Eurgene, a middle-aged guy from Norway, works in South Africa as a mediator between two parties in strife. A tough job but a great opportunity for meditation. He seemed to be one of those people who smile easily. He came to Osho International Meditation Resort for two weeks to try out different Osho meditations and was very happy with their impact on him. One thing perplexed him though — Osho always talks about awareness, consciousness, being. So what are these things?
He wanted to find an answer to these nagging questions so he booked a session with me at Osho Multiversity. Actually an incident that had happened with him the previous evening was bothering him. While sitting in the evening meditation he was asked to leave because he was coughing.
At the meditation resort we are very sensitive about maintaining silence in the auditorium because hundreds of people are meditating together and they can be disturbed by a slight noise. Eurgene coughed a little bit and a woman brusquely asked him to leave. He left but he was seething with anger, screaming inside. He wanted to shout at the woman, at the system that doesn’t allow a poor cougher to sit inside!
Normally he would have done all that but he was also listening to Osho talk about watching the feelings, being aware. In the session he vented out his true feelings and asked, “Now, where does awareness or being come here? I was boiling within, how could I be a witness? I have to get even with that woman.”
I said, “You are describing the incident in such detail that it is like viewing a film. It means someone inside you has recorded the whole episode. Who is it? And who is it that is reproducing it? This recorder and retainer is your being. He noticed everything bit by bit, it means he was not involved in the inner turmoil. He watched your frustration, your anger, your inner scream.”
Eurgene closed his eyes and sat in silence. He was beginning to see it. He said, “But this incident is hanging incomplete inside me. I have a habit of completing things. Unless I talk to that woman it will not be complete.”
I said, “There is another way of completing it. And you are already halfway through it. Instead of going out to find the woman, go in, recall the whole incident, your reaction to it, acknowledge the watcher and transform your emotional energy into watchfulness. You will be reborn on a new level, in your being. You will have found what you were looking for. Now, won’t you thank the woman for her unintended help?”
Eurgene’s face lit up with an inner smile. He had got it.
Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.
