Meditation Involves all Three

Osho often talks about the difference between concentration, contemplation and meditation or dhyana. Mostly, he is making a distinction in order to prod us on into real meditation or dhyana. But just this morning, and it is so obvious I am almost embarrassed to say that it was a realization, I did, in fact, realize that meditation involves all three.

Many times, when I begin my sitting, I first gather myself to move out of identification with the mind and into being able to watch the mind. This gathering myself may involve watching the movement of breath or doing a body scan to feel any tension within the body. These are ways that I am bringing my mind into a state of watching. So first, I am focusing my energy into watching. This is concentration. In concentration there is very little self-awareness.

Only after the watching is concentrated am I able to begin to watch the mind. At first this watching the mind involves a constant movement between watching, getting involved with the stream of thought, remembering and the cycle repeating. Sometimes there is some topic that arises that I think about from every angle allowing it to be seen in its totality. I would call this stage contemplation. In contemplation there arises just the beginning glimpses of self-awareness, it is a continual movement from being aware to being lost in thought, remembering and again lost into the stream of thought. Here there is more self-awareness than in concentration hence the remembering, the continual re-joining, re-membering with awareness.

The more that I bring watching into the equation the more self-awareness is present and the less I find myself lost in the flow, until finally I am able to begin watching without any involvement or identification at all. This watching without involvement or watching with indifference is like watching a river flow but remaining on the bank as the objects float past. Here I allow all that wants to surface and just watch without judging the contents, without analyzing from where the thoughts come, without choosing the pleasant ones and rejecting the uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. I remain with whatever appears without adding any new thought to the stream. This watching without any involvement at all is what I am referring to as dhyana, as meditation. In this watching there is more self-awareness than identification hence I am able to watch without involvement.

And when I am able to watch without grasping, without rejecting, without judging and without analyzing, then even this flow of thought begins to subside. I see that it is the grasping, rejecting, judging, interfering that perpetuates the movement thought. When I am able to watch without doing those things and thought subsides, that is when the witness begins to be revealed. When there is nothing to be seen and there is only watchingness, awareness aware of itself, that is the ground on which the three stages of meditation have built their abodes. Coming out of those abodes, awareness is able to remain in its ground of being, consciousness without any objects, awareness just being aware, witnessing.

But for awareness to find its home ground, the I, the me has to always begin from where it finds itself in the moment. If I am lost in chaotic dreaming without any center, I begin with gathering my watching in concentration. If I am lost in contemplation, thinking about some problem, some question from every angle, I can begin to be aware of this whole movement. And when I see a movement of thought and am able to remain indifferent, I stay with this non-involved indifference until it too begins to disappear.

And when I am able to watch without any involvement and stay with the movement until it completely subsides on its own, then the I is absorbed into awareness without an I, and only awareness, only witnessing remains.

-purushottama

For more on this topic, you may wish to explore:

The Awakening of the Double-Pointed Arrow

Watching and Forgetting the Content

Awakening Before Enlightenment

After Awakening Before Enlightenment

See all 0f Prem’s notes.