Meditation and Problems

Rather than condemning your problems, go into them. Each problem has a message to deliver. A problem does not exist without roots. No problem is irrelevant. Howsoever silly and absurd it appears it has some roots in your being; otherwise it wouldn't be there. How can it be there? There must be some cause behind it. So go into the problem. Don't condemn it by calling it names and saying that you are tired of it. Rather than condemning it, go into it. Slowly slowly, unearth it and you will find great treasures hidden behind the problems. A problem is simply a map; if you can follow the map and go deep into it, you will come to a great treasure. Each problem carries a solution within itself. You have not gone into the problems so they go on piling up. Then you are tired, because so many problems -- how can they be solved? You have not even gone into a single problem. My own observation is that if you can solve a single problem you have solved all, because then you will know the key to how to solve them all. And the key is the same; it is a master key. It opens all the locks. Solve one problem, choose any one. George Gurdjieff used to say to his disciples 'Choose a single characteristic in your being and just solve that. Don't be worried about so many things -- if you can solve one problem you have solved all, because to solve one you will have to create that key and that key is a master. It works on all problems.' And don't be an escapist. You cannot escape from problems; they will follow you and they will go on increasing. And the more you neglect them, the more you will be crowded by them. Don't neglect them. They have to be faced, encountered, lived. And you will never be at a loss if you live them. They are challenges of life: facing them you will gather integrity. Facing them you will be becoming more and more intelligent. You will have a sharper intelligence by facing them; otherwise if you avoid those problems you will be dull. You will become dull and dim, and that is not the way to live one's life. Challenges have to be accepted, welcomed. They have to be accepted so lovingly that one can feel grateful that god has given these problems to you to solve. In solving them you will be growing in consciousness, integrity, unity. In solving them you will arrive at your being. Osho