All Of Life Can Be Sacred

“Remember one thing: meditation means awareness.  Whatsoever you do with awareness is meditation”.

-Osho

 

Have you ever left your home in the morning and arrived at work with no memory of the actual drive to the office?  I certainly have.  I was not the least bit mindful of my morning commute.  The entire drive was done on auto-pilot.  There is a Zen teaching that goes, “When you walk, walk.  When you eat, eat, and when you sit, sit”.  In other words, do what you are doing and be aware of doing it.  In a spiritual sense, being asleep means that you are going through your day in a state of mindless routine where you are going through the motions of your activities with absolutely no awareness of what you are doing while you are doing it.  There have been times when I was driving home after work with my wife and she will ask, “What did you do today”?  Sometimes I go blank because I cannot remember a single thing I actually did.  Meditation is not limited to twenty minutes sitting in the Lotus position with a candle burning and the aroma of incense filling the room.  OK, sometimes I really do this with the exception of actually sitting in the Lotus position.  What Osho is telling us is that everything we do, if we do it with awareness, is a meditation.  When I sit in silence each morning drinking a cup of coffee before I leave home for my occasionally mindless commute, drinking my coffee can be a meditation.  I can be aware of its aroma, it’s warmth, and its taste.  I am not just chugging some caffeine so I don’t fall asleep on my morning commute.  The mindful and aware sipping of coffee, or tea, if you prefer, can be a morning prayer.  The reality is that all of life can be sacred.