Yoga is the ultimate process of individual feeling one with the whole
existence — call it God or Godliness. And the breath is the vital
bridge between the two poles of existence. Talking on this phenomenon
of breathing, Osho says: It is not just air coming and going through
your lungs. Yoga says the air is just the outer layer of it. Hidden
deep in that layer is vitality. So breathing has two parts. One: the
body of breathing, made up of oxygen, nitrogen and so on, and, two:
the spirit of breathing, made up of vitality, God himself.

He says in The Way of Tao: It is like your body is there, and you,
your consciousness, is hidden deep down in your body. The body is a
protection, a vehicle. The body is the visible vehicle for the

non-visible you. And the same is the case with every breath. The
breath itself is just the outer layer; hidden deep in it is life
itself.

Once you discover that God himself is hidden in breath, you have come
to know yourself. That’s why there is so much insistence and so much
search in yoga, Tao and tantra about breathing. If you simply go on
breathing and thinking that this is just air coming in and going out
you will never be able to penetrate the mystery of it. And you will
remain completely oblivious of yourself. Then you will remain rooted
in the body. You will never be able to know that which goes beyond the
body, that which is within but yet beyond, that which is hidden in the
body but not obstructed by the body, not limited by the body. A beyond
within.

Yoga calls those methods pranayama. The word pranayama means expansion
of life. One has to expand life to infinity in each breath. Buddha has
called his own methods of discovering the innermost core of breath
Anapana-Ssati Yoga: the yoga, the science, of incoming and outgoing
breath; and Buddha has said no other yoga is needed. If you can deeply
watch your own breathing, and watch so meditatively that anything that
is hidden in the breath does not remain hidden but becomes revealed,
you will come to know all.

Buddha is reported to have said to his monks: “Sitting, walking,
standing, whatsoever you are doing, go on doing these things, but let
your consciousness be aware of the breath coming in, going out. Go on

looking at your own breath — one day with the very continuous
hammering on the breath, the temple opens.”

Osho reminds us: The God is hidden in the temple of the breath.
Suddenly one day you become aware that it is not just air. If for you
it is just air, you have a scientific mind but you don’t have the

awareness which can reveal the innermost core of it. Then you can
analyse and come to know how much oxygen is needed, how much hydrogen,
how much nitrogen, how much carbon dioxide, and you can go on playing
with the body of the breath — but you missed the innermost real
phenomenon.

That’s why, if a man is dead, you can give him, pump into him, the
right proportion of oxygen, but he will not be alive. Unless God
breathes in it, unless it contains the innermost consciousness of the

whole, it is a dead breath. Oxygen will pass through the lungs —
nothing will happen.

The author travels around the world to facilitate Osho meditation retreats.

Osho Meditation Retreats on the East Coast. USA
Facilitated by Swami Chaitanya Keerti

Beginning with Osho Full Moon Celebration
in Greater Washington
15 July to 19 July, 2016
Sw. Anam +1 813 830 3031

The Path of Love and Meditation
New York 22-24 July
Osho Sadhana Meditation Center
www.oshonewyork.com

North Carolina 29-31 July,
http://www.meetup.com/Osho-Meditation-Group-Raleigh/members/

Florida 5-7 August..

Coordination of meditation camps in these cities by
Swami Prabhat +1 703 625 6746

In one of his famous poems, T.S. Eliot (Choruses from The Rock) makes
a very significant observation about the time we are living in today,
which comes close to the ulatbaansis (paradoxes) of our very own
mystic poet Kabir. He says: “Men have left God not for other gods,
they say, but for no God; and this has never happened before/that men
both deny gods and worship gods… In an age which advances
progressively backwards?”Yes, it is a very big question. Are we moving
forward or backwards? Are we progressing or regressing? Superficially,
we seem to have leaped very high, dizzying heights, never seen before,
but as far as the state of love, consciousness, non-violence,
compassion, sensitivity and poetic creativity is concerned, it is
becoming very dry. We reason a lot and indulge in all kinds of clever
mind games, logic-chopping, but heart-to-heart connectivity between
human beings is fading away very fast. And with this, the sacred
feeling of divinity is disappearing. We have forgotten the prophetic
words of Jesus: “Man does not live by bread alone…”

Osho describes the present situation: Yes, something has happened that
has never happened before: for the first time in the evolution of
human consciousness, man stands alienated from God. Man stands
separated from existence. Man stands lonely, with no companion, in
great darkness, with no light to lead him, to guide him. Man has never
been in such despair, man has never been in such a state of
homelessness.

We have created sky scrappers, and they make humans feel dwarfs. Every
day such monstrous buildings are competing with the other buildings in
heights. The trees look very tiny. Not long ago it used to be the
other way, trees were higher than our homes giving us abundant oxygen
and prana energy.

What we have now, is fumes of thousands of vehicles in a congested
area. It is really a miracle how we are adjusting to all this un-godly
prana-sucking deadly situation in a concrete jungle.
Osho reminds us: Man had always lived with nature. To live with nature
is to live with God in an indirect way, because nature reflects God in
a thousand and one ways. The growing trees, faraway call of the
cuckoo, winds in the pine trees, rivers moving towards the ocean and
the proud mountains standing in the sun and the starry night, and it
is impossible not to be reminded of some invisible hands. It is
impossible not to see that existence is not dead, but alive. The ocean
heaves, breathes; the whole existence is a growing phenomenon. It is
not dead, it cannot be dead.

Everything is growing. Because of this growing experience man has
remained constantly aware of some invisible, mysterious force behind
it all. That force is called God. God is not a person, but just a
presence. When you go deep into the Himalayas, you again feel a kind
of reverence, awe and you wonder. Again you feel something that was
very easily available to the primitive man.

The full-moon night is the best for meditation. Many people who have become buddhas have attained their enlightenment on the full-moon night, even Buddha himself.

It may have been a coincidence, but it is significant to remember: he was born on the full-moon night, he became enlightened on the full-moon night and he died on the full-moon night.

Something in the full moon seemed to be synchronizing with his energy.

Use it. Be alert and use every possibility to help you go in. Once you are awakened, then there is no problem. Then you can be at ease, at rest, at peace, anywhere.” Osho, The Dhammapada

Consciousness: Beyond the Frontiers of Mind Swami Chaitanya Keerti

There are hundreds of meditation methods being practiced all over the world. But perhaps there’s only one of them is time-tested method which has been effective for the last ten thousand years. This method is known as Vipassana, which really means watching one’s breath. This method has never failed simply because it brings our whole consciousness in the moment. Meditation also means the art of being in the moment — no past, no future, just in this moment.

When we pray or chant a mantra, our mind can wander off in all directions. Thinking continues. Calculations go on. The mind becomes full of the market. We may start dreaming or having an inner dialogue with our beloved or wife, friend or an enemy. It does not matter with whom — we may start talking with the Almighty God of our own imagination. We may create any hallucination. Everything that our mind does takes us to the past or the future. And what brings us back in the moment? This simple method of watching the breath in its natural rhythm.

We cannot breathe in the past or the future. It is simply impossible.

When we breathe, our thinking also stops because the breathing needs all the attention. You cannot divide the attention. Breath generates a certain amount of energy in the body that has its own effect. In certain meditation methods, such as Osho Dynamic Meditation, vigorous breathing takes place. Such methods are really helpful as a preparation to move to simple methods of watching the breath. Such methods bring deeper relaxation and when you relax later, you can watch your breath passively and naturally and continue to remain in the moment.

In Vipassana one goes inward with the breath consciously and comes out with it consciously. There’s no time gap in between. You are not thinking of exhaling when you are inhaling. You are not thinking of inhaling when you are exhaling. Try this method and see what happens to you in this process. Go on to the terrace or some other solitary place where there’s no possibility of any interference.

Just sitting and watching the breath is a traditional method of Vipassana. This method in its purity is very good but may not be suitable to everybody in the beginning. Most of the people have a lot of tension in their body and they find it quite difficult to just sit and watch the breath. So I have a suggestion for them to do something else before they get into this method. One thing that may be useful is to breathe vigorously for some time– bring all your energy to exhaling and inhaling. The moment will come naturally when you will feel like sitting down or just standing or you may even want to lie down. Do that. Then watch your breath going in and coming out in its natural rhythm. You will feel the deepest rest and total relaxation, at the same time a glimpse of meditation or expansion of your consciousness. With such techniques you can always find your own rhythm and time limit.

Meditation happens in deep restfulness, in passive alertness, it is not an action. It actually happens when all action stops and ultimately the mind stops. It is an intense feeling of unknown energy that resides within us.

This energy is really a delight and celebration. If you start your day like this you become very light and you would have a subtle dance to your ordinary walk. An early dose of this energy will work wonders for the rest of the day. You will move with a confidence you have never seen before. When your work matesco-workers start noticing this change, you can invite them to join you. Then even your office can become tension-free and a place of meditation. You transcend the mundane and enter the divine.

In one of his discourses on meditation, Osho concludes: The mind is a wall, meditation is a bridge. The mind disconnects, meditation reconnects. And once you are one with the whole that means you are one with the trees and the mountains and the rivers and the stars and the sun and the moon. Then this infinity is yours and all its joys are yours. Life starts having freedom for the first time because all limitations disappear — and that is the ultimate desire of the human heart. We are searching continuously for the union, knowingly or unknowingly. We want to merge with the whole, because only with the whole does life come to its ultimate peak. Ecstasy attains its Everest.

A person who meditates sincerely generates tremendous energy within
and around him. Existence blesses him with healing powers that are
also felt by others. The same could happen to a devotee whose prayers
originate from his heart and is not a mechanical ritual taught by
priests. Authenticity is needed in both the cases. The healing power
with the meditator or the devotee is not something of his own, but a
blessing from the divine or God’s grace. The blessed one cannot claim
it as his own.

Many go on an ego trip of changing the world as a missionary. When the
flower blooms, it has the fragrance that spreads around.

The flower does not go into an ego trip; ego is a great destroyer.

In one of his discourses on The Hidden Splendour, Osho makes this
point with a Sufi story:

One Sufi mystic was so full of love and joy — his life was filled with
laughter, music and dancing.

So God became very interested in him because he never asked anything;
he never prayed. He never went to the mosque, he never even uttered
the name of God. If anybody asked him whether God exists or not, he
simply laughed, but never answered.

God became intrigued with the mystic and came to the Sufi and said, “I
am immensely happy because that’s how I want people to be. I don’t
want them to pray for an hour and do the opposite in the remaining 23
hours. I don’t want them to become pious once they enter the mosque,
and when they go back, they leave their piousness in the mosque and
are just their old selves: angry, jealous, full of anxiety and
violence.”

“I have watched you and I have loved you. That is why you have become
the prayer. You are, right now, my only argument in the world that
something more than man exists — although you have never argued, you
have not even uttered my name. Those are superfluous things… but you
live, you love, you are so full of joy that there is no need for any
language; your very presence becomes the argument for my existence. I
want to give you a blessing. You can ask for anything.”

The Sufi said, “But I don’t need anything. Forgive me, I cannot ask
because I really don’t need anything. You are generous, you are
loving, you are compassionate, but I am so full, there is no space
within me for anything else. You will have to forgive me, I cannot ask
for anything.”

God said, “I knew you would not ask for anything. Don’t ask for
yourself, but you can ask for others, because there are millions of
people who are miserable, sick and have never known anything for which
they can be grateful. I can give you powers to do miracles, and you
can change the lives of all these people.”

The Sufi said, “If you are insisting, then with a condition I can
accept your gift.”

God said, “With a condition? You are really strange. What is the condition?”

The Sufi said, “My condition is that I should not become aware of what
is happening through me, by you. It should happen behind my back, it
should happen through my shadow, not through me. I may be passing and
my shadow may fall on a dead tree, and the tree may become alive
again, but I should not know it, because I don’t want to fall back.”

“If I know it — that I have done it, or even that God has chosen me as
the instrument to do it — it is dangerous. So my condition is: a blind
man may start seeing, but neither should he know that it is because of
me, nor should I know that it is because of me. My shadow behind my
back will do all the miracles.”

And it is said that God said to him, “You are not only strange, you
are unique and rare. And this will be so: you will never know what
things are happening around you. Miracles will happen. And I will
remember your condition.”