“Ambition is the source of all misery.”
“What is ambition? A wants to be B, the poor want to be rich, the ugly want to be beautiful. Everyone longs to be something, someone else, something other than what he is. No one is content with himself. That’s what ambition is.
Whatsoever you are, you are. Accept it, don’t desire otherwise. This is what non-ambition means. Non-ambitiousness is basic to all spiritual transformation…
Whatsoever you are, you are not content with it. That is ambition. Then you are bound to be in misery, because you cannot be anything else. You can only be yourself, nothing else is possible. All else is just futile, harmful, dangerous. You can waste your life, your existence.
Whatsoever you are, you are. Accept it, don’t desire otherwise. This is what non-ambition means. Non-ambitiousness is basic to all spiritual transformation, because once you accept yourself many things start happening.
The first thing. If you accept yourself totally, the first thing that happens to you is a non-tense life. There is no tension. You don’t want to be anything else, there is nowhere to go. Then you can be here and now. Then, there is no comparison. Then, you are unique, yourself. Then, you are not thinking in terms of others.
Then, there is no future. Ambition needs future, ambition needs space to grow. Ambition cannot grow here and now, there is no space. The moment is so small, so atomic. Ambition needs the future; the greater the ambition, the greater the future that is needed.
If your ambition is so great that it cannot be fulfilled in this life, then you will create an afterlife. You will create heaven, you will create moksha, you will create the concept of rebirth. I am not saying that there is no rebirth. I am saying that you believe in rebirth, not because it is there—you believe in it because your ambitions are so great that they cannot be fulfilled in one lifetime. Your belief in rebirth, reincarnation, is not because it is a fact. It is because of ambition and desire. Reincarnation may be a fact, but for you it is just a fiction. For you it is just more future, more space to move in.
Don’t desire, and the future disappears. And when there is no future how can you be tense? How?
Remember, you cannot be ambitious in the present moment, impossible! There is no space. The present moment is so atomic, so small, that you cannot move in it. You can be in it, but you cannot desire in it. It is long enough to be, but it is not long enough for desiring. To desire, you need future, time. Really, time exists because of desire.
For the trees here, there is no time. For the birds singing here, there is no time. For the stars and for the sun and for the earth, there is no time. Time exists because of human desire. If humanity was not on this earth there would be no time: there would be no past and no future.
So don’t think that the past, the future and the present are parts of time, they are not. The past and the future are parts of a desiring mind. Time consists only of the present, the here-now. Time consists only of eternal moments, the eternal moment. Your desire creates the future. Your memory creates the past. They are parts of your mind. Don’t desire, and the future disappears. And when there is no future how can you be tense? How?
There is no possibility of being tense if there is no future. And if there is no past—if you know that it is simply memory, the dust collected on the way—how can there be any anxiety? With the past, anxiety enters. With the future, plans, imaginations, projections, tensions exist. With the past dropped, the future not opened, you are here, now. No anxiety, no tension, no anguish.
When you accept yourself as you are, the transformation sets in. You start growing, but the dimension differs. Then the dimension is not in the future, the dimension is in the eternal.
Non-ambition means accepting yourself as you are. That doesn’t mean that there is no possibility of growth. No, on the contrary, when you accept yourself as you are, the transformation sets in. You start growing, but the dimension differs. Then the dimension is not in the future, the dimension is in the eternal.
Know well this distinction. You can move in two ways: if you move into the future, you are moving into the mind—a fiction, a dream world. If you don’t move into the future, then a different dimension becomes open for you. From this very moment you are moving into the eternal.
The eternal is hidden in the moment.
If you can be here right now, in the moment, you have entered the eternal. If you go on thinking of the future and the past, you are moving in the temporal. The temporal is the world, and the eternal is nirvana.”
Excerpted from Osho, The New Alchemy, www.osho.com
The Thoughts I Think Determine the Relationship I Attract… You are the thinking, Vibrating attractor of your experience; and the thoughts you think determine everything about the life that you live. As you turn your attention toward the positive aspects of the personalities and behaviors of others with whom you share your planet, you will train your point of attraction in the direction of only what you desire. Not only does the power of your thought determine which people make their way into your life, but the power of your thought determines how they behave once they get there. —Abraham
In recent years, both scientists and the popular press have touted the benefit of meditation for myriad health issues from depression to insomnia to chronic pain (see 20 scientific findings here). Ever tried it and it didn’t work for you? No worries, there’s more than one way to do it! You just have to find your type. Although mindfulness meditation is one of the more well-known forms of meditation, there are many other ways of practicing meditation. Find the shoe that fits!
Here’s a sampling of different types of meditation:
Mindfulness Meditation: Although the term “Mindfulness” can sometimes refer to the entire field of meditation, Mindfulness Meditation, at its origin, is a style of meditation that name involves paying attention to sensations, feelings and thoughts in a non-judgmental way. “Mindfulness-based” therapies and educational programs are springing up in clinics and schools across the country. Countless studies are showing that mindfulness meditation is beneficial for attention, memory and stress reduction.
Effortless Meditation: Mindfulness has received a lot of attention. However, a recent study showed that more unfocused meditations can have even greater benefits for stress and emotions. For this reason, you may want to try a more unfocused meditation. Guided meditations or mantra meditations require less effort and involve more relaxation for the mind. In particular, this kind of meditation may be suited to people who already are very focused and have a tendency towards being Type A. For them, a meditation that relaxes the mind and coaxes is to go into a more unfocused state may be more appropriate than a meditation that encourages focus and concentration.
Continue reading What’s Your Meditation Type? (+ 5 Best Meditation Apps)