Two Powerful Methods of Awakening
These are not really meditations. You are just getting in tune. It is like...if you have seen Indian classical musicians playing...for half an hour, or sometimes even more, they simply go on fixing their instruments. They will move their knobs, they will make the strings tight or loose, and the drum player will go on checking his drum - whether it is perfect or not. For half an hour they go on doing this. This is not music, this is just preparation.
Kundalini is not really meditation. It is just preparation. You are preparing your instrument. When it is ready, then you stand in silence, then meditation starts. Then you are utterly there. You have woken yourself up by jumping. by dancing, by breathing, by shouting - these are all devices to make you a little more alert than you ordinarily are. Once you are alert, then the waiting. Waiting is meditation. Waiting with full awareness. And then it comes, it descends on you, it surrounds you, it plays around you, it dances around you, it cleanses you, it purifies you, it transforms you.
Catharsis and Celebration
Meditation is an energy phenomenon. One very basic thing has to be understood about all types of energies, and this is the basic law to be understood: energy moves in a dual polarity. That is the only way it moves; there is no other way for its movement. It moves in a dual polarity.
For any energy to become dynamic, the anti-pole is needed. It is just like electricity moving with negative and positive polarities. If there is only negative polarity, electricity will not happen; or if there is only positive polarity, electricity will not happen. Both poles are needed. And when both poles meet, they create electricity; then the spark comes up.
And this is so for all types of phenomena. Life goes on: between man and woman, the polarity. The woman is the negative life-energy; man is the positive pole. They are electrical - hence so much attraction. With man alone, life would disappear: with woman alone there could be no life, only death. Between man and woman there exists a balance. Between man and woman - these two poles, these two banks - flows the river of life.
Wherever you look you will find the same energy moving in polarities, balancing itself.
This polarity is very meaningful for meditation because mind is logical, and life is dialectical. When I say mind is logical, it means mind moves in a line. When I say life is dialectical, it means life moves with the opposite, not in a line. It zigzags from negative to positive - positive to negative, negative to positive. It zigzags; it uses the opposites.
Mind moves in a line, a simple straight line. It never moves to the opposite - it denies the opposite. It believes in one, and life believes in two.
So whatsoever mind creates, it always chooses the one. If mind chooses silence - if mind has become fed up with all the noise that is created in life and it decides to be silent - then the mind goes to the Himalayas. It wants to be silent, it doesn't want anything to do with any type of noise. Even the song of the birds will disturb it; the breeze blowing through the trees will be a disturbance. The mind wants silence; it has chosen the line. Now the opposite has to be denied completely.
But this man living in the Himalayas - seeking silence, avoiding the other, the opposite - will become dead; he will certainly become dull. And the more he chooses to be silent, the duller he will become - because life needs the opposite, the challenge of the opposite.
There is a different type of silence which exists between two opposites. The first is a dead silence, the silence of the cemetery. A dead man is silent, but you would not like to be a dead man. A dead man is absolutely silent. Nobody can disturb him, his concentration is perfect. You cannot do anything to distract his mind; his mind is absolutely fixed. Even if the whole world goes mad all around, he will remain in his concentration. But still, you would not like to be a dead man. Silence, concentration, or whatever it is called...you would not like to be dead - because if you are silent and dead the silence is meaningless.
Silence must happen while you are absolutely alive, vital, bubbling with life and energy. Then silence is meaningful. But then silence will have a different, altogether different quality to it. It will not be dull. It will be alive. It will be a subtle balance between two polarities.
A man who is seeking a live balance, a live silence, would like to move to both the market and the Himalayas. He would like to go to the market to enjoy noise, and he would also like to go to the Himalayas to enjoy silence. And he will create a balance between these two polar opposites, and he will remain in that balance. And that balance cannot be achieved through linear efforts.
That is what is meant by the Zen technique of effortless effort. It uses contradictory terms - effortless effort, or gateless gate, or pathless path.
Zen always uses the contradictory term immediately, just to give you the hint that the process is going to be dialectical, not linear. The opposite is-not to be denied but absorbed. The opposite is not to be left aside - it has to be used. Left aside, it will always be a burden on you. Left aside, it will hang with you. Unused, you will miss much.
The energy can be converted and used. And then, using it, you will be more vital, more alive. The opposite has to be absorbed, then the process becomes dialectical.
Effortlessness means not doing anything, inactivity - akarma.
Effort means doing much, activity - karma. Both have to be there.
Do much, but don't be a doer then you achieve both. Move in the world, but don't be a part of it. Live in the world, but don't let the world live in you.
Then the contradiction has been absorbed....
And that's what I'm doing. Dynamic meditation is a contradiction. Dynamic means effort, much effort, absolute effort. And meditation means silence, no effort, no activity. You can call it a dialectical meditation.
Instructions for Dynamic Meditation
First stage: 10 minutes
Breathing rapidly in and out through the nose, let breathing be intense and chaotic. The breath should move deeply into the lungs. Be as fast as you can in your breathing. making sure breathing stays deep. Do this as totally as you possibly can; without tightening up your body, make sure neck and shoulders stay relaxed. Continue on, until you literally become the breathing, allowing breath to be chaotic (that means not in a steady, predictable way). Once your energy is moving, it will begin to move your body. Allow these body movements to be there, use them to help you build up even more energy. Moving your arms and body in a natural way will help your energy to rise. Feel your energy building up; don't let go during the first stage and never slow down.
Second stage: 10 minutes
Follow your body. Give your body freedom to express whatever is there .... EXPLODE! .... Let your body take over. Let go of everything that needs to be thrown out. Go totally mad.... Sing, scream, laugh, shout, cry, jump, shake, dance, kick, and 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. Remember to he total with your body.
Third stage: 10 minutes
Leaving your shoulders and neck relaxed, raise both arms as high as you can without locking the elbows. With raised arms, jump up and down shouting the mantra HOO!...HOO!...HOO! as deeply as possible, coming from the bottom of your belly. Each time you land on the flats of your feet (making sure heels touch the ground), let the sound hammer deep into the sex center. Give all you have, exhaust yourself completely.
Fourth stage: 15 minutes
STOP! Freeze where 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.
Giving Birth to Yourself
Helpful Hints
My system of Dynamic Meditation begins with breathing, because breathing has deep roots in the being. You may not have observed it, but if you can change your breathing, you can change many things. If you observe your breathing carefully, you will see that when you are angry you have a particular rhythm of breathing. When you are in love, a totally different rhythm comes to you. When you are relaxed you breathe differently; when you are tense you breathe differently. You cannot breathe the way you do when you are relaxed and be angry at the same time. It is impossible.
When you are sexually aroused, your breathing changes. If you do not allow the breathing to change, your sexual arousal will drop automatically. This means that breathing is deeply related to your mental state. If you change your breathing, you can change the state of your mind. Or, if you change the state of your mind, breathing will change.
So I start with breathing and I suggest ten minutes of chaotic breathing in the first stage of the technique. By chaotic breathing I mean deep, fast, vigorous breathing, without any rhythm - just taking the breath in and throwing it out, taking it in and throwing it out, as vigorously, as deeply, as intensely as possible. Take it in; then throw it out.
This chaotic breathing is to create a chaos within your repressed system. Whatever you are, you are with a certain type of breathing. A child breathes in a particular way. If you are sexually afraid, you breathe in a particular way. You cannot breathe deeply because every deep breath hits the sex center. If you are fearful, you cannot take deep breaths. Fear creates shallow breathing.
This chaotic breathing is to destroy all your past patterns. What you have made out of yourself, this chaotic breathing is to destroy. Chaotic breathing creates a chaos within you because unless a chaos is created, you cannot release your repressed emotions. And those emotions have now moved into the body.
You are not body and mind; you are body/mind, psycho/somatic. You are both together. So whatever is done with your body reaches to the mind and whatever is done with the mind reaches to the body. Body and mind are two ends of the same entity.
Ten minutes of chaotic breathing is wonderful! But it must be chaotic. It is not a type of pranayama, yogic breathing. It is simply creating chaos through breathing. And it creates chaos for many reasons.
Deep, fast breathing gives you more oxygen. The more oxygen in the body, the more alive you become, the more animal-like. Animals are alive and man is half-dead, half-alive. You have to be made into an animal again. Only then can something higher develop in you.
If you are only half-alive, nothing can be done with you. So this chaotic breathing will make you like an animal: alive, vibrating, vital - with more oxygen in your blood, more energy in your cells. Your body cells will become more alive. This oxygenation helps to create body electricity - or, you can call it bio-energy. When there is electricity in the body you can move deep within, beyond yourself. The electricity will work within you.
The body has its own electrical sources. If you hammer them with more breathing and more oxygen, they begin to flow. And if you become really alive, then you are no longer a body. The more alive you become, the more energy flows in your system and the less you will feel yourself physically. You will feel more like energy and less like matter.
And whenever it happens that you are more alive, in those moments you are not body-oriented. If sex has so much appeal, one of the reasons is this: that if you are really in the act, totally moving, totally alive, then you are no longer a body - just energy. To feel this energy, to be alive with this energy, is very necessary if you are to move beyond.
The second step in my technique of Dynamic Meditation is a catharsis. I tell you to be consciously insane. Whatever comes to your mind - whatever - allow it to express itself; cooperate with it. No resistance; just a flow of emotions.
If you want to scream, then scream. Cooperate with it. A deep scream, a total scream in which your whole being becomes involved, is very therapeutic, deeply therapeutic. Many things, many diseases, will be released just by the scream. If the scream is total, your whole being will be in it.
So for the next ten minutes (this second step is also for ten minutes) allow yourself expression through crying, dancing, screaming, weeping, jumping, laughing - 'freaking out' as they say. Within a few days, you will come to feel what it is.
In the beginning it may be forced, an effort, or it may even be just acting. We have become so false that nothing real or authentic can be done by us. We have not laughed, we have not cried, we have not screamed authentically. Everything is just a facade - a mask. So when you begin to do this technique - in the beginning - it may be forced. It may need effort; there may be just acting. But do not bother about it. Go on. Soon you will touch those sources where you have repressed many things. You will touch those sources, and once they are released, you will feel unburdened. A new life will come to you; a new birth will take place.
This unburdening is basic and without it there can be no meditation for man as he is.
Again, I am not talking about the exceptions. They are irrelevant.
With this second step - when things are thrown out - you become vacant. And this is what is meant by emptiness: to be empty of all repressions. In this emptiness something can be done. Transformation can happen; meditation can happen.
Then in the third step I use the sound hoo. Many sounds have been used in the past. Each sound has something specific to do. For example, Hindus have been using the sound aum. This may be familiar to you. But I won't suggest aum.
Aum strikes at the heart center, but man is no longer centered in the heart. Aum is striking at a door where no one is home.
Sufis have used HOO, and if you say HOO loudly, it goes deep to the sex center. So this sound is used just as a hammering within. When you have become empty and vacant, this sound can move within you.
The movement of the sound is possible only when you are empty. If you are filled with repressions, nothing will happen. And sometimes it is even dangerous to use any mantra or sound when you are filled with repressions. Each layer of repression will change the path of the sound and the ultimate result may be something of which you never dreamed, never expected, never wished. You need a vacant mind; only then can a mantra be used.
So I never suggest a mantra to anyone as he is. First there must be a catharsis. This mantra HOO should never be done without doing the first two steps. It should never be done without them. Only in the third step (for ten minutes) is this HOO to be used - used as loudly as possible, bringing your total energy to it. You are to hammer your energy with the sound. And when you are empty - when you have been emptied by the catharsis of the second step - this HOO goes deep down and hits the sex center.
The sex center can be hit in two ways. The first way is naturally. Whenever you are attracted to a member of the opposite sex, the sex center is hit from without. And that hit is also a subtle vibration. A man is attracted to a woman or a woman is attracted to a man. Why? What is there in a man and what is there in a woman to account for it? A positive or negative electricity hits them, a subtle vibration. It is a sound, really. For example, you may have observed that birds use sound for sex appeal. All their singing is sexual. They are repeatedly hitting each other with particular sounds. These sounds hit the sex centers of birds of the opposite sex.
Subtle vibrations of electricity are hitting you from without. When your sex center is hit from without, your energy begins to flow outward - toward the other. Then there will be reproduction, birth. Someone else will be born out of you.
HOO is hitting the same center of energy, but from within. And when the sex center is hit from within, the energy starts to flow within. This inner flow of energy changes you completely. You become transformed: you give birth to yourself.
You are transformed only when your energy moves in a totally opposite direction. Right now it is flowing out, but then it begins to flow within. Now it is flowing down, but then it flows upward. This upward flow of energy is what is known as kundalini. You will feel it actually flowing in your spine, and the higher it moves, the higher you will move with it. When this energy reaches the brahmarandhra - the last center in you: the seventh center, located at the top of the head - you are the highest man possible.
In the third step, I use HOO as a vehicle to bring your energy upward. These first three steps are cathartic. They are not meditation, but just preparation for it. They are a 'getting ready' to take the jump, not the jump itself.
The fourth step is the jump. In the fourth step I tell you to stop! When I say "Stop!" stop completely. Don't do anything at all because anything you do can become a diversion and you will miss the point. Anything - just a cough or a sneeze - and you may miss the whole thing because the mind has become diverted. Then the upward flow will stop immediately because your attention has moved.
Don't do anything. You are not going to die. Even if a sneeze is coming and you do not sneeze for ten minutes, you will not die. If you feel like coughing, if you feel an irritation in the throat and you do not do anything, you are not going to die. Just let your body remain dead so that the energy can move in one upward flow.
When the energy moves upward, you become more and more silent. Silence is the by-product of energy moving upward and tension is the by-product of energy moving downward. Now your whole body will become so silent - as if it has disappeared. You will not be able to feel it. You have become bodiless. And when you are silent, the whole existence is silent because the existence is nothing but a mirror. It reflects you. In thousands and thousands of mirrors, it reflects you. When you are silent, the whole existence has become silent. In your silence I will tell you to just be a witness - a constant alertness: not doing anything, but just remaining a witness, just remaining with yourself; not doing anything - no movement, no desire, no becoming - but just remaining then and there, silently witnessing what is happening.
That remaining in the center, in yourself, is possible because of the first three steps. Unless these three are done, you cannot remain with yourself. You can go on talking about it, thinking about it, dreaming about it, but it will not happen because you are not ready.
These first three steps will make you ready to remain with the moment. They will make you aware. That is meditation. In that meditation something happens that is beyond words. And once it happens you will never be the same again; it is impossible. It is a growth; it is not simply an experience. It is a growth.
Remember, remain a Witness
This is a meditation in which you have to be continuously alert, conscious, aware, whatsoever you do. 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.