My Concern is with growth. You must grow to become one, to become whole, to become sane. I am not going to force sanity upon you. I am going to bring out your insanity. When it is pulled out completely, thrown into the wind, sanity will happen to you, you will grow. You will be transformed. That is the meaning of meditation. OSHO

• What are meditations?
• What is best time to meditate?
• How to Choose a method?
• Why " Osho Active Meditations "?
  
  Various Osho Meditation Techniques
   
• Dynamic Meditation
• Kundalini Meditation
• Nataraj Meditation
• Nadabrahma Meditation

         112 Meditation Techniques from the Book of Secrets by Osho

         Cardiff Book of Secrets Meditation Group

(Above content courtesy of Osho Atlanta: www.oshoatlanta.com)

There are many different, even contradictory ideas, about what meditation is. Primary to the Osho approach is the need for the meditator to understand the nature of the mind, rather than fight with it.

Most of us most of the time are run by, dominated by our thoughts or feelings. It follows that we tend to think we are those thoughts and feeling. Meditation is the state of simply being, just pure experiencing, with no interference from the body or mind. It's a natural state but one which we have forgotten how to access.

The word meditation is also used for what is, more accurately, a meditation method. Meditative methods, techniques or devices are means by which to create an inner ambience that facilitates disconnecting from the bodymind so one can simply be. While initially it is helpful to put time aside to practice a structured meditation method, there are many techniques that are practiced within the context of one's everyday life - at work, at leisure, alone and with others.

Methods are needed only until the state of meditation - of relaxed awareness, of consciousness and centering - has become not just a passing experience but as intrinsic to one as, say, breathing.

Some Common Misconceptions

Meditation is.

1) Only for people who are on a spiritual search.
The benefits of meditation are manifold. Chief among them are the ability to relax and to be aware without effort. Useful tools for just about everyone!

2) A practice to gain "peace of mind."
Peace of mind is a contradiction in terms. By its very nature the mind is a chronic commentator. What you can discover through meditation is the knack of finding the distance between yourself and the commentary, so that the mind, with its constant circus of thoughts and emotions, no longer intrudes on your inherent state of silence.

3) A mental discipline or effort to control or "tame" the mind, to become more mindful.
Meditation is neither a mental effort nor an attempt to control the mind. Effort and control involve tension, and tension is antithetical to the state of meditation. Besides, there is no need to control the mind, only to understand it and how it works. The meditator does not need to tame his mind, to become more mindful, but to grow more in consciousness.

4) Focusing, concentrating or contemplating.
Focusing, like concentrating is a narrowing of awareness. You concentrate on one object to the exclusion of everything else. By contrast, meditation is all-inclusive, your consciousness is expanded. The contemplator is focused on an object - perhaps a religious object, a photograph or on an inspiring aphorism. The meditator is simply aware, but not of anything in particular.

5) A new experience.
Not necessarily - sportsmen know this space, which they refer to as "the zone." Artists know it - through singing, painting, playing music. We can know it through gardening, playing with the kids, walking on the beach or making love. Even as children we may have had experiences of it. Meditation is a natural state and one that you have almost certainly tasted, although perhaps without knowing the name of the flavor.

It is important to understand that "meditation" is simply being aware of what is happening both within and around us. So ultimately, this is just a natural part of everything we do, twenty-four hours a day. Learning the "knack" or "watching" what is going on rather than being immersed in it can take awhile. And meditation methods are designed to help you first learn that knack, and then allow the watcher to become strong enough to become part of your everyday life. So the comments below refer to the methods that can help you with this process.

Some methods are designed to be most effective when done at a certain time of the day. For example, Osho Dynamic Meditation is an energy-activating method best first thing in the morning. Similarly, Osho Kundalini is designed for the end of the day, to shake off accumulated tensions. Osho Nataraj and Osho Nadabrahma can be done at any time.

If you choose to use the Art of Listening approach using the recorded Osho Talks, then the recommended time is 7 p.m. each evening.

What's important is that you find what method works best for you, given your particular lifestyle. If you are doing a method that requires you set aside a certain time of your day, try to keep that time only for your meditation. Then it becomes as much a part of your natural rhythm as cleaning your teeth or having your breakfast.

Where...
Many meditative techniques, such as watching the breath, can be practice anywhere at any time. For the Osho active methods you need a room where you will be undisturbed and can move freely. For Dynamic meditation, having the option to make as much noise as you want is helpful but not absolutely needed.

What to Wear
You'll feel more comfortable in loose clothing that does not restrict the flowing of your energy in any way.

Minimizing Disturbances
Make sure you're not disturbed. It might be valuable to distinguish between noise outside the door, which is only to be watched, and cannot be a disturbance, and say, the phone going, or people coming in the room, which is different. There is a thought form that mediation has to take place in "quiet place" which is not what Osho is saying, which is to watch everything, inside and out.

Posture
You can read about particular postures needed for a specific technique in its individual description. In a sitting method, such as Osho Nadabrahma, or for methods that have a sitting stage, as does Osho Kundalini, you'll find it easier to be alert and aware if your spine is erect, because then you are assisted by gravitation. You can sit on a chair if that is better for you than sitting on the floor. In any lying-down stage, such as the last stage of Osho Kundalini, if you lie on your back rather than your side, there is less chance of falling asleep!

Over all, what's important is that you are comfortable, so that the body is relaxed.

Psychological Preparation
It is important that you don't meditate with some goal or desire or any expectation. The whole secret is to allow the process to unfold. Wanting something to happen is the surest way to prevent it happening. Just be content to enjoy the time of meditation in itself, for itself. Results will come, but only if you're not demanding that they do. Create a climate of receptivity, openness and relaxation.
  
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Experiment with whatever technique appeals to you. And remember, not all techniques suit everyone; what suits you may not suit your friend. And having practiced a method for some months, you may find you have outgrown it. There is nothing sacrosanct about meditative methods: they are practical means to access a natural, inherent quality. Feel free to playfully experiment with them.

Having selected the method, try it for at least seven days consecutively. And when you are trying it out, give it all you have got. By then either the initial attraction has been confirmed or not. If you feel that this is your method, make a commitment to continue it for a minimum of three months. After three months you can continue with it or choose another.

It is suggested that you start out by trying out one or more of the Osho Active Meditations, if possible Dynamic and Kundalini. Or Kundalini and Nadabrahma if you find Dynamic too active! Then do them regularly for a while. And whenever possible use the Art of Listening approach mentioned above. In addition, find any small technique that you can add to your daily life to help remind you to stay aware as much of your day as possible. All the methods are designed scientifically, with each step consciously worked out. To experience the maximum from them, do them as the guidelines indicate, and as whole-heartedly as possible.

Continuity is important. It's like heating water: up to ninety-nine degrees it is still water and if you stop there it will cool down and you will have to re-heat it. But if you persevere to one hundred degrees, then the water takes a quantum leap and is transformed into vapor.
 

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Modern man is a very new phenomenon. No traditional method can be used exactly as it exists because modern man never existed before. So, in a way, all traditional methods have become irrelevant.

For example, the body has changed so much. It is so drugged that no traditional method can be helpful. The whole atmosphere is artificial now: the air, the water, society, living conditions. Nothing is natural. You are born in artificiality; you develop in it. So traditional methods will prove harmful today. They will have to be changed according to the modern situation.

Another thing: the quality of the mind has basically changed. In Patanjali's [the most famous commentator on Yoga] days, the center of the human personality was not the brain; it was the heart. Before that, it was not even the heart. It was still lower, near the navel. The center has gone even further from the navel. Now, the center is the brain. That is why teachings like those of Krishnamurti have appeal. No method is needed, no technique is needed - only understanding. But if it is just a verbal understanding, just intellectual, nothing changes, nothing is transformed. It again becomes an accumulation of knowledge.

I use chaotic methods rather than systematic ones because a chaotic method is very helpful in pushing the center down from the brain. The center cannot be pushed down through any systematic method because systemization is brainwork. Through a systematic method, the brain will be strengthened; more energy will be added to it. Through chaotic methods the brain is nullified. It has nothing to do. The method is so chaotic that the center is automatically pushed from the brain to the heart. If you do my method of Dynamic Meditation vigorously, unsystematically, chaotically, your center moves to the heart. Then there is a catharsis.

A catharsis is needed because your heart is so suppressed, due to your brain. Your brain has taken over so much of your being that it dominates you. There is no place for the heart, so the longings of the heart are suppressed. You have never laughed heartily, never lived heartily, never done anything heartily. The brain always comes in to systematize, to make things mathematical, and the heart is suppressed. So firstly, a chaotic method is needed to push the center of consciousness from the brain toward the heart.

Then catharsis is needed to unburden the heart, to throw off suppressions, to make the heart open. If the heart becomes light and unburdened, then the center of consciousness is pushed still lower; it comes to the navel. The navel is the source of vitality, the seed source from which everything else comes: the body and the mind and everything.

I use this chaotic method very considerately. Systematic methodology will not help now, because the brain will use it as its own instrument. Nor can just the chanting of bhajans help now, because the heart is so burdened that it cannot flower into real chanting. Consciousness must be pushed down to the source, to the roots. Only then is there the possibility of transformation. So I use chaotic methods to push the consciousness downward from the brain.

Whenever you are in chaos, the brain stops working. For example, if you are driving a car and suddenly someone runs in front of you, you react so suddenly that it cannot be the work of the brain. The brain takes time. It thinks about what to do and what not to do. So whenever there is a possibility of an accident and you push the brake, you feel a sensation near your navel, as if it were your stomach that is reacting. Your consciousness is pushed down to the navel because of the accident. If the accident could be calculated beforehand, the brain would be able to deal with it; but when you are in an accident, something unknown happens. Then you notice that your consciousness has moved to the navel.

If you ask a Zen monk, "From where do you think?" he puts his hands on his belly. When Westerners came into contact with Japanese monks for the first time they could not understand. "What nonsense! How can you think from your belly?

But the Zen reply is meaningful. Consciousness can use any center of the body, and the center that is nearest to the original source is the navel. The brain is furthest away from the original source, so if life energy is moving outward, the center of consciousness will become the brain. And if life energy is moving inward, ultimately the navel will become the center.

Chaotic methods are needed to push the consciousness to its roots, because only from the roots is transformation possible. Otherwise you will go on verbalizing and there will be no transformation. It is not enough just to know what is right. You have to transform the roots; otherwise you will not change.

When a person knows the right thing and cannot do anything about it, he becomes doubly tense. He understands, but he cannot do anything. Understanding is meaningful only when it comes from the navel, from the roots. If you understand from the brain, it is not transforming.

The ultimate cannot be known through the brain, because when you are functioning through the brain you are in conflict with the roots from which you have come. Your whole problem is that you have moved away from the navel. You have come from the navel and you will die through it. One has to come back to the roots. But coming back is difficult, arduous.

Traditional methods have an appeal because they are so ancient and so many people have achieved through them in the past. They may have become irrelevant to us, but they were not irrelevant to Buddha, Mahavira, Patanjali or Krishna . They were meaningful, helpful. The old methods may be meaningless now, but because Buddha achieved through them they have an appeal. The traditionalist feels: "If Buddha achieved through these methods, why can't I?"

But we are in an altogether different situation now. The whole atmosphere, the whole thought-sphere, has changed. Every method is organic to a particular situation, to a particular mind, to a particular man. The fact that the old methods don't work doesn't mean that no method is useful. It only means that the methods themselves must change. As I see the situation, modern man has changed so much that he needs new methods, new techniques.

Osho: The Psychology of the Esoteric , #4

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This meditation lasts for one hour and has four stages, three with music, and the last without.
Kundalini acts like an energetic shower, softly shaking you free of your day and leaving you refreshed and mellow.

Method      
   
First Stage: 15 minutes
Be loose and let your whole body shake, feeling the energies moving up from your feet. Let go everywhere and become the shaking. Your eyes may be open or closed.

"Allow the shaking; don't do it. Stand silently, feel it coming and when your body starts trembling, help it but don't do it. Enjoy it, feel blissful about it, allow it, receive it, welcome it, but don't will it.
"If you force it will become an exercise, a bodily, physical exercise. Then the shaking will be there but just on the surface; it will not penetrate you. You will remain solid, stone-like, rock-like within. You will remain the manipulator, the doer, and the body will just be following. The body is not the question - you are the question.
"When I say shake, I mean your solidity, your rock-like being should shake to the very foundations so that it becomes liquid, fluid, melts, flows. And when the rock-like being becomes liquid, your body will follow. Then there is no shake, only shaking. Then nobody is doing it; it is simply happening. Then the doer is not." Osho
   
Second Stage: 15 minutes
Dance, any way you feel, letting the whole body move as it wishes. Again, your eyes can be open or closed.
   
Third Stage: 15 minutes
Close your eyes and be still, sitting or standing, observing, witnessing, whatever is happening inside and out.
   
Fourth Stage: 15 minutes
Keeping your eyes closed, lie down and be still.
  

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This is a 65 minute dancing meditation in three stages, with specifically created music.
Disappearing in the dance, then relaxing into silence and stillness, is the route inside for this method.

Osho Says

"Forget the dancer, the center of the ego; become the dance. That is the meditation. Dance so deeply that you forget completely that 'you' are dancing and begin to feel that you are the dance. The division must disappear; then it becomes a meditation.

If the division is there, then it is an exercise: good, healthy, but it cannot be said to be spiritual. It is just a simple dance. Dance is good in itself - as far as it goes it is good. After it, you will feel fresh, young. But it is not meditation yet. The dancer must go, until only the dance remains.. Don't stand aside, don't be an observer. Participate!
And be playful. Remember the word playful always - with me it is very basic."
Method:      
   

First Stage: 40 minute
With eyes closed, dance as if possessed. Let your unconscious take over completely. Do not control your movements or witness what is happening. Just be totally in the dance
   

Second Stage: 20 minutes
Keeping your eyes closed, lie down immediately. Be silent and still.
   

Third Stage: 5 minutes
Dance in celebration and enjoy.
  
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Nadabrahma meditation lasts for one hour and has three stages. It is a sitting method, in which humming and hand movements create an inner balance, a harmony between mind and body. Suitable for any time of the day, have an empty stomach and remain inactive for at least fifteen minutes afterwards.
Osho Says
"So in Nadabrahma, remember this: let the body and mind be totally together, but remember that you have to become a witness. Get out of them, easily, slowly, from the back door, with no fight, with no struggle. They are drinking - you get out, and watch from the outside...." Osho
Method:      
   

First Stage: 30 minutes

Sit in a relaxed position with eyes closed. With lips together, start humming, loud enough so that if you are doing it with others, you can be heard by them. This will create a vibration in your body. You can visualize a hollow tube or vessel filled only with the vibrations of the humming. A point will come when the humming continues by itself and you become the listener. There is no special breathing, and you can alter the pitch, and move your body smoothly and slowly, if you feel to.
   

Second Stage: 15 minutes
This stage is divided into two segments, of seven and a half minutes each. For the first part, move the hands, palms upwards, in an outward, circular motion. Starting at the navel, both hands move forward and then divide to make two large circles mirroring each other left and right. The movement should be so slow that at times there will appear to be no movement at all. Feel that you are giving energy outwards to the universe. After seven and a half minutes, the music will change and you turn your hands palm downwards, and start moving them in the opposite direction. Now the hands will come together towards the navel and divide outwards towards the side of the body. Feel that you are taking energy in. As in the first stage, don't inhibit any soft, slow movements of the rest of your body.
   

Third Stage: 15 minutes
Sit absolutely quiet and still.
  

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Thursday night is meditation night in Cardiff!

Cardiff Book of Secrets Study group meets 

every Thursday 7:15pm - 9:30pm 

at The Cardiff Theosophical Society,

206 Newport Road, Cardiff CF24 1DL

(This is an open group and anyone on the Globe interested in meditation is invited to take part in this study. If you are local to Cardiff  then you are most welcome to drop in in any of the group meetings. New and old participants are welcome! Or if you prefer to study by yourself  then simply use the resources on this site absolutely free of charge)

Click here to see the summary of the 112 meditation techniques from The Book of Secrets.

This is an open study  group which started on 26-3-2009 with the study of 112 meditation techniques from The Book of Secrets (Vigyan Bhairav Tantra). Vigyan Bhairav Tantra is a 5000 year old text containing 112 sutras relating to a specific meditation technique. Osho has given 80 discourses between 1972-1973 and these are contained in The Book of Secrets (see opposite).

As usual we have all the study resources available on this website totally free of charge, just click on the links below to access these. The book version of The Book of Secrets can be purchased from www.amazon.co.uk which is a very highly recommended companion for this study and it is priced at approximately £20.

FREE DOWNLOADS

• The Book of Secrets  (EBook, 40 Discourses)

• The Book of Secrets (EBook, 40 Discourses)

• The Book of Secrets (Audio Book, 40 Discourses)

• The Book of Secrets  (Audio Book, 40 Discourses)

www.oshouk.com (2009)