18. Intone a sound audibly, then less and less audibly as feeling deepens into this silent harmony.
19. With mouth slightly open, keep mind in the middle of the tongue. or, as breath comes silently in, feel the sound “hh”.
20. Center on the sound “aum” without any “a” or “m”.
Tantra divides life into two dimensions: one is the SANSAR — that which is, the world; and the other is MOKSHA — that which can be, the ultimate, the hidden which can become manifest. But there is no contradiction between these two. The hidden is just here and now, in the world — of course, unknown to you, but not non-existent. It is there. The ultimate and the immediate are not two things, but just two dimensions of one existence.
So for tantra there is no contradiction, there is no duality. The one appears as two because of our limitations; because we cannot see the whole. The moment we can see the whole, one appears as one. The division is not in reality, but in our limited knowledge. That which we know is SANSAR — the world; and that which is unknown but which can be known is MOKSHA — the transcendental, the ultimate, the absolute.
For other traditions, there is a conflict between the two; for tantra there is no conflict. This has to be understood very deeply in the mind and in the heart. Unless this is understood deeply, you will never be able to understand the viewpoint of tantra. And whatsoever is your belief, that belief is of duality. Whether you are a Christian or a Mohammedan or a Hindu or a Jain, your belief is of duality, of conflict. The world appears to be something which is against the divine, and you have to fight the world to reach the divine. This is the common belief of all so-called religions, particularly organized religions.
Mind can understand duality very easily. Rather, it can understand only duality because the very function of the mind is to divide. The very function of the mind is to cut the whole into fragments.
The mind works like a prism, and when a ray of light enters the prism it is divided into seven colors. Mind is a prism and reality is divided through it. That is why mind revels in analysis. It goes on dividing things into fragments, and it cannot prevent itself unless there is nothing to be divided anymore. So mind has a tendency to reach to the atomic, the lowest division. It goes on dividing, dividing, until a moment comes when no division is possible. If division is still possible, it will divide still further.
Mind goes to the fragment, to the minutest fragment, and reality is a whole, not the fragment. So a completely reverse process is needed to know the real: a process which is of synthesis, not of analysis; a process which crystallizes, not one which divides. A no-mind process is needed.
Tantra denies divisions and tantra says that the whole is whole. The part that we know is the world, the part that is hidden is the divine, or God, or whatsoever you name it — but the hidden is just here and now. You are not aware of it, but it is here and now. It is already. For you it will be in the future, but in the existence it is here and now. You may have to travel to it; you may have to attain a no-mind attitude of looking at things — then it will be revealed. You are just standing and the morning sun is rising, but you are standing with closed eyes. The morning is here and now, but for you it is not here and now. When you will open your eyes, only then will it become a fact for you.
In the existence the morning exists, but not for you. You are closed to it, it is hidden for you. For you there is only darkness and the light is hidden. But if you open your eyes, any moment the morning will become a fact to you. It was already a fact, only you were blind.
Tantra says that the world is already the divine, but you are blind. So whatsoever you know in your blindness is to be called the world, and whatsoever is hidden because of your blindness is the divine. This is one of the basic tenets — that this sansar is the moksha, this very world is divine, this very world is the ultimate. The immediate and the ultimate are not two, but one. The here and there are not two, but one. Because of this insistence, many things become possible for tantra. One: tantra can accept everything, and the deep acceptance relaxes you completely. Nothing else can relax you.
If there is no division between this world and that, if the transcendental is imminent here and now, if matter is just the body of the divine, then nothing is denied, nothing is condemned and you need not be tense. Even if it may take ages for you to come to realize the divine, there is no hurry for tantra. It is already there, and time is not lacking. It is eternally here; whenever you will open your eyes you will find it. And whatsoever you are already getting is the hidden divine.
So the Christian attitude of condemnation, of sin, or other such religious attitudes, is totally a lie to tantra — and absurd, because if you condemn something you also become divided inwardly. You cannot divide things only outwardly. If you divide, you also will be divided in parallel. If you say that this world is wrong, then your body will become wrong because your body is part of this world.
If you say that this world is something which is a hindrance to reaching the ultimate, then your whole life will be condemned and you will feel guilty. Then you cannot enjoy, then you cannot live, then you cannot laugh. Then seriousness will become your face. You can be only serious; you cannot be non-serious, you cannot be playful.
That has happened to all the minds all over the world. They become dead, serious. Through seriousness they become dead because they cannot accept life as it is. They deny it, and they feel that unless they deny they cannot reach the other world.
So the other world becomes the ideal, the future, the desire, the vision, and this world becomes a sin. Then one feels guilty with it. And any religion that makes you guilty, makes you neurotic. It drives you crazy! In this sense, tantra is the only healthy religion. And whenever any religion becomes healthy, it becomes tantra — it becomes tantric. So every religion has two aspects. One is the outer aspect: the church, the organization, the publicized, the public face, the exoteric. This aspect is always life-denying. The other aspect is the inner core. Every religion has that too: the esoteric. It is always tantric — totally accepting.
Unless you accept the world totally, you cannot be at ease within. Non-acceptance creates a tension. Once you accept everything as it is, you are at home in the world. Tantra says this is a basic thing: you must be at home. Only then does something more become possible. If you are tense, divided, in conflict, in anguish, in guilt, how can you transcend? You are so much mad inside, you cannot travel further. You are so much engaged here, so much possessed by the here, you cannot go beyond.
This seems paradoxical. Those who are too much against the world are too much in it; they have to be. You cannot go away from your enemy, you are possessed by the enemy. If the world is your enemy, no matter what you do or pretend to do you will remain worldly. You may even renounce it, but your very approach will be worldly.
I have seen one saint, a very renowned one… He will not touch money, and if you put some coins before him, he will close his eyes. This is neurotic, this man is ill! What is he doing? But people worship him because of this. They think he is so otherworldly. He is not, he is too much in the world. Even you are not so much in the world. What is he doing? He has just reversed the process; now he is standing on his head. He is the same man — the same man who was greedy for money. Constantly he must have been thinking of money, accumulating possessions. Now he has become quite the opposite, but he remains the same within. Now he is against money, now he cannot touch it.
Why this fear? Why this hatred? Remember, whenever there is hatred it is love in reverse. You can hate a thing only if you have been in love with it. Hate is always possible only through love. You can be against something only if you have been so much for it, but the basic attitude remains the same: this man is greedy.
I asked this man, “Why are you so much afraid?”
He said, “Money is the hindrance. Unless I use will against my greed toward money, I cannot reach the divine.”
So now it is only a new sort of greed. He is in a bargain: if he touches money he loses the divine. And he wants to get the divine, he wants to possess the divine, so he is against the money.
Tantra says, do not be for the world, do not be against the world, just accept it as it is. Do not create any problem out of it. How is this going to help you? If you do not create any problem out of it, if you do not grow neurotic over it — this way or that — if you remain simply in it and accept it as it is, your whole energy is relieved from it and can move to the hidden realm, to the hidden dimension.
Acceptance in this world becomes transcendence for that. Total acceptance here will lead you, will transform you to the other dimension, the hidden dimension, because all your energy is relieved; it is not engaged here. Tantra believes deeply in the concept of NIYATI — fate. Tantra says, take this world as your fate and do not be worried about it. Once you take it as your niyati, as your fate, you accept it, whatsoever it is. You are not worried about changing it, about making it different, about making it according to your desire. Once you accept it as it is and you are not bothered by it, your total energy is relieved, and then this energy can penetrate inwards.
These techniques can be helpful only if you take this attitude; otherwise they will not be helpful. And they look so simple. If you start them directly as you are, they will seem simple, but you will not succeed in them. The basic framework is lacking. Acceptance is the basic framework. Once the acceptance is there in the background, these very simple methods will work wonders.
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Meditation Technique No. 42
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