Have you ever just sat down on your meditation pillow, closed your eyes and tried to meditate, but your monkey mind just wouldn’t shut up and after ten minutes of trying to ‘just focus on your breath‘ you have frustratedly given up? You are not alone!
Having a consistent and effective meditation practice can be extremely beneficial, but it requires not only discipline but also a lot of practice to quiet your mind to be able to sit in stillness.
The need for an active meditation
The Indian spiritual leader Rajneesh, later on better known to the world as Osho, was convinced that in our modern day and age, we need a different form of meditation than simply sitting quietly on a pillow, not moving and exploring our breath. With this in mind he developed a now famous meditation technique called Osho Active Meditation (also known as Osho Kundalini Meditation).
The meditation is split into four stages, two are active (shaking and dancing) and to are ‚passive‘ (sitting and lying down). The total duration of the meditation is 60 minutes, with each stage lasting 15 minutes.
The idea is that in our time, we need a little preparation to come into stillness. Five days a week, we are constantly sitting on our desks. We certainly do not physically move as much as our ancestors.
We are also facing way more mental and emotional stress but we are don’t have the ability to physically let go of it. Hence, to quiet our monkey minds from the disturbing thoughts of the day, we first have to move, to come back into our bodies, back into the here and now. Only then are we able to sit in stillness and focus completely on the benefits of a silent meditation.
As Osho puts it: "Just sitting directly in silence won't help. The moment you will sit silently, you will see all sorts of things moving inside you; you will feel it's almost impossible to be silent. First throw those things out so you come to a natural state of rest. Real meditation starts only when you are at rest“.
The four stages
In order to prepare our bodies to sit in stillness, we need to move them first. The shaking and dancing of the first two stages help to move stagnant energy. Wherever the energy flow has been repressed and blocked, moving will help to transform it into bliss and joy. The last two stages consisting of sitting and lying in stillness enable all this accumulated energy from the first two stages to flow vertically and to move upwards to address and remove any present obstacles.
The different stages of the meditation are also designed to activate our kundalini energy. Kundalini energy is our life-force energy located at the base of the spine. When activated, it rises along the spine and with it consciousness rises as well. When awakened, for example by an Osho Active Meditation, it can purify and transform physical, mental, emotional and spiritual blockages.
Shaking
The first stage is meant to free our body from any blockages it might hold, no matter if they are physical or energetic. Just let your body loose and allow the shaking. The important part in this stage is that we (our minds) are not trying to control the shaking, but that we just let our bodies do the shaking without any expectations.
Osho explains shaking as follows: “There is no shaker, only shaking; [then] nobody is doing it, it is simply happening. Then the doer is not“. It can be difficult in the beginning to simply shake, but when we are not trying to force anything and just welcome whatever happens then the shaking will naturally start.
Dancing
In the second stage the meditator dances. There is no right or wrong, simply move however it feels good. Use the space if you feel like it and dance with big or small movements. Let your inner child be free and playful. During the shaking we were able to really let go of all the tension and blockages, so now the energy can flow freely and we can enjoy the pure bliss of dancing.
Sitting
After the first two active stages, we are now moving into the silent stages. In this stage, close your eyes and be still, sit down on a meditation pillow and simply observe. Witness whatever is happening inside and out.
After the active stages it will be much easier to quiet the mind and enjoy all the benefits of meditation, letting the energy flow through you.
Lying
In this stage, lie down, keep your eyes closed and be still. Very similar to Savasana, corpse pose in yoga, just lie down and let go of everything - simply be. Integrate everything that happened during the first three stages of this active meditation, peacefully resting.
The benefits of Osho’s Active Meditation
As explained above, this form of active meditation has many benefits, as it aims at awakening the kundalini energy and is designed for our modern busy everyday lives. Meditators report effects ranging from better stress management and effective stress reduction over increased inner peace and more clarity and focus to improved physical, mental and emotional health.
Through this form of active meditation we have the potential to reach long lasting states of relaxation by removing stress from our physical bodies. In the days of our primal ancestors, the body’s stress system (which is our ‘fight or flight‘ mechanism) was only activated during physical threats. It would pump adrenaline into the blood to signal our ancestors to run away from a predator. Once the threat passed their nervous system would come back into a state of relaxation (if they survived). In our day and age, stress is more emotional and mental than physical. Nevertheless, our autonomous nervous system reacts the same way to emotional stress than it does to physical stress. Our ‘fight or flight‘ is activated, but when the initial phase of stress has passed, our bodies cannot get rid of the stress. Why? Because the movement is lacking to release stress from our physical bodies, keeping our bodies stuck in the sympathetic (stress) nervous system. Osho’s meditation helps here. We simply ‚shake out‘ the stress from our bodies. It’s a primal and effective way to signal the body to come back into the parasympathetic (relaxed) nervous system.
When the Kundalini is awakened through meditation, our emotions are also brought into balance. The rising kundalini energy balances our chakra system, which are our main energy centers located along the spine. The results are more peace, harmony and emotional resilience.
Lastly, in the state of deep relaxation we are able to clearly see things as they are, without letting the judging mind take over. We can see the beauty all around us and can feel a blissful and very connected with everything and everyone around us, as all the blockages and tension has been removed.
If you feel like experiencing this different form of meditation to convince yourself of its many benefits, come join us for our next Osho Active Meditation at The Conscious Club, which takes place on every last Sunday of the month. In this meditation we're going to practice Kundalini techniques. This active meditation Osho style is meant for the kundalini energy to rise, flow and be transformed. We're going to do this through movement and stillness.
Book you ticket here: https://theconsciousclub.com/book-now
Written by Clara Malzer