The art of massage

Massage is something that you can start learning but you never finish.
Massage is the language of love, a synonym for love.
It goes on and on, and the experience becomes continuously deeper and deeper, and higher and higher. Massage is one of the most subtle arts – and it is not only a question of expertise. It is more a question of love…. Learn the technique – then forget it Then just ‘feel’, and move by feeling.
When you learn deeply, ninety percent of the work is done by love, ten percent by the technique. By just the very touch – a loving, conscious touch, something relaxes in the body
If you love and feel compassion for the other person, and feel the ultimate value of him; if you don’t treat him as if he is a mechanism to be put right, but an energy of tremendous value. If you are grateful that he trusts you and allows you to play with his energy – then by and by you will feel as if you are playing on an organ. The whole body becomes the keys of the organ and you can feel that a harmony is created inside the body. Not only will the person be helped, but you also.
When performing the massage, stay here and now. When touching a person, stay in this moment, as if you are facing the eternity. Flow with total energy. And, whenever you see the body flowing and the energy creating a new pattern of harmony – you will fall into deep meditation and feel a delight that you have never felt before. While massaging, just massage. ‘Be’ in your fingers and your hands as if your whole being, your whole soul, is there. Don’t let it be just a touch of the body. Your whole soul enters into the body of the other, penetrates it, relaxes the deepest complexes.
And make it a play. Don’t do it as a job. Make it a game, and take it as fun.
Massage is to come to a rapport with the energy of somebody else’s body and to feel where it is missing, to feel where the body is fragmentary and to make it whole…to help the energy of the body so it is no longer fragmentary, no longer contradictory. You start feeling where the energy is blocked. And you make it a whole, non-contradictory and balanced.
If a person does not trust you, never try healing. Never try, because it is not possible. If a person has doubts about you, forget about him. It is possible only in deep trust. And if you try on persons who won’t trust you, you will become unconfident about your own energy. If you fail many times, then by and by you will think, “Nothing is happening. I don’t have the energy.” So never try it on somebody who challenges you.
If somebody is ready to participate, to go with you, then it is a beautiful experience. So in the beginning never touch. When the person is relaxing more and more and you feel.. And I am saying ‘feel’ — not that you think. If you feel an urge arises to touch the person — then touch, but first let him get in tune with you. First just give an energy massage, not touching the body. When you feel that the person is participating tremendously, when his trust is immense and you can see that he is flowing with you. And you can feel that your energy is being absorbed — it is not rejected; he has become like a sponge and is soaking it up — then it becomes a pinpoint. On that point the whole energy showers and enters deepest.
After each healing it is better that if you can take a shower, do so. If it is not possible, then at least wash your hands immediately and shake them. It always happens that when you are passing your energy into the other person, his or her energy also sometimes passes into you; they overlap. Sometimes the person may not be strong, but his illness may be very strong, so those vibrations of illness can enter you and can be destructive. They can make you ill, tense.
Massage is not simply massage. You are sharing energy; and unless you have energy flowing in you, soon you will become tired. Then it is very risky. It is not physical tiredness that comes — that is not important; you will sleep, you will eat, and it will go. When you are massaging somebody’s body, not only are your bodies involved — your subtle bodies, two energy bodies, two bio-plasmas. The person who is taking massage can take too much of your bio-plasma.
And unless you are a constant inner supply, unless you are joined to the source, you will become very much dissipated by it. It may not immediately affect you because you are young. Even for months and years you may not feel it, but one day suddenly you will feel you are collapsed.
So my understanding is that first one should work upon oneself, and one should become very, very centred. When you are centred, you are not. When you are centred, the source starts functioning. The cosmos starts flowing through you — then there is no problem. Then you are just a passage. You can share as much energy as you want, and you will be constantly getting new energy. Then you are not like a reservoir of water which has no springs to it. You are like a well which has many springs to it. In fact you take the old, rotten, stale water out, and the fresh and alive water comes in. So if you are in a flow and your energy is flowering then there is no problem. It is not only a question of knowing the technique, the bigger question is how to be at the source. Then I don’t bother even about the technique and whether you know it or not. You can simply start playing with somebody’s body and energy will be flowing, and there will be great benefits. But there is only real benefit when the person who is massaging is also benefited through it — then there is a real benefit. Then the healer is benefited, and the healee too — both are benefited, Nobody is at loss.
Massage is an art, not science. One should be very, very free about them. They are not very fixed things — they have great freedom in them. So learn the art and then use it in your own individual way — give it your own flavour. And never become an orthodox follower of these things; otherwise, rather than helping, they constrict you. They help in a certain limited way, but if you can improve upon them, innovate, then you can be benefited tremendously.
Just feel and be guided by your feelings. When you learn deeply, ninety percent of the work is done by love, ten percent by the technique. Just a single touch, a touch of love , – and something relaxes in the body.
Conscious Touch is needed in the world today because ‘love’ has disappeared. Once, the very touch of lovers was enough. A mother touched the child, played with his body, and it was massage. The husband played with the body of his woman, and it was massage. It was deep relaxation and part of love. But that has disappeared from the world. By and by, we have forgotten where to touch, how to touch, how deep to touch. In fact, ‘touch’ is one of the most forgotten languages. We have become almost awkward in touching, because the very word has been corrupted by so-called religious people. They have given it a sexual color.
The word has become sexual and people have become afraid. Everybody is on guard not to be touched, unless he allows it. Now, in the West, the other extreme has come. Touch and massage have become sexual. These days massage is just a cover, a blanket, for sexuality. In fact, essentially, neither touch nor massage are sexual. They are functions of love. When love falls from its height, it becomes sex, and it becomes ugly. So be prayerful. When you touch the body of a person, be prayerful… as if God himself is there, and you are just serving him. Flow with total energy. And, whenever you see the body flowing and the energy creating a new pattern of harmony – you will feel a delight that you have never felt before. You will fall into deep meditation.
Massage is to come to a rapport with the energy of somebody else’s body and to feel where it is missing, to feel where the body is fragmentary and to make it whole…to help the energy of the body so it is no longer fragmentary, no longer contradictory. When the energies of the body are falling into line and becoming an orchestra, then you succeed. So be very respectful about a human body. It is the very shrine of God, the temple of God. So with deep reverence, prayer, learn your art. It is one of the greatest things to learn…
Massage is high energies! OSHO