At the Osho Winnipeg, Meditation Centre, the type of Osho Meditations that have been offered are as follows:
· OSHO Dynamic Meditation
· OSHO Kundalini Meditation
· OSHO Nadabrahma Meditation
· OSHO Nataraj Meditation
· OSHO NO Dimension
· OSHO Whirling Meditation
A further description of each of the above Osho Meditations is listed below.
OSHO DYNAMIC MEDITATION
This meditation is a fast, intense and thorough way to break old, ingrained patterns in the bodymind that keep one imprisoned in the past, and to experience the freedom, the witnessing, silence and peace that are hidden behind these prison walls.
The meditation is meant to be done in the early morning, when as Osho explains it, “the whole of nature becomes alive, the night has gone, the sun is coming up and everything becomes conscious and alert.”
“This is a meditation in which you have to be continuously alert, conscious, aware, whatsoever you do. The first step, breathing; the second step, catharsis; the third step, the mantra, ‘Hoo.’
Remain a witness. Don’t get lost. It is easy to get lost. While you are breathing you can forget; you can become one with the breathing so much that you can forget the witness. But then you miss the point. Breathe as fast, as deep as possible, bring your total energy to it, but still remain a witness. Observe what is happening as if you are just a spectator, as if the whole thing is happening to somebody else, as if the whole thing is happening in the body and the consciousness is just centered and looking. This witnessing has to be carried in all the three steps. And when everything stops, and in the fourth step you have become completely inactive, frozen, then this alertness will come to its peak.” Osho
Instructions:
The meditation lasts one hour and has five stages. Keep your eyes closed throughout, using a blindfold if necessary. It can be done alone, and can be even more powerful if it is done with others.
First Stage: 10 minutes
Breathing chaotically through the nose, let breathing be intense, deep, fast, without rhythm, with no pattern – and concentrating always on the exhalation. The body will take care of the inhalation. The breath should move deeply into the lungs. Do this as fast and as hard as you possibly can until you literally become the breathing. Use your natural body movements to help you to build up your energy. Feel it building up, but don’t let go during the first stage.
Second Stage: 10 minutes
EXPLODE! … Let go of everything that needs to be thrown out. Follow your body. Give your body freedom to express whatever is there. Go totally mad. Scream, shout, cry, jump, kick, shake, dance, sing, laugh; throw yourself around. Hold nothing back; keep your whole body moving. A little acting often helps to get you started. Never allow your mind to interfere with what is happening. Consciously go mad. Be total.
Third Stage: 10 minutes
With arms raised high above your head, jump up and down shouting the mantra, “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!” as deeply as possible. Each time you land, on the flats of your feet, let the sound hammer deep into the sex center. Give all you have; exhaust yourself completely.
Fourth Stage: 15 minutes
STOP! Freeze wherever you are, in whatever position you find yourself. Don’t arrange the body in any way. A cough, a movement, anything, will dissipate the energy flow and the effort will be lost. Be a witness to everything that is happening to you.
Fifth Stage: 15 minutes
Celebrate! With music and dance express whatsoever is there. Carry your aliveness with you throughout the day.
If your meditation space prevents you from making noise, you can do this silent alternative: rather than throwing out the sounds, let the catharsis in the second stage take place entirely through bodily movements. In the third stage, the sound Hoo! can be hammered silently inside, and the fifth stage can become an expressive dance.
OSHO KUNDALINI MEDITATION
This “sister meditation” to the OSHO Dynamic is best done at sunset or in the late afternoon. Being fully immersed in the shaking and dancing of the first two stages helps to “melt” the rock-like being, wherever the energy flow has been repressed and blocked. Then that energy can flow, dance and be transformed into bliss and joy. The last two stages enable all this energy to flow vertically, to move upwards into silence. It is a highly effective way of unwinding and letting go at the end of the day.
Osho on How to Shake:
“If you are doing the Kundalini Meditation, allow the shaking – don’t do it! Stand silently, feel it coming, and when your body starts a little 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, stonelike, rocklike within. You will remain the manipulator, the doer, and the body will only be following. The body is not the question, you are the question.
“When I say shake, I mean your solidity, your rocklike being should shake to the very foundations, so it becomes liquid, fluid, melts, flows. And when the rocklike being becomes liquid your body will follow. Then there is no shaker, only shaking; then nobody is doing it, it is simply happening. Then the doer is not.
“Enjoy it, but don’t will it. And remember, whenever you will a thing you cannot enjoy it. They are reverse, opposites; they never meet. If you will a thing you cannot enjoy it, if you enjoy it you cannot will it.” Osho
Instructions:
The meditation is one hour long, with four stages.
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.
Second Stage: 15 minutes
Dance … any way you feel, and let 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.
OSHO NADABRAHMA MEDITATION
Nadabrahma is the humming meditation – through humming and hand movements conflicting parts of you start falling in tune, and you bring harmony to your whole being. Then, with body and mind totally together, you “slip out of their hold” and become a witness to both. This watching from the outside is what brings peace, silence and bliss.
“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.” Osho
Instructions:
The meditation lasts an hour, and there are three stages. Your eyes remain closed throughout.
First Stage: 30 minutes
Sit in a relaxed position with eyes closed and lips together. Start humming, loudly enough to be heard by others and create a vibration throughout your body. You can visualize a hollow tube or an empty 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 or move your body smoothly and slowly if you feel it.
Second Stage: 15 minutes
The second stage is divided into two 7½ minute sections. For the first half move the hands, palms up, in an outward circular motion. Starting at the navel, both hands move forwards 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 7½ minutes turn the hands, palms down, and start moving them in the opposite direction. Now the hands will come together towards the navel and divide outwards to the sides 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
Now stop the hand movement and just sit relaxed.
OSHO NATARAJ MEDITATION
Nataraj is the energy of dance. This is dance as a total meditation, where all inner division disappears and a subtle, relaxed awareness remains.
“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.” Osho
Instructions:
The meditation has three stages, lasting a total of 65 minutes.
First Stage: 40 minutes
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.
OSHO NO DIMENSION
The meditation lasts one hour and has three stages. In the first two stages the eyes are open but not focused on anything in particular. In the third stage the eyes are closed. The meditation is over when you hear three gongs.
This active centering meditation is based on Sufi techniques, further developed and expanded by Osho. Using the breath and a series of coordinated body movements followed by whirling, your energy becomes centered in the hara, the “life energy” center below the navel. From there you can watch the mind and experience awareness and wholeness – the body moving in all directions, the center unmoving.
First stage: SUFI MOVEMENTS 30 minutes
This is a six-part movement sequence, repeated continuously and accompanied by the sound “Shoo” rising from your navel to your throat. The sound helps your movements to become more free and easy as the meditation progresses. Make the movements and sounds with a loving heart and a centered awareness.
Begin by standing in one place, left hand on the heart center and right hand on the hara or navel center – until a bell rings and signals the start of the movement sequence:
1. Move both hands onto the hara, the backs of the hands touching together, pointing downwards. Breathing in through the nose, bring the hands up to the heart center. Breathing out with the sound “Shoo” move your left hand back down to the hara, and at the same time move your right arm forward (palm down) and move your right foot forward one step. Return to the original position with both hands on the hara.
2. Repeat this same movement with the left arm and foot forward. Return to the original position with both hands on the hara.
3. Repeat this movement with the right arm and foot now turning 90° sideways to the right. Return to the original position with both hands on the hara.
4. Repeat this movement with the left arm and foot now turning 90° sideways to the left. Return to the original position with both hands on the hara.
5. Repeat this movement with the right arm and foot now turning 180° clockwise to the right. Return to the original position with both hands on the hara. Repeat this movement with the left arm and foot now turning 180° counter-clockwise to the left.Return to the original position with both hands on the hara.
The hips and eyes always face the direction of the hand movement. Use graceful movements in a continuous flow, in rhythm with the music. This stage of the meditation starts slowly and builds up in intensity. While the music gradually becomes faster, the stillness of the center becomes more evident.
If you are doing this as a group you may get out of synchronicity with the others. When that happens, simply get back into the same rhythm as everyone else.
This stage is over when the music comes to a stop.
Second stage: WHIRLING 15 minutes
With arms folded across your chest for a few moments bow down, in loving gratitude to existence and to yourself.
Once the tempo of the music changes, begin whirling to the left or to the right, whichever feels best. If you whirl to the right, start with the right foot and right arm to the right and extend the left arm in the opposite direction. While you are whirling you can change your hands to any position which feels good to you. You whirl just like small children go on twirling.
If you have not whirled before start out very slowly; once your mind and body get attuned to the movements the body will naturally go faster. If you get dizzy, it is okay to stop for a moment, then start again. To end the whirling, slow down with the music and again fold your arms across your heart center.
Third stage: SILENCE 15 minutes
Lie down on the belly, eyes closed, allowing all the energy you have gathered to flow through you. If you find it uncomfortable to lie on the belly, lie on the back. There is nothing to do, just be.
OSHO WHIRLING MEDITATION
The meditation is best done on an empty stomach, on bare feet and wearing loose clothing. It lasts one hour and there are two stages, whirling and resting.
Whirling is an ancient Sufi technique. While your whole body is moving you become aware of your very being, the watcher at the center, which is unmoving. You learn to be an unidentified witness at the center of the cyclone.
“Whirling is one of the most ancient techniques, one of the most forceful. It is so deep that even a single experience can make you totally different. Whirl with open eyes, just like small children go on twirling, as if your inner being has become a center and your whole body has become a wheel, moving, a potter’s wheel, moving. You are in the center, but the whole body is moving.” Osho
First Stage: 45 minutes
The whirling is done on one spot in an anti-clockwise direction, with the right arm held high, palm upwards, and the left arm low, palm downwards. You whirl just like small children go on twirling. People who feel discomfort from whirling anti-clockwise can change to clockwise, changing the position of the arms as well. Let your body be soft and keep your eyes open but unfocused, so that images become blurred and flowing. Remain silent.
For the first 15 minutes, turn slowly. Then gradually build up speed until the whirling takes over and you become a whirlpool of energy – the periphery a storm of movement, the witness at the center silent and still.
When you are whirling so fast that you cannot remain upright, your body will fall by itself. Don’t make the fall a decision on your part and do not try to arrange the landing in advance; if your body is soft you will land softly and the earth will absorb your energy. Once you have fallen, stay there, this is when the second part of the meditation starts for you.
Second Stage: 15 minutes
If you have not fallen down by the time the music stops, allow your body to fall to the ground. Immediately roll onto your stomach so that your navel is in contact with the earth. Feel your body blending into the earth, like a small child blends into the mother’s breasts. If anybody feels strong discomfort lying this way, he should lie on his back.
Keep your eyes closed and remain passive and silent.
OSHO CHAKRA BREATHING MEDITATION
This active meditation uses deep, rapid breathing and body movement to open and bring awareness, vitality and silence to each of the seven chakras and into your life.
The meditation is best done on an empty stomach. Music and bells support the process and signal the beginning of each stage.
The meditation is to be done with its specific OSHO Chakra Breathing Meditation music, which indicates and energetically supports the different stages.
* All chakras lie deep within, rather than on the surface of the body. The following “map” is used to indicate their approximate locations:
1. base chakra: the sex center, lower pelvis
2. sacral chakra: just below the navel
3. solar plexus chakra: above the navel, below the breastbone
4. heart chakra: the middle of the chest
5. throat chakra: the throat
6. third eye chakra: between the eyebrows
7. crown chakra: top of the head
Instructions:
The meditation lasts one hour and has two stages. It ends when you hear three gongs. Keep your eyes closed throughout.
First stage: 45 minutes
Stand with your feet a little apart, your body loose and relaxed. With open mouth breathe deeply and rapidly into the first chakra, with equal emphasis on in and out breaths. Keep your attention in the pelvic area, where the first chakra is located. Breathe in a rhythm that feels comfortable and become aware of the feelings and sensations of the chakra.
Each time you hear a bell, move this same deep, rapid breathing up to the next chakra, letting your breathing become more rapid and gentler. You will take about twice as many breaths in the seventh chakra than in the first.
You can shake, stretch, rotate or move your body and hands as you feel, but your feet stay in one spot. Once you set the breathing and body in motion, the movement will become continuous and effortless. Your awareness remains primarily with the sensations of the chakras.
After breathing in the seventh chakra, you will hear three bells. Now let your breath and awareness turn and fall back down through each chakra, your breath slowing from chakra to chakra. You have about two minutes to reach back to the first chakra. Let the whole chakra spectrum from top to bottom blend into one rainbow of energy.
After this sequence, stand silently for a moment, then start the next sequence. You will complete three full sequences upward and downward.
Second stage: 15 minutes
After the third breathing sequence, sit relaxed and in silence. Remain a witness to whatever is happening within, without judgment.