Techniques are helpful because they are scientific. You are saved from unnecessary wandering, unnecessary groping; if you don't know any techniques, you will take many lives.

TECHNIQUES ARE HELPFUL

With a master, with scientific techniques, you can save much time, opportunity and energy. And sometimes within seconds you can grow so much that even within lives you would not have been able to grow that much. If a right technique is used, growth explodes. And these techniques have been used in thousands of years of experiments. They were not devised by one man; they were devised by many, many seekers, and only the essence is given here. You will reach the goal, because the life energy within you will move unless it comes to the point where no movement is possible. It will go on moving to the highest peak, and that is the reason why one goes on being born again and again. Left to yourself you will reach. But you will have to travel very, very long, and the journey will be very tedious and boring.  

All techniques can be helpful but they are not exactly meditation, they are just a groping in the dark. Suddenly one day, doing something, you will become a witness. Doing a meditation like Dynamic, or Kundalini or Whirling, suddenly one day the meditation will go on but you will not be identified. You will sit silently behind, you will watch it - that day meditation has happened; that day the technique is no longer a hindrance, no longer a help. You can enjoy it if you like, like an exercise; it gives a certain vitality, but there is no need now - the real meditation has happened. Meditation is witnessing. To meditate means to become a witness. Meditation is not a technique at all! This will be very confusing to you because I go on giving you techniques. In the ultimate sense meditation is not a technique; meditationis an understanding, awareness. But you need techniques because that final understanding is very far away from you; hidden deep in you but still very far away from you. Right this moment you can attain it. But you will not attain it, because your mind goes on. This very moment it is possible and yet impossible. Techniques will bridge the gap; they are just to bridge the gap. So in the beginning techniques are meditations; in the end you will laugh - techniques are not meditation. Meditation is a totally different quality of being, it has nothing to do with anything. But it will happen only in the end; don't think it has happened in the beginning, otherwise the gap will not be bridged.

BEGIN WITH EFFORT

Meditation techniques are doings, because you are advised to do something - even to meditate is to do something; even to sit silently is to do something, even to not do anything is a sort of doing. So in a superficial way, all meditation techniques are doings. But in a deeper way they are not, because if you succeed in them, the doing disappears. Only in the beginning it appears like an effort. If you succeed in it, the effort disappears and the whole thing becomes spontaneous and effortless. If you succeed in it, it is not a doing. Then no effort on your part is needed: it becomes just like breathing, it is there. But in the beginning there is bound to be effort, because the mind cannot do anything which is not an effort. If you tell it to be effortless, the whole thing seems absurd. In Zen, where much emphasis is put on effortlessness, the masters say to the disciples, "Just sit. Don't do anything." And the disciple tries. Of course - what can you do other than trying?
In the beginning, effort will be there, doing will be there - but only in the beginning, as a necessary evil. You have to remember constantly that you have to go beyond it. A moment must come when you are not doing anything about meditation; just being there and it happens. Just sitting or standing and it happens. Not doing anything, just being aware, it happens. All these techniques are just to help you to come to an effortless moment. The inner transformation, the inner realization, cannot happen through effort, because effort is a sort of tension. With effort you cannot be relaxed totally; the effort will become a barrier. With this background in mind, if you make effort, by and by you will become capable of leaving it also.

THESE METHODS ARE SIMPLE

Each of these methods which we will be discussing has been told by someone who has achieved. Remember this. They will look too simple, and they are. To our minds, things which are so simple cannot be appealing. Because if techniques are so simple and the abode is so near, if you are already in it, and the home is so near, you will look ridiculous to yourself - then why are you missing it? Rather than feel the ridiculousness of your own ego, you will think that such simple methods cannot help.
That is a deception. Your mind will tell you that these simple methods cannot be of any help - that they are so simple, they cannot achieve anything. "To achieve Divine existence, to achieve the Absolute and the Ultimate, how can such simple methods be used? How can they be of any help?" Your ego will say that they cannot be of any help. Remember one thing - ego is always interested in something which is difficult because when something is difficult there is a challenge. If you can overcome the difficulty, your ego will feel fulfilled. The ego is never attracted toward anything which is simple - never! If you want to give your ego a challenge, then you have to have something difficult devised. If something is simple, there is no appeal, because even if you can conquer it, there will be no fulfillment of the ego. In the first place, there was nothing to be conquered: the thing was so simple. Ego asks for difficulties - some hurdles to be crossed, some peaks to be conquered. And the more difficult the peak, the more at ease your ego will feel.
Because these techniques are so simple, they will not have any appeal to your mind. Remember, that which appeals to the ego cannot help your spiritual growth. These techniques are so simple that you can achieve all that is possible to human consciousness to achieve, at any moment that you decide to achieve it.

FIRST UNDERSTAND THE TECHNIQUE

I have heard a story about an old doctor.   One  day  his  assistant phoned him because he was in very great  difficulty:   his   patient  was choking to death; a billiard ball was stuck in his throat, and the assistant was at a loss for what to do. So he asked the old doctor, "What am I supposed to do now?" The old doctor said, "Tickle the patient with a feather."
After a few minutes the assistant phoned again, very happy and jubilant, and said, "Your treatment proved wonderful! The patient started laughing and he spat the ball out. But tell me - from where have you learned this remarkable technique?"
The old doctor said, "I just made it up. This has always been my motto: when you don't know what to do, do something."
But this will not do as far as meditation is concerned. If you don't know what to do, don't do anything. Mind is very intricate, complex, delicate. If you don't know what to do, it is better not to do anything, because whatsoever you do without knowing is going to create more complexities than it can solve. It may even prove fatal, it may even prove suicidal. If you don't know anything about the mind.... And really, you don't know anything about it. Mind is just a word. You don't know the complexity of it. Mind is the most complex thing in existence; there is nothing comparable to it. And it is the most delicate; you can destroy it, you can do something which then cannot be undone. These techniques are based on a very deep knowledge, on a very deep encounter with the human mind. Each technique is based on long experimentation.
So remember this: don't do anything on your own, and don't mix two techniques, because their functioning is different, their ways are different, their bases are different. They lead to the same end, but as means they are totally different. Sometimes they may even be diametrically opposite. So don't mix two techniques. Really, don't mix anything; use the technique as it is given.
Don't change it, don't improve it - because you cannot improve it, and any change you bring to it will be fatal.
And before you start doing a technique, be fully alert that you have understood it. If you feel confused and you don't really know what the technique is, it is better not to do it, because each technique is for bringing about a revolution in you.
First try to understand the technique absolutely rightly. When you have understood it, then try it. And don't use this old doctor's motto that when you don't know what to do, do something. No, don't do anything. Non-doing will be more beneficial

THE RIGHT METHOD WILL CLICK

Really, when you try the right method it clicks immediately. So I will go on talking about methods here every day. You try them. Just play with them: go home and try. The right method, whenever you happen upon it, just clicks. Something explodes in you, and you know that "This is the right method for me." But effort is needed, and you may be surprised that suddenly one day one method has gripped you.
I have found that while you are playing, your mind is more open. While you are serious your mind is not so open; it is closed. So just play. Do not be too serious, just play. And these methods are simple. You can just play with them. Take one method: play with it for at least three days. If it gives you a certain feeling of affinity, if it gives you a certain feeling of well-being, if it gives you a certain feeling that this is for you, then be serious about it. Then forget the others. Do not play with other methods; stick to it - at least for three months.
 
Miracles are possible. The only thing is that the technique must be for you. If the technique is not for you, then nothing happens. Then you may go on with it for lives together, but nothing will happen. If the method is for you, then even three minutes are enough.

WHEN TO DROP THE METHOD

ll the great masters say this, that one day you have to drop the method. And the sooner you drop it, the better. The moment you attain, the moment awareness is released in you, immediately drop the method.
Buddha used to tell a story again and again. Five idiots passed through a village. Seeing them, people were surprised, because they were carrying a boat on their heads. The boat was really big; they were almost dying under the weight of it. And people asked, "What are you doing?"
They said, "We cannot leave this boat. This is the boat that helped us to come from the other shore to this shore. How can we leave it? It is because of it that we have been able to come here. Without it we would have died on the other shore. The night was coming close, and there were wild animals on the other shore; it was as sure as anything that by the morning we would have been dead. We will never leave this boat. We are indebted forever. We will carry it on our heads in sheer gratitude."
Methods are dangerous only if you are unaware; otherwise they can be used beautifully. Do you think a boat is dangerous? It is dangerous if you are thinking to carry it on your head for your whole life, out of sheer gratitude. Otherwise it is just a raft to be used and discarded, used and abandoned, used and never looked back at again; there is no need, no point!
If you drop the remedy, automatically you will start settling in your being. The mind clings; it never allows you to settle in your being. It keeps you interested in something that you are not: the boats. When you don't cling to anything, there is nowhere to go; all boats have been abandoned, you cannot go anywhere; all paths have been dropped, you cannot go anywhere; all dreams and desires have disappeared, there is no way to move. Relaxation happens of its own accord.

Just think of the word relax. Be... settle.. .you have come home. One moment all is fragrance, and the next moment you are searching for it and you cannot find it, where it has gone.
Only glimpses will happen in the beginning. Slowly slowly, they become more and more solid, they abide more and more. Slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, very slowly, they settle forever. Before that, you cannot be allowed to take it for granted; that will be a mistake. When you are sitting in meditation, a session of meditation, this will happen. But it will go. So what are you supposed to do between sessions?
Between sessions, continue to use the method. Drop the method when you are deep in meditation. The moment comes, as awareness is getting purer and purer, when suddenly it is utterly pure: drop the method, abandon the method, forget all about the remedy, just settle and be.
But this will happen only for moments in the beginning. Sometimes it happens here listening to me. Just for a moment, like a breeze, you are transported into another world, the world of no-mind. Just for a moment, you know that you know, but only for a moment. And again the darkness gathers and the mind is back with all its dreams, with all its desires and all its stupidities. For a moment the clouds had separated and you had seen the sun.
 
Now the clouds are there again; it is all dark and the sun has disappeared. Now even to believe that the sun exists will be difficult. Now to believe that what you had experienced a moment before was true will be difficult. It may have been a fantasy. The mind may say it might have been just imagination. It is so incredible, it looks so impossible that it could have happened to you. With all this stupidity in the mind, with all these clouds and darknesses, it happened to you: you saw the sun for a moment. It doesn't look probable, you must have imagined it; maybe you had fallen into a dream and seen it. Between sessions start again, be in the boat, use the boat again.

IMAGINATION CAN WORK FOR YOU

First you must understand what imagination is. It is condemned very much nowadays. The moment you hear the word "imagine" you will say this is useless, we want something real, not imaginary. But imagination is a reality, it is a capacity, it is a potentiality within you. You can imagine. That shows that your being is capable of imagination. This capacity is a reality. Through this imagination you can destroy or you can create yourself, that depends on you. Imagination is very powerful. It is potential power. What is imagination? It is getting into an attitude so deeply that the very attitude becomes reality. For example, you may have heard about a technique which is used in Tibet.

They call it heat yoga. The night is cold, snow is falling, and the Tibetan lama is standing naked under the open sky. The temperature is below zero. You would simply start dying, you would freeze. But the lama is practicing a particular technique - he is imagining that his body is a burning fire and he is imagining that he is perspiring -the heat is so much that he is perspiring. And he actually starts perspiring although the temperature is below zero and even the blood should freeze. He starts perspiring. What is happening? This perspiration is real, his body is really hot - but this reality is created through imagination.
Once you get in tune with your imagination, the body starts functioning. You are already doing many things without knowing that it is your imagination working. Many times you create illnesses just through imagination; you imagine that now this disease is here, infectious, it is all over the place.