3 steps to TATHATA

OSHO EXPLAINS THE PROCESS OF GROWING AWARENESS :

1) From DOER Become WITNESS
2) From WITNESS To AWARENESS
3) From AWARENESS To TATHATA (SUCHNESS) 

"It will be useful to understand these three words -- WITNESS, AWARENESS, and TATHATA (total acceptability/SUCHNESS) for the sadhana or Practice of Awareness.

The WITNESS is the FIRST step. To WITNESS means to pass through LIFE as a WITNESS. It means I shall live like an ONLOOKER, a SEER, a WITNESS in my LIFE. 

If you abuse me, I should not feel or experience that you abused me or I was abused. You abuse him who is 'I'. If you hurt me with a stone, I should not feel so I threw the stone and I was hurt, but I should feel you threw the stone and this person was hurt.

I should always stand at the THIRD CORNER OF THE TRIANGLE. I should always jump to the THIRD CORNER. 

If my house catches fire I should not feel MY house is on fire, I should feel that his house is burning and I am looking at it. 

The commencement of Sadhana for a WITNESS is to SEPARATE LIFE INTO THREE PARTS. 

We do it in TWO PARTS. I am here and you are there. You are the abuser, I am the receiver. That's all, there are only TWO WAYS, the THIRD IS NOT THERE. 

In being a WITNESS, we ADD THE THIRD PERSON. 

I should always be a THIRD PERSON and NOT A SECOND PERSON, under all circumstances.

As this THIRD CORNER becomes clearer both the other corners seem fit to be laughed at -- the person who abuses and the person who was abused.................................

The WITNESS is the FIRST step of the Sadhak. It is not the easiest, but compared to other higher steps it is certainly easy. But if you practice a little, it is not all that difficult. While swimming in a river observe how the others swim. 

While walking on the road, observe how others walk. This is not difficult. You will get a spark sometimes. And as soon as you get the spark-experience of the third corner, you will, all of a sudden, see that the whole world is changed. Everything will be changed, things will now have a different colour. The whole world is as we look at it. When the vision is changed, the world is changed.

The SECOND step of Sadhana is AWARENESS. 

It goes deeper than the act of being a WITNESS. While in the act of WITNESSING, we take TWO PEOPLE, YOU and I, & in that act STAND APART from oneself as a THIRD PERSON. 

We DIVIDE the WORLD into THREE PARTS in being a WITNESS. We make a TRIANGLE. 

In AWARENESS, NO SUCH DIVISION is made. We live in AWARENESS. While walking, one is AWARE that one is walking, one is doing it consciously.........................................................

In this state of full consciousness one is always TOTALLY AWARE of every action being performed. One is always AWARE of what is being done. It may be eating, talking anything. 

In being a WITNESS, the THIRD POINT manifests itself, and he who becomes a WITNESS, will find AWARENESS easy, because a WITNESS has got to be AWARE to be a WITNESS. 

One does not stand aloof. Whatever is happening, is happening in the LIGHT OF AWARENESS burning within. Even if I raise my foot, I do it consciously. Even a word is uttered in a state of full consciousness. If I say yes, I mean to say yes. I have said that consciously. And if I say no, I mean to say no. I have certainly said so with awareness.

In this state of AWARENESS everything that is meaningless in life stops because nobody can do anything worthless and meaningless while being aware of it. 

The web of meaningless things in life which we spin like a spider and often get ourselves caught, is at once broken.............................. Awareness means I am totally aware of what I am doing at the time of doing it. After having experimented with it you will realize and experience that peace which you never new before.

The THIRD maxim of TATHATA -- total acceptability is still mere difficult. If one can master AWARENESS, he can master TATHATA (total acceptability). 

TATHATA means SUCHNESS what is is. There are no complaints, and I am pleased. 

In the case of a WITNESS, I am the observer of whatever happens. In AWARENESS we are fully awakened. 

In TATHATA (total acceptability), we are pleased with whatever there is, whether it is misery, death, a meeting with a loved person or annuity etc. There is no rejection, there is tranquility. 

Tathata is the supreme belief in God. He is not a believer who says I believe in God. He is not a believer, who says I have trust in God. He is a believer who does not complain. He says, whatever is, is all right. Every breath is full of willingness. Total acceptability is the throbbing of his heart......................................

TATHATA (SUCHNESS) means total acceptability. Such an acceptability can take place when one is TOTALLY AWARE. It is possible only after being a WITNESS. When such an acceptability is fixed in the heart of anyone, the dance of endless bliss begins in his life. The music of that flute, which is void, begins to play in his life. That dance which has no rhythm to it, enters his life. That smell which has no flower, begins to come in his life. But total acceptability is a very difficult thing to achieve................................................................

TATHATA is the THIRD maxim for a Sadhak.
To reach the state of full of AWARENESS, one has to begin with being a WITNESS and finish with TATHATA (total acceptability). 

At first separate yourself an as observer from being a DOER, combine your knowledge with your action and then like your acceptability with the whole. 

Awareness becomes stronger and goes deeper slowly by following these three steps. Buddha is called tathata. He liked this name very much, whenever he passed through a village he said that tathata is passing. It means one who has achieved the mental attitude of total acceptability. Thus came thus gone. 

Just as the swans fly over a lake, and cast their shadows and are gone, neither the swans nor the lake know about these reflections. There is no desire to do anything other than what is happening. Whatever happened, just happened, no account is kept, there is no hope for success or failure, no frustration is entertained and no victory is considered.

Tathata is an individuality, is emptiness -- in a void. It should be said, it is a living void within. It is a void which is surrounded by bones, flesh and tissues. He is a tathata who becomes like this void. He reaches the fourth stage. 

To be a TATHATA is to jump from collective unconsciousness to cosmic unconsciousness. In the condition of a WITNESS, we go from the outer world, and the individual enters the unconscious. In AWARENESS, the individual goes beyond unconscious, and enters collective unconscious. In collective unconscious the individual has to practise to be a TATHATA, then he enters the cosmic unconscious. There is no Sadhna left after cosmic unconscious. There is no Sadhana in tathata. 

In this stage, everything in life goes on by itself, no effort is needed to work it up. The effort to go within is no longer there, what one was within is lost. TATHATA is the achievement to sink deep down the abyss of life. Religion is the door. Yoga is the process of going up to that door. And TATHATA is the presiding God in that temple."
OSHO
Book - The Perennial Path , Chapter # 8 , Chapter Name : Perfect Knowledge

“ There is a road to emptiness;
Everyone arrives.
Those who arrive then realize
The excellence of their aim.
The mind ground does not grow
Useless plants and trees;
Naturally the body spontaneously
Radiates clear light. “
Foyan