Osho suggested that any act performed consciously and slowly can transform into meditation first and once it is mastered it even transforms into prayer. Prayer is just intense state of mediation. Here osho is describing application of above quote to convert smoking into smoking mediation first and even prayer!
Osho says:-
I tell you: if you smoke, do it carefully.
That’s what I’m saying. I’m telling you: when you take out a cigarette from your pocket, a packet of cigarettes, don’t take it out quickly like you do every day.
What’s the rush? Take it out slowly. Just take it out slowly. Take it out as slowly as you can.
When you’re about to smoke a cigarette, smoke it properly, smoke it with some grace. Don’t just hastily take it out and throw smoke everywhere, throw away the cigarette, then regret whether you should’ve smoked or not, it’s getting really bad. You are mistaken.
(If you wish to use the bad habit as an opportunity to practice mediation and convert it into smoking mediation then follow as Osho says here)
Please smoke it with a little decorum! A little refinement, a little grace! Take the cigarette box in your hand, then take out the cigarette, then flick it on the box, and light it up.
Then hold it gently in your mouth. Then take out the matchbox. Then light the match. Gently, like when someone lights a ritual lamp, light the cigarette.
Why are you scared? Are you so afraid? What is repentance?
You are the one who loves, it is your life, you are your own master. You are not harming anyone. And if you want to harm yourself, you have the right to do so. But give it an artistic touch.
And you will be amazed, you will not appear as if committing a sin for the first time, foolishness will be revealed. And that is the difference.
You can be free from foolishness, not sin, no one has ever been freed from sin. Sin exists, it has been said for centuries. How can man be freed from sin? I’m not saying smoking is a sin; although I certainly say it is foolishness.
What is sin? But foolishness is certain. Just keep doing this process slowly, and as you do it slowly, foolishness will become clearer.
There is a scientific reason for this. Whatever work we become habitual of, it becomes mechanical; we do it like a machine. If you slacken that process, you will suddenly find that you are doing that work consciously, not mechanically.
(Any act done consciously or meditatively takes you toward your centre of being. So whatever is worthless starts dropping on it’s own, and whatever is good for journey towards your centre of being or inner light starts growing. Smoking meditation is not doing any miracle. So Osho in one of my post in Hindi, that you can translate using Google translate at bottom of page, suggests that meditation should becomes our personal guide instead of any law book.)
You walk with a special gait. When you go to Buddhist meditation halls, they just change your gait.
They say: halve the gait. Walk consciously. Take small steps. You will be surprised whenever you lose consciousness, you will then step with force, which is your habit.
If you want to stay conscious, you will have to slow down your steps; if you want to walk slowly, you will have to stay conscious. If you want to walk losing consciousness, then an old habit will be enough.
Any process, if you slow down its pace, consciousness gets connected with it.
Also, if you eat slowly, very slowly, bite forty times every morsel, then you will be surprised how consciously you are doing it! It needs to be counted, to bite forty times, not to go on accidentally. I tell you not to eat too much. I say bite forty times and eat slowly, very slowly. The quantity of your food will automatically be reduced by a third. It will be just enough, and it will satisfy more, it will fulfill more. Its juice will spread, it will digest well. Slow down any such process.
If it is a meaningful process, it will not be broken instead it will increase with time.
But, If it is a futile process, it will break itself because foolishness becomes clear. One has to leave sin, one does not have to leave foolishness; one has to know, foolishness will drop on its own.
—Osho talks on Gorakhnath in Hindi maro he jogi maro
(from “Maro He Jogi Maro” by Osho- Translated from Hindi to English using Jetpack AI of WordPress)
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I fully agree with Osho’s statement that it requires a different kind of courage to try anything like smoking or drinking wine etc. Among them it is easy to find a person who is actually great gambler, ready to take risks like stock market or starting a new business or launching a new product or they even are ready to risk their life! King Britahari was one such person and has written Saundarya Shatakam based upon his experiences of getting indulged into all possible kinds of material enjoyments. Then mystic Girakhnath transformed him into a seeker and after awakening he has written another book Vairagya Shatakam. It is about describing ways to come out of material attachments, possessions, addictions in such delicate way to not stop changing the self till one attains enlightenment. Osho named him first Zorba the Buddha on this planet. Osho says that in future most of the people who get awakened are going to be living like King Britahari or Zorbas in their life.
I just want to inform you that if you are able to transform your habit using this meditation, then you have actually mastered it’s first stage. I mastered it further to experience no-thought moment. Then tried this meditation during many other activities too. Apply it during sex! and It becomes Tantra Meditation.
I have one more post on How to understand our bad habit as bad, if you need to read more about application of meditation or slowing down in life.
Awareness meditation is the way worked for me and I tried it first during brushing my teeth in the morning after trying 8-10 meditations over period of 15 years! So there is no need to reinvent the circle for you. May be you too find it suitable otherwise with Dynamic meditation and/or Kundalini in the evening it is suitable for most of the people. There are 110 other meditation techniques discovered by Indian Mystic Gorakhnath about 500years before and further modified by Osho for contemporary people that one can experiment and the suitable one could be practiced in routine life.
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My suggestions:-
Osho International Online (OIO) provides facility to learn these from your home, through Osho Meditation Day @€20.00 per person. You can learn Dynamic meditations from disciples of Osho. OIO rotate times through three timezones NY,Berlin and Mumbai.