MEDITATION

In a small school, a child is listening; the birds are chirping in the trees and he is listening raptly. He has forgotten the class. he is no longer there; MEDITATION HAS HAPPENED. and when the teacher says,"what are you doing? are you asleep? concentrate here on the board!" Now the child has to try, to make effort. Those birds never said anything to the child that,"Look, we are singing here. Be attentive!" It simply happens because it has a deep appeal for the child. This blackboard looks so ugly and this teacher looks so murderous, and the whole thing is forced. He will try- but by effort nobody can meditate. Again and again mind will slip. So many things are happening outside the room, a dog starts barking, a beggar passes by singing or somebody is playing a guitar. So many millions of things are happening outside and he has to bring his attention again and again to the blackboard, to the ugly schoolroom.

We have made schools just like prisons. Schoolrooms are ugly. Nothing is appealing there; no toys, no music, no trees, no birds-nothing. The schoolroom is meant to force your attention. You have to learn to concentrate. and this is the difference between concentration and meditation; CONCENTRATION IS A FORCED THING, MEDITATION IS NATURAL. MEDITATE on anything that APPEALS to you.