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Part VI : Osho’s discourse series: Vigyan Bhairav Tantra
From October 1972 to November 1973 Osho gives his well-known
series of 80 commentaries in English on Vigyan Bhairav Tantra,
the 112 meditation techniques given by Shiva to his consort Devi.
Perhaps I am the only one who has spoken on 112 methods of meditation.
There is no other literature on those 112 meditations, and I have
developed many new meditations which are not included among those.
There is great need for literature on meditation from different
angles, because there are meditations which you can do while doing
anything. It is just an inner process. There are meditations which
need specific times. There are meditations which you can do only
while making love. There are meditations which need a certain
kind of a structure. So much possibility is there for writing
theses on meditations. last323
Paul Reps is still alive somewhere in California (1981). He has
in this small book not only collected Zen anecdotes but also Vigyan
Bhairav Tantra - the one hundred and twelve sutras of Shiva
to Parvati, his beloved, in which Shiva talks about all the keys
possible. I cannot conceive that there can be anything more to
meditation than Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. One hundred and twelve
keys are enough - they seem to be enough; one hundred and
thirteen will not look like a right number. One hundred and twelve
looks really esoteric, beautiful.
This book is very small, you can carry it in your pocket; it
is a pocketbook. But you can also carry the Kohinoor in your pocket…although
the Kohinoor is studded in the British crown, and you cannot carry
that in your pocket. But the most beautiful thing about Paul Reps
is that he has not added a single word of his own - which
is incredible. He has simply translated, just translated…
books15
Some introductory points. First, the world of Vigyan Bhairav
Tantra is not intellectual, it is not philosophical. Doctrine
is meaningless to it. It is concerned with method, with technique - not
with principles at all. The word 'tantra' means technique, the
method, the path. So it is not philosophical - note this.
It is not concerned with intellectual problems and inquiries.
It is not concerned with the "why" of things, it is
concerned with "how"; not with what is truth, but how
the truth can be attained.
Tantra means technique. So this treatise is a scientific one.
Science is not concerned with why, science is concerned with how.
That is the basic difference between philosophy and science….
The second thing: this is a different type of language. You
must know something about it before we enter into it. All the
tantra treatises are dialogues between Shiva and Devi. Devi questions
and Shiva answers. All the tantra treatises start that way. Why?
Why this method? It is very significant. It is not a dialogue
between a teacher and a disciple, it is a dialogue between two
lovers. And tantra signifies through it a very meaningful thing:
that the deeper teachings cannot be given unless there is love
between the two - the disciple and the master. The disciple
and master must become deep lovers. Only then can the higher,
the beyond, be expressed.
So it is a language of love; the disciple must be in an attitude
of love. But not only this, because friends can be lovers. Tantra
says a disciple moves as receptivity, so the disciple must be
in a feminine receptivity; only then is something possible. You
need not be a woman to be a disciple, but you need to be in a
feminine attitude of receptivity….
Thirdly, the very words Vigyan Bhairav Tantra mean the technique
of going beyond consciousness. Vigyan means consciousness, bhairav
means the state which is beyond consciousness, and tantra means
the method: the method of going beyond consciousness. This is
the supreme doctrine - without any doctrine….
Shiva will answer. His answers are techniques - the oldest,
most ancient techniques. But you can call them the latest also
because nothing can be added to them. They are complete - one
hundred and twelve techniques. They have taken in all the possibilities,
all the ways of cleaning the mind, transcending the mind. Not
a single method could be added to Shiva's one hundred and twelve
methods. And this book, Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, is five thousand
years old. Nothing can be added; there is no possibility to add
anything. It is exhaustive, complete. It is the most ancient and
yet the latest, yet the newest. Old like old hills - the methods
seem eternal - and they are new like a dewdrop before the
sun, because they are so fresh.
These one hundred and twelve methods of meditation constitute
the whole science of transforming mind. We will enter them one
by one. We will try to comprehend first intellectually. But use
your intellect only as an instrument, not as a master. Use it
as an instrument to understand something, but do not go on creating
barriers with it. When we will be talking about these techniques,
just put aside your past knowledge, your knowing, whatsoever information
you have collected. Put them aside - they are just dust gathered
on the road.
Encounter these methods with a fresh mind - with alertness,
of course, but not with argumentation. And do not create the fallacy
that an argumentative mind is an alert mind. It is not, because
the moment you move into arguments you have lost the awareness,
you have lost the alertness. Then you are not here.
These methods do not belong to any religion. Remember, they
are not Hindu, just as the theory of relativity is not Jewish
because Einstein conceived it….
Choose a technique which fits you, put your total energy into
it, and you will not be the same again. Real, authentic techniques
always will be like that….
We will try to understand each method and how to choose for yourself
one method which can change you and your mind. This understanding,
this intellectual understanding will be a basic necessity, but
this is not the end. Whatsoever I talk about here, try it.
Really, when you try the right method it clicks immediately.
So I will go on talking about methods here every day. You try
them. Just play with them - go home and try. The right method,
whenever you happen upon it, just clicks. Something explodes in
you, and you know that "This is the right method for me."
But effort is needed, and you may be surprised that suddenly one
day one method has gripped you.
So while I am talking here, parallel to it go on playing with
these methods. I say playing because you should not be too serious.
Just play! Something may fit you. If it fits you, then be serious,
and then go deep into it - intensely, honestly, with all your
energy, with all your mind. But before that just play.
I have found that while you are playing your mind is more open.
While you are serious your mind is not so open; it is closed.
So just play. Do not be too serious, just play. And these methods
are simple, you can just play with them.
Take one method and play with it for at least three days. If
it gives you a certain feeling of affinity, if it gives you a
certain feeling of well-being, if it gives you a certain feeling
that this is for you, then be serious about it. Then forget the
others, do not play with other methods. Stick to it - at least
for three months. Miracles are possible. The only thing is that
the technique must be for you. If the technique is not for you,
then nothing happens. Then you may go on with it for lives together,
but nothing will happen. If the method is for you then even three
minutes are enough.
So these one hundred and twelve methods can be a miraculous
experience for you, or they may just be a listening - it depends
on you. I will go on describing each method from as many angles
as possible. If you feel any affinity with it, play with it for
three days. If you feel that it fits, that something clicks in
you, continue it for three months.
Life is a miracle. If you have not known its mystery, that only
shows that you do not know the technique for how to approach it.
Shiva proposes one hundred and twelve methods. These are all the
methods possible. If nothing clicks and nothing gives you the
feeling that this is for you, then there is no method left for
you - remember this. Then forget spirituality and be happy.
Then it is not for you.
But these one hundred and twelve methods are for the whole humanity - for
all the ages that have passed and for all the ages that have yet
to come. In no time has there ever been a single man, and there
will never be one, who can say, "These one hundred and twelve
methods are all useless for me." Impossible! This is impossible!
Every type of mind has been taken into account. Every possible
type of mind has been given a technique in tantra. There are many
techniques for which no man exists yet; they are for the future.
There are many techniques for which no man exists now; they are
for the past. But do not be afraid. There are many methods which
are for you.
So we will start this journey from tomorrow. vbt01
I will be talking here about these one hundred and twelve methods
not to feed your mind, not to make you more knowledgeable, not
to make you more informed. I am not trying to make you a pundit.
I am talking here in order to give you a certain technique which
can change your life. vbt04
I claim to have the first and the last religion, for the simple
reason that except meditation I have nothing else. So I have found
the very essential core; no garbage around it, nothing non-essential,
just a simple methodology. And I have looked into all the methods
of meditation - there are one hundred and twelve methods.
I have spoken on the one hundred and twelve methods of meditation,
and out of one hundred and twelve methods that have been practiced
in the East by these three religions, I have chosen one essential
point that connects all those one hundred and twelve methods.
They differ only in small details, but their basic foundation
is witnessing. last202
For example, in this series Osho comments on a meditation technique
for lovers:
The second sutra: When in such embrace your senses are shaken
as leaves, enter this shaking.
When in such embrace, in such deep communion with the beloved
or the lover, your senses are shaken as leaves, enter this shaking.
We have even become afraid: while making love you do not allow
your bodies to move much, because if your bodies are allowed much
movement the sex act spreads all over your body. You can control
it when it is localized at the sex center. The mind can remain
in control. When it spreads all over your body, you cannot control
it. You may start shaking, you may start screaming, and you will
not be able to control your body once the body takes over.
We suppress movements. Particularly, all over the world, we
suppress all movements, all shaking for women. They remain just
like dead bodies. You are doing something to them; they are not
doing anything to you. They are just passive partners. Why is
this happening? Why all over the world do men suppress women in
such a way? There is fear - because once a woman's body becomes
possessed, it is very difficult for a man to satisfy her: because
a woman can have chain orgasms; a man cannot have. A man can have
only one orgasm; a woman can have chain orgasms. There are cases
of multiple orgasms reported. Any woman can have at least three
orgasms in a chain, but man can have only one. And with man's
orgasm, the woman is aroused and is ready for further orgasms.
Then it is difficult. Then how to manage it?…
Shake! Vibrate! Allow every cell of your body to dance, and this
should be for both. The beloved is also dancing, every cell vibrating.
Only then can you both meet, and then that meeting is not mental.
It is a meeting of your bioenergies.
Enter this shaking, and while shaking don't remain aloof. Don't
be a spectator, because mind is the spectator. Don't stand aloof!
Be the shaking, become the shaking. Forget everything and become
the shaking. It is not that your body is shaking: it is you, your
whole being. You become the shaking itself. Then there are not
two bodies, two minds. In the beginning, there are two shaking
energies, and in the end just a circle - not two.
What will happen in this circle? One, you will be part of an
existential force - not a societal mind, but an existential
force. You will be part of the whole cosmos. In that shaking you
will be part of the whole cosmos. That moment is of great creation.
You are dissolved as solid bodies. You have become liquid - flowing
into each other. The mind is lost, the division is lost. You have
a oneness.
This is advaita, this is nonduality. And if you cannot feel
this nonduality, then all the philosophies of nonduality are useless.
They are just words. Once you know this nondual existential moment,
then only can you understand the Upanishads. Then only you can
understand the mystics - what they are talking about when
they talk of a cosmic oneness, a wholeness. Then you are not separate
from the world, not alien to it. Then the existence becomes your
home. And with that feeling that "Now I am at home in the
existence," all worries are lost. Then there is no anguish,
no struggle, no conflict. This is what Lao Tzu calls Tao, what
Shankara calls advaita. You can choose your own word for it, but
through a deep love embrace it is easy to feel it. But be alive,
shaking, and become the shaking itself. vbt33
Tantra is not to help your indulgence, it is to transform it.
So do not deceive yourself. Through tantra you can deceive yourself
very easily, and because of this possibility of deception Mahavira
would not describe tantra. This possibility is always there. And
man is so deceptive that he can show one thing when he really
means another, he can rationalize. vbt32
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