Besides a certified yoga teacher, I’m also a certified Osho meditation facilitator. It’s a course that I followed as I wanted to deepen my spiritual practice. Yoga brought me a lot of things and it certainly got me through my anxiety disorder. Therefore, I’ll always be grateful that yoga came along my path. However, a few years ago I felt I could go deeper, my mind was still rambling on about some things and I wanted to experience depth into it.
Osho’s active meditations
So a few years ago, when I arrived in Portugal, I suddenly felt the urge to watch some videos about Osho (some will still know him as Bagwan). I already had some experience with his meditations and I absolutely loved doing them. And then all of the sudden it came to me: I needed to go deeper into his meditations. I felt the urge to suddenly go to a 10-day training to go deeper into the meditation.
Dynamic Meditation
So, there are a couple of meditations that we did, but the most profound meditation I did was the Dynamic. We had to agree, in order to get her certification, to complete a 21-day cycle of this meditation. And man, what a cycle it was. The dynamic meditation is a meditation where you can let your emotions run freely in a secure environment. Check out the video below if you want to know a bit more about this meditation.
I’ve always been skeptical about things that are promising a lot, but I had a couple of experiences that I just can’t deny. During the training I strained a muscle or something, I don’t really know what I did but I was in agony. My back was hurting as hell with every move that I was making. Which wasn’t so easy considering we had to sit for like 8 hours a day. Nothing was helping and I wasn’t really allowed to take medication (which I can understand now, but at that time it was like being in hell). After a couple of days, the instructor asked me how I was doing and if I was still in a lot of pain. My answer was clear: YES! So she told me to express my pain in my meditation very profoundly, that I would live it and feel everything to its fullest. So I did, still, a bit skeptical about it. After the meditation itself I could feel a little relief, but somehow I wasn’t convinced yet. But then, POOF, not even three hours later, ALL THE PAIN WAS GONE. Up until today I still can’t get it, but the skeptic in me died that day as well. This just can’t be a coincidence.
Now, with this story I’m not saying that meditation, or the active meditations in particular, are some miracle potions. Although I do see now that mind and body are connected to each other. Here are some words from Osho himself about the dynamic meditation.
DISCLAIMER: I strongly advise that if you’d like to practice this meditation that you do it in a group with a certified facilitator. This meditation is very strong and it’s good to practice this one the first time in a safe group under guidance. People who are experiencing mental difficulties should first consult their professional guides and facilitator to see if this meditation could be helpful for them.
Kundalini Meditation
So another one of Osho’s meditations is the Kundalini meditation. It’s a bit of a softer one, but a very profound one as well. It’s also called the sister of the dynamic as these two were one of the first that Osho brought out into the world. I advise people who are doing the dynamic that they practice this one as well on the same day.
Although not so deep as the dynamic goes, it’s a good one to let go of the day. Therefore, it’s a good meditation to do in the evening, right after work would be best.
This meditation is actually my favorite one because of its simplicity and at the same time being profound. You start with shaking your whole body, feeling the energy coming from the ground up into your legs. After that you dance as meditation, you just listen to the music and let your body move. After that you stay stand still on the spot or you sit down and listen to the music without doing anything. And in the last stage you sit down or you lie down with no music.
It looks easy, but the moment you start doing the meditation you’ll see how your mind moves and what thoughts will come up. You shake for 15 minutes and if you can’t let go of your thoughts, man, it will feel like an eternity. The same goes for the dancing part, if you keep thinking about what people might think of you during your dance, you won’t go deep, but the moment you find yourself opening up, that’s where the magic happens.
Why active meditation?
There are a lot of meditation techniques out there: guided meditation, silent sitting, vipassana, tantra meditation, Suffi meditation … And I can only say that the Osho meditations are my preferred method, the method that works for me. I’m aware that this might not be something for you, but it’s the technique that I’m using the most at the moment. The method of which I feel the most comfortable to write about.
That said, I see that body and mind are not separate from each other and they influence each other constantly. That’s why I feel that we also should incorporate our body into our meditations. The meditations of Osho are developed in such a way that he first exhausts the body, and therefore trying to quiet the mind.
These days we are all sitting in front of our computer or our television on the couch. We eat things that we best shouldn’t eat (I still enjoy eating some fast food now and then I have to say). So we are not aware that we are doing things to our body that maybe aren’t that good for it. So loosening up the body a bit and releasing some tenseness couldn’t hurt I think ;).
Literature
Here are some books about Osho that I’d like to recommend if you’d like to read a bit more about his view on meditation.
Conclusion
This is a little side-track from my usual yoga based articles, but this one is very important to me as well. Besides that, I feel that within yoga and within these meditations the goal is the same. To live your life to the fullest and in the best way that you can. In the end the goal is the same and that’s why I posted this article.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post, there are more active meditations than this, but these are the two that have been the most profound to me, they did a lot to me. There are a few more so if you do some digging on the internet, you’ll find them. If not, you can always ask me in the comment section below!
Nama-stay wonderful everyone.
Hi, I loved your thoughts about Yoga! I’m suffering from arthritis and I heard a lot of people praising Yoga when it comes to this condition. I was wondering what you think about that. Could mediation really help decrease the pain – or it can rather help mentally? Is it worth taking it up? I’m thinking Yoga might be easier for me to perform than other types of exercises, since I have some flexibility issues.
Hi Heather,
Thank you for your comment, I don’t have a lot of experience with arthritis myself so I can’t really say if it decreases the pain. However, a friend of mine has an extreme form of arthritis and she says that yoga doesn’t decrease her pain, but that it’s been a good way for her of handling with the pain. To see what her limits are, what she can and can’t do. And therefore it decreased her pain as wel as she was listening more to her body instead of doing the things that she always did, which weren’t good for her bones. Hope this helps you a bit as well.
Hi
It seems to be a very interesting active meditation technique which can bring inner peace to the demons of the inner mind. I hope that it is an easy technique to learn, as I found it difficult to sit still for long periods of time, as my thought patterns become more erratic. I am glad I have come across your website and will look further into this technique you mention.
How long do you need to practice before you become comfortable in the technique?
Thanks
Antonio
Hi Antonio, I do have to say that the active meditations from Osho doesn’t really need a lot of experience. They are really simple and everyone can just practice them. If you have spotify or apple music, you can find the music there. Further it’s very simple if you look online for the explanation of the meditation itself. If you experience in silent sitting that it’s hard to “shut down” the mind, this technique might be something for you! I do advice to start with the Kundalini meditation that I’ve written about in this article. If you have more questions, feel free to ask them here!
Hi there. Do you think Yoga and meditation might help with depression and anxiety? I have a friend dealing with these problems so I thought she should start up this kind of activity. I personally heard it can really help anxiety, but I’d like to hear the opinion of someone who is more of a specialist, like you.
Hi Ashley, it does help with depression and anxiety. I’ve been to a portion of that myself and I have to say that yoga and meditation actually kind of saved me. I felt my mind and my body balancing again and I felt the joy of living coming back. Of course, you can’t push anyone to do something that they don’t wanna do, otherwise this will have a different effect. But I’d definitely recommend it to her and if she’s open to it you can support her by going to a class together!
I love meditation, I believe it helps to centre you, work out problems and aid the body in healing.
I have not heard of Osho but will definitely try these meditations, thy sound interesting..
I agree the mind and body are each part of the whole being and one affects the other. Trauma’s from the past can affect the way a body functions and meditation helps with this. It got me through serious illness and out the other side back to health.
I love yoga too and the way they go together.
A very informative post, thank you.
Thank you for your message Linda! I basically don’t have anything to add to it, it’s a very good summary of what meditation and yoga does and is ;). Hope you’ll keep enjoying your practice!
Hello, I find your article very interesting and insightful, I have been trying to get into meditations but I do not know what best works for me and what are the best practices, I have also heard that focus is very important in order to be able to meditate and get the best results from it but I always find myself wandering in my mind jumping from thought to thought.
I will look more into the techniques you mentioned in your post and see if that will help me get away from distractions, I believe the key is to be able to concentrate.
Thanks!
Hi Christopher, you are right, in the beginning focus is important. If you feel your mind wandering, then try to focus on your breathing and see if you can go back to the emptiness. However, the moment you start feeling that you can go deeper into your meditation, let go of the focus, let go of everything and let the meditation just happen ;). That’s true meditation.
Hi there,
what an amazing post you have shared. I do meditation everyday in the morning and night. Meditation helping me to keep my mind peaceful. When I was a student I do meditation for my study. From your post I come to know about Osho’s active meditations. The dynamic meditation is nice. You recommended some books of Osho’s. I want to read meditation for busy people. Is it must to do dynamic meditation and kundalini meditation together?
Thanks for your interesting and helpful post. I will share your post to others.
Thank you for your comment! I do not say it’s a must to do the dynamic and the kundalini together. However, it might be useful if you start doing the dynamic, to also integrate the kundalini. But not a must ;).