Meditation is becoming very popular these days. People do not have the time nor luxury of going to the Himalayas or to forests to meditate in isolation. They are happy meditating while living the urban life.
It was very different in the Buddha’s time. He left the city and his palace as it did not give him the space to be himself. But, when he realised his potential and attained enlightenment, he returned to the city to share the learning gathered in isolation.
The city’s hectic pace may compel an escape into solitude, where the meditator’s individuality can blossom. But this does not mean that it can blossom only in the jungle. If we know how to, we can also meditate in the marketplace.
In a beautiful poem, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore tells us that after enlightenment, when Gautama the Buddha returned home, his wife asked him: “What did you attain in the jungle — was it not possible to attain it here? Why leave home, me, your child?” The Buddha remained silent.
Kabir, the mystic, lived a domestic life, worked as a weaver and yet sang: Kabira khada bazar mein. He not only taught meditation but preached love and asked people to gather courage, burn their houses of imagination and transform their lives. Real meditation blossoms in love, spontaneous sharing and like a flower shares its fragrance, unconditionally.
The alchemy of meditation and love transforms the ordinary love of attachment and possession into unconditional love. Ordinary relationships are based on conditional love. It is a barter — something, in return for something. And we keep calculating the profits. This cannot bring us bliss.
Real joy comes when one shares unconditionally. The marketplace can corrupt the minds of those who are prone to get lost in it. We need enlightened people like Kabir and Osho to show us how to rise about the world while remaining in it — just as a lotus blossoms in a pond. Delhi, with all its political tangles, cut-throat competition, mazes of ambition is a real challenge to meditate in.
Osho suggests Vipassna (watching your breath and the small gaps in the breathing) — simple meditation to be practiced amidst worldly activity. When you are eating try to be attentive. Be attentive while you’re walking. Don’t let your activity distract your mind. Practice a dual existence of doing and being.
Doing is work (peripheral) while Being is consciousness (central). As you work on the periphery, attend to the core as well. Your activity will constitute the core. Like an actor, you can play several roles, while being rooted in consciousness. Life is just a role assigned to you by society, circumstance, culture and nation. Rejoice in it and settle in your Being.
Swami Chaitanya Keerti, editor of Osho World, is the author of Osho Fragrance
