VBT – Meditation 28.1
Mind Cannot Be A Religious
The mind goes on not only thinking of tomorrow, but thinking of beyond death, arranging and making reservations for the afterlife. Such a mind cannot be a religious mind. A religious mind cannot think of tomorrow. So those who think of the afterlife are constantly worried about whether God will behave rightly with them or not.
Churchill was dying and someone asked him, “Are you ready to meet the Father there in heaven?”
Churchill said, “That is not my worry. I am constantly worried whether the divine Father is ready to meet me.”
But either way one goes on worrying about the future. Buddha said, “There is no heaven and no afterlife.” And he said, “There is no soul, and your death will be total and complete; nothing will survive.” People thought he was an atheist. He was not, he was just trying to create a situation in which you can forget the tomorrow and can remain in this very moment, here and now. Then meditation follows very easily.
So if you are thinking of death – not the death which will come, or is to come later – fall down on the ground and lie dead. Relax and feel, “I am dying, I am dying, I am dying.” And not only think it, feel it in every limb of the body, in every fiber of the body. Let death creep in. It is one of the most beautiful meditations. When you feel that the body is a dead weight and you cannot move your hand, you cannot move your head and everything has become dead, suddenly look at your own body.
Mind will not be there. You can look! You will be there; consciousness will be there. Look at your body – it will not look like yours, it will be just a body. The gap between you and the body will be clear – crystal clear. There will be no bridge. The body is lying dead and you are there standing as a witness, not in it – NOT in it!
Remember, the feeling that you are in the body is because of the mind. This feeling that you are in the body is because of the MIND! If the mind is not there, if it is absent, you will not say you are in the body or out of the body. You will simply be there, no in or out. “In” and “Out” are both relative terms associated with the mind. Simply, you will be there witnessing. This is transcendence. You can do it in many ways.
Sometimes it is possible in actual situations… You are ill and you are feeling that there is no hope, you are going to die. This is a very useful situation. Use it for meditation. You can try it in other ways also. Suppose you are gradually being deprived of strength. Lie down and feel as if the whole existence is sucking your strength out. You are being sucked from everywhere – your strength is being sucked. Soon you will be impotent, completely devoid of strength. Your energy is flowing out, being taken out. Soon nothing will be left inside. That is how life is: you are being sucked out, everything that is around you is sucking you out. One day you will be just a dead cell; everything will have been sucked out. Life will have flown out of you, and only the dead body will remain there.
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