Meditation

Have you ever wondered if true freedom comes not from political revolutions or social movements but from your own inner state of awareness? In Meditation: The First and Last Freedom, Osho argues that meditation is not merely a technique for relaxation—it is the deepest science of human transformation. He contends that meditation is both the first step and the final destination toward discovering who we really are. It does not depend on belief in gods or doctrines but on direct experience; you can be an atheist or agnostic and still meditate, because meditation is rooted in existential truth, not religion.

Osho’s central claim is bold yet simple: when thought pauses, you glimpse the eternal within. Meditation is not sitting cross-legged in isolation—it is learning to witness every moment, whether washing dishes, walking, or listening. By turning awareness inward, we shift from identifying with our thoughts and emotions to becoming the watcher, the witness, the quiet center of the cyclone. Here we discover a space untouched by turmoil or belief—a pure consciousness that is always free.

From Superstition to Science

Osho redefines meditation as a science rather than a superstition. He insists that the process has nothing to do with faith in God, soul, or heaven. Like a scientist unafraid of experimentation, you must test these truths yourself. Anyone—believer, doubter, or skeptic—can witness what happens when thought halts: the body and mind separate, revealing the infinite abyss that lies between. You emerge realizing that you, as consciousness, cannot die though the body may perish. This is not a creed but an experience that dissolves fear and dependence.

Meditation for the Modern Mind

The world Osho addresses is tense, restless, and over-stimulated. Modern people feel too busy, too anxious, too skeptical for traditional meditation, which seems slow and monastic. In response, Osho designed Active Meditations—dynamic, cathartic processes like Dynamic and Kundalini meditation—where you release pent-up energy through breath, dance, and movement until relaxation and stillness arise naturally. For the jet-age psyche weighed down by stress, these practices offer immediate breakthroughs: after effort comes stillness, after madness peace. Meditation becomes not a ritual but a spontaneous rhythm woven into daily life.

Freedom Through Awareness

At its core, Osho’s philosophy centers on awareness—what he calls witnessing. Every action, done with awareness, becomes meditation. Walking, eating, listening—if you remain alert, life itself turns sacred. Rather than fighting darkness or ego, you switch on the light of observation. Once you stop trying to improve yourself or conform to others’ expectations, self-acceptance opens the door to healing. Meditation gives this freedom—the only freedom that cannot be taken away—because it pulls you out of conditioning into direct consciousness.

The Journey and Its Promise

Across its many sections, Osho’s book guides readers through the nature of meditation, the flowering of love and silence, the physiological science behind techniques, and obstacles such as ego or mind tricks. Each chapter maps a stage of inner evolution—from chaos to centeredness, from doing to non-doing, from identification to pure witnessing. Ultimately, meditation leads to the fourth state beyond waking, dreaming, and sleep—the turiya consciousness of awareness itself.

You discover that bliss, compassion, intelligence, and creativity are not goals to seek but natural expressions of a silent center. By entering that center—the first and last freedom—you live spontaneously, joyfully, unattached yet deeply connected. This is Osho’s radical message: transformation requires no shoulds, no beliefs, and no escape from life. Meditation is both the experiment and the result, the seed and the flower. When awareness blossoms, you realize there was never any bondage—only forgetfulness of your own limitless sky.

Osho describes witnessing as the golden key to meditation—the simple act of observing without judgment. When you can watch your body moving, your thoughts racing, and your feelings shifting, you begin to separate from them. You are not your anger, your desire, or even your joy; you are the one noticing them. This realization is what converts daily chaos into a path of awakening.

The Progressive Layers of Awareness

He outlines a clear progression: first watch the body, then thoughts, then emotions. As each layer becomes transparent, awareness deepens. In the beginning you might record only physical gestures and feel a growing peace in your body. Then you perceive the thought-stream, chaotic and mad. Finally, you become aware of subtle moods and feelings—the background climate within. When these three unify under awareness, the fourth stage arrives naturally: awareness watching awareness itself. This is the awakening of Buddha-consciousness.

The Watchman and the Watcher

Through vivid anecdotes, Osho illustrates this timeless practice. He tells of Baal Shem, the Jewish mystic who saw himself like a watchman guarding the palace. The watchman outside looks for intruders; Baal Shem watched the watcher within. His bliss came not from pay but from the act of witnessing itself. Osho uses this image to show that joy arises the moment you observe awareness observing.

Action Without Disturbance

To witness does not mean to escape. You can still speak, clean, or dance while the inner center remains silent. Osho calls this being the center of the cyclone—living fully while untouched inside. When awareness becomes unwavering, all doing continues on the surface but the meditator no longer identifies as the doer. This state leads to spontaneous joy, a peace without cause.

(Note: Similar to Eckhart Tolle’s idea of “the watcher of the mind,” Osho’s witnessing dissolves identification gradually until only pure consciousness remains.)

Meditation, for Osho, is not sterile withdrawal—it blooms into love and compassion. He likens meditation to a thousand-petaled lotus whose fragrance is love. When awareness matures, it releases unconditional affection untied to desire. Whereas ordinary love depends on the mind and demands reciprocity, meditative love is like sunlight: it shines without choosing whom to warm.

From Silence to Sensitivity

Silence, often mistaken as emptiness, is actually brimming with vibrant sensitivity. In its depth you feel connected to every leaf and star. Osho writes that a blade of grass becomes as important as a galaxy because both express existence’s dance. This sensitivity breeds compassion—love elevated by awareness. Buddha defined compassion as love plus meditation. It is giving for the sheer joy of giving, not as a transaction.

Joy Without Cause

In ordinary life, joy needs reasons: success, beauty, possession. In meditation, joy flows causelessly. You might feel sudden bliss walking alone—with no reason at all. Osho writes that when joy remains regardless of circumstance, you approach Buddhahood. Pleasure fluctuates with conditions; joy that abides reveals your center beyond conditions.

Through love, silence, and compassion, meditation transforms from technique into a living fragrance. You stop asking for eternity—you become it.

Despite emphasizing spontaneity, Osho treats meditation as a precise science. Techniques are not beliefs but tested experiments developed through centuries of inner research. He urges you to play with them lightly until one “clicks.” When it does, results appear rapidly—even within seven days—because genuine methods vibrate with the chemistry of human consciousness honed by many seekers before you.

Effort and Effortlessness

Initially, you need effort because the mind lives through tension. Sitting silently feels unnatural; the body rebels. Through active exercises—breathing, dancing, catharsis—you burn the restlessness, paving the way for effortless stillness. This transition mirrors Zen’s paradox of “effortless effort.” First you strive, then surrender. When no more striving remains, meditation happens by itself.

The Moment to Drop the Method

Osho warns that techniques are rafts to cross the river—not souvenirs to carry on your head. Once awareness blossoms, clinging to methods becomes another attachment. He uses Buddha’s parable of fools hauling a boat after crossing the river. True gratitude is letting go. When the remedy is dropped, relaxation deepens, and the sun of consciousness shines unobstructed. Playing, experimenting, and laughing are therefore central attitudes to this inner science.

One of Osho’s revolutionary contributions is his emphasis on catharsis—the purging of repressed emotions before attempting quiet meditation. Modern humans, he says, are too cluttered to sit peacefully; anger, fear, and frustration must first be expressed consciously. In Dynamic Meditation, participants breathe chaotically, scream, jump, and dance to let their madness surface. Only after the storm can silence descend effortlessly.

From Insanity to Innocence

We live suppressing emotions since childhood—told not to cry, not to be angry. Those denied energies solidify inside as tension and neurosis. By allowing authentic expression in meditation, one regains childlike innocence—the ability to laugh, weep, and dance freely. Osho recalls chaotic meditation camps in Mount Abu where participants voiced gibberish, laughed hysterically, even climbed trees naked—symbolic of souls shedding masks. Catharsis burns the past; the silent stillness that follows is fresh, like post-storm air.

Active Methods for a Modern Age

Dynamic and Kundalini meditations mix movement, music, and witnessing. Each stage mirrors a psychological rhythm—effort, release, silence, celebration. In these modern contexts, no suppression or belief is needed; physical vitality replaces dogma. “The long yoga practices will not do,” Osho insists. “Now it is the jet age; meditation must pick up speed.” Through catharsis, you unclog the system so that stillness arises naturally and joyfully.

The greatest difficulty in meditation is not technique but the ego—that false identity built from possession and comparison. Society trains us to feel separate, to chase success, and thus to strengthen ego from childhood. The ego divides you from existence and resists surrender. Osho describes it as the disease that must be understood, not fought; awareness itself dissolves it like sunshine dissolves darkness.

The Chattering Mind and False Methods

When you sit silently, the mind buzzes with thoughts and dreams. This restlessness leads many to mistaken practices—concentration or introspection—both based on suppression. Concentration narrows perception and breeds tension; introspection turns you into your own analyst. True meditation, by contrast, is spacious relaxation and witnessing without interference. You do not stop thoughts but watch them until they lose energy and fall away by themselves. Mind becomes servant instead of master.

Maya and the Illusions of Experience

Osho cautions against being seduced by mystical experiences—visions, lights, or feelings of emptiness. These are tricks of the mind, mirages mistaken for arrival. He cites disciples who felt “enlightened” after vivid dreams; the master had to shock them back to reality. True meditation is not an experience but the realization of the experiencer itself—the space in which all experiences rise and vanish. When you stop chasing phenomena, mind’s illusions fade and the witness shines clear.

Witnessing begins the journey; no-mind completes it. As Osho explains through countless parables, thoughts are parasites feeding on your attention. When you stop identifying with them, they starve and die—and the gaps between thoughts grow wider. In those silent intervals, you taste the state of no-mind: unclouded, timeless awareness. It is not the destruction of mind but its restful harmony, used only when needed, never as master.

Natural Expansion of Stillness

Through patient observation, silent gaps stretch from seconds to minutes and eventually to an unbroken clarity that lasts twenty-four hours. Here the river of thought empties into the ocean of consciousness, and you find yourself inseparable from existence. In Osho’s words, “Mind is the servant; no-mind is the master.” This culmination is the flowering of meditation: freedom from time, fear, and egoic separation.

Living with Awareness

No-mind transforms daily living—speech becomes musical, action graceful. Creativity flows without tension because consciousness is vast, unblocked. Osho compares it to a mirror polished of dust, reflecting everything yet untouched. In this clarity, you live spontaneously, celebrating rather than controlling life. The seeker disappears; only awareness remains, fully awake.