KRISHNAVENU🔗

MEDITATION AND INSTRUCTIONS

This is a beautiful 'emptiness meditation'. It is a technique to empty out whatever is inside you, so that you can receive the energy of the cosmos into yourself.

Sit still in a calm, silent place. Just become aware of your body. Feel completely at ease with your body.

Now, imagine that your body has become a bamboo! Become a hollow bamboo. Be perfectly at rest. Your whole body, your skin, your flesh, your bones, are all part of the bamboo. Inside this space, there is nothing but emptiness, hollowness, silence.

Let even your mind be passive. Don't wait for any experience; just be.

Suddenly, you will find energy pouring into you. These are not esoteric ideas! They are perfectly practical techniques. They may seem odd to you because you haven't explored this dimension earlier. Just try out and see for yourself. When you make yourself hollow, when you no longer resist, Divine energy starts flowing into you. You become a flute for the music of the Divine.

You need not do anything, you simply have to become hollow. This is not easy. You are always used to being someone, something. To become hollow requires great love, great trust. If you are working with a master, become a hollow flute upon which your master can play. It is easier to give yourself up in love, than to a mysterious Divine energy.

At first you will be a hollow bamboo, but then the time will come when the bamboo itself disappears. There will be no more You.

This process can take time, but the results are amazing. Even as you lose yourself, you feel yourself to be one with the spirit that pervades all.

PRANA STAMBHANA

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

This technique is from Vipassana.

Watching the breath continuously is the very essence of this meditation. It has led more people to enlightenment than any other technique.

Vipassana works with the simplest and toughest of techniques: increasing awareness.

There are three ways in which you can do vipassana:

a) Deep awareness of your body, your actions, your mind, your heart.

When you walk, when you move your hand, when you smile, do it with awareness. Know perfectly well that it is you who is doing that action. Be alert. Not a single moment should pass in an unconscious state. Not a single action should happen unnoticed by you.

Just like your body, watch your heart and mind. Be aware of every emotion that rises in your heart. Be aware of every thought that passes in and out of your mind. Don't have opinions, don't evaluate anything – just be a witness.

b) The second way is to watch your breathing. Feel your belly rise and fall with every inhalation and exhalation. The navel, the source of your life-energy, is in the region of the belly. So when you pay attention to the navel, you become aware of the flow of life-energy in your body. As you become more aware of the belly, you will see that your heart and mind fall silent.

This is the natural and relaxed way of breathing – from the belly. We have forgotten how to breathe like this. Babies breathe from the belly. Sometimes in deep sleep, we also go back to belly breathing.

c) The third form of vipassana is to watch the breath as it enters your body – at the nostrils. Be aware of the cool air in the nostrils. Feel the ease with which the breath enters and leaves the nostrils.

You can combine two forms, or even all three forms. But do only whatever happens effortlessly for you.

Vipassana can be practised both sitting and walking.