Oliver Benjamin
“No enemas.” I repeated.
“Okay, okay, you have dirty colon,” he said and returned the
device to the hut. Just because we had puked together didn’t mean I
was ready for that level of intimacy.
After my weird but refreshing “yogic cleansings,” I followed
Haridas inside the hut and sat down on a straw mat with him. He sat
quietly for a second and then finally declared:
“And now…the laughing.”
I was puzzled. “The laughing? What are we going to laugh at?”
My consternation was interrupted by what amounted to the
most irrational and ridiculous laughter I had ever heard in my life.
Haridas spontaneously erupted into a fit of manic chortling that
could undoubtedly be heard for miles. At first I was kind of uneasy,
but soon couldn’t help but laugh along with him. Soon, I thought I
was going to yogic puke again. Just when I thought his giggling was
dying down and we were about to finish, he would force another
hysterical yelp that would lead into another uncontrollable fit. He
even fell over a few times.
Finally, after about twenty minutes, and with tears flowing
down both of our cheeks, he suddenly stopped and closed his eyes.
My stomach ached.
Then, he explained to me that we were going to engage in some
exercises that would increase our awareness. To this I protested
lamely.
“The last thing I need is more awareness. I need to clear my
mind, not fill it up with more crap.”
“Of course,” he said calmly, “That is right. What you need is to
put yourself above things that have no value, that clog you up like
snot. Awareness of those things is not awareness but distraction.
Meditation helps you see the difference.”
“How does it do that?”
“By training your mind like a muscle. With meditation, you
practice to travel away from the mind. At first it is very difficult not
to have noisy thoughts, but soon you will figure out the way for
yourself. Like riding a bicycle. No one can really tell you how—you
must learn by doing! If you can learn to control all your thinking then
you can have true clarity. True power.”
“Enlightenment?”
“Oh, who can say what that is? Better not to talk of it.”
We started by engaging in a breathing exercise called
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