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Mind is an identification with the body. One feels 'I am the body'; this is the state of mind. Meditation is a disidentification with the body. One starts feeling 'I am in the body but I am not the body. The body is just like a house and I am residing in it. I have resided in many bodies, many houses -- there is no need to cling to this particular house. This house is going to collapse as all houses always collapse sooner or later. But my being is eternal, it cannot collapse. It is not made of collapsible material, it is not made of material at al]; it is just pure consciousness.
As you move into meditation this feeling starts becoming stronger every day. That does not mean that you start neglecting the body, on the contrary, you start caring about the body more carefully because it is a beautiful house, a gift of god. You have to keep it clean and beautiful and young and vital, energetic, alive, because you have to live in it for many many years. There is no need to make it ugly, poor, starved. Make it a palace, make it a marble palace, make it a temple, but remember "I am not it," so when it dies you are not dying. The body is born, the body dies; you are never born and you never die.
And the method of meditation is very simple: just watching. Three things have to be watched. The first is the body and its actions. Walking, watch it; sitting, lying down, watch it, and as you watch you will be able to understand "I am the watcher and the body is the watched. It is separate from me." Then there is a deeper watchfulness, the second step. Watch your mind and its activities: thoughts, desires, memories, dreams. If you have succeeded in the first you are bound to succeed in the second too. And then suddenly you become aware "I am not the mind either." Then the subtlest watching begins, the third step. Watch your feelings, sentiments, emotions, moods -- which are very vague and subtle -- watch your heart.
Once a person has become able to watch all three he transcends them, he becomes aware of the fourth, his true being. That is the moment when the soul is born, really born. Before that you were only so-so alive, lukewarm, but not intensely
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