On Taking Note Twice

Below method is (or at least has been) used in the Vipassana group in Osho′s Ashram in Poona. During Vipassana all kinds of thoughts and emotions may surface and in order to lessen their distressing impact, one can take note of them twice. A method which may also come in handy in daily life.

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The word ′suchness′ is of immense importance in Buddha′s approach towards reality. The word ′suchness′ is as important in Buddhism as ′God′ is in other religions.
The Buddhist word for suchness is tathata. It means ′Seeing things are such, don′t take any attitude, don′t make any opinion, don′t judge or condemn.′ The Buddhist meditation consists of suchness. The method is very practical and very deep-going. Buddha has said to his disciples, ′Just watch things as they are, without interfering′. For example, you have a headache. The moment you note it, immediately the opinion enters that this is not good: ′Why should i have a headache? What should i do not to have it?′
You are immediately worried, you have taken an opinion, you are against it, you have started repressing it. Either you have to repress it chemically, through an Aspro or Novalgin, or you have to repress it in the consciousness - you don′t look at it, you put it aside. You get involved in something else, you want to be distracted in something else so you can forget it. But in both ways you have missed suchness.
What will Buddha suggest? Buddha says take note twice, ′Headache, headache′. Don′t feel inimical towards it, neither friendly nor antagonistic. Just take simple note, as if it has nothing to do with you: ′Headache, headache′. And remain undisturbed, undistracted, uninfluenced by it, without any opinion.
See the point. Immediately, ninety percent of the headache is gone...because a headache is not a real headache, ninety percent arises out of the antagonistic opinion. Immediately you will see that the greater part of it is no longer there. And another thing will be noted: sooner or later you will see that the headache is disappearing in something else - maybe you are now feeling anger. What happened?
If you repress the headache you will never come to know what its real message was. The headache was there just as an indicator that you are full of anger in this moment and the anger is creating a tension in the head, hence the headache. But you watched, you simply took note of it - ′Headache, headache′ - you remained impartial, objective.
Then the headache disappears. And the headache gives you the message that ′i am not the headache, i am anger′. Now, Buddha says, take note again: ′Anger, anger′. Now don′t become angry with anger, otherwise again you are trapped and you have missed suchness.
If you say, ′Anger, anger′, ninety percent of the anger will be gone immediately. This is a very practical method. And the ten percent that will be left will release its message. You may come to see that it is not anger, it is ego. Take note again: ′Ego, ego′. And so on and so forth. One thing is connected with another, and the deeper you move the closer you come to the original cause. And once you have come to the original cause the chain is broken - there is nothing beyond it.
A moment will come when you will take note of the last link in the chain, and then nothingness. Then you are released from the whole chain, and there will arise great purity, great silence. That silence is called suchness.
This has to be practiced continuously. Sometimes it may happen that you forget, and you have made an opinion unconsciously, mechanically. Then the Buddha says remember again: ′Opinion, opinion′. Now don′t get distracted by this - that you have made an opinion. Don′t get depressed that you have missed, just take note, ′Opinion, opinion′, and suddenly you will see - ninety percent of the opinion is gone, ten percent remains, and that releases its message to you. What is its message? The message is that there is some inhibition, some taboo; out of that taboo the opinion has arisen.
A sex desire comes in the mind and immediately you say, ′This is bad.′ This is opinion. Why is it bad? - because you have been taught it is bad, it is a taboo. Take note, ′Taboo, taboo′ and go on.
Sometimes it will also happen that you have judged - not only judged, you have made an opinion; not only made an opinion, you have become depressed that you have missed. Then take note again, ′Depression, depression,′ and go on.
Whenever you become conscious, at whatsoever point, from there take note - just a simple note - and leave the whole thing. And soon you will see the entangled mind is no longer as entangled as it has always been. Things start disappearing, and there will be moments of suchness, tathata, when you will be simply there and the existence is there and there is no opinion between you and existence. All is undisturbed by thought, unpolluted by thought. Existence is, but mind has disappeared. That state of no-mind is called suchness.

(Osho - The Diamond Sutra #11)

Notes:

• There are commentators who claim that Buddha adviced to take note not twice but thrice, for it to be efficient.
• EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) offers a simple and fast technique to rid oneself of different emotional and physical problems, often within minutes. The idea behind it is that "the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body′s energy system". Balancing this system does away with the ailment. Balancing supposedly happens because a particular sequence of 13 acupuncture points is tapped with two or three fingers. Each time a point is tapped, the problem is focussed on.
  Perhaps EFT does indeed work because actual acupuncture points are tapped, but there′s reason to believe that its effectiveness depends on Buddha′s method of taking note and then leaving the whole thing behind. In the EFT procedure one takes note, not twice nor three times, but up to 13 times; this should amply be sufficient.
  By taking note without antagonism there′s no split created inside and the discomfort isn′t locked into our system for a prolonged period of time.
  There is enough evidence to support the thesis that EFT is a valuable therapy, but also that its benefits may have no connection to the acupuncture points and meridians themselves. A study, published in The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice in 2003, was conducted by Waite and Holder on 119 University students who reported specific fears or phobias.

  This study compared four groups:

  1. A group that received regular EFT
  2. A second group that tapped on sham points that were not EFT points
  3. A third group that tapped on an inanimate object (a doll)
  4. A fourth group that received no treatment.

  The first three groups did statistically better than the fourth group, but there were no significant differences between the three tapping groups. That is, the groups that tapped on sham points and on the doll did just as well as the EFT group, but all three groups did better than the no-treatment group. Since the group that used the doll was not tapping on meridian points, yet still benefited equally, the authors suggest this as a falsification of the theory that EFT works because of the body′s energy meridian system.

  Besides by Buddha′s technique, the first two groups may also have benefitted because of the placebo effect.
  And all first three groups may also have benefitted because the EFT-technique, in the setup, assists in accepting oneself:

  "If you have fear, you have fear - why make a problem out of it? Then you know that you have fear, just as you have two hands. Why create a problem out of it- as if you have only one nose, not two? Why create a problem out of it? Fear is there: accept it, note it. Accept it, don′t bother about it. What will happen? Suddenly you will feel it has disappeared. And this is the inner alchemy - a problem disappears if you accept it, and a problem grows more and more complex if you create any conflict with it. Yes, suffering is there, and suddenly fear comes- accept it. It is there and nothing can be done about it. And when I say nothing can be done about it, don′t think that I am talking about pessimism to you. When I say nothing can be done about it I am giving you the key to solve it."
  (Osho in A Bird on the Wing #1)
  
  
• Maurice Nicoll defines ′events′ in his Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky: "What is your day composed of? It is composed of events, some, in fact most of them, on a vey small scale, such as the event of losing your bag...".
  Beryl Pogson, Maurice Nicoll′s secretary and successor, is reminded in one of her groups of this: "At Amwell Dr. Nicoll would encourage us to name our events. He would ask us what events we were having. If you create a space between you and it, you may see that you have attracted it..."
  In speaking of the cause of negative emotions, Mrs. Pogson suggested: "Try to name your ′I′s. You have power over something if you know its name...
  When one ′I′ becomes objective you can have power over it, as you can name your enemy and he can′t make you say ′I′ to him unless you consent."
  She also recommended naming an event if it was causing identification. "As soon as you do that, you are separated from it, you are not so much in it," she explained. "You cannot name an event when you are in it."

  By not being so much in it, the accompanying negative emotion of necessity loses its impact. The main reason why EFT works would then be dis-identification.

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• Thirteen free videos in which the Emotional Freedom Technique is demonstrated.

Read also:

• Choiceless Awareness
• Accepting yourself is Alchemy