Take one method and play with it for at least 3 days. If it gives you a certain feeling of affinity, if it gives you a certain feeling of well-being, if it gives you a certain feeling that this is for you, then be serious about it.
Osho, The Book of Secrets, Ch 1
With these words, Osho encourages us to explore the 112 meditation techniques from The Book of Secrets. The blog post below is part of a series of chats with people, who travelled the path with one of the meditations for a longer period of time. Here is the seventh story: a musician meditating in the marketplace with a technique given to Pythagoras in ancient times.
Let me give you the big picture first. Growing up in very difficult circumstances, catharsis came first for me. I discovered Osho’s active meditations and fell in love with them. Dynamic, Kundalini and others have sustained me for many years. Then I found Vipassana meditation and did it for years every day. One day, I combined Vipassana with practicing music with surprising results, which became apparent in my guitar performances. However, this turned into a mind trip, expectations and ambitions crept in, and watching the breath lost its innocence for me. As a result, I felt I had to stop doing Vipassana – and instead switched back to Osho meditations based on catharsis.
The path of meditation is mysterious: One day I took the jump and participated in the Mystic Rose – then I came across The Book of Secrets. I was completely blown away by the magnitude of this book – the incredible range of meditations, the depth of Osho’s insights, the wisdom it conveyed. I read it from beginning to end; I listened to the audio discourses. Then I read it again. During my absorption with it, one of the methods for attentiveness stood out for me. Attention between the eyebrows, let mind be before thought. Let form fill with breath essence to the top of the head and there shower as light.
A sentence in Osho’s commentary caught my eye: “This is one of the simplest methods of being attentive”. I was intrigued. Another interesting bit was the story about Pythagoras, a brilliant intellectual in ancient Greece, who wanted to be accepted into a mystery school in Egypt. His status and reputation were not enough. He first had to learn to move from the head to the heart – and this meditation was the vehicle. I had to try it, and it worked for me straight away. It was just as Osho describes it. When I focused on the third eye, something between the eyebrows helped me; it felt almost like a magnetic force.
It is interesting to see how we tend to edit. My rational mind decided quickly that just focusing between the eyebrows and witnessing was enough. The rest of the sutra was a bit suspicious: Let form fill with breath essence to the top of the head and there shower as light. A serious meditator like me didn’t need fluffy visualisation techniques, or did he? But something didn’t feel right. I concentrated and felt tense. I can’t explain it but only when I included the shower of light, it felt complete. Only then there was relaxation, relief, melting, the sinking down in the heart…
I just want to make something clear: I am not a super-meditator. I go through my daily ups, and downs, and confusions. Osho emphasises how important it is to be pure when doing this technique. Focusing on the third eye can set off powers that can be misused. I feel okay because I don’t do this technique in isolation. When I need the Dynamic, I’ll do it; when I have time to participate in the Mystic Rose meditation, I laugh and cry and sit silently.
When I need Gibberish in the morning, it’s Gibberish.
When I do this third eye meditation, my body feels more natural and flowing. It feels almost as if the spine realigns itself. The marketplace around me with its oppressions recedes. I have used this technique to get centred before music performances, and to create my secret bliss bubble while enduring speeches of politicians waiting for my turn to go on stage. I often use it when I go walking in the forest. I gently focus on the third eye and the mystery of existence opens up – the sounds of the birds, the light, and the colours.
I am blessed to have Osho’s guidance. Alone, life can be like a labyrinth. Just remembering Osho, something relaxes in me. This remembrance rescues me when I give into the collective sleep or when objections like “Why meditate today?” or “Hell, it’s too hard,” get the better of me. Leaving cynicism behind, feeling young despite my age (I am 59) – these are by-products of this meditation. The head can be so strong. Having an inner distance is so healing.
You can find Osho’s commentary on this meditation in chapter 5 of The Book of Secrets.