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Meditation through Movement: Pankaja’s reflections on her recent visit to Song Mountain in China.

San Huang Zhai monastery at Song Mountain

This article first appeared on the UK Osho site: Omweb where there are associated articles about this visit by Veena, and more details. The article is published with permission.

Buddha Grove at seven on a chilly January morning - I’d never miss a Tai Chi class with Yogendra while I was in Pune. That’s what really turned me on to Tai Chi, tho I had been doing it casually for a few years before that. I’ve been carrying on with another teacher in London for the past few years, so the BBC episode of The Extreme Pilgrim which took place in the Shaolin temple in China was particularly fascinating for me.

I really felt for this poor middle aged English vicar, (who fronted the Extreme Pilgrim series), as he struggled to keep up with these 17 year old martial artists who’d been training since childhood as acrobats and fighters. After a week of this self torture, the vicar visited the San Huang Zhai monastery which is in the process of construction up on the mountain behind. Everything for the monastery has to be carried up several thousand steps - bricks, concrete, tiles for building, plus all food for the monks and nuns who live there. Seeing the monks carrying heavy bags of flour and vegetables on their backs while walking up with beautiful, graceful, swaying steps struck me deep in the heart.

On the way up to the monastery

Osho teased and hit me many times for being ‘in my head,’ unable to divorce myself from my ideas, and I spent long years cleaning rooms and toilets in Pune 1. I was never a very good cleaner, never enjoyed it except the time spent scrubbing the toilets with a wonderful opera singer friend, our voices echoing off the white tiles. The first time I walked through Buddha hall carrying a mop and bucket I really had no idea what to do with those implements - though later it became a wonderful game, swirling the huge mops around. I was never remotely interested in learning Tai Chi then - I just wanted to sit or lie down in discourse and disappear into Osho’s energy field, forgetting all about this irritating vehicle, the body!

Monks Training

But as I get older meditation through movement, yeah, have to admit it - tai chi rather than dynamic or kundalini - has become more important to me, and the way these monks moved was meditation in everyday life - truly tai chi. It was the same in the half constructed buildings as the monks swept the floors (lots of dust!) and the two nuns, one young, one old, planted herbs in the garden.

Speaking to Veena on the phone several months later when she said she was going and wanted someone to go with her - I had an instant ‘yes’. And through her amazing networking skills we actually found ourselves, on the very first day we arrived, climbing those very steps and meeting that very monk. I had bought a camcorder the week before leaving and was busy filming while trying to figure out how to use it as we climbed the steps and Veena interviewed Wu Nanfang that first day. The reality was different from the documentary because it was a major public holiday and there were thousands of Chinese visitors and pilgrims thronging the steps. But the mountain was as extraordinary and the Buddhist and Taoist temples a revelation - was this the country where Maoist communism had done its best to destroy any vestige of religion?

Huge Buddha in the Longmen Caves

Veena had hurt her foot, but I spent every day climbing each side of beautiful Song mountain, passing through temple after temple tucked onto the edge of higher and higher gorges and precipices. The mountain itself is a Unesco World Geopark because of its geological uniqueness, but on this holiday week there were always throngs of pilgrims, young couples carrying their infants, ancient grannies in bedroom slippers, climbing these thousand upon thousand steps to make offerings or just have a day out. It was only at the Longmen caves, where endless statues of Buddha had been carved into the mountainside during the 6th & 7th centuries AD that it was impossible to miss this legacy. Osho often spoke about Mao, along with Stalin and Hitler, as one of the greatest criminals who ever lived. The destruction of most of these images was partly due to war and the greed of collectors, but the relentless and vicious defacement is also a reminder of the Cultural Revolution - well within the lifetime of many of the visitors.

Yet there is one huge head of the Buddha still radiating meditation above all the chaos, as Osho radiates above the chaos of today.

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Nepalis choose to live in a commune
by Kushal Regmi December 20, 2008

(Originally published in GroundReport and republished here at the author’s request.)

“I will not make a private house,” declares Anil Nepal, a consultant engineer, who has spent ten years of his life living in a commune.

Joint families have become a thing of the past and nuclear families are the accepted way to go as far as families are concerned in today’s Nepal, but few individuals, like Anil, are opting for alternative ways of living that suite their own lifestyle.

Anil tired of a variety of lifestyles before deciding that commune was the best form of family for him.

After finding that he was a misfit in the joint family where he grew up, he opted to live alone in a flat.

But staying alone wasn’t the solution either. He realized that a human being needs a social support system to lead a healthy life.

Staying alone in Kathmandu as a young professional meant that his circle of friends had a great influence in his lifestyle. Thus smoking and drinking in a regular basis became his way of life even if he hadn’t consciously desired it. This is when he encountered meditation and a commune lifestyle in the form of Osho Tapoban.

“I knew I had had enough of that way of life when my body started becoming allergic to drinking and smoking. I needed a more natural lifestyle, which I had found in Tapoban, but I still wasn’t ready to commit to actually staying there because my habits demanded a different lifestyle,” as he recounts a phase in his live which he has left far behind.

Anil finally had to decide which way to take, whether he wanted to continue the lifestyle of his peers or completely change his way of life.

“I moved to Tapoban, because the milieu there was what was required for my spiritual growth. I was possessed with the quest to realize who I was. Slowly I began to realize that I needed to purify my body, mind and emotions to go deeper into meditation and it was not possible without a spiritual commune and at that time, Tapoban was my only option,” Says Anil, who looks like he is very much at ease with himself.

There have been many communes of various forms around the world in the last century. Artists, poets, writers, hippies, communists all tried their hands at commune living, but hardly do we hear a success story. Either the communes were authoritarian in nature and with the fall of the system that implemented it, the commune fell as well, or it broke up due to internal feuds or external intolerance.

“The average age of most communes till today is probably only five to seven years,” says Swami Anand Arun, coordinator of Osho Tapoban and Anil’s mentor, who has been, surprisingly, running a commune for the last 18 years against all odds.

The breaking up of traditional family systems and the isolation of the individuals caused by the demands of the post modern era has meant that people are wanting a social support system that suites and aids their own priorities in life. Anil was lucky to find a space that supported the lifestyle he wanted for himself and for him, the base of the commune he lives in has to be meditation but are communes that are not spiritually inclined possible as well?

“People can come and live together if there is a uniting cause that is the most important thing in the lives of the ones who form the commune,” shares Swami Arun from his experience.

“Apart from that, it is also very important to have a uniting figure who has the capacity to keep things together despite major ego conflicts and also the commune should be able to generate its own finances,” he adds.

So according to Swami Arun, dancers can live together in a commune but their passion for dance has to surpass all else and they must have a mentor who is mature enough to gain the trust of the lot and keep them united.

For this evolving humanity, which is getting even more individualistic by the moment, this type of living might be a plausible option. People who prize their freedom tend to go astray in life and end up as social misfits because they don’t get a support system that respects their individual freedom. But Swami Arun, after a lifetime of experience with running communes knows of the difficulties that come along with the task.

“Communes are bound to fail, because humans can neither live alone nor can they live together. To keep a commune running has been the greatest challenge of my life,” he states pensively.

It seems that only when civilization matures to a certain degree, can communes that respect and aid individual freedom be possible. As for Anil, who doesn’t live in Tapoban anymore and doesn’t want to live in a private house either, life presents a challenge, and that too a difficult one. Currently, apart from his consultancy work at Ithari, in eastern Nepal, he is running weekend meditation camps in various towns in the area. We can only wait and see what plans existence has for him in the coming years.

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An Account from the Edmonton Sun of Jayesh’s lucky escape at the Oberoi.

Former Edmontonian Michael O’Byrne (Jayesh), one of the late Judge Michael O’Byrne and his wife Eileen’s 11 children (Eileen now lives in Victoria), is counting multiple blessings.

In 1984 Michael left Edmonton to follow Osho. Today, with his brother D’Arcy, he runs the Osho Resort in Pune and Osho International.

Jayesh had just left the restaurant of Mumbai’s Oberoi Hotel in India on Wednesday to return to his room when terrorists attacked the restaurant.

Almost everybody in the dining room was killed.

According to a family member’s report, Jayesh then heard the hotel fire alarm.

People started walking down from the 17th floor. The elevator was locked.

Michael, fresh off knee surgery, couldn’t take the stairs. He returned to his room.

The fire alarm was thought to be set off by the terrorists. They shot hotel guests as they appeared in the stairwell.

The terrorists ended up on Michael’s floor, stayed there for hours. Again, luck intervened. They did not burst into his room.

The hotel contacted Jayesh before the phone went dead, advising him to stay in his room, stay in the safest place, the bathtub.

And so he waited, some 50 to 60 hours through smoke and drifting gunpowder residue until Indian special forces rescued him and other surviving guests.

“We are all so blessed and happy that Jayesh made it outside,” says his last remaining brother in Edmonton, lawyer and businessman Casey O’Byrne.

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Film in Israel with Holacaust survivor daughter
decimates the past

Bettina Goering ran away from home at 13, lived in the early Osho Ashram in Poona, India, and later in the Osho communes.

Her great-uncle, her father’s beloved godfather, was the infamous Nazi leader Hermann Goering. Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command, he headed the vaunted Luftwaffe airforce and was a leading architect of the “Final Solution” to exterminate Europe’s Jews.

His grandniece’s impressive odyssey to cleanse herself of the family’s tarnished past brought her recently to Israel, where a documentary about her relationship with a child of Holocaust survivors is being featured at the Jewish Eye film festival.

The film, “Bloodlines” records Bettina’s emotional encounters with Ruth Rich, an Australian artist whose brother was murdered by the Nazis and whose parents emerged broken from the Holocaust. The film has been aired on Australian television and will next be screened at the Boston Jewish Film Festival.

Bettina, in an interview, said it was only thanks to her meetings with Ruth Rich, where she faced the pain of an angry victim, that she was finally able to break through from a guilt-ridden life. “I looked into the darkest darkness and there is nothing left to fear. I finally released it,” she said. “It was the deepest kind of therapy you could do.”

Bettina is now 52 and a Doctor of oriental medicine, but has struggled with her identity. Her father, Heinz, was adopted by his infamous uncle, after his own father died, and followed in his footsteps to become a fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe. Heinz was shot down in WW2 over the Soviet Union and only returned from captivity in 1952, to find that his two brothers had killed themselves and the family’s fortunes were gone.

Hermann Goering was sentenced to death along with 11 others at the Nuremberg trials in 1946, but he committed suicide by swallowing a poison pill in his cell the night before his scheduled execution.

Bettina said her father, who died in 1981, never spoke about the Holocaust, or about his notorious uncle. Bettina was baffled at how the systematic killing of 6 million Jews had occurred, and rebelled. At 13, she ran away and cut ties with the family. She became a hippie and then a communist, and travelled the world. Her journey took her to India where she become a disciple of Osho. Still, she says she couldn’t shake the ghost of her great-uncle. It was there every time she looked in the mirror. “The eyes, the cheekbones, the profile,” she said. “I look just like him. I look more like him than his own daughter.”
The most drastic step she took was to have her tubes tied at age 30. She said she feared she would create another monster. “It’s my bloodline and I didn’t want to continue it,” she said. “I didn’t want any more Goerings.” Her only brother independently decided to have a vasectomy. She is now close with him, but disconnected from the rest of the family. “It’s all a part of this guilt,” she said.

Through a common friend, she was introduced a couple of years ago to Rich who was struggling with her own baggage of victimized parents and the ghost of a brother she never knew. Rich went through years of intensive therapy and escaped to art, where she painted dark troubling images of the demons lurking inside her. Together, the two women began to heal.

In their first meetings, Rich said she felt contempt for Bettina. “It was very intense and I definitely projected this on Bettina,” she said. But ultimately, she said they have formed a “great sisterhood.”
Bettina credits Rich for letting her finally shed a burden. The newfound inner peace gave her enough confidence to come to Israel for the first time. At a screening this week of “Bloodlines”, she faced tough questions from survivors at the film festival. Later, in a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, she watched the famous footage of Hermann Goering from the Nuremberg trials with less pain than ever before. “The hardest part is admitting that I could have liked him. I was so shocked by that,” she said. “Now I am accepting myself more for who I am, whatever that encompasses — the good, the bad and the ugly.”

On the Net: http://www.bloodlinesfilm.com

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Sw Vasanto and Ma Abhiru are scientist couples from France who came to Tapoban this October to participate in the seven days intense silence meditation camp. While Swami Vasanto has already filed two major patents and has forty three of his designs on the space shuttle, ISS (International Space Station), Ma Abhiru is a holder of two PhDs and works on molecular biology in the R&D center of a private company. We sat down with these science inventors to know more about their experiences as spiritual seekers.

Vasanto, Abhiru was telling me that you have interesting incidents about how you came in contact with Osho. Tell us about it.

Vasanto:- I was born in France in 1938 in a catholic family. Probably when I was 14 years old, I was having dreams about eastern countries that I had never been to. I used to receive impressions coming from a culture born in India during 8th-12th century about Shiva and Tantric practices. When I was 30 years old, the new age flowed from America into Northern Europe like flu. I was running after things like rebirth in order to meet higher beings, or probably a master but I found nothing.

Later in my professional life when I was inventing, I always felt that some one was watching me over my shoulder while I was designing my inventions. The repetitive occurrence of this feeling made me paranoid but it was real. These were the most creative years of my life. Now I have clearly come to know that it was Osho who was guiding me in my designs. Its been three years since I met Osho through a woman, Ma Anand Marga and I am more aware today about how he is helping me.

And your new work?

Vasanto:- This new work was a secret until today. I have come to know that sometimes when our body is silent, our biology works better and can work as a medium for energetic healing. I am working on how to bring this phenomenon to use. I am preparing a text about this and Osho has helped me a lot in it. When we met Swami Arun it was a great time. After a lot of discussion we have come to know that the people in Europe don’t know that most of their problems are in the mind and the only solution is meditation. So we also have plans to open a Osho commune in near future where people can come and meditate. It will happen gradually and the first step has already been taken.

I have seen that it’s very difficult for scientists or people from a science background to bend towards spirituality or religion. But today it is a different story………

Abhiru:- Scientists have to be convinced by a demonstration like a+b=c. They have to understand through logic. So the difficulty is to bring them to the heart. But today there is a lot of stress in France like in Europe and people have slowly begun to realize that there is something wrong in their lives. So I think that the right way to explain it to them is by allowing them to experiment it on themselves. Then its ok. They are narrow minded and at the same time they are not narrow minded. When I said to my colleagues that I was going to Nepal for meditation camp, they were very happy for me. So they can understand that it will help me but they are not ready to accept that it could help them too.

But today most of the European people need help. There is a lot of sadness and depression in the West especially in the professional world and many are seeking help from different practices, therapies and spiritual teachers. Nature can also be very therapeutic. I think that meditation is actually the true way for scientists to make their life lighter and happier and today people from Europe can easily understand why. These problems can be easily solve by introducing them to meditation and gradually to Osho when their heart is more open.

Vasanto:- Its difficult in France because most of the people are Catholics and anything other than Christian is considered as a cult. They are wrong but it’s not their fault because they don’t know. People need to experiment inside themselves and this is the only way to know.

Before Osho, religion was not accepted into science and science was not welcomed by religion. As scientists what would you say to that?

Abhiru:- Osho is a bridge between these two worlds, science and spirituality. Osho made it easier especially for the occident people to understand spirituality and helped them to come to their hearts. He also gave these rules during his early days, the five principles that Swami Arun talks about. It’s important to have guidelines. You are right about the difference between science and religion before Osho. And for me Osho’s meditation is a crossroad between these two worlds. Through Osho it became easier for us, people in the mind to understand, because he gave us the privilege of experimenting.

These five principles have raised a lot of controversy in the Osho community. Could you talk about your experience with these five principles?

Abhiru:- I think that its important for us to pass through these disciplines. In France I did try to meditate but I realized that I do need some guidelines. It is a step by step process for me and has helped me to be on the line. I realized that I can’t reach the finish line without passing through the first point. And the first point is purification and then the discipline that I have to meditate at least twice a day. And then the life will do the rest. Its like a demonstration, a man who climbs the Mt Everest has to start from the base camp. He also needs to make sure that he takes each of his steps carefully. I think the five principles are in fact the right way for us, the Occident people. I have understood the importance of purification, meditation, company, silence retreat through my own experience.

Vasanto:- The reality is very clear and there is nothing to be said about it.

I would like to know about your experience during this camp.

Abhiru:- It was like Oh my God! Hey Bhagwan! It was wonderful. For me I have been touched by the love of Osho. Its something that I hadn’t experienced before and I was really impressed by all this love, this goodness of everybody. We are very lucky first to know Osho, to know Arun. It was really an honor, a privilege to attend this camp. The camp has been a transformation for both of us. Now I have come to know that through discipline, through meditation I can be, I can be another woman. From here I have also learnt how to celebrate life and I am very thankful. I am sure that one day our joy will spread like an epidemic. That’s my scientific word.

Vasanto:- We are the 2nd generation sannyasins and its a great time. Arun is working perfectly. I speak about my deep feeling that when u meet Arun, when u see the light in his eyes, when u hear the love in his words, when u feel the love overflowing from his heart, phewww……. We have seen that he gives time to everybody and all the 250 people in this camp feel his love. And the beauty of the people here, they are always taking care for your comfort and are always smiling. You are like our examples and we would love to be like you, always laughing even at work.

What was your favorite session during the camp?

Vasanto:- I liked the prayer meditation because I felt a very strong presence of energy. It really spoke deeply in my heart, my body and my brains. The energy was growing more and more everyday during the day and it was a great experiment for us.

Abhiru:- In the beginning I didn’t feel anything when Swami Arun said feel Osho because I was not so connected. But from the middle of the camp I really felt his love and it was a new feeling for me. Then of course the sharing sessions with Swami Arun and the Sannyas celebration on the last day. I also liked the prayer meditation because it made me feel that cosmic energy does exist. I really liked how we receive from the sky and then give it back to Earth.

In the end do you have anything to say?

Vasanto:- Many Many thanks to everyone, to Arun, to Osho, to life for the love that we received.

Abhiru:- A lot of gratitude to you people, to Osho and Swami Arun. Tapoban is a message of hope for the Occidental people because we have come to know that there is a way to change our lives. We all became one during the camp and it’s an example that this can happen on a larger scale through out the world. So my message to the French people is that if you want to transform your lives we know the way and we know the place. We have Osho and we have meditation. It’s a small thing to say but Arun is doing a job really important for the humanity.

Interview by- Swami Aatmo Neerav

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A present day visit to Rancho Rajneesh!
A letter from Niten

Hello y’all,
I happen to be in Portland Oregon for a training in Somatic Experiencing, a trauma healing modality. Having arrived here about two weeks before the start of the training I decided to go for a trip down memory lane….

Started out from Portland at about 9:00 am and found my way quite easily to route 26 in the direction of Madras, via Mt Hood. This was a beautiful drive with fresh snow on the mountain. I arrived in Madras at about mid-day, did some shopping at Safeway and had lunch before travelling on to Antelope. Before lunch I was cool as a cucumber about my visit to The Ranch. After lunch, as I made the turn off Highway 97 onto the road to Antelope my mood changed, I felt quite emotional. Like I was on a pilgrimage and not feeling comfortable because I expected not to be welcome where I was going.

My first view into the valleys

In Antelope itself I felt definitely quite self conscious, going into the Antelope store and café and seeing a booklet for sale about the good bad old days of when the Rajneeshies were in town, cost: $20.-. I didn’t buy it but did have a flick through, just a reprint of stuff that is available on the net, all negative.

After Antelope down to the business end of my journey, onto county road 218 direction Fossil, then a right turn into Cold Camp Rd. So far it all looked familiar, at the bottom of Cold Camp Rd a left turn into Muddy Rd and on to The Ranch. Then there was a big surprise: at the entrance to the property the road went from a dirt road, the way it used to be, to a paved road! Still, I went down gingerly, both to take in the view (and many photo¹s) and because I was still a little worried about what kind of people I would meet. My last visit in 1993 had been very unpleasant in that regard….

I stopped at Krishna Murti Lake and admired the view and reminisced about the time I spent there in 1993 camping under the Pine trees with a perfect view of the lake. My next stop was at the first building of the Ranch I encountered as I entered what used the be the city of Rajneesh, or Rajneeshpuram: The fire station and peace force head quarters. I was a good place to stop, as I was taking some pictures a van pulled up with a man in it, dressed in camouflage clothing and a rifle on the passenger seat. Needless to say I was a little nervous as he called me over…. He asked me who I was and what I was doing here. I told him my name is Bruno and I am having a visit because I used to live here 25 years ago. The man was very friendly, introduced himself as Jay, and told me that the building I was looking at used to be the fire station. I told him that I knew that because I had been on the fire fighting team at the time. The he lit up because Jay happens to be the fire chief of the nearby town of Madras and he consults for the new owners of The Ranch.

Krishnamurti Lake

Jay took me in his van to see first the new fire station, located in our bus repair garage. Then as he warmed up more and more he took me all over the place, into RBG (Rajneesh Buddhafield Garage) where I used to work. There I met Terry who is now the sole occupant of that huge place that used have at least 20 mechanics and spare parts people working in it! Still, the place was packed with tools and works in progress, from car and truck repair jobs to the manufacturing of three and four wheel dirt buggies. Terry looked like a very happy 50 something year old kid in a huge sand box. Both Jay and Terry expressed their appreciation of how well everything on the Ranch had been built, specially the infra structure and the more industrial buildings.

Distant view of RBG

After RBG we went to the more central part of the Ranch, which is now being used as a holiday and education centre for teenagers. It is owned by the ‘Washington Family Ranch’, a Christian Foundation (See: http://sites. younglife. org/camps/ Wildhorse/ default.aspx ). I must say I was extremely impressed and happy to feel how beautiful the place is becoming, they have been there for nine years now and are running these weekend and also week long camps for kids. See: http://sites.younglife.org/camps/ Wildhorse/default.aspx

The vibe is relaxed and happy. The kids I saw looked great! They have complete renovated the original Ranch house and what used to be Jesus Grove, as well as the Hotel. The Ranch house and Jesus grove are used in much the same way we used to and the Hotel house up to 650 kids in dorm style. Next stop a new complex built between the Hotel and our Rajneesh Mandir: Multi Media entertainment centre, cafeteria and swimming pool, all surrounded by beautiful lawns and gardens. Then on to the Mandir, which is now a huge indoor sports complex consisting of: rock climbing wails, table tennis, pool tables, basket ball courts, tennis courts, skating ramps and more I can’t remember. It was truly amazing… both because of the sheer size of the hall (I had forgotten how big it was) as well as the feeling of joy the place exuded.

The whole Ranch is there for camps for teen-agers, this sculpture reflects the mood and vibe of the place. I have to say it warmed my heart....

After our visit to the sports complex Jay brought me back to my car as he had to get back to work. I drove slowly along the county road through the Ranch, taking some more pictures along the way and went right to the end of the area we used inhabit: Pythagoras grove. I managed to find the location where the trailer used to be that I had lived in, the steps to the front door where still there but not much else (a skeleton of a cow, that¹s all…). Just before Pythagoras there was also the road Osho used to drive, ‘Mevlana Bhagwan Drive’, it was closed off and I could not go there.

The Mandeer, now with Basket ball courts, volley ball and many other sporting facilities, including an indoor skate-board park. I had forgotten how big this building is and how awesome the view is from the end windows...

Now I had a choice to make: turn around and go back the way I came or continue on the county road to Mitchell. I chose the latter and I very happy I did. What a beautiful drive…. I am amazed I had never done it yet. Please have a look at the photo’s and you will see what I mean. Just before getting to Mitchell I stumbled across the ‘Painted Hills Unit’ of the ‘John Day Fossil Beds National Monument’. Again, have a look at the pictures to see the amazing natural beauty of this landscape. Many times on my drive I had the sentence ‘This is Gods country’ running through my mind. (I am not talking of the Christian God here of course, it just was so beautiful that I felt full of gratitude for being there).

At the Painted Hills I met a guy who was there as a member of a photography club and I asked him where I might find a hotel to spend the night as it was nearing sunset. I directed me to a town about 30 miles past Mitchell. As I came close to Mitchell I was amazed to see that Mitchell is actually quite a cute and active little town, although it only has a 160 in habitants (according the owner of the hotel, who knows them all), it has a hotel, general store, restaurant, petrol station and farm supply store. I had dinner at the restaurant and listed in amusement to the conversations going on around me (there were at least ten other diners). Most were to do with hunting and one conversation I followed in particular which was a youngish women telling her story of shooting a deer that morning and dragging it back to her horse, carving it up in four pieces, bagging it, and hanging it on
the horse to ride home…. Oh yeah! They got some real women left out here…!

After dinner back to my hotel next door, a cute little place with about six or eight rooms, half up stairs and half down stairs just off the lounge room. And now to bed…

With love,
Niten

More Photo’s at: http://picasaweb.google.com/NitenCoral/RanchoRajneeshOct2008#

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Reality is stronger than Poetry, a rendezvous with Ma Anand Madhu. (first initiated disciple of Osho)

On the last day of our 3 days retreat in Rishikesh, my doctor friend Swami Dhyan Saurav and I found a good looking papaya from our recently discovered leisure stroll on the bank of Ganges. We decided to buy it for Arun Swami and took it to the Ashram where we were staying. When we arrived at the Ashram with the fruit, an unknown man above Swamijee’s room told us that he had left in a car with a sannyasin.

A car on the Ashram side of the Ram jhula (the bridge) was already a rare sight and Swamijee leaving in it made us curious. We inquired of the other sannyasins, and came to know that he had left to see Ma Anand Madhu, the first initiated disciple of Osho. After waiting for hours, two Swamis arrived at the Ashram to tell us that Arun Swamijee had called us to see Madhu Ma. A 30 minutes tempo ride to the main city of Rishikesh brought us to the city chowk, where our maroon clad convoy scattered to buy their presents for this long waited meeting.

I decided to go empty hand, firstly, because I had no money and secondly, because I was too overwhelmed to think of a present. When we finally arrived at the Ashram where she resided, my pre-imaginations were satisfied with the settings of the location, very close to the Ganges and on the brink of the town. The cemented stairs took us to her room and we entered a scene where a beautiful old lady in orange Saree and shawl was waiting.

Madhu Ma portrayed divinity as a personal bearing, the innocent smile, the simple gesture and the comfortable ambience around her was plainly clear even to a bystander like me who was having his first experience with her. The way she greeted us with the word Osho, only spoke of her undying gratitude and love for the Master. The interest and joy she showed even in the minutest of things reflected her love of life. We could not help being influenced by her strong presence that embraced each of us that were present there. Looking around at the face of the sannyasins, I realized that all of us were having the same experience, overpowered by the grace of utmost simplicity.

Madhu Ma was innocence in flowering which only demands innocence in return. Her presence allowed each of us the comfort of being ourselves. She joked about everything and her laughter seemed to honour life as never before. With a childlike adoration she praised Arun Swami for his lifetime devotion in bringing Osho into the lives of many and called him her beloved son.

Like an old grandmother she told us the story about how Osho had chosen Arun to color Nepal red and repeated the words used by the Master to instruct him. And as she spoke, it seemed that Arun Swami and Madhu Ma were again living those poignant moments, giving tears and smiles to most of us watching these beautiful beings.

When the stories had been told, Madhu Ma called her caretaker and asked her to bring some sweets and snacks. She stubbornly wanted us to finish each bit and then sing a song for her. Like a child playing with her dolls, she divided us into four groups and gave us the sweets to eat and to take home, which each of us eagerly devoured and pocketed. She demanded that if we didn’t sing she would go back to sleep. We joyfully obeyed for none of us wanted to miss this beautiful opportunity of being with her. As we started singing old Osho kirtans, Madhu Ma closed her eyes as she merged into the purity of love for our beloved Master.

Mystcism lives in Madhu Ma in the most human form. So human like and yet so divine. Although grounded into the depths of life, her being lives in the open sky of boundless freedom. Ma Anand Madhu is a presence that can only be understood when one understands the absence that surrounds her. This visit has helped me understand at least a fragment of what Swami Arun frequently repeats, “reality is stronger than poetry” I also realized that it is much more beautiful!

As Madhu Ma unexpectedly ordered us to leave, she gifted each of us a memory of the most beautiful things, the simplicity in her eyes, the gratitude in her smile, and the love of her being.

Swami Aatmo Neerav

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Satsang Circles have been around in sannyas since Satyam Nadeen published a book called “From Onions to Pearls” in the late nineties. The characteristic of his recommendations was that participants helped themselves, and used their own material within the circles which were free-forming, and basically everyone could “get” it. Music wasn’t a big part of that, but sometimes played it’s smaller part. Below Deval Premal gives her own take, which is much more focused on music and humming, but arguably is based on the same maxim of restoring the energy of grass-roots sannyas.

Satsang Circles
Over the years Miten and I have come to see that music, meditation and community are necessary to nourish and sustain us in our daily lives.
I have been giving some thought as to how people could have more opportunity to meet, sing and sit in silence together without any prerequisites…and this is what came to me:
Let’s create Satsang Circles around the planet!
Satsang, translated from Sanskrit means “Meeting (Sangha) in truth (Sat)” and it can be enjoyed in so many ways. We have found that a one hour silent meditation which includes music and chanting is a blissful door into our own inner sanctuary. The music and chanting help to deepen the silence, no effort is needed, and Satsang happens by itself.
This meditation was given to us by Osho when he first went into silence, back in the early days. It is a doorway to the Heart, and an opportunity for us to connect with our inner peace.
My idea is that you offer Satsang as a weekly or monthly gathering in your living room or meditation room. Invite your friends, family, business acquaintances etc… to come together and meet in a way that is beyond the usual social graces.
Creating a sacred space where you and your friends can sit silently together is a profound practice. It transcends social boundaries because there is no need for polite conversation. It is a time to ‘be with ourselves’ - to give ourselves that extra time that we so easily overlook. Satsang is a great support on our spiritual paths. We come together, in our aloneness, and it brings us closer as friends, because we find ourselves in a sacred space together, without judgement, where all is One.

Satsang
Here’s my suggestion:
There are basically three sections:
Music - Words - Humming.
These activities arise from, and disappear into, the silence which you and your friends have gathered to enjoy.

Music
Prepare about four or five pieces which create a meditative space. The music can be, for instance, any of our CDs (you can start by simply use the Satsang CD, which is designed exactly for this purpose), or various pieces from your favourite artists, for example: Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Snatam Kaur Khalsa, Karnamrita, Maniko, Ani Choying Drolma, Manish Vyas, Prem Joshua, Devakant, Peter Makena, Maneesh de Moor and Sudha, Ravi Shankar, Kamal, Rishi, Manose, Benjy and Heather Wertheimer, Shyamdas, Hari Prasad Chaurasia… there are many CDs of sacred music around!
Let the music be followed by long periods of silence… some minutes long. Basically, punctuate the silent sitting with sound. As I said, the music is there to deepen the silence, not to entertain. Of course, it’s good to vary the tempo and feeling of the pieces of music you choose..some deep and soft, some more celebrative and up and some to chant with… Be creative, have fun! And don’t forget to use your voice - it is a door into peace and tranquillity… which leads us to the ‘humming meditation.’

Humming
This is beautiful to do around the middle of the hour. AND it requires no musical expertise for those who may feel shy to sing!
It is a Tibetan exercise that connects body, mind and spirit. The technique is simple: Take deep breaths and make the sound ‘mmm’ on the out-breath. Let the sound be musical, and travel until the end of the breath – then renew the breath and continue.
This technique creates a circle of energy in the body - revitalising and invigorating the cells on a physical level, and charging chakras and kundalini energy on the meta-physical plane. Simple and effective!
If you play tanpura, this is the perfect situation in which to use it. If not, find music with drone sounds, such as Tibetan Bells etc…

Words
I’d also suggest you find poetic and uplifting ’spoken word’ to punctuate the silences. Frame the humming section with two readings. A poem or quote that you have found to be inspirational… You can read from Hafiz for instance, or Rumi, Tagore, Buddha, Jesus, Eckhart Tolle, Osho…etc etc..
The music, words and humming will serve to create a beautiful experience for yourself and your friends - and the silence will nourish and sustain you in your daily life.

Enjoy!
Namaste,
Deva
om

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The Fish in the Sea is not Thirsty
This Review of a recently re-published Osho book first appeared in the Indian Tribune Newspaper.

Words of Wisdom
Kavita Soni-Sharma

Fish in the Sea is not Thirsty
by Osho. Wisdom Tree, New Delhi. Pages 342. Rs 345.

FROM the Spiritual Master Osho comes Fish in the Sea is not Thirsty, which is an extraordinarily rich and touching book. It provides a commentary on the much-loved compositions of Kabir, the 15th century weaver poet—one of the most intriguing and celebrated personalities in the history of Indian mysticism. The result is an inspiring book, a delightful interplay between the down-to-earth straightforward words of Kabir and the wonderful stories and insights of Osho.

“I laugh, says Kabir, “when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty; you do not see that the Real is in your home, and you wander listlessly! Here is the truth! Go where you will, if you can’t find where your soul is hidden, for you the world will never be real!”

Through the compositions of Kabir, Osho takes the reader to the very core of the human dilemma, to the simple causes of misery and unhappiness, the duality of man’s existence, the futility of Sunday religion and the illusions of the mind. The emphasis is on Being Yourself and Being Aware. Osho talks of the importance of meditation, understanding, love, celebration, creativity and humour—qualities that in his view are suppressed by adherence to static belief systems.

The fish in the sea is not thirsty, observes Osho, but man is. Man lives in existence, and is absolutely unaware of it. Man is born in existence, breathes in existence. Man is godliness, made of the stuff called God, and yet completely oblivious of the fact.

Osho’s message is a positive one. He states that we are all potential Buddhas, with the capacity for enlightenment. According to him, every human being is capable of responding rather than reacting to life. He suggests that it is possible to experience innate divinity and to be conscious of who we really are even though our ego’s usually prevent us from enjoying this experience. However, unless one is ready to dissolve one’s ego, the fish is going to remain thirsty. Dissolve the ego and all the thirst disappears, because then the wall between you and the ocean disappears; then you are a part of the ocean.

Enlightenment is a simple realisation that everything is as it should be, everything is utterly perfect as it is. You are part, an organic part of this tremendous, beautiful whole. Everything is in such accord that existence is an orchestra. Everything is rhythmic, in tune. And you are not separate from it like an observer. The observer and the observed are one, the seer and the seen are one—you are it.

Osho is of the opinion that we continually repress what we genuinely feel, closing ourselves off from experiencing the joy that arises naturally when we move into the present. The result is that we unconsciously poison ourselves with negative emotions like hatred, fear and jealousy rather than living in joyous authentic awareness.

By repressing sexual feelings we hope to pretend they do not exist. But repression only leads to the re-emergence of these feelings in another guise to haunt our lives. Kabir says, “I pulled back my sexual longings, and now I discover that I’m angry a lot. I gave up rage and now I notice that I am greedy all day” (p 292). Osho also talks about emotions and being detached from them, aloneness and love, imitation, children and religion, rebellion, living in a balanced way, sex, generation gap and more. Though Kabir lived several centuries ago, Osho creates a direct link with him.

Kabir picked up situations that surround our daily lives and spoke the language of the ordinary people, infusing it with the brightness of his Realisation. His poetry expresses his heartfelt longing for union with the divine. Through his own innately musical expression, Osho enhances Kabir’s message rendering it accessible and relevant for every contemporary seeker.

A well read man, conversant with the whole range of traditional Eastern religious thought, Osho has also drawn in on a great number of Western influences in his book. It offers a clear glimpse of Osho’s style and energy. The commentary is not presented in a dry, academic setting but is interspersed with queries, anecdotes and jokes. It reflects Osho’s sharp wit and a direct and uncluttered approach. Please allow the flavour of the words of the enlightened master to tickle your spiritual palate.

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ARUN IN ATLANTA

The friends of Osho in the Atlanta area recently held a three day meditation camp. It was a great privilege to have Swami Anand Arun conduct the camp for the nineteen participants. Sw Arun met Osho in 1969 and is one of Osho’s earliest sannyasins. At Osho’s instruction, Sw Arun established the first Osho meditation centre in Nepal in 1974. He is now the Coordinator of Osho Tapoban, an international commune and forest retreat center in Kathmandu, Nepal (www.tapoban.com). Sw Arun has conducted over 300 meditation camps and initiated more than twelve thousand people from 50 countries.

The Atlanta camp was an intense experience with the first meditation of the day beginning at 8:30 am and the camp day ending around 9 pm. During the camp, Sw Arun explained that Osho had experimented with a variety of meditation techniques to discover which methods are most helpful to people living the Western lifestyle. Realizing that Westerners need activity first before being able to quiet the mind, Osho designed what has become known as Osho Dynamic Meditation and Osho Kundalini Meditation. Both of these meditation techniques have several action stages followed by silence and celebration. Sw Arun led Dynamic and Kundalini several times during the camp. In addition, Sw Arun also introduced some lesser known but very powerful meditation techniques suggested by Osho. He explained that the techniques are not meditation but are tools designed to lead one to the silence that is true meditation.

Interspersed between the meditations, Sw Arun told many stories about his personal experiences with Osho – recollections about Osho that only the earliest sannyasins experienced. Hearing these stories allowed the camp participants to see the immensity of Osho’s awareness and compassion and the difficulties that he faced in order to bring more love and celebration to the world.

Sw Arun talked about the need for a disciplined life in order to support meditation saying that without discipline one cannot be truly free. Distilled from Osho’s lectures and satsangs, Sw Arun shared that proper care of the body and mind is a prerequisite for going deep into meditation. He also emphasized the importance of having a regular time to meditate and the value of friends who support a positive and meditative lifestyle.

Besides the meditations, the camp provided ample time for celebration which included dancing, talking together and eating delicious vegetarian food. A highlight of the camp was the opportunity to become an Osho sannyasin. At Osho’s direction, Sw Arun offered satsang and five people were initiated into sannyas. The Atlanta Osho community is very grateful for Sw Arun’s generous sharing with us and we are hopeful he will return to Atlanta in the future.

The friends of Osho welcome guests, usually on Sundays, for either Osho Dynamic Meditation or Osho Kundalini Meditation. The schedule and location for these and other Osho gatherings, as well as pictures taken at the camp, are available at www.oshoatlanta.com.

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