awakening of this energy-flow. Kriya Yoga directs energy lengthwise around the spine, gradually neutralising the eddies of chitta or feeling. At the same time it strengthens the nerves in the spine and brain to receive cosmic currents of energy and consciousness. Kriya Yoga strengthens you in whatever path you choose to follow, whether devotion,discrimination or service. A visitor who once came to his Ranchi school had been practising Bhakti Yoga, the path of singleminded devotion, for 20 years. Though deeply devoted, he had never yet experienced the Lord’s blissful presence. “Kriya Yoga would help you”, the Master suggested to him. But the man was fearful of being disloyal to his own path. “No, Kriya won’t conflict with your present practices”, Master insisted. “It will only deepen you in them”. Still the man was hesitant. “Look here”, Master finally said, “you are like a man who for 20 years has been trying to get out of a room through the walls, the floor, the ceiling. Kriya Yoga will simply show you where the door is. There is no conflict with your own devotional path. To pass through the doorway you must still do so with devotion”. The man relented. Hardly a week passed before he received his first deep experience of God. “I wasn’t sent to the West”, Yogananda often told his audiences, “by Christ and the great masters of India to dogmatise you with a new theology. Jesus himself asked Babaji to send someone here to teach you the science of Kriya Yoga, that people might learn how to commune with God directly. I want to help you to attain actual experience of Him, through your daily practice of Kriya Yoga”.