What is meditation explained by a small boy

People ask number of questions related to meditation. Basically they do not know what is meditation. People also do not understand the difference between meditation and concentration. I remember a short story that was told by Bhagwan Shree Osho Rajneesh. I think, this story clearly gave the true definition or explanation of what really the meditation is.



The very common question asked by people is what is meditation? I will start telling that story and I hope you will get solid explanation of meditation. The story is as follows.

Once there was a boy and he was trying to cross the road. There was a lots of traffic on the road and it was appearing difficult for a boy to cross the road. One man approached the boy and offered his help to the little boy. He asked him if he needs his help to cross the road. The little boy replied "No, I will cross the road myself, when I will see blank space between the cars, I will cross the road. The reply given by the little boy is of great importance. It can be easily related to the meditation.

There is no doubt that boy was not aware of meditation at all. He just replied as he could but he gave us something very important. He could have replied that I will cross the road when the cars will pass but he said that I will cross the road when he will see empty space left after the cars have passed. There is a difference between the two kinds of replies. Former reply does not know anything about the empty spaces but the later talks about empty spaces. Meditation is just watching of empty spaces between your thoughts. These empty spaces can be made longer through practice. A time comes when there are no thoughts at all and there is just an empty space left.

In meditation there are no objects at all whereas in concentration you focus on specific object or thought. This is the main difference between meditation and concentration.