By Osho

When you go to sleep tonight and every night following tonight, before going to sleep put off the light, sit on your bed, close your eyes and exhale deeply through the mouth with the sound O Ooooo. Go on exhaling with the sound O, as deeply as possible. Your stomach goes in, the air moves out, and you go on creating the sound O.

Remember, I am not saying Aum, I am saying simply O. It will become Aum automatically. You need not make it; then it is false. You simply create the sound O. When it becomes more harmonious and you are enjoying it, suddenly you will become aware it has become Aum. But dont force it to become Aum, then it is false. When it becomes spontaneously Aum, then, it is something vibrating from within. And this sound Aum is the deepest sound, the most harmonious, the most basic.

When it happens and you enjoy and you flow in its music, your whole body and your brain relax. With the sound Aum, you will go on relaxing and your sleep will have a different quality, altogether. When you have exhaled completely and you feel that now no more exhalation is possible, the whole breath has gone out, stop for a single moment. Dont inhale, dont exhale just stop. In that stop you are in the ocean.

Just remain so for a single moment and just look at what is happening. Be aware where you are: witness the whole situation that is there in that single stopped moment. Time is no more there, because time moves with breaths; breathing is the process of time. Because you breathe you feel time moving. When you dont breathe, you are just like a dead man. Time has stopped, there is no process anywhere; everything has stoppedas if the whole existence has stopped with you. In that stopping, you can become aware of the deepest source of your being and energy. So for a single moment, stop. Then inhale through the nose, but dont make any effort to inhale.

Remember, make all the effort to exhale, but dont make any effort to inhale; just let the body inhale. You simply relax your hold and let the body take the inhalation. You dont do anything. That too is beautiful and works wonders. You will feel a deep silence surrounding you, because then you know your effort is not needed for life. Life breathes itself. It moves by itself of its own cause. It is a river; you unnecessarily go on pushing it. You will see that the body is taking the inhalation. Your effort is not needed, your ego is not needed you are not needed. When the body has taken a full inhalation, stop for a single moment again. Again watch.

These two moments are totally different. When you have exhaled completely and stopped, that stopping is just like death. When you have inhaled totally and then stopped, that stopping is the climax of life. Remember, inhalation is equivalent to life, exhalation equivalent to death. Thats why the first thing a child does when born is to inhale, and the last thing the same child will do when old, dying, will be to exhale. On this earth, the first thing you did while entering life was inhalation, and the last thing you will do will be exhalation. (Vedanta: Seven steps to Samadhi, Osho Times International. Courtesy Osho International Foundation. http://www.osho.com)

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Just exhale with the sound, Oooooo! - Economic Times