Osho has created many meditation techniques designed specifically for the modern psyche. Several of them involve very active movement and some of them catharsis. But Nadabrahma is unique among them as it is a quiet meditation using humming and gentle hand movements. It is a favorite with many of Osho’s sannyasins, old and new.
Nadabrahma is based on an old Tibetan technique. The entire meditation is done in a sitting position or if you like lying down for the last segment. Nadabrahma is appropriate for both those who are new to meditation and those who are experienced. For those who are new to meditation it is a beautiful introduction and the technique helps bring the body and mind into harmony and opens the heart thus creating the space in which “meditation happens.” Those already familiar with meditation will find that Nadabrahma presents an opportunity to step out of doing and be the witness. Osho has said “so in Nadabrahma, remember this: let the body and mind be totally together, but remember that you have to become a witness. Get out of them, easily, slowly, from the back door, with no fight, with no struggle.”
Recently the process of introducing Osho’s meditations to those who are unfamiliar has presented the opportunity to rediscover the meditations for myself anew. And this rediscovery of Nadabrahma has shown that this jewel still has secrets to share.
It is best to practice Nadabrahma with the music that was designed specifically to accompany it. It is available as an MP3 download from Amazon. You will also find it here. Below you will find the instructions as well as a link to a video demonstration. Enjoy!
-purushottama
Osho Nadabrahma Meditation
Nadabrahma Meditation lasts for one hour and has three stages. It is a sitting method, in which humming and hand movements create an inner balance, a harmony between mind and body. Suitable for any time of the day, have an empty stomach and remain inactive for at least fifteen minutes afterwards.
First Stage: 30 minutes
Sit in a relaxed position with eyes closed. With lips together, start humming (mouth is closed and so one is not making the sound om, which would be done with an open mouth), loud enough that you can be heard by others. This will create a vibration in your body. Feel yourself to be a hollow tube (like a hollow bamboo) or vessel filled only with the vibrations of the humming. A point will come when the humming continues by itself and you become the listener. There is no special breathing, and you can alter the pitch, and move your body smoothly and slowly, if you feel to.
Second Stage: 15 minutes
This stage is divided into two segments, of seven and a half minutes each. For the first part, move the hands, palms upwards, in an outward, circular motion. Starting at the navel, both hands move forward and then divide to make two large circles mirroring each other left and right. The movement should be so slow that at times there will appear to be no movement at all. Feel that you are giving energy outwards to the universe. After seven and a half minutes, the music will change and you turn your hands palm downwards, and start moving them in the opposite direction. Now the hands will come together towards the navel and divide outwards towards the side of the body. Feel that you are taking energy in. As in the first stage, don’t inhibit any soft, slow movements of the rest of your body.
Third Stage: 15 minutes
Sitting or lying down, remain absolutely quiet and still.
Here is a short instructional video.
Osho Speaks on Nadabrahma Meditation
It is a mantra meditation, and mantra is one of the most potential ways. It is very simple yet tremendously effective, because when you chant a mantra or you chant a sound your body starts vibrating; your brain cells particularly start vibrating.
If rightly done your whole brain becomes tremendously vibrant, and the whole body also. Once the body starts vibrating and your mind is already chanting, they both fall in a tune. A harmony – which is ordinarily never there – between the two. Your mind goes on its way, your body continues on its own. The body goes on eating, the mind goes on thinking. The body goes on walking on the road the mind is moving far away in the stars. They never meet – they both go on separate pathways, and that creates a split.
The basic schizophrenia is created because the body goes in one direction, the mind goes in another direction. And you are the third element – you are neither the body nor the mind, so you are pulled apart by these two. Half of your being is pulled by the body and half of your being is pulled by your mind. So there is great anguish – one feels torn apart.
In a mantra meditation – Nadabrahma or any chanting – this is how the mechanism works: when you start chanting a sound – and any sound will do; even abracadabra – if you start resounding inside, the body starts responding. Sooner or later a moment comes when the body and the mind are both together in one direction for the first time. When body and mind are both together, you are free from the body and the mind – you are not tom apart. Then the third element which you are in reality – call it soul, spirit, ‘atma’, anything – that third element is at ease because it is not being pulled in different directions.
The body and the mind are so much engrossed in chanting that the soul can slip out of them very easily, unobserved, and can become a witness – can stand out and look at the whole game that is going on between the mind and the body. It is such a beautiful rhythm that the mind and body never become aware that the soul has slipped out… because they don’t allow so easily, mm? they keep their possession. Nobody wants to lose his possession. The body wants to dominate the soul, the mind wants to dominate the soul. This is a very sly way to get out of their hold. They become drunk with the chanting, and you slip out.
So in Nadabrahma, remember this: let the body and mind be totally together, but remember that you have to become a witness. Get out of them, easily, slowly, from the back door, with no fight, with no struggle. Mm? they are drinking – you get out, and watch from the outside…. This is the meaning of the English word ‘ecstasy’ – to stand out. Stand out and watch from there… and it is tremendously peaceful. It is silence, it is bliss, it is benediction. […]
Let the body get drunk, let the mind get drunk, let them fall into a deep love-affair with each other, and you slip out of it. Don’t stay there longer – otherwise you will fall asleep. And if one falls asleep, it is not meditation. Meditation means awareness. So remember it!
-Osho
From The Buddha Disease, Chapter 31
Sat Sangha Salon 