What exactly are delta-8 THC vape carts, and what kind of effects can they produce? For starters, Delta-8-THC is a cannabinoid and can be extracted from both marijuana and hemp plants. However, most delta-8 THC products are manufactured from hemp nowadays, which technically makes it legal. Delta-8 produces significantly milder effects, so you cannot expect to feel the same high as you would with delta-9-THC. But that’s actually a good thing. Last but definitely not least, delta-8 THC products are technically legal in most US states. What you need to keep in mind is that marijuana-derived extracts are federally illegal, meaning you can only purchase them in states that have legalized the use of recreational marijuana.

The Delta-8 Vaporizer Pods are the perfect addition to any vaporizer system, helping you get the best of both worlds. Equipped with the exclusive “Strobe Light,” you will experience a noticeable visual effect while you vape. Additionally, with the Delta-8 Pods, you’ll experience an intense CBD high which will have you feeling relaxed and content throughout your session.

What you need to keep in mind is that marijuana-derived extracts are federally illegal, meaning you can only purchase them in states that have legalized the use of recreational marijuana. As described in our article on Delta-9-THC Vape Cartridges, these vape cartridges generally deliver more of a comedown than other vape cartridges, due to the THC content. To help with that, the delta-8 THC vape cartridges will typically feature a smoke alarm, which will alert you that your vaping sessions have come to an end. They’re typically $20 – $40, but they can run as high as $90. Make sure you purchase these a day or two before you expect to use them. To use a vape cartridge you’ll typically need to add your juice and inhale into the device. Once that is completed, you should just wait a few seconds for the clock to indicate that your battery is completely drained.

Vape cartridges can also be used with e-liquids, and they’re usually a couple bucks cheaper. In fact, d8 carts are commonly referred to as “ELF” vape cartridges, which is short for Electronic Cigarette. However, you should avoid using them with e-liquid due to different safety laws. Instead of an active ingredient, e-liquids often contain vegetable-based blends that can contain ingredients such as vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, and sometimes even glycerin. This type of substance can be toxic to the body, and it can also be extremely difficult to detect a false positive using ELF products. Since the FDA does not recommend the use of e-liquid, you should look for vape cartridges that contain both tobacco and cannabis extracts.  You don’t need to be a pro to make good vaping with delta-8 THC as you can enjoy a relaxing dose just by placing your vaporizer on a desk, in the car, or anywhere else. For the most part, the user experience is extremely smooth and the effects are powerful. These vape cartridges are also very easy to clean and maintain. That means you should be able to vape with these kits and cartridges for a very long period of time, which can be very productive. You will also notice that the delta-8 THC vape cartridges come in different sizes and configurations.

From 8 milliliters up to 64 milliliters, they are a great option for anyone looking for a more precise or consistent delivery. These vape cartridges can also be difficult to find, which can be annoying. However, there are a few online retailers that are sure to have them in stock and ready to ship. Related Articles: An Overview of Delta-9-THC Vape Cartridges What is Delta-8 THC? On Your Way to Vaping With Delta-8-THC Vape Cartridges Related Articles: Vape Cartridges for Cannabis When it comes to using a vape cartridge, you will generally want to use the smallest cartomizer available. This allows for a consistent experience without needing to refill as often.

Can be found by searching for Drug manufacturers like Big Pharma also offer bulk orders of drugs. Many online pharmacies can generate and fill these orders, and you may be paying the equivalent of what you would pay directly to a brand-name drug company for a similar drug. or other online pharmacies that may sell their own, locally manufactured medicines, often without a prescription. However, note that some online pharmacies do not offer genuine prescriptions. These pharmacies can misrepresent what they sell and the quality of what they sell, and these could be counterfeit drugs and not safe for use. The fact that there are a lot of knock-off pharmaceuticals on the web is one reason why it is important to know what you are getting. Although there are websites that promote services such as this as pharmacies, it is important to know that this is usually not an authorized pharmacies, which might be selling drugs without a prescription or counterfeit drugs.

If you’re looking to buy a medication from a pharmacy you trust, be sure to ask about delivery, store policies and pick-up times. Always request proof of age and ask to see your prescription, even if you are not eligible for an exemption. If you buy medication online, be aware that pharmacy websites, especially those which provide a link to buy over the Internet, can provide misleading information. The Australian government issued a warning on its website last week that misinformation about medicines has been spreading on internet pharmacies and social media sites. Some sites are advertising antimalarial medications for sale at a price of over $300 per bottle. This is a legal drug for use in Australia, but it should be avoided if you are not allergic to it. Medications not prescribed for you may also be available for purchase, so be sure to ask your pharmacist for any warnings.

Some pharmacies will sell you an opioid medication at a lower price if you can pay with cash. However, they are not the same kind of opioid as the ones listed in your prescription, and you need to be on top of your treatment and monitoring for them. If you see a price that seems too good to be true, or a pharmacy you can’t access due to a current exemption, consider a prescription from your doctor. If you are purchasing a medication over the internet, consider getting a prescription from your doctor, because prescription drugs are only authorized for one patient at a time. Ask about dosage instructions, dose adjustments, and warning labels. You should also consider what other treatments, tests and tests may be needed to help manage any side effects or adverse events. If you are unsure about what you should do, consult your doctor.

Like pharmacies, it is important to know that this is usually not an authorized pharmacies, which might be selling drugs without a prescription or counterfeit drugs. There are drug markets in Canada like Canadian pharmacy and other websites, where you can find the best products in the market. Like on ebay and other websites, where you can find products with no government restrictions. Trade shops in brick-and-mortar retail stores sell products without any prescription required. Most of the products can be bought over the counter (OTC). Many drugs that aren’t on OTC do have specific prescriptions required, usually based on a physician-recommended medical specialty.

The market for counterfeit medicines is real and growing. Many Canadians like themselves so much more today because they use branded drugs (manufactured for the government) for health-related needs. Having “cheaper” drugs makes a certain sense, especially when you can’t afford to spend the money on brand-name drugs. However, buying drugs over the internet is a poor idea for someone who uses the internet for legitimate purposes. Although there are legitimate online pharmacies, there are also some that may be operating illegally. Can be found by searching for Health Canada’s Special Access Programme (SAP). can be found by searching for, if a Canadian phone number is provided, it is valid for Health Canada’s SAP program. Be aware of scams. An advertisement for a pharmacy selling drugs is a good clue to watch out for. Beware of excessive marking up or price changes, too much or too little information about the product being offered, and the sudden change of the website address. If you do not feel comfortable enough about a site and the fees they provide, do not buy from them. If you have any questions about the price, be sure to ask what is included in the price.

Mantra Meditation : The power of repetition of sound

Detailed Clarification on mantra meditation

How to use mantra meditation in a busy & complex life

Some Mantras for Meditation

Om Namah Shivay

Hare Krishna Mantra

Om (AUM)

So’ham

Om Mani Padme Hum

Gayatri

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Introduction: Tantra

From the beginning of time there have been those rare women and men who, following their hearts great yearning, have answered the existential question of birth and death with realization of who they truly are – who we all are. Pranama is such a one. He invites, cajoles, dares us to join the dance. Read his words, let them enter your heart and smash the taboo against unreasonable happiness. The flame of being is passed from master to disciple in the great silence of the heart – these words are an engraved invitation.

(Please note: this article is for your information only. Meditationiseasy.com does not endorse or oppose the views expressed here )

“What is Tantra?”
This is an interview with Tantric Master Prem Pranama (now known as Lama Traktung Rinpoche @ http://tsogyelgar.org/ )

This interview occured in the summer of 1994. The interviewer, Ralph Abrams, has been a spiritual seeker for the last 25 years. He has worked with Swami Muktananda, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Chagdud Tulku, Nagkpa Chogyum, Native American teachers and currently lives in the Crazy Cloud Hermitage where he studies the Tantric path with Pranama.

R: The word Tantra is thrown around quite a bit in spiritual circles these days, and it often means very different things. I’d like to start off with the simple question: What is Tantra?
P: Tantra is the hot blood of spiritual practice. It smashes the taboo against unreasonable happiness; a thunderbolt path, swift, joyful, and fierce. There are many different types of paths. Some touch you like a gentle spring rain, but Tantra is the wild summer thunder storm churning with creation, destruction, bliss and emptiness. Tantra is a wild mother tiger – if you approach her with right motivation, right intention, and integrity, she’ll suckle you at her breast; but if you come to her in a sloppy way, she’ll rip apart your body-mind, eat you for dinner, and shit out what’s left.

R: Wow! I think that this sense of joyful abandon and the force and bliss you’ve described would make the Tantric path attractive to many people. Plus the fact that it is known to be a very swift path to enlightenment.

P. Swift, yes. But the Tantric Vajrayana path is complex and can be dangerous. It requires a strong, well integrated sense of self prepared through careful preliminary practice. Otherwise it is possible for the practitioner to make gross errors in judgment. On the Tantric path, it is perhaps easier to become the ultimate form of egohood and delusion than it is to become free. You can start off intending to liberate the tyranny of ordinary appearance into primordial awareness and end up crystallizing the ego into diamond-hard delusion. There is no authentic Tantra without profound commitment, discipline, intelligence, courage, and a sense of wild, foolhardy, fearless abandon.

R: Why is that? And why foolhardy abandon?

P: Foolhardy because the path is for gamblers. There is a beautiful Rumi poem which speaks to this from the Sufi tradition.

“Love is reckless; not reason. Reason seeks a profit. Love comes on strong, consuming herself unabashed.

Yet in the midst of suffering love proceeds like a millstone, hard surfaced and straight forward.

Having died to self interest, she risks everything and asks for nothing. Love gambles away every gift God bestows.

Without cause God gave us Being; without cause give it back again. Gambling yourself away is beyond any religion.

Religion seeks grace and favor, but those who gamble these away are Gods favorites, for they neither put God to the test nor knock at the door of gain and loss”
(translation by Edmund Helminski)

Tantra takes the jump into crazy wisdom by eliminating even God from the equation, leaving only the mystery with no ultimate attempt to define it. This is a path for those whose hearts are so wild that they are ready to throw it all away on a hunch, for an intuition. Discipline, courage, hard work and intelligence are required because that is what any quest of the heart demands. Tantra, which molds the power of creation and ego into skillful means cutting through delusion, requires careful preparation. We don’t expect someone who just wants to play around now and then on a keyboard to become a concert pianist. We don’t expect someone to be able to get up off the couch one day and run a four minute mile. Great tasks require great effort.

With Tantra we are taking the mind and body as cauldron, feeling, ego, elements and world as alchemical ingredients, and imagination informed by divine power as catalyst; and we are accomplishing the great magical task of alchemical transformation. The base metal of dualistic view becomes the infinitely valuable gold of pure and luminous awareness. Tantra is a path of tremendous power. This power is not easy to use without getting burned by it. Yet, at the same time, it is a path of great joy.

If you’re going to use poison, pleasure, and personality as the path, you have to be careful not to auto-destruct. In working with an advanced sadhana (practice) such as Vajrakilaya, which is central to our lineage, powerful energies of psyche, nature, and the subtle realms are harnessed. When such a powerful sadhana is introduced into one’s system through authentic empowerment, it is not something to be taken lightly. Let’s say you re going to bring anger into the path. It’s a razor’s edge between liberating anger into the wrathful compassion of mirror like wisdom and just becoming an arrogant, self-righteous prig. With Vajrakilaya, either you are actually transforming your mind stream into this wisdom-being of great wrath and power, or you are just dressing up your egoistic anger in the deitie’s clothes. If Tantra is misused, the divine becomes a demon. When you work with the Tantric path, you are playing with a live wire. It s charged not with electricity, but with the power behind creative force. Tantric sadhana deconstructs and constructs reality, as play, until the essence of reality becomes obvious. Through the sadhanas, private non-realities interface with the public non-reality until you realize the true nature of both. You use illusion to cut through illusion.

R. I am not sure I understand what you mean by public and private non-realities. Are the images, energies, and beings worked with in the practices real or not? Could you elaborate on that bit?

P. The basis of all this lies in an understanding of Dharmakaya and sunyata, “the realm of essence” and “emptiness”. The Dharmakaya is not a place or even a state of being or consciousness. Dharmakaya is the field of pure potential, which is exploding into actualized energy and matter at every moment. Each object or thing, even in its “thingness”, is still in essence characterized by this field of potentiality. In other words, each “thing” is empty of permanent characteristics; its characteristics share the quality of pure dynamic potentiality and are always tending towards the expression of that potential via constant change and transformation.

All worlds and fields of perception explode from this pure potentiality, which is also pure awareness or emptiness. This essence, this emptiness, is unspeakable and is not any thing at all. And yet it is the dynamic matrix from which all of this (waving his arm about the room) arises, and of which all of this is a presentation, and into which all this returns.

This explosion of essence creates fields of energetic perception. This energy is conditioned into forms by the play of cause and effect. These forms are our world and our self. The world, and all worlds, are coincident with the essence of awareness, which is birthless and deathless and utterly free of the implications of form and limit. The manifest world is not other than essence, but essence is not limited to the shape or conditions of the manifest worlds. One might say that the world and all worlds are held together as form by the conditioned and habitual intent of consciousness. Our particular world is held together by the intent of human beings. The worlds of other beings are held by the force of their conditioned intent. The structures of existence are not “real” in any ultimate sense. They are public non-realities, playful dreams shaped out of essence and molded in form. They are the radiance of pure potentiality, momentarily given shape by intent and held in a seemingly cohesive pattern by karma or patterned habitualized consciousness. A Tantric yogi shatters the tyranny of ordinary appearance – the forgetting of how things took on their seemingly real forms – by molding new structures of existence – private non-realities.

We are not talking here about “creative visualization” in the sense generally used. Imagination is, generally, simply mind forms within the public non-reality. We are talking about the actual deconstruction of the building blocks of reality and reconstruction of alternatives. Both public and private non-realities are conditioned forms of consciousness. By enacting the process of creation and destruction in the private non-reality the unquestioned authortiy and permanence of the public non-reality is undermined. Through the process of advanced Tantric sadhana one is able to recognize the ground of intrinsic awareness within all conditioned forms. This realization allows one to live as intrinsic awareness and recognize all arising as ornaments of that awareness.

The idea of Tantra is not identification with endless new conditioned forms of awareness and color. The point is to slip between the cracks into the matrix of pure potentiality itself. The goal is not achievement of unusual states it is to recognize your primordial intrinsic nature in all appearence. Then all appearance has the single taste of bliss and wisdom. That’s not the end either it’s the beginning of endless play.

R. That goes quite a bit beyond the general view of Tantra as merely a way of advanced self-help rather than a profoundly magical or transcendental practice. But isn’t it also true that Tantra (in this radical form) works with the ordinary emotions and everyday problems?

P. There are no ordinary emotions and everyday problems. That’s the point. Being is the natural luminous quality of this matrix of pure potential and Being presents itself in the play of existence. The bliss-mad radiance of pure awareness plays in the colors of Being. The world and your own body, your mind and your energies are nothing other than the natural communicative thrust of limitlessness. There is absolutely nothing ordinary about anything.

When the colors of Being are read through the distortions of dualistic view, they appear as emotions and confusion, and one is bound in the tyranny of ordinary appearance. Being freed from distorted view plays as feeling and clarity in the wild and raucous romp of manifestation. When the true nature of every event is recognized, even the most seemingly mundane moment will hold such great beauty that it will shatter the mind.

Tantra’s power lies in its ability to recognize the poisons of ego as distortions of the qualities of enlightenment. The practices transform these distortions or, depending on one’s capacity, spontaneously liberate dualistic distorted view into its own true nature. For Tantra the stuff of body, emotion and mind, ordinary emotions and events are the essential ingredients needed for the alchemical transformation of distorted view into Buddhahood.

R. You mention Being’s appearance as a play of colors, and that intrigues me. So often Being is described as clear light or white light. Non-dual realization seems to be a one dimensional and one flavor thing, whereas this seems to have depth.

P. Light broken open by a prism displays the colors that are always its nature. Its essence is clear light and its nature is to manifest as the colors of the rainbow. Pure awareness is completely transparent like a sheet of glass. But when broken open, it displays the rainbow of colors or flavors that are the substance of manifestation. Pure awareness and the colors of Being are not in opposition or even in any way two. They are aspects of singleness. So many spiritual paths inherently, though often subtly, negate world, body, and existence. They are always seeking to get elsewhere into the “light” failing to recognize that all is light.

Spiritual systems often misinterpret bondage as resulting from being in form rather than from wrong view. Because of this, they wrongly assume that enlightenment means to be abstracted out of form into subtle realms or “pure” awareness. These spiritual systems try to negate form and dissolve, or return, into the pre-form matrix of pure potentiality. This is possible and that radical act of transcending form is most blissful – but it is not enlightenment. Form and formless are not two; they are a single mystery. These systems are spiritualized forms of the dualistic delusion. Tantra, which in its true form is Advaitic (or non-dual), transcends this limitation. Tantra is wisdom gone wild embracing the totality of what is.

With Tantra you are not getting somewhere; you are just waking up to the true nature of things as they are. The colors inherent in clear light are not other than the light. The display whereby Being presents its limitless mystery is not other than the birthless and deathless pure mystery from which Being comes..

R. It’s interesting that you mention Advaita. I recently read Poonjaji, an Advaitic master. He advocates no practice. Form is illusion and every action by the illusory self adds to unenlightenment. What do you think of that.

P: Well, I have great respect for the traditional forms of Advaita. I have always been intimately connected with Ramana Maharshi, and the path that I teach is “Advaitic Tantrayana”. On the other hand, there are some serious problems and limitations with the talking school of Advaita versus the various practice schools such as Tantra.

R: What do you mean by “talking school”?

P: Talking schools are those that understand that delusion is only an illusion and all that you need to do is understand the illusion to be free of it. Because all you need to do is understand, then all I need to do as master is explain the truth to you, and all you need to do is listen and you will “get it”. The problem is that this is a superficial grasp of understanding. Understanding in the talking school is considered a primarily mental act. I talk; you listen. In truth understanding is a whole body act. You must understand with the cells of your body, your mind and your feelings. Listening involves a profound action of the entire self. This action is what practice is. Spiritual practice is the act of listening to the teaching with the whole body.

There are fundamental differences between a teacher, even an awakened one, and a master. Poonjaji is a teacher. He speaks about Truth very nicely, though he suffers a bit from the delusion of viewing form as illusion rather than presentation of the formless. Due to this he lacks the skillful means needed to deal with the actual roots of delusion. He lacks the skillful means to communicate with the whole bodily being rather just the mind. In a recent interview he said that he teaches the pure Truth – some get it, some don’t, and he doesn t know why. That’s the difference between a teacher and a masteInterviewer R: A master knows why and can deal skillfully with the causes. A master is willing to deal with delusion on its own ground if necessary. He or she is willing to take on the dragon in its cave, even if the dragon is only an illusion. The teachers of the endless talk no practice school go on to say “open your eyes and see the beautiful sunset. You do not need to do anything, add anything to yourself. Just open your eyes”. While it is true that you don’t need to add anything, the problem is that your eyes are shut and you are wearing a blindfold. You open your eyes and see nothing. These teachers do not see you because they are too busy admiring their own “non-dualism”.

The teachers of the Advaita talking school do in fact give practices. They give the very difficult practice of pre-verbal inquiry which works once you have taken off your blindfold. But until then it leaves you stranded. All too often people make sense of the words and develop conceptual enlightenment. You understand the description of the sunset so well that you think you are seeing it, even though you are still wearing a blindfold and have your eyes closed. People in this condition even go on to become teachers of the talking school, endlessly describing the imagined sunset to others. I am sure that it is based on my Tantric predilection for wisdom gone wild, my delight in manifestation, but I often find these Advaitic teachers a little prissy. They are unable to enjoy the game, unable to enjoy the madness and wildness of existence. There is no space for non-dual dualism in their non-dualism.

R: That clears up some confusion about Advaita which I hadn’t quite been able to put into words. You mentioned Ramana Maharshi. As I understand it your path was not originally Tantric. I would be interested in hearing about how you evolved into this style of practice and teaching. What led you to awakening and to teaching the way that you do?

P: My introduction and initiation into the world of Tantra began with a naked menstruating woman in the University of Michigan’s graduate school library. She danced and sang and placed her bleeding cunt over my mouth and I drank from that source the nectar of immortality, the liquid union of bliss and emptiness. She was the Vajra Dakini Yeshe Tso-gyal, Mother of my true life. But that is the end of the story and was not planned, asked for, or expected. For most of my spiritual journey I had nothing to do with Tantra nor wanted to.

My own spiritual work began in the Gurdjieff system. Gurdjieff was influenced by Tantric teachings though more strongly influenced by the Sufi schools. In his system I found a concrete practical method for working with the habitual conditioning of my body, mind, and emotions. I got to see myself without any veneer. It was in this school that I began to truly crystallize the wish to grow and forge it into a center of gravity that could begin to pull the unintegrated parts of the self into a unified whole.

After some time I began to find that certain axioms on which the work depended were, for me, limited in their view. Given the lack of anyone I considered a true Master, I resumed my search for a system that could take me farther. I visited many different teachers and communities, read enormous amounts, and engaged in a variety of rather extreme experiments on myself. Eventually I encountered the work of the enigmatic and rascally Master Osho. My meeting with Osho, who was called Bhagwan at that time, awakened my heart into intense ecstasy and devotion. It also began a long period of powerful visionary experiences that centered on the Virgin Mary and the Goddess Kali.

For me devotion was an instant and natural though hard path often filled with confusion. My heart exploded in love. The Guru is the trigger. The Guru is the object that the devotee uses as an excuse to slip through the boundaries of ordinary feeling. I learned, in a trial by fire, that irresponsible devotion to the master always ends in serious suffering. In other words the Guru ain t your daddy, the Guru is an introduction to your own nature. What is most important is that I did learn, and over time the love that Bhagwan awoke in me matured into non-dual inquiry.

One day all the energy that had been pouring outward in love for five years simply stopped and began to move inward. This process was fundamentally Ramana Maharshi’s question “Who am I”?. Who is the one who experiences all experience? This process cuts through all hierarchy of “higher” or “lower” experience by cutting to the root of all experience. Each time I sat down it was like a vortex of energy moving into expanding fields of silence. I would feel this vortex and rest in it. It would draw me into deeper and deeper states of silence from where I would engage pre-verbal inquiry. What had been ecstasy and love before was now recognized as a womb-like place of silence.

When I started the meditative phase of my practice, all the visions stopped short. Previously they were explosions of love, and they kind of rode on the outflowing energy of devotion, my interest in them fueling their appearance. Very late in the silent phase of practice, several months before my own awakening, a new series of visionary experiences began. Visions of Yeshe Tso-gyal, Queen of the Lake of Awareness, Mother of Pure Pleasure. These visions exploded from the depths of emptiness and silence.

One morning, after I had finished my practice, I went to the library to study Sufi texts. I was reading two volumes of Rumi’s works. As I was walking towards the library, I had a feeling that was familiar from previous visionary experiences. It was an intense pleasurable sensation that pushed out from the center of my body, from my heart, towards my skin, though this time it seemed to open forth from silent space. I felt giddy and drunk. I looked up and for a moment I could swear I saw the outline of a dancing woman standing in the air above the library. She was huge! Maybe three hundred feet tall.

The vision lasted for a second, and I went in and began reading on the nearly deserted fourth floor. The longer I sat, the more intense this vibration became. I knew this process very well, and I knew it would lead to a feeling of such intensity, that the ordinary world around me would black out. This feeling of ecstatic drunkenness gets stronger and stronger as if it’s resonating more and more swiftly through the entire body. At a certain point visionary experience outshines the “ordinary” world.

I found myself in a cemetery. A woman approached. She was naked, except for some bone ornaments. She was singing and dancing a tune of haunting melody, which I later discovered was the mantra of her consort Padmasambhava: Om Ah Hung Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hung!

I was entranced, simultaneously with ecstatic love and an absolute feeling of overwhelming sexual desire so strong that I was sure I would die from it. She danced around me and then swiftly stood directly in front of me placing her genitals over my face. Her vagina was over my mouth, there was blood flowing from it, and I drank this blood deeply in an unending flow. I could feel it coursing through my body like liquid heat. Suddenly the vision disappeared. I got up and went home – well, actually, I think I first went and had a chocolate chip cookie. This began a period of what my wife and I refer to as the “drooling in the living room” period. I spent close to a month, mostly sitting in a rocking chair in our living room unable to function because the force of Bliss that was flowing through my body was so overwhelming. I was also unable to speak about what was happening.

R: You have a very understanding wife.

P: Yes. Without her I cannot imagine what would have happened to me during this time. These experiences awoke in my mind and body such intense unending bliss and latent neurotic traces of such force that it was unbelievable. Feelings of every kind of distortion, rage, anger, lust, grasping, aversion. I am sad to say that I did a fair amount of acting out on these before any balance was restored, causing suffering to myself and others. Needless to say, this was a very trying time for our marriage. One of the things that happens in spiritual practice is that the subtle aspects of our ego, the seed essences of ego, hide within our own practice. If you are lucky enough, at some point the bliss force of the divine will force these out into the open. So it wasn’t all just bliss. It was an encounter with the ugliest sides of myself and the most beautiful. The whole picture. The visions, on a daily basis, kept arising. By and large they involved an experiment in mixing states of bliss with my previous practice of self inquiry and the feeling of silent emptiness. Bliss wed to emptiness produces tremendous power and that’s what was being introduced at this point.

R: I can see the evolution of you path from Gurdjieff’s very concrete self work into the devotional relationship with a master and mystical states and that leading into silence and inquiry. It seems kind of like this Tantric part was finishing you off. So did this practice lead to your realization?

P: This was all going on without any conscious volition at all. I was continuing Advaitic non-dual self inquiry with all the force I could: Who is the one experiencing this? And if I had actually been able to stop these experiences I probably would have, because they were distracting me from inquiry as well as provoking some pretty stupid behavior in my ordinary life. Luckily, the power of the Dakini, the wisdom woman, was so much greater than my piddling efforts to prevent it. But as these experiences continued in the body, mind and emotions I continued my inquiry. The awakening came as a result of this practice mix. The mind of bliss is capable of penetrating much more deeply into truth. Happiness, bliss and pleasure inspire a radical kind of courage. Without it no one would leap into that sky of deathlessness and selflessness. Without the bliss force no one would be such an idiot as to throw their life away on a hunch. Realization itself is beyond any and all experience. It is, however, not exclusive of experience or even rejecting of it; it is all-inclusive. After awakening one is restored to absolute and endless humor.

R. So how did your teaching work begin and where did the Tantric transmission figure in that?

P. Several months after Awakening, a friend of my wife’s, feeling the difference in me, asked if I would help her with her spiritual practice. I agreed, and several months later more friends of our family asked if I would work with them. My teaching began very slowly and gradually. In the beginning, what I taught was non-dual inquiry, because it seemed the most direct. What I realized over time was that the practice of inquiry and also the natural practice of devotion toward the formless divine is ineffective in most people’s lives. It doesn’t carry with it the skillful means to work with the obscurations and defilements – the gross and subtle neuroses – that prevent people from realizing their own nature of bliss and awareness in perfect union. The Advaitic practice that I was doing was extremely similar to the Dzogchen or Ati Yoga teachings of the Nyingma lineage. It was through the Advaitic practices that I was able to reconnect. One of the most amazing things about Padmasambhava, Yeshe Tso-gyal’s Guru, was his recognition that there were many teachings that would need to be re-discovered at a later time. He and Yeshe Tso-gyal wrote the practices down and hid them in the elements and in the pure nature of awareness – in the mind stream of his disciples. This is the true origin of my connection to Tantra. Padmasambhava created what is called a Mind Mandate Seal and hid teachings on Tantra’s skillful means like a timed-release capsule. When my own practice matured to the point where it was appropriate this force of wisdom opened. The force, power and bliss of it was released also, even though I had completely forgotten this connection.

R: So you really didn’t have any contact with Tibetan lamas, or the Nyingma (Padmasambhava’s) lineage, yet your teaching is very much influenced by Tantra and you recognize Padmasambhava as your root Guru. Without any contact with the lineage, you’re kind of a wild card as a teacher.

P: (Laughing uproariously) Yeah, I am a wild card as a Tantric Master. But even wilder than this crazy connection with Tantra is that I am free. Free of birth and death, fear, anxiety, worry. Free beyond being and non-being. Free to do anything. And I just might – and it’s a wonderful thing! A wild card like me who has awakened into and embodied the heart of Tantric practice is unique in terms of the trans-cultural migration of Tantra to the West. Padmasambhava was a wild guy because he was the freedom and bliss of this mysterious reality. Those who awaken to their true nature are the same one – though in their own unique appearance. As Tantra develops in this culture, many aspects of its form are going to have to change. At the same time this must be done in such a way as to not damage the teachings. This is a job of great delicacy. These changes need to be done by someone who stands outside the traditional lineages yet respects the heart drop of the teachings with extreme reverence.. All Tantric practice originates from Pure Vision revelation. Tantric practices in the Buddhist form originate from the Sambhogakaya, or the Visionary Bliss Realm of reality. An advanced practitioner can receive teachings from this source though it is very rare. An awakened master is this realm – it is an aspect of their body. It is certainly reasonable to be skeptical, and I ask my students not to accept anyone’s teachings on blind faith, but to test them in the laboratory of their own body/mind. The faith needed to have a Tantric relationship to a Spiritual Master has to develop over a long period of time. You can’t simply jump right into it. There must be testing on both sides – time and deeds. I certainly am mad by any standard. You and I don’t live in even remotely similar worlds. I know the universe to be my body, time itself to be my subtle form, and the sky of deathless awareness to be my mind. My interest now is to spark this awakening in others, not to have them fixate on me. That would only destroy their growth and in the long or short run cause them to hate me. We all hate what we are dependent on – no one likes to be a slave. You should take a little time before hopping into the Dharma bed because once in it there really is no such thing as safe sex. Think about it as carefully as you would a marriage partner. It can take years. There is a safety catch: You don’t receive advanced Tantric practices in the beginning anyway. You begin with the pre-preliminary practices, which in our community are a series having to do with developing stability in body, mind and emotion at the ordinary psychological level. You can use the traditional meditations on loving kindness, and exchanging oneself for others. These styles of meditation work very deeply. At the same time, I might suggest that somebody seek out therapy, or work in a Twelve Step program. If you are obsessed with anxiety, fear, worry, comparison, shame, self doubt, body doubt, sex doubt, then those things become your center of gravity. The constant effort to compensate for the pain of neurosis saps you of the joy of ordinary life and the energy for spiritual evolution. In this state of being, people try to replace the work neededto develop an authentic center of gravity with the Master or God – as if some external could be it for you. This must be outgrown. Next there are the extraordinary Tantric preliminaries involving Prostrations, Vajrasattva practice, Mandala practice and Guru Yoga. These are fairly traditional. This is not an assembly line to enlightenment. Each person s path is unique and possibly very different from this description. There are people in our community who never work with the Tantric path at all, who work along other lines. The extraordinary preliminaries however are profound psycho-transformational methods weaving together body, emotion, energy and mind to awaken latent potential. During this phase and after the preliminaries are finished students begin to work with the energies of diety yoga and the radical practices of Advaita and Mahasanti. Another way I work with my students is to send them to the best of the living masters from the traditional lineages. This broadens their view and them to test my teaching, my style of teaching, and the authenticity of my transmission in the context of those who are commonly acknowledged to be Tantric Masters. Three wonderful Masters I send my disciples to are Chagdud Tulku, Lama Tharchin, and Nkgapa Chogyam.

R: It doesn’t sound like you’re shy about letting your students go out and experience other Masters.

P: Absolutely not!

R. That seems a bit unusual. Most people have a great fear of Gurus entrapping them in dependency relationships. Sending disciples to other masters seems like it would help cut through that.

P. It is necessary for two reasons. One is that it cross-pollinates the lineage. This is one of the beautiful things about Tantra. You need the foundation of more than one master. You need to receive the special energies of transmission and empowerment from a variety of skillful masters. This cross-pollinates, just like in gardening; it creates a stronger plant. There is one Guru in your heart and many in the world. It is up to each person to figure out who their heart connection is with. The other reason is, I am a wild card as far as Tantric teachings go. I claim the authority to teach Tantra based on my own radical awakening into non-dual awareness and my own Mind Mandate Transmission from Padmasambhava. Such claims could easily be made by any idiot – and often are. I want my students and disciples to have a strong ground on which they can evaluate me and decide where our connection will go. I would like my students who do Tantric practice to be able to work with other masters so that they can come to a greater degree of understanding of my work when evaluated in the context of the traditional tantric practice.

R: It seems to me that there is a lot of information and books written about sexual Tantra, and certainly more people are interested in that than in other forms of Tantra. Perhaps they are seeking this bliss courage that you mentioned earlier. Do you think that people practicing sex yoga are by and large serious Tantric practitioners?

P: Well, there’s no point in judging other peoples’ spiritual paths. If your path is not authentic over time that becomes clear. Traditionally, the use of sexuality in Tantra comes at a very developed stage of the path. There is no sexual Tantra if one has not transcended desire. Certainly a lot of people are trying to explore and play with sexual energy, and that is great, and they are relating it to the word Tantra because Tantra uses sexuality as part of the path. We live in a seemingly open and permissive culture that actually is very uptight, prudish and provincial. We hype neurotic sense stimulation in order to sell everything from shampoo to cars. Underneath, there is fear of everything genital. Tantra, however, is not about sexuality. It is about enlightenment. Compared to the bliss force of your true nature, the pleasure of orgasm is pretty puny. The teachings can be used to bring a certain degree of ordinary balance to the psyche, including openness about sexuality. That’s a very good thing but let’s not stop at the doorway!

R: Enjoying Tantra for the psychological help is good but no substitute for radical absolute spiritual liberation.

P: Right.

R: You emphasize community and that is very interesting to me. I find that many people these days want their practice to be a personal and private part of their life. Relationships are hard and spiritual practice is hard mixing the two seems like it could ease up the process or complicate it.

P: For spiritual practice, community is of vital importance in our culture. In traditional cultures the shock that broke one out of complacent patterns came from moving out of a community that had been the center of one s life. In our culture, we have just the opposite senario. The shock here is brought about when people move into community from the isolated lives that our culture creates. This was central to the Gurdjieff system and very powerful.

R: That sense of isolation we have as a culture is very sad.

P: It is very sad – heartbreaking! As you grow and mature in sadhana you need to test your growth in daily life, in job, in relationship, and in the community of other practitioners. There are of course exceptions to this, people who need solitude for their practice to grow strong, and there are practices which require prolonged solitude for accomplishment. Right now I am discussing with the community the formation of a Hermitage center for long term intensive retreats. This is very important if we re going to actually manifest the higher levels of practice and destroy the tyranny of ordinary appearance. We must be careful that the higher and highest levels of Tantric practice do get transmitted. The loss of these great methods is a real danger. There is a danger to the traditional forms of Tantra because the cultures of Tantric practice are being decimated by war or westernization, the cult of scientism. I think in our culture there is a different threat: That the deeper levels of practice will not be reached to begin with. In our culture the threat is that Tantra will be stillborn. Practitioners will have to break through the cult of TV. mentality and mediocrity into the dignity of their Vajra natures if Tantra is to take root here and flower in its fullness.

R: There might not be enough students who have the basics down and then move into the deeper levels of practice.

P: Right. As Tantric practice takes root in our culture it is important that there be an understanding of the vastness of possibilities that Tantra offers. Waking up into the bliss-mad realm of the perfect union of perception and pure pleasure is really quite something. It is better than what people are dreaming up in the sex workshops. For one who is awake, the relationship to the world, to the elements, is completely different than for anybody else. We have to be able to move into the really magical and wondrous forms of transformational practice where you are working not only with your own body/mind at its most subtle levels, but the elements themselves. That level of awakening needs to be realized It s power needs to be applied to the culture and the actual ground upon which we live. To work at these levels – the beginning levels and the most advanced levels, which bring radical awakening or enlightenment – to work with all of these is the real gift that Tantra brings. The gift is that we can encompass the whole of our lives, from the ordinary to the most wondrous, in a single path.

R: Which is quite a feat.

P: It is! The Tantric yogi, who can live married with children, a completely ordinary life, but at the same time play with the world as an ornament of awareness, is really something! To recognize all appearance as the ornament of your own wisdom nature and to live in the bliss-mad realm of freedom where all perception is delight: That is the goal of Tantra.

R: Thank you.

P: Remember we are talking here about your birthright. Awakening is your birthright. Accept your inheritance!

For information on retreats, meditation classes and other programs at Tsogyelgar, 7217 W Liberty Rd, Ann Arbor, MI, 48103, United States or at http://tsogyelgar.org/contact/

Copyright 1994, Crazy Cloud Dharma Center. Permission is granted to freely copy and distribute this booklet in unaltered form.

April 23, 1968

Dear Franklin and Nina,

My loving remembrance and blessing to you.

All is well here, hope the same there. Through your letter I received all the news. It is a matter of joy that you consider me as your Guru. You are inclined to Self-realization, you are devoted to Truth, you have practiced penance to obtain the joy of Self — this is very good. Yours is a praiseworthy endeavor because the Soul is an inner-treasure, It is perfect, It is One. This Soul is the Knower of all thoughts, It is Omniscient, yet It is neither a subject of logic nor can It be known through the intellect, because who can reveal THAT which reveals all? Who can bring to light the Sun which itself lights up the entire Universe? The Soul is the Light, the Enlightener, and the Enlightened. It reveals Its own nature and reveals other things as well.

There is a Divine Light within you which is as shining as the flame of a fire, as bright as the light of the Sun, as radiant as the red-hot Gold. The Soul is not a thing to be strived after — It is ever present in us; but not visible to those who have not received the Guru’s grace. The Soul IS. Because of Its presence in the body men love each other, they get mutually attached and feel satisfied through cordial relationship.

The Soul, which gives inner joy, is in reality the Divine Light of God. The devout see Him in varied names, forms, and colors. However, He is not many — He is One. Though He has many names, He is “So’ham”. Although He belongs to the Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, and Parsis, He is different from them all, and similarly, though belonging to the Yogis, He is different from the Yoga, though grantor of the fruits of actions He is different from the doer, though bestower of the reward of the sacrifice He is different from the sacrificer, though understood through the Scriptures He is different from the Scriptures; in the field of Knowledge — though realized through knowledge — He is different from the Knower and the Known.

All the various creeds and faiths, all the religious organizations and societies the world over, worship Him, through their own set rules and disciplines. As a matter of fact He is the all-adorable, the ever perfect, the inner essence, the Atman of all. Some people search Him in the sky above, some in the Earth below, some in the monastery, temple, mosque, church; some others in the forest, in the seclusions, in the caves and mountains, in the rivers, lakes, streams, oceans, and even dry deserts; still others try to find Him in the sweetness of fruits, in the fragrance of flowers, in the song of the cuckoo, in the dance of the peacock, in the beauty of the butterfly, and so on. Thus, through various paths, in various things, everyone is searching Him only.

My dear Franklin and Nina! But He is within you. He, the Atman of all, is the Inner Being of yours and mine too. He is the darling pupil of the eye. That Atman is a clean place for our rest and respite, the strongest fortress for us to live fearlessly and peacefully, the liberator from bondage. That very essence is named by the Vedanta as Sat-chid-anand (Absolute Truth, Knowledge, and Bliss). That very Atman or Essence is Ram and Rahim, Krishna and Karim, Jesus and Moses as well. He is the sole support of all. This universe is a manifestation of His infinite play. Putting on the twine forms of man and woman, He — the Great Being — exists in both. Verily these are like the two facets of the self-same coin — named Purusha-Prakriti or Shiva-Shakti and this world is the expansion of these two.

He and He alone is in you and in your wife; and He again pervades the entire world. Usually an unfortunate one does not have the desire to know Him. But those who are greatly meritorious ardently wish to know Him (to know the Atman) and they do succeed also.

Just as there is fire (latent) in a dry stick of wood (which ignites by friction and burns up the stick completely); just as oil lies hidden in the sesamum seed; just as there is butter in the curd; in the same way the Divine Shakti is lying hidden in the human body. It is active in the ordinary sense — but to awaken the same through the Guru’s grace, to experience Its uncommon activities, and to realize It directly is the highest religion of men. That which helps to manifest the inner Divine Shakti is “TRUE RELIGION”; and he who perceives that Divine Shakti, in Its innate form, is “TRULY RELIGIOUS”.

This inner Shakti is known as Atman, and is worshipped by uttering “Om” or “So’ham”. So’ham is the means for Its meditation, So’ham again is the mantra for Its worship. Heart is Its church. The natural sound So’ham does not belong to the Indians and the Hindus alone, the same word-sound exists in all living beings and is active too. Really speaking with regard to mantra there is no consideration like community, creed, or country. If someone thinks that a mantra belongs to a particular faith or country, believe me he knows nothing.

A great Yogini of Kashmir has said: “A devotee who believes that the universe is the manifested form of God and that He resides in all beings as their own selves, for him which place will not be a temple? Which mantra will not bear fruit?” In other words, any mantra that a devotee would utter or recite will surely be fruitful — for mantra is the form of God. When even an abuse or a mean word affects a person (mentally), how can a mantra which is a holy word not achieve its sacred purpose?

Dear Franklin, sitting calm and steady repeat the mantra together with rhythmic breathing (i.e., the inhalation and exhalation of air — pran and apan). Harmonize the repetition of mantra with the breathing as follows: With “So” take it in and with “ham” bring it out. Throughout the mantra-repetition one should follow this practice. Simply sitting peacefully and applying the mind to the pran and apan one enters into deep state of meditation.

When one’s mind is fixed on “So” with the incoming breath and on “ham” with the outgoing breath it is mantra-japa. The regularity with which the breath comes in and goes out is pranayama. And if a person is skillful, intelligent, and alert — the (1) repetition of mantra (japa), the process of (2) pranayama, and the (3) meditation — all the three can be achieved simultaneously without difficulty. This is like the kingfisher bird whose sole attention is the fish in water. The bird is known for its all-exclusive concentration, a kind of meditation. And when it suddenly dives to catch the fish, two more things are achieved simultaneously — he has a good bath and enjoys a hearty meal.

This is a great Yoga, the best among all: known as Siddha Yoga. It means “the path of the Perfect Ones” or “the Yoga which begets perfection”. A dextrous and highly intelligent person can practice it easily. As explained above, the regular practice of meditation with a concentrated mind will awaken the dormant Kundalini Shakti in a very short time. As a result, some inner activities also begin to operate. Day-by-day as the Shakti develops more and more it takes the aspirant to the ultimate perfection. Just as a child grows daily, with due nourishment, and becomes a youth in course of time; just as a seed sown in the soil gradually develops into a tree; in the same manner the daily practice of sadhana (spiritual discipline) leads one to Perfection by the Guru’s grace.

In the “So’ham” mantra — “So” signifies God or Guru, and “ham” denotes ‘I” or “me”. Thus So’ham means “I am He”. Let your practice of meditation be accompanied by the ceaseless reflection on the above meaning of So’ham. in every human being there lies a hidden store of unlimited contentment, inexhaustible love, and infinite joy — these can be realized through the regular practice of meditation. As one thinks so one becomes. If a man thinks all the time about his faults and sins he would become sinful. Similarly the constant thought about woman, man, meditation or Guru would make him womanish, manly, meditative or the Guru — respectively. This is quite natural because a person gets transformed into the likeness of the object on which he constantly ponders, by absorbing its qualities.

Man is indeed great. But he has lost his greatness and has fallen due to his constant dealings with the external world and attachment to sense-objects. Internally he is not lacking anything, he is full and perfect with the Divine Light and yet in vain he is searching for the “Fulfillment” outside. The factory, workshop, business office, and shop; the varied professions like engineering, medicine, legal practice, and many other trades — all these are merely means to livelihood, they cannot procure things of lasting value to men. As I said above, man is perfect within, and this can be directly experienced through meditation, whereupon one feels fully contented. just as you become entirely free of the outside thoughts and anxieties in deep sleep and feel happy; similarly in the introspective tendency or in the meditation on Atman lie peace, respite, and undisturbed equanimity.

The real beauty, the essence of savory taste, the celestial music, the most soothing touch, and the sweetest fragrance — all lie inside. The Yogis who have experienced them within consider the outer things just ordinary. When through meditation the Kundalini is awakened then, by Guru’s love and his grace all the latent faculties are automatically activated and one attains perfection in due time. Besides, he also obtains the power of omniscience which lies hidden in the heart.

In what words can I express the beauty of inner Light! It is unparalleled; all lights of the outer world are too dim and unpleasant before It. Similarly, in front of the inner celestial music our worldly music is crude and jarring. The relish of a drop of inner juice is so wonderful that all the worldly savors put together are really nothing in comparison. This inner nectar is a Divine ambrosia, the inner touch is too subtle and great to be described, for it is a Divine touch. You attain through meditation this supreme ambrosia-of-love on which the inner Shakti is nourished and which is a gift from the Guru obtained by the disciple through penance.

Dear Franklin there is not anything in world which cannot be achieved through meditation. In the practice of meditation, there is a highly miraculous and splendid Shakti which is beyond human comprehension. It is best to practice a natural meditation or dhyan. I will explain to you what it is or how it is to be practiced: Sit quietly, calm and composed, if you like in padmasana, or any other comfortable posture. You may look and fix the eyes on a photo or may keep your eyes closed. The mode and posture in which you can be restful, mentally free from the objective world, and introspective, that is the best asan for you.

What I mean to convey by “Don’t do anything” is this — remove the mind from its activities, arrest all kinds of desires and surrender to whatever is happening of its own accord, observe everything as a witness. That is why I say practice the meditation in a natural way. The meditation done by the inner Shakti is the meditation of Guru’s grace, it is the real meditation of “So’ham”, indeed it is the meditation of God — these are not different kinds of meditations but they are synonymous expressions.

Tell me, if the man is not aware of this Shakti or is not awakened to It, what is the purpose of this body of flesh? If this Shakti were not there one would not have liked or been attracted to the body made of flesh, bones, blood, muscles, skin, etc. Activator of the breathing process, Inspirer of the intellect, Contemplator of the mind is the same as inner Shakti, inner Consciousness. The only worthy purpose of this otherwise impure physical body is to dedicate it wholeheartedly to seek the Inner Being.

Your beauty, your energy, your duty, your religion, your Guru and guide; your study, worship and prayer — all lie in engaging yourself to the remembrance and repetition of “So’ham”, “So’ham”. This is my instruction, this is my precept. This is to followed or practiced, and reflected upon devoutly. The deeper and deeper you go in meditation the more and more of the Divine experiences you will attain. Therefore, seek your inner Self, therefrom you will have the fulfillment you cherish.

With blessings,
Yours
Swami Muktananda

April 23, 1968
Ganeshpuri India

(To know more about Swami Muktananda visit this website )

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[quote style=”boxed”]And the test of whether your meditation is succeeding or not is in life. When you meditate and you go to the shop you will know whether you are succeeding in your meditation or not. Are you still as greedy in the shop as you used to be before? Do you still get angry when somebody says something against you? Can people still manage to push your buttons as easily as before? In the market-place is the test of all your meditations.- Osho[/quote]

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Nature of Mind

(excerpts from Teachings by Sogyal Rinpoche)

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen you read books about meditation, or often when meditation is is presented by different groups, much of the emphasis falls on the techniques. In the West, people tend to be very interested in the “technology” of meditation. However, by far the most important feature of meditation is not technique, but the way of being, the spirit, which is callled the “posture”, a posture which is not so much physical, but more to do with spirit or attitude.

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It is well to recognize that when you start on a meditation practice, you are entering a totally different dimension of reality. Normally in life we put a great deal of effort into achieving things, and there is a lot of struggle involved, whereas meditation is just the opposite, it is a break from how we normally operate.

Meditation is simply a question of being, of melting, like a piece of butter left in the sun. It has nothing to do with whether or not you “know” anything about it, in fact, each time you practice meditation it should be fresh, as if it were happening for the very first time. You just quietly sit, your body still, your speech silent, your mind at ease, and allow thoughts to come and go, without letting them play havoc on you. If you need something to do, then watch the breathing. This is a very simple process. When you are breathing out, know that you are breathing out. When you breath in, know that you are breathing in, without supplying any kind of extra commentary or internalized mental gossip, but just identifying with the breath. That very simple process of mindfulness processes your thoughts and emotions, and then, like an old skin being shed, something is peeled off and freed.

Usually people tend to relax the body by concentrating on different parts. Real relaxation comes when you relax from within, for then everything else will ease itself out quite naturally.

When you begin to practice, you center yourself, in touch with your “soft spot”, and just remain there. You need not focus on anything in particular to begin with. Just be spacious, and allow thoughts and emotions to settle. If you do so, then later, when you use a method such as watching the breath, your attention will more easily be on your breathing. There is no particular point on the breath on which you need to focus, it is simply the process of breathing. Twenty-five percent of your attention is on the breath, and seventy-five percent is relaxed. Try to actually identify with the breathing, rather than just watching it. You may choose an object, like a flower, for example, to focus upon. Sometimes you are taught to visualize a light on the forehead, or in the heart. Sometimes a sound or a mantra can be used. But at the beginning it is best to simply be spacious, like the sky. Think of yourself as the sky, holding the whole universe.

When you sit, let things settle and allow all your discordant self with its ungenuineness and unnaturalness to disolve, out of that rises your real being. You experience an aspect of yourself which is more genuine and more authentic-the “real” you. As you go deeper, you begin to discover and connect with your fundamental goodness.

The whole point of meditation is to get used to the that aspect which you have forgotten. In Tibetan “meditation” means “getting used to”. Getting used to what? to your true nature, your Buddha nature. This is why, in the highest teaching of Buddhism, Dzogchen, you are told to “rest in the nature of mind”. You just quietly sit and let all thoughts and concepts dissolve. It is like when the clouds dissolve or the mist evaporates, to reveal the clear sky and the sun shining down. When everything dissolves like this, you begin to experience your true nature, to “live”. Then you know it, and at that moment, you feel really good. It is unlike any other feeling of well being that you might have experienced. This is a real and genuine goodness, in which you feel a deep sense of peace, contentment and confidence about yourself.

It is good to meditate when you feel inspired. Early mornings can bring that inspiration, as the best moments of the mind are early in the day, when the mind is calmer and fresher (the time traditionaly recommended is before dawn). It is more appropriate to sit when you are inspired, for not only is it easier then as you are in a better frame of mind for meditation, but you will also be more encouraged by the very practice that you do. This in turn will bring more confidence in the practice, and later on you will be able to practice when you are not inspired. There is no need to meditate for a long time: just remain quietly until you are a little open and able to connect with your heart essence. That is the main point.

After that, some integration, or meditation in action. Once your mindfulness has been awakened by your meditation, your mind is calm and your perception a little more coherent. Then, whatever you do, you are present, right there. As in the famous Zen master’s saying: “When I eat, I eat; when I sleep, I sleep”. Whatever you do, you are fully present in the act. Even washing dishes, if it is done one-pointedly, can be very energizing, freeing, cleansing. You are more peaceful, so you are more “you”. You assume the “Universal You”.

One of the fundamental points of the spiritual journey is to persevere along the path. Though one’s meditation may be good one day and and not so good the next, like changes in scenery, essentially it is not the experiences, good or bad which count so much, but rather that when you persevere, the real practice rubs off on you and comes through both good and bad. Good and bad are simply apparations, just as there may be good or bad weather, yet the sky is always unchanging.

If you persevere and have that sky like attitude of spaciousness, without being perturbed by emotions and experiences, you will develop stability and the real profoundness of meditation will take effect. You will find that gradually and almost unnoticed, your attitude begins to change. You do not hold on to things as solidly as before, or grasp at them so strongly, and though crisis will still happen, you can handle them a bit better with more humor and ease. You will even be able to laugh at difficulties a little, since there is more space between you and them, and you are freer of yourself. Things become less solid, slightly ridiculous, and you become more light-hearted.

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(1) “I have spent years trying to meditate but I can’t! I have been to classes, I have bought tapes. Nothing works. My mind is too busy. No matter what I try I end up thinking of other things instead. Meditation classes reduced me to tears as I saw everyone else doing well and myself being a total failure. My mind does not want to be quiet. I want it to but it just won’t shut up. I live a very stressful life and desperately want the peace that meditation can bring. So why can’t I do it? What is wrong with me?”

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2) “I don’t know…but if you find out, please let me know. I have the same problem. I have tried everything. blindfolds, earplugs, total silence. Nothing works. My mind just wanders everywhere. I can be sitting there, trying to concentrate on my breathing, and before I know it I am shopping a tjmaxx, or thinking about what I am going to cook for dinner.”

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The question has been raised by two very honest persons. They have tried meditating for years but to no avail. Nothing seems to work for them, neither any technique nor any relaxation session. They really wanted to meditate but find it really tough. And they think that there must be something wrong with them. Other seems to be meditating quite easily but they.. ! Meditation is a tough thing !!

You are not alone. Millions of people world over find meditation difficult. They appears to have tried every meditation technique available. They have spend thousand of dollars in joining various meditation course but nothing happened ! There is no revelation ! There is no perspective. Just plain old life and it is frustrating !

I consider both persons very honest. They have the courage to accept their inability to meditate. They are far-far better than those who just pretend -for the sake of their prestige, reputation and ego – that they can meditate even if they don’t experience any peace within.

First of all please keep in mind that meditation is NOT:

Concentration
Relaxation.
A serious religious practice
A state of mind.
Self-hypnosis
or Thinking

If you think of meditation in any of the above context then you’ll find that it (meditation) is not easy. Unfortunately, there are many places where the above mentioned topics are considered as meditation. That’s
why often we can’t understand what exactly is meditation.

Please note:-

• Meditation is a process to know who we really are.
• In reality you are just consciousness (which is also known as ‘self’)
• And all meditation techniques are means through which we realize our true self.

Once you realize (and I mean it that once you realize) that your true identity is ‘self’- you will be at home. There is no need for any technique, no need for keep repeating any mantra, no need for joining any meditation school. You have understood.

Once you identify the witness in you, the purpose of a meditation technique ends.

——————-
This excerpt from Osho will help you understand the futility of all techniques in the long run :

Osho speaks :

Methods we use, because there are people just like you who need methods, who cannot go easily simply into reality, who can go only the hard way. If you tell them to sit silently, they can’t understand it. They say,” Then, just by sitting silently ? Is something going to happen just by sitting silently?” They cannot sit silently– and all happens only when you sit silently.

          “Sitting silently, doing nothing,
          The spring comes
          And the grass grows by itself;”

This is the ultimate truth. But you cannot let it grow. You say, “I cannot just sit and let the grass grow–I have to pull the grass upwards !” So I say,” Okay, then follow any Guru, then do something. Then jump, do Kundalini. Or if that is not feel enough then do Dynamic, Chaotic. Or if you have some other karmas to suffer, then go to
Encounter.”

These methods are used here just because of your stupidities. Their whole function is to make you so tired of doing that one day you come to me and say,” Osho, can’t I sit silently?” That’s all. I go on sending you into groups and meditations and tortures and go on waiting. some day you will come crying and weeping and crawling and you
will say “Enough is enough ! Can’t I sit silently?” And I will say,”I have been waiting for this moment.

Sitting silently, doing nothing,
The spring comes
And the grass grows by itself

No method ever helps. How can a method helps ? A method can help to create something unnatural. Nature has not to be created-it is already there. It has to be lived, enjoyed, danced, sung. It is already there ! You need not do anything. The grass is already growing. The spring has come ! But you cannot sit silently. You have so much restlessness–that restlessness needs methods.

I give you methods, not because through methods you will become enlightened, but through methods you will come to know how stupid you are–and that is great enlightenment !

I have heard about a politician :He went to a master, a Sufi master, and asked, “You had told me to meditate, to pray, this and that, and I do, but no revelation ever happens,”

The master looked at him and said, “Go outside and stand in the street for ten minutes.” It was raining hard.

The politician said, “Stand in the street when it is raining so much ?

The master said, “Just go and a revelation is going to come.”

And the politician thought, :When the revelation is going to come then it is worth trying. Ten minutes just standing in the falling rain is not such a big problem.”

He stood there. He looked stupid, because people were passing and they thought, “What is our Prime Minister doing ?” But he kept his eyes closed, and he looked again and again at his watch–ten minutes was a long time because a crowd gathered and people started laughing. They were puzzled, “What has happened to the Prime Minister?”

And then he rushed into the house and told the master,” Nothing happened ! You deceived me.”

The master said, “But just tell me how you felt?’

He said, “I felt like a very stupid person standing there, absolutely stupid !”

Master said, “This is a great revelation ! What do you think ?In just ten minutes’ time to come to know that you are a very stupid person– don’t you think it a great revelation?”

This is what happens in meditations, in yoga, in therapy groups–slowly slowly this understanding penetrates your heart: “What am I dong ?Shouting, screaming, fighting–what am I doing?” Just that very revelation and you can see the point and then you can sit silently. And all that you need is already available. That’s why I said no method
ever works.

————–
Well if no technique ever works, why we use it in the first place ?

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Read this second excerpt from Osho.

“What exactly is meditation ? Facing boredom is meditation. What does a meditator go on doing? Sitting silently looking at his own navel or watching the breathing, do you think he is being entertained by these things? He is utterly bored ! That’s why the Zen master moves with a stick in his hand– because those bored people are bound to fall asleep. There is no other escape, so only one escape is left: al least they can fall asleep. They cannot escape. They have themselves, of their own accord, become part of the Zen training, and the discipline–they cannot escape. But one escape is always available: you can fall sleep, then you forget all about it. That’s why in meditation one feels sleepy.

The whole effort in meditation is this: be bored but don’t escape from it; and keep alert, because if you fall asleep you have escaped. Keep alert ! watch it, witness it. If it is there, then it is there. It has to be looked in to, to the very core of it.
If you go on looking into boredom without escaping the explosion comes. One day, suddenly, looking deep into boredom you penetrate your own nothingness. Boredom is just the cover, the container in which is contained your inner nothingness. If you escape from boredom, you are escaping from your own nothingness.

Buddha left the world out of boredom; utterly bored, he ran away from the world. And what was he doing for six years sitting in those forests ? He was getting more and more bored. What can you do, sitting in a forest ?–Watching your breath, looking at your navel, day in day out, year in, year out. He created boredom to its ultimate peak, and one night it disappeared. It disappears of it’s own accord.

If you reach the peak…the turn comes. It comes ! And with that turn of the tide, light enters into your being– you disappear, only light remains. And with light comes delight. You are full of joy–you are not, but full of joy for no reasons at all. Joy simply bubbles up in your being.

————

Osho speaks such a poetic language. Isn’t he ? I hope you enjoyed the above two excerpts and have gained some deep insight from them. No technique is meditation by itself. It helps us in increasing our awareness about ourselves. It deepens our sense of witnessing our own identity. That’s why the technique is important.

When you say :

“I CAN BE SITTING THERE, TRYING TO CONCENTRATE ON MY BREATHING, AND BEFORE I KNOW IT I AM SHOPPING A TJMAXX, OR THINKING ABOUT WHAT I AM GOING TO COOK FOR DINNER.”

please think for a moment:

Who is there in you which tells that your mind has gone to TJMAXX for shopping instead of concentrating on breath ?

and…

How do you know that instead of concentrating on breathing, you started thinking about the dinner tonight ? Who gave you this info ?

Don’t you think that you are witnessing the wandering of your mind ? A witness of the variations in your thoughts ? Who is witnessing the mad dance of thoughts in the mind.

It’s your ‘self’. Your true identity !

And you say you can’t meditate.

Forget about thoughts. Forget about breathing. Understand this witness in you. The one who watches everything. Who experiences everything- joy, sorrow, victory, defeats, ups and down. The one who remains as it is – in every time – in every circumstances. The unchangeable aspect of your existence.

Meditation is easy – When you try to understand this witness in you.

Meditation is tough- When you think of it as concentration, breathing, chanting, yoga or hypnosis.

And please don’t attach any expectations from meditation. It’s not a business or any monetary investment whose fruit should come in a time-bound manner. In fact when you meditate, a deeper understanding will arise in you that meditation – just meditation alone- is enough.

Now spend some time in meditation corner. Read all the articles carefully. Take the help of three aids in meditation, choose any technique and give it a try for at least 15 days. Then come and share your experience.

Regards

Eklavya

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Intone a sound audibly, then less and less audibly as feeling deepens into this silent harmony. 

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ny sound will do, but if you love a certain sound it will be better, because if you love a certain sound then the sound is not just sound. When you intone the sound, then you are also intoning a hidden feeling with it, and by and by the sound will be dropped and only feeling will remain.

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The sound has to be used as a passage toward feeling. Sound is mind and feeling is heart. Mind has to use a passage toward the heart. It is difficult to enter the heart directly. Because we have been missing it so much and for so many lives, we do not know from where to move to the heart. How to enter it? The door seems closed.

We go on talking about the heart, but that talk also is just in the mind. We say that we love through the heart, but this too is cerebral; in the head. Even the talk of the heart is in the head. And we do not know where the heart is. I do not mean the physical part of it, we know about that. But then physicians will say, medical science will say, that there is no possibility of love in it. It is just a pumping system. Nothing else is in it, and all else is just myth and poetry and dreaming.

But tantra knows a deep center hidden behind your physical heart. That deep center can only be reached through the mind because we are standing in the mind. We are there in the head, and any travel inwards has to begin from there. Mind is sound. If all sound stops, you won’t have any mind. In silence there is no mind — that is why there is so much insistence on silence. Silence is a no-mind state.

Ordinarily we say, “My mind is silent.” This is absurd, meaningless, because mind means absence of silence. So you cannot say that the mind is silent. If mind is, there cannot be any silence, and when silence is, there is no mind. So there is no such thing as a silent mind; there cannot be. It is just like saying that someone is alive-dead. It makes no sense. If he is dead, then he is not alive. If he is alive, then he is not dead. You cannot be alive-dead.

So there is nothing like a silent mind. When silence comes, mind is not there. Really, mind goes out and silence comes in; silence comes in and mind goes out. Both cannot be there. Mind is sound. If the sound is systematic you are sane, if the sound has gone chaotic you are insane; but in both the cases sound is there, and we exist at the point of the mind.

So how to drop from that point to the inner point of the heart? Use sound, intone sound. One sound will be helpful. If there are many sounds in the mind, it is difficult to leave them. If there is only one sound, it can be left easily. So first many sounds are to be sacrificed for one sound. That is the use of concentration.

Intone one sound. Go on intoning it, first audibly so that you can hear it, and then by and by, slowly, inaudibly. No one else can hear it then, but you can hear it inside. Make it more quiet, make it less and less audible, and then suddenly drop it. There will be silence, an explosion of silence — but feeling will be there. Now there will be no thought, but feeling will be there.

That is why it is good to use a sound, a name, a mantra, for which you have some feeling. If a Hindu uses “Ram,” he has some feeling for it. It is not simply a word for him, it is not only in his head. The vibrations reach to his heart also. He may not be aware, but it is deep-rooted in his bones, in his very blood. There has been a long tradition, a long conditioning, for many lives. If you have been attached to one sound continuously, it is very deep-rooted. Use it. It can be used.

A Christian can use “Ram,” but it will remain in the mind, it will not go deep. It is better that he uses “Jesus” or “Maria” or something else. It is very easy to be influenced by a new idea, but it is difficult to use it. You do not have any feeling for it. Even if you are convinced in the mind that this will be better, this conviction is on the surface.

One of my friends was living in Germany. He was there for thirty years and he completely forgot his mother tongue — he was a Maharashtrian and his mother tongue was Marathi. But he had forgotten it, for thirty years he was using German. German became just like his mother tongue. I say just like because no other tongue can become your mother tongue. There is no possibility because the mother tongue remains deep down inside of you. He consciously forgot it, and he was not able to speak or understand it.

Then he fell ill, and he was so ill that his whole family had to go there to see him. He was unconscious, but sometimes consciousness would come. Whenever he would become conscious he would speak German and whenever he would become unconscious he would mutter in Marathi. Consciously he couldn’t understand anything of Marathi; unconsciously he couldn’t understand anything of German.

Deep in the unconscious Marathi remained; it was the mother tongue. And you cannot replace the mother tongue. You can put other things over and above it, you can overimpose other things, but you cannot replace it. Deep down, it will remain.

So if you have a feeling for a certain sound, it is better to use it. Do not use an intellectual sound, it will be of no help because the sound has to be used to make a passage from the mind to the heart. So use some sound for which you have a deep love, a certain feeling.

If a Mohammedan uses “Ram,” it is very difficult, the word means nothing to him. That is why the two oldest religions never believe in conversion — Hinduism and Judaism. They are the two oldest religions, the two original religions, all other religions are just offshoots of these two. Christianity and Islam are offshoots of the Jewish tradition; Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism are offshoots of Hinduism. These two original religions never believed in conversion, and the reason was this: that you can convert a man intellectually, but you cannot convert a man from his heart. You can convert a Hindu into a Christian, you can convert a Christian into a Hindu, but the conversion will remain of the mind.

Deep down a converted Hindu remains a Hindu. He may go to a church and he may pray to Mary or to Jesus, but his prayer remains of the head. You cannot change the unconscious. And if you hypnotize him, you will find he is a Hindu. If you hypnotize him and let him reveal his unconscious, you will find he is a Hindu.

Hindus and Jews never believed in conversion because of this basic fact. You cannot change a man’s religion because you cannot change his heart and unconscious feelings. And if you try, then you disturb him, because you give him something which will remain on the surface and you divide him. Then he becomes a split personality. Deep down he is a Hindu; on the surface he is a Christian. He will use Christian sounds, mantras, which will not go deep, and he cannot use Hindu sounds which can go deep. You have disturbed his life.

So find a certain sound for which you have some feeling. Even your own name may be helpful. If you do not have any feeling for anything else, then your own name will be helpful. There are many cases on record… One very famous mystic, Bukkh, used his own name, because he said, “I do not believe in any God. I do not know about him, I do not know what his name is. There are names I have heard, but there is no proof that they are his name. And I am in search of myself, so why not use my own name?” So he would use his own name, and just by using his own name he would drop down into silence.

If you do not have any love for anything else, use your own name. But it is very difficult because you are so condemning toward yourself that you do not have any feeling, you do not have any respect toward yourself. Others may be respectful toward you, but you are not respectful toward yourself.

So the first thing is to find any sound that will be helpful: for example, your lover’s name, your beloved’s name. If you love a flower, then “rose” will do, anything — any sound that you feel good using, uttering, listening to, from which you feel a certain well — being coming to you. If you cannot find one, then there are some suggestions from traditional sources. “Aum” can be used, “Amen” can be used, “Maria” can be used, “Ram” can be used, or Buddha’s name, or Mahavir’s name, or any name that you have a love for. But a feeling must be there. That is why the Master’s name can be helpful, if you have the feeling. But feeling is essential!

INTONE A SOUND AUDIBLY, THEN LESS AND LESS AUDIBLY AS FEELING DEEPENS INTO THIS SILENT HARMONY. And go on reducing the sound. Intone it more slowly, more inaudibly so that even you have to make an effort to hear it inside. Go on dropping, go on dropping, and you will feel the change. The more sound will drop, the more you will be filled with feeling. When sound disappears, only feeling remains. This feeling cannot be named. It is a love, a deep love, but not toward anyone — this is the difference.

When you use a sound or a word, the love is attached to a label. You say, “Ram, Ram, Ram…” You have a deep feeling for this word, but the feeling is addressed to “Ram,” narrowed down to “Ram.” When you go on reducing the “Ram,” a moment will come when “Ram” disappears, the sound disappears. Now only the feeling remains, the feeling of love — not toward Ram, it is now not addressed. There is simply a feeling of love — not toward anyone, not even toward; there is simply a feeling of love, as if you are in an ocean of love.

When it is not addressed, then it is of the heart. When it is addressed, it is of the head. Love toward someone is through the head; simple love is of the heart. And when love is simple, unaddressed, it becomes prayer. If it is addressed, it is not yet prayer; you are just on the way. That is why I say if you are a Christian you cannot start as a Hindu, you should start as a Christian. If you are a Mohammedan you cannot start as a Christian, you should start as a Mohammedan. But the deeper you go, the less you will be a Mohammedan or a Christian or a Hindu.

Only the start will be Hindu, Mohammedan or Christian. The more you will proceed toward the heart, as the sound will be less and less and feeling more and more, you will be less a Hindu, less a Mohammedan. When the sound disappears, you will simply be a human being — not Hindu, not Mohammedan, not Christian.

It is like the difference between ‘sects’ and ‘religion’. Religion is one, sects are many. Sects help you to begin. If you think that they are the end, then you are finished. They are just the beginning. You have to leave them and go beyond, because the beginning is not the end. In the end there is religion; in the beginning there is just a sect. Use the sect to go toward religion; use the limited to go toward the unlimited; use the finite to go toward the infinite.

Any sound will do. Find your own sound. And when you intone it, you will feel whether you have a loving relationship with it, because the heart will start vibrating. Your whole body will begin to be more sensitive. You will feel as if you are falling into something warm, just like your beloved’s lap; something warm begins enveloping you. And this is a physical feeling also, not simply a mental feeling. If you intone a sound which you love, you will feel a certain warmth around you, inside you. Then the world is not a cold world, it is warm.

If you have gone to a Hindu temple, then you must have heard of the GARBHAGRIHA — the womb house. The innermost center of the temple is known as GARBHA — the womb. You might not have observed why it is called the womb. If you intone the sound of the temple — and every temple has its own sound, its own mantra, its own ISHTA DEVATA, its own deity, and the related mantra of the deity — if you intone that sound, the same warmth as there is in the womb of the mother is created. That is why the garbha, the womb of the temple, is made just similar to the womb of the mother: round-shaped, almost closed, with only one opening.

When Christians came for the first time to India and discovered Hindu temples, they felt that these temples were really unhygienic — not ventilated at all, with only one little door. But the womb is with only one door and not ventilated at all. That is why the temple was made only with one door, just like a womb, and if you intone that sound, that womb becomes alive. And also it is called the garbha because you can get a new birth there, you can become a new man.

If you intone a sound that you love, that you have feeling for, you will create a sound-womb around you. So it is good not to practice this method under the open sky. You are very weak, you cannot fill the whole sky with your sound. It is better to choose a small room, and if the room is such that it vibrates your sound it is good, it will help you. And if you can choose the same place every day, it will be very good. It becomes charged. If the same sound is repeated every day, every atom, the very space becomes a milieu.

That is why followers of other religions are not allowed in the temples. In Mecca, no one can enter if he is not a Mohammedan, and this is good. Nothing is wrong in it, it is because Mecca belongs to a particular science. One who is not a Mohammedan goes there with a sound which will be disturbing to the whole milieu. If a Mohammedan is not allowed into a Hindu temple, there is no insult in it. And all those social reformers who do not know anything about temples, religion and esoteric science, they go on giving slogans, nonsense slogans, and they are disturbing everything.

A Hindu temple is for Hindus because a Hindu temple is a particular place — a created place. For millennia they have been working on it to make it alive, and anyone can disturb it. That disturbance is very dangerous. A temple is not a public place. It is for a particular purpose and for particular people; it is not for visitors. That is why visitors were not allowed in the old days. Now they are allowed because we do not know what we are doing. A visitor should not be allowed. It is not a place to see, to go to for sightseeing. It is a created space filled with particular vibrations.

If it is a Ram temple and you were born in a family where Ram’s name has been sacred, loved, then when you enter an alive space which is always filled with Ram’s name, even if you do not want to chant, even if you are not using the Ram mantra, you will start chanting. The space all around will press you. Those vibrations all around will hit you, and you will start chanting from deep down. So use a place — a temple is good.

These methods are temple methods. A temple is good, or a mosque or a church. Your own house is not good for these methods, because with so many sounds you have a chaotic space around you and you are not so strong that just by your sound you can change the space. So it is better to go to a certain place which belongs to a certain sound, and then use it. And it is good to go to the same place every day.

By and by you will become powerful. By and by you will drop down from the mind to the heart. Then you can do this method anywhere and the whole cosmos becomes your temple. Then there is no problem. But in the beginning it is good to choose the place, and if you can even choose the time, exactly the same time every day, it is good because then the temple waits for you. Right at that exact time, the temple waits for you. It is more receptive; it is happy that you have come. And I mean physically; this is not a symbolic thing, but a physical one.

It is just as if you take your meals every day at a particular time. At that particular time your whole body feels the hunger. The body has its own inner clock, it feels the hunger exactly at that time. If you go to sleep every day at a particular time, your whole body gets ready at that particular period. If you change every day your sleeping time and your food time, you are disturbing your body.

Now they say your age will be affected by it. If you go on daily changing your body routine, then if you were going to be alive for eighty years you will be alive only for seventy years. Ten years will be lost. And if you go regularly with the body clock, then if you were going to live for eighty years you will live for ninety very easily. Ten years can be added.

Exactly like this, everything all around you has its own clock, and the world moves in cosmic time. If you enter the temple at exactly the same time every day, the temple is ready for you and you are ready for the temple. These two readinesses meet, and the results are magnified a thousandfold.

Or you can create a small corner in your house. But then do not use that corner for any other purpose, because every purpose has its own vibrations. If you use that corner for a business purpose or you play cards there, that space becomes confused. And now these confusions can even be recorded on mechanical devices; it can be known if the space is confused.

If you can create a corner in your house, a small temple, it is very good. If you can afford a small temple, that is the first thing to be tried. But do not use it for any other purpose. Let it be absolutely private for you, and results will come very soon then.
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