sannyasnews

Alok John reports

Osho Sambodhi Meditation Ashram, in Welling, Kent, opened last Saturday with a day's program of meditation and celebration. Inspired by Osho and his medium, Swami Arun of Tapoban, Nepal, the centre is run by Ma Ganga and Ma Chetna, two dedicated sannyasins.

The centre boasts a large meditation hall where dynamic meditation and kundalini meditation are offered to the public on a daily basis. Kundalini happens at 8pm everyday, dynamic first thing in the morning, check for times. A full meditation day will be offered on the first Sunday of every month where initiation into neo-sannyas will be available. Extra meditations may be offered on other Sundays as well.

The opening day was attended by more than twenty friends, two of whom were initiated into neo-sannyas by Swami Arun. Osho used to say that wherever his sannyasins met, his presence would be felt. Well when Swami Arun initiated new friends, Osho's presence is felt ten-fold with great joy and celebration.

Chetna and Ganga have found a very suitable house for an Osho centre and they hope in the near future to be able to offer overnight stays to meditators.

I spent a lovely day there on Saturday. The sun was pleasing in the back garden and it was wonderful to be in a place where Osho is taken seriously. Swami Arun says the Sambodhi Ashram is the only place in Europe to offer dynamic and kundalini on a daily basis.

The house still has one room available which Chetna and Ganga would prefer was occupied by a sannyasin.

For more information phone Ganga 0788 600 6768, or Chetna 07900 604 707.

Address : 112 Northumberland Avenue, Welling, Kent, DA16 2PZ, nearest station Falconwood.

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(Jeffrey Archer is a top-selling English novelist. He is a former Member of Parliament and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, also a Lord. However he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment in 2001 for perjury. He has a habit of turning everything he experiences into prose and publishing it, including his Prison diaries. It will be interesting to see whether he turns this visit to Pune into fiction!)

Sadhana says in her Blog

"The news breezed in that Jeffrey Archer, the celebrated writer, is going to visit the Osho International Meditation Resort on May 23rd at 9.30 am. The wave of excitement generated by this news was enough to prove the author's popularity. And he did come at the appointed time. Osho's personal physician, Dr. Amrito M D, and I showed Lord Archer around the beautiful premises of the meditation resort. The fact that Lord Archer broke into his busy schedule to see the world- famous campus while he was in Pune itself, is enough to suggest a glimmer of interest. His publisher, Landmark Publishing House, who also publish Osho's books arranged his visit en route to Bangalore.

Lord Archer was particularly interested in who had replaced Osho as “the leader.” And when Dr. Amrito explained about the management team, and that the decisions are made by consensus, Jeffrey was naturally sceptical. Because he said he is used to the concept of leadership, when it is one leader who tells the team what to do. So naturally he couldn’t understand how the Meditation Resort could continue to thrive without someone taking “Osho’s place.” But when he learnt that here meditation is the base of all activities he saw a possibility of different kind of decision making process.

When Mr Archer entered the book shop where about four hundred Osho titles in English and Hindi are displayed, he exclaimed, visibly impressed, "More books than mine!"

He found the concept of using meditation in daily life intriguing. "Do they use what they learn here when they get back to their awful lives?” asked Jeffrey. To which Amrito replied that this was perhaps the greatest misunderstanding people have of Osho. Osho was never interested in making some escapist Shangri La environment. For Osho, meditation was only relevant if it actually transforms our lives in the midst of our normal busy days.

And when Lord Archer commented that he didn’t know a religion that hadn’t started a war, he was pleasantly surprised to know that Osho had said that he wished his name was never associated with religion. Then he described himself as “irreligious, amoral, and atheistic.” Lord Archer was intrigued by the possibility that something like “meditation” or “consciousness” could happen without the trappings of religion. Hence Osho had dropped the word Ashram nearly twenty years before.

He was equally interested in Osho’s concept of Zorba the Buddha, someone whose feet were firmly on the ground, like Zorba the Greek, but whose hands could touch the stars, like Guatama the Buddha. And was amused that Osho had warned that if you have to chose between the two, always chose Zorba, because at least he might become Buddha, whereas Buddha will never become a Zorba!
Jeffrey was attracted by the Olympic size swimming pool and the club meditation area of the meditation resort. Evidently, he had missed swimming in his hectic tour in India.

While leaving he remarked, ' I am more puzzled than (when) I came here.' To which Amrito replied, 'That is why it is called a mystery school.' "

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VATAYANA LETTER (Inner Circle, Pune)

to Bhakta, Osho Centre, Yekaterinberg, Russia

(We produce this letter at present without comment from Sannyasnews)

Dear Bhakta,

Since I have sent you a previous letter we haven't heard back from you. I am now back in the Meditation Resort, Pune and again I heard that in your OSHO Centre you will accommodate events run by the person Rajneesh in the next weeks..

I want to be very open and let you know that people have sent us a list of places where this person who calls himself "Rajneesh" is travelling too. One of the places is Yekaterinburg.

Please understand that these kind of events are not part of the understanding how Osho wanted his centres to operate.

He says " …a centre should be a taste of this place ( Meditation Resort ,Pune )" and this person (Rajneesh) is at this point not welcome in the OSHO International Meditation Resort and has not and will not be invited to facilitate events or meditations in the Meditation Resort.

As explained in the centre training, that as an individual one may feel different, but as an OSHO centre representative there is a need to understand what you have signed in the Letter of Understanding that … Osho speaks for himself, with no intermediary. He says: "I have no successor".

That's why an OSHO centre is just providing the space for the OSHO Meditations and / or some workshops with some therapist who also works in the OSHO Multiversity Pune as they have a good understanding how Osho wanted his therapies presented.

I also heard, that you Bhakta have recently been in the Pune. It's really a pity that you didn't come to our office to talk about these things and to take part in the centre training as this could have given you a wider view and understanding why such events aren't part of the guidelines for OSHO centres.

Just in short – whenever we offer such events where someone creates a certain kind of energy – this may be liked by many people as it's maybe more easy for people to "let someone else" tell them what to do, or "giving" you energy, but long-term, eventually the experience, (and this is also what we hear from other places),
it misleads and confuses people - as the idea starts happening that one can have this kind of energy only in the presence of such a person, and this may create a dependency.

OSHO centres should offer the meditations, therapies, meditative therapies, as Osho has given, and encourage people that they can make it for themselves

Because, as I heard Osho say something like… that if someone can give it to you, they can also can take it away from you.

It would be really great to hear from you as soon as possible.

Love
Vatayana
OSHO Global Connections

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On 27 February 2008, Osho Tapoban's main website www.tapoban.com along with other 17 URLs related with Tapoban's webpage were suspended and removed from the Google search pages.

The Google Team informed Tapoban that they had suspended access to the above URLs after being notified that Tapoban was violating the copyrights of others over the use of Osho's lectures, pictures, signature and meditation. Google stated, “Google has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that some of your materials allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of OIF."

Relating to the suspension of Tapoban's URLs, on 14 March 2008, Osho Tapoban sent a counter complaint to Google Legal Support to reinstate the suspension directive, and permit access to Tapoban's URLs in its search results. The complaint was made in pursuant to the related sections of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

On their request for information following the counter notification placed by OshoTapoban, Google informed them that it was being processed legally. Osho Tapoban's website had already been suspended for almost 2 months from Google search results and they were eagerly waiting for a response from Google relating to the counter notification.

On 21 April 2008, Osho Tapoban received a welcome further notice from Google, stating that their counter complaint had been processed and Tapoban's website was being re-included in the Google search results.

Google notified, "In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have completed processing your counter complaint dated 3/14/08. The following web pages have been re-included:….."

Tapoban wish to thank their legal advisors and friends who supported them during the legal process, and helped them re-establish their URLs. They state that these are contributing much to help spread the word of and about their beloved master OSHO.

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