Osho, or Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, was quite a controversial spiritual teacher from India, and many of you might know a bit about him. I personally don't know much of anything, except his reputation for having a ridiculous number of Rolls Royce cars and being known as the "sex guru." I don't care much about reputations, but I am interested in learning various techniques, especially those that have had impacted many lives in reportedly positive ways. Here in Rishikesh, there are a few places that offer Osho meditations, so I just had to go see what the deal was.
This morning, I went one of the centers for a drop-in class, which happend to be the "Dynamic Meditation." He has a wide range of meditations, all with specific names, purposes, and forms. This particular meditation is quite unlike anything I've ever seen, but I have encountered a couple practices that have some similarities, so it wasn't necessarily a new feeling for me.
So what is the Dynamic Meditation?
Haha, wow, the dynamic meditation is many things. Some words that come to mind are exhausting, ridiculous, intense, whacky, liberating, and refreshing. If there was a camera on me the entire time, most of my friends would probably never talk to me again. The routine is broken down in 5 parts, all done standing up, with the eyes closed, and followed by a short resting period lying on the ground to finish it off.
Part 1: Forceful Breathing Convulsions, 10 minutes
Music is played, and you are instructed to breathe forcefully and sort of shake your torso along with the exhalations that is barely shy of being defined as hyper-ventilating. The arms are raised and the elbows kept in, and there is somewhat of a chicken-flapping motion to accompany the breath. The idea here, as the teacher put it, is "to get the breath out." Somewhat similar to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's Sudarshan Kriya, another trademarked technique from a big Indian guru, this technique of intense breathing will not only get the breath out, but it will also sort of loosen up whatever is lying dormant within. In today's meditation and in the Art of Living class where I learned Sudarshan Kriya, the instructions were to just allow anything to come up, not resisting or holding on.
Part 2: Scream, shout, twist about, 10 minutes
In this second part, also with a music track, one is instructed to "do whatever comes, without holding back." Basically, it was 10 mintes of complete nonsense and mayhem, but it was pretty fun. With the eyes closed, and standing, you can flail about, scream at the top of your lungs, laugh uncontrollaby, shake your body, kick and punch the air, or literally do whatever you want. The girl behind me was screaming like she was being brutally murdered for 10 minutes. Somewhat disturbing, but I just did my best to deal with myself.
I found myself speaking jibberish, yelling in different voices, shaking myself, making barking noises and other animal noises, making noises that resembled Native American or tribal chanting, and just basically flailing my arms and legs and torso about in a semi-chaotic frenzy of release. I did something somewhat similar to this in the first "spiritual" course I ever did, called the More to Life Program. The main difference, if I remember correctly, is that the release excercise in the More to Life Program was directed toward a certain person with whom you've been holding some resentment towards, and in Osho's Dynamic Meditation, it was just a complete free-for-all.
Part 3: Intense jumping up and down on the toes, 15 minutes
This part was insanely hard, and you must know that there are absolutely no breaks in between the sessions. I was giving it everything I had in Part 1 and Part 2, so by the time Part 3 came around, I was pretty good and tired already. In this exercise, you jump up and down on your toes, and keep your arms above your head, pointing straight up. Oh, and of course, you keep your eyes closed. Just on it's own, it's definitely a bit of a challenge to not fall over from imbalance or exhaustion. The other part, another emphasis on the breath, is to push out an "Oh" sound everytime your toes touch the floor. Again, it's a forceful release, so as you are jumping, you are yelling, "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh." Think of a baboon, trying to get his bananas back. Oh, and there is a nice musical track to accompany this one, too.
Part 4: Freeze, 15 minutes
Don't move, just stay perfectly still, and feel the rivers of sweat coming out of every pore of your body. The music stops, and you are instructed to "just be the witness." It was quite a relief to finally have a break from the convulsing, heavy breathing, shouting, and jumping up and down. Usually, it would be difficult to stand completely still for 15 minutes, but it was actually really easy. I felt like I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be feeling something in particular, like a certain level of consciousness, so I noticed my mind questioning a bit. That, and I found myself drifting off into a "normal" thinking process before I'd bring it back to try to "be the witness." While there was a certain level of clarity there, it wasn't anything unusual or overly amazing. If anything, I felt things were a bit more calm and steady than before the practice had begun, perhaps equivalent to my normal meditation practice.
Part 5: Free-form movement and dancing, 15 minutes
In this part, the music came back on, and we were invited to celebrate and move our bodies however we wanted. Basically, it was a little dance party, but with the eyes still closed. Actually, I'm not completely positive we were supposed to have our eyes closed for this one too, but I kept mine shut. This was another familiar exercise for me, as I participated in quite a few "ecstatic dance jams" while living in Durango, Colorado last year. You can think of this as an opportunity to creatively express the moment, and it is quite liberating indeed. Getting rid of any self-conscious ideas of what you are "supposed to be doing," you just sort of let the music move you in any way that comes naturally.
These sort of intuitive/ecstatic dance jams are offered in many places, often in yoga studios, and I highly recommend doing one, if you haven't already. There can be a mixture of a lot of energy and a lot of stillness, and you might just bust out some dance moves you never knew you had. In a way, the movements that come out aren't coming from "us," they aren't pre-conceived. They are interpreted from the music, from the moment, and you get the beautiful opportunity to watch yourself. If you don't know what it's like to "be the witness," put on some new-age or world music, go into your room by yourself, and just let yourself go. If someone is watching, it makes it much harder to let go, but if you are alone, or in a room full of people with their eyes closed, you find that you really don't care what you look like, and the results can be a very natural way of dancing.
Final Relaxation:
In the final few minutes, we were invited to lie down on our backs and just be. If you've done yoga before, you can think of Shavasana, the corpse-pose, that is always done at the end of a class.
Conclusion:
I must say, I still feel pretty damn good from my meditation this morning, and I'm sure that this Dynamic Meditation that Osho developed does have the ability to do wonderful things for people. Even though it was exhausting at times, and one hell of a work-out, I felt rejuvenated, refreshed, and energized when I walked out. In my opinion, this type of meditation is best for people who haven't already gone deep into their inner-being, who are holding on to things from the past that are keeping them choked up inside. I would be willing to bet that many people experience a wide range of emotions during this practice and most certainly shed some tears during Part 3's manic release-fest. One thing that I've found from past work I've done, is that when you release something, it usually doesn't come back. Since I've already done practices that have released things that I've held onto, and yes, shed a few tears along the way, I wasn't blown away by Osho's Dynamic Meditation. As I said before, there was no new feeling there for me. If I hadn't ever taken the time, through breathing exercises, Sudarshan Kriya, the More to Life Program, ecstatic/interpretive dance jams, and Vipassana meditation, I could imagine that the Dynamic Meditation could be life-changing.
Another thing about it is that for some, who aren't keen on the idea of sitting in silence for long hours, this might be a way of practicing "meditation" and indirectly dealing with some of their issues. I'm sure many people that fit into this category have no idea what hits them. But for me, there is no substitute to sitting with yourself in silence, bearing witness to all that arises from within. If you sit long enough, it will all come up, and there is no music, dancing, or shouting to distract you, just the sensations, emotions, and feelings. Of course, as we continue to create more and more of this karma, we need to keep practicing something as a way of letting go if it. Otherwise, it just builds up and builds up and then, snap, we explode.
So if you ask me if I'll do another Dynamic Meditation, I'm not sure. I probably won't jump at the opportunity, but if I feel like I really need it, or am in the right mood to get a little crazy, I'd probably go for it again. That being said, Osho developed a wide range of "meditation" practices (I think the term is used loosely here), so I'd surely like to try out some more.
Keeping in mind that when it comes to the practice of liberation, there is "something for everyone," so we can look past Osho's reputation and accept the validity of this practice. It's not quite my style, but at the same time, it felt pretty damn good. If you have the opportunity to try it, with an experienced teacher, I'd say go for it, the only thing you have to lose is maybe some body-weight and any other extra baggage that you might be carrying around.
May all beings keep an open mind, not letting things like self-consciousness, reputation, and fear get in the way of exploration and liberation.
May all beings see that even though something might not be a good fit for them, it might be perfect for someone else.
May all beings cultivate an attitude of curiosity that will lead them to find their own path and ultimately lead to inner peace, wisdom, and compassion.
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