WHY IT IS HARD TO BE SILENT
[A visitor said she had done Vipassana(an aasana which involves to be silent) and found it difficult, but very good: It taught me a lot about myself and about the whole world.]

OSHO : It is good but it is hard. It is hard -- not because the hardness is there in the meditation; it is hard because we are repressed so much. If you are so repressed and you have simply to sit and not to do anything, it becomes impossible, it becomes maddening. We remain occupied so our madness remains occupied; our insanity remains involved somewhere or other. If you are not doing anything, put on the radio or the TV or visit a friend or just read the newspaper or rearrange the furniture in the room so you remain occupied. One never becomes aware that one is not yet capable of just sitting silently. This is what insanity is. If a person is not capable of sitting silently, what more can you expect of a person? This is the simplest thing in the world -- to sit silently not doing anything. But it seems to be the hardest. The hardness is coming because you have not done any catharsis. This camp will be very helpful. Do this camp and do a few groups here which will help bring out all that is repressed in you, to cathart it, to act it out.

Once your insanity is vomited, you will suddenly become capable of sitting silently and you will not feel any trouble arising You will simply be surprised that it is such a simple thing. Why weren't you able to do it? If you are not able to do it, then just in trying to do it the whole energy is wasted. Then it is not really Vipassana. You are just trying to force something and you are remaining in conflict, continuous conflict, in trying to be. The legs are aching, the back is aching and the body feels uncomfortable and there are so many thoughts and this and that and you are trying somehow to hold yourself together. The whole time is wasted in that. You never have the glimpse of what Vipassana is. Vipassana is possible only when two basic necessities have been fulfilled. First, a deep catharsis of the mind so you don't have many thoughts. They are simply not there; you have thrown them out. These groups help to vomit, to throw, to release all that is repressed inside: anger, hatred, jealousy, whatsoever. And the second is Rolfing. It gives the body a new flow, a new energy, a freshness, a flexibility. These two things done, one for the body and one for the mind, Vipassana comes as easily as your shadow follows you. Just like that. So be here for a little time. Do the camp and then a few groups, and then I will tell you to do Vipassana. I tell people to do it at the end when they have done everything else.

[Excerpted from A Rose is a Rose is a Rose, Osho]