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

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.

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!

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?

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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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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#

Tags: News, Osho, The World by sannyasnews
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Call for an independent and truthful
investigation of September, 11

“To restore the reputation of the United States in the world,
a proposal is suggested in the open letter below that the - hopefully - new Democratic US government instigate a truthful and full investigation concerning the events of September 11, with the purpose of prosecuting the persons responsible for crimes against humanity”.
Swami Dhyan Giten
Therapist, Teacher and Author

September 11, and the so-called “War on terrorism” seems to be a fraudulent way to create the shock and the climate of fear and terror to make the public support wars, accept increased secret mass surveillance and limitations of human rights, which otherwise would not have been possible to make the public accept.

Four of the largest oil companies, BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell and Total, also recently got free hands to draw up their own contracts with the Iraq “government”, which - besides being an extraordinary excellent business opportunity - is a striking commentary to the criticism that the real reason behind the lies about the invasion of Iraq is to get control of the oil. War is not about words like democracy, freedom or liberation. War is about natural resources and money. The deaths of more than 100.000 people, and the incomprehensible suffering of men, woman and children during many years, seems to be acceptable losses. It presents a great challenge for the people of the world to face this situation.

Seven years after the events of September, 11, the American government has still not proven that the persons they have accused are really guilty. According to the Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia - who quotes FBI’s website - FBI is no longer searching for bin Laden.

In the US a popular movement has grown, which questions what really happened 9/11. Several public opinion surveys has been made, which shows a basic mistrust among the American public against the official version of 9/11. The latest survey made by the University of Ohio and published in August, 2006, shows that 36 % of Americans believe that it is probable that persons in the US government either participated in the attacks themselves or neglected to intervene, because they wanted the US to go to war in the Middle East. A popular movement is also beginning to grow in Europe . Read more at: www.911truth.eu (Europe ) and www.911truth.org ( US).

It is doubtful that the real criminals behind the events of September, 11, are identified. To restore the reputation of the USA in the world, a proposal is suggested that the - hopefully - new Democratic government instigate a truthful and complete investigation concerning the events of September, 11, with the purpose of prosecuting the responsible persons for crimes against humanity.

Prosecution should also include people, who have consciously kept secret and misled people about the truth concerning the events of 9/11. Politicians and the media, for example, has exerted censorship and refrained from publishing any criticism against the official version of the American government.

An alternative would be an independent international commission with the mandate to prosecute.

There are powerful forces that opposes a truthful investigation of 9/11 - forces that own both the Republican and the Democratic party, who do not care about democracy, truth or the people - but it is not acceptable that unconscious and unscrupulous people can commit hideous crimes, without being held accountable.

In Sweden , the new mass surveillance law, which allows the surveillance of phone calls, E-mails and Internet activity of all Swedish citizens, without any need for suspicion of crime or court order, has caused the greatest political crises for the current Swedish conservative government. This law is not in accordance with a modern law-governed society, and is ordered directly from the American government, which has wanted sensitive personal information from Europe .

In closing, there are not many things that the different approaches of modern psychology agree about, but there is one thing that they all agree about: that people in groups and organizations, simply put, become more stupid. Individually people are more intelligent, because they have to take more responsibility. But in a group, people do not have to take the same amount of responsibility. People in groups and organizations tend to get caught up in the need of the ego to create hierarchies of power, status, positions, roles, norms and conformity.

All organizations are more or less dysfunctional. The sign of a dysfunctional group is that the members of the group play three roles and positions: aggressor, denier and victim. It is always easier to follow the group without reflection or awareness, than to trust your own heart, to trust your own intelligence, truth, wisdom and creativity. It is not always easy to follow your own heart, but it always leads your right.

It is a very beautiful world, but unfortunately it is in the wrong hands. The future of the world lies in the hands of the intelligent and creative people.
Yours sincerely,
Swami Dhyan Giten,

www.giten.net

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