Story:The Mind, its Thoughts and Identification

A man who has gone out of his town comes back and finds that his house is on fire. It was one of the most beautiful houses in the town, and the man loved the house. Many people were ready to give double price for the house, but he had never agreed for any price, and now it is just burning before his eyes. And thousands of people have gathered, but nothing can be done.

The fire has spread so far that even if you try to put it out, nothing will be saved. So he becomes very sad. His son comes running, and whispers something in his ear: 'Don't be worried. I sold it yesterday, and at a very good price – three times.... The offer was so good I could not wait for you. Forgive me.'

But the father said, 'Good, if you have sold it for three times more than the original price of the house.' Then the father is also a watcher, with other watchers. Just a moment before he was not a watcher, he was identified. It is the same house, the same fire, everything is the same – but now he is not concerned. He is enjoying it just as everybody else is enjoying.

Then the second son comes running, and he says to the father, 'What are you doing? You are smiling – and the house is on fire?' 
The father said, 'Don't you know, your brother has sold it.' 
He said, 'He had talked about selling it, but nothing has been settled yet, and the man is not going to purchase it now.' Again, everything changes. Tears which had disappeared, have come back to the father's eyes, his smile is no more there, his heart is beating fast. But the watcher is gone. He is again identified.

And then the third son comes, and he says, 'That man is a man of his word. I have just come from him. He said, 'It doesn't matter whether the house is burned or not, it is mine. And I am going to pay the price that I have settled for. Neither you knew, nor I knew that the house would catch on fire.'' Again the father is a watcher. The identity is no more there. Actually nothing is changing; just the idea that 'I am the owner, I am identified somehow with the house,' makes the whole difference. The next moment he feels, 'I am not identified. Somebody else has purchased it, I have nothing to do with it; let the house burn.'

This simple methodology of watching the mind, that you have nothing to do with it.... Most of its thoughts are not yours but from your parents, your teachers, your friends, the books, the movies, the television, the newspapers. Just count how many thoughts are your own, and you will be surprised that not a single thought is your own. All are from other sources, all are borrowed – either dumped by others on you, or foolishly dumped by yourself upon yourself, but nothing is yours.

The mind is there, functioning like a computer; literally it is a bio-computer. You will not get identified with a computer. If the computer gets hot, you won't get hot. If the computer gets angry and starts giving signals in four letter words, you will not be worried. You will see what is wrong, where something is wrong. But you remain detached.

Just a small knack... I cannot even call it a method because that makes it heavy; I call it a knack. Just by doing it, one day suddenly you are able to do it. Many times you will fail; it's nothing to be worried about... no loss, it is natural. But just doing it, one day it happens.

Once it has happened, once you have even for a single moment become the watcher, you know now how to become the watcher – the watcher on the hills, far away. And the whole mind is there deep down in the dark valley, and you are not to do anything about it. The most strange thing about the mind is, if you become a watcher it starts disappearing. Just like the light disperses darkness, watchfulness disperses the mind, its thoughts, its whole paraphernalia.

So meditation is simply watchfulness, awareness. And that reveals – it is nothing to do with inventing. It invents nothing; it simply discovers that which is there.

And what is there? You enter and you find infinite emptiness, so tremendously beautiful, so silent, so full of light, so fragrant, that you have entered into “the kingdom of God.” In my words, you have entered into godliness.

And once you have been in this space, you come out and you are a totally new person, a new man. Now you have your original face. All masks have disappeared. You will live in the same world, but not in the same way. You will be among the same people but not with the same attitude, and the same approach. You will live like a lotus in water: in the water, but absolutely untouched by water.
-From Unconsciousness to Consciousness, Osho

http://www.osho.com/meditate/meditation-tool-kit/questions-about-meditation/what-is-the-meaning-of-identification

Breathing - Relaxation Technique

You take the breath in, and then the body throws the breath out. Reverse it: you will be more normal. Emphasize the outgoing breath. 

Throw the breath out as much as you can, and let the body take in. 

When you take in and you have not released, your lungs become filled with carbon dioxide. Then you go on taking in, and you never release the entire lungs. You go on forcing the carbon dioxide inwards. Then your breathing becomes shallow, and the entire lungs are filled with carbon dioxide. 

First throw it out, and forget about taking in. The body will take care of that itself. The body has its own wisdom, and it is more wise than you. Throw the breath out and forget taking in. Don’t be afraid, you are not going to die. The body will take in, and it will take in as much as is needed. As much as you have thrown out it will take in, and the balance will be there.

Just for fifteen minutes in the dayexhale deeply. Sit in a chair or on the ground, exhale deeply, and while exhaling close the eyes. When the air goes out, you go in. And then allow the body to inhale, and when the air goes in, open the eyes and you go out. It is just the opposite: when the air goes out, you go in; when the air goes in, you go out.

Song of the Mahamudra (Tilopa's Song to Naropa)

Mahamudra, the royal way, is free from every word and sacred symbol.

For you alone, beloved Naropa, this wonderful song springs forth from Tilopa
as spontaneous friendship that never ends.

The completely open nature of all dimensions and events
is a rainbow always occurring yet never grasped.

The way of Mahamudra creates no closure.
No strenuous mental effort can encounter this wide open way.
The effortless freedom of awareness moves naturally along it.

As space is always freshly appearing and never filled,
so the mind is without limits and ever aware.

Gazing with sheer awareness into sheer awareness,
habitual, abstract structures melt into the fruitful springtime of Buddhahood.

White clouds that drift through blue sky, 
changing shape constantly, have no root, no foundation, no dwelling; 
nor do changing patterns of thought that float through the sky of mind.

When the formless expanse of awareness comes clearly into view,
obsession with thought forms ceases easily and naturally.

As within the openness of universal space shapes and colors are spontaneously forming,
although space has no color or form, 
so within the expanse of awareness realms, relations and values are arising,
although awareness possesses no positive or negative characteristics.

As the darkness of night, even were it to last a thousand years,
could not conceal the rising sun, 
so countless ages of conflict and suffering cannot conceal the innate radiance of Mind.

Although philosophers explain the transparent openness of appearances
as empty of permanent characteristics and completely indeterminable,
this universal indeterminacy can itself never be determined.

Although sages report the nature of awareness to be luminosity,
this limitless radiance cannot be contained within any language or sacramental system.
Although the very essence of Mind is to be void of either subjects or objects,
it tenderly embraces all life within its womb.

To realize this inexpressible truth, do not manipulate mind or body
but simply open into transparency with relaxed, natural grace intellect at ease in silence,
limbs at rest in stillness like hollow bamboos.

Neither breathing in nor breathing out with the breath of habitual thinking,
allow the mind to be at peace in brilliant wakefulness.

This is the royal wealth of Mahamudra, no common coin of any realm.

Beloved Naropa, this treasure of Buddhahood belongs to you and to all beings.

Obsessive use of meditative disciplines or perennial study of scripture and philosophy
will never bring forth this wonderful realization, this truth which is natural to awareness,
because the mind that desperately desires to reach another realm or level of experience
inadvertently ignores the basic light that constitutes all experience.

The one who fabricates any division in consciousness betrays the friendship of Mahamudra.

Cease all activity that separates, abandon even the desire to be free from desires
and allow the thinking process to rise and fall smoothly as waves on a shoreless ocean.

The one who never dwells in abstraction and whose only principle
is never to divide or separate upholds the trust of Mahamudra.

The one who abandons craving for authority and definition,
and never becomes one-sided in argument or understanding,
alone perceives the authentic meaning hidden in the ancient scriptures.

In the blissful embrace of Mahamudra,
negative viewpoints and their instincts are burned without remainder, like camphor.

Through the open door of Mahamudra, 
the deluded state of self-imprisonment is easily left behind forever.

Mahamudra is the torch of supreme liberty shining forth through all conscious beings.

Those beings constituted by awareness who try to ignore, reject or grasp awareness
inflict sorrow and confusion upon themselves like those who are insane.

To be awakened from this madness, cultivate the gracious friendship
of a sublime sage of Mahamudra, who may appear to the world as mad.

When the limited mind enters blessed companionship
with limitless Mind, indescribable freedom dawns.

Selfish or limited motivations create the illusory sense of imprisonment
and scatter seeds of further delusion.

Even genuine religious teaching can generate narrowness of vision.
Trust only the approach that is utterly vast and profound.

The noble way of Mahamudra 
never engages in the drama of imprisonment and release.

The sage of Mahamudra has absolutely no distractions,
because no war against distractions has ever been declared.

This nobility and gentleness alone, this nonviolence of thought and action,
is the traceless path of all Buddhas.

To walk this all-embracing way is the bliss of Buddhahood.
Phenomena on every plane of being are constantly arising and disappearing.
Thus they are forever fresh, always new and inexhaustible.

Like dreams without solid substance, they can never become rigid or binding.
The universe exists in a deep, elusive way that can never be grasped or frozen.
Why feel obsessive desire or hatred for it, thereby creating illusory bonds?
Renounce arbitrary, habitual views. 

Go forth courageously to meditate in the real mountain wilderness,
the wide open Mahamudra. 

Transcend boundaries of kinship by embracing all living beings
as one family of consciousness.

Remain without any compulsion in the landscape of natural freedom:
spontaneous, generous, joyful.

When you receive the crown of Mahamudra, 
all sense of rank or attainment will quietly disappear.

Cut the root of the vine that chokes the tree, and its clinging tendrils wither away entirely.
Sever the conventionally grasping mind, and all bondage and desperation dissolve.

The illumination from an oil lamp lights the room instantly,
even if it has been dark for aeons.
Mind is boundless radiance.
How can the slightest darkness remain in the room of daily perception?

But one who clings to mental processes cannot awaken to the radiance of Mind.
Strenuously seeking truth by investigation and concentration,
one will never appreciate the unthinkable simplicity and bliss
that abide at the core.

To uncover this fertile ground, cut through the roots of complexity
with the sharp gaze of naked awareness, remaining entirely at peace,
transparent and content.

You need not expend great effort nor store up extensive spirtual power.
Remain in the flow of sheer awareness.

Mahamudra neither accepts nor rejects any current of energy, internal or external.

Since the ground consciousness is never born into any realm of being,
nothing can add to or subtract from it. Nothing can obstruct or stain it.
When awareness rests here, the appearance of division and conflict
disappears into original reality.

The twin emotions of anxiety and arrogance vanish into the void from which they came.
Supreme knowing knows no separate subject or object.

Supreme action acts resourcefully without any array of instruments.
Supreme attainment attains the goal without past, future or present.

The dedicated practitioner experiences the spiritual way
as a turbulent mountain stream, tumbling dangerously among boulders.

When maturity is reached, the river flows smoothly and patiently
with the powerful sweep of the Ganges.

Emptying into the ocean of Mahamudra, the water becomes ever-expanding light
that pours into great Clear Light without direction, destination, division, distinction or description.

Winston Churchill Quotes

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead.
Only one link in the chain of destiny
can be handled at a time.

Continuous effort -
not strength or intelligence -
is the key to unlocking our potential.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; 
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

The truth is incontrovertible. 
Malice may attack it, 
ignorance may deride it, 
but in the end, there it is.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all,
grow strong.

He who dares, wins.

There is nothing wrong with change,
if it is in the right direction.

We make a living by what we get,
but we make a life by what we give.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Attitude is a little thing 
that makes a big difference.

You will never reach your destination
if you stop and throw stones
at every dog that barks.

To improve is to change;
to be perfect is to change often.

IT is not enough that we do our best;
sometimes we must do what is required.

Success is going from failure to failure
without a loss of enthusiasm.

Success is not final.
Failure is not fatal:
It is the courage to continue that counts.

If you're going through hell,
keep going.

Jean-Paul Sartre Quotes

Life begins on 
the other side of despair.

In love, one and one are one.

We do not judge the poeple we love.

Commitment is an act,
not a word.

If a victory is told in detail,
one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.

Every word has consequences.
Every silence, too.

Words are loaded pistols.

I confused things with thier names,
that is belief.

All things are born withut reason
and die by chance.
Therefore there's no meaning in life nor death. 

There may be more beautiful times, 
but this one is ours.

To know what life is worth 
you have to risk it 
once in a while.

All human actions are equivalelnt
and all are on principle doomed to failure.

Like all dreamers, 
I mistook disenchantment for truth.

If you are lonely 
when you are alone,
you are in bad company.

No finite point has meaning 
without an infinite reference point.

Being is.
Being is in itself.
Being is what it is.

Do you think I count the days? 
There is only one day left, always starting over;
it is given to us at dawn 
and taken away from us at dusk.

We must act out passion 
before we can feel it.

One cannot become a saint 
when one works sixteen hurs a day.

Only the guy who isn't rowing
has time to rock the boat.

Man is nothing else 
but what he makes of himself.

I fix nothing; I let it go.

Matsuo Basho Quotes

Do not seek to follow in the footsetpss of the wise.
Seek what they sought.

The moon is brighter since the barn burned.

Every day is a journey,
and the journey itself is home.

Every moment of life is the last,
every poem is a death poem.

There is nothing you can see that is not a flower;
there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

The temple bell stops but 
I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers.

Heracllitus Quotes

No man ever steps in the same river twice,
for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.

The only thing permanent is change.

Those who are awake all live in the same world.
Those who are asleep live in their own worlds.

If you do not expect the unexpected,
you will not recognize it when it arrives.

Dogs bark at what they don't understand.

A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one.

Those who love wisdom 
must investigate many things.

Big results require big ambitions.

God is day and night, winter and summer,
war and peace, satiety and want.

Hide our ignorance as we will,
an evening of wine soon reveals it.

Much learning does not teach understanding.

The universal cosmic process was not created 
by any god or man;
it forever was, is, and forever will be,
an Ever living Fire.

Out of every one hundred men,
ten shouldn't even be there, 
eighty are just targets,
nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them,
for they make the battle. 
Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, 
and he will bring the others back.

Everything changes but change itself. 
Everything flows and nothing remains the same... 
You cannot step twice into the same river, 
for other waters and yet others go flowing ever on.

Diversity leads to perfect harmony.

Abraham Maslow Quotes

What a man can be, he must be.
This need we call self-actualizatin.

Boys will be boys
as long as there are no gilrs in the picture.

Self Acutalization chart
Self Actualization - Morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts
Esteem - self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others,
Love/Belonging - friendship, family, sexual intimacy
Safety - security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, of health, of property
Physiological - breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion

Flow as a "Peak Experience"
Achieving unique inner potential
Being Values 
Wholeness, perfection,
completion, justice,
aliveness, richness
simplicity, beauty
goodness, uniqueness
truth, self-sufficiency
effortlessness, playfulness

To make a growth choice instead of the fear choice
a dozen times a day is to more a dozen times a day
towards self-actualisation.

A musician must make music, 
an artist must paint, 
an poet must write, 
if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. 
What a man can be, he must be.
This weed we call self-actualization….
It refers to man’s desire for self-fulfillment, 
namely to the tendency for him to become actually 
in what he is potentially: 
to become everything one is capable of becoming.

It isn't normal to know what we want. 
It is a rare and difficult psychological achievement.

The ability to be in the present moment 
is a major component of mental wellness.

If you plan on being anything less than 
you are capable of being, 
you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean 
and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, 
I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

'I suppose it is tempting, 
if the only tool you have is a hammer, 
to treat everything as if it were a nail.

In any given moment we have two options: 
to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.

If you deliberately plan on being less than 
you are capable of being, 
then I warn you that you'll be unhappy 
for the rest of your life.

Be independent of the good opinion of other people.

One can choose to go back 
toward safety or forward toward growth. 
Growth must be chosen again and again; 
fear must be overcome again and again.

We fear to know
the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, 
but we fear even more to know 
the godlike in ourselves.

Man is a perpetually wanting animal.

One's only rival is one's own potentialities. 
One's only failure is failing to live up
to one's own possibilities.
In this sense, every man can be a king, 
and must therefore be treated like a king.

Self-actualized people...
live more in the real world of nature than 
in the man-made mass of concepts, abstractions, 
expectations, beliefs and stereotypes that 
most people confuse with the world.

16 Distinguishing Characteristics of Self-Actualizing people
from the writings of Abraham Maslow
1. They are realistically oriented. 
2. They accept themselves, other people, and the natural world for what they are. 
3. They have a great deal of spontaneity. 
4. They are problem-centered rather than self-centered. 
5. They have an air of detachment and a need for privacy. 
6. They are autonomous and independent. 
7. Their appreciation of people and things is fresh rather than stereotyped. 
8. Most of them have had profound mystical or spiritual experiences, although not necessarily religious in character. 
9. They identify with mankind. 
10. Their intimate relationships with a few specially loved people tend to be profound and deeply emotional rather than superficial. 
11. Their values and attitudes are democratic. 
12. They do not confuse means with ends. 
13. Their sense of humor is philosophical rather than hostile. 
14. They have a great fund of creativeness. 
15. They resist conformity to the culture. 
16. They transcend the environment rather than just coping with it.

Peak Experiences 
According to Abraham Maslow, powerful meaningful experiences in which people seem to transcend the self, be at one with the world,
and feel completely self-fulfilled;
A musician must make music, 
an artist must paint, a poet must write, 
if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

Eric Fromm Quotes

'Infantile love follows the principle:
I love because I am loved. 
Mature love follows the principle:
I am loved because I love. 
Immature Love says
'I love you because I need you.'
Mature love says:
'I need you because I love you.'

The inability to act spontaneously, 
to express what one genuinely feels and thinks, 
and the resulting necessity to present a pseudo self to others and oneself, 
are the root of the feeling of inferiority and weakness. 
Whether or not we are aware of it, 
there is nothing of which we are more ashamed 
than of not being ourselves, 
and there is nothing that 
gives us greater pride and happiness than to think, 
to feel, and to say what is ours…
If the individual realizes his self by spontaneous activity
and thus relates himself to the world, 
he ceases to be an isolated atom; 
he and the world become part of one structuralized whole.

Love is an act of faith.

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer
to the problem of human existence.

Man's main task is to give birth to himself.

Modern man lives under the illusion that
he know what he wants,
while he actually wants what he 
is supposed to want.

Man is the only animal for whom his own existence
is a problem which he has to solve.

Most people die before they are fully born.
Creativeness means to be born before one dies.

Paradoxically, the ability to be alone
is the condition for the ability to love.

Creativity requires the courage
to let go of certainities.

A dream is a microscope through which
we look at the hidden occurrences 
in our suol.

If I am what I have and if I lose what I have
who then am I?

There can be no real freedom
without the freedom to fail.

The only truly affluent are
those who do not want more then they have.

Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, 
to give oneself completely in the hope that 
our love will produce love in the loved person. 
Love is an act of faith, 
and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.

The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning.
Uncertainty is the very condition 
to impel man to unfold his powers.

That millions of people share the same forms of 
mental pathology does not make these people sane.

Not he who has much is rich,
but he who gives much.

Only a person who has faith in himself
can be faithful to others.

The danger of the past was that men became slaves. 
The danger of the future is that men may become robots.

The psychic task which a person can and 
must set for himself is not to feel secure,
but to be able to tolerate insecurity.

If a person loves only one other person and
is indifferent to all others, 
his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, 
or an enlarged egotism.

The mature response 
to the problem of existence is love.

Giving is more joyous than receiving, 
not because it is a deprivation,
but because in the act of giving
lies the expression of my aliveness.

In love the paradox occurs 
that two beings become one 
and yet remain two.

Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

Do one thing
that scares you everyday.

People grow through experience 
if they meet life honestly and courageously.
This is how character is built.

Many people will walk in and out of your life,
but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

Great minds discuss ideas;
average minds discuss events;
small minds discuss people.

It is better to light a candle
than curse the darkness.

We do not have to become heroes overnight.
Just a step at a time,
meeting each thing that comes up,
seeing it is not a dreadful as it appeared,
discovering we have the strength to stare it down.

Well behaved women
rarely make history.

Justice cannot be for one side alone,
but must be for both.

Happiness is not a goal;
it is a by-product.

He who loses money loses much;
He who loses a friend, loses much more,
He who loses faith, loses all.

You must do the thing 
you think you cannot do.

No one can make you feel inferior 
without your consent.

The purpose of life, after all,
is to love it,
to taste experience to the utmost,
to reach out eagerly and without fear
for newer and richer experience.

Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure
you have no security unless you can live bravely,
excitingly imaginatively.

Your ambition should be to get as much life 
out of living as you possibly can,
as much enjoyment, as much interest,
as much experience, as much understanding.
Not simply be what is genreally called a "success."

No matter how plain a woman may be,
if truth and honesty are written across her face,
she will be beautiful.

A woman is like a tea bag;
you never know how strong it is
until it''s in hot water.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right -
for you'll be criticized anyway.
You'll be damned if you do,
and damned if you don't.

When you have decided what you believe,
what you feel must be done, 
have the courage to stand alone and be counted.

No one can make you feel inferior
without your consent.

The future belongs to those 
who believe in the beauty of thier dreams.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right
- for you'll be criticised anyway.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence 
by every experience in which you really stop
to look fear in the face do the thing
you think you cannot do.

Learn from the mistakes of others.
You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

If someone betrays you once,
it's their fault.
If they betray you twice,
it's your fault.

In the long run, we shape our lives, 
and we shape ourselves.
The process never ends until we die.
And the choices we make 
are ultimately our own responsibility.

Life was meant to be lived, 
and curiosity must be kept alive.
One must never, for whatever reason,
turn his back on life.

The giving of love is an educaton in itself.

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words;
it is expressed in the choice one makes.

Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift.

What is to give light
must endure the burning.

When you cease to make a contribution, 
you begin to die.

Friendship with ones self is all important,
because without it one cannot be friends
with anyone else in the world.

To handle yourself,
use your head,
to handle others,
use your heart.