Jesus has said: Those who are heavy-laden, filled with anxiety, whose minds have become burdened with derangement—come to me, and I will unburden you.
The same I say to you. Worries, sorrows, pains, afflictions exist because you are clutching them tightly. Worries do not clutch anyone; sorrow does not clutch anyone. It is man who clutches them.
The whole process of meditation is the process of dropping sorrow, dropping pain. You are not to drop wealth, not to drop the world; drop the tendency to grip sorrow. And once you experience that sorrow has not gripped you—you have gripped sorrow—then revolution happens in life. Because then no one can knowingly hold onto sorrow. We can hold sorrow only so long as we believe sorrow holds us and we are helpless. The truth is the reverse. Sorrow has no power to hold anyone. We hold it. And we can let it go.
Meditation is letting go—of sorrow, of pain, of anguish. The hell we have created for ourselves is our own creation. And within the human mind lie both possibilities—either create a hell, or create a heaven.
And this very mind that creates hell can become the maker of heaven. The difference is very slight. Only the art of letting go. A let-go. The possibility of surrendering everything—once it opens, heaven descends.
What Jesus said, I say to you as well. In this experiment, leave everything to me. The entire method is only to prepare you to let go. If one can let go without any method, then no method is needed at all.
But the habit is ancient. Grasping is of lifetimes. Therefore letting go is not easy. All the devices are to make letting go easy. All the devices are negative. The moment you drop, you will be filled by the grace of the infinite. Here you let go and there the filling begins. Here you empty and there the clouds begin to rain—of nectar, of bliss.
But your emptying is essential. For this emptying, understand clearly the three stages of meditation. There is no fourth stage; the fourth is rest after the three.
The first stage of meditation: for eight minutes, bhastrika—chaotic breathing. No order, no discipline to the breath. Only churning, as a blacksmith’s bellows works. Throw the breath out—with your total strength, leaving nothing inside. And take the breath in—with your total strength, filling as much as possible. And forget everything else. Only remember this much—that you have become just a bellows. Breath comes, breath goes; breath comes, breath goes. Put all your energy into one work alone—breathing in and breathing out.
Breath is the bridge connecting body and soul. When breath departs, the body dies. Breath is the link in between. That is why, for anyone who wants to enter within, the first effort has to be with the breath. When you forget everything—your body, yourself, your thoughts—and only the single activity of breathing remains, then you have stepped away from the body and are standing on the bridge, in the middle, where one door opens toward the body and another door opens toward the soul.
This in itself is a great event, because the very moment you stand upon this bridge you begin to see you are not the body.
So, for the first eight minutes, put in all the power you have, as if your whole life were at stake on the breath. In this experiment, unique changes will happen in your energy and in your body. The hidden electrical source of the body will awaken. Every pore will begin to stream with electricity. The whole body will become a current of energy. You will experience that the body is not made of clay, flesh, bone, but of rays of energy, of power.
Only when this body-energy—this bio-energy, this vital energy—awakens, can the inner journey begin. For this very energy functions as the fuel for the inner journey. Without fuel you cannot travel. So whoever is miserly in the first stage will be stuck right there; no journey will happen in the second. Only when the first stage reaches its peak does the leap into the second occur. Complete the first stage so that your body no longer feels material, but like energy. The earthiness of the body dissolves, and you begin to feel a fluid energy—that the body is a cluster of force. Vigorous breathing inevitably brings this result. You need do nothing else but stake everything on the breath. As soon as your body becomes a stream of energy, the inner journey can begin.
In the second stage, for eight minutes, whatever is repressed in the body… thousands of diseases—of body and mind—which we have suppressed. These very diseases have become a Himalayan obstruction to the inner journey. Until we can break these diseases apart, dissolve them, throw them out of ourselves, we will not become light and unburdened.
So the second stage is purgation—catharsis. You have to throw out all your illnesses. Understand that you are giving me all your diseases. Give them all to me. Drop everything. Don’t save anything. And whatever wants to happen, allow it to happen naturally. Someone will begin to cry, someone to scream, someone to shout, someone to dance, someone will beat their chest, someone’s face will be filled with the heat of anger, someone will appear completely deranged. Don’t stop anything. Whatever is happening, leave it wholly in my hands. I ask only for your diseases—drop them.
The moment you drop them, you will begin to feel light within. If one is to fly very high, one cannot carry weight. If one is to climb the Himalayas, one must lighten the load. Your own weight is enough; there is no need to carry the burden of disease along. With your own wings, throw the whole load over to me.
In the second stage, feel that whatever is suppressed, repressed, insane within you—you are offering it all to me. As soon as you begin to surrender it, a current will start to flow from within. All that you have suppressed in life will begin to come out.
You have never cried openly, nor laughed openly, nor expressed anger totally. Whatever you have done has been half-done, suppressed. It has all piled up within you. And it is not of a day, not of one life, but of many lives. It is the dust of a long journey. That very dust is pressing you down, sitting on your chest like a rock.
And our civilization, society, conditioning—all are on the side of repression. Because society cannot manage otherwise. Society will repress, conditioning will repress. But if you just go on carrying society’s repression and never one day throw it off and stand apart, there is no liberation for you. What is convenient for society is your bondage.
But this doesn’t mean that if anger arises you should unload it on someone, or if you feel like killing you should kill someone. This is the alchemy of meditation—that if anger arises, do not express it on a person; dissolve it into emptiness in meditation. If a murderous impulse arises, dissolve that impulse into emptiness too.
So, in the second stage, whatever comes to your mind, give it expression unhesitatingly, without any hindrance; give it voice, give it support. If crying comes, pour your whole energy into crying. If you feel like screaming, pour your whole energy into the scream. I mean: become the scream itself. Forget that you are anything else. Even a single full-bodied scream will make you lighter. Whatever is happening, give it your total cooperation. Drop all kinds of inhibitions. And feel that all illness, all disease, all repressed turbulence, all the dust—you are handing it over to me. Because if you cannot give me this, I cannot give you bliss. If you give me this, you will be empty—and can be filled with bliss.
Many have spoken of renunciation—of leaving wealth, house, home, loved ones, family. I ask you only to drop misery. Only drop sorrow. And if you are willing to give me your suffering, I am ready to give you bliss. It can happen this very moment.
If the second stage is complete, you will become like an empty vessel—no more scum, no dust collected. Or like a mirror we have cleansed of the dust of ages—now a reflection can arise—pure, pristine.
If the second stage remains incomplete, you will not enter the third. Each leap occurs only from completeness. When the second stage completes, only then are you at the peak from which you can jump into the third. Each stage is a necessary link. If even one remains incomplete, you will be stuck there. And this second is difficult, because the first was only breathing. The second is difficult because you will be afraid of the madness hidden inside you. You will not want to reveal what is within.
But if you are not ready to reveal your illness, no remedy can be found for it. If you are unwilling to reveal the disease, no surgery can be done. Your suppressed wounds will have to be exposed. However much you have hidden them, they will have to be brought to light so that you can be freed from them.
So, before me in this experiment, be utterly naked—hide nothing of what is within you. Let it be fully expressed. Drop the fear of what anyone will say. That very fear is the hindrance in meditation. Don’t be concerned with anyone. Care only for this: that I become whole, that all my illnesses fall away.
In this second stage you will become totally unhinged—because as things are, every person is born into a mad society, and before he can gather awareness, he himself has become mad. There is a great crowd of madmen. That crowd will not let you regain your senses; it makes you deranged and sick beforehand.
So when you begin to express, the madman within will start coming out. Offer him to me. Leave him with me wholeheartedly. In the second stage, give full cooperation to your insanity.
After the second stage, the third. Only when you have emptied yourself of your diseases, your repressed impulses, when you have thrown out your inner turbulence—only then can the third stage be used. For the third is a great mantra. It is a sound—HOO. You are to make this sound with such force that your entire body-mind system is put into it. Your mind must resound with HOO. Your body must resound with HOO. Let nothing remain within that is not saying HOO. Let every cell, every breath, every hair be filled with the sound of HOO, with the roar.
Only when you have become empty can this sound be used. When you are filled with madness and deranged voices and a crowd is moving within you, then HOO cannot enter. When you are utterly empty and silence has arisen inside, a void has opened, then with the sound HOO, the blow begins to land upon that vastness hidden within you.
This sound HOO has many effects. First: as you begin to fill with this roar, a blow is delivered to your sexual energy at the sex center within. Man has only one basic power—the sexual energy. If it flows outward it becomes biological reproduction. If it flows inward, the spiritual birth begins.
Sexual energy is the mother of birth. Ordinarily, the blow to the sex center comes from outside. A man sees a woman, and the blow falls upon the sex center. A woman is attracted to a man, and from outside the blow falls instantly upon her sex center. This too is an electrical blow. Man is one kind of electricity and woman another; both are opposite poles and attract each other. But this blow of attraction always falls from outside. Where the blow falls, toward that side the sexual energy begins to flow.
The sound HOO is an attempt to deliver the blow from within. When you shout HOO with force, that sound travels inward and strikes hard at the sex center just below the navel. It is the same center, struck from within. And the blow must be so strong that the center breaks from inside. The moment even a small fissure happens there, the energy begins to rise within. This is what yoga has called kundalini—people have given many names; names do not matter. Sexual energy, turned inward, becomes spiritual power.
You will experience this directly. As soon as the blow of HOO begins to fall, a heated current of sexual energy will start to rise upward. You will feel it in the body. Exactly in your spine a new current will begin to flow. The spine will grow hot, as if molten lava were streaming inside. And as this lava rises up your spine, you will find you are changing, becoming other than you were—the emergence of a new human being.
The higher this current of sexual energy moves in your spine, the higher the points from which you begin to see life. Energy standing at the sex center cannot experience anything more than the body; it is the lowest point. There are seven chakras in your body. Entering each chakra, you begin to experience a new body. At the seventh chakra you experience that place which we have called the gateway of liberation—because from there you begin to experience the bodiless, the non-material, the immaterial.
Sometimes it can happen in a single moment; sometimes it can take a long time. It will depend on your intensity—how deep your blow is.
So, in the third stage, deliver HOO with such force that this center of power begins to break within—and the current of energy leaves this center and enters your spine, setting out on its upward journey.
When the third stage completes, I will lead you into the fourth—which truly is not a stage; to be precise, it is meditation. The first three are preparations. You cannot go directly into the fourth; hence the need for the three. In the fourth there is nothing to do. As soon as the third completes, in the fourth either lie down, or sit, or if you wish, remain standing. Leave the body in the fourth as if it has become a corpse. As if you are no longer the body. In fact, if the three stages have completed, you are not the body. And you will not have to leave the body like a corpse—it will drop of itself. In this fourth stage you have only to remain a witness—only to keep watching whatever is happening within. Much will happen. So the fourth stage is of deep waiting, of witnessing, of rest.
Much will begin to occur inside. The first thing that usually happens is a sense of a most extraordinary light. If sexual energy has entered the spine, instantly the realm of light opens within. You have seen light outside; this has no resemblance to that. As if thousands upon thousands of suns have risen together within, such light will begin to happen inside you.
Do not be afraid of this light. We have become accustomed to living in darkness; our eyes are used only to the dark. Inside us it is utterly dark; we have never seen any light there. When, for the first time, light happens there, the mind will become very frightened. Do not be afraid. I am present here. Do not worry at all. Leave everything to me. Do not be frightened. And when, for the first time, light dawns in that inner darkness, feel awe, feel blessedness, rejoice that grace is being bestowed. The more you feel this benediction, the more easily you will be able to dissolve into this light. What we fear, we move away from; what we rejoice in, we draw near. And we need closeness with this light, because now this very light will be your vehicle for the journey ahead. As you begin to become of one taste with this light, to become one with it, your identity will attune—like a drop dissolving into the ocean. When you fall into this ocean of light and become one, then instantly a second experience will begin—the experience of bliss.
You have known pleasure; you have known pain; you have never known bliss. Bliss is not pleasure. Bliss is an entirely different experience—just as far from pleasure as from pain. In bliss, both pleasure and pain become zero. Why? Because pain comes from outside—and pleasure also comes from outside. In bliss nothing comes from outside. For the first time you cease to be a beggar. For the first time something happens within you—not acquired from outside, but your own, your innate nature. This bliss will surround you only when you have become one with the light.
So the second realization will be of deep bliss. As if millions of flowers are blooming together within. Some unique melody begins to resound. A divine fragrance spreads inside. Much of this kind will begin to happen within this bliss. It will be a little different for each person. But in every case there will be a profound sense of bliss. You will feel: blessed. You will feel that life was meaningful. You will feel: mere being, just being in this moment is enough—nothing else is needed. In this moment of bliss, no craving remains in the mind, no desire arises, no demand persists. As you are in this moment, that is enough. You are completely fulfilled.
Even this supreme fulfillment will bring fear. We have lived in desires; we have always lived for the future—for something to be gained. In this moment the whole chase of gaining stops. For the first time you stand still. There is no running. You have no experience of this. The legs will want to run; the mind will want to escape. Fear will arise—will this stillness become death? If I stop, will I die? This moment is so motionless, all movement gone, all vibration gone—you may fear: is death approaching?
Do not panic. I am present. Leave all worry to me. In one sense, death will come—the old you will die. But what dies was never truly you; it only seemed so. And in one sense, birth will happen—for the first time you will have acquaintance, first contact, first recognition of what you truly are. So death of the old; birth of the new. You will remain as what you truly are, and you will vanish as that which you were not.
Do not fear. If you fear bliss, the third step will not be taken. You may wonder—why would we fear bliss? We fear sorrow, why would we fear bliss?
You do not know: all that is new fills us with fear. What you have no experience of, the unknown, makes one afraid. The unknowable terrifies. Even familiar sorrow seems acceptable—at least it is known. You have passed through it; it holds no terror. The fear is always of the unknown. And what is more unknown to you than bliss?
Do not fear. Here the master becomes useful. In those moments where you will certainly be afraid, he can give you courage. He can tell you: don’t be frightened; I am with you.
When, along with bliss, you feel gratitude and become one with it, then a third realization will begin within—the presence of the divine. If bliss has happened, instantly you will find the whole world has vanished and only the divine remains. What Shankara said—that all is maya—you will see in this moment: all that was has disappeared like a dream. You have entered another realm, another dimension. The divine surrounds you; everything is that—and you are in its ocean.
Here the final fear will seize you—the fear that comes at the door of the divine; because at this door you will be utterly extinguished. In the experience of bliss the old disappears, but the new remains. In this experience you will not remain at all—neither old nor new. You will not remain. All your boundaries will dissolve. Your very sense of being will break. Only the divine will remain. Hence a greater fear arises, because man does not want to vanish. Man’s deepest fear is only this: that I might cease to be. Non-being—that I might not be. Let me continue, let me remain.
That is why Buddha did not even give this third experience the name “God.” He called it nirvana. Nirvana means the lamp going out. This is nirvana. The divine is nirvana. There your little lamp completely goes out—because there is no need for it. There, source-less light is present. What will you do with your flickering lamp? It has no meaning. There too fear will arise.
Some stop at the experience of light. Some stop at the experience of bliss. But one who does not reach to the divine has not yet reached the ultimate. He will wander—even if he experiences light, he will wander. Even if he experiences bliss, he will wander. Until you are annihilated—fana—until you are totally gone, you will wander. Your very being is your wandering.
So, in this third stage, the great death will surround you. Because the experience of the divine happens only when you are not. As long as you are, there is an obstacle. Even a fragment of you is an obstacle. A veil as thin as a cobweb between us and the divine is like the Himalayas. Even that is enough—because the divine is invisible. A thin, transparent veil can hide it completely, because it is not a thing that can be seen by the eyes. Therefore this last veil of “my being” is also an obstacle.
Great panic will arise. But remember me—and drop the panic—and take the leap. So that you utterly disappear. Where you disappear, there the divine manifests…
Once again I suggest: close your eyes. And silently repeat within, three times, the resolve that you are leaving everything in my hands. Leaving everything in my hands. Keep nothing to yourself—travel utterly unburdened.
Now enter the first stage. For eight minutes—only breath… only breath… pour all your energy into the breath… forget everything, just breathe… become like a bellows—breath out, breath in… do it strongly… let only breath remain… forget the body, let only breath remain… breath outside, breath inside… breath… strike the body’s energy with your full force—strike hard… (In this way, with Osho’s guidance, the vigorous breathing practice continued for eight minutes. Then the second stage began.) Now enter the second stage. Whatever is within, let it all out—laugh, dance, sing... louder... louder... louder... louder... louder... louder... (During the second eight minutes, in the catharsis phase, crying, laughing, dancing, shouting, etc., continued. Osho kept suggesting, from time to time, to do it more intensely. Then the third stage began.) Now enter the third stage. The sound “Hoo”—Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo... Hit it hard, hit it hard, hit it hard... Put your total energy, your total energy at stake... Hit... hit... harder... harder... (In the third stage the use of “HOO” continued for eight minutes. Osho kept urging to strike the “HOO” strongly. Then the fourth stage began.) Enough—now be quiet, be still, now be silent. Enter the fourth stage. Become absolutely quiet… as if you are not, as if death has happened… let the body drop like a corpse… no sound, no movement… the energy has awakened; let it work within… in every way hold yourself back, let nothing be expressed, hold back completely… keep the eyes closed, let the body lie like a corpse… the energy has awakened; let it work within… hold, no sound…
Now place the palm of your right hand on the forehead at the third eye, exactly between the two eyebrows, and rub gently… This is the place from where the inner journey begins. This is the center which, when it opens, the dimension of light opens… Rub gently, rub gently… gently rub the third eye…
Rub—all the energy is gathering near the third eye… all the energy is being drawn and collecting at the third eye… Experience it: all the energy is gathering at the third eye… Rub gently; the whole life-energy has come to this center… rub gently… as you rub, the inner light will begin to appear… as you rub, the doorway to inner light will open…
Now stop rubbing and enter the deep light… Within, light upon light has spread… infinite light, a light never seen before, as if thousands upon thousands of suns have arisen at once… Do not fear, do not be afraid; become one with this light… Let yourself go into the current of light, agree to flow with the light. As if light is a river and you have let yourself into it… Do not even swim—just drift. Keep flowing with the light… Light only, infinite light surrounding on all sides… You have drowned in light… Flow, let go of yourself, do not hold back even a little—let go and be carried… Only the boat of light can take you to the other shore… Let go, do not fear at all—I am with you… Let go, be carried, become one with the light…
Drowned in light, become one… Deep silence; body and breath have all become quiet, only light remains… drowned, drowned, drowned, drowned—one with the light…
The depth of light becomes bliss… To become one with the light is to experience bliss… Now feel it, feel it—bliss and only bliss, outside and inside, in all directions… Let it pervade every pore, let the feeling of bliss be in every breath… As a river falls into the ocean, so you have fallen into the ocean of bliss… Now there is no desire, no running; everything has come to a halt, as if time has ended… Within there is no race, no demand… All is quiet, silent, stilled… To come to a complete stop is bliss… Feel it, feel it…
Do not be afraid—I am with you… Bliss, bliss, bliss—let a single note remain… Bliss, bliss—let a single tone begin to flow within… Bliss, bliss—become one with bliss… The depth of bliss becomes the presence of the Lord… Become one with bliss and the Divine reveals all around…
The world has vanished like a dream… the body has vanished like a dream… you have vanished like a dream… The imperishable remains, the divine remains, the presence of the Supreme remains…
Only That is present, only That is present… Do not fear; lose yourself completely, efface yourself… lose, efface—this death itself is liberation… Efface yourself; all around only That is—you have dissolved… You are not; only That is… The Divine, the Divine, the Divine—only That is present… All is lost, all is stilled, all is silent—only His presence remains…
Now again gently rub your palm on the third eye… at the place of the third eye between the two eyebrows, rub gently… Much will begin to happen within… a peace, a transformation… Rub gently; much will begin to happen within—remain a witness and watch…
Hold it for now; do not express… whatever happens within, hold it; just keep gently rubbing the third eye… Rub, gently rub the third eye…
Bliss, a sense of awe, a feeling of blessedness has spread within; now you may express it for two minutes… In whatever form you wish to express your joy, wholeheartedly you may express your joy for two minutes…
Now fold both hands and offer thanks to the Lord… Fold both hands and bow your head at His feet… Let only one feeling remain in the mind: the Lord’s grace is boundless, the Lord’s grace is boundless, the Lord’s grace is boundless. Man is helpless alone; alone nothing can happen. His help is needed, His blessing is needed, His grace is needed…
Now return carefully… Slowly open your eyes, take a few deep breaths, return carefully from meditation…
Osho's Commentary
The same I say to you. Worries, sorrows, pains, afflictions exist because you are clutching them tightly. Worries do not clutch anyone; sorrow does not clutch anyone. It is man who clutches them.
The whole process of meditation is the process of dropping sorrow, dropping pain. You are not to drop wealth, not to drop the world; drop the tendency to grip sorrow. And once you experience that sorrow has not gripped you—you have gripped sorrow—then revolution happens in life. Because then no one can knowingly hold onto sorrow. We can hold sorrow only so long as we believe sorrow holds us and we are helpless. The truth is the reverse. Sorrow has no power to hold anyone. We hold it. And we can let it go.
Meditation is letting go—of sorrow, of pain, of anguish. The hell we have created for ourselves is our own creation. And within the human mind lie both possibilities—either create a hell, or create a heaven.
And this very mind that creates hell can become the maker of heaven. The difference is very slight. Only the art of letting go. A let-go. The possibility of surrendering everything—once it opens, heaven descends.
What Jesus said, I say to you as well. In this experiment, leave everything to me. The entire method is only to prepare you to let go. If one can let go without any method, then no method is needed at all.
But the habit is ancient. Grasping is of lifetimes. Therefore letting go is not easy. All the devices are to make letting go easy. All the devices are negative. The moment you drop, you will be filled by the grace of the infinite. Here you let go and there the filling begins. Here you empty and there the clouds begin to rain—of nectar, of bliss.
But your emptying is essential. For this emptying, understand clearly the three stages of meditation. There is no fourth stage; the fourth is rest after the three.
The first stage of meditation: for eight minutes, bhastrika—chaotic breathing. No order, no discipline to the breath. Only churning, as a blacksmith’s bellows works. Throw the breath out—with your total strength, leaving nothing inside. And take the breath in—with your total strength, filling as much as possible. And forget everything else. Only remember this much—that you have become just a bellows. Breath comes, breath goes; breath comes, breath goes. Put all your energy into one work alone—breathing in and breathing out.
Breath is the bridge connecting body and soul. When breath departs, the body dies. Breath is the link in between. That is why, for anyone who wants to enter within, the first effort has to be with the breath. When you forget everything—your body, yourself, your thoughts—and only the single activity of breathing remains, then you have stepped away from the body and are standing on the bridge, in the middle, where one door opens toward the body and another door opens toward the soul.
This in itself is a great event, because the very moment you stand upon this bridge you begin to see you are not the body.
So, for the first eight minutes, put in all the power you have, as if your whole life were at stake on the breath. In this experiment, unique changes will happen in your energy and in your body. The hidden electrical source of the body will awaken. Every pore will begin to stream with electricity. The whole body will become a current of energy. You will experience that the body is not made of clay, flesh, bone, but of rays of energy, of power.
Only when this body-energy—this bio-energy, this vital energy—awakens, can the inner journey begin. For this very energy functions as the fuel for the inner journey. Without fuel you cannot travel. So whoever is miserly in the first stage will be stuck right there; no journey will happen in the second. Only when the first stage reaches its peak does the leap into the second occur. Complete the first stage so that your body no longer feels material, but like energy. The earthiness of the body dissolves, and you begin to feel a fluid energy—that the body is a cluster of force. Vigorous breathing inevitably brings this result. You need do nothing else but stake everything on the breath. As soon as your body becomes a stream of energy, the inner journey can begin.
In the second stage, for eight minutes, whatever is repressed in the body… thousands of diseases—of body and mind—which we have suppressed. These very diseases have become a Himalayan obstruction to the inner journey. Until we can break these diseases apart, dissolve them, throw them out of ourselves, we will not become light and unburdened.
So the second stage is purgation—catharsis. You have to throw out all your illnesses. Understand that you are giving me all your diseases. Give them all to me. Drop everything. Don’t save anything. And whatever wants to happen, allow it to happen naturally. Someone will begin to cry, someone to scream, someone to shout, someone to dance, someone will beat their chest, someone’s face will be filled with the heat of anger, someone will appear completely deranged. Don’t stop anything. Whatever is happening, leave it wholly in my hands. I ask only for your diseases—drop them.
The moment you drop them, you will begin to feel light within. If one is to fly very high, one cannot carry weight. If one is to climb the Himalayas, one must lighten the load. Your own weight is enough; there is no need to carry the burden of disease along. With your own wings, throw the whole load over to me.
In the second stage, feel that whatever is suppressed, repressed, insane within you—you are offering it all to me. As soon as you begin to surrender it, a current will start to flow from within. All that you have suppressed in life will begin to come out.
You have never cried openly, nor laughed openly, nor expressed anger totally. Whatever you have done has been half-done, suppressed. It has all piled up within you. And it is not of a day, not of one life, but of many lives. It is the dust of a long journey. That very dust is pressing you down, sitting on your chest like a rock.
And our civilization, society, conditioning—all are on the side of repression. Because society cannot manage otherwise. Society will repress, conditioning will repress. But if you just go on carrying society’s repression and never one day throw it off and stand apart, there is no liberation for you. What is convenient for society is your bondage.
But this doesn’t mean that if anger arises you should unload it on someone, or if you feel like killing you should kill someone. This is the alchemy of meditation—that if anger arises, do not express it on a person; dissolve it into emptiness in meditation. If a murderous impulse arises, dissolve that impulse into emptiness too.
So, in the second stage, whatever comes to your mind, give it expression unhesitatingly, without any hindrance; give it voice, give it support. If crying comes, pour your whole energy into crying. If you feel like screaming, pour your whole energy into the scream. I mean: become the scream itself. Forget that you are anything else. Even a single full-bodied scream will make you lighter. Whatever is happening, give it your total cooperation. Drop all kinds of inhibitions. And feel that all illness, all disease, all repressed turbulence, all the dust—you are handing it over to me. Because if you cannot give me this, I cannot give you bliss. If you give me this, you will be empty—and can be filled with bliss.
Many have spoken of renunciation—of leaving wealth, house, home, loved ones, family. I ask you only to drop misery. Only drop sorrow. And if you are willing to give me your suffering, I am ready to give you bliss. It can happen this very moment.
If the second stage is complete, you will become like an empty vessel—no more scum, no dust collected. Or like a mirror we have cleansed of the dust of ages—now a reflection can arise—pure, pristine.
If the second stage remains incomplete, you will not enter the third. Each leap occurs only from completeness. When the second stage completes, only then are you at the peak from which you can jump into the third. Each stage is a necessary link. If even one remains incomplete, you will be stuck there. And this second is difficult, because the first was only breathing. The second is difficult because you will be afraid of the madness hidden inside you. You will not want to reveal what is within.
But if you are not ready to reveal your illness, no remedy can be found for it. If you are unwilling to reveal the disease, no surgery can be done. Your suppressed wounds will have to be exposed. However much you have hidden them, they will have to be brought to light so that you can be freed from them.
So, before me in this experiment, be utterly naked—hide nothing of what is within you. Let it be fully expressed. Drop the fear of what anyone will say. That very fear is the hindrance in meditation. Don’t be concerned with anyone. Care only for this: that I become whole, that all my illnesses fall away.
In this second stage you will become totally unhinged—because as things are, every person is born into a mad society, and before he can gather awareness, he himself has become mad. There is a great crowd of madmen. That crowd will not let you regain your senses; it makes you deranged and sick beforehand.
So when you begin to express, the madman within will start coming out. Offer him to me. Leave him with me wholeheartedly. In the second stage, give full cooperation to your insanity.
After the second stage, the third. Only when you have emptied yourself of your diseases, your repressed impulses, when you have thrown out your inner turbulence—only then can the third stage be used. For the third is a great mantra. It is a sound—HOO. You are to make this sound with such force that your entire body-mind system is put into it. Your mind must resound with HOO. Your body must resound with HOO. Let nothing remain within that is not saying HOO. Let every cell, every breath, every hair be filled with the sound of HOO, with the roar.
Only when you have become empty can this sound be used. When you are filled with madness and deranged voices and a crowd is moving within you, then HOO cannot enter. When you are utterly empty and silence has arisen inside, a void has opened, then with the sound HOO, the blow begins to land upon that vastness hidden within you.
This sound HOO has many effects. First: as you begin to fill with this roar, a blow is delivered to your sexual energy at the sex center within. Man has only one basic power—the sexual energy. If it flows outward it becomes biological reproduction. If it flows inward, the spiritual birth begins.
Sexual energy is the mother of birth. Ordinarily, the blow to the sex center comes from outside. A man sees a woman, and the blow falls upon the sex center. A woman is attracted to a man, and from outside the blow falls instantly upon her sex center. This too is an electrical blow. Man is one kind of electricity and woman another; both are opposite poles and attract each other. But this blow of attraction always falls from outside. Where the blow falls, toward that side the sexual energy begins to flow.
The sound HOO is an attempt to deliver the blow from within. When you shout HOO with force, that sound travels inward and strikes hard at the sex center just below the navel. It is the same center, struck from within. And the blow must be so strong that the center breaks from inside. The moment even a small fissure happens there, the energy begins to rise within. This is what yoga has called kundalini—people have given many names; names do not matter. Sexual energy, turned inward, becomes spiritual power.
You will experience this directly. As soon as the blow of HOO begins to fall, a heated current of sexual energy will start to rise upward. You will feel it in the body. Exactly in your spine a new current will begin to flow. The spine will grow hot, as if molten lava were streaming inside. And as this lava rises up your spine, you will find you are changing, becoming other than you were—the emergence of a new human being.
The higher this current of sexual energy moves in your spine, the higher the points from which you begin to see life. Energy standing at the sex center cannot experience anything more than the body; it is the lowest point. There are seven chakras in your body. Entering each chakra, you begin to experience a new body. At the seventh chakra you experience that place which we have called the gateway of liberation—because from there you begin to experience the bodiless, the non-material, the immaterial.
Sometimes it can happen in a single moment; sometimes it can take a long time. It will depend on your intensity—how deep your blow is.
So, in the third stage, deliver HOO with such force that this center of power begins to break within—and the current of energy leaves this center and enters your spine, setting out on its upward journey.
When the third stage completes, I will lead you into the fourth—which truly is not a stage; to be precise, it is meditation. The first three are preparations. You cannot go directly into the fourth; hence the need for the three. In the fourth there is nothing to do. As soon as the third completes, in the fourth either lie down, or sit, or if you wish, remain standing. Leave the body in the fourth as if it has become a corpse. As if you are no longer the body. In fact, if the three stages have completed, you are not the body. And you will not have to leave the body like a corpse—it will drop of itself. In this fourth stage you have only to remain a witness—only to keep watching whatever is happening within. Much will happen. So the fourth stage is of deep waiting, of witnessing, of rest.
Much will begin to occur inside. The first thing that usually happens is a sense of a most extraordinary light. If sexual energy has entered the spine, instantly the realm of light opens within. You have seen light outside; this has no resemblance to that. As if thousands upon thousands of suns have risen together within, such light will begin to happen inside you.
Do not be afraid of this light. We have become accustomed to living in darkness; our eyes are used only to the dark. Inside us it is utterly dark; we have never seen any light there. When, for the first time, light happens there, the mind will become very frightened. Do not be afraid. I am present here. Do not worry at all. Leave everything to me. Do not be frightened. And when, for the first time, light dawns in that inner darkness, feel awe, feel blessedness, rejoice that grace is being bestowed. The more you feel this benediction, the more easily you will be able to dissolve into this light. What we fear, we move away from; what we rejoice in, we draw near. And we need closeness with this light, because now this very light will be your vehicle for the journey ahead. As you begin to become of one taste with this light, to become one with it, your identity will attune—like a drop dissolving into the ocean. When you fall into this ocean of light and become one, then instantly a second experience will begin—the experience of bliss.
You have known pleasure; you have known pain; you have never known bliss. Bliss is not pleasure. Bliss is an entirely different experience—just as far from pleasure as from pain. In bliss, both pleasure and pain become zero. Why? Because pain comes from outside—and pleasure also comes from outside. In bliss nothing comes from outside. For the first time you cease to be a beggar. For the first time something happens within you—not acquired from outside, but your own, your innate nature. This bliss will surround you only when you have become one with the light.
So the second realization will be of deep bliss. As if millions of flowers are blooming together within. Some unique melody begins to resound. A divine fragrance spreads inside. Much of this kind will begin to happen within this bliss. It will be a little different for each person. But in every case there will be a profound sense of bliss. You will feel: blessed. You will feel that life was meaningful. You will feel: mere being, just being in this moment is enough—nothing else is needed. In this moment of bliss, no craving remains in the mind, no desire arises, no demand persists. As you are in this moment, that is enough. You are completely fulfilled.
Even this supreme fulfillment will bring fear. We have lived in desires; we have always lived for the future—for something to be gained. In this moment the whole chase of gaining stops. For the first time you stand still. There is no running. You have no experience of this. The legs will want to run; the mind will want to escape. Fear will arise—will this stillness become death? If I stop, will I die? This moment is so motionless, all movement gone, all vibration gone—you may fear: is death approaching?
Do not panic. I am present. Leave all worry to me. In one sense, death will come—the old you will die. But what dies was never truly you; it only seemed so. And in one sense, birth will happen—for the first time you will have acquaintance, first contact, first recognition of what you truly are. So death of the old; birth of the new. You will remain as what you truly are, and you will vanish as that which you were not.
Do not fear. If you fear bliss, the third step will not be taken. You may wonder—why would we fear bliss? We fear sorrow, why would we fear bliss?
You do not know: all that is new fills us with fear. What you have no experience of, the unknown, makes one afraid. The unknowable terrifies. Even familiar sorrow seems acceptable—at least it is known. You have passed through it; it holds no terror. The fear is always of the unknown. And what is more unknown to you than bliss?
Do not fear. Here the master becomes useful. In those moments where you will certainly be afraid, he can give you courage. He can tell you: don’t be frightened; I am with you.
When, along with bliss, you feel gratitude and become one with it, then a third realization will begin within—the presence of the divine. If bliss has happened, instantly you will find the whole world has vanished and only the divine remains. What Shankara said—that all is maya—you will see in this moment: all that was has disappeared like a dream. You have entered another realm, another dimension. The divine surrounds you; everything is that—and you are in its ocean.
Here the final fear will seize you—the fear that comes at the door of the divine; because at this door you will be utterly extinguished. In the experience of bliss the old disappears, but the new remains. In this experience you will not remain at all—neither old nor new. You will not remain. All your boundaries will dissolve. Your very sense of being will break. Only the divine will remain. Hence a greater fear arises, because man does not want to vanish. Man’s deepest fear is only this: that I might cease to be. Non-being—that I might not be. Let me continue, let me remain.
That is why Buddha did not even give this third experience the name “God.” He called it nirvana. Nirvana means the lamp going out. This is nirvana. The divine is nirvana. There your little lamp completely goes out—because there is no need for it. There, source-less light is present. What will you do with your flickering lamp? It has no meaning. There too fear will arise.
Some stop at the experience of light. Some stop at the experience of bliss. But one who does not reach to the divine has not yet reached the ultimate. He will wander—even if he experiences light, he will wander. Even if he experiences bliss, he will wander. Until you are annihilated—fana—until you are totally gone, you will wander. Your very being is your wandering.
So, in this third stage, the great death will surround you. Because the experience of the divine happens only when you are not. As long as you are, there is an obstacle. Even a fragment of you is an obstacle. A veil as thin as a cobweb between us and the divine is like the Himalayas. Even that is enough—because the divine is invisible. A thin, transparent veil can hide it completely, because it is not a thing that can be seen by the eyes. Therefore this last veil of “my being” is also an obstacle.
Great panic will arise. But remember me—and drop the panic—and take the leap. So that you utterly disappear. Where you disappear, there the divine manifests…
Once again I suggest: close your eyes. And silently repeat within, three times, the resolve that you are leaving everything in my hands. Leaving everything in my hands. Keep nothing to yourself—travel utterly unburdened.
Now enter the first stage. For eight minutes—only breath… only breath… pour all your energy into the breath… forget everything, just breathe… become like a bellows—breath out, breath in… do it strongly… let only breath remain… forget the body, let only breath remain… breath outside, breath inside… breath… strike the body’s energy with your full force—strike hard…
(In this way, with Osho’s guidance, the vigorous breathing practice continued for eight minutes. Then the second stage began.)
Now enter the second stage. Whatever is within, let it all out—laugh, dance, sing... louder... louder... louder... louder... louder... louder...
(During the second eight minutes, in the catharsis phase, crying, laughing, dancing, shouting, etc., continued. Osho kept suggesting, from time to time, to do it more intensely. Then the third stage began.)
Now enter the third stage. The sound “Hoo”—Hoo, Hoo, Hoo, Hoo... Hit it hard, hit it hard, hit it hard... Put your total energy, your total energy at stake... Hit... hit... harder... harder...
(In the third stage the use of “HOO” continued for eight minutes. Osho kept urging to strike the “HOO” strongly. Then the fourth stage began.)
Enough—now be quiet, be still, now be silent. Enter the fourth stage. Become absolutely quiet… as if you are not, as if death has happened… let the body drop like a corpse… no sound, no movement… the energy has awakened; let it work within… in every way hold yourself back, let nothing be expressed, hold back completely… keep the eyes closed, let the body lie like a corpse… the energy has awakened; let it work within… hold, no sound…
Now place the palm of your right hand on the forehead at the third eye, exactly between the two eyebrows, and rub gently… This is the place from where the inner journey begins. This is the center which, when it opens, the dimension of light opens… Rub gently, rub gently… gently rub the third eye…
Rub—all the energy is gathering near the third eye… all the energy is being drawn and collecting at the third eye… Experience it: all the energy is gathering at the third eye… Rub gently; the whole life-energy has come to this center… rub gently… as you rub, the inner light will begin to appear… as you rub, the doorway to inner light will open…
Now stop rubbing and enter the deep light… Within, light upon light has spread… infinite light, a light never seen before, as if thousands upon thousands of suns have arisen at once… Do not fear, do not be afraid; become one with this light… Let yourself go into the current of light, agree to flow with the light. As if light is a river and you have let yourself into it… Do not even swim—just drift. Keep flowing with the light… Light only, infinite light surrounding on all sides… You have drowned in light… Flow, let go of yourself, do not hold back even a little—let go and be carried… Only the boat of light can take you to the other shore… Let go, do not fear at all—I am with you… Let go, be carried, become one with the light…
Drowned in light, become one… Deep silence; body and breath have all become quiet, only light remains… drowned, drowned, drowned, drowned—one with the light…
The depth of light becomes bliss… To become one with the light is to experience bliss… Now feel it, feel it—bliss and only bliss, outside and inside, in all directions… Let it pervade every pore, let the feeling of bliss be in every breath… As a river falls into the ocean, so you have fallen into the ocean of bliss… Now there is no desire, no running; everything has come to a halt, as if time has ended… Within there is no race, no demand… All is quiet, silent, stilled… To come to a complete stop is bliss… Feel it, feel it…
Do not be afraid—I am with you… Bliss, bliss, bliss—let a single note remain… Bliss, bliss—let a single tone begin to flow within… Bliss, bliss—become one with bliss… The depth of bliss becomes the presence of the Lord… Become one with bliss and the Divine reveals all around…
The world has vanished like a dream… the body has vanished like a dream… you have vanished like a dream… The imperishable remains, the divine remains, the presence of the Supreme remains…
Only That is present, only That is present… Do not fear; lose yourself completely, efface yourself… lose, efface—this death itself is liberation… Efface yourself; all around only That is—you have dissolved… You are not; only That is… The Divine, the Divine, the Divine—only That is present… All is lost, all is stilled, all is silent—only His presence remains…
Now again gently rub your palm on the third eye… at the place of the third eye between the two eyebrows, rub gently… Much will begin to happen within… a peace, a transformation… Rub gently; much will begin to happen within—remain a witness and watch…
Hold it for now; do not express… whatever happens within, hold it; just keep gently rubbing the third eye… Rub, gently rub the third eye…
Bliss, a sense of awe, a feeling of blessedness has spread within; now you may express it for two minutes… In whatever form you wish to express your joy, wholeheartedly you may express your joy for two minutes…
Now fold both hands and offer thanks to the Lord… Fold both hands and bow your head at His feet… Let only one feeling remain in the mind: the Lord’s grace is boundless, the Lord’s grace is boundless, the Lord’s grace is boundless. Man is helpless alone; alone nothing can happen. His help is needed, His blessing is needed, His grace is needed…
Now return carefully… Slowly open your eyes, take a few deep breaths, return carefully from meditation…