Editor’s Note:  This meditation by Osho comes from his famous,”Book of Secrets”, and was a wonderful tool to help me become more mindful.  I hope that you try this meditation and practice it for the next several weeks.  –  Judith

STOP! A Meditation by OSHO

Just as you have the impulse to do something, stop.

You can try it anywhere. You are taking your bath ― suddenly order yourself to “Stop!” and stop. Even if it is only for a single moment, you will feel a different phenomenon happening within you. You are thrown to the center and suddenly everything stops ― not only the body. When the body stops totally, your mind stops also.

When you say, “Stop!” do not breathe then. Let everything stop…no breathing, no body movement. For a single moment remain in this stop, and you will feel you have penetrated suddenly, at rocket speed, to the center. And even a glimpse is miraculous, revolutionary. It changes you, and by and by you can have more clear glimpses of the center. That is why inactivity is not to be practiced. Use it suddenly, when you are unaware.

For example, you were going to drink a glass of water. You have touched the water, the glass ― suddenly stop. Let the hand be there, let the desire to drink, the thirst be there inside, but you stop completely. The glass is outside, the thirst is inside; the hand is on the glass, the eyes are on the glass ― stop suddenly. No breathing, no movement, as if you have become dead. The very impulse, the thirst, will release energy, and that energy is used for going to the center. You will be thrown to the center. Why? Because any impulse is a movement outward. Energy is always in movement ― either going out or coming in. Energy can never be static.

Remember three things…. One, try it only when a real impulse is there. Secondly, do not think about stopping, just stop. And thirdly, wait! When you have stopped, no breathing, no movement ― wait and see what happens. When I say stop, it means stop totally, fully. Nothing is moving, as if the whole time has stopped. There is no movement ― simply you are! In that simple existence, suddenly the center explodes.

~~~Osho: Excerpted from The Book of Secrets