Spectrum of Mindfulness

The book is based on Osho’s insights into inner ecology. In his introduction to the book, Satya Vedant writes:

We are living in an age of diminished responsibility. Our actions show a certain lack of being responsible toward our physical body, our psychological state, our interpersonal relations, and toward our natural environment. Gods are not responsible because there is no context – everything is fine in the heaven. Animals are not responsible because there is no consciousness of ‘I Am’ or of ‘I am-ness’. Animals are essentially programmed by nature.

Only a human being is responsible because he/she lives within a context; one is always in the midst of events, people, actions, situations. One is always on the spot to choose, to decide. And hence, one cannot escape from taking an action and facing its consequences. Moreover, one is conscious of who one is; one knows that one exists although one may be unaware why one exists, but the individual knows that he/she is. The individual is programmed too in a way, and yet, one also has the capacity to change the program, one has that potential to transform.

If the person is stupid enough to hurt oneself and others, one is also capable enough to heal oneself and others. One equally has the potential to heal and make life, what the enlightened mystic Osho calls a ‘celebration’. Hence, every step of human evolution is a step in greater responsibility. And, being responsible means willingness to face the factuality. This face to face encounter with facts and simultaneously with oneself is what the sages and the buddhas have identified as ‘Mindfulness’. With Mindfulness begins the process of mutation, the process of healing. A process, that creates an integrated and a holistic, healthy consciousness.

In the West, ‘Healing’ is a science, a therapy. While in the East, it is an understanding – understanding heals. The Eastern approach is that the phenomenon of healing begins with taking responsibility. Healing begins with Accountability. Shifting the blame on the devil, fate, parents, establishment, the society and rationalizing one’s unconscious behavior causes the wound to fester. In not shifting the burden of one’s act, one begins to see the whole dynamics, the nature of one’s act/acts, one begins to increase one’s awareness, mindfulness and thus sharpen one’s vision, deepen one’s understanding. In that, one begins to see who one really is, what one does or has been doing, what one ought to do. Each clarity adds to the healing process. And, as the horizon of understanding widens, one grows into being healthy, wholesome, holy.

The collection of various writings contained in this book basically serve as pointers to a greater clarity and recognition of responsibility – not just for the purpose of an academic discussion but as a state of being – necessary for building a better, a greater understanding. Osho, defines this entire spectrum of understanding and mindfulness as follows:

But… meditation is meant training the consciousness of each body in mindfulness. Buddha has used this word ‘mindfulness’ for meditation. He says, ‘Walk, but mindfully; don’t just walk. Eat, but mindfully. Think, but mindfully.’

Osho, That Art Thou, Ch 28, Kaivalya Upanishad

Osho’s insights point out that essentially, meditation means: rearranging the mind from chaos to order; from what C.G. Jung calls “psychic anarchy’’ to psychic harmony. For Osho, meditation means: releasing the mental toxins, detoxification of the mind, cleansing, taking an inner bath; working on one’s inner ecology.

Dr. Vasant Joshi
Ph.D. University of Michigan, USA
M.A., Ph.D., M.S. University of Baroda, India

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Satya Vedant is a regular contributor

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