OSHO MEDITATION TECHNIQUES - 1

The Meditation Technique of "Tratak"

Taken from:
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh,
Dynamics of Meditation,
Bombay, India, 1972
page 271

Tratak (fixed gazing) is an ancient yogic technique
that concentrates the mind,
opens the psychic centers
and awakens the force of kundalini (Divine energy)
latent in the Muladhar chakra (first psychic center)
at the base of the spine
taking one deep into meditation.
It is very powerful and is most effective
when practised upon an object
that is attractive to the mind
of the particular meditator.

One very powerful form of tratak is to gaze
at the photo of one's guru or spiritual master.
This should be practised seated in a meditative asana
(posture).
Place a photo of Osho about an arm's length away
so that the eyes are at the same heigth as yours.
A photo in which the eyes are looking
directly forward should always be used.

Below, Osho gives further instructions
on how to practise Tratak on his photo:

The first thing is to stare without any blinking,
continuously for thirty minutes;
and the whole consciousness must come to the eyes.
You must become the eyes.
Forget everything - the whole body;
just be eyes and continually stare
without any blinking.
The consciousness centered in the eyes
leads you to the peak of being tense -
the climax of being tense.
The eyes are the most delicate.
That is why they can be more tense than any other
part,
and with the eyes in a tension,
the whole mind is tense.
The eyes are just doors to the mind.
When you BECOME eyes,
the mind goes up and up to the climax,
and from that climax to fall down,
is to fall down into the abyss of relaxation.
So Tratak is to create one of the most tense peaks
in the consciousness through the eyes.

Thinking will stop automatically,
and by and by, as you proceed further,
the consciousness becomes more
centered in the eyes.
You will just be aware.
There will be no thinking,
because eyes cannot think.
No thinking is possible with the eyes.

When the whole consciousness
is centered in the eyes,
mind has no energy left for thinking.
Mind just stops thinking;
and the moments your eyes want to blink,
these are the moments to be avoided,
because the mind is trying to get energy back to
think.
That is why constant string, fixed staring, is needed.
Even a movement of the eyes gives energy to the mind.

So, do not move the eyes.
FIXED STARING!
When you are staring
with no movement of the eyes,
the mind is also fixed.
The mind moves with the eyes,
and the eyes are the outer parts of your face;
the other extreme which goes out.
Eyes are just part of the brain,
the other extreme.
Eyes are the doors -
the doors that belong to the inside mind
and also to the outside world.
If the eyes are totally fixed,
the mind really stops.
It cannot move.

So even when you are in a dream,
simply by the movements of your eyes
it can be known if you are dreaming
or not dreaming.
There is no other way.
If your mind is moving, even in sleep
your eyes will be moving.
So the only technique to know whether
the person asleep is dreaming or not
is to know whether the eyes are moving or not.
If the eyes are moving very fast,
there will be a very fast dream.

If your mind stops, your eyes will stop operating.
When your eyes will stop completely,
then also your mind will stop.

So this practice is to begin from the eyes,
because to begin from the mind is difficult.
Eyes are outer things, and you can do something.

There are many ways, but it is better
just to look at the two eyes (of the photo):
just be FIXED, no movement.
Just by staring at the two eyes
something begins to work.
Your two eyes should stare
at the two eyes in the photo,
and the body too is fixed - motionless.
The secret is that fixed eyes
make a fixed mind,
and the eyes can be fixed
more easily than the mind.