Osho's Ten Commandments Explained : A Buddha

Recently I've posted an article about Osho's Ten Commandments. People, who commented, had divided opinions about it. I'll try to explain each commandment of Osho using a Zen story. Osho's first commandment was "Never obey anyone's command unless it is coming from within you also." It is very significant statement. Don't even follow Buddha if what he says is not coming from within you. The last sermon of Buddha was - "Be a lamp unto yourself". And following Zen story shows it beautifully:

In Tokyo in the Meiji era there lived two prominent teachers of opposite characteristics. One, Unsho, an instructor in Shingon, kept Buddha's precepts scrupulously. He never drank intoxicants, nor did he eat after eleven o'clock in the morning. The other teacher, Tanzan, a professor of philosophy at the Imperial University, never observed the precepts. When he felt like eating, he ate, and when he felt like sleeping in the daytime, he slept.

One day Unsho visited Tanzan, who was drinking wine at the time, not even a drop of which is supposed to touch the tongue of a Buddhist.

"Hello, brother," Tanzan greeted him. "Won't you have a drink?"
"I never drink!" exclaimed Unsho solemnly.
"One who does not drink is not even human," said Tanzan.
"Do you mean to call me inhuman just because I do not indulge in intoxicating liquids!" exclaimed Unsho in anger. "Then if I am not human, what am I?"
"A Buddha," answered Tanzan.

Tantra in Hindi

Recently I've come across a very good website on Tantra in Hindi. You'll get a lot of knowledge about Tantra theoretically through this website. Here's the link :

तंत्र : एक परिचय

Dalai Lama on Art of Meditation

Would you like to participate in an experiment in meditation? First, look to your posture: arrange the legs in the most comfortable position; set the backbone straight as an arrow. Place your hands in the position of meditative equipoise, four finger widths below your navel, with the left hand on the bottom, right hand on top, and your thumbs touching to form a triangle. This placement of the hands has connection with the place inside the body where inner heat is generated. Bending the neck down slightly, allow the mouth and teeth to be as usual, with the top of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth near the top teeth. Let the eyes gaze downwards loosely -- it is not necessary that they be directed to the end of the nose; they can be pointed toward the floor in front of you if that seems more natural. Do not open the eyes too wide nor forcefully close them; leave them open a little. Sometimes they will close of their own accord; that is all right. Even if your eyes are open, when your mental consciousness becomes steady upon its object, these appearances to the eye consciousness will not disturb you.

For those of you who wear eye glasses, have you noticed that when you take off your glasses, because of the unclarity there is less danger from the generation of excitement and more danger of laxity? Do you find that there is a difference between facing and not facing the wall? When you face the wall, you may find that there is less danger of excitement of scattering. These kinds of things can be determined through your own experience.

Within meditations that have an object of observation, there can be two types of objects: external or internal. Now, instead of meditating on the mind itself, let us meditate on an external object of observation -- for instance, the body of a Buddha for those who like to look at a Buddha or a cross for those who like that, or whatever symbol is suitable for you. Mentally visualize that the object is about four feet in front of you, at the same height as the eyebrows. The object should be approximately two inches high and emanating light. Try to conceive of it as being heavy, for this will prevent excitement. Its brilliance will prevent laxity. As you concentrate, you must strive for two factors: first, to make the object of observation clear, and second, to make it steady.

Has something appeared to your mind? Are the sense objects in front of your eyes bothering you? If that is the case, it is all right to close them, but with the eyes closed, do you see a reddish appearance? If you see red with the eyes closed or if you are bothered by what you see when your eyes are open, you are too involved with the eye consciousness and thus should try to withdraw attention from the eye consciousness and put it with the mental consciousness.

That which interferes with the steadiness of the object of observation and causes it to fluctuate is excitement or, in a more general way, scattering. To stop that, withdraw your mind more strongly inside so that the intensity of the mode of apprehension begins to lower. To withdraw the mind, it helps to think about something that makes you more sober, a little sad. These thoughts can cause your heightened mode of apprehension of the object, the mind's being too tight, to lower or loosen somewhat whereby you are better able to stay on the object of observation.

It is not sufficient just to have stability. It is necessary also to have clarity. That which prevents clarity is laxity, and what causes laxity is an over-withdrawal, excessive declination, of the mind. First of all, the mind becomes lax; this can lead to lethargy in which, losing the object of observation, you have as if fallen into darkness. This can lead even to sleep. When this occurs, it is necessary to raise or heighten the mode of apprehension. As a technique for that, think of something that you like, something that makes you joyous, or go to a high place or where there is a vast view. This technique causes the deflated mind to heighten in its mode of apprehension.

It is necessary within your own experience to recognize when the mode of apprehension has become too excited or too lax and determine the best practice for lowering or heightening it.

The object of observation that you are visualizing has to be held with mindfulness. Then, along with this, you inspect, as if from a corner, to see whether the object is clear and stable; the faculty that engages in this inspection is called introspection. When powerful steady mindfulness is achieved, introspection is generated, but the uncommon function of introspection is to inspect from time to time to see whether the mind has come under the influence of excitement or laxity. When you develop mindfulness and introspection well, you are able to catch laxity and excitement just before they arise and prevent their arising.

Briefly, that is how to sustain meditation with an external object of observation.

Another type of meditation involves looking at the mind itself. Try to leave your mind vividly in a natural state, without thinking of what happened in the past or of what you are planning for the future, without generating any conceptuality. Where does it seem that your consciousness is? Is it with the eyes or where is it? Most likely you have a sense that it is associated with the eyes since we derive most of our awareness of the world through vision. This is due to having relied too much on our sense consciousness. However the existence of a separate mental consciousness can be ascertained; for example, when attention is diverted by sound, that which appears to the eye consciousness is not noticed. This indicates that a separate mental consciousness is paying more attention to sound heard by the ear consciousness than to the perceptions of the eye consciousness.

With persistent practice, consciousness may eventually be perceived or felt as an entity of mere luminosity and knowing, to which anything is capable of appearing and which, when appropriate conditions arise, can be generated in the image of whatsoever object. As long as the mind does not encounter the external circumstance of conceptuality, it will abide empty without anything appearing in it, like clear water. Its very entity is that of mere experience. Let the mind flow of its own accord without conceptual overlay. Let the mind rest in its natural state, and observe it. In the beginning, when you are not used to this practice, it is quite difficult, but in time the mind appears like clear water. Then, stay with the unfabricated mind without allowing conceptions to be generated. In realizing this nature of the mind, we have for the first time located the object of observation of this internal type of meditation.

The best time for practicing this form of meditation is in the morning, in a quiet place, when the mind is very clear and alert. It helps not to have eaten to much the night before nor to sleep too much; this makes the mind lighter and sharper the next morning. Gradually the mind will become more and more stable; mindfulness and memory will become clearer.

See if this practice makes your mind more alert throughout the day. As a temporary benefit your thoughts will be tranquil. As your memory improves, gradually you can develop a kind of special perception and understanding, which is due to an increase of mindfulness. As a long term benefit, because your mind has become more alert and sharp, you can utilize it in whatever field you want.

If you are able to do a little meditation daily, withdrawing this scattered mind on one object inside, it is very helpful. The conceptuality that runs on thinking of good things, bad things, and so forth and so on will get a rest. It provides a little vacation just to set a bit in non- conceptuality and have a rest.

There is yet another method of meditation which enables on to discern the ultimate natural of phenomena. This type of mediation involves analytical introspection. Generally, phenomena are divided into two types: the mental and physical aggregates -- or phenomena that are used by the I -- and the I that uses them. To determine the nature of this I, let us use an example. When we say John is coming, there is some person who is the one designated by the name John. Is this name designated to his body? It is not. Is it designated to his mind? If it were designated to his mind, we could not speak of John's mind. Mind and body are things used by the person. It almost seems that there is an I separate from mind and body. For instance, when we think, "Oh, my lousy body!" or "My lousy mind!", to our own innate mode of appearance the mind itself is not the I, right? Now, what John is there who is not his mind or body? You also should apply this to yourself, to your own sense of I -- where is this I in terms of mind and body?

When my body is sick, though my body is not I, due to the body's being sick it can be posited that I am sick. In fact, for the sake of the well-being and pleasure of the I, it sometimes even becomes necessary to cut off part of the body. Although the body is not the I, there is a relationship between the two: the pain of the body can serve as the pain of the I. Similarly, when the eye consciousness sees something it appears to the mind that the I perceives it.

What is the nature of the I? How does it appear to you? When you do not fabricate or create any artificial concept in your mind, does it seem that your I has an identity separate from your mind and body? But if you search for it, can you find it? For instances, someone accuses you, "You stole this." or "You ruined such and such," and you feel, "I didn't do that." At that time, how does the I appear? Does it appear as if solid? Does some solid, steady, and strong thing appear to your mind when you think or say, "I didn't do that?"

This seemingly solid, concrete, independent, self-instituting I under its own power that appears at such a time actually does not exist at all, and this specific non-existence is what is meant by selflessness. In the absence of analysis and investigation, a mere I as in, "I want such and such," or "I am going to do such and such," is asserted as valid, but the non-existence of an independent or self-powered I constitutes the selflessness of the person. This selflessness is that is found when one searches analytically to try to find the I.

Such non-inherent existence of the I is an ultimate truth, a final truth. The I that appears to a non-analytical conventional awareness is the dependently arisen I that serves as the basis of the conventions of action, agent and so forth; it is a conventional truth. In analyzing the mode of subsistence or that status of the I, it is clear that although it appears to exist inherently, it does not, much like an illusion.

That is how the ultimate nature of the I -- emptiness -- is analyzed. Just as the I has this nature, so all other phenomena that are used by the I are empty of inherent existence. When analyzed, they cannot be found at all, but without analysis and investigation, they do exist. Their nature is the same as the I.

The conventional existence of the I as well as of pleasure and pain make it necessary to generate compassion and altruism, and because the ultimate nature of all phenomena is this emptiness of inherent existence, it is also necessary to cultivate wisdom. When these two aspects -- compassion and wisdom -- are practiced in union, wisdom grows more profound, and the sense of duality diminishes. Due to the mind's dwelling in the meaning of emptiness, dualistic appearance becomes lighter, and at the same time the mind itself becomes more subtle. As the mind grows even more subtle, reaching the subtlest level, it is eventually transformed into the most basic mind, the fundamental innate mind of clear light, which at once realizes and is of one taste with emptiness in meditative equipoise without any dualistic appearance at all, mixed with emptiness. Within all having this one taste, anything and everything can appear; this is known as "All in one taste, one taste in all."

These are a few of the types of meditation practiced in the Tibetan tradition. Of course there are many other techniques such as mantra and so forth. Perhaps now we could have some discussion.

Related Articles:

• Osho on Art of Meditation
• J Krishnamurti on Art of Meditation
• Swami Vivekananda on Art of Meditation
• Sri Aurobindo on Art of Meditation
• Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Art of Meditation

Osho's Ten Commandments

Osho was asked for his ten commandments.
This was his response:

"You have asked for my Ten Commandments. It's a difficult matter, because I am against any kind of commandment. Yet, just for the fun of it, I write:"

1. Never obey anyone's command unless it is coming from within you also.
2. There is no God other than life itself.
3. Truth is within you, do not search for it elsewhere.
4. Love is prayer.
5. To become a nothingness is the door to truth. Nothingness itself is the means, the goal and attainment.
6. Life is now and here.
7. Live wakefully.
8. Do not swim - float.
9. Die each moment so that you can be new each moment.
10. Do not search. That which is, is. Stop and see.
    

PS: Numbers 3, 7, 9 & 10 were underlined by Osho in his original letter.

Related Article:

• Osho on Art of Meditation
• Osho's First Commandments Explained : A Buddha
  

Success Secret from Vedas (1)

Recently, I have read a book “The Secret”. It emphasizes on the universal law of attraction. It is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. This book tells that whatever you think, you’ll attract that into your life. If you have positive thoughts, your life will get a positive direction. For example, if you want to be successful in your life, always have the thoughts of success. Never let any negative thought enter your mind. This is really very powerful technique, and ancient seers have described it in Vedas. Swami Vivekananda, while talking about the practical aspect of Vedanta philosophy, explained this technique in detail.

“That is the one thing to remember; all of us can do that. Never say– no; never say – I cannot, for you are infinite. Even time and space are as nothing compared with your nature. You can do anything and everything, you are almighty”, swami Vivekananda said this during a lecture delivered at London on 10 November 1896. This is the secret. You become what you think. According to Vedanta, the soul is omnipotent. The reason of bondage is because we identify ourselves with our bodies. It creates ego in us –the petty, shoddy, small ego. The Vedanta says, if you can identify yourself with the soul not with the body, you will also become Omnipotent. The thoughts are the key. In his famous book “Think and Grow Rich”, Napolian Hill says – in order to grow rich, feel right now that you are rich, behave as if you are rich. All the powers of the universe will conspire to make you rich.

Swami Vivekananda explains it in other words, “He’s an atheist who does not believe in himself. The old religions said that he was an atheist who did not believe in God. The new religion says that He’s an atheist who doesn’t believe in himself.”…

(Continued…)

Tantra Massage: Heal Diseases & Stimulate Chakras

One of the most effective methods to elevate the Kundalini and activate Prana or the vital fores in different chakras is Tantric Massage. This is a form of Shaktipat i.e. transmitting the energy through occult techniques. It’s helpful in many ways. It takes a lot of hard work on a practitioner‘s part to trigger the Kundalini. A lot of time goes into it too, as he/she cannot carry difficult tantric kriyas and rituals. Here Tantra massage proves to be of a great help.

The most important part of giving Tantra massage to someone is the massager. The massager should be the one, who can stimulate the Kundalini upwards and can induce the Prana energy in Chakras. The massager does it using the power of third eye i.e. Ajna Chakra. When the massager massages the body, he/she directs the vital energy to that certain point using third eye, and touch works as the bridge for the energy to enter in the body. Different hand movements help the energy to penetrate more deeply.

The Tantric term for it is Shaktipat. A Tantric can help someone immensely by performing Tantra massage, because he/she pushes the Sadhaka miles ahead on the spiritual path with a single massage session. Eminent Austrian physician Friedrich Anton Mesmer discovered it again by chance in the west. But he could find out very little about it.

Any disease can be healed by Tantra massage, because a disease is nothing but the imbalance of Prana in the body. A proper Tantra massage given by an expert will make you feel more healthy and fit. According to Hathayogapradipika, there are around 72,000 Nadis in human body and each Nadi can be stimulated by certain points of the body. The imbalance of vital energy in any of these Nadis can cause the disease. Tantric massage energizes the Nadis with Prana, remove the imbalance and heal the body.

Even you can try to heal yourself or somebody else if you practice little. Try to concentrate on your third eye while massaging. And feel that Prana energy is flowing through your hands. The more powerful your imagination would be, the more effectively your massage would heal.

Sri Aurobindo on Art of Meditation

There are two words used in English to express the Indian idea of dhyana, "meditation" and "contemplation". Meditation means properly the concentration of the mind on a single train of ideas which work out a single subject. Contemplation means regarding mentally a single object, image, idea so that the knowledge about the object, image or idea may arise naturally in the mind by force of the concentration. Both these things are forms of dhyana, for the principle of dhyana is mental concentration whether in thought, vision or knowledge. There are other forms of dhyana. There is a passage in which Vivekananda advises you to stand back from your thoughts, let them occur in your mind as they will and simply observe them and see what they are. This may be called concentration in self-observation.

This form leads to another, the emptying of all thought out of the mind so as to leave it a sort of pure vigilant blank on which the divine knowledge may come and imprint itself, undisturbed by the inferior thoughts of the ordinary human mind and with the clearness of a writing in white chalk on a blackboard. You will find that the Gita speaks of this rejection of all mental thought as one of the methods of yoga and even the method it seems to prefer. This may be called the dhyana of liberation, as it frees the mind from slavery to the mechanical process of thinking and allows it to think or not to think, as it pleases and when it pleases, or to choose its own thoughts or else to go beyond thought to the pure perception of Truth called in our philosophy Vijnana.

Meditation is the easiest process for the human mind, but the narrowest in its results; contemplation more difficult, but greater; self-observation and liberation from the chains of Thought the most difficult of all, but the widest and greatest in its fruits. One can choose any of them according to one's bent and capacity.

The perfect method is to use them all, each in its own place and for its own object; but this would need a fixed faith and firm patience and a great energy of Will in the self-application to the yoga.

Whatever is most consonant with your nature and highest aspirations.

But if you ask me for an absolute answer, then I must say that Brahman is always the best object for meditation or contemplation and the idea on which the mind should fix is that of God in all, all in God and all as God.

It does not matter essentially whether it is the Impersonal or the Personal God, or subjectively, the One Self. But this is the idea I have found the best, because it is the highest and embraces all other truths, whether truths of this world or of the other worlds or beyond all phenomenal existence, - "All this is the Brahman."

There are no essential external conditions, but solitude and seclusion at the time of meditation as well as stillness of the body are helpful, sometimes almost necessary to the beginner. But one should not be bound by external conditions. Once the habit of meditation is formed, it should be made possible to do it in all circumstances, lying, sitting, walking, alone, in company, in silence or in the midst of noise etc.

The first internal condition necessary is concentration of the will against the obstacles to meditation, i.e. wandering of the mind, forgetfulness, sleep, physical and nervous impatience and restlessness etc.

The second is an increasing purity and calm of the inner consciousness (citta) out of which thought and emotion arise, i.e. a freedom from all disturbing reactions, such as anger, grief, depression, anxiety about worldly happenings etc.

Attract Friends on Social Networking Websites

You’ve got a myspace or facebook profile, but there’re not many people in your friends-list. Or you send friend requests to hot girls or cool boys, but they tend to decline it. Do you want to attract friends on online social networking websites and want to eventually find the true love of your life too? There is a simple, yet quite effective Tantric method to get out of this groove. Use the Maha Kali Yantra that will make your profile a powerful magnet. It’s transform your online life and you’ll be a popular guy/girl in social networking circuits. Want to know how?

Upload Maha Kali Yantra in photo section of your profile and see the miracle taking place. Whenever you log in to your social networking website, just open the picture and meditate on it for few seconds and mentally chant this mantra - "Om Kareeng Kalekaye Namah, Om Kapalingaye Namah". Do it regularly for some days and you’ll notice a huge difference. It’s one the most powerful Yantras for attraction and seduction. Here’s the great Maha Kali Yantra for you guys :

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on Art of Meditation

Mind without agitation is meditation. Mind in the present moment is meditation. Mind that has no hesitation, no anticipation is meditation. Mind that has come back home, to the source, is meditation. Mind that becomes ‘‘no mind’’ is meditation.

When can you rest? Rest is possible only when you have stopped all other activities. When you stop moving around, when you stop working, thinking, talking, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, when all these activities stop, then you get rest. When all voluntary activities are arrested, then you get rest or sleep. In sleep, you are left with only involuntary activities like breathing, heartbeat, food digestion, blood circulation etc. But this is not “total rest”. When the mind settles down, only then “total rest” or meditation happens.

Focus means what? Fulfiled in the moment, being centered, looking to the highest and remaining in that space of peace is focus. No peace means no focus. When you are at peace, focus is happening already. Similarly, if you focus, you attain peace. Look into your own life. You are bothered even if you have things that you wanted and you are bothered if you don't have them! For example, if you have money, there is botheration. You are afraid or worried thinking what to do with this money, whether to invest or not and if you invest you are worried whether it is growing or reducing or you are anxious about the fluctuations in the share market. If you don't have money, even then you are bothered. “Liberation” is that total freedom wherein you are not bothered when things are there and you are not bothered even if they are not there.

Real freedom is the freedom from the future and freedom from the past. When you are not happy in the present moment, then you desire for a bright future. Desire simply means that the present moment is not all right. This causes tension in the mind. Every desire causes feverishness. In this state, meditation is far away from happening. You may sit with eyes closed, but desires keep arising, thoughts keep arising; you fool yourself that you are meditating, but actually you are daydreaming!

As long as some desires linger in your mind, you cannot be at total rest. Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad-Gita, “You cannot get into Yoga (union with self) unless you drop the desires or hankerings in you”. As long as you hold onto some planning, your mind does not settle. Every desire or ambition is like a sand particle in the eyes! You cannot shut your eyes or keep it open with a sand particle inside, it is uncomfortable either way. Dispassion is removing this particle of dust or sand from the eye so that you can open freely and shut them freely! The other way is to extend your desire or make it so big, then also it won’t bother you. It is a tiny sand particle that irritates your eyes, a big stone or a rock can never get into your eyes!

See from your own experience. If you go to bed with some restlessness, agitation or desire, you will not get deep sleep. On the surface level it appears to be not there for a little while, but those plans or ambitions are still there in the mind. Very ambitious people cannot have deep sleep because the mind inside is not free. The more you are anxious about doing something, difficult it becomes to sleep. Before going to sleep, if you simply let go everything, only then you will be able to rest. Why not do the same thing moment by moment? When you want to sit for meditation, let go of everything. The best way to do this is to feel, “the world is disappearing or dissolving…I am dead!” Unless you are dead, you cannot meditate!!! For many, mind doesn't settle even after death. Wise are those who cannot settle their minds while alive!

Desires come up, instead of holding on to them or daydreaming, you offer the desires; that is meditation. You have no control over the desires. Even if you say, “Oh, desire is the cause of misery. I shouldn't have desires, when will I be free of desires?”, that is another desire! So, as they come up recognise them and let go. This process is called “Sanyas”. When you offer all that as they rise in you and be centered, then nothing can shake you or take you away. Otherwise, small things can shake you and you become sad or upset. Just few words from here or there can make you sad. Life teaches you the art of letting go in every event. The more you have learnt to let go happier, the freer you are. When you have learnt to let go, you will be joyful and as you start being joyful, more will be given to you. Taking a good look at the desires and realising that they are futile or nothing great is maturity or discrimination.

What is that you can hold on to? You cannot even hold on to this body forever! Whatever care you take, still, one day it is going to say goodbye to you! Without any prior notice, you will be forcefully evicted out of this world! Whatever you may plan, whatever you may do, your final destination is the grave! You live as a good man or bad man, you cry or laugh, whatever you do, everybody goes to the grave. Whether you are a sinner or a saint, you will go to grave. Whether you are rich or poor, intelligent or a dumb fool, you will go to the grave. Whether you are loved or hated, you will go to grave. Whether you love someone or hate anyone, you will go to grave. Patients die, doctors also die. Those who lost the wars went to grave and those who won also went to grave. This is the final say! Have your sight on the final say. Before the body leaves you, you learn to leave everything. That is freedom.

With dispassion, you can enjoy the world freely and you can relax and get relief from it freely. Dispassion can bring so much joy in your life. Don't think that dispassion is a state of apathy. Dispassion is full of enthusiasm, brings all joy to your life and it allows you to rest so well. When you come out of a deep meditation, you become very dynamic and you will be able to act better. Deeper you are able to rest, dynamic you will be able to be in activity. Even though deep rest and dynamic activity are opposite values, they are complimentary.

What is that you are looking for? Are you looking for some great joy? You are joy!

I will give you an example. Have you seen dogs biting bones? You know why they bite bones? Biting and biting that hard bone makes wound inside their mouth. It's own blood comes out and the dog feels that the bone is very tasty! After a while it's whole mouth is soared. Poor dog has spent the whole time chewing the bone getting nothing out of it! Any joy you experience in life is from the depth of your self when you let go all that you hold on to and settle down being centered in that space. That is called meditation. Actually, meditation is not an act; it is the art of doing nothing! The rest in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep that you can ever have because in meditation you transcend all desires. This brings such coolness to the brain and it is like servicing or overhauling the whole body-mind complex.

Meditation is letting go of anger from the past, the events of the past and all the planning for the future. Planning can hold you back from diving deep into yourself. Meditation is accepting this moment and living every moment totally with depth. Just this understanding and few days of continuous practice of meditation can change the quality of our life.

The best comparison of the three states of consciousness — waking, sleeping and dreaming — is with the nature. Nature sleeps, awakes and dreams! It happens in a magnificent scale in existence and it is happening in a different scale in this human body. Wakefulness and sleep are like sunrise and darkness. Dream is like the twilight in between.

And meditation is like the flight to the outer space where there is no sunset, no sunrise, nothing!

Related Posts:

• Osho on Art of Meditation
• J Krishnamurti on Art of Meditation
• Swami Vivekananda on Art of Meditation

Vivekananda on Art of Meditation

Meditation has been laid stress upon by all religions. The meditative state of mind is declared by the Yogis to be the highest state in which the mind exists. When the mind is studying the external object, it gets identified with it, loses itself. To use the simile of the old Indian philosopher: the soul of man is like a piece of crystal, but it takes the colour of whatever is near it. Whatever the soul touches ... it has to take its colour. That is the difficulty. That constitutes the bondage. The colour is so strong, the crystal forgets itself and identifies itself with the colour. Suppose a red flower is near the crystal and the crystal takes the colour and forgets itself, thinks it is red. We have taken the colour of the body and have forgotten what we are.

All the difficulties that follow come from that one dead body. All our fears, all worries, anxieties, troubles, mistakes, weakness, evil, are front that one great blunder — that we are bodies. This is the ordinary person. It is the person taking the colour of the flower near to it. We are no more bodies than the crystal is the red flower.

The practice of meditation is pursued. The crystal knows what it is, takes its own colour. It is meditation that brings us nearer to truth than anything else.

In India two persons meet. In English they say, "How do you do?" The Indian greeting is, "Are you upon yourself?" The moment you stand upon something else, you run the risk of being miserable. This is what I mean by meditation — the soul trying to stand upon itself. That state must surely be the healthiest state of the soul, when it is thinking of itself, residing in its own glory. No, all the other methods that we have — by exciting emotions, prayers, and all that — really have that one end in view. In deep emotional excitement the soul tries to stand upon itself. Although the emotion may arise from anything external, there is concentration of mind.

There are three stages in meditation. The first is what is called [Dhâranâ], concentrating the mind upon an object. I try to concentrate my mind upon this glass, excluding every other object from my mind except this glass. But the mind is wavering . . . When it has become strong and does not waver so much, it is called [Dhyâna], meditation. And then there is a still higher state when the differentiation between the glass and myself is lost — [Samâdhi or absorption]. The mind and the glass are identical. I do not see any difference. All the senses stop and all powers that have been working through other channels of other senses [are focused in the mind]. Then this glass is under the power of the mind entirely. This is to be realised. It is a tremendous play played by the Yogis. ... Take for granted, the external object exists. Then that which is really outside of us is not what we see. The glass that I see is not the external object certainly. That external something which is the glass I do not know and will never know.

Something produces an impression upon me. Immediately I send the reaction towards that, and the glass is the result of the combination of these two. Action from outside — X. Action from inside — Y. The glass is XY. When you look at X, call it external world — at Y, internal world . . . If you try to distinguish which is your mind and which is the world — there is no such distinction. The world is the combination of you and something else. ...

let us take another example. You are dropping stones upon the smooth surface of a lake. Every stone you drop is followed by a reaction. The stone is covered by the little waves in the lake. Similarly, external things are like the stones dropping into the lake of the mind. So we do not really see the external . . .; we see the wave only. . . .

These waves that rise in the mind have caused many things outside. We are not discussing the [merits of] idealism and realism. We take for granted that things exist outside, but what we see is different from things that exist outside, as we see what exists outside plus ourselves.

Suppose I take my contribution out of the glass. What remains? Almost nothing. The glass will disappear. If I take my contribution from the table, what would remain of the table? Certainly not this table, because it was a mixture of the outside plus my contribution. The poor lake has got to throw the wave towards the stone whenever [the stone] is thrown in it. The mind must create the wave towards any sensation. Suppose . . . we can withhold the mind. At once we are masters. We refuse to contribute our share to all these phenomena.... If I do not contribute my share, it has got to stop.

You are creating this bondage all the time. How? By putting in your share. We are all making our own beds, forging our own chains.... When the identifying ceases between this external object and myself, then I will be able to take my contribution off, and this thing will disappear. Then I will say, "Here is the glass", and then take my mind off, and it disappears.... If you can take away your share, you can walk upon water. Why should it drown you any more? What of poison? No more difficulties. In every phenomenon in nature you contribute at least half, and nature brings half. If your half is taken off, the thing must stop.

The power of meditation gets us everything. If you want to get power over nature, [you can have it through meditation]. It is through the power of meditation all scientific facts are discovered today. They study the subject and forget everything, their own identity and everything, and then the great fact comes like a flash. Some people think that is inspiration. There is no more inspiration than there is expiration; and never was anything got for nothing.

Therein also you see the power of meditation — intensity of thought. These men churn up their own souls. Great truths come to the surface and become manifest. Therefore the practice of meditation is the great scientific method of knowledge. There is no knowledge without the power of meditation. From ignorance, superstition, etc. we can get cured by meditation for the time being and no more. [Suppose] a man has told me that if you drink such a poison you will be killed, and another man comes in the night and says, "Go drink the poison!" and I am not killed, [what happens is this: ] my mind cut out from the meditation the identity between the poison and myself just for the time being. In another case of [drinking] the poison, I will be killed.

If I know the reason and scientifically raise myself up to that [state of meditation], I can save anyone. That is what the books say; but how far it is correct you must appraise.

I am asked, "Why do you Indian people not conquer these things? You claim all the time to be superior to all other people. You practice Yoga and do it quicker than anybody else. You are fitter. Carry it out! If you are a great people, you ought to have a great system. You will have to say good-bye to all the gods. Let them go to sleep as you take up the great philosophers. You are mere babies, as superstitious as the rest of the world. And all your claims are failures. If you have the claims, stand up and be bold, and all the heaven that ever existed is yours. There is the musk deer with fragrance inside, and he does not know where the fragrance [comes from]. Then after days and days he finds it in himself. All these gods and demons are within them. Find out, by the powers of reason, education, and culture that it is all in yourself. No more gods and superstitions. You want to be rational, to be Yogis, really spiritual."

[My reply is: With you too] everything is material What is more material than God sitting on a throne? You look down upon the poor man who is worshipping the image. You are no better. And you, gold worshippers, what are you? The image worshipper worships his god, something that he can see. But you do not even do that. You do not worship the spirit nor something that you can understand. ... Word worshippers! "God is spirit!" God is spirit and should be worshipped in spirit and faith. Where does the spirit reside? On a tree? On a cloud? What do you mean by God being ours? You are the spirit. That is the first fundamental belief you must never give up. I am the spiritual being. It is there. All this skill of Yoga and this system of meditation and everything is just to find Him there.

You are all running after life, and we find that is foolishness. There is something much higher than life even. This life is inferior, material. Why should I live at all? I am something higher than life. Living is always slavery. We always get mixed up. ... Everything is a continuous chain of slavery.

You get something, and no man can teach another. It is through experience [we learn]. ... That young man cannot be persuaded that there are any difficulties in life. You cannot persuade the old man that life is all smooth. He has had many experiences. That is the difference.

By the power of meditation we have got to control, step by step, all these things. We have seen philosophically that all these differentiations — spirit, mind, matter, etc. — [have no real existences. ... Whatever exists is one. There cannot be many. That is what is meant by science and knowledge. Ignorance sees manifold. Knowledge realises one. ... Reducing the many into one is science. ... The whole of the universe has been demonstrated into one. That science is called the science of Vedanta. The whole universe is one. The one runs through all this seeming variety.
We have all these variations now and we see them — what we call the five elements: solid, liquid, gaseous, luminous, ethereal. After that the state of existence is mental and beyond that spiritual. Not that spirit is one and mind is another, ether another, and so on. It is the one existence appearing in all these variations. To go back, the solid must become liquid. The way [the elements evolved] they must go back. The solids will become liquid, etherised. This is the idea of the macrocosm — and universal. There is the external universe and universal spirit, mind, ether, gas, luminosity, liquid, solid.

The same with the mind. I am just exactly the same in the microcosm. I am the spirit; I am mind; I am the ether, solid, liquid, gas. What I want to do is to go back to my spiritual state. It is for the individual to live the life of the universe in one short life. Thus man can be free in this life. He in his own short lifetime shall have the power to live the whole extent of life....

Meditation consists in this practice [of dissolving every thing into the ultimate Reality — spirit]. The solid melts into liquid, that into gas, gas into ether, then mind, and mind will melt away. All is spirit.

Some of the Yogis claim that this body will become liquid etc. You will be able to do any thing with it — make it little, or gas pass through this wall — they claim. I do not know. I have never seen anybody do it. But it is in the books. We have no reason to disbelieve the books.

Possibly, some of us will be able to do it in this life. Like a flash it comes, as the result of our past work. Who knows but some here are old Yogis with just a little to do to finish the whole work. Practice!

Meditation, you know, comes by a process imagination. You go through all these processes purification of the elements — making the one melt the other, that into the next higher, that into mind, that into spirit, and then you are spirit.[1]

Spirit is always free, omnipotent, omniscient. Of course, under God. There cannot be many Gods. These liberated souls are wonderfully powerful, almost omnipotent. [But] none can be as powerful as God. If one [liberated soul] said, "I will make this planet go this way", and another said, "I will make it go that way", [there would be confusion].

I am never Râma [never one with Ishvara, the personal aspect of God], but I am [one with Brahman, the impersonal, all-pervading existence]. Here is a huge mass of clay. Out of that clay I made a little [mouse] and you made a little [elephant]. Both are clay. Melt both down They are essentially one. "I and my Father are one." [But the clay mouse can never be one with the clay elephant.]

I stop somewhere; I have a little knowledge. You a little more; you stop somewhere. There is one soul which is the greatest of all. This is Ishvara, Lord of Yoga [God as Creator, with attributes]. He is the individual. He is omnipotent. He resides in every heart. There is no body. He does not need a body. All you get by the practice of meditation etc., you can get by meditation upon Ishvara, Lord of Yogis. ...

The same can be attained by meditating upon a great soul; or upon the harmony of life. These are called objective meditations. So you begin to meditate upon certain external things, objective things, either outside or inside. If you take a long sentence, that is no meditation at all. That is simply trying to get the mind collected by repetition. Meditation means the mind is turned back upon itself. The mind stops all the [thought-waves] and the world stops. Your consciousness expands. Every time you meditate you will keep your growth. ... Work a little harder, more and more, and meditation comes. You do not feel the body or anything else. When you come out of it after the hour, you have had the most beautiful rest you ever had in your life. That is the only way you ever give rest to your system. Not even the deepest sleep will give you such rest as that. The mind goes on jumping even in deepest sleep. Just those few minutes [in meditation] your brain has almost stopped. Just a little vitality is kept up. You forget the body. You may be cut to pieces and not feel it at all. You feel such pleasure in it. You become so light. This perfect rest we will get in meditation.

Then, meditation upon different objects. There are meditations upon different centres of the spine. [According to the Yogis, there are two nerves in the spinal column, called Idâ and Pingalâ.They are the main channels through which the afferent and efferent currents travel.] The hollow [canal called Sushumnâ] runs through the middle of the spinal column. The Yogis claim this cord is closed, but by the power of meditation it has to be opened. The energy has to be sent down to [the base of the spine], and the Kundalini rises. The world will be changed.[2] ...

Thousands of divine beings are standing about you. You do not see them because our world is determined by our senses. We can only see this outside. Let us call it X. We see that X according to our mental state. Let us take the tree standing outside. A thief came and what did he see in the stump? A policeman. The child saw a huge ghost. The young man was waiting for his sweetheart, and what did he see? His sweetheart. But the stump of the tree had not changed. It remained the same. This is God Himself, and with our foolishness we see Him to be man, to be dust, to be dumb, miserable.

Those who are similarly constituted will group together naturally and live in the same world. Otherwise stated, you live in the same place. All the heavens and all the hells are right here. For example: [take planes in the form of] big circles cutting each other at certain points. . . . On this plane in one circle we can be in touch with a certain point in another [circle]. If the mind gets to the centre, you begin to be conscious on all planes. In meditation sometimes you touch another plane, and you see other beings, disembodied spirits, and so on. You get there by the power of meditation. This power is changing our senses, you see, refining our senses. If you begin to practise meditation five days, you will feel the pain from within these centres [of conciousness] and hearing [becomes finer]. [3] ...That is why all the Indian gods have three eyes.That is the psychic eye that opens out and shows you spiritual things.

As this power of Kundalini rises from one centre to the other in the spine, it changes the senses and you begin to see this world another. It is heaven. You cannot talk. Then the Kundalini goes down to the lower centres. You are again man until the Kundalini reaches the brain, all the centres have been passed, and the whole vision vanishes and you [perceive] . . . nothing but the one existence. You are God. All heavens you make out of Him, all worlds out of Him. He is the one existence. Nothing else exists.

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• Osho on Art of Meditation
• J Krishnamurti on Art of Meditation

Kundalini Tantra : Be Vulnerable

After reading a recent article – Tantra & Intoxicants, Cecilie asked a question:

Hey! I’m reading the book called: “Halfway Up the Mountain” by Mariana Caplan. They warn about the rising of the Kundalini before you are ready. Can you comment on this?

Cecilie, you can never be ready for Kundalini awakening. It is a sudden happening. Mind cannot conceive that is beyond its imagination, that is infinite, and hence it cannot be contemplated. There is no preparation whatsoever that can be done in order to get you ready for it. It is as intense as an atomic blast out of blue in your consciousness. It is a radical revolution that takes place into your being and you are completely new. The one who used to think that one was getting ready for it to happen, is dead, is no more.

All the preparations, which you do in order to get ready, are nothing but a constant search. Suppose you are standing on a crossing, you want to go to a temple but you don’t know the way. What can you do? The only possibility for you is to start searching for the right path. Preparation or Sadhana is like hit and trial method. You check something and if it doesn’t work, you discard it. And in this fashion, reaches closer to the right path. I am reminded of a great scientist Newton who was trying to invent the electric bulb. He used several things as filament, but nothing worked. He kept trying. People who were initially with him, kept getting disheartened by failure and left him. They asked, “Why are you still trying? We don’t see any possibility that it can be done. You have failed 300 times.” Until that time, Newton had failed 300 Times. What he said is very significant. He replied, “I have not failed 300 times. I have discarded 300 wrong ways. Now I am much closer of achieving success.” That’s the only thing that can be done even in the path of awakening the Kundalini. You can try and try, until you find how to activate it. And it’s not gradual, it is sudden.

What you were doing before isn’t getting you ready for anything. You merely come to know about the paths that don’t work, which are futile. That’s all. But when Kundalini goes up, it transforms your consciousness. Any past experience or practice cannot prepare you for it because it cannot be called an experience at all. There remains no one to experience it and hence there’s no experience. So, what Mariana Caplan says is utterly absurd.

Yes, there is no doubt that this can be dangerous. But the life, each and every moment, is filled with various kinds of risks. To be more precise, life is a risk, a danger in itself. You can die any moment. You are reading this article and you can die. Life is very vulnerable, very fragile. But this is the beauty of the life. And Kundalini Jagran (awakening of Kundalini) is nothing but the flowering of life in all its dimensions. So I suggest you, if I may do so, to be courageous, be open, be fragile. If you can do it, you will start enjoying the biggest danger of all i.e. life. Only then your life can bloom like a rose. You won’t have to read any silly book then. You’ll be a light unto yourself.

J Krishnamurti on Art of Meditation

Meditation is not the mere control of body and thought, nor is it a system of breathing-in and breathing-out. The body must be still, healthy and without strain; sensitivity of feeling must be sharpened and sustained; and the mind with all its chattering, disturbances and gropings must come to an end. It is not the organism that one must begin with, but rather it is the mind with its opinions, prejudices and self-interest that must be seen to. When the mind is healthy, vital and vigorous, then feeling will be heightened and will be extremely sensitive. Then the body, with its own natural intelligence which hasn’t been spoiled by habit and taste, will function as it should.

So one must begin with the mind and not with the body, the mind being thought and the varieties of expressions of thought. Mere concentration makes thought narrow, limited and brittle, but concentration comes as a natural thing when there is an awareness of the ways of thought. This awareness does not come from the thinker who chooses and discards, who holds on to and rejects. This awareness is without choice and is both the outer and the inner; it is an interflow between the two, so the division between the outer and the inner comes to an end. Thought destroys feeling, feeling being love. Thought can offer only pleasure, and in the pursuit of pleasure love is pushed aside. The pleasure of eating, of drinking, has its continuity in thought, and merely to control or suppress this pleasure which thought has brought about has no meaning; it creates only various forms of conflict and compulsion.

Thought, which is matter, cannot seek that which is beyond time, for thought is memory, and the experience in that memory is as dead as the leaf of last autumn.

In awareness of all this comes attention, which is not the product of inattention. It is inattention which has dictated the pleasureable habits of the body and diluted the intensity of feeling. Inattention cannot be made into attention. The awareness of inattention is attention.

The seeing of this whole complex process is meditation from which alone comes order in this confusion. This order is as absolute as is the order in mathematics, and from this there is action the immediate doing. Order is not arrangement, design and proportion; these come much later. Order comes out of a mind that is not cluttered up by the things of thought. When thought is silent there is emptiness, which is order.

Related Post:

• Osho on Art of Meditation