Nobody thinks about it, nobody meditates on it. This has happened because man has paid too much attention to the conscious mind.

Mind has three dimensions. Just as matter has three dimensions, mind also has three dimensions. Only one dimension is conscious, another dimension is unconscious, and still another dimension is there which is superconscious. These three dimensions are of the mind — just like the matter, because deep down mind is also matter. Or, you can say it otherwise, that matter is also mind. It has to be so, because only one exists.

Mind is subtle matter; matter is gross mind. But ordinarily man lives only in one dimension, the conscious. Sleep belongs to the unconscious; dreaming belongs to the unconscious. Meditation, ecstasy, belong to the superconscious, just like waking and thinking belong to the conscious. So, we have to go slowly into this phenomenon of mind.

The first thing about mind to be remembered is, it is just like an iceberg — the topmost part is on the surface; you can see it, but it is only one-tenth of the whole. Nine-tenths is hidden underneath. You cannot see it ordinarily unless you move in the depth. But these are only two dimensions. There is a third dimension — as if a part of the iceberg has evaporated and has become a small cloud and hovers in the sky. It is difficult to reach to the unconscious; it is almost impossible to reach to that cloud — of course, part of the same iceberg, but evaporated.

That’s why meditation is so difficult, samadhi so arduous. It takes one’s total energy. It demands one’s total devotion. Only then does the vertical movement into the cloud-like phenomenon of the superconscious become possible. The conscious is there; you are listening to me from the conscious. If you are thinking what I am saying, if you are inside making a sort of dialogue with whatsoever I am saying, a sort of commentary goes on inside, this is the conscious mind.

But you can listen to me without thinking — in deep love, heart-to-heart, not in any way verbalizing what I am saying, judging what I am saying, right or wrong, no. No valuation — you simply listen in deep love, as if the mind has passed, and the heart listens and beats with joy. Then the unconscious is listening. Then whatsoever I say will go very deep to your roots.

But the third possibility is also there, that you can listen through the superconscious. Then even love is a disturbance — very subtle, but even love is a disturbance. Then there is nothing, no thought, no feeling. You simply become a void, an emptiness, end to end. And into that emptiness falls whatsoever I say and whatsoever I am. Then you are listening from the super-conscious.

These are the three dimensions. While you are awake, you live in the conscious — you work, you think, you do this and that. When you fall into sleep, the conscious is no more functioning, it is resting. Another dimension starts working, the unconscious. Then you cannot think, but you can dream. And the whole night there are almost eight cycles of dreaming continuously. Only for a few moments you are not dreaming, otherwise you are dreaming.

Source: OSHO

Firstly, you should know that the first three of them are merely steps to meditation, not meditation itself. The fourth one is meditation. The fourth is the door, while the other three are doorsteps. Steps don’t make for the door, they only lead to the door. The fourth stage is the door to meditation which is relaxation and rest, emptiness and void, surrender and cessation, dissolution and death, or whatsoever you call it. That is the door, and the first three steps take us to it.

And the fundamental principle behind the first three stages is one. If one is to relax, he will have to pass through a state of absolute tension; it is then that passage to relaxation becomes easy enough. If a man works throughout the daytime, he can sleep well in the night. The harder one works the deeper he sleeps. One can argue that since sleep is the opposite of work, how can he sleep who works hard? He should not be able to sleep, because labor and rest are so opposed to each other. Logically sleep should be available to one who rests the whole day in bed. But the truth is that he will not be able to sleep at night if he rests in the daytime.

That is why, as man’s life is becoming increasingly comfortable, his sleep has been disappearing from the world in the same measure. The more comforts and leisure we have, the less sleep we will have. And the irony is that we go on adding to our comforts in the hope that they will help us sleep undisturbed. But the contrary is the case. With the growth of civilization and leisure sleep will disappear, because hard work is a prerequisite of sleep. As one works so he sleeps. Similarly as one’s tension mounts and reaches its climax he easily slips into deep relaxation.

The first three steps seem to be completely contradictory to the fourth, which is meditation. One may ask, how can anyone relax after exerting so hard, after passing through peaks of tension and turmoil touching on madness? I say, only then he can relax. The truth is that relaxation follows tension as night follows day, as the valley follows the peak. The higher the peak the deeper the valley. The higher the hill you fall from, the deeper the canyon you enter. Don’t forget that every mountain has its valley. In fact there cannot be a mountain without a valley. As the mountain grows up it creates deep valleys all around it. That is how when your tension grows, side by side you are gathering energy to relax and rest. The higher the summit of tension the deeper the valley of rest. That is the reason I ask you to bring all your energy into it, to exert your best, to stake your all and not to withhold yourself even a little bit. That is how you will reach the height of tension and then descend into the bottomless pit of relaxation and rest. And it is in that moment of absolute rest that meditation happens.

The basic thing is that you should reach the peak of tension and then drop tension altogether.

Source: Osho
Osho’s New Dynamic Meditation Technique

Now no questions and no deep breathing. Drop everything, abandon every effort. For these ten minutes keep lying as if you are dead, as if you are not. Give up everything. For these ten minutes drop all efforts and lie in waiting for him. Cease to do anything; neither ask “Who am I?” nor breathe deeply. Just keep lying—relaxed, restful. Listen to the roar of the sea. Listen to the wind passing through the pines. If a bird calls, listen to its sound. For ten minutes feel as if you are dead, as if you don’t exist.

And now open your eyes slowly, slowly. If your eyes don’t open, then cover them with your palms. Those who have fallen down and who find it difficult to get up should first take deep but slow breaths and then rise up. Don’t be in a hurry, don’t rise abruptly. Get up slowly, very slowly. And if someone cannot rise even after breathing, then he should stay lying a little longer and breathe deeply but slowly. Then he should first sit up and then rise very slowly. Open your eyes…One who cannot get up should further breathe deeply but slowly, and then rise very gently. mirac103

Source: Osho
Osho’s New Dynamic Meditation Technique

Buddha replied, “Whatsoever you do, do it with awareness; this is meditation. Walking, walk attentively, as if walking is everything; eating, eat with awareness, as if eating is everything; rising, rise with awareness; sitting, sit with awareness; all your actions become conscious, your mind does not travel beyond this moment, it remains in the moment, settles in the moment — this is meditation.”

Meditation is not a separate process. Meditation is simply the name for life lived with awareness. Meditation is not an hour-a-day affair where you sit for one hour and then it is over till tomorrow. No, if twenty-three hours are empty of meditation and only one hour is meditative, then it is certain that the twenty-three hours will defeat the single hour. Non-meditation will win, meditation will lose. If you are living twenty-three hours a day without awareness, and only one hour with awareness, then you will never attain to the state of buddhahood. How can this single hour triumph over the other twenty-three hours?

There is something else that also has to be understood. How can one be aware for one hour if in the remaining twenty-three hours one is not aware? How can you be healthy for one hour if you are sick the other twenty-three hours of the day? Health and sickness are the result of an internal flow. If you are healthy for twenty-three hours of the day, you will be healthy for all twenty-four hours, because the internal flow cannot suddenly be broken for just one of those hours. The current that is flowing goes on flowing.

Meditation cannot come about just because you visit a temple or mosque or gurudwara.. If you were not awake in the shop, in the marketplace, or at home, how can you all of a sudden be awake in the temple? Nothing is going to come about suddenly, when it is not part of an internal flowing. This is why Buddha has said that meditation can happen only if you are meditative for twenty-four hours a day.

So understand well that meditation is not just one of life’s innumerable activities. It is not just one link in the chain of man’s endless doings. It is like the thread on which all the flowers of a garland have been strung. Meditation is a lifestyle, not an activity. If one is meditative in everything one is doing, if the thread is running through each of the flowers, only then a garland is created. The thread is not even visible, it is hidden underneath the flowers. Nor can the meditator be seen; he is present, but hidden behind all the activities being done through him. An individual is awakened the day when he begins to live meditatively. While he lives nonmeditatively, he sleeps.

Source: Nowhere To Go But In
Chapter 2 – OSHO (26 May 1974 am in Buddha Hall)

meditation is not a technique but an understanding. It cannot be taught; it can only be indicated. You cannot be informed about it because no information is really information. It is from the outside, and meditation comes from your own inner depths.

So search, be a seeker, and do not be a disciple. Then you will not be a disciple of some guru, but a disciple of the total life. Then you will not just be learning words. Spiritual learning cannot come from words but from the gaps, the silences that are always surrounding you. They are there even in the crowd, in the market, in the bazaar. Seek the silences, seek the gaps within and without, and one day you will find that you are in meditation.

Meditation comes to you. It always comes; you cannot bring it. But one has to be in search of it, because only when you are in search will you be open to it, vulnerable to it. You are a host to it. Meditation is a guest. You can invite it and wait for it. It comes to Buddha, it comes to Jesus, it comes to everybody who is ready, who is open and seeking.

But do not learn it from somewhere; otherwise you will be tricked. The mind is always searching for something easier. This becomes the source for exploitation. Then there are gurus and gurudoms, and spiritual life is poisoned.

The most dangerous person is the one who exploits someone’s spiritual urge. If someone robs you of your wealth it is not so serious, if someone fails you it is not so serious, but if someone tricks you and kills, or even postpones, your urge toward meditation, toward the divine, toward ecstasy, then the sin is great and unforgivable.

But that is being done. So be aware of it, and don’t ask anybody, “What is meditation? How do I meditate?” Instead, ask what the hindrances are, what the obstacles are. Ask why we aren’t always in meditation, where the growth has been stopped, where we have been crippled. And do not seek a guru because gurus are crippling. Anyone who gives you ready-made formulas is not a friend but an enemy.

Grope in the dark. Nothing else can be done. The very groping will become the understanding that will liberate you from darkness. Jesus said: “Truth is freedom.” Understand this freedom. Truth is always through understanding. It is not something that you meet and encounter; it is something you grow into. So be in search of understanding, because the more understanding you become, the nearer you will be to truth. And in some unknown, expected, unpredictable moment, when understanding comes to a peak, you are in the abyss. You are no more, and meditation is.

When you are no more, you are in meditation. Meditation is not more of you; it is always beyond you. When you are in the abyss, meditation is there. Then the ego is not; then you are not. Then the being is. That is what religions mean by God: the ultimate being. It is the essence of all religions, all searches, but it is not to be found anywhere ready-made. So be aware of anyone who makes claims about it.

Go on groping and don’t be afraid of failure. Admit failures, but do not commit the same failures again.

Once is all; that is enough. The person who goes on erring in the search for truth is always forgiven. It is a promise from the very depths of existence.

OSHO

Deep breathing will continue. Bodily movement will continue, and to them add the third sutra. Ask within yourselves: “Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?” Ask inside you, “Who am I?” Let your every breath be filled with this one question, “Who am I? Who am I?” Let breathing, deep and fast breathing continue, and ask inside you, “Who am I?” Let the body continue to move and sway and ask from within “Who am I?”

Keep asking this question without any interruption, let no gaps occur in between. And pour all your energy into asking: “Who am I?” For ten minutes squeeze all your strength into asking it: “Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?” Madly ask the question, “Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?” Ask it with all your being, let the question reverberate through your whole being, “Who am I?” Continue deep breathing, and let go of the body. Whatever happens to it, allow it. And ask, “Who am I? Who am I?” Exert your utmost for ten minutes; and then we will rest. So apply your full strength…”Who am l? Who am I? Who am I?…

Use your total energy, don’t spare yourselves, don’t withhold yourselves in the least. Exert yourselves totally. Breathe deeply, breathe deeply, breathe deeply, breathe deeply, breathe deeply.

And now drop all efforts and enter the fourth stage, the stage of relaxation and rest.

Source: Osho
Osho’s New Dynamic Meditation Technique

Second Stage: Ten minutes’ catharsis

In this stage you have to let go of your body completely. Breathe in and breathe out deeply and leave the body free. Let it cry if it feels like crying. If tears well up let them well up. Let your eyes shed tears…If your hands and feet tremble, let them do so. If the body shakes and moves and whirls, let it do so freely. If it stands up and begins to dance, leave it free to stand up and dance. Take deep breaths and let go of your body. Whatever happens to the body let it happen; don’t come in its way…Deep breathing, deep breathing, deep breathing. For ten minutes continue deep breathing and relax the body. If the body takes certain postures and gestures—asanas and mudras—allow it to take them. If it rolls on the ground, allow it to do so. Leave the body free and just remain a witness, a watcher. Don’t hinder the body in any way…

Continue deep breathing; bring your full energy to breathing, and leave the body to itself. Whatsoever happens to the body, let it. Don’t hesitate; don’t shirk, and don’t shrink at all. Don’t resist the body in any way. And don’t think of others. And let go of the body. Many things will happen when the energy will awaken and ascend. Tears will well up and fill your eyes, the body will shake, the limbs will move and mudras will be formed. The body may even rise up. Let everything happen. You are alone here; there is nobody but you. Let go. Breathe deeply, breathe deeply, breathe deeply. Work hard for one to two minutes, before we enter the third stage. Bring it to its climax before we enter the third stage….

Source: Osho’s New Dynamic Meditation Technique

First Stage: Ten minutes deep breathing

Close your eyes and begin breathing deeply. Inhale as much as you can, and exhale as much as you can. Put all your energy into inhaling and exhaling deeply, breathing in and breathing out. Breathe in deeply and breathe out deeply. Become breathing itself. And exert yourself fully. The deeper the breathing in and out, the greater the possibility for the latent energy to awaken. Breathe in a deep breath and breathe out a deep breath. Breathe in and breathe out…Take a deep breath in and take a deep breath out and continue the process for a full ten minutes. You become a breathing machine, and nothing more. You are only breathing in and breathing out for ten minutes. Then I will give you the second sutra, the second stage. It will form the second stage of today’s meditation. So for the first ten minutes work hard with deep breathing…

Take a deep breath in and throw it out deeply…Exert yourselves fully. Just become a breathing machine, a bellows that pulls the air in and throws it out vigorously and continuously…Let every fiber of your body vibrate with breathing. Breathe in deeply and breathe out deeply. Deeply and very deeply. Be come a breathing instrument. Concentrate all of your attention and all of your energy on breathing and on breathing alone. Take deep breath in and take deep breath out. And watch that now a deep breath is coming in and now a deep breath is going out. Breathe and also observe that you are breathing and breathing deeply. Remain a witness. Keep witnessing that breath is going in and going out. Bring all your attention to deep breathing; bring all your energy to deep breathing. Now I am going to be silent for ten minutes. In the meantime you continue taking deep breaths in and throwing deep breaths out. And watch from inside that breaths are going in and going out regularly and constantly and vigorously….

Second Stage: Ten minutes’ catharsis… to be continue…

Source: OSHO

There are two ways: either relax directly as Tao implies, or relax indirectly as the Upanishads say. Create the tension to its ultimate, and then there will be relaxation. And I think the Upanishads are more helpful, because we are tense and we understand the meaning, the language, the ways of tension. Tell someone suddenly to relax and he cannot….

I was working for ten years continuously with Taoist methods, so I was continuously teaching direct relaxation. It was simple for me so I thought it would be simple for everyone. Then, by and by, I became aware that it is impossible. I was in a fallacy: it was not possible. I would say, “Relax!” to those I was teaching. They would appear to understand the meaning of the word, but they could not relax. Then I had to devise new methods for meditation which create tension first—more tension. They create such tension that you become just mad. And then I say, “Relax.”

When you have come up to the climax, your whole body, your whole mind, becomes hungry for relaxation. With so much tension, you want to stop, and I go on pushing you to continue, continue to the very end. Do whatsoever you can do to create tensions, and then, when you stop you just fall down from the peak into a deep abyss. The abyss is the end, the effortlessness is the end, but the Upanishads use tension as the means. ultas107

Source: Osho’s New Dynamic Meditation Technique, OSHO