Rest.

Jesus is tremendously beautiful his beauty has a dimension of its own. Buddha is beautiful, but Jesus is totally different from Buddha. In Buddha a different type of silence was incarnated.

l once heard about a Chinese emperor who had two great painters in his court, and there was always rivalry. They were always fighting and competing, and it was almost impossible to decide who was the greater. Both were masters of their art. One day the emperor said, “Now you do one thing: you both paint on one theme so that it can be decided who is the greater, and the theme is ‘REST’.”

The first painter, of course, chose a very obvious subject: he painted a very silent lake, far away in the mountains…lone….still, not even a ripple on the surface. Just looking at that painting you would feel sleepy. The other painter tried something absolutely opposite: he painted a thundering waterfall… for miles the white foam of it… and just near the waterfall a very fragile, delicate birch tree, the branches bowing down, touching the foam, and on the birch the small nest of a robin, and the robin sitting on the nest, with closed eyes, almost wet.

The first is a non-dynamic silence: more like death, less like life. The opposite doesn’t exist in it. The rest has no tension in it; the ‘rest’ is more like absence than like presence. The second is a dynamic concept: ‘rest’, but not dead. It is alive, throbbing. The thunder, the waterfall, the tremendous activity, and the nest, and the robin sitting there, silent….

Jesus is like the second painting; Buddha comes closer to the first painting. Of course it is very silent, but the opposite is missing — and without the opposite, music cannot be created. Buddha has a single note, he is not an orchestra. Jesus has opposite notes meeting, merging and creating a harmony, a symphony.

Buddha is silent, without revolution. Jesus is silent, with a deep rebellion around him. This has to be remembered. Only then you will understand how to penetrate into his very heart. Why did Jesus become so significant, why did he appeal to so many people all through these centuries? — he has something of the wild in him. He is not a garden; he is a wilderness. He is raw, not refined. You touch him and you will know. You feel him and you will know. Buddha is very cultured, very refined. He has something of the court of a king. Jesus comes from a village, a carpenter’s son, uneducated, uncultured. He is like a wilderness: raw, but alive, rebellious. Hence, the appeal; hence he has touched millions of people’s hearts. You can understand him. He is more than you but you are in him. You cannot understand Buddha. He is more than you but you are not there. With Jesus a bridge exists.

Rest should be the criterion of power. A man of power is absolutely at rest, he has no restlessness in him. Because restlessness is nothing but dissipation of energy. When you are feeling restless, you are dissipating energy.

Hence in the East, the meditator became the symbol of power. When a person meditates, he loses all restlessness. His thinking stops, his body movements stop; he becomes like a marble statue… totally still, unmoving. In that moment he is a pool of energy. He is tremendously powerful.

If you see somebody meditating, sit by their side, and you will be benefited. Sitting by the side of someone who is in a meditative mood, you will move into meditation also. The energy will pull you out of your mess. Meditation is nothing but absolute rest.

How you bring that absolute rest depends on many things. There are a thousand and one methods to create that rest. My own methods are such that first I would like you to become as restless as possible, so nothing is hanging inside you; restlessness has been thrown out — then move into rest. And there will be no disturbance, it will be easier.

In Buddha’s time, such dynamic methods were not needed. People were more simple, more authentic. They lived a more real life. Now people are living a very repressed life, very unreal life. When they don’t want to smile, they smile. When they want to be angry, they show compassion. People are false, the whole life pattern is false. The whole culture is like a great falsity. People are just acting, not living. So, much hangover, many incomplete experiences go on being collected, piled up, inside their mind.

So just sitting directly in silence won’t help. The moment you will sit silently, you will see all sorts of things moving inside you. You will feel it almost impossible to be silent.

First throw those things out so you come to a natural state of rest. But, real meditation starts only when you are in rest.

Remember, this definition of power is different from the ordinary definition of power. The ordinary definition of power depends on comparison. You are more powerful than your neighbour, you are more powerful than this man or that woman. You are powerful in comparison with somebody else. The power that Buddha is talking about is noncomparative; it has nothing to do with anybody.

Power is your own state. When you are full of energy, you are powerful. When you are leaking energy, you are powerless. Evil thoughts are like holes through which energy leaks. Restlessness is like leaking, continuous leaking.

You create energy every day, a tremendous amount of it, but you waste — sometimes in anger, sometimes in sexuality, sometimes in greed, sometimes in competition, sometimes for no reason at all… just because you have it, what to do with it?

I remember one anecdote in Jesus’ life. It is not related in Christian books, it is not in The Bible, but Sufis have that story about Jesus. Jesus comes to a town, and he sees a man drunk, shouting, lying down on the street. He comes close to him, shakes the man and says, ‘What are you doing? Why are you wasting your life in such a way?’

The man opens his eyes and says, ‘My Lord, I was ill. You cured me. Now what else can I do? Now I am healthy. I was always ill and confined to my bed. You cured me. Now what am I supposed to do? Now I have energy, and I don’t know what to do with it.’

Jesus feels as if he has committed a crime by helping this man. He is throwing the responsibility on him. He becomes very sad. He goes into the marketplace of the town, but he is sad. There he sees a young man following a prostitute with lustful eyes, almost oblivious of the whole world.

Jesus prevents that young man and says, ‘What are you doing? The eyes are not given for this. The eyes have been given to see God. What are you doing? Why are you wasting?’

The man looks at Jesus, touches his feet, and says, ‘My Lord, I was blind. You cured me. Now what to do with these eyes? I don’t know anything else.’

Jesus becomes very sad; he leaves the town. He comes out of the town and there he finds a man trying to commit suicide by hanging from a tree. His preparation is complete; he is just going when Jesus comes. He says, ‘Wait! What are you doing? Such a precious gift of God — life! And you are going to destroy it! Are you mad?’

The man looks at Jesus and says, ‘My Lord, I had died. You resurrected me. Why did you resurrect me. Now I am in trouble. I don’t want this life at all! What to do with it?’

You have energy and you don’t know what to do with it. So, one goes on wasting. There are people who say they are ‘killing time’. Killing time means killing life. Killing time means killing opportunity to grow, to mature, to come home.

The power that Buddha is talking about is the power when you don’t do anything with your energy and you simply delight in its presence… a sheer delight in being full of energy… the sheer delight of a young, green tree… the sheer delight of a cloud, a white cloud wandering in the sky… the sheer delight of a lotus flower… the sheer delight of the sun coming out of the clouds… the sheer delight of being so full of energy… vibrant, alive, throbbing. When you don’t put your energy to any purpose whatsoever, then energy itself starts moving in a vertical line.

Meditation is like a daily bath. It is not something that once you have done it, you are finished. It should become like a natural thing, matter of fact. As you eat, as you go to sleep, as you take a bath, meditation should become a natural part of your life. At least twice a day you should cleanse your mind.

The best times are the morning, when you are getting ready for the day, the workaday world…. Cleanse your mind so you have clarity, so you have transparency, so you don’t commit errors, mistakes, so you don’t have any evil thoughts, so you don’t have any egoistic thoughts… you go in a purer way to the world. You don’t go with corrupting seeds. And the next best time is before you go to sleep, again meditate. The whole day the dust collects. Clean the mind again… fall asleep.

If you really start cleaning it, you will see tremendous changes happening. If you clean it rightly before you go to sleep, dreams will disappear. Because dreams are nothing, but the dust gathered the whole day — it goes on moving inside you, goes on creating fantasies, illusions.

If your meditation is going right, your dreams will by and by disappear. Your night will become a peaceful sleep with no dreams. And if the night is without dreams, in the morning you will be able to come up very fresh, very young, virgin. Then meditate again, because even if there have been no dreams, with the very passage of time, dust collects.

In the morning, again meditate. And if you meditate rightly and you become a silent pool of energy, you will move in the world in a totally different way — non-conflicting, nonaggressive, in harmony. Even if somebody hates you, you will transform that energy into love. (OSHO DYNAMIC MEDITATION [OSHO Active Meditations*]

Meekness is power and meditation is illumination. Both are two aspects of the same coin. On one side it is meekness, egoless-ness; on another side it is purity of mind, illumination. They both go together.

You will have to work on both these things simultaneously, together. Become more and more egoless and become more and more meditative. And the greatest power will be yours, and the greatest knowing will be yours, and the greatest light will be yours.

Osho: Come Follow To You, Vol 3 Chapter #1 Chapter title: Jesus is like a wilderness: raw, but alive (excerpts)
Osho: The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 2 Chapter #5 Chapter title: A light unto yourself (excerpts)

As the season of joy and reflection approaches, let us embrace the power of REST—a rest that replenishes the spirit and fuels true strength.

This Christmas, may you find tranquility in stillness and courage in your convictions. May the silent nights fill your heart with peace, and the festive lights inspire boundless joy. Wishing you and your loved ones a season of rest, renewal, and radiant love. Merry Christmas!!!

क़ुबूल हो कि न हो सज्दा ओ सलाम अपना
तुम्हारे बंदे हैं हम बंदगी है काम अपना……………………मुबारक अज़ीमाबादी

qubūl ho ki na ho sajda o salām apnā
tumhāre bande haiñ ham bandagī hai kaam apnā………………….MUBARAK AZIMABADI

Whether my bowing or greetings are accepted or not,
I am Your servant, and worship is my purpose.

I love the romantic song “Thodi Jagah Dede Mujhe” by Arijit Singh, and when viewed in the context of Christmas and the blog, its soulful plea beautifully aligns with the season’s spirit—a heartfelt yearning to make room for Jesus in our hearts. As He brings love, peace, and refuge, the song transforms into a prayer, inviting us to embrace His presence and divine grace in our lives.
The song is from the 2019 Bollywood film Marjaavaan. Written by: Rashmi Virag Composer: Tanishk Bagchi.

Thodi Jagah De De Mujhe Full Song (Lyrics) – Arijit Singh | Lyrics Tube