Oct 6, 2009, 12.00am IST
TALK: OSHO.
Maitri bhavana is one of the most penetrating meditations. You need not be afraid of getting into some sort of self-hypnosis; it is not. It is a sort of de-hypnosis.
It looks like hypnosis because it is the reverse process: you have come to me from your home, you walked the way; now going back you will walk the same way. The only difference will be that now your back will be towards me. The way will be the same, you will be the same, but your face was towards me while you were coming; now your back will be towards me.
Man is already hypnotised; so the question is not one of whether or not to get hypnotised. The whole process of society is a sort of hypnosis. Somebody is told that he is a Christian, and it is continuously repeated so that his mind is conditioned and he thinks himself a Christian. Somebody is Hindu, somebody is a Mohammedan ^ these are all hypnoses. You are already hypnotised. If you think you are miserable, this is hypnosis. If you think you have too many problems, this, too, is hypnosis. Whatsoever you are is a sort of hypnosis. Society has given you those ideas, and now you are too full of those ideas and conditionings.
Maitri bhavana is de-hypnosis: it is an effort to bring back your natural mind; it is an effort to give you back your original face; it is an effort to bring you to the point where you were when you were born and society had not yet corrupted you. When a child is born he is in maitri bhavana; it means a great feeling of friendship, love, compassion. A newborn knows no hatred; it knows only love. Love is intrinsic; hatred, anger, jealousy, possessions and envy he will learn later on. Society will teach him how to hate.
When the child is born he is simple love; he has not known anything else. In the mother's womb he has not come across any enemy. He has lived in deep love for nine months, surrounded by love, nourished by love. He knows nobody who is inimical to him. He knows only the mother, he knows her love. This love he brings with himself; this is the original face. Then there will be trouble, with many other experiences. He will start distrusting people. A newborn child is simply born with trust.
Children are trusting, but by and by there will be experiences in which they will be deceived, in which they will get into trouble, in which they will be opposed, in which they will become afraid. By and by they will learn all the tricks of the world. That's what has happened to everybody, more or less.
Maitri bhavana is creating the situation at the time of your birth: it is a de-hypnosis. It is an effort to drop hatred, anger, jealousy, envy, and come back to the world as you had come in the first place.
If you go on doing this meditation, first you start loving yourself ^ because you are closest to you than anybody else. Then you spread your love, friendship, compassion, your blessings, to people you love friends, lovers. Then, by and by, you spread these to more people that you don't love so much, then people to whom you are indifferent ^ then by and by to people you hate.
Slowly you are de-hypnotising yourself. Slowly you are again creating a womb of love around yourself.
Excerpted from Beloved Vol 1, courtesy Osho International Foundation, www.osho.com
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