| |
taking a shower, concentrate on the water pouring over your body. Walking along the road, concentrate on each step you take.
Immerse yourself in concentration for twenty-four hours a day during these seven days. The meditation we shall do here is quite separate, but I am explaining to you the background of what you should do during the rest of the time. So practice this third point: great attention, great concentration -- and especially on your breathing, because breathing is a ceaseless, twenty-four-hours-a-day process. No one can go on eating or swimming or walking for twenty-four hours, but breathing goes on ceaselessly, so concentration can be practiced on it all the time. Concentrate on it! Forget that there is anything else going on in the world. Live as though only one thing is happening in the whole world, and that is the breath coming in and the breath going out. It is enough; follow this process of the breath entering and leaving like the beads of a rosary. Concentrate just on this.
The fourth point is sense deprivation. Three things are to be done. If you feel able to observe silence for the whole day, then begin immediately; and if you find this hard, then be telegraphic in your speech. Understand that you are paying a price for each word you speak. So don't speak more than twenty words during the course of the day. Speak only when it is absolutely necessary, when it is unavoidable -- like a matter of life and death! You cannot imagine how beneficial it will be for you to observe total silence -- its value is incalculable.
So let yourself be totally silent; you will not find it hard. Keep a paper and pencil with you and if you find it absolutely essential, write down your message and show it to someone. Remain utterly silent. Your total energy will be accumulated within by observing silence. This energy will help you to go deeper in meditation. More than half of man's energy is consumed by words. So stop using words completely. To your utmost capacity, observe silence; and take great care that nobody else's silence is broken because of you. If yours is broken, it is your misfortune, it is your own responsibility; but see that nobody
|
|
|