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skdca
June 17th, 2006, 07:17 PM
Counting in breaths

In a situation where you can’t do active techniques of meditation, a simple but effective passive method will be useful. Breath-watching is a method that can be done anywhere, at any time, even if you have only a few minutes available.

You can simply watch the rise and fall of your chest or belly as the breath comes in and goes out, or try this version....

Step 1 : Watch the In Breath
Close your eyes and start watching your breath. First, the inhalation, from where it enters your nostrils, right down into your lungs.

Step 2: Watch the Gap That Follows
At the end of the inhalation there is gap, before the exhalation starts. It is of immense value. Watch that gap.

Step 3: Watch the Out Breath
Now watch the exhalation.

Step 4: Watch the Gap That Follows
At the end of the exhalation there is a second gap: watch that gap. Do these four steps for two to three times – just watching the breathing cycle, not changing it in anyway, just watching the natural rhythm.

Step 5: Counting In Breaths
Now start counting: Inhalation – count 1 (don’t count the exhalation), inhalation – 2, and so on, up to 10. Then count from 10 back to 1. Sometimes you may forget to watch the breath or you may count beyond 10. Then start again, at 1.

Osho says, “These two things have to be remembered: watching, and particularly the gaps at the top and the bottom. The experience of that gap is you, your innermost core, your being. And second: go on counting, but not more than up to 10; and come back again to 1; and only count the inhalation.

These things help awareness. You have to be aware, otherwise you will start counting the exhalation, or you will go over 10."


Chanting The Mantra 'Aum'

Aum is one of the most popular chants in India. From time to time Osho has suggested many ways of doing it; if done properly, it can be a door to silence.

A caution from Osho: A mantra has to be chanted and then dropped. A mantra is complete only when you can drop it. Do not cling to it!

Here we discuss one of the ways of chanting the Aum mantra.

First stage
Sit down relaxed, either in a temple or in your room and repeat AUM as loudly as possible, for one hour. Use the whole body to repeat it, as if thousands of people are listening to you without a microphone, and you have to be very loud so that the whole body trembles, shakes with it. Let the body be saturated with the sound of Aum.

For almost three months, you should not bother about anything else, and only practice this first stage. The first stage is very important because it gives the foundation.

Second stage
After three months, when you feel your body is completely saturated, when you can feel deep down inside you that the word has entered into the body cells, as if your whole body can repeat it; then you are ready for the second step. The second step is to close your mouth and repeat and chant the word Aum mentally. The throat, the tongue, the lips, everything should be closed, the whole body locked, and this chanting should only be in the mind -- but as loudly as possible: with the same loudness you were using with the body. Now allow the mind too to be saturated with Aum.

Third stage
When the mind feels saturated... it is just like eating: you feel full, when it is enough; so also the mind will feel full when it is enough. Then starts the third step. Neither the body has to be used nor the mind has to be used at this stage. Just listen, and you will hear a sound coming to you from your own heart of hearts. The Aum will be there inside you, as if somebody else is chanting; and you are just the listener.
This is the completion of the chant mantra.

Experiencing The Gap Between Two Breaths

This method is from The Book of Secrets , Osho’s talks on Vigyan Bhairav Tantra .

This technique is about using breath to calm the mind and for centering the energy. By practicing it regularly, you can find gaps between incoming and outgoing breaths which is the door to witnessing.

Sutra: This experience may dawn between two breaths. After breath comes in (down) and just before turning up (out) - the beneficence.

The method:
Sit in a relaxed position and start watching your breath when it 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. Only then will it be possible to get the point which is between two breaths.

After breath comes in - that is, down - and just before turning out - that is, going up - be aware between these two points, and the happening. When your breath comes in, observe. For a single moment, there is no breathing . 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.

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, you have got a glimpse of the witness, the sakshi within you. With practice you can expand the gap and experience profound silence.