The Mystery Of Meditation
Now as far as words and thoughts are concerned, you are a witness, separate, and words are the other. But when there are no words, you are the gap, and still conscious that you are the gap – because now between you and the gap, between consciousness and existence, there is no barrier. Only words are the barrier. Now you are in an existential situation. This is meditation: to be in existence, totally in it and still conscious. And this is the contradiction, and this is the paradox, because we have never known a situation in which we are conscious and one with it.
Whenever we are conscious of anything, the thing becomes the other. If we are identified we know only one thing. Then the thing is not the other, but then we are not conscious. We can be one with something only when we are unconscious. That has been our experience. That is the ordinary experience, the day-to-day experience: we become one only when we are unconscious.
That’s why sex has got so much appeal. You become one in a moment, but in that moment you are unconscious, and you seek that unconsciousness. But the more you seek, the more conscious you become. Then sex becomes absolutely absurd. A moment will come.because if you practice this continuously you cannot remain unconscious. Consciousness will penetrate into it. The thing will become mechanical, because then you cannot be identified with it. Then you cannot feel the bliss of sex, because the bliss was coming from the unconscious – you could become unconscious in a passionate thrill.
Your consciousness was dropped for a single moment; you were in the abyss but unconscious. But the moment you go into it, the small becomes the moment. And the more you seek it, the more it is lost. And a moment comes when you are in sex and not unconscious. The abyss is lost, the bliss is lost. Then the act becomes stupid. Then the act becomes just a mechanical relief; then there is no spiritual background to it.
We have only known unconscious oneness; we have never known conscious oneness – and meditation is conscious oneness. It is the other pole of sexuality. Sex is one pole of unconscious oneness, and meditation is the other pole, of conscious oneness. Sex is the lowest point of oneness and meditation is the peak, the highest peak of oneness. And the difference is of consciousness. The difference is of consciousness.
The Western mind is thinking about meditation because the appeal of sex has been lost. Whenever a society becomes unsuppressively sexual, meditation will follow. Whenever a society is uninhibitedly sexual, meditation will follow – because uninhibited sex will kill the charm and the romance, will kill the spiritual side. You cannot be so unconscious. You cannot be unconscious so often. Otherwise the very unconsciousness will have a conscious corner.
So a sexually suppressed society can remain interested in sex, but the unsuppressive, non-suppressive, uninhibited society cannot remain in sexuality forever. It will have to transcend it. So whenever sex becomes free, uninhibited, meditation follows. And whenever a society is sexual, religion will follow. A sexually suppressive society cannot be really religious because the function of meditation is being substituted by sex. So to me, a sexually free society is a step toward a religious revolution. The Western mind is asking “What is meditation?” – a seeking, a searching. And the search will become keener as days pass.
Excerpted From The Psychology Of The Esoteric CH: 2
