BECOME A HOLLOW BAMBOO

LIKE A HOLLOW BAMBOO REST AT EASE WITH YOUR BODY.

This is one of Tilopa’s special methods. Every Master has his own special method through which he has attained, and through which he would like to help others. This is Tilopa’s specialty:

LIKE A HOLLOW BAMBOO REST AT EASE WITH YOUR BODY.

A bamboo: inside completely hollow. When you rest, you just feel that you are like a bamboo: inside completely hollow and empty. And in fact this is the case: your body is just like a bamboo, and inside it is hollow. Your skin, your bones, your blood, all are part of the bamboo, and inside there is space, hollowness.

When you are sitting with a completely silent mouth, inactive, tongue touching the roof and silent, not quivering with thoughts, mind watching passively, not waiting for anything in particular, feel like a hollow bamboo — and suddenly infinite energy starts pouring within you, you are filled with the unknown, with the mysterious, with the divine. A hollow bamboo becomes a flute and the divine starts playing it. Once you are empty then there is no barrier for the divine to enter in you.

Try this; this is one of the most beautiful meditations, the meditation of becoming a hollow bamboo. You need not do anything else. You simply become this — and all else happens. Suddenly you feel something is descending in your hollowness. You are like a womb and a new life is entering in you, a seed is falling. And a moment comes when the bamboo completely disappears.

LIKE A HOLLOW BAMBOO REST AT EASE WITH YOUR BODY.

Rest at ease — don’t desire spiritual things, don’t desire heaven, don’t desire even God. God cannot be desired — when you are desireless, he comes to you. Liberation cannot be desired because desire is the bondage. When you are desireless, you are liberated. Buddhahood cannot be desired, because desiring is the hindrance. When the barrier is not, suddenly Buddha explodes in you. You have the seed already. When you are empty, space is there — the seed explodes.

Osho
Discourse Series
Tantra: The Supreme Understanding

All the atoms and electrons of the body moving all the time, being born and dying: can you feel it happening? Not just in the body, but outside as well, just watch nature. Flowers bloom, flowers die, than come again. This is the meaning of reincarnation; do you mean to tell me it doesn’t exist? Nonsense!

Just admit it already, existence is profound, just the fact that I can sit here and write about it, to be able to share my joy with all of you, it’s too profound to accept we die, end up in a ditch, and that’s that. This life is just the beginning of an endless journey. This is a cosmic party and we’re all invited. Just think it, wish it, and you can have it. Forget about material possessions. Use them, but don’t be used by them, the age old saying “you can’t take it with you when you go” holds true for money as well my friends, yep I’m sorry to say.

So if this existence is so temporal, than what do we get to take with us? Atman (spirit) records all experiences; we take all of these moments with us: form to form, planet to planet, star system to star system, different heavenly realms, all of the above. All imprints get stored. Sipping breath is one of my favorite delicacies, it helps me to remember and reflect upon these simple Truths.

Is there such a thing as a world free from tyranny? It seems that everywhere we go, each country, each culture has a pecking order. As a Buddhist\Taoist Yogi I am constantly at conflict with authority. The only authority we should have is the right to control ourselves, our own actions. But what to do? How to act? There is a fine line between standing up for oneself, and knowing when to back down. I have been making this one of my main practices over the past few years: dealing wit others, or the false perception of “The Other”.

The Truth is that there is no “Other”, and often a hard truth to digest, especially in the face of diversity. When we are feeling threatened that’s when we are most challenged to remain cool-headed. That “count to ten time out” that our parents taught us about is profound, it works! May All Beings Be happy, we should stand up for ourselves, there is a middle ground and it’s not as far away as we may think. Remember that the one shouting in you’re face is suffering worse than you (in that moment, and probably most of the time!) May all Beings Be Free, no one has the right to treat another without respect or Loving Kindness (metta), it doesn’t matter how powerful or important a person is, those titles are just on the periphery, we all deserve kindness, life is too short.