OSHO Whirling Meditation ®
About the meditation:
Whirling is an ancient Sufi technique. While your whole body is moving, you become aware of your very being, the watcher at the center, which is unmoving. You learn to be an unidentified witness at the center of the cyclone.
Whirling is best done on an empty stomach and wearing loose clothing.
The meditation is to be done with its specific OSHO Whirling Meditation music, which indicates and energetically supports the different stages.
For the music availability, see below.
Instructions:
The meditation lasts one hour and has two stages, whirling and resting. The meditation is over when you hear three gong beats.
First Stage: 45 minutes
The whirling is done on one spot in an anti-clockwise direction, with the right arm held high, palm upward, and the left arm low, palm downward. You whirl just like small children go on twirling. People who feel discomfort from whirling anti-clockwise can change to clockwise, changing the position of the arms as well. Let your body be soft and keep your eyes open but unfocused, so that images become blurred and flowing. Remain silent.
For the first 15 minutes, turn slowly. Then gradually build up speed until the whirling takes over and you become a whirlpool of energy – the periphery a storm of movement, the witness at the center silent and still.
When you are whirling so fast that you cannot remain upright, your body will fall by itself. Don’t make the fall a decision on your part and do not try to arrange the landing in advance; if your body is soft, you will land softly and the earth will absorb your energy. Once you have fallen, stay there, this is when the second part of the meditation starts for you.
Second Stage: 15 minutes
If you have not fallen down by the time the music stops, allow your body to fall to the ground. Immediately roll onto your stomach so that your navel is in contact with the earth. Feel your body blending into the earth, like a small child blends into the mother’s breasts. If anybody feels strong discomfort lying this way, they should lie on their back.
Keep your eyes closed and remain passive and silent.
Note:
Some people may feel nauseous during the whirling, but this feeling should disappear within two or three days. Only discontinue the meditation if it persists.
Suggestions from Osho for the first stage of this meditation:
“This whirling, Sufi whirling, is one of the most ancient techniques, one of the most forceful. It is so deep that even a single experience can make you totally different. You have to whirl with open eyes, just like small children go on twirling, as if your inner being has become a center and your whole body has become a wheel, moving, a potter’s wheel, moving. You are in the center, but the whole body is moving.
“Become a whirlpool, an energy whirlpool, lost completely in it: no witnessing, no effort to observe. Don’t try to see; be the whirlpool, be the whirling.
“In the beginning you may not be able to stand so long, but remember one thing: don’t stop by yourself, don’t stop the whirling. If you feel it is impossible, the body will fall down automatically, but don’t you stop. If you fall down in the middle [of the first stage] there is no problem; the process is complete. But don’t play tricks with yourself, don’t deceive. Don’t think that now you are tired so it is better to stop. No, don’t make it a decision on your part. If you are tired, how can you go on? You will fall automatically. So don’t stop yourself; let the whirling itself come to a point where you fall down.”