VIGYAN BHAIRAV TANTRA VOL1
Breath -- a bridge to the universe
VIGYAN BHAIRAV TANTRA VOL1
Breath -- a bridge to the universe
SUTRAS:
SHIVA REPLIES:
1. RADIANT ONE, THIS EXPERIENCE MAY DAWN BETWEEN TWO BREATHS. AFTER BREATH
COMES IN (DOWN) AND JUST BEFORE TURNING UP -- THE BENEFICENCE.
2. AS BREATH TURNS FROM DOWN TO UP, AND AGAIN AS BREATH CURVES FROM UP TO
DOWN -- THROUGH BOTH THESE TURNS, REALIZE.
3. OR, WHENEVER IN-BREATH AND OUT-BREATH FUSE, AT THIS INSTANT TOUCH THE
ENERGY-LESS, ENERGY-FILLED CENTER.
4. OR, IN PRANAYAMA, WHEN BREATH IS ALL OUT AND STOPPED OF ITSELF, OR ALL IN
AND STOPPED -- IN SUCH UNIVERSAL PAUSE, ONE'S SMALL SELF VANISHES. THIS IS
DIFFICULT ONLY FOR THE IMPURE.
Truth is always here. It is already the case. It is not something to be
achieved in the future. YOU are the truth just here and now, so it is not
something which is to be created or something which is to be devised or
something which is to be sought. Understand this very clearly; then these
techniques will be easy to understand and also to do.
Mind is a mechanism of desiring. Mind is always in desire, always seeking
something, asking for something. Always the object is in the future; mind is
not concerned with the present at all. In this very moment the mind cannot
move -- there is no space. The mind needs the future in order to move. It
can move either in the past or in the future. It cannot move in the present;
there is no space. The truth is in the present, and mind is always in the
future or in the past, so there is no meeting between mind and truth.
When the mind is seeking worldly objects it is not so difficult, the
problem is not absurd; it can be solved. But when the mind starts seeking
the truth the very effort becomes nonsense, because the truth is here and
now and the mind is always then and there. There is no meeting. So
understand the first thing: you cannot seek truth. You can find it, but you
cannot seek it. The very seeking is the hindrance.
The moment you start seeking you have moved away from the present, away
from yourself, because YOU are always in the present. The seeker is always
in the present and the seeking is in the future, you are not going to meet
whatsoever you are seeking. Lao Tzu says, "Seek not; otherwise you will
miss. Seek not and find. Don't seek and find."
All these techniques of Shiva's are simply turning the mind from the future
or the past to the present. That which you are seeking is already there, it
is the case already. The mind has to be turned from seeking to non-seeking.
It is difficult. If you think about it intellectually it is very difficult.
How to turn the mind from seeking to non-seeking? -- because then the mind
makes non-seeking itself the object! Then the mind says, "Don't seek." Then
the mind says, "I should not seek." Then the mind says, "Now non-seeking is
my object. Now I desire the state of desirelessness." The seeking has
entered again, the desire has come again through the back door. That is why
there are people who are seeking worldly objects, and there are people who
think they are seeking non-worldly objects. All objects are worldly because
"seeking" is the world.
So you cannot seek anything non-worldly. The moment you seek, it becomes
the world. If you are seeking God, your God is part of the world. If you are
seeking MOKSHA -- liberation -- NIRVANA, your liberation is part of the
world, your liberation is not something that transcends the world, because
seeking is the world, desiring is the world. So you cannot desire nirvana,
you cannot desire non-desire. If you try to understand intellectually, it
will become a puzzle.
Shiva says nothing about it, he immediately proceeds to give techniques.
They are non-intellectual. He doesn't say to Devi, "The truth is here. Don't
seek it and you will find it." He immediately gives techniques. Those
techniques are non-intellectual. Do them, and the mind turns. The turning is
just a consequence, just a by-product -- not an object. The turning is just
a by-product.
If you do a technique, your mind will turn from its journey into the future
or the past. Suddenly you will find yourself in the present. That is why
Buddha has given techniques, Lao Tzu has given techniques, Krishna has given
techniques. But they always introduce their techniques with intellectual
concepts. Only Shiva is different. He immediately gives techniques, and no
intellectual understanding, no intellectual introduction, because he knows
that the mind is tricky, the most cunning thing possible. It can turn
anything into a problem. Non-seeking will become the problem.
There are people who come to me who ask how not to desire. They are
desiring non-desire. Somebody has told them, or they have read somewhere, or
they have heard spiritual gossip, that if you do not desire you will reach
bliss, if you do not desire you will be free, if you do not desire there
will be no suffering. Now their minds hanker to attain that state where
there is no suffering, so they ask how not to desire. Their minds are
playing tricks. They are still desiring, it is only that now the object has
changed. They were desiring money, they were desiring fame, they were
desiring prestige, they were desiring power. Now they are desiring
non-desire. Only the object has changed, and they remain the same and their
desiring remains the same. But now the desire has become more deceptive.
Because of this, Shiva proceeds immediately with no introduction
whatsoever. He immediately starts talking about techniques. Those
techniques, if followed, suddenly turn your mind: it comes to the present.
And when the mind comes to the present it stops, it is no more. You cannot
be a mind in the present, that is impossible. Just now, if you are here and
now, how can you be a mind? Thoughts cease because they cannot move. The
present has no space in which to move; you cannot think. If you are in this
very moment, how can you move? Mind stops, you attain to no-mind.
So the real thing is how to be here and now. You can try, but effort may
prove futile -- because if you make it a point to be in the present, then
this point has moved into the future. When you ask how to be in the present,
again you are asking about the future. This moment is passing in the
inquiry, "How to be present? How to be here and now?" This present moment is
passing in the inquiry, and your mind will begin to weave and create dreams
in the future: some day you will be in a state of mind where there is no
movement, no motive, no seeking, and then there will be bliss -- so how to
be in the present?
Shiva doesn't say anything about it, he simply gives a technique. You do
it, and suddenly you find you are here and now. And your being here and now
is the truth, and your being here and now is the freedom, and your being
here and now is the nirvana.
The first nine techniques are concerned with breathing. So let us
understand something about breathing, and then we will proceed to the
techniques. We are breathing continuously from the moment of birth to the
moment of death. Everything changes between these two points. Everything
changes, nothing remains the same, only breathing is a constant thing
between birth and death.
The child will become a youth; the youth will become old. He will be
diseased, his body will become ugly, ill, everything will change. He will be
happy, unhappy, in suffering; everything will go on changing. But whatsoever
happens between these two points, one must breathe. Whether happy or
unhappy, young or old, successful or unsuccessful -- whatsoever you are, it
is irrelevant -- one thing is certain: between these two points of birth and
death you must breathe.
Breathing will be a continuous flow; no gap is possible. If even for a
single moment you forget to breathe, you will be no more. That is why YOU
are not required to breathe, because then it would be difficult. Someone
might forget to breathe for a single moment, and then nothing could be done.
So, really, YOU are not breathing, because YOU are not needed. You are fast
asleep, and breathing goes on; you are unconscious, and breathing goes on;
you are in a deep coma, and breathing goes on. YOU are not required;
breathing is something which goes on in spite of you.
It is one of the constant factors in your personality -- that is the first
thing. It is something which is very essential and basic to life -- that is
the second thing. You cannot be alive without breath. So breath and life
have become synonymous. Breathing is the mechanism of life, and life is
deeply related with breathing. That is why in India we call it PRANA. We
have given one word for both -- PRANA means the vitality, the aliveness.
Your life is your breath.
Thirdly, your breath is a bridge between you and your body. Constantly,
breath is bridging you to your body, connecting you, relating you to your
body. Not only is the breath a bridge to your body, it is also a bridge
between you and the universe. The body is just the universe which has come
to you, which is nearer to you.
Your body is part of the universe. Everything in the body is part of the
universe -- every particle, every cell. It is the nearest approach to the
universe. Breath is the bridge. If the bridge is broken, you are no more in
the body. If the bridge is broken, you are no more in the universe. You move
into some unknown dimension; then you cannot be found in space and time. So,
thirdly, breath is also the bridge between you, and space and time.
Breath, therefore, becomes very significant -- the most significant thing.
So the first nine techniques are concerned with breath. If you can do
something with the breath, you will suddenly turn to the present. If you can
do something with breath, you will attain to the source of life. If you can
do something with breath, you can transcend time and space. If you can do
something with breath, you will be in the world and also beyond it.
Breath has two points. One is where it touches the body and the universe,
and another is where it touches you and that which transcends the universe.
We know only one part of the breath. When it moves into the universe, into
the body, we know it. But it is always moving from the body to the
"no-body," from the "no-body" to the body. We do not know the other point.
If you become aware of the other point, the other part of the bridge, the
other pole of the bridge, suddenly you will be transformed, transplanted
into a different dimension.
But remember, what Shiva is going to say is not yoga, it is tantra. Yoga
also works on breath, but the work of yoga and tantra is basically
different. Yoga tries to systematize breathing. If you systematize your
breathing your health will improve. If you systematize your breathing, if
you know the secrets of breathing, your life will become longer; you will be
more healthy and you will live longer. You will be more strong, more filled
with energy, more vital, alive, young, fresh.
But tantra is not concerned with that. Tantra is concerned not with any
systematization of breath, but with using breath just as a technique to turn
inward. One has not to practice a particular style of breathing, a
particular system of breathing or a particular rhythm of breathing -- no!
One has to take breathing as it is. One has just to become aware of certain
points in the breathing.
There are certain points, but we are not aware of them. We have been
breathing and we will go on breathing -- we are born breathing and we will
die breathing -- but we are not aware of certain points. And this is
strange. Man is searching, probing deep into space. Man is going to the
moon; man is trying to reach farther, from earth into space, and man has not
yet learned the nearest part of his life. There are certain points in
breathing which you have never observed, and those points are the doors --
the nearest doors to you from where you can enter into a different world,
into a different being, into a different consciousness. But they are very
subtle.
To observe a moon is not very difficult. Even to reach the moon is not very
difficult; it is a gross journey. You need mechanization, you need
technology, you need accumulated information, and then you can reach it.
Breathing is the nearest thing to you, and the nearer a thing is, the more
difficult it is to perceive it. The nearer it is, the more difficult; the
more obvious it is, the more difficult. It is so near to you that again
there is no space between you and your breathing. Or, there is such a small
space that you will need a very minute observation, only then will you
become aware of certain points. These points are the basis of these
techniques.
So now I will take each technique.
SHIVA REPLIES:
RADIANT ONE, THIS EXPERIENCE MAY DAWN BETWEEN TWO BREATHS. AFTER BREATH
COMES IN (DOWN) AND JUST BEFORE TURNING UP (OUT) -- THE BENEFICENCE.
That is the technique:
RADIANT ONE, THIS EXPERIENCE MAY DAWN BETWEEN TWO BREATHS.
After breath comes in -- that is, down -- and just before turning out --
that is, going up -- THE BENEFICENCE. Be aware between these two points, and
the happening. When your breath comes in, observe. For a single moment, or a
thousandth part of a moment, there is no breathing -- before it turns up,
before it turns outward. One breath comes in; then there is a certain point
and breathing stops. Then the breathing goes out. When the breath goes out,
then again for a single moment, or a part of a moment, breathing stops. Then
breathing comes in.
Before the breath is turning in or turning out, there is a moment when you
are not breathing. In that moment the happening is possible, because when
you are not breathing you are not in the world. Understand this: when you
are not breathing you are dead; you ARE still, but dead. But the moment is
of such a short duration that you never observe it.
For tantra, each outgoing breath is a death and each new breath is a
rebirth. Breath coming in is rebirth; breath going out is death. The
outgoing breath is synonymous with death; the incoming breath is synonymous
with life. So with each breath you are dying and being reborn. The gap
between the two is of a very short duration, but keen, sincere observation
and attention will make you feel the gap. If you can feel the gap, Shiva
says, THE BENEFICENCE. Then nothing else is needed. You are blessed, you
have known; the thing has happened.
You are not to train the breath. Leave it just as it is. Why such a simple
technique? It looks so simple. Such a simple technique to know the truth? To
know the truth means to know that which is neither born nor dies, to know
that eternal element which is always. You can know the breath going out, you
can know the breath coming in, but you never know the gap between the two.
Try it. Suddenly you will get the point -- and you can get it; it is
already there. Nothing is to be added to you or to your structure, it is
already there. Everything is already there except a certain awareness. So
how to do this? First, become aware of the breath coming in. Watch it.
Forget everything, just watch breath coming in -- the very passage.
When the breath touches your nostrils, feel it there. Then let the breath
move in. Move with the breath fully consciously. When you are going down,
down, down with the breath, do not miss the breath. Do not go ahead and do
not follow behind, just go with it. Remember this: do not go ahead, do not
follow it like a shadow; be simultaneous with it.
Breath and consciousness should become one. The breath goes in -- you go
in. Only then will it be possible to get the point which is between two
breaths. It will not be easy. Move in with the breath, then move out with
the breath: in-out, in-out.
Buddha tried particularly to use this method, so this method has become a
Buddhist method. In Buddhist terminology it is known as Anapanasati Yoga.
And Buddha's enlightenment was based on this technique -- only this.
All the religions of the world, all the seers of the world, have reached
through some technique or other, and all those techniques will be in these
one hundred and twelve techniques. This first one is a Buddhist technique.
It has become known in the world as a Buddhist technique because Buddha
attained his enlightenment through this technique.
Buddha said, "Be aware of your breath as it is coming in, going out --
coming in, going out." He never mentions the gap because there is no need.
Buddha thought and felt that if you become concerned with the gap, the gap
between two breaths, that concern may disturb your awareness. So he simply
said, "Be aware. When the breath is going in move with it, and when the
breath is going out move with it. Do simply this: going in, going out, with
the breath." He never says anything about the latter part of the technique.
The reason is that Buddha was talking with very ordinary men, and even that
might create a desire to attain the interval. That desire to attain the
interval will become a barrier to awareness, because if you are desiring to
get to the interval you will move ahead. Breath will be coming in, and you
will move ahead because you are interested in the gap which is going to be
in the future. Buddha never mentions it, so Buddha's technique is just half.
But the other half follows automatically. If you go on practicing breath
consciousness, breath awareness, suddenly, one day, without knowing, you
will come to the interval. Because as your awareness will become keen and
deep and intense, as your awareness will become bracketed -- the whole world
is bracketed out; only your breath coming in or going out is your world, the
whole arena for your consciousness -- suddenly you are bound to feel the gap
in which there is no breath.
When you are moving with breath minutely, when there is no breath, how can
you remain unaware? You will suddenly become aware that there is no breath,
and the moment will come when you will feel that the breath is neither going
out nor coming in. The breath has stopped completely. In that stopping, THE
BENEFICENCE.
This one technique is enough for millions. The whole of Asia tried and
lived with this technique for centuries. Tibet, China, Japan, Burma,
Thailand, Ceylon -- the whole of Asia except India has tried this technique.
Only one technique and thousands and thousands have attained enlightenment
through it. And this is only the first technique.
But unfortunately, because the technique became associated with Buddha's
name, Hindus have been trying to avoid it. Because it became more and more
known as a Buddhist method, Hindus have completely forgotten it. And not
only that, they have also tried to avoid it for another reason. Because this
technique is the first technique mentioned by Shiva, many Buddhists have
claimed that this book, VIGYANA BHAIRAVA TANTRA, is a Buddhist book, not a
Hindu book.
It is neither Hindu nor Buddhist -- a technique is just a technique. Buddha
used it, but it was there already to be used. Buddha became a buddha, an
enlightened one, because of the technique. The technique preceded Buddha;
the technique was already there. Try it. It is one of the most simple
techniques -- simple compared to other techniques; I am not saying simple
for you. Other techniques will be more difficult. That is why it is
mentioned as the first technique.
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT
THE CORE ENERGY TECHNIQUES !!
ENERGY
ENHANCEMENT, !!! ULTIMATE !!!!!! ANCIENT !!! !!! EFFECTIVE !!!!!
SUCCESSFUL !!!
1. Get into Intense alignment with Your Own Kundalini Energy and Immediate
Access to the Meditative State.
2. Remove your Energy Blockages with The Circulation of the Energies, the
Kundalini Kriyas, Ancient Taoist Energy Circulations which have worked
effectively for 5000 years to help all towards ENLIGHTENMENT.
3. The Grounding of all your Negative Energies through Alchemical VITRIOL -
Become Incredibly POSITIVE and ENERGETIC!!
4. Alignment with Your Higher Self - INCREASE YOUR IQ, INCREASE YOUR LUCK,
ACCESS YOUR HIGHEST ENERGIES!! ACHIEVE WHAT YOU WERE PUT ON THIS PLANET TO DO.
5. Learn how to USE and Increase the LOVE of Your Heart Center to ZAP YOUR
NEGATIVE EMOTIONS AND DEVELOP PSYCHIC POWERS TO HEAL YOURSELF AND OTHERS.
6. Overcome ENERGY VAMPIRES - MASTER ENERGY PROTECTION AND MAINTAIN YOUR HIGH
ENERGIES!!
7. EXPERIENCE INCREDIBLE RELATIONSHIPS WITH ENERGY ENHANCEMENT - THE CORE ENERGY
TECHNIQUES
8. ENERGY ENHANCEMENT Techniques are the source of all Successful spiritual
training courses over the last 5000 years. Become a Jedi Master, a Gandalf, a
Transmitter of the FORCE a Bringer of the Light!!
GET MORE ENERGY!!!
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT -
!!! ULTIMATE !!!
!!! ANCIENT !!!
!!! EFFECTIVE !!!
!!! SUCCESSFUL !!!
Goto and SIGNUP NOW!!
http://www.energyenhancement.org/HomeStudyMeditationCourse.htm
The second technique -- all these nine techniques are concerned with
breath.
AS BREATH TURNS FROM DOWN TO UP, AND AGAIN AS BREATH CURVES FROM UP TO DOWN
-- THROUGH BOTH THESE TURNS, REALIZE.
It is the same, but with a slight difference. The emphasis is now not on
the gap, but on the turning. The outgoing and ingoing breath make a circle.
Remember, these are not two parallel lines. We always think of them as two
parallel lines -- breath going in and breath going out. Do you think that
these are two parallel lines? They are not. Breath going in is half the
circle; breath going out is the other half of the circle.
So understand this: first, breathing in and out creates a circle. They are
not parallel lines, because parallel lines never meet anywhere. Secondly,
the breath coming in and the breath going out are not two breaths, they are
one breath. The same breath which comes in, goes out, so it must have a turn
inside. It must turn somewhere. There must be a point where the incoming
breath becomes outgoing.
Why put such emphasis upon turning? Because, Shiva says, AS BREATH TURNS
FROM DOWN TO UP AND AGAIN AS BREATH CURVES FROM UP TO DOWN, THROUGH BOTH
THESE TURNS, REALIZE. Very simple, but he says: realize the turns and you
will realize the self.
Why the turn? If you know driving you know about gears. Each time you
change the gear, you have to pass through the neutral gear, which is not a
gear at all. From the first gear you move to the second or from the second
to the third, but always you have to move through the neutral gear. That
neutral gear is a turning point. In that turning point the first gear
becomes the second and the second becomes the third. When your breath goes
in and turns out, it passes through the neutral gear; otherwise it cannot
turn out. It passes through the neutral territory.
In that neutral territory you are neither a body nor a soul, neither
physical nor mental, because the physical is a gear of your being and the
mental is another gear of your being. You go on moving from gear to gear,
but you must have a neutral gear where you are neither body nor mind. In
that neutral gear you simply are: you are simply an existence -- pure,
simple, unembodied, with no mind.
That is why there is the emphasis on the turn. Man is a machine -- a large,
very complicated machine. You have many gears in your body, many gears in
your mind. You are not aware of your great mechanism, but you are a great
machine. And it is good that you are not aware; otherwise you could go mad.
The body is such a great machine that scientists say if we had to create a
factory parallel to the human body, it would require four square miles of
land, and the noise would be such that one hundred square miles of land
would be disturbed by it.
The body is a great mechanical device -- the greatest. You have millions
and millions of cells and each cell is alive. So you are a big city of
seventy million cells; there are seventy million citizens inside you, and
the whole city is running very silently, smoothly. Every moment the
mechanism is working. It is very complicated. These techniques will be
related at many points with the mechanism of your body and the mechanism of
your mind. But always the emphasis will be on those points where suddenly
you are not part of the mechanism -- remember this. Suddenly you are not
part of the mechanism. There are moments when you change gears.
For example, in the night when you drop into sleep you change gears,
because during the day you need a different mechanism for a waking
consciousness -- a different part of the mind functions. Then you drop into
sleep, and that part becomes non-functioning. Another part of the mind
begins to function, and there is a gap, an interval, a turning. A gear is
changed. In the morning when you are again getting up, the gear is changed.
You are silently sitting, and suddenly someone says something and you get
angry -- you move into a different gear. That is why everything changes.
If you get angry, your breathing will suddenly change. Your breathing will
become irritated, chaotic. A trembling will get into your breathing; you
will feel suffocated. Your whole body would like to do something, shatter
something, only then can the suffocation disappear. Your breathing will
change; your blood will take a different rhythm, a different movement.
Different chemicals will have to be released in the body, the whole
glandular system will have to change. You become a different man when you
are angry.
A car is standing... you start it. Do not put it in any gear, let it be in
neutral. It will go on pulling, vibrating, trembling, but it cannot move; it
will get hot. That is why, when you are angry and you cannot do something,
you will get hot. The mechanism is ready to run and do something and you are
not doing -- you will get hot. You are a mechanism, but, of course, not only
a mechanism. You are more, but the "more" has to be found. When you get into
a gear, everything changes inside. When you change the gear, there is a
turning.
Shiva says,
AS BREATH TURNS FROM DOWN TO UP, AND AGAIN AS BREATH CURVES FROM UP TO DOWN
-- THROUGH BOTH THESE TURNS, REALIZE.
Be aware at the turn. But it is a very short turn; very minute observation
will be needed. And we are just without any observing capacity; we cannot
observe anything. If I say to you, "Observe this flower; observe this flower
which I give to you," you cannot observe it. For a single moment you will
see it, and then you will begin to think of something else. It may be about
the flower, but it will not be THE FLOWER. You may think about the flower,
about how beautiful it is -- then you have moved. Now the flower is no more
in your observation, your field has changed. You may say that it is red, it
is blue, it is white... then you have moved. Observation means remaining
with no word, with no verbalization, with no bubbling inside -- just
remaining WITH. If you can remain with a flower for three minutes,
completely, with no movement of the mind, the thing will happen -- the
beneficence. You will realize.
But we are not at all observers. We are not aware, we are not alert; we
cannot pay attention to anything. We just go on jumping. This is part of our
heritage, our monkey heritage. Our mind is just the growth of the monkey
mind, so the monkey moves on. He goes on jumping from here to there. The
monkey cannot sit still. That is why Buddha insisted so much on just sitting
without any movement, because then the monkey mind is not allowed to go on
its way.
In Japan they have a particular type of meditation which they call Zazen.
The word 'zazen' in Japan means just sitting, doing nothing. No movement is
allowed. One is just sitting like a statue -- dead, not moving at all. But
there is no need to sit like a statue for years together. If you can observe
the turn of your breath without any movement of the mind, you will enter.
You will enter into yourself or into the beyond within.
Why are these turnings so important? They are important because on turning,
the breath leaves you to move in a different direction. It was with you when
it was coming in; it will be with you again when it goes out. But at the
turning point it is not with you and you are not with it. In that moment the
breath is different from you, and you are different from it: if breathing is
life, then you are dead; if breathing is your body, then you are no-body; if
breathing is your mind, then you are no-mind... in that moment.
I wonder whether you have observed it or not: if you stop your breath, the
mind stops suddenly. If you stop your breath just now, your mind will stop
suddenly; the mind cannot function. A sudden stoppage of breath and the mind
stops. Why? Because they are disjoined. Only a moving breath is joined with
the mind, with the body; a non-moving breath is disjoined. Then you are in
the neutral gear. The car is running, the power is on, the car is making a
noise -- it is ready to go forward -- but it is not in gear, so the body of
the car and the mechanism of the car are not joined. The car is divided into
two. It is ready to move, but the moving mechanism is not joined with it.
The same happens when breath takes a turn. You are not joined with it. In
that moment you can easily become aware of who you are. What is this being?
What is it to be? Who is inside this house of the body? Who is the master?
Am I just the house or is there some master also? Am I just the mechanism or
does something else also penetrate this mechanism? In that turning gap,
Shiva says, REALIZE. He says just be aware of the turning, and you become a
realized soul.
The third technique:
OR, WHENEVER IN-BREATH AND OUT-BREATH FUSE, AT THIS INSTANT TOUCH THE
ENERGY-LESS, ENERGY-FILLED CENTER.
We are divided into the center and the periphery. The body is the
periphery; we know the body, we know the periphery. We know the
circumference, but we do not know where the center is. When the out-breath
fuses with the in-breath, when they become one, when you cannot say whether
it is the out-breath or the in-breath... when it is difficult to demarcate
and define whether the breath is going out or coming in, when the breath has
penetrated in and starts moving out, there is a moment of fusion. It is
neither going out nor moving in. The breath is static. When it is moving out
it is dynamic; when it is coming in it is dynamic. When it is neither, when
it is silent, non-moving, you are near to the center. The fusion point of
the in and outgoing breath is your center.
Look at it in this way: when the breath goes in, where does it go? It goes
to your center, it touches your center. When it goes out, from where does it
go out? It moves from your center. Your center has to be touched. That is
why Taoist mystics and Zen mystics say that the head is not the center, the
navel is your center. The breath goes to the navel, then it moves out. It
goes to the center.
As I said, it is a bridge between you and your body. You know the body, but
you do not know where your center is. The breath is constantly going to the
center and moving out, but we are not taking enough breath. Thus, ordinarily
it does not really go to the center -- now, at least, it is not going to the
center. That is why everyone feels "off-center." In the whole modern world,
those who can think at all feel they are missing their center.
Look at a child sleeping, observe his breath. The breath goes in; the
abdomen comes up. The chest remains unaffected. That is why children have no
chests, only abdomens -- very dynamic abdomens. The breath goes in and the
abdomen comes up; the breath goes out and the abdomen goes down... the
abdomen moves. Children are in their center, at their center. That is why
they are so happy, so bliss-filled, so energy-filled, never tired --
overflowing, and always in the present moment with no past, no future.
A child can be angry. When he is angry, he is totally angry; he becomes the
anger. Then his anger is also a beautiful thing. When one is totally angry,
anger has a beauty of its own, because totality always has beauty.
You cannot be angry and beautiful, you will become ugly, because partiality
is always ugly. And not only with anger. When you love you are ugly because
you are again partial, fragmentary; you are not total. Look at your face
when you are loving someone, making love. Make love before a mirror and look
at your face -- it will be ugly, animal-like. In love also your face becomes
ugly. Why? Love is also a conflict, you are withholding something. You are
giving very miserly. Even in your love you are not total; you do not give
completely, wholly.
A child even in anger and violence is total. His face becomes radiant and
beautiful; he is here and now. His anger is not something concerned with the
past or something concerned with the future, he is not calculating, he is
just angry. The child is at his center. When you are at your center you are
always total. Whatsoever you do will be a total act; good or bad, it will be
total. When you are fragmentary, when you are off-center, your every act is
bound to be a fragment of yourself. Your totality is not responding, just a
part, and the part is going against the whole -- -that creates ugliness.
We all were children. Why is it that as we grow our breathing becomes
shallow? It never goes to the abdomen; it never touches the navel. If it
could go down more and more it would become less and less shallow, but it
just touches the chest and goes out. It never goes to the center. You are
afraid of the center, because if you go to the center you will become total.
If you want to be fragmentary, this is the mechanism to be fragmentary.
You love -- if you breathe from the center, you will flow in it totally.
You are afraid. You are afraid to be so vulnerable, so open to someone, to
anyone. You may call him your lover, you may call her your beloved, but you
are afraid. The other is there. If you are totally vulnerable, open, you do
not know what is going to happen. Then YOU ARE completely, in another sense.
You are afraid to be so completely given to someone. You cannot breathe; you
cannot take a deep breath. You cannot relax your breathing so that it goes
to the center -- because the moment breathing goes to the center your act
becomes total.
Because you are afraid of being total, you breathe shallowly. You breathe
just at the minimum, not at the maximum. That is why life seems so lifeless.
If you are breathing at the minimum, life will become lifeless; you are
living at the minimum, not at the maximum. You can live at the maximum --
then life is an overflowing. But then there will be difficulty. You cannot
be a husband, you cannot be a wife, if life is overflowing. Everything will
become difficult.
If life is overflowing, love will be overflowing. Then you cannot stick to
one. Then you will be flowing all over; all dimensions will be filled by
you. And then the mind feels danger, so it is better not to be alive. The
more you are dead, the more you are secure. The more you are dead, the more
everything is in control. You can control; then you remain the master. You
feel that you are the master because you can control. You can control your
anger, you can control your love, you can control everything. But this
controlling is possible only at the minimum level of your energy.
Everyone must have felt at some time or other that there are moments when
he suddenly changes from the minimum level to the maximum. You go out to a
hill station. Suddenly you are out of the city and the prison of it. You
feel free. The sky is vast, and the forest is green, and the height touches
the clouds. Suddenly you take a deep breath. You may not have observed it.
Now if you go to a hill station, observe. It is not really the hill station
that makes the change. It is your breathing. You take a deep breath. You
say, "Ah! Ah!" You touch the center, you become total for a moment, and
everything is bliss. That bliss is not coming from the hill station, that
bliss is coming from your center -- you have touched it suddenly.
You were afraid in the city. Everywhere there were others present and you
were controlling. You could not scream, you could not laugh. What a
misfortune! You could not sing on the street and dance. You were afraid -- a
policeman was somewhere around the corner, or the priest or the judge or the
politician or the moralist. Someone was just around the corner, so you could
not just dance in the street.
Bertrand Russell has said somewhere, "I love civilization, but we have
achieved civilization at a very great cost." You cannot dance in the
streets, but you go to a hill station and suddenly you can dance. You are
alone with the sky, and the sky is not an imprisonment. It is just opening,
opening and opening -- vast, infinite. Suddenly you take a breath deeply, it
touches the center and the bliss. But it is not so for long. Within an hour
or two, the hill station will disappear. You may be there, but the hill
station will disappear.
Your worries will come back. You will begin to think to make a call to the
city, to write a letter to your wife, or you will begin to think that since
after three days you are going back you should make arrangements. You have
just reached and you are making arrangements to leave. You are back.
That breath was not from you really; it suddenly happened. Because of the
change of situation the gear changed. You were in a new situation, you could
not breathe in the old way, so for a moment a new breath came in. It touched
the center, and you felt the bliss.
Shiva says you are every moment touching the center, or if you are not
touching you CAN touch it. Take deep, slow breaths. Touch the center; do not
breathe from the chest -- that is a trick. Civilization, education,
morality, they have created shallow breathing. It will be good to go deep
into the center, because otherwise you cannot take deep breaths.
Unless humanity becomes non-suppressive toward sex, man cannot breathe
really. If the breath goes deep down to the abdomen, it gives energy to the
sex center. It touches the sex center; it massages the sex center from
within. The sex center becomes more active, more alive. Civilization is
afraid of sex. We do not allow our children to touch their sex centers,
their sex organs. We say, "Stop! Don't touch!"
Look at a child when he first touches his sex center, and then say "Stop!"
and then observe his breathing. When you say "Stop! Don't touch your sex
center!" the breath will become shallow immediately -- because it is not
only his hand which is touching the sex center, deep down the breath is
touching it. And if the breath goes on touching it, it is difficult to stop
the hand. If the hand stops, then basically it is necessary, required, that
the breath should not touch, should not go deep. It must remain shallow.
We are afraid of sex. The lower part of the body is not only lower
physically, it has become lower as a value. It is condemned as "lower." So
do not go deep, just remain shallow. It is unfortunate that we can only
breathe downwards. If some preachers were allowed, they would change the
whole mechanism. They would only allow you to breathe upward into the head.
Then you would absolutely not feel sex.
If we are to create a sexless humanity, then we will have to change the
breathing system. The breath must go into the head, to the SAHASRAR -- the
seventh center in the head -- then come back to the mouth. This should be
the passage: from the mouth to the sahasrar. It must not go deep down
because down is dangerous. The deeper you go, the nearer you reach to the
deeper layers of biology. You reach to the center, and that center is just
near the sex center -- just near. It has to be, because sex is life.
Look at it in this way: breath is life from above downwards; sex is life
from just the other corner -- from down upwards. Sex energy is flowing and
breath energy is flowing. The breath passage is in the upper body and the
sex passage is in the lower body. When they meet they create life; when they
meet they create biology, bio-energy. So if you are afraid of sex, create a
distance between the two, do not allow them to meet. So really, civilized
man is a castrated man; that is why we do not know about breath, and this
sutra will be difficult to understand.
Shiva says, WHENEVER IN-BREATH AND OUT-BREATH FUSE, AT THIS INSTANT TOUCH
THE ENERGY-LESS, ENERGY-FILLED CENTER. He uses very contradictory terms:
"energy-less, energy-filled." It is energy-less because your bodies, your
minds, cannot give any energy to it. Your body energy is not there, your
mind energy is not there, so it is energy-less as far as you know your
identity. But it is energy-filled because it has the cosmic source of
energy, not because of your body energy.
Your body energy is just fuel energy. It is nothing but petrol. You eat
something, you drink something -- it creates energy. It is just giving fuel
to the body. Stop eating and drinking and your body will fall dead. Not just
now, it will take three months at least, because you have reservoirs of
petrol. You have accumulated much energy; it can run for at least three
months without going to any petrol station. It can run; it has a reservoir.
For an emergency, any emergency, you may need it.
This is "fuel" energy. The center is not getting any fuel energy. That is
why Shiva says it is energy-less. It is not dependent on your eating and
drinking. It is connected with the cosmic source; it is cosmic energy. That
is why he says ENERGY- LESS, ENERGY-FILLED CENTER. The moment you can feel
the center from where breath goes out or comes in, the very point where the
breaths fuse -- that center -- if you become aware of it, then
enlightenment.
The fourth technique:
OR, WHEN BREATH IS ALL OUT (UP) AND STOPPED OF ITSELF, OR ALL IN (DOWN) AND
STOPPED -- IN SUCH UNIVERSAL PAUSE, ONE'S SMALL SELF VANISHES. THIS IS
DIFFICULT ONLY FOR THE IMPURE. But then it is difficult for everyone
because, he says, THIS IS DIFFICULT ONLY FOR THE IMPURE. But who is the pure
one? It is difficult for you; you cannot practice it. But you can feel it
sometimes suddenly. You are driving a car and suddenly you feel there is
going to be an accident. Breathing will stop. If it is out, it will remain
out. If it is in, it will remain in. You cannot breathe in such an
emergency; you cannot afford it. Everything stops, departs.
OR, WHEN BREATH IS ALL OUT (UP) AND STOPPED OF ITSELF, OR ALL IN (DOWN) AND
STOPPED -- IN SUCH UNIVERSAL PAUSE, ONE'S SMALL SELF VANISHES: Your small
self is only a daily utility. In emergencies you cannot remember it. Who you
are -- the name, the bank balance, the prestige, everything -- just
evaporates. Your car is just heading toward another car; another moment and
there will be death. In this moment there will be a pause. Even for the
impure there will be a pause. Suddenly breathing stops. If you can be aware
in that moment, you can reach the goal.
Zen monks have tried this method very much in Japan. That is why their
methods seem very weird, absurd, strange. They have done many inconceivable
things. A master will throw someone out of the house. Suddenly the master
will begin slapping the disciple without any rhyme or reason, without any
cause.
You were sitting with your master and everything was okay. You were just
chit-chatting, and he will begin to beat you in order to create the pause.
If there is any cause the pause cannot be created. If you had abused the
master and he starts beating you there is a causality, your mind
understands: "I abused him, and he is beating me."
Really, your mind was expecting it already, so there is no gap. But
remember, a Zen master will not beat you if you abuse him, he will laugh,
because then laughter can create the pause. You were abusing him and you
were saying nonsense things to him, and you expected anger. But he starts
laughing or dancing. That is sudden; that will create the pause. You cannot
understand it. If you cannot understand the mind stops, and when the mind
stops, breathing stops. Either way -- if breathing stops, mind stops; if
mind stops, breathing stops.
You were appreciating the master and you were feeling good, and you were
thinking, "Now the master must be pleased." And suddenly he takes his staff
and begins to beat you -- and mercilessly, because Zen masters are
merciless. He begins to beat you; you cannot understand what is happening.
The mind stops, there is a pause. If you know the technique, you can attain
to your self.
There are many stories that someone attained buddhahood because the teacher
suddenly started beating him. You cannot understand it -- what nonsense! How
can one attain buddhahood by being beaten by someone, or by being thrown out
of the window by someone? Even if someone kills you, you cannot attain
buddhahood. But if you understand this technique, then it becomes easy to
understand.
In the West particularly, in the last thirty or forty years Zen has become
very much prevalent -- a fashion. But unless they know this technique, they
cannot understand Zen. They can imitate it, but imitation is of no use.
Rather, it is dangerous. These are not things to be imitated.
The whole Zen technique is based on the fourth technique of Shiva. But this
is unfortunate. Now we will have to import Zen from Japan because we have
lost the whole tradition; we do not know it. Shiva was the expert par
excellence of this method. When he came to marry Devi with his BARAT, his
procession, the whole city must have felt the pause... the whole city!
Devi's father was not willing to marry his girl to this "hippie" -- Shiva
was the original hippie. Devi's father was totally against him, and no
father would permit this marriage. So we cannot say anything against Devi's
father. No father would permit his daughter's marriage to Shiva. But Devi
insisted so he had to agree -- unwillingly, unhappily, but he agreed.
Then came the marriage procession. It is said that people began to run,
seeing Shiva and his procession. The whole barat must have taken LSD,
marijuana. They were "high." And really, LSD and marijuana are just the
beginning. Shiva knew and his friends and disciples knew the ultimate
psychedelic -- SOMA RASA. Aldous Huxley has named the ultimate psychedelic
"soma" only because of Shiva. They were high, just dancing, screaming,
laughing. The whole city fled. It must have felt the pause.
Any sudden, unexpected, unbelievable thing can create the pause for the
impure. But for the pure there is no need of such things. For the pure, the
pause is always there. Many times, for pure minds, breathing stops. If your
mind is pure -- pure means you are not desiring, hankering, seeking anything
-- silently pure, innocently pure, you can be sitting and suddenly your
breath will stop.
Remember this: mind movement needs breath movement. Mind moving fast needs
fast movement in breath. That is why when you are in anger, breath will move
fast. In the sex act, the breath will move very fast. That is why in
Ayurveda- a system of herbal medicine in India- it is said that your life
will be shortened if too much sex is allowed. Your life will he shortened,
according to Ayurveda, because Ayurveda measures your life in breaths. If
your breathing is too fast, your life will be shortened.
Modern medicine says that sex helps blood circulation, sex helps
relaxation. And those who suppress their sex may get into trouble --
particularly heart trouble. They are right and Ayurveda is also right, but
they seem contradictory. But Ayurveda was invented five thousand years
before. Every man was doing much labor: life was labor, so there was no need
to relax, there was no need to create artificial devices for blood
circulation.
But now, for those who are not doing much physical labor, sex is their only
labor. That is why modern medicine is also right for modern man. He is not
doing any physical exertion, so sex gives the exertion: the heart beats
more, the blood circulates faster, the breathing becomes deep and goes to
the center. So after the sex act you feel relaxed and you can fall into
sleep easily. Freud says that sex is the best tranquillizer, and it is -- at
least for modern man.
In sex breathing will become fast; in anger breathing will become fast. In
sex the mind is filled with desire, lust, impurity. When the mind is pure --
no desire in the mind, no seeking, no motivation; you are not going
anywhere, but just remaining here and now as an innocent pool... not even a
ripple -- then breathing stops automatically. There is no need for it.
On this path, the small self vanishes and you attain to the higher self,
the supreme self.
I think this will do for today.
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT
THE CORE ENERGY TECHNIQUES !!
CLICK BELOW TO GO TO
Take your time, this site has much new wonderful information. |
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT OSHO MEDITATION ARTICLES INTRODUCTION TESTIMONIALS EE DIRECTORS EE FAQS EE LEVEL1 EE LEVEL2 EE LEVEL3 EE LEVEL4 EE DVD VIDEO COURSE EE ONLINE COURSE COURSE IN ARGENTINA COURSE IN SPAIN COURSE IN PERU + IGUAZU EE COURSES INDIA TOUR EE COURSES TAJ MAHAL EE YOGA TEACHER TRAINING TALKS BY SATCHIDANAND EE E BOOK EE REIKI EE TEACHER TRAINING |