17 Apr MONTHLY MEDITATION – February 2016
BECOME AWARE OF DEATH
Sex and death are opportunities to surrender, for dissolution, unity and pure consciousness.
Sex is the gate to form from the source and death is the gate of form back to the source!
For me, being a human being means becoming aware of death. I’m not saying you should be afraid of death, that is not consciousness. Just take care to the fact that death is getting closer and you have to be prepared for it…
Then the first thing is becoming aware of death. Think about it, look at it, contemplate it. Do not be afraid, do not escape this event. It’s there and you cannot escape! It came into the world with you.
Your death was born with you, you cannot escape it now. You have hidden it within yourself – recognize it. When you realize you’re going to die, that death is inevitable, your entire mind will begin to see in a different dimension. Then the food is a basic necessity for the body, but not for the self because even if you get food death will happen. Food cannot protect you from death, it can only postpone it. The food can help you postpone it. If you find a good shelter, a good home, this will not protect you from death, it will only help you to die appropriately comfortably. And if death occurs uncomfortably or comfortably, it is just the same.
In life, you can be poor or rich, but death is a great leveller. The biggest Communism is in death. You live carelessly, there is no difference, death also happens. In life, equality is impossible; in death, inequality is impossible. Become aware of it, contemplate it. OSHO
In the Book of Secrets, the Vighyan Bhairav Tantra, there is a sutra, a meditation on death that I would share with you this month. Buddha really liked this technique. He initiated many of his disciples in it. The sutra says:
Concentrate on the fire climbing up your form, from the toes until your whole body becomes ashes but you don´t … Just your consciousness remains!
In life nothing is certain except death.
Secondly, death is not going to finally take place; it is already happening. It is a process. Just as life is a process, death is a process. We create the now, but life and death are just your two feet, your two legs. Life and death are both a process. You are dying every moment.
Let me put it this way: every time you inhale that is life, and every time you exhale, it is death.
For fifteen minutes, exhale deeply. Sit on a chair or on the floor, exhale deeply and as you exhale close your eyes. When the air comes out, you come in. And then let the body inhale, and when the air penetrates you, open your eyes and go out. It is just the opposite: when the air comes out, you come in; when the air comes in, you go out.
When you exhale, space is created internally, because breathing is life. When you breathe deeply, you are empty, life has gone. In a way you are dead, for a moment you are dead. While in that silence of death, look inward. The air moves out: close your eyes and go inward. The space is there and you can easily get into it. In the space of fifteen minutes you will feel so deeply relaxed you’ll be ready to practice the technique.
Lie on your back. First imagine you are dead; the body is like a corpse. Lie back and then bring your attention to your toes. With your eyes closed, go inward. Bring your attention to your toes and feel the fire rising upwards from there; everything is burning. As the heat rises, your body starts to disappear.
Begin with your toes and go up.
Why do you start with your feet? It will be easier, because the toes are far from your self, from your ego. Your ego exists in the head. You cannot start from the head, it will be very difficult, so start from a very distant point. The toes are the farthest point of the ego. Begin to burn from there. Feel that your toes burn, only ashes remain and then scroll slowly, burning everything that the fire meets. Each part, your legs, your thighs, will disappear. And continue looking how they have become ashes. The fire climbs up and the parts through which it has travelled are no longer there, they have become ashes. Keep going up and finally your head disappears. Everything has turned to dust.
You will continue to be simply the witness on the hill. The body will be there, dead, burned to ashes, and you will be the observer, you will be the witness. That witness has no ego.
This technique will take at least three months. Keep practicing. It will not happen in one day, but one day you will actually see the body reduced to ashes. Then you can observe.
Text taken from the Book of Secrets – Osho
With love,
Astiko