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Vigyan Bhairav Tantra - Meditation
Technique 13 OR IMAGINE THE
FIVE-COLORED CIRCLES OF THE PEACOCK TAIL TO BE YOUR FIVE SENSES IN
ILLIMITABLE SPACE. NOW, LET THEIR BEAUTY MELT WITHIN. SIMILARLY, AT ANY
POINT IN SPACE OR ON A WALL -- UNTIL THE POINT DISSOLVES. THEN YOUR WISH
FOR ANOTHER COMES TRUE.
Osho - All these sutras are concerned with how to achieve the
inner center. The basic mechanism used, the basic technique used is, if
you can create a center outside -- anywhere: in the mind, in the heart,
or even outside on a wall -- and if you concentrate totally on it and
you bracket out the whole world, you forget the whole world and only one
point remains in your consciousness, suddenly you will be thrown to your
inner center.
How does it work? First understand this... Your mind is just a vagabond,
a wandering. It is never at one point. It is always going, moving,
reaching, but never at any point. It goes from one thought to another,
from A to B. But it is never at the A; it is never at the B. It is
always on the move. Remember this: mind is always on the move, hoping to
reach somewhere but never reaching. It cannot reach! The very structure
of the mind is movement. It can only move; that is the inherent nature
of the mind. The very process is movement -- from A to B, from B to C...
it goes on and on.
If you stop at A or B or any point, the mind will fight with you. The
mind will say, "Move on," because if you stop the mind dies immediately.
It can be alive only in movement. The mind means a process. If you stop
and do not move, mind suddenly becomes dead, it is no more there; only
consciousness remains.
Consciousness is your nature; mind is your activity -- just like
walking. It is difficult because we think mind is something substantial.
We think mind is a substance -- it is not, mind is just an activity. So
it is really better to call it "minding" than mind. It is a process just
like walking. Walking is a process, if you stop, there is no walking.
You have legs, but no walking. Legs can walk, but if you stop then legs
will be there but there will be no walking.
Consciousness is like legs -- your nature. Mind is like walking -- just
a process. When consciousness moves from one place to another, this
process is mind. When consciousness moves from A to B, from B to C, this
movement is mind. If you stop the movement, there is no mind. You are
conscious, but there is no mind. You have legs, but no walking. Walking
is a function, an activity; mind is also a function, an activity.
If you stop at any point, the mind will struggle. The mind will say, "Go
on!" The mind will try in every way to push you forward or backward or
anywhere -- but, "Go on!" Anywhere will do, but do not stay at one
point.
If you insist and if you do not obey the mind... it is difficult because
you have always obeyed. You have never ordered the mind; you have never
been masters. You cannot be because, really, you have never
disidentified yourself from the mind. You think you are the mind. This
fallacy that you are the mind gives the mind total freedom, because then
there is no one to master it, to control it. There is no one! Mind
itself becomes the master. It may become the master, but that mastery is
just seemingly so. Try once and you can break that mastery -- it is
false.
Mind is just a slave pretending to be the master, but it has pretended
so long, for lives and lives, that even the master believes that the
slave is the master. That is just a belief. Try the contrary and you
will know that that belief was totally unfounded.
This first sutra says,
IMAGINE THE FIVE-COLORED CIRCLE OF THE PEACOCK TAIL TO BE YOUR FIVE
SENSES IN ILLIMITABLE SPACE. NOW LET THEIR BEAUTY MELT WITHIN
Think that your five senses are five colors, and those five colors are
filling the whole space. Just imagine your five senses are five colors
-- beautiful colors, alive, extended into infinite space. Then move
within with those colors. Move within and feel a center where all these
five colors are meeting within you. This is just imagination, but it
helps. Just imagine these five colors penetrating within you and meeting
at a point.
Of course, these five colors will meet at a point: the whole world will
dissolve. In your imagination there are only five colors -- just like
around the tail of a peacock -- spread all over space, going deep within
you, meeting at a point. Any point will do, but the hara is the best.
Think that they are meeting at your navel -- that the whole world has
become colors, and those colors are meeting at your navel. See that
point, concentrate on that point, and concentrate until the point
dissolves. If you concentrate on the point it dissolves, because it is
just imagination. Remember, whatsoever we have done is imagination. If
you concentrate on it, it will dissolve. And when the point dissolves,
you are thrown to your center.
The world has dissolved. There is no world for you. In this meditation
there is only color. You have forgotten the whole world; you have
forgotten all the objects. You have chosen only five colors. Choose any
five colors. This is particularly for those who have a very keen eye, a
very deep color sensitivity. This meditation will not be helpful to
everyone. Unless you have a painter's eye, a color consciousness, unless
you can imagine color, it is difficult.
Have you ever observed that your dreams are colorless? Only one person
in a hundred is capable of seeing colored dreams. You see just black and
white. Why? The whole world is colored and your dreams are colorless. If
one of you remembers that his dreams are colored, this meditation is for
him. If someone remembers even sometimes that he sees colors in his
dreams, then this meditation will be for him.
If you say to a person who is insensitive to color, "Imagine the whole
space filled with colors," he will not be able to imagine. Even if he
tries to imagine, if he thinks, "Red," he will see the word `red', he
will not see the color. He will say, "Green," and the word `green' will
be there, but there will be no greenness.
So if you have a color sensitivity, then try this method. There are five
colors. The whole world is just colors and those five colors are meeting
in you. Deep down somewhere in you, those five colors are meeting.
Concentrate on that point, and go on concentrating on it. Do not move
from it; remain at it. Do not allow the mind. Do not try to think about
green and red and yellow and about colors -- do not think. Just see them
meeting in you. Do not think about them! If you think, the mind has
moved. Just be filled with colors meeting in you, and then at the
meeting point, concentrate. Do not think! Concentration is not thinking;
it is not contemplation.
If you are really filled with colors and you have become just a rainbow,
a peacock, and the whole space is filled with colors, it will give you a
deep feeling of beauty. But do not think about it; do not say it is
beautiful. Do not move in thinking. Concentrate on the point where all
these colors are meeting and go on concentrating on it. It will
disappear, it will dissolve, because it is just imagination. And if you
force concentration, imagination cannot remain there, it will dissolve.
The world has dissolved already; there were only colors. Those colors
were your imagination. Those imaginative colors were meeting at a point.
That point, of course, was imaginary -- and now, with deep
concentration, that point will dissolve. Where are you now? Where will
you be? You will be thrown to your center.
Objects have dissolved through imagination. Now imagination will
dissolve through concentration. You alone are left as a subjectivity.
The objective world has dissolved; the mental world has dissolved. You
are there only as pure consciousness.
That is why this sutra says: AT ANY POINT IN SPACE OR ON A WALL... This
will help. If you cannot imagine colors, then any point on the wall will
help. Take anything just as an object of concentration. If it is inner
it is better, but again, there are two types of personalities. For those
who are introvert, it will be easy to conceive of all the colors meeting
within. But there are extroverts who cannot conceive of anything within.
They can imagine only the outside. Their minds move only on the outside;
they cannot move in. For them there is nothing like innerness.
The English philosopher David Hume has said, "Whenever I go in, I never
meet any self. All that I meet are only reflections of the outside world
-- a thought, some emotion, some feeling. I never meet the innerness, I
only meet the outside world reflected in." This is the extrovert mind
par excellence, and David Hume is one of the most extrovert minds.
So if you cannot feel anything within, and if the mind asks, "What does
this innerness mean? How to go in?" then try any point on the wall
instead. There are persons who come to me and ask how to go in. It is a
problem, because if you know only outgoing-ness, if you know only
outward movements, it is difficult to imagine how to go in.
If you are an extrovert then do not try this point inside, try it
outside. The same will be the result. Make a dot on the wall;
concentrate on it. Then you will have to concentrate on it with open
eyes. If you are creating a center inside, a point within, then you will
have to concentrate with closed eyes.
Make a point on a wall and concentrate on it. The real thing happens
because of concentration, not because of the point. Whether it is out or
in is irrelevant. It depends on you. If you are looking at the outside
wall, concentrating on it, then go on concentrating until the point
dissolves. That has to be noted: UNTIL THE POINT DISSOLVES! Do not blink
your eyes, because blinking gives a space for the mind to move again. Do
not blink, because then the mind starts thinking. It becomes a gap; in
the blinking, the concentration is lost. So no blinking.
You might have heard about Bodhidharma, one of the greatest masters of
meditation in the whole history of humankind. A very beautiful story is
reported about him.
He was concentrating on something -- something outward. His eyes would
blink and the concentration would be lost, so he tore off his eyelids.
This is a beautiful story: he tore off his eyelids, threw them away, and
concentrated. After a few weeks, he saw some plants growing on the spot
where he had thrown his eyelids. This anecdote happened on a mountain in
China, and the mountain's name is Tah, or Ta. Hence, the name `tea'.
Those plants which were growing became tea, and that is why tea helps
you to be awake.
When your eyes are blinking and you are falling down into sleep, take a
cup of tea. Those are Bodhidharma's eyelids. That is why Zen monks
consider tea to be sacred. Tea is not any ordinary thing, it is sacred
-- Bodhidharma's eyelids. In Japan they have tea ceremonies, and every
house has a tea room, and the tea is served with religious ceremony; it
is sacred. Tea has to be taken in a very meditative mood.
Japan has created beautiful ceremonies around tea drinking. They will
enter the tea room as if they are entering a temple. Then the tea will
be made, and everyone will sit silently listening to the samovar
bubbling. There is the steam, the noise, and everyone just listening. It
is no ordinary thing... Bodhidharma's eyelids. And because Bodhidharma
was trying to be awake with open eyes, tea helps. Because the story
happened on the mountain of Tah, it is called tea. Whether true or
untrue, this anecdote is beautiful.
If you are concentrating outwardly, then non-blinking eyes will be
needed, as if you no longer have eyelids. That is the meaning of
throwing away the eyelids. You have only eyes, without eyelids to close
them. Concentrating until the point dissolves. If you persist, if you
insist and do not allow the mind to move, the point dissolves. And when
the point dissolves, if you were concentrated on the point and there was
only this point for you in the world, if the whole world had dissolved
already, if only this point remained and now the point also dissolves,
then the consciousness cannot move anywhere. There is no object to move
to -- all the dimensions are closed. The mind is thrown to itself, the
consciousness is thrown to itself, and you enter the center.
So whether in or out, within or without, concentrate until the point
dissolves. This point will dissolve for two reasons. If it is within, it
is imaginary -- it will dissolve. If it is outside, it is not imaginary,
it is real. You have made a dot on the wall and have concentrated on it.
Then why will this dot dissolve? One can understand it dissolving inside
-- it was not there at all; you just imagined it -- but on the wall it
is there, so why will it dissolve?
It dissolves for a certain reason. If you concentrate on a point, the
point is not really going to dissolve, the mind dissolves. If you are
concentrating on an outer point, the mind cannot move. Without movement
it cannot live, it dies, it stops. And when the mind stops you cannot be
related with anything outward. Suddenly all bridges are broken, because
mind is the bridge. When you are concentrating on a point on the wall,
constantly your mind is jumping from you to the point, from the point to
you, from you to the point. There is a constant jumping; there is a
process.
When the mind dissolves you cannot see the point, because really, you
never see the point through the eyes: you see the point through the mind
AND through the eyes. If the mind is not there, the eyes cannot
function. You may go on staring at the wall, but the point will not be
seen. The mind is not there; the bridge is broken. The point is real --
it is there. When the mind will come back, you will see it again; it is
there. But now you cannot see it. And when you cannot see, you cannot
move out. Suddenly, you are at your center.
This centering will make you aware of your existential roots. You will
know from where you are joined to the existence. In you, there is a
point which is related with the total existence, which is one with it.
Once you know this center, you know you are at home. This world is not
alien. You are not an outsider. You are an insider, you belong to the
world. There is no need of any struggle, there is no fight. There is no
inimical relationship between you and the existence. The existence
becomes your mother.
It is the existence that has come into you and that has become aware. It
is the existence that has flowered in you. This feeling, this
realization, this happening... and there can be no anguish again.
Then bliss is not a phenomenon; it is not something that happens and
then goes. Then blissfulness is your very nature. When one is rooted in
one's center, blissfulness is natural. One happens to be blissful, and
by and by one even becomes unaware that one is blissful, because
awareness needs contrast. If you are miserable, then you can feel it
when you are blissful. When misery is no more, by and by you forget
misery completely. And you forget your bliss also. And only when you can
forget your bliss also are you really blissful. Then it is natural. As
stars are shining, as rivers are flowing, so are you blissful. Your very
being is blissful. It is not something that has happened to you: now it
IS YOU.
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