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The Orange Book

orange book cover

The Orange Book contains over 100 meditations, from "Drinking Tea" to "Facing Your Fears." These are methods to play with, to experiment with, to celebrate the inner exploration. It's a pocket-size volume to take with you wherever you go, first published in 1980.

The following are meditations from this booklet:

I cannot say to you that you should do meditation, I can only explain to you what it is. If you understand me, you will be in meditation; there is no should to it. If you don′t understand me, you will not be in meditation.

(Osho - The Orange Book)

Download The Orange Book (.pdf file)

Peace be to this man

When somebody comes to see you or meet you just settle within yourself, become silent. When the man enters, deep down feel peace for him. Feel: "Peace be to this man". don′t just say it, feel it. Suddenly you will see a change in the man as if something unknown has entered into his being. He will be totally different. Try it.

Not two

THIS is one of the oldest mantras. Whenever you feel divided, whenever you see that a duality is coming into being, simply say inside: "Not two". But say it with awareness; don′t repeat it in a mechanical way. Whenever you feel love arising, say "Not two", otherwise the hate is waiting there - they are one. When you feel hate arising say "Not two". Whenever you feel a clinging towards life say "Not two", whenever you feel a fear of death, say "Not two". Only one is.
And this saying should be your understanding. It should be filled with intelligence, penetrating clarity, and suddenly you will feel a relaxation within. The moment you say "Not two" - if you are saying it understandingly, not repeating it in a mechanical way - you will suddenly feel the illumination.

Devavani Meditation

Devavani is the Divine Voice which moves and speaks through the mediator, who becomes an empty vessel, a channel. This meditation is a Latihan of the tongue. It relaxes the conscious mind so deeply that, when done last thing at night, is sure to be followed by a profound sleep. There are four stages of 15 minutes each. Keep your eyes closed throughout.

First Stage: 15 minutes

Sit quietly, preferably with gentle music playing.
All meditation is waiting, all prayer is infinite patience. The whole of religion consists of not allowing the mind to create more problems for you.
If you tell the mind to wait, meditation happens. If you can persuade the mind to wait you will be in prayer, because waiting means no thinking. It means just sitting on the bank, not doing anything with the stream. What can you do? Whatsoever you do will make it more muddy. Your very entering into the stream will create more problems; so wait.

Second Stage: 15 minutes

Start making nonsense sounds, for example "la... la... la", and continue until unfamiliar word-like sounds arise. These sounds need to come from the unfamiliar part of the brain used as a child, before words were learned. Allow a gentle conversational intonation; do not cry or shout, laugh or scream.

Third Stage: 15 minutes

Stand up and continue to speak, allowing your body to move softly in harmony with the sounds. If your body is relaxed the subtle energies will create a Latihan outside your control.

Fourth Stage: 15 minutes

Lie down, be silent and still.

The only thing to be remembered is that those sounds or words should not be of any language that you know. If you know English, German, and Italian, then they should not be Italian, German, or English. Any other language that you don′t know is allowed - Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese! But if you know Japanese then it is not allowed - then Italian is wonderful! Speak any language that you don′t know. You will be in a difficulty for a few seconds only for the first day, because how do you speak a language you don′t know? It can be spoken, and once it starts, any sounds, nonsense words just to put the conscious off and allow the unconscious to speak, will happen.
When the unconscious speaks, the unconscious knows no language. It is a very, very old method. It comes from the old testament. In those days it was called glossolalia. A few churches in America still use it. They call it "talking in tongues". And it is a wonderful method, one of the most deep and penetrating into the unconscious.
don′t make it feverish, let it be a deep deep comforting energy, nourishing, sing-song. Enjoy, sway, if you feel like dancing, dance. But everything has to be very graceful, that you have to remember. It has not to become cathartic.

Prayer

There is nobody to hear your prayers. Your prayer is simply a monologue; you are praying to the empty sky. Nobody is going to reward you for your prayers - remember it. If you really know what prayer is, prayer itself is its own reward. There is nobody else to reward you; the reward is not there in the future, not in the afterlife.
But praying itself is such a beautiful phenomenon that who cares about the future and who bothers about the reward? That is greed, the idea of reward. Prayer in itself is such a celebration, it brings such great joy and ecstasy, that one prays for the prayer′s sake. One does not pray out of fear and one does not pray out of greed. One prays because one enjoys it. One does not even bother whether there is a God or not.
God is a device to help you to pray. Once you have learnt to pray, forget all about God. Prayer is itself enough - more than enough.
If you enjoy dance you don′t ask whether there is a God or not. If you enjoy dance, you simply dance; whether anybody is seeing the dance from the sky or not is not your concern. Whether stars and the sun and the moon are going to reward you for your dance, you don′t care. The dance is enough of a reward unto itself. If you love singing you sing; whether anybody listens or not is not the point.
So is prayer. It is a dance, it is a song; it is music, it is love. You enjoy it and there it is finished. Prayer is the means and prayer is the end. The end and the means are not separate - then only you know what prayer is.
When I say prayer, I mean an openness towards God. Not that you have to say something, not that you have to ask something, but just an openness, so that if He wants to give something, you are available. A deep expectation, but with no desire - that′s what you need. Urgent expectancy - as if something is going to happen any moment. You are thrilled by the possibility of the unknown but you don′t have any desire. You don′t say that this should happen or that should not happen. Once you ask, prayer is corrupted.
When you don′t ask, when you simply remain in silence but open, ready to go anywhere, ready even to die, when you are simply in a receptivity, a passive, welcoming spirit, then prayer happens.
Prayer is not something that one can do - it has nothing to do with doing. It is not an action or an activity - it is a state of mind.
If you want to talk, talk, but remember, your talk is not going to affect the existence. It will affect you, and that may be good, but prayer is not going to change God's mind. It may change you, but if it is not changing you then it is a trick. You can go on praying for years, but if it doesn′t change you, drop it, throw it, it is rubbish; don′t carry it any more.
Prayer is not going to change God. You always think that if you pray, God′s mind will change, He will be more favourable, He will be tipped a little towards your side. There is nobody who is listening to you. This vast sky cannot listen. This vast sky can be with you if you are with it - there is no other way to pray.
I also suggest to pray, but praying should be just an energy phenomenon; not a devotee-and-God phenomenon, but an energy phenomenon.

Prayer Meditation

It is best to do this prayer at night, in a darkened room, going to sleep immediately afterwards; or it can be done in the morning, but it must be followed by fifteen minutes rest. This rest is necessary, otherwise you will feel as if you are drunk, in a stupor.
This merging with energy is prayer. It changes you. And when you change, the whole existence changes.
Raise both your hands towards the sky, palms uppermost, head up, just feeling existence flowing in you.
As the energy flows down your arms you will feel a gentle tremor - be like a leaf in a breeze, trembling. Allow it, help it. Then let your whole body vibrate with energy, and just let whatever happens happen.
You feel again a flowing with the earth. Earth and heaven, above and below, yin and yang, male and female - you float, you mix, you drop yourself completely. You are not. You become one... merge.
After two to three minutes, or whenever you feel completely filled, lean down to the earth and kiss the earth. You simply become a vehicle to allow the divine energy to unite with that of the earth.
These two stages should be repeated six more times so that each of the chakras can become unblocked. More times can be done, but if you do less you will feel restless and unable to sleep.
Go into sleep in that very state of prayer. Just fall asleep and the energy will be there. You will be flowing with it, falling into sleep. That will help very greatly because then the energy will surround you the whole night and it will continue to work. By the morning you will feel more fresh than you have ever felt before, more vital than you have ever felt before. A new élan, a new life will start penetrating you, and the whole day you will feel full of new energy; a new vibe, a new song in your heart, and a new dance in your step.

Osho talks about Vipassana

First you have to dance, so in dance your armour drops. First you have to shout in joy and sing, so your life becomes more vital. First you have to cathart, so all you have repressed is thrown out and your body is purified of toxins and poisons, and your psyche also is purified from repressed traumas and wounds. When this has happened and you have become able to laugh and you have become able to love, then Vipassana.
Sitting silently, just start watching your breath. The easiest way to watch is from the entrance of the nose. When the breath comes in, feel the touch of the breath at the entrance of the nose - watch it there. The touch will be easier to watch, breath will be too subtle; in the beginning just watch the touch. The breath goes in, and you feel it going in: watch it. And then follow it, go with it. You will find there comes a point where it stops. Just somewhere near your navel it stops - for a tiny tiny moment, for a pal, it stops. Then it moves outwards again; then follow it - again feel the touch, the breath going out of the nose. Follow it, go with it outside - again you will come to a point, the breath stops for a very tiny moment. Then again the cycle starts.
Inhalation, gap, exhalation, gap, inhalation, gap. That gap is the most mysterious phenomenon inside you. When the breath comes in and stops and there is no movement, that is the point where one can meet God. Or when the breath goes out and stops and there is no movement.
Remember, you are not to stop it; it stops on its own. If you stop it you will miss the whole point, because the doer will come in and witnessing will disappear. You are not to do anything about it. You are not to change the breath pattern, you are neither to inhale nor to exhale. It. is not like Pranayam of yoga, where you start manipulating the breath; it is not that. You don′t touch the breach at all - you allow its naturalness, its natural flow. When it goes out you follow it, when it comes in you follow it.
And soon you will become aware that there are two gaps. In those two gaps is the door. And in those two gaps you will understand, you will see, that breath itself is not life - maybe a food for life, just like other foods, but not life itself. Because when the breathing stops you are there, perfectly there - you are perfectly conscious, utterly conscious. And the breath has stopped, breathing is no more there, and you are there.
And once you continue this watching of the breath - what Buddha calls Vipassana or Anapanasati Yog - if you go on watching it, watching it, watching it, slowly slowly you will see the gap is increasing and becoming bigger. Finally it happens that for minutes together the gap remains. One breath goes in, and the gap... and for minutes the breath does not go out. All has stopped. The world has stopped, time has stopped, thinking has stopped. Because when the breath stops, thinking is not possible. And when the breath stops, for minutes together, thinking is absolutely impossible - because the thought process needs continuous oxygen, and your thought process and your breathing are very deeply related.
When you are angry your breath has a different rhythm, when you are sexually stimulated you have a different breath rhythm, when you are silent a different breath rhythm again. When you are happy a different breath rhythm, when you are sad a different rhythm again. Your breathing goes on changing with the moods of the mind. And vice versa is also true - when the breath changes, the moods of the mind change. And when breath stops, mind stops.
In that stopping of the mind the whole world stops - because the mind is the world. And in that stopping you come to know for the first time what is the breath inside the breath; life inside life. That experience is liberating. That experience makes you alert of God - and God is not a person but the experience of life itself.
Meditation is just being delighted in your own presence. Meditation is a delight in your own being.

Vipassana - Insight Meditation

Find a comfortable place to sit for 45 to 60 minutes. It helps to sit at the same time and in the same place every day, and it doesn′t have to be a silent place. Experiment until you find the situation you feel best in. You can sit once or twice a day, but don′t sit for at least an hour after eating or before sleeping.
It′s important to sit with your back and head straight. Your eyes should be closed and the body as still as possible. A meditation bench can help, or a straight-backed chair or any arrangement of cushions.
There is no special breathing technique; ordinary, natural breathing is fine. Vipassana is based on the awareness of the breath, so the rise and fall of each breath should be watched, wherever the sensation is felt most clearly - at the nose or in the area of the stomach or solar plexus.
Vipassana is not concentration and it is not an objective to remain watching the breathing for a whole hour. When thoughts, feelings or sensations arise, or when you become aware of sound, smells and breezes from outside, simply allow the attention to go to them. Whatever comes up can be watched as clouds passing in the sky - you neither cling nor reject. Whenever there is a choice of what to watch, return to awareness of breathing.
Remember, nothing special is meant to happen. There is neither success nor failure - nor is there any improvement. There is nothing to figure out or analyse, but insights may come about anything. Questions and problems may just be seen as mysteries to be enjoyed.

(There are daily Vipassana sittings during the monthly meditation camps at the ashram)

Osho talks about the upsurge of energy often felt by people starting Vipassana:

In Vipassana it can happen sometimes that one feels very sensual, because you are so silent and energy is not dissipated. Ordinarily much energy is dissipated and you are exhausted. When you simply sit, not doing anything, you become a silent pool of energy, and the pool goes on becoming bigger and bigger and bigger. It almost comes to a point where it is overflowing... and then you feel sensuous. You feel a new sensitivity, sensualness, even sexuality - as if all the senses have become fresh, younger, alive, as if the dust has fallen from you and you have taken a bath, and are being cleansed with the shower. That happens.
That's why people - particularly Buddhist monks who have been doing Vipassana for centuries - don't eat much. They don't need to. They eat once - and that too a very meagre meal, very small, you may call it almost a breakfast... and once a day. They don't sleep much but they are full of energy. And they are not escapists - they work hard. It is not that they are not working. They will chop wood and work in the garden, in the field, on the farm; they will work the whole day. But something has happened to them, and now the energy is no more being dissipated.
And the posture of sitting is very very energy-conserving. The lotus position in which Buddhists sit is such that all the ends of the body are meeting - feet upon feet, hands upon hands. These are the points from where the energy moves and flows out, because for the energy to flow out, something pointed is needed. Hence the male sexual organ is a pointed thing because it has to leak much energy. It is almost a safety-valve. When the energy is too much inside you and you cannot do anything, you release it sexually.
In the sexual act a woman never releases any energy. So a woman can make love to many persons in one night, but a man cannot. A woman can even conserve energy if she knows how; she can even get energy.
From your head no energy is released outside. It has been made by nature in a round shape. So the brain never loses any energy; it conserves - because that is the most important, the central management of your body. It has to be protected - so it is protected by a round skull.
Energy cannot leak out from any round thing. that′s why all the planets - earth and sun and moon and the stars - are all round. Otherwise they will leak energy and will die.
When you sit, you become rounded; hands touching hands. So if this hand releases energy, it moves into another hand. Feet touching feet... and the way you sit becomes almost a circle. Energy moves within you. It is not going out. One conserves it; one becomes by and by a pool. By and by you will feel almost a fullness in your belly. You may be empty, you may not have eaten, but you feel a certain fullness. And then the onrush of sensuality. But it is a good sign, a very very good sign. So enjoy it.

Becoming an astronaut of the inner space

Many times in deep meditation, you will suddenly become aware as if the gravitation has disappeared. That now nothing holds you down, that it is now up to you to decide whether to fly or not, That now it is up to you, if you want you can simply fly up to the sky. The whole sky is yours. But when you open the eyes, suddenly the body is there, the earth is there, the gravitation is there. When you were with closed eyes meditating you forgot your body, you moved to a different dimension; the dimension of grace.
Enjoy it, allow it, because once you start thinking it is crazy, you will stop it and that stopping will disturb your meditation. Enjoy it as in a dream you fly. Close your eyes. In meditation go wherever you want, rise higher and higher into the sky, and many more things soon will become available to you. And don′t be afraid. It is the greatest adventure, greater than going to the moon; becoming an astronaut of the inner space is the greatest adventure.

Osho suggests this beautiful technique for those who are disturbed by sensations of physical instability and flying

Just sit in your bed for five or ten minutes and visualise with closed eyes... feel that your body is becoming bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. Make it as big as possible - so big that it almost starts touching the walls of the room.
You will start feeling that now you cannot move your hands - it is difficult... your head is touching the roof. First for two, three days just feel this; then start spreading out of the room. Fill the whole house, and you will feel that the room is inside you. Then spread outside the house - fill the whole neighbourhood, and feel the whole neighbourhood inside you. And then fill the whole sky, and feel the sun and the moon and the stars moving inside you.
This you continue for ten, twelve days. By and by, slowly, fill the whole sky. The day you have filled the whole sky, start the reverse process. For two days again, become small. In the reverse process, sit and then start imagining you are becoming very small. Just move the other way. Your body is not as big as it appears - it has become one foot high. You are just like a tiny toy - and you will feel it. If you can imagine the hugeness, you can imagine the smallness. Then even smaller - so small that you can hold yourself in your hand. Then even smaller... then even smaller. And within twelve days bring it to such a point that you cannot find yourself. You have become so atomically small that it is impossible to find where you are.
Make yourself as huge as the whole space and then make yourself as small as an invisible atom - twelve days one, then twelve days the other. You will feel so beautiful, so happy and so centered that you cannot imagine it.
Meditation can give you the greatest glimpses, because it is the most useless thing in the world. You simply move into silence. It is greater than sleep because in sleep you are unconscious, whatsoever happens, happens unconsciously. You may be in paradise, but you don't know. In meditation you move knowingly, then you become aware of the path: how to move from the useful world of the without to the useless world within. And once you know the path, any moment you can simply move inwards.
Sitting in a bus you are not needed to do anything, you are simply sitting; travelling in a car or train or an aeroplane, you are not doing anything, everything is being done by others; you can close your eyes and move into the useless, the inner. And suddenly everything becomes silent, and suddenly everything is cool, and suddenly you are at the source of all life.
But it has no value on the market. You cannot go and sell it, you cannot say: I have great meditation. Is anybody ready to buy it? Nobody will be ready to buy it. It is not a commodity. It is useless.

Meditate on Light

The more you meditate on light, the more you will be surprised that something inside starts opening as if a bud is opening and becoming a flower.
Meditation on light is one of the most ancient meditations. In all the ages, in all the countries, in all the religions, it has been emphasised for a particular reason, because the moment you meditate on light, something inside you that has remained a bud starts opening its petals. The very meditation on light creates a space for its opening.
So let that be your meditation. Whenever you have time close your eyes; visualise light. Whenever you see light be in tune with it. Just don′t go on ignoring it. Be worshipful towards it. It may be a sunrise, it may be just a candle in the room, but be prayerful towards it and you will gain much.
Great is the benediction if one continues feeling in tune with light.

Meditation has no goal

Meditation comes into existence only when you have looked into all motives and found them lacking, when you have gone through the whole round of motives and you have seen the falsity of it. You have seen that the motives lead nowhere, that you go on moving in circles; you remain the same. The motives go on and on leading you, driving you, almost driving you mad, creating new desires, but nothing is ever achieved. The hands remain as empty as ever. When this has been seen, when you have looked into your life and seen all your motives failing.
No motive has ever succeeded, no motive has ever brought any blessing to anybody. The motives only promise; the goods are never delivered. One motive fails and another motive comes in and promises you again... and you are deceived again. Being deceived again and again by motives, one day suddenly you become aware - suddenly you see into it, and that very seeing is the beginning of meditation. It has no seed in it, it has no motive in it. If you are meditating for something, then you are concentrating, not meditating. Then you are still in the world - your mind is still interested in cheap things, in trivia. Then you are worldly. Even if you are meditating to attain to God, you are worldly. Even if you are meditating to attain to nirvana, you are worldly - because meditation has no goal.
Meditation is an insight that all goals are false. Meditation is an understanding that desires don′t lead anywhere.

The Only Way

(The last chapter of The Orange Book)

All search is futile. Search is a by-product of the mind. To be in a state of non-search is the great moment of transformation.
There is no shortcut.
One thing has to be remembered about meditation: it is a long journey and there is no shortcut. Anyone who says there is a shortcut is befooling you.
It is a long journey because the change is very deep and is achieved after many lives - many lives of routine habits, thinking, desiring. And the mind structure; that you have to drop through meditation. In fact it is almost impossible - but it happens.
A man becoming a meditator is the greatest responsibility in the world. It is not easy. It cannot be instant. So from the beginning never start expecting too much and then you will never be frustrated. You will always be happy because things will grow very slowly.
Meditation is not a seasonal flower which within six weeks is there. It is a very very big tree. It needs time to spread its roots.
All the meditations that we are doing here are just preparations for that moment. They are not real meditations but just preparations so that one day you can simply sit, doing nothing, desiring nothing.
When meditation flowers there is simply nobody to take note of it, nobody to give it recognition, nobody to say "Yes, this has happened". The moment you say "Yes, it has happened," it is lost already.
When there really is meditation, a silence pervades; without any sounds a bliss throbs; without any boundaries, there is a harmony. But there is nobody to take note.
When your efforts drop, suddenly meditation is there - the benediction of it, the blessedness of it, the glory of it. It is there like a presence - luminous surrounding you and surrounding everything. It fills the whole earth and the whole sky. That meditation cannot be created by human effort; human effort is too limited. That blessedness is so infinite, you cannot manipulate it. It can happen only when you are in a tremendous surrender. When you are not there, only then can it happen. When you are a no-self, no desire, not going anywhere; when you are just herenow, not doing anything in particular, just being - it happens. And it comes in waves and the waves become tidal. It comes like a storm and takes you away into a totally new reality.