Chapter: 2
The Mystery of Meditation

Osho,
I have been going around in a circle, and feel in some ways I have completed the circle, but in other ways I am stuck on the circumference.
Do you have any program, or some point of meditation, or point of enabling one to come to meditation, that you suggest at the beginning?

Meditation is not only a method; it is not simply a technique. You cannot learn it. It is a growth – a growth of your total living, out of your total living. Meditation is not something which can be added to you as you are. It cannot be added to you; it can come out of you through a basic transformation, through a mutation.

Ordinarily meditation is understood as a technique which can be added to a person. To me it is not so. As you are, meditation cannot be added to you. Meditation is a flowering, it is a growth. And growth is always out of the total. It is not an addition; just like love, it cannot be added to you. It is a growth out of you, of your totality. So you can grow toward meditation.

So first, this total flowering of personality must be understood correctly. Otherwise one can play with mental tricks and there are so many. For some time you will be befooled by the tricks. But it’s not only that you are befooled. In a real sense, not only do you not gain anything out of it, you are harmed also, because the very attitude – to think of meditation in terms of method – is basically wrong. And when one begins to play with mental tricks, the quality of the mind deteriorates. As mind exists, it is not meditative. So the total mind must change before meditation can come in. What is the mind as it is? How does it function?

It functions anti-meditatively.

First, the mind is always verbalizing. It is verbal, and the verbalizing is taken as thinking. It is not. You can know words, you can know language, you can know the conceptual structure of thinking, but it is not thinking. On the contrary, it is to escape from thinking. You see a flower and you verbalize it; you see a man passing and you verbalize it. Every situation is verbalized. The mind has become only a verbalizing mechanism. It can translate every existential thing into a word – everything is being transformed constantly into words. These words create a barrier, these words become the imprisonment. These words – this constant flow, transformation of things into words, of existence into words – is the barrier, is the obstacle toward the meditative mind.

So the first requirement toward meditative growth is to be aware of this constant verbalizing and to be able to stop it. Just see things; don’t verbalize. Be aware of their presence but don’t change them into words. Live with things without language; with people without language; with situations without language. This is not impossible. This is natural and possible. Every situation is artificial, a created situation, and we have become so mechanically habituated to it that we are never aware of the transformation of the translation.

There is a sunrise. You are never aware of the gap – you see it, you feel it and you verbalize it. But the gap is never felt – the gap between the feeling and the verbalizing. In that gap, in that interval, one must become aware. One must become aware of the fact that sunrise as such is not a word; it is a fact, a presence, a situation. The mind automatically changes it into a word. These words are accumulated. They go on being accumulated and between existence, the existential and consciousness, these piled up words – these piled up memories, linguistic memories – these are the obstacles toward meditative growth.

Meditation means living in a situation without words, living in a situation non-linguistically. Sometimes it happens spontaneously also. When you are in love with someone, the non-linguistic moment is prolonged. If you are really in love then presence is felt, and language is not. So whenever two lovers are in intimate relationship they become silent. It is not that there is nothing to express. On the contrary, much is overwhelming them, wanting to be expressed. But words are not there; they cannot be. They only come when the love has gone.

If two lovers are not silent and are talking, that is an indication that the love has died. Now they are filling the gap with words. When love is living, words are not, because the very existence of love is so overwhelming, so penetrating, that the barrier is crossed – the barrier of language and words. And ordinarily only in love is the barrier crossed.

That’s why prayerfulness is a further step of love, and meditation is the culmination, the culmination of love: love, not with a single person – with an individual – but with the total existence. So to me, meditation is a loving relationship with the total existence, with all that surrounds you. If you can be in a love situation with it, then you are in meditation.

And this is not a mental trick. This is not “making” the mind still; rather it is understanding the mechanism of the mind. It is not interfering with the mechanism; rather it is a deep understanding of the total mechanism of the mind. The moment you understand your mechanical habit of verbalization, of verbalizing, the mechanical habit of changing things and existence into words, the moment you understand it, the gap is there. It comes spontaneously. It follows understanding. It is just like a shadow of the understanding.

So, first one has to understand how one is not in meditation. The real problem is not how to meditate; the real problem is to know why we are not in meditation. The real problem is not how to love, but to know why we are not in love. It is negative; the real process of meditation is negative. It is not adding something positively to you, but rather, on the contrary, negating something from you, which has already been added to you.

The society gives language; the society cannot exist without language. Human society is an outgrowth of language; there are no animal societies because they have no language. Language creates the society. Society needs language; existence doesn’t need it. Existence can be without language; society cannot be. So I am not saying that you must be without language – you will have to be with language. But this mechanism must be a mechanism which can be put on and off.

When you are a social being the mechanism must be on: the mechanism of language. Without this you cannot exist within society. But when you are with existence, the mechanism must be turned off – and you must be able to put it off, otherwise the mechanism is mad. If you cannot turn it off – and it goes on and on, and you are not capable of putting it off, then the mechanism has taken hold over you – then you have become just a slave to the mechanism, to the instrument. Mind must be used as an instrument, and not as a master. It has become the master.

Mind as master is the non-meditative state. You, the consciousness as the master, is the meditative state. So meditation is mastering the mechanism, the mind.

The linguistic function of the mind is not the all and end all. You are behind it and existence is beyond it. Consciousness is behind the linguistic mechanism and existence is beyond the linguistic mechanism. And when consciousness and existence are in communion, that state I call meditation – consciousness and existence in communion.

So language must be dropped. When I say “must be dropped” I don’t mean that you must push it away, you must suppress it, you must cut it away – I don’t mean that. What I mean is: you must understand that a habit which is needed in society has become a habit of twenty-four hours, which is not needed. When you walk, you need legs to move. They should not move when you are sitting. When you are sitting, if your legs go on moving then you are mad; then the legs have gone insane. You must be able to turn them off. When you are not talking with somebody, then language must not be there. It is a talking instrument, a technique to communicate. When you are communicating something, language should be used. But when you are not communicating with somebody, language should not be there.

If you are able – and you can be by understanding – then you can grow into meditation. I say you can “grow” because alive processes are never dead additions. They are always growing processes. So meditation is a process, not a technique. Technique is always dead – it can be added. Process is always living – it grows and widens.

So the first thing: language is needed, it is necessary, but you must not always remain in it. There must be moments when you are existential and not linguistic, when you just exist. It will not be just vegetating because consciousness is there, and it is more acute, and it is more living, because language dulls the consciousness.

Language is bound to be repetitive. Language is bound to be repetitive. Existence is never repetitive. So, through language comes boredom, and the more powerful language becomes – the more the mind becomes linguistically oriented – the more bored it is, because language is a repetition. Existence is not.

When you see a rose, it is not a repetition. It is a new rose, altogether new. It has never been and it will never be again. For the first time and the last time it is there. But when you say “this is a rose,” this word rose is a repetition. It has always been there; it will always be there. You have killed the new through the old word.

Existence is always young, language is always old. And through language, you escape existence. In fact through language you escape life, because language is dead. And the more you are involved in it, the more you are in it, you are being deadened by it. So if you have to find a person who is completely dead, you will have to find a pundit. A pundit is completely dead because he is language, words and nothing else.

Sartre has given his autobiography the name Words. It is the autobiography of everyone more or less. We live in words. That is, we don’t live. And in the end there is only a series of words accumulated and nothing else. Words are like still thoughts. You see something, you take a picture; the picture is dead. The situation is never dead. Then you can make an album of dead pictures. In the end, a person who has not been in meditation is just like a dead album: only linguistic pictures, memories. Nothing lived, everything verbalized.

Meditation means living, living totally, and you can live totally only when the barrier of language is crossed, when you are silent. But by being silent, I don’t mean unconscious. You can be silent and unconscious, then it is not a living silence. Again, you have escaped.

So through a mantra you can autohypnotize yourself. By simply repeating a word you can create so much boredom for your mind that it goes to sleep. Boredom is a necessary step toward sleep. You just drop into sleep, in the unconscious. So, so many – rather all techniques of meditation – are techniques toward boredom, or they are autohypnotic. You can go on chanting “Ram, Ram, Ram.” The mind will feel bored, will feel sleepy. And if you go on chanting and chanting, then it will go to sleep. Then language will not be there, the linguistic barrier will not be there, but you will be unconscious.

Meditation means language should not be there, and you should be conscious. Otherwise there is no communion with existence, with all that exists, with all that is. What can be done? No mantra can help, no chanting can help. They cannot be instrumental to meditation. They can only be instrumental toward autohypnosis, and autohypnosis is not meditation. It is quite the contrary. To be in an autohypnotized state is regression. It is not going beyond language; it is falling below it.

So what can be done? In fact, you cannot do anything except understand, because whatsoever you can do will come out of you. And you are confused, and you are not in meditation, and your mind is not silent. So anything out of you will create more confusion. All that can be done is to understand.

Begin to understand how the mind has taken complete charge of you, and let there be moments, allow moments, when words are not. You cannot push away words because even the very pushing away will take linguistic forms. If you want to push away words, you will push them with other words. And then a vicious circle is created. You cannot push away words through words. That is impossible, because by using words to push, you are still using language and strengthening the barrier. So no word can be used; that means no mantra can be used. You have just to be aware of how the mind functions, because awareness is not a word. It is an act – existential, not mental. An existential act, any existential act, will be a help.

And the first existential act that can be used is awareness. Be aware of your mental processes, how your mind works. The moment you become aware of the function of the mind, you are not mind. The very awareness of mental processes means you are beyond: aloof, a witness. And the more you become aware, the more you become able to see the gaps: the gaps are there, but you are so unaware that they are never seen and perceived. The gaps are always there. Between two words there is always a gap. Otherwise the two words cannot remain two. They will become one.

Between two words there is always a gap, howsoever unperceivable, howsoever small, but the gap is there. Between two notes of music there is silence, howsoever small, howsoever unperceivable. Otherwise two notes cannot be two; two words cannot be two without the interval – a wordless interval is always there. But one has to be keenly aware, attentive, to know the gap, the interval.

The more you become aware, the slower the mind goes. It is always relative. The less you are aware, the faster the mind is; the more you are aware, the slower the process of the mind is. With all things…but because you have become aware, it looks slower, it appears slower; it is the same. But you are keen, you are observing, you have become more conscious. More consciousness means a slower mind. When the mind is slower, gaps widen; you can perceive them.

It is just like a film. If a projector is run slowly, then you see the gaps. There are so many gaps – gaps and gaps and gaps. If I raise my hand, it cannot be filmed without gaps. I can raise it without gaps, but it can never be filmed without gaps. My hand raised, one foot raised, will have to be shot in a thousand parts and each part will be a still, dead photograph. These thousand parts, part-photographs – partial, dead – if they can be passed before your eyes so fast that you cannot see the gap, then you see the hand raised. Then you see the hand raised as a process because the gaps are not seen. Otherwise, films can never be taken without gaps. The gaps are there.

Mind, too, is just like a projector, a linguistic projector. Gaps are there. Be more aware and attentive of your mind, and you will see the gaps. It is just like a gestalt picture. A picture can be made which can be seen as two things, but you cannot see the two things simultaneously. The picture can be of an old lady, and the same picture can be of a younger one. Both are in the picture but if you see one, you will not see the other because the attention changes. You are focused on one, then the other is not seen. When you see the other, the previous one is lost. Now you know that the same dots, the same inkblot, has two pictures. Now you know perfectly well, you have seen both, but you cannot see both simultaneously. Still, you cannot see both simultaneously. If you see the old lady, the younger is not seen. And you will even have some difficulty to change from one picture to another, because the focus becomes focused. You know – now you have seen the other picture also – but you will have some difficulty to change the focus. When the focus is changed the younger lady will be seen, but the older one will be lost.

The same thing happens with the mind also. It is a gestalt. If you see the words, you cannot see the gaps. If you see the gaps, you cannot see the words. But now you know: there are words and there are gaps, and every word is followed by a gap and every gap is followed by a word, but you cannot see both simultaneously. If you are focused on the gap, words will be lost and you will be thrown into meditation. Words will not be there. The gap!

These words and these gaps, these are two things in the mind. Mind is divided into two things – gaps and words – but every word follows a gap and every gap follows a word. The division is in a series; the mind is not divided into two watertight compartments – words and gaps. They are mixed. They are in a chain. Two words are being connected through a gap, and two gaps are being connected through a word.

Mind focused, consciousness focused, only on words is non-meditative. Consciousness focused only on gaps is meditative. So meditation is a “gestalt attention” – attention, awareness, consciousness of the gaps. And you cannot be simultaneously aware of both, that is impossible. So, whenever you become aware, words will be lost. When you observe keenly, you will not find words; you will find only the gap.

Not even “gaps” because you can feel the difference between two words, but you cannot feel the difference between two gaps. So words are always plural and gap is always singular: the gap. That’s why I use “the gap.” Words can be many; gaps cannot be. They become one. They trespass and they become one. So meditation to me means focusing on the gap. The gestalt is to be changed, and the gestalt changes…the gestalt changes.

Another thing is to be understood. If you have the gestalt picture and if you concentrate on the figure of the old lady, you don’t know the other picture. You have become conscious of the one, and that’s the only way. You become conscious of one. You don’t know that the other picture is hiding behind it. You have become conscious of one. If you concentrate on the picture of the old lady – if you go on concentrating and focusing, if you become totally attentive to it – a moment will come and the focus will have changed. The old lady is gone, and now you see the other picture. The other picture comes in.

Why does it happen? It happens because the mind cannot be focused continuously for a long time. It has to change, it has to change. Either it will have to go to sleep or it will have to change. There are only two possibilities. If you go on concentrating, centering your consciousness on the figure of the old lady, either you will go to sleep… That is meditation Mahesh Yogi style – you will go to sleep. It is peaceful, it is vital, it is a refreshment. You come out of it refreshed. It can help physical health, it can help a mental equilibrium also, but it is not meditation.

The same can be done by autohypnosis, by suggestion – by Coué also – the same can be done. To take it as meditation is very dangerous. It is not. And if one thinks of it as meditation then he will never search for the real dimension of meditation. That is the real harm done by such practices, and by the propagandists of such practices. It is drugging yourself psychologically.

The mind cannot remain in a fixed position. It is a living process. It cannot remain in a fixed position. If you force it to then it will go to sleep only in order to continue the living process in dreams. It goes to sleep only in order to escape your stagnant, forceful focus. Then it can again continue living in dreams.

If you are aware – only aware, without words – then autohypnosis becomes difficult. Without words, autohypnosis is difficult, because without words you cannot suggest anything to the mind. The Indian word mantra means suggestion, and nothing else. It means suggestion. If you are simply aware, without words, of the old lady and her figure, then you will see that your mind changes, the focus changes, and the younger woman comes into focus.

Why I’m saying this…if you become aware of words – just become aware of words and don’t use any word to push them away, don’t use any mantra to push them away, just become aware of the words – your mind will change automatically to gaps. It cannot continue. It will have to relax into the gap.

Either you are identified with words…then you go on jumping from one word to another. You escape the gap and go on jumping from one word to another, because another word is also something new. You have changed the word: the older word is not there and the newer word is there, so the mind goes on changing, the focus is changing.

Or, if you are not identified with words, if you are just a witness, just seeing words in a procession, just watching, aloof, just standing above and looking at the words…they are going in a procession, just like the street traffic goes, and you are just looking at it; things are changing, one person has passed, another has not yet come… There is a gap; the street is vacant.

If you are just watching, then you will know the gap. And once you have known the gap, you will know the jump, because the gap is the abyss. The word is the surface and the gap is the abyss. Once you have known the gap you are in it, you will jump into it, and it is so peace-giving, and it is so consciousness-creating. It is a mutation to be in the gap; it is a transformation to be in the gap. And once you have known the treasure of the gap, you will not lose it.

The moment language is not needed, you will drop it – and it is a conscious dropping. You are conscious of the abyss, you are conscious of the silence, the infinite silence. You are in it.

And another thing: when you are in the gap, in the interval, in the abyss, you become one with it. You cannot be separate from it. You are conscious and one, and that is the mystery of meditation. You are perfectly conscious and one with it also. It is not that you are conscious of something else separate from you – the other. You are never conscious of the abyss as the other; you are conscious of the abyss as yourself. And still you are conscious; you are not unconscious. You know, but the knower is now the knowing. You observe the gap, but now the observer is the observed.

Now as far as words and thoughts are concerned, you are a witness, separate, and words are the other. But when there are no words, you are the gap, and still conscious that you are the gap – because now between you and the gap, between consciousness and existence, there is no barrier. Only words are the barrier. Now you are in an existential situation. This is meditation: to be in existence, totally in it and still conscious. And this is the contradiction, and this is the paradox, because we have never known a situation in which we are conscious and one with it.

Whenever we are conscious of anything, the thing becomes the other. If we are identified we know only one thing. Then the thing is not the other, but then we are not conscious. We can be one with something only when we are unconscious. That has been our experience. That is the ordinary experience, the day-to-day experience: we become one only when we are unconscious.

That’s why sex has got so much appeal. You become one in a moment, but in that moment you are unconscious, and you seek that unconsciousness. But the more you seek, the more conscious you become. Then sex becomes absolutely absurd. A moment will come…because if you practice this continuously you cannot remain unconscious. Consciousness will penetrate into it. The thing will become mechanical, because then you cannot be identified with it. Then you cannot feel the bliss of sex, because the bliss was coming from the unconscious – you could become unconscious in a passionate thrill.

Your consciousness was dropped for a single moment; you were in the abyss but unconscious. But the moment you go into it, the small becomes the moment. And the more you seek it, the more it is lost. And a moment comes when you are in sex and not unconscious. The abyss is lost, the bliss is lost. Then the act becomes stupid. Then the act becomes just a mechanical relief; then there is no spiritual background to it.

We have only known unconscious oneness; we have never known conscious oneness – and meditation is conscious oneness. It is the other pole of sexuality. Sex is one pole of unconscious oneness, and meditation is the other pole, of conscious oneness. Sex is the lowest point of oneness and meditation is the peak, the highest peak of oneness. And the difference is of consciousness. The difference is of consciousness.

The Western mind is thinking about meditation because the appeal of sex has been lost. Whenever a society becomes unsuppressively sexual, meditation will follow. Whenever a society is uninhibitedly sexual, meditation will follow – because uninhibited sex will kill the charm and the romance, will kill the spiritual side. You cannot be so unconscious. You cannot be unconscious so often. Otherwise the very unconsciousness will have a conscious corner.

So a sexually suppressed society can remain interested in sex, but the unsuppressive, non-suppressive, uninhibited society cannot remain in sexuality forever. It will have to transcend it. So whenever sex becomes free, uninhibited, meditation follows. And whenever a society is sexual, religion will follow. A sexually suppressive society cannot be really religious because the function of meditation is being substituted by sex. So to me, a sexually free society is a step toward a religious revolution. The Western mind is asking “What is meditation?” – a seeking, a searching. And the search will become keener as days pass.

Of course, because the search is there, it can be exploited. And it is being exploited by the East. It can be exploited. Gurus can be supplied; they can be exported, and they are being exported. But only tricks can be found through gurus – only tricks. Understanding comes through life, understanding comes through living. It cannot be given and transferred.

I cannot give you my understanding. I can talk about it, but I cannot give it to you. You will have to find it. You will have to go into life. You will have to err, you will have to fail, you will have to pass through frustration. And only through failures, errors, frustrations, through the encounter of real living, will you come to meditation. That’s why I say it is a growth. But something can be understood. The understanding will never be deeper than intellect. Through another it can never be more than intellectual.

That’s why Krishnamurti demands the impossible. He will say to you, “Don’t understand me intellectually.” But through another, nothing except intellectual understanding can come. That’s why his effort has been absurd. Whatsoever he is saying is exactly what can be said; it is authentic. But when he demands more than intellectual understanding from the listener, it becomes impossible, because through another nothing more can come out…nothing more can be delivered. But to me, even intellectual understanding is worthwhile.

If you can understand what I say intellectually, you can also understand what has not been said to you. If you can understand what I am saying to you, you can also understand the gaps: what I am not saying to you, what I cannot say to you. And if you understand intellectually…and first understanding is bound to be intellectual, because intellect is the door. It can never be spiritual, because spirituality is the inner shrine.

So I can only communicate to you intellectually. But if you understand it, then that which has not been said can also be felt. I cannot communicate without words, but when I am using words I am also using silences. You will have to be aware of both. What I have said to you is less important than the gaps, gaps between two words that I have used. If only words are being understood then it is a communication. And if you can become aware of the gaps also, then it is a communion. But that is altogether up to you.

Begin from somewhere, because one has to begin from somewhere. And every beginning is bound to be a false beginning – but one has to begin from somewhere. And also, through every beginning there is bound to be a false beginning, because in the beginning you cannot know the end – and without knowing the end you cannot know the beginning. The beginning is the past, and you have to begin from somewhere. It is bound to be false but let it be false.

Begin, because through the false, through the groping, is the door. We are in the dark; we have to begin from somewhere. And one who is very wise and who thinks “I will begin only when the right beginning is there,” will never begin. He will never grope in the dark because he will say, “When the door is open and I know that this is the door, only then will I take the first step.” He will never take the first step, and if the first is not taken, the last can never be reached. And I also say that even a false step is a step; even a false step is a step toward the right step, because it is a step, it is a beginning.

So I also say that even a false beginning, a wrong beginning, is a right beginning because it is a beginning. You begin to grope in the dark and through groping is the door.

That’s why I say to be aware of the linguistic process – the process of words – and also seek the awareness of the gaps, the intervals. And there will be moments without your conscious effort, there will be moments and you will become aware of the gap. That is the encounter, the encounter with the divine, the encounter with the existential. Whenever there is encounter, don’t escape from it so soon. Be with it. It will be fearful for the first time; it is bound to be.

Whenever the unknown is encountered, fear is created, because to us the unknown means death. We are fearful of death because it is the unknown – the most unknown, or the most known unknown. So whenever there is a gap, you will feel death, death coming to you. Then be dead! Just be in it, and die completely in the gap, and you will be resurrected. That’s what I mean by resurrection: dying in the gap, in the silence, life is resurrected. You come alive and for the first time, really alive.

So to me, meditation is not a method, but a process; meditation is not a technique, but an understanding. It cannot be taught; it can only be indicated. You cannot be informed about it because really no information is information. It is from the out. Meditation comes from your own inner depths.

So be on a search, be a seeker, and don’t be a disciple, because only a seeker is a disciple – but then he is not the disciple of some guru, then he is a disciple of the whole of life. Then, don’t go on learning words because a spiritual learning can never be of words. Go on learning gaps – the silences that are there, always surrounding you. They are there even in the crowd, in the market, in the bazaar – they are there. Seek the silences, seek the gaps within and without, and one day you will find that you are in meditation.

Meditation has come to you. It always comes. One has to be in search for it, because only when you are in search are you open to it, vulnerable. You are a host to it, and meditation is a guest. You can invite it and wait for it. It comes. It has always been coming. It comes to a Buddha, it comes to a Jesus, it comes to everybody, anybody who is ready to be open and seeking.

But don’t learn it from somewhere; otherwise you will be tricked and the tricks are many. And mind is always searching for easier things – the least resistance. Mind is always for the least resistance and this urge for least resistance becomes the source for exploitation. Then there are gurus and gurudoms, and the whole spiritual search is poisoned.

The most dangerous person is one who exploits someone’s spiritual urge. If someone robs you of your wealth it is not so serious, because a thing stolen is not so serious; if someone even kills you it is not so serious, really. But if someone tricks you and kills or even postpones your urge toward meditation, toward the divine, toward the ecstasy, then the sin is great, unforgivable.

But that is being done, so be aware of it. It would be better… Don’t ask anybody, “What is meditation? What is meditation? How to meditate?” Ask, “What are the hindrances? What are the obstacles? Why are we not in meditation? Where is growth being stopped? Where have we become crippled?” And seek no guru, because gurus are crippling. They cripple. And anyone who gives you ready-made formulas, ready-made formulae, is not a friend but an enemy.

Grope in the dark. That is the destiny, that is the situation, and nothing can be done. It is so: grope in the dark. And the very groping will become the understanding which liberates. Jesus has said: “Truth liberates. Truth is freedom.” Understanding is freedom because truth is always through understanding. It is not something which you will meet and encounter; it is something you will grow into. Truth is not something you will encounter somewhere in time and space. Truth is something you will grow into.

So be in search of understanding, because understanding is the only growth, and the more understanding you become, the more mature, the nearer truth will be. And in some unknown moment – unexpected, because the mind cannot expect that which is beyond mind; unpredictable, because the mind cannot predict that which is not of the mind – in some unexpected, unpredictable moment when understanding comes to a peak, you are in the abyss. You are no more, and meditation is.

When you are no more, you are in meditation. Both cannot exist simultaneously: either you can exist, or meditation. So meditation is never of you; it is always beyond you. When you are in the abyss, meditation is there. Then the ego is not; then you are not. Then the being is. That’s what religions mean by God, the ultimate being. That’s what religions mean by the ultimate concern. And meditation is the ultimate concern. It is the essence of all religions, of all seekers and of all searches. It is nowhere to be found ready-made. And one who says it, claims it, then be aware of him.

Go on groping. Don’t be afraid of failures. Commit failures, but don’t commit the same failure again.

That’s all; that’s enough. To err is human, to forgive is divine and a person who goes on erring in search of truth is always forgiven. It is a promise from the very depths of existence, but one has to grow toward it.