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There
are hundreds of methods of meditation, but perhaps Vipassana has a unique
status; just the same way as there have been thousands of mystics, but
Gautam Buddha has a uniqueness of his own. In many ways he is incomparable.
In many ways he has done more for humanity than anybody else. In many
ways his search for truth was more sincere, more authentic than anybody
else's.
The meaning – the literal meaning – of the word Vipassana
is "to look," and the metaphorical meaning is "to watch,
to witness."
Gautam Buddha has chosen a meditation that can be called the essential
meditation. All other meditations are different forms of witnessing, but
witnessing is present in every kind of meditation as an essential part;
it cannot be avoided. Buddha has deleted everything else and kept only
the essential part – to witness.
When you have become perfectly watchful of your body, mind and heart,
then you cannot do anything more, then you have to wait. When perfection
is complete on these three steps, the fourth step happens on its own accord
as a reward. Suddenly your life force, your witnessing, enters into the
very center of your being.
You have come home. Osho - The Rebel
Vipassana
can
be done in three ways.
The first is: awareness of your actions, your body, your mind, your heart.
Walking, you should walk with awareness. Moving your hand, you should
move with awareness, knowing perfectly that you are moving the hand. You
can move it without any consciousness, like a mechanical thing...you are
on a morning walk; you can go on walking without being aware of your feet.
Be alert of the movements of your body. While eating, be alert to the
movements that are needed for eating. Taking a shower, be alert to the
coolness that is coming to you, the water falling on you and the tremendous
joy of it — just be alert. It should not go on happening in an unconscious
state.
And the same about your mind. Whatever thought passes on the screen of
your mind, just be a watcher. Whatever emotion passes on the screen of
your heart, just remain a witness — don't get involved, don't get
identified, don't evaluate what is good, what is bad; that is not part
of your meditation.
The second form is breathing, becoming aware of breathing. As the breath
goes in, your belly starts rising up, and as the breath goes out, your
belly starts settling down again. So the second method is to be aware
of the belly: its rising and falling. Just the very awareness of the belly
rising and falling...and the belly is very close to the life sources because
the child is joined with the mother's life through the navel. Behind the
navel is his life's source. So, when the belly rises up, it is really
the life energy, the spring of life that is rising up and falling down
with each breath. That too is not difficult and perhaps maybe even easier
because it is a single technique.
In the first, you have to be aware of the body, you have to be aware of
the mind, you have to be aware of your emotions, moods. So it has three
steps. The second approach has a single step: just the belly, moving up
and down. And the result is the same. As you become more aware of the
belly, the mind becomes silent, the heart becomes silent, the moods disappear.
And the third is to be aware of the breath at the entrance, when the breath
goes in through your nostrils. Feel it at that extreme — the other
polarity from the belly — feel it from the nose. The breath going
in gives a certain coolness to your nostrils. Then the breath going out...breath
going in...breath going out.
Sitting
Find a reasonably comfortable and alert position to sit for 40 to 60 minutes.
Back and head should be straight, eyes closed and breathing normal. Stay
as still as possible, only changing position if it is really necessary.
While sitting, the primary object is to be watching the rise and fall
of the belly, slightly above the navel, caused by breathing in and out.
It is not a concentration technique, so while watching the breath, many
other things will take your attention away. Nothing is a distraction in
vipassana, so when something else comes up, stop watching the breath,
pay attention to whatever is happening until it's possible to go back
to your breath. This may include thoughts, feelings, judgments, body sensations,
impressions from the outside world, etc.
It is the process of watching that is significant, not so much what you
are watching, so remember not to become identified with whatever comes
up; questions or problems may just be seen as mysteries to be enjoyed!
Vipassana
walk
This is a slow, ordinary walk based on the awareness of the feet touching
the ground.
You can walk in a circle or a line of 10 to 15 steps going back and forth,
inside or out of doors. Eyes should be lowered on the ground a few steps
ahead. While walking, the attention should go to the contact of each foot
as it touches the ground. If other things arise, stop paying attention
to the feet, notice what else too your attention and then return to the
feet.
It is the same technique as in sitting — but watching a different
primary object. You can walk for 20 to 30 minutes.
Watching
the gap
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, you never observe it.
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. 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 always is. 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 conscious. When you are going down,
down, down with the breath, do not miss the breath. Do not go ahead; 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.
If you go on practicing breath consciousness, breath awareness, suddenly,
on day without knowing, you will come to the interval. 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 benediction."
Watching
the gap in the marketplace
Whatsoever you are doing, keep your attention in the gap between the two
breaths. But it must be practiced while in activity.
We have discussed the technique that is just similar. Now there is only
this difference, that this has to be practiced while in worldly activity.
This practice is to be done while you are doing something else. You are
eating: go on eating, and be attentive to the gap. You are walking: go
on walking and be attentive to the gap. You are going to sleep: lie down,
let sleep come. But you go on being attentive to the gap.
Why in activity? Because activity distracts the mind. Activity calls your
attention again and again. Do not be distracted. Be fixed at the gap,
and do not stop activity; let the activity continue. You will have two
layers of existence — doing and being.
We have two layers of existence: the world of doing and the world of being,
the circumference and the center. Go on working on the periphery, on the
circumference; do not stop it. But go on working attentively on the center
also. What will happen? You activity will become an acting, as if you
are playing a part. If this method is practiced, your whole life will
become a long drama. You will be an actor playing roles, but constantly
centered in the gap. If you forget the gap, then you are not playing roles;
you have become the role. Then it is not a drama. You have mistaken it
as life. That is what we have done. Everyone thinks he is living life.
It is not life. It is just a role — a part which has been given to
you by society, by circumstances, by culture, by tradition, by the country,
the situation. You have been given a role. You are playing it; you have
become identified with it. To break that identification, use technique.
This technique is just to make yourself a psychodrama — just a play.
You are focused in the gap between two breaths, and life moves on, on
the periphery. If you attention is at the center, then you attention is
not really on the periphery; that is just 'sub-attention'. It just happens
somewhere near your attention. You can feel it, you can know it, but is
not significant. It is as if it not happening to you.
I will repeat this; if you practice this technique, your whole life will
be as if it is not happening to you — as if it it's happening to
someone else.
Osho, Meditation: The First and Last Freedom, Pg. 69-73
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