ANANDA DHYANA🔗

The meditation takes its name from the Sufi mystic Abdullah. Abdullah was famous for his ever-smiling face. It is said that even on his deathbed, Abdullah was laughing. Finally some of his disciples couldn't help it; they asked him, what was so funny about dying!

Then Abdullah gave them the secret that his own master had taught him. He said, Remember that your happiness is always in your hands. Your happiness is 100% your own choice. Every day, life gives you a chance to be happy or miserable. What you choose is up to you!

There can't be a simpler meditation technique than this! But don't be deceived by its simplicity; it is the most simple, basic techniques that really work.

Every morning, as soon as you get up, even before you open your eyes, sit up in bed.

Call yourself by name.

Ask yourself, What are you going to choose today? Do you want to be happy, or do you want to be miserable?

Naturally, first thing in the morning, you are not going to choose misery! So your mind will say, I choose happiness.

Then reply, Then be happy, that's all! It's as simple as that! When you are faced every day with the truth that your happiness and your misery are entirely in your hands, you will stop blaming the external circumstances. You will develop an attitude of being happy - not because of external circumstances, not despite them — but irrespective of them. You are happy because you are happy, that's all.

Have you noticed how you feel heavier on some days than on others? Actually, the weight you feel is the weight of your body, not of You. You are weightless. From constant identification with the body, we tend to think of ourselves as possessing weight.

Your body is just matter, naturally it will have weight.

If you notice, a person when sleeping or unconscious is always heavier than when he is awake. When your consciousness is alive, you are lighter. You don't just feel lighter, you become lighter.

To experience the true lightness of your Being, you have to go not only beyond your body, but beyond your mind as well. Because the mind also has a certain weight. When you are unhappy, you feel physically heavier. You feel as if something is dragging you down. When you are happy, you feel light, you feel as if you are 'walking on air'! Because when you are happy, you forget the body, you forget the mind. Even without effort, you feel yourself weightless. But in normal life, you are controlled by external circumstances. In this meditation, we learn to create the feeling of weightlessness at will.

Just sitting anywhere, start thinking of yourself as weightless.

Keep your spine straight and your eyes closed. When your spine is straight, you will already start feeling a sense of weightlessness.

How do you make sure your spine is perfectly straight?

Sit straight, and slowly start moving your whole spine backwards and forwards. Sway gently, just a little. At one point, you will find that you are more at ease. Keeping this point as the center, start moving your spine sideways. Suddenly you will experience a position where you feel light, almost weightless. This point is where the center of gravity is least. At this point, your spine is perfectly straight.

Now, start imagining yourself as weightless.

In the beginning it won't be easy. You will keep feeling your weight. But tell yourself that you are weightless; feel the weightlessness. Suddenly, a moment comes when you realize that you are weightless. And that is the truth!

This is not a way of hypnotizing yourself. In fact, all your life you live under the illusion that you have weight. You feel the weight of the body, and imagine it to be your weight. This is the process of de-hypnotizing yourself. Keep feeling the weightlessness, keep feeling it.

When you are deep in meditation, you break the identification with the body completely. You break the boundary of the body. You have infinite power. You can occupy infinite space. But you have squeezed yourself into the volume of a body! This is the root cause of your pain, your misery, your heaviness. When you recognize this, you automatically feel your own weightlessness.

When you go very deeply into meditation, you can even carry your body with you. Your body is lifted up by the sheer force of your consciousness. It defies gravity and starts rising in the air. This is what is known as levitation. There are many yogis and yoginis who can perform levitation.

To feel weightless is to become free of body and mind. To feel weightless is to become pure consciousness, even for a few moments. This technique is complete relaxation, total rejuvenation.

How often do you laugh?

When we laugh, we are completely unaware that we are performing a great spiritual practice!

Laughter is the most intimate way of connecting with your source. So easy, and so powerful. This is one meditation that every single person has already practised, sometime in life. Laughter is a tremendous source of energy. Just laugh, and you can feel the energy surge from the source and flood you.

When you laugh, you lose your boundary. You lose your sense of self. You become possessed by the laughter.

And have you noticed? It is impossible to think and laugh at the same time! When you are laughing – suddenly, you experience a moment when thought is no longer possible. You experience no-mind!

The laughter I am talking about is not giggling. It is not a sarcastic half-smile, half-laugh. It is a beautiful, expansive laughter, laughter that fills your being and overflows from you. It is laughter for no reason. Actually you always start laughing for some reason – but once you start, the laughter takes hold of you! Then you laugh simply because you are laughing, that’s all. Just the joy of laughing keeps you laughing. You are not even aware of that.

The Japanese monk Hotei was known as the Laughing Buddha. His whole spiritual message could be condensed into a single act – laughing! He would wander from place to place, stand in public places and simply begin to laugh – a roaring, belly laugh. His whole body would be shaking with laughter. The laughter would rise from him and spread all around in a great wave of energy. And his laughter was so infectious that the whole town would be laughing with him. The whole town would be blessed with laughter. Without techniques, without effort, without even being aware of it, an entire town would glimpse the state of no-mind.

What a supreme meditation technique laughter is!

sleep? Stretch this way and that, bend and twist your body. Feel every muscle being stretched!

Then, without opening your eyes, begin to laugh.

At first it will require some effort. But soon real laughter will begin to bubble up within you. If nothing else, just your comic attempts at laughter will be enough to make you really laugh!

Once the laughter takes you over, just let go. There is no duration. Laugh till you are tired of laughing. As you progress, you will find that you are able to sustain the laughter longer and longer.

Long after you finish laughing, the waves of laughter will still be there in you, just beneath the surface. Just a few minutes of morning laughter can transform your whole day!