De-Automatize Your Actions

Start with small acts

Bring a little more awareness to your existence. Each act has to be done less automatically than you have been doing up to now, and you have the key. If you are walking, don't walk like a robot. Don't go on walking as you have always walked, don't do it mechanically. Bring a little awareness to it, slow down, let each step be taken in full consciousness.

Buddhas suggestion

Buddha used to say to his disciples that when you raise your left foot, deep down say "Left." When you raise your right foot, deep down say "Right." First say it, so that you can become acquainted with this new process. Then slowly slowly let the words disappear; just remember "Left, right, left, right."

Try it in small acts. You are not supposed to do big things. Eating, taking a bath, swimming, walking, talking, listening, cooking your food, washing your clothes -- deautomatize the processes. Remember the word deautomatization; that is the whole secret of becoming aware.

The mind is a robot. The robot has its utility; this is the way the mind functions. You learn something; when you learn it, in the beginning you are aware. For example, if you learn swimming you are very alert, because life is in danger. Or if you learn to drive a car you are very alert. You have to be alert. You have to be careful about many things -- the steering wheel, the road, the people passing by, the accelerator, the brake, the clutch. You have to be aware of everything. There are so many things to remember, and you are nervous, and it is dangerous to commit a mistake. It is so dangerous, that's why you have to keep aware. But the moment you have learned driving, this awareness will not be needed. Then the robot part of your mind will take it over.

Automatized acts are unconscious acts

That's what we call learning. Learning something means it has been transferred from consciousness to the robot. That's what learning is all about. Once you have learned a thing it is no more part of the conscious, it has been delivered to the unconscious. Now the unconscious can do it; now your consciousness is free to learn something else. This is in itself tremendously significant. Otherwise you will remain learning a single thing your whole life. The mind is a great servant, a great computer. Use it, but remember that it should not overpower you. Remember that you should remain capable of being aware, that it should not possess you in toto, that it should not become all and all, that a door should be left open from where you can come out of the robot.

Osho, excerpted from The Book of Wisdom #14

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Osho book recommendations on meditation

Meditation: The First and Last Freedom

Lunchtime Enlightenment: Modern Meditations to Free the Mind and Unleash the Spirit - at Work, at Home, at Play

Everyday Osho: 365 Daily Meditations for the Here and Now

Meditation For Busy People: Stress-Beating Strategies To Calm Your Life

Discover the Buddha: 53 Meditations to Meet the Buddha Within

The Everyday Meditator: A Practical Guide

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In this Osho quote on awareness in day to day life there are some hints how you can practice meditation just by de-automatization. Try it in small acts, practice to deautomatize. Awareness follows as a logical consequence.