Latihan Meditation

 

 

You don't need to do anything with the mind. Simply stand in a loose posture and wait for God, for the whole, to work in you. Then you do whatsoever you want to do in a deeply prayerful mood -- 'I am at Thy will' -- and just relax.

It is just like when people do automatic handwriting. They just keep the pen in their hand and wait. Suddenly some energy possesses the hand and the hand starts moving. They are surprised -- their own hand is moving and they are not moving it! Wait exactly like that, and after three, four minutes, suddenly you will see a few jerks coming to the body and energy descending in vou. Don't get scared because It Is very scarey You are not dolng It. In tact you are just a witness; it is happening.

Move with it. The body will start taking many postures -- moving, dancing, swaying, trembling, shaking; many things will happen. Go on allowing; not only allowing but cooperating. Then you will come exactly to what we call Sahaj Yoga.

Latihan is nothing new. The word is new. Subud is not something new. It is just a new version of Sahaj Yoga -- spontaneous Yoga. You leave everything to the divine, because the mind is tricky. Soon you will see the difference because you will just be a watcher. You will be surprised because your hand will be moving and you are not moving it at all. After a few days of relaxing into it, even if you want to stop, suddenly you will not be able to; you will see that you are possessed. So one has to pray in the beginning and say, 'For twenty minutes take possession of my being and do whatsoever you want to do: Thy will be done; Thy kingdom come.' Let that attitude be there and just relax. God will start dancing in you and will take many postures. The body needs will be fulfilled, but not only that -- something higher- than the body, greater than the body, some deep needs of consciousness will be fulfilled.

 

- Osho, "The Cypress in the Courtyard, #6"

 

 

 

 

Mahamudra and Prayer Meditation

 

 

In Indonesia, there is a very rare man, Bapak Subuh. He has come unknowingly to a method known as latihan. He stumbled upon it, but latihan is one of the oldest tantra methods. It is not a new phenomenon; latihan is the first step towards Mahamudra. It is allowing the body to vibrate, allowing the body to become energy, nonsubstantial, nonmaterial; allowing the body to melt and dissolve the boundaries.

 

Bapak Subuh is a Mohammedan but his movement is known as "Subud." That word is Buddhist. "Subud" comes from three words: "su," "bu," "dha" -- "su" means sushila, "bu" means Buddha, "dha" means dharma; Subud means sushila-Buddha-dharma. The meaning is: the law of great virtue derived from Buddha, Buddha's law of great virtue. This is what Tilopa calls the great teaching.

Latihan is simple. It is the first step. One has to stand relaxed, loose and natural. It is good if you stand alone and nobody is there to disturb you. Close your room, stand alone. If you can find someone who has already stepped into latihan, his presence can be helpful, his very presence works like a catalytic agent, he becomes the opener. So somebody who is advanced a little already can open you very easily; otherwise, you can open yourself also. A little more time will be needed, that's all. Otherwise an opener is good.

If an opener is standing just by your side, he starts his latihan: you simply stand and his energy starts pulsating with you, his energy starts moving around you, like a fragrance he surrounds you -- suddenly you feel the music. Just as when there is a good singer, or somebody is playing on an instrument, you start beating your feet, or you start tapping the chair, or you start pulsating with it -- just like that, a deep energy inside him moves and the whole room and the quality of the room is changed immediately.

You are not to do anything; you are simply to be there, loose and natural, just waiting for something to happen. And if your body starts moving, you have to allow it, you have just to cooperate and allow. The cooperation should not become too direct, it should not become a pushing; it should remain just an allowing. Your body starts moving suddenly, as if you are possessed, as if a great energy from the above has descended on you, as if a cloud has come and has surrounded you -- and now you are possessed by that cloud, and the cloud is penetrating within your body, and your body starts taking movements. Your hands are raised, you make subtle movements, you start a small dance, soft gestures; your body is taken up.

If you know anything about automatic writing it will be easy to follow what happens in latihan. In automatic writing you take a pencil in your hand, you close your eyes, you wait. Suddenly you feel a jerk in the hand: your hand is possessed, as if something has entered. You are not to do anything, because if you do then it will not be from the beyond; it will be your doing. You have simply to allow. Loose and natural -- Tilopa's words are wonderful; they cannot be improved upon. Loose and natural, you wait with the pencil, with closed eyes; when the jerk comes and the hand starts moving, you have to allow it, that's all. You have not to resist it; because you can resist. The energy is very subtle, and, in the beginning, not very powerful. If you just stop it, it can be stopped. And the energy is not aggressive; if you don't allow, it will not come. If you doubt, it will not happen, because with doubt, your hand will be resisting. With doubt, you will not allow, you will fight. So that's why trust is so meaningful, shraddha. You simply trust and leave your hand; by and by the hand starts moving, now the hand starts making wriggles on the paper -- allow it. Then somebody simply asks a question, or you yourself ask a question; let the question be there, loose in the mind, not very persistent, not forcing; just raise the question and wait. And suddenly the answer is written.

If ten persons try, at least three persons will be absolutely capable of automatic writing. Thirty percent of people are not aware that they can become so receptive. And this can become a great force in your life. Explanations differ... what happens -- that is not important. The deepest explanation that I find true is, your own highest center possesses your lowest center; your own highest peak of consciousness catches hold of your lowest unconscious mind. You ask and your own inner being answers. Nobody else is there, but your inner being, which you don't know, is very superior to you.

Your own innermost being is the possibility of your ultimate flowering. It is as if the flower takes possession of the seed and answers. The seed doesn't know, but the flower... as if your possibility takes possession of your actuality and answers; as if your ultimate potentiality takes possession of whatsoever you are, and answers. Or the future takes possession of the past, the unknown takes possession of the known, the formless takes possession of the form -- all metaphors, but I feel you will understand the significance -- as if your old age takes possession of your childhood, and answers.

The same happens in latihan with the whole body. In automatic writing you only leave your hand loose and natural. In latihan you leave your whole body loose and you wait, and you cooperate, and suddenly you feel an urge. The hand is raising by itself, as if somebody is pulling it by some invisible strings -- allow it. And the leg goes moving; you take a turn, you start a small dance; very chaotic, with no rhythm, with no manipulation, but by and by, as you get deeper, it takes its own rhythm. Then it is no longer chaotic, it takes its own order, it becomes a discipline, but not forced by you. This is your highest possibility taking possession of your lowest body and moving it.

Latihan is the first step. And, by and by, you will feel so beautiful doing it that you will feel a meeting is happening between you and the cosmos. But this is only the first step. That's why in Subud something is missing. The first step in itself is very beautiful, but it is not the last step. I would like you to complete it. For thirty minutes at least -- sixty will be wonderful; by and by from thirty you reach to sixty minutes of latihan dancing.

In sixty minutes your body, from pore to pore, from cell to cell, is cleansed; it is a catharsis, you are completely renewed, all the dirt is burned. That's what Tilopa says: In Mahamudra all one's sins are burned. The past is thrown into fire. It is a new birth, a rebirth. And you feel energy showering all over you, in and out. And the dance is not only outside. Soon, when you get attuned in it, you will feel an inner dance also. Not only that your body is dancing, inside the energy is dancing; and they both cooperate with each other. And then a pulsation happens, and you feel you are pulsating with the universe -- you have found the universal rhythm.

Thirty to sixty minutes is the time: start with thirty, end with sixty. Somewhere in between you will have the right time. And you will come to know: if you feel attuned nearabout forty minutes, then that is your right time; if you feel attuned at twenty minutes, then that is your right time. Then your meditation must go beyond that: if you feel tuned at ten minutes, twenty minutes will do; if you feel tuned at fifteen minutes, thirty minutes will do. Do it double, don't take any chances, so really you are completely cleaned. And end it with a prayer.

When you are completely cleaned and feeling that your body is refreshed -- you have been under a shower of energy, and your whole body is feeling one, undivided; and the substantialness of body is lost, you feel it more like an energy, a movement, a process, not material -- now you are ready. Then kneel down on the earth.

Kneeling down is beautiful; just like Sufis kneel down, or Mohammedans do their prayer in the mosque, kneel down like them because that is the best posture for latihan. Then raise both your hands towards the sky with closed eyes, and feel yourself to be like a hollow vessel, hollow bamboo; inside, hollow, just like an earthen pot. Your head is the mouth of the pot, and the energy is falling tremendously on your head as if you are standing under a waterfall. And you will be actually standing -- after the latihan you will feel it; it is like a waterfall, not like a shower. When you are ready it falls in greater strength, strong, and your body will start trembling, shaking, like a leaf in a strong wind; or, if you have stood under a waterfall sometime, then you will know. If you have never stood under one, go to a waterfall and stand under it and feel how it feels. That same feeling will come to you after latihan. Feel yourself hollow inside, nothing inside, just emptiness -- and the energy is filling you, filling you completely.

Allow it to fall into you as deeply as possible, so it can reach to your farthest corner of your body and mind and soul. And when you feel it -- you are so much filled, and the whole body is shaking -- kneel down, put your head down on the earth, and pour the energy into the earth. When you feel the energy is overflowing, pour down into the earth. Take from the sky, give it back to the earth, and you be just a hollow bamboo in between.

This has to be done seven times. Take from the sky and pour down into the earth and kiss the earth, and pour down -- be empty completely. Pour down as completely as you did for filling, be completely empty. Then raise your hands again, fill again, pour down again. Seven times it has to be done, because each time it penetrates one chakra of the body, one center of the body; each time it goes deeper in you. And if you do less than seven times, then you will feel restless after it because the energy will be hanging somewhere in between.

No, it has to penetrate all the seven chakras of your body so that you become completely hollow, a passage. The energy falls from the sky and goes into the earth, you are earthed; you simply pass the energy to the earth, just like electricity. For electricity we have to put an earth wire. The energy comes from the sky and goes into the earth, you become earthed -- just a vessel, a hollow bamboo passing the energy. Seven times -- more you can do, but not less. And this will be a complete Mahamudra.

If you do it every day, soon, within three months somewhere, one day you will feel you are not there. Just the energy is pulsating with the universe -- nobody is there, the ego is completely lost, the doer is not. The universe is there, and you are there, the wave pulsating with the ocean -- that is Mahamudra. That is the final orgasm, the most blissful state of consciousness that is possible.

This is just like two lovers making love, but millionfold, and the same phenomenon multiplied by millions -- because now you are making love with the whole universe. That's why tantra is known as the yoga of sex; tantra is known as the path of love.

In Mahamudra all one's sins are burned: in Mahamudra one is released from the prison of this world. This is the dharma's supreme torch. Those who disbelieve it are fools, who ever wallow in misery and sorrow.

 

- Osho, "Tantra: The Supreme Understanding, #6"

 

 

 

 

Latihan is a let-go

 

 

Question 2

Osho,

What are the differences and similarities between Latihan and self-hypnosis?

 

Latihan is a good method, but it is closer to Dynamic Meditation than self-hypnosis. Its function is to bring you into a state where you surrender yourself totally to existence and let your body energy move, not according to your mind but according to the universal spirit.

Just stand in an empty room, relaxed, with your eyes closed, and wait. And suddenly you will feel your hand is moving, or your head is moving -- then don't stop it, then just go with it. Don't exaggerate either. If the hand is moving only this much, then don't move it more than that, because then you have again become the doer.

Latihan is a let-go. Your bodily energy falls in tune with the universal energy and things start happening in your body: you may start dancing, you may start whirling, your hands may start moving, your legs may start moving. You may start saying words and you don't understand what their meaning is or whether there is any meaning in them, or whether they belong to some other language that you don't know.

But you are not to interfere, either to check or to help the process; either way you will be disturbing. You just have to leave... and it seems to be dangerous when it happens for the first time. Just as you were afraid of madness you will be afraid, because you will look mad. Suddenly you are sticking your tongue out for no reason, moving your head for no reason, jumping, dancing, doing strange exercises that you have never imagined or thought of.

But just a forty minute latihan will give you a tremendous feeling of well-being. Nothing else can give you that well-being. And if you add one thing more which is not in latihan... That's why I had to create Dynamic Meditation -- it is latihan plus something more, because in latihan you are lost completely. I want you to remain a witness. Don't be a doer. Don't push any action, don't force anything, don't prevent anything. One thing which is missing in latihan -- it is an Indonesian method... One thing is missing in it and that is the witness, because without the witness it can be dangerous.

Latihan has proved dangerous to many people. You may not be able to stop at forty minutes; the whirlwind of the energy may be too strong. You may get afraid that you cannot stop. You may get exhausted if you do it more than forty minutes. And if you get exhausted -- it is great physical exercise -- rather than giving you well-being, you can fall unconscious. And when you wake up you will not find yourself refreshed, you will find your whole body aching. You will find yourself feeling sick, feeling like you want to vomit; your whole stomach has been disturbed. You will not find yourself strengthened by it, but weakened. And sometimes people have gone mad doing it -- they would not stop.

And the danger is... because you have not been a witness, it can start sometimes when you are not prepared to do it -- on the street, in a shop, anywhere. You are not the master of the method because you were not the witness of it. There has not been anyone above it. So any situation can create it -- anywhere, any place -- and that will look really strange and awkward. If you want to prevent it that will look very awkward, and if you do it that will also look very awkward.

So I am not in favor of latihan alone. It is a good method, but witnessing has to be joined to it so you can stop when you want, you can start when you want, so it cannot happen anywhere, any time, on its own. And if witnessing is there, then the body is relaxing its tensions, throwing away its tensions.

You will be surprised that our bodies also collect tension: for example you wanted to hit someone and you did not hit him. Your body was ready, your muscles were ready, because your body and muscles just listen to your mind. Your mind wanted to hit the person, your hand was ready to hit the person, but your mind is always in a split. Your religions say: this is not good, this is violence; do not do it.

One part of your mind says, "This is criminal. You may unnecessarily get into trouble." Another part of the mind says, "You can hit the person, but the other person is stronger than you. He will not just stand there and take it and say goodbye to you and go home. He will jump upon you and you will be unnecessarily beaten, so why create such a situation?"

But your hand was ready. The energy has reached to your muscles, to your fingers, to your hand. You stopped for any reason: nonviolence, fear, he is your superior, he is your boss -- for any reason you stopped. But what will happen to the tension?

Your hand was ready; the energy cannot go back. There is no system for any energy that has become ready to be expressed to go back to its original source. It will remain in your wrist, it will remain in your fingers, it will remain in your hand. This kind of energy accumulates in different parts of your body -- that's why latihan works. In latihan this kind of energy starts moving and you may start hitting an enemy who is not there.

But the witness is absolutely needed so that your body is relieved of all the collecting tensions and you will feel fresh, a beautiful feeling of well-being. Secondly those forty minutes of witnessing are even more important because you will see more easily that you are not the body; you are not controlling it, you are not doing anything, you are not preventing anything. You can see that it has nothing to do with you, it is going on its own. You can disidentify yourself more easily. That is the superiority of Dynamic Meditation over latihan.

Latihan can help somebody who has not much tension in his body, has not much repression in his mind, but now to find such people is very difficult. It is an old method. Now everybody is full of tensions. So there was a time, just twenty years ago... latihan became a worldwide movement and it appealed to everybody, but then slowly it has disappeared. It had to disappear because it created more problems than it solved. It made many more people insane than it helped.

The basic thing was missing for the simple reason that to the man who introduced latihan to the world it had happened naturally: just being alone in the forest one day, he found some movements were happening. And just being interested what these movements were and why they were happening, he allowed them to happen. But he had not many tensions in him. He was a simple man -- and particularly men like that are always simple -- he was a woodcutter.

Now a woodcutter never collects any violence in him. He is doing so much violence every day, cutting wood, that there is no possibility that his hands will ever collect any energy to hit anybody. Woodcutters, fishermen, farmers -- for them latihan may be perfectly good, because already their body is doing so much. So there is nothing left over. Within ten or fifteen minutes the latihan is over and they feel good. And their work is such that even if it happens on their farm or on the lake or in the forest... it is not a problem if it starts happening on its own.

But in the world, if it starts happening in your office and you suddenly jump on your table and start doing latihan the police will soon be called. Latihan will have you end up in jail, and you will not be able to explain to anybody that it is something spiritual. Nobody is going to understand your spirituality -- it was sheer madness, you could have done anything. You are a dangerous man.

And the repressed energy is so much because in the modern civilization people are sitting the whole day in their chairs. Bodies were not made for that. Man is basically a hunter. His body was made to follow deer when they run. Have you seen deer running? They go like an arrow, and the hunters were able to follow them. The body was made to work hard -- eight hours, twelve hours -- and the question of tensions in the body was out of the question. Latihan would have been good for these people. Perhaps a few minutes and they would have felt very fresh, just like a shower -- but not the modern man.

You are collecting so much that you may go on doing latihan for hours... and there is nothing to control you, because you have dropped yourself completely. You are not to check, you are not to do anything, so you will be almost in a state of having a fit. And you will continue for hours and then fall down, maybe in a coma, unconscious. You may wake up mad or you may wake up really good, but it is a chance and I don't want anybody to take such chances.

It is better to keep the witness which can always prevent you, which will allow you to be able to be always in control, with mastery, so it does not start happening just anywhere. Then it will give more benefit to your body -- the whole benefit that latihan can give -- and for yourself a forty minute witnessing is a tremendous benediction.

Latihan will be forgotten soon, but witnessing will remain with you forever and forever. It is your nature.

 

- Osho, "The Path of the Mystic, #3"