Whirling is one of the most ancient techniques practiced by Sufi Dervishes. It has a tremendous power to take you directly into your center and let you experience your unmoving center, as well as the moving whirlpool of energy all around it. Whirling meditation is done in two stages and lasts 60 minutes.
Find an open space where you will not have to worry about hurting yourself if you fall. It is best to have bare feet and wear loose clothing. It is also good to avoid eating for a couple of hours before doing this meditation.
1st Stage: 45 minutes WHIRLING Stretch out arms with the right palm turned upward and the left palm facing the ground. Start slowly turning on the spot in a clockwise direction, keeping your eyes open. If you find that you are getting dizzy you can focus your eyes on your upraised finger or palm while whirling, and if you feel discomfort from whirling clockwise, you can turn counter-clockwise.
After about 15 minutes, gradually increase the speed of the whirling, letting your body be soft and allowing the eyes to un-focus so that the images before you become blurred and flowing. Keep on increasing the speed until the whirling seems to be happening by itself. You become a whirlpool of energy - the periphery is a storm of movement but the witness at the center is silent and still.
2nd Stage: 15 minutes SILENCE Let your body fall to the ground when the music stops (it may already have happened before). Roll onto your stomach immediately, so that your navel is in contact with the earth. Feel your body blending into the earth. Keep your eyes closed and remain passive and silent.
"You must have seen small children - they like to whirl; and everybody stops them, because the fear of the parents is that the child may fall, may have a fracture, may get hurt. But in spite of all prohibitions, children love to whirl. Jalaluddin Rumi, seeing children whirl, thought that there must be something that the children feel but they cannot express, and perhaps they are not fully aware what it is. So he tried whirling himself, and he was amazed that if you go on whirling there comes a moment when the center of your being remains static and your whole body, mind, brain, everything, whirls. And that center which does not whirl, is you, the center of the cyclone. The whirling is almost like a cyclone, but in the middle of the cyclone you will find a point which has not moved at all." - Osho
