"Osho's incredible ideas have inspired me and millions of others on the path of self evolution. His presence is like a great bell tolling ... awaken, awaken, awaken."
- James Coburn, actor

OSHO NATARAJ - Music by Deuter

• Free expression through dance
• Celebrate yourself
• Release tensions and creativity arises
• Liberate feelings of joy and positivity
• Freeing the body allows the mind to expand, your heart to open and your spirit to fly

Have you ever put on your favorite dancing music when no one is around and just cut loose? If you haven't tried it, it's a great way to release tension or unwind. With a few simple additions, this pleasurable experience can become a meditation.

Historically, Sufis have a tradition of dancing as a meditation in celebration of life. The following dancing meditation created by Osho is called Osho Nataraj . If you choose not to order the CD, I would suggest doing this one to any inspiring and celebratory music you like, but keep to the same selection. As Osho used to say, the important thing is to always do this meditation to the same music. That way it is easier to notice how your experience of the meditation changes each time.

You can do this meditation any time of day. It will take about 65 minutes. Try it especially if you are having trouble coming to stillness when you meditate. Dancing into meditation is a great way to direct your energy inward.

Instructions for Osho Nataraj
Stage One: Dancing (40 minutes)
Clear a space where you can dance safely with your eyes closed. Put on the Osho Nataraj CD or a CD of your own choosing. Close your eyes or cover them with a blindfold and dance for forty minutes. Let go of any sense of control and disappear into the dance. Allow your body to respond to the music any way it likes, from wild to very slow and gentle movements. Celebrate yourself. Become like a child again in love with movement for its own sake. No one can see you, and this experience is not about performing or looking good, which always creates a subtle tension. If feelings arise, express them through the dance. You have complete freedom to do any movement you and your body want.

Let the sense that you are observing yourself dance fall away naturally. You and the movement and the music are one. Dancing is no longer a doing but a happening.

As you continue to dance, you may start to forget that you are dancing and begin to feel that you are the dance. Unlike those times when you are still aware of the separation between yourself and the dance, between yourself and the music, it becomes a meditation when the divisions dissolve, when you are totally involved, totally merged into the dance. You do not need to do anything to force this shift; just follow the movement and the music and allow it to happen.

Stage Two: Stillness (20 minutes)
The next stage of the meditation is silent. Turn off the music and immediately lie down for twenty minutes. The Osho Nataraj CD includes this twenty minutes of silence, but if you don't have the CD, simply set a timer and, keeping your eyes closed, be totally silent and still.

Stage Three: Get Up and Dance Again (5 minutes)
To complete the meditation, turn on the music again, and dance for five minutes. Celebrate and enjoy your body and the sense of total freedom dancing like this gives you.

Through the dancing meditation, a tremendous amount of tension is released, and creative insights may arise. Why this happens is no big mystery. Tension is simply trapped energy. The wild and free movement of the dance is a great way to set this energy free and get it moving. Feeling free in your body allows your mind to expand, your heart to open, and your spirit to fly. Then, when you lie still immediately after dancing, your gross level of activity - the body - is stopped, and the energy you have released travels inward to the more subtle layers of your being. This technique allows the dynamism of the dance to move to your roots, to the very core of your being, often liberating great feelings of joy and positivity. I recommend that you try this one any time you need the release.

Excerpted from Chapter One It's Easier Than You Think: Relaxing Lunchtime Enlightenment: Meditations to Transform Your Life NOW - at Work, at Home, at Play