One of the main reasons I went there was to explore meditation. I was brought up with conservative Christianity, and in this tradition meditation means thinking and reflecting upon words. But this can get a bit frustrating because of the simple fact that we are not just an airy balloon head floating around; we are bodily, and also spirit.
In the East the traditions of Zen, Tao and so on, have recognised that meditation is needed in order to counteract the dominance of this "airy-fairy balloon head" that we call our mind. If we identify with it, the mind restricts our reality to narrow concepts such as time and space. So, for example, we can spend all day stressing about not having enough "time" to get our work done. This is the absurdity of our “meaningful” lives. Of course such a person is right; they don't have time—time has them! But in mediation we neither have time, nor does time have us; because time (and even space) are relative. Although this can be demonstrated scientifically, it is a truth that can only be experienced; i.e. you have to meditate, or "be" in meditation to really know it.
In the Osho resort in India the first daily meditation is called Dynamic Meditation. This is no silent sitting. You have to really use your body, and then "become" your body.
Okay! are you ready for it? The first stage, lasting for 10 minutes, is doing a rapid and chaotic breathing through your nose. The second stage, also 10 minutes, is going crazy; yes, holding nothing back, you simply explode (screaming, crying, spinning). The third stage (10 mins) is jumping up and down and shouting "hoo! hoo! hoo!" (don't ask!). The fourth stage is silent and still witnessing, just watching and being aware of what is now happening on the inside (15 mins). The last stage is to celebrate, through dance, this "whole" you have melted into.
Do you think you could do this in a room with a few hundred other people? But this is exactly the point of meditation. Meditation is a great death. As in love, you melt, you are no more. It takes courage to begin, but you have your eyes closed and everyone else is going crazy too. For some reason I didn't really get into this meditation (having to get up for it at 5:30 am didn't help!), though I have heard some others say that, because it releases social conditionings, it made them feel "clean."
I benefited mostly from the breathing mediations. After doing the Chakra breathing meditation I felt very complete in myself, with freely flowing energy from my feet to my head. The Gourishankar mediation was also extremely beneficial for me; it involves holding and releasing your breath while gazing softly at a flickering light. As I mentioned before, we are spirit, and spirit means breath (as in Genesis 2:7). When I allow myself to "become" my breath, through giving a simple attention to it, I realise I am one with this immense eternal existence, and not, in fact, the little "me" that is nothing but a unit of society.
My whole struggle is, of course, this "dying to self" that Christians sometimes talk about. But how can I die to myself unless I first become myself? Or, put another way, how can I die to something that I know nothing of? My trip to India
