Osho on PathYOU SAID THERE IS NO NEED TO TAKE SHORTCUTS. ARE NOT YOUR MEDITATIONS SHORTCUTS? BECAUSE YOU SAID EARLIER THAT YOUR MEDITATIONS ARE FOR TAKING AN IMMEDIATE JUMP.The immediate jump is the longest way. Because to be ready for the immediate jump, it will take many years, even many lives to be ready for it. So, when I say ‘immediate jump’, do you take it immediately? Have you taken the jump? Just by my saying so you have not taken it. I say ‘immediate’, but the immediate for you may take many lives. A jump is never a shortcut, because a jump is not a way. There are long ways and there are short ways. A jump is not a way at all; it is a sudden phenomenon. To be ready for the jump means to be ready to die. To be ready to jump means to be ready to jump into the unknown, into the insecure, into the uncharted. That readiness will take many, many years.Don’t think that an immediate jump is a shortcut; it is not. Shortcuts are when somebody says to you, ‘Take a mantra, do the mantra for fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen minutes in the evening, and then you need not do anything else. Within fifteen days you will already be a meditator.’ In the West people are so conscious of time that they are always victims. Somebody comes and says, ‘This is the short cut. My way is not the bullock-cart way but the jet way,’ as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says. He says, ‘I give you a shortcut, just a mantra to repeat for fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen in the evening. And within two weeks, you are already enlightened.’In the West people are in so much of a hurry: they want instant coffee, they want instant sex, they want instant God; shortcut, packaged, everything prefabricated. Time is too much in the Western head, too much, and that is creating many tensions inside. Anybody can come and say, ‘This is the panacea and everything can be solved within just fifteen minutes.’ And what do you do? You sit and repeat a mantra. The East has been repeating mantras for millions of years and nothing has happened. And within two weeks of TM training, you become enlightened? These types of stupid things continue because you are in a hurry. Somebody or other will exploit you.I was reading a book the other night, a collection of small essays by Richard Church. The name of the book is A STROLL BEFORE THE DARK. In that book he remembers one incident that happened to one of his friends. A friend, who was much too time-obsessed, was travelling by train. Suddenly he became aware that he had forgotten his wristwatch, so he was very worried. The train stopped at a small station. The friend looked out of the window as the porter was passing. He asked the porter about the time. The porter said, ‘I don’t know.’ The friend said, ‘What! You, a railway man and you don’t know what time it is? Don’t you have a clock in the station?’ The porter said, ‘Yes the clock is there. But why should I be distressed with time?’ The porter said, ‘Why should I be distressed by time? The clock is there; that is none of my business.’It’s wonderful, the porter saying, ‘Why should I be distressed with time?’ People are distressed with time, and in the West much too distressed; time and time and time. They say that time is money, and time is flowing, going out of the hand continuously, therefore a shortcut is needed. Somebody immediately supplies the demand.<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow not-prose">Time is not running short. Time is eternal; there is no hurry. Existence moves in a very lethargic way. Existence moves very slowly, just like the Ganges flows in the plains – slow, as if not flowing at all. Still it reaches the ocean. Time is not short, don’t be in a panic. Time is enough. You relax. If you relax, even the longest path will become the shortest. If you are in a panic, even the short path will become very long; because in panic, meditation is impossible. When you are in a panic, in a hurry, the very hurry is the barrier. </blockquote>When I say, ‘Take the jump’ – and you can take the jump immediately – I am not talking about shortcuts or longcuts. I am not talking about the way at all, because a jump is not a way. A jump is a courageous moment; it is a sudden phenomenon. But I don’t mean that you can do it right now. I will go on insisting, ‘Take the jump immediately, as soon as possible.’ This insistence is just to help you to prepare for it. Some day you may be ready. Somebody may be ready right now; because you are not new; for many lives you have already been working.When I say, ‘Take the immediate jump,’ there may be someone who has been working for many lives, and just standing on the brink, on the abyss, and afraid. He may gather courage and take the jump. Somebody who is very far away, thinking that the immediate jump is possible, will gather hope and start walking. When I say something, it is a device to help many sorts of people in many sorts of situations. But my path is not a short cut, because no path can be a shortcut. The very word is deceptive. Life knows no shortcuts because life has no beginning. God knows no shortcuts. God is not in a hurry; eternity is there. You can work it out slowly. And the more patiently, the more slowly, the more unhurriedly you work, the sooner you will reach. If you can be so patient, so infinitely patient that you are not worried about reaching at all, you may reach right now.Source:Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.<a href="/the-alchemy-of-yoga-01-10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Discourse series: Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 4 Chapter #4</a>Chapter title: To become free in an unfree society24 April 1975 am in Buddha HallReferences:Osho has spoken on ‘spiritual journey, paths, surrender, will, short-cuts, meditation, enlightenment’ in His discourses. Some of these can be referred to in the following books/discourses:<ol type="1"><li>A Bird on the Wing</li><li>Ah This!</li><li>The Beloved, Vol.1-2</li><li>Come Follow To You Vol.1-4</li><li>The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha</li><li>The Special Transmission</li><li>The Imprisoned Splendour</li><li>Zen: The Path of Paradox</li></ol><style>.footer-ad{display: none !important;}</style><link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Quicksand:wght@300..700&amp;display=swap">