History of Osho Meditation
The man born as Rajneesh Chandra Mohan Jain, later assuming the name Osho, left behind him a vast body of teaching on meditation and the human condition. His message was a positive liberal one; teaching among other things a more open attitude towards sex and the importance of humour and love. He described a huge number of meditation methods, but this article will focus on his most famous: Osho Dynamic Meditation, and the philosophy and thinking behind this idiosyncratic creation.
Osho refused to accept that abandoning the world was a necessary to prelude to enlightenment. He believed that through the correct methods, anyone could find peace and enlightenment – we are all potential Buddhas. These methods did not have to be renunciation, and could be found through the goodness inside us, teaching we are “love, bliss and freedom”. Osho’s views on meditation were as unorthodox as most of his other views. He believed that you could not expect modern people to sit still to meditate. The level of built and repressed emotions within them demanded some kind of cathartic release. Hence, his Dynamic Meditation is, as the name suggests, a strongly physical expression that lets out this torrent of emotion within a person.
- The first stage is one of rapid and chaotic breathing. Unlike more traditional and restrained forms of meditation, here you are encouraged to breathe quickly, focusing more on exhalation than inhalation, while still breathing deeply into the lungs. Through breathing as hard as you can, you attempt to become the breathing itself. The aim is to build up energy within you, ready to use in the next stage.
- The second stage is to release pent up emotion and feeling within you. It is a stage of release, where you physically act out whatever emotion comes to you: dancing, shouting and jumping. The aim is to let yourself go completely, to not let the mind interfere with the body, and simply do what you have to do with your whole heart.
- In the third stage, you are encouraged to spend all of your energy by leaping up and down. On landing each time, shout “Hoo! Hoo!” After ten minutes, it is time for the fourth stage.
- This stage is designed to capture the energy you have harnessed in the first three stages. Stop perfectly still, without moving a muscle by even a twitch. The aim is to become aware of your surroundings and an observer to everything that is happening. Finally, after fifteen minutes, move on to the fifth stage.
- The last stage is one of gratitude and happiness for the release and energy of the earlier stages. Dance and rejoice for fifteen minutes to keep the happiness all day.
Osho’s forms of meditation may not conform to the stereotypical view of the calm, serene Yogi, but the man and his beliefs have had a huge influence on modern culture and his continuing popularity after his death in 1990 suggests his ideas on meditation may be here to stay.
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