How to really understand your bad habit as bad.

In one of my posts I proposed that a person who is experimenting different things in life and learning from it may get enlightened but a follower is not going to get enlightened for sure. Few people raised objection because there was a boy smoking in its picture and I marked him as Zorba the Buddha.

However there are many methods through which you can make your life full of awareness but here is a step by step method that is suggested by Osho.

The deep problem is: how to become aware, how not to be unconscious. From where to start? Don’t try to fight with some very deep-rooted habit. You will be defeated. Start with very neutral habits.

For example: you go for a walk; just be aware that you are walking. It is a neutral thing. Nothing is invested in it.

You are looking at the trees; just look at the trees and be aware. Don’t look with clouded eyes. Drop all thinking. Just for a few moments even, just look at the trees, and just look. Look at the stars.

Swimming, just be alert to the inner feeling that happens inside your body while you are swimming, the inner. Feel it.

You are taking a sun bath; feel how you start feeling inside: warm, settled, rested.

While falling asleep, just watch how you are feeling inside. Inside, outside – try to be aware of the coolness of the sheets, the darkness in the room, the silence outside, or the noise outside. Suddenly, a dog barks – neutral things; bring your consciousness to them first. And then, by and by, proceed.

Then, try to be aware of your good habits, because good habits are not so deep-rooted as bad habit. Good habits need much sacrifice on your part, so very few people try to cultivate good habits. And even those who try to cultivate good habits try very few good habits; just underneath, a bad habit is there or many bad habits are there.

First try neutral, then good, then move by and by to bad habit. And finally, remember that each habit has to be made aware. Once you have become aware of your whole habitual pattern, that habitual pattern is your mind. Any day the shift will happen. Suddenly, you will be in the no-mind.

When all the habits of your life have become aware, you don’t do them unconsciously suddenly, a shift will happen. You will find yourself in emptiness. That is the original mind or Original face or Adhaar Manush (as per Bauls) which is neither pure nor impure.

—Osho, Yoga-The science of the soul, Chapter 3, Returning to the original mind.

These methods are developed by Osho perhaps after learning from the wisdom of the Bauls.

The Bauls are very healthy people — not schizophrenic, not split. Their synthesis has to be understood; the very understanding will help you tremendously. They say, “This world and the other world are not opposite.” They say, “To eat, drink and be merry, and to be prayerful, are not opposite.” They say, “This shore and the other shore belong to the same river of God.” So they say that each moment has to be lived as a materialist, and each moment has to be given a direction as a spiritualist. Each moment, one has to be delightful, rejoicing, celebrating, and at the same time, remaining alert and conscious, remaining fully aware about the future unfoldment. But that unfoldment is not against this moment’s rejoicing. In fact, because you rejoice in this moment, the next moment your flower opens more.

<3 Osho <3
The Beloved, Vol. 2, # 1

I suggested to one person in response of understanding a bad habit directly after learning it from Osho in his talks as below. It is our mindset that all acts of our life are not prayer but a selected few acts on stipulated date only is part of prayer in our life. Any act performed meditatively, fully aware becomes prayer. Even smoking done fully consciously becomes prayer. Prayer is just a state of intense meditation. Even Sex can be turned into prayer, I did it!

Yes, you can transform every act into spiritual work. Be it sex or smoking. If you wish to convert smoking into a meditation (smoking meditation) then you need to first divide whole act into small parts. From taking out packet from your pocket till end. Then perform every act very consciously, slowly. Before igniting it look it deeply as if God himself is present in the form of cigarette. Actually it is the case!

Exhale so totally that you forget yourself and become the smoke or ring of smoke. This way the experience becomes so complete and total that you are not going to lit another one in your life!

It was the incompleteness of experience that creates addiction but every time it is performed unconsciously. And the miracle happens that a non living thing become master of best creation of God ie human being.

 

This is the reason a really enlightened person becomes uninterested in sex, wine, anger, greed, attachment etc. It was consciousness that leads to understanding that these are futile in comparison to consciousness which gives permanent bliss, ecstasy and ultimate freedom.

99% of desires can be removed from our life by acting fully aware during their execution. That leads to enlightenment and only after enlightenment one becomes 100% desire less. This is right way to attain desirelessness, instead of first trying to attain desire less state to get enlightened because it is impossible. The one who is trying always remains and that becomes biggest hurdle in enlightenment.

Here is a post on Conscious act that drops what is sin or wrong or bad and increase what is virtue or good or right

If you wish to learn more about bad habit then you may like to read it too. It is in Hindi and you need to take help of Google translate available at bottom left of the blog page. Here this method is described in much detail.

Awareness meditation is the way worked for me, may be you too find it suitable otherwise Dynamic meditation is for most of the people. There are 110 other meditation techniques discovered by Indian Mystic Gorakhnath about 500years before and further modified by Osho that one can experiment and the suitable one could be practiced in routine life. 

My experiences may be of your help in taking only one step. Because everyone has to move forward alone, this is the nature of this journey.
In my life mindfulness or awareness meditation helped miraculously. Apart from that living a simple, authentic and totality in life is very helpful even when we are serving people around us with great love and care without discrimination.

Hi ….. I write my comments from my personal experiences of my inner journey. This post may include teachings of Mystics around the world which from my personal experience I found worth following even today. For more have a look at my linktree website for getting regular updates through social media lor subscribe to YouTube channel or listen to the podcasts etc.

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