WHIRLING🔗

ABOUT THE MEDITATION

This is a beautiful, natural meditation to center your energies. It is ancient and powerful technique, drawn from Sufism, a mystic sect of Islam. This is as simple as a technique can get. All you have to do is whirl, turn round and round and round – the way you used to do as a child. Whirling is a powerful centering technique. The beautiful thing about this technique is that your body will be whirling, going round and round – but your Being is right at the center, unmoving – like the unmoving center of a moving wheel.

INSTRUCTIONS

Do not have any food or drink at least three hours before this meditation. Some people may experience a sense of nausea during this meditation. This will disappear after a few days of practice. If it persists, discontinue the meditation. The meditation has two phases: whirling and resting.

Step 1: Whirling Duration: Minimum 21 minutes

Whirling is usually done in an anti-clockwise direction, with the right arm held higher, palm facing upwards, and the left arm lower, palm facing downwards. If you are uncomfortable whirling anti-clockwise, switch to clockwise. Whirling can be practiced for hours – for as long as you feel comfortable. But you will need to whirl for at least one hour to experience the ‘energy whirlpool’. Start with whirling slowly, let your whole body be soft and unresisting. As you whirl, the passing images will become blurred. Let them flow past. Don’t try to focus on anything – it will make you dizzy or nauseous. For the first 10 minutes, go really slow. Then build up speed over the next 10 minutes. After 20 minutes or so, you will feel as if the whirling has taken you completely over. There will be action and movement on the periphery of the circle, but at the center will be a certain stillness. You will feel as if you are a witness to all this action, not a participant in it.

Step 2: Resting Duration: 10 minutes

When you are whirling so fast that you can’t stay upright, your body will fall by itself. Don’t plan the fall. If your body is soft and pliable, you will not get hurt. As soon as you fall, turn over onto your stomach so that your navel is in contact with the earth. Feel your body become one with the earth. Keep your eyes closed. Remain in the same position, passive and silent, for at least 10 minutes. After this meditation, remain silent and meditative for a few hours.

ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

If you sit quietly with yourself for a few minutes, you can see that there are slight movements always happening in you. Even when you are sitting very still, your energies are moving in almost invisible circles in and around you. Your prana or life force, is moving inside your body in a subtle current. The problem is, the moment you become aware of these movements, you try to hold onto your body. We hold onto our body so tightly in our mind! Unconsciously, we are always resisting these natural movements, always afraid to let go. Now, just be with those movements happening inside you. Allow them to happen. When you allow these movements to happen, you will suddenly become aware that you are not a solid body. You are a flowing energy! Suddenly you will realize you are not just the body. You may be dwelling in the body, but you are not the body. Experiencing ourselves as a flowing energy is what I call enlightenment or the ultimate experience.