See the world as a drama

What the Method Is

The core instruction, or sutra, for this method is: “This so-called universe appears as a juggling, a picture show. To be happy, look upon it so.” This calls for seeing life as a non-serious, theatrical performance.

How It Is Done

To practice “See the world as a drama,” the guidance involves:

  • Cultivate a Non-Serious Attitude: The fundamental step is to stop taking life too seriously. Seriousness is identified as a primary cause of trouble and unhappiness.
  • Conscious Re-enactment: Actively behave as if the whole world is just a dream or a drama. For example, interact with family members as if you are playing a part in a play.
  • Maintain Detachment: When enacting your role, aim to be efficient but not disturbed. The goal is for your life to feel “as if it is not happening to you, as if it is happening to someone else”.
  • Focus on the “Gap” (Inner Centering): Crucially, while activities continue on the periphery, remain constantly centered in your inner being, specifically by attending to the “gap” between breaths (as discussed in other techniques). If this inner centering is lost, identification with the role occurs.
  • Embrace Predetermination (as a device): Consider that everything in life is fixed or predetermined, like a script. This perspective helps one become an observer, merely enacting a role rather than being the source of actions, thereby fostering detachment and reducing the burden of guilt or superiority.
  • Consistent Practice: Osho suggests trying this for seven continuous days to experience its transformative effect.
Commentaries and Insights

Osho provides extensive explanations and philosophical context for this method:

  • The Nature of Unhappiness and Happiness:
    • Unhappiness stems from excessive seriousness about life.
    • Happiness is a consequence of viewing life as a play and having a “festive mind”. Once this happiness is experienced, one can choose to remain in it, as it becomes clear that unhappiness is a choice.
  • Breaking Identification with Roles:
    • This technique is designed to break our identification with the roles (husband, shopkeeper, etc.) that society, culture, and circumstances impose upon us. We often mistake these roles for our true selves, leading to inner turmoil.
    • By seeing life as a drama, one becomes an actor playing roles, rather than being consumed by them.
  • Connection to “Dreaming” and “Reality” (Maya):
    • Meditation, at its core, is the transcending of the dreaming process. We are constantly “dreaming” even when awake.
    • Enlightenment, or “awakening,” is the cessation of this inner dreaming. When inner dreaming stops, one experiences “pure space,” “innocence,” and “non-dreaming consciousness”.
    • Our “self-ignorance” is the state of being “asleep,” where the “dreamer is lost in the dreaming” and we are aware of everything except ourselves.
    • Shankara’s concept of maya (the world as illusion or dream) is not a philosophical argument but a meditative device. By consistently remembering that the waking world is a dream, one can eventually remember this even in night dreams, leading to a “double-arrowed consciousness” where one becomes aware of the “dreamer” (the subject).
    • Similarly, Gurdjieff’s “self-remembering” (“I am”) serves to make one aware of the self. If “I am” is remembered, dreams are perceived as dreams, and the so-called “reality” of the external world begins to appear as a dream. This leads to becoming a “buddha, an awakened one”.
    • An enlightened person does not dream because they are conscious even in sleep and have no “suspended” or “incomplete” experiences from their waking life to be resolved in dreams.
  • The Unmoving Center:
    • Within the constantly changing periphery of life, there is an innermost, eternally unmoving center. The practice allows one to realize this center without needing to stop or change the external flux.
    • A truly silent mind is one that is “unmoving” and can thus know reality.
  • Personal Responsibility for Experience:
    • Our thoughts and interpretations create our personal “world” or “milieu”. If one believes traffic is disturbing, it will be; if one believes family life is a bondage, it will manifest as such.
    • The liberated person ceases to “cause anything” and simply is, existing without misery or clinging to either bliss or suffering.
  • Challenges and Warnings:
    • Initially, viewing life as a psychodrama may lead to feelings of detachment and loneliness. Osho advises to simply feel these sensations without trying to change them, as acceptance leads to their disappearance.
    • Any “sincerity and depth” that can be lost by this technique was never truly real. True depth is unconditional and cannot be disturbed.
    • It is crucial not to practice these techniques mechanically. A deep understanding is required, otherwise, one might achieve only a superficial, cultivated stillness rather than genuine inner purity.
    • The mind is “tricky” and will provide excuses to avoid actually doing the practice, often by questioning its simplicity or feasibility. One should not trust the mind’s rationalizations to escape action.
    • The onset of inner clarity may initially reveal one’s “anarchy,” “madness,” and “dark mess,” which can be frightening. A master’s guidance can be helpful at this point to prevent escape.
  • Transformation and Liberation:
    • This technique leads to inner purity and buddha-nature.
    • It allows one to become a master of oneself, rather than a slave to external circumstances or internal conflicts.
    • The transformation is not a forced effort but a spontaneous happening that results from deep understanding. It allows for a joyful and creative existence.
    • When the “false center” disappears and one is rooted in their “real center,” the world is transformed from maya into nirvana (liberation).
    • The process allows one to experience the inherent potential for divinity in all beings, leading to compassion rather than destruction.