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OSHO
DISCOURSE
LISTEN TO TOUR OWN [TERRY Often I have the feeling thatI am not doing something I ought to be doing, or doing something I should not be doing; that something has to change andfast ‐ a schooldays’ worry thatI am not going to make the grade, thatI might beexpelled. Krishna Prabhu, this is how we all have been brought up. Our whole edu‑
cation ‐ in the family, in the society, in the school, in the college, in the university ~ creates tension in us. And the fundamental tension is that you are not doing what you ought to do.
like a nightmare; it goes on haunting you. It will never leave you at rest; it will never allow you to relax. If you relax, it will say, "What are you doing? You are not supposed
Then it persists your whole life; it follows you
to relax; you should be doing something.” If you are doing something, it will say, "What are you doing? You need some rest; it is a must, otherwise you will drive yourself crazy ‐ you are already on the verge." If you do something good, it will say, "You are a fool. Doing good is not going to pay; people will cheat you.” If you do something bad, it will say, "What are you doing? You are preparing the way to goto hell; you will have to suffer for it.” It will never leave you at rest; whatsoever you do, it will be there condemning you. This condemner has been implanted in you. This is the greatest calamity that has happened to humanity. And unless weget rid of this condemner
inside uswecannot betruly human, wecannot betrulyjoyous, and we cannot participate in the celebration that Existence is. [...] This civil war has to be dropped; otherwise you will miss the whole beauty, the benediction of life. You will never be able to laugh to your heart’s
content; you will never be able to love; you will never be able to be total in anything. And it is only out of totality that one blooms, that the spring comes, and your life starts having color and music and poetry.
It is only out oftotality that suddenly you feel the presence of God all around you. But the irony is that the split has been created by your so‑ called saints, priests, and churches. In fact the priest has been the great‑ est enemy of God on the Earth. [...] recognize this, what the priests have done to you, is a day of great insight. And the first day when you drop all this nonsense is the day of the beginning of liberation. The first day when you
Dowhat your nature wants to do; do what your intrinsic qualities hanker to do. Don’t listen to the scriptures; listen to your own heart; that is the only scripture I prescribe. Yes, listen very attentively, very consciously, and you will never bewrong. And listening to your own heart you will never be divided. Listening to your own heart you will start moving in the
right direction, without ever thinking of what is right and what is wrong.
Sothe whole art for the new humanity will consist in the secret of listening to the heart consciously, alertly, attentively. And follow it through any means, and go wher‑ ever it takes you. Yes, sometimes it will take you into dangers ‐ but then remember, those dangers are needed to make you ripe. And sometimes it will take you astray ‐ but remember again, those goings astray are part of growth. Many times you will fall. Rise up again, because this is how one gathers strength ‐ by falling and rising again. This is how one becomes integrated. But don’t follow rules imposed from the outside. Noimposed rule can ever be right, because rules are invented by people who want to rule you. Yes, sometimes there have been great enlightened people in the world too ‐ a Buddha, a Jesus, a Krishna, a Mohammed. They have not given rules to the world; they have given their love. But sooner or later the disciples gather together and start making codes of con‑ duct. Once the Master is gone, once the light is gone and they are in deep darkness, they start groping for certain rules to fol‑ low, because now the lightin which they could have seen is no more there. Now they will have to depend on rules. What Jesus did was his own heart’s whis‑ pering, and what Christians go on doing is not their own hearts’ whispering. They are imitators ‐ and the moment you imitate, COHTIIIBES
you insult your humanity, you insult your God. Never bean imitator; be always original. Don’t become a carbon copy. But that’s what is happening all over the world ‐ carbon copies and carbon copies.
Life is really a dance if you are anoriginal ‐ and you are meant to beanoriginal. And no two men are alike, somy way of life can never become your way of life.
Imbibe the spirit; imbibe the silence of the Master; learn his grace. Drink as much out of his being aspossible, but don’timitate him. Imbibing his spirit, drinking his love, receiving his compassion, you will be able to listen to your own heart’s whisperings. And they are whisperings. The heart speaks in a very still, small voice; it does not shout. Listen to the Master’s silence so one day you can listen to your own innermost core. And then this problem will never arise: "I amdoing something thatI should not do, and I am not doing something thatI should do." This prob‑ lem arises only because you are being dominated by outer rules; you are imita‑ tors. [...] And remember, I amnot guaranteeing you that it will always lead you to the right. Many times it will take you to the wrong, because to come to the right door one has to knock first on many wrong doors. That’s how it is. If you suddenly stumble upon the right door, you will not be able to recognize that it is right. [...]
Soremember, in the ultimate reckoning no effort is ever wasted, all efforts contribute to the ultimate climax of your growth. Sodon’t behesitant; don’t be worried too much about going wrong. That is one of the problems; people have been taught never to doanything wrong, and then they become so hesitant, sofearful, sofrightened of doing wrong, that they become stuck. They cannot move; something wrong may happen. Sothey become like rocks; they lose all movement.
Iteach you: Commit as many mistakes aspossible, remem‑ bering only one thing; don’t commit the same mistake again. And you will begrowing. It is part of your freedom to goastray; it is part of your dignity to go even against God. And itis sometimes beautiful to go even against God. This is how you will start having a spine; otherwise there are millions of people, spineless. [...]
The thing that is right today may be wrong tomorrow, the
thing that is wrong this moment maybe right the next moment. Life cannot be pigeonholed; you cannot label it soeasily, "This is right, and this is wrong.” Life is not a Chemist’s shop where every bottle is labeled and you know what is what. Life is a mystery; one moment some‑ thing fits, and then it is right. Another moment, so much water has gone down the Ganges that it no longer fits and itis wrong. [...] Then what to do? The only possible thing is to make people so aware that they themselves can decide how to
respond to a changing life. [...] And all the old religions have supplied you with readymade answers. Manu has given his commandments; Moses has given his commandments, and soon and soforth.
I don’t give you any command‑ ment. In fact the very word "com‑ mandment" is ugly. To command somebody is to reduce him to a slave. I don’t give you any orders; you are not to beobedient to meor to anybody else. I simply teach you an intrinsic law of life. Beobedient to your own self, bea light unto yourself and follow the light, and this problem will never arise. Then whatso‑ ever you do is the thing to do, and whatsoever you don't dois the thing that has not to be done. And remember; don’t go on looking back again and again, because life goes on changing. Tomorrow you may start thinking what you did yesterday was wrong. It was not wrong yesterday; it may look wrong tomorrow. There is no need to look back; life goes ahead. But there are many drivers who go on looking in the rearview mirror. They drive onwards but they look backwards; their life is going
to bea catastrophe. Look ahead. The road that you have passed, you have passed. It is finished; don't carry it any more. Don’t be unnecessarily burdened by the past. Goon closing the chapters that you have read; there is no need to go back again and again. And neverjudge anything of the past through the new perspective that is arriving, because the new is new, incomparably new. The old was right in its own context, and the new is right in its own context, and they are incomparable. CDflTlflUES on FREE 18
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Ma Prem leevan Swami Paraprem
May 9, 1921- August I I , 2013 Jeevan was a wild,
September 29, 1948 - August 16. 2 0 ! !
courageous, and freedom-loving w o m a n , who took sannyas in Los Angeles in 1975 at the age of 48, and spent the rest of her life in Osho’s orbit.
After Osho left the body, she spent a few years teaching English in Japan to finance her visits to Pune, and then moved back here around 1995, declaring her intention to live near the Resort "forever." She was an integral p a r t of the community for all these years, working at the Osho Times, and later the audio-checking project. She loved this work, blissing o u t as she listened to Osho, and was able to continue with it till about a month before she left her body. She also loved to sing at our Variety Shows and on YouTube for friends around the globe. She unabashedly celebrated life, her o w n and everyone else’s. She loved meeting the new people who are coming to Osho, taking a keen interest in their stories, and gently encouraging them on their path of self-discovery by sharing her o w n stories.
As she got weaker these last months she spoke openly of death and said recently that she was ready to go now. Her time cameat the beginning of the annual Monsoon Festival. There were hundreds of people here to celebrate her final journey, beating drums and setting off firecrackers as we walked with her body to the burning ghats. The joy in the air was palpable, and even new arrivals who didn’t know her said they were deeply touched. She always and only wanted freedom, and I think she found it. For more details about Jeevan’s life and death, with
links to her stories and videos, go to www.oshonews. com/2013/08/prem-jeevan. Sheelu: premsheelu@gmail.com
Paraprem came to Osho in 1979 and was p a r t of the whole adventure and experiment created by Osho: a commune member in Pune One, early resident at the Ranch, and back to Pune. A big heart, a rare friend, he was a devotee and appreciated by many. He was a very skilled man: a plumber, a carpenter, a house builder, who worked with love and loved to work well. He was also an amazing organic gardener, a beekeeper, and known by the Japanese as M r . Propolis. He became expert at everything he got interested in. Shunya, his long‑ t e r m work partner in Pune Tw o says, “Paraprem was always a joy to work with; he was the perfect plumb‑ ing Buddha incarnated.”
He lived his whole life with totality, delight, friendli‑ ness, and a sweet sense of humor. He loved life. A few years ago Paraprem had prostate cancer that almost healed, but last winter he found o u t that the cancer had spread into the bones. Paraprem stayed at home, under the care of his Japanese wife, Yoga Bija, and with the help of beautiful local friends. He was perfectly aware of his state and felt at peace, serene, and quiet. He refused chemo and w e n t to the hospi‑ tal in Carcassonne a few times in order to deal with the pain. O n his last visit there h e did n o t r e t u r n home. Parapem was a sincere disciple of Osho, who left his body consciously, gently, like a bird flying high in the sky and disappearing, while showering his
friends with love.
‘
About 40 people gathered from all corners of France to give h i m a beautiful send-off. The energy was especially light, simple, and profound, just like he was, and touched everyone present in its o w n unique way. His ashes have been dispersed in the Mediterranean Sea, as he wished. Kavisho
kavisho@neuffr
Spiritual Dimensions of Living and Dying
Ma Anand Navin May 25, 1949 ‐ September 16, 2013 “T
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Navin left her body in Sedona, Arizona, after a long and heroic struggle with cancer. She leaves behind her daughter Sagara and granddaugh‑ ter Nina.
Navin came from Switzerland to Osho in the seventies after a European t o u r with a French psychodrama troupe. I really came to know her only in Sedona with the Osho Academy, where she was known for her ability to transform any room into a beautiful, sacred space. Navin was noble, proud, loving, and blatantly honest, always.
ruining:
“the g r a d e i n
dying
meetings or the edge of life and death 2014
february 7-12 2014 april 9 - 14 2014
Switzerland Germany
co PROGRAM anosis
- Partnership In Meditation
A spontaneous around‐the-world meditation for Navin was held (via Facebook) on the day following her leaving. She was given a beautiful, heartfelt fare‑ thee-well in Sedona, where even her oncologist cried and shared what a unique patient she was.
Institute for Living and Dying Hauptstr. 23 D ~37|24 Rosdorl Germany tel +49- 5509‐ 942908 essential@living‐dying.com
She was loved by many and will be missed. Here an excerpt from a tribute from K e n , her long‑
time companion: The world should have stopped Forjttst ajolting split second To make as all aware
That something significant had happened That someone significant had passed [. ..]
If you followed her Paid attention Then you’d have a glimpse A tiny glittering insight As to the amazing being she has now become And the lesson to all of as is
That the world did stop Reset itself into this new dimension One where we are wiser Kinder More loving Wetake for granted less And seek out happier lives Because of Navin
Swami Deva Abhiyana
papahhiyana@gmail.eom
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Summer. I guess that was the most surprising thing that happened at Osho Risk this year. Why? Because it really happened! The summer s u n came shining into o u r lives at the beginning of July and has pretty much stayed ever since. You’ve no idea how unusual that is. People joke about the Danish weather. For example, in June, when Denmark had its usual share of cold, w e t , and windy weather, there was a joke going around the I n t e r n e t ,
pretending to announcea web-search malfunction: “Error 101. Danish summer n o t found. Tr y Thailand.” v
, r . L . , l“, . , ’* 3 ‘ 3 vi» 1 B u t then the sun came o u t , bookings on Ryanair flights to Mediterranean destinations were cancelled, and suddenly we were swimming in the local lakes
and Wearing sun bl(’Ck' Meanwhile, we opened our n e w building, R u m i House, with eight new rooms for residents and guests, plus a meditation hall. Everything seemed to be working fine until one night, shortly after mid‐ night, when all the fire alarms started a shrill, earpiercing beeping, which made everybody rush o u t of their rooms ‐ n o t to escape the fire, but to avoid the noise.
for my Shakespeare play were flown in from Pune. Shortly afterward, Danish customs sent us a bill for 10,000 kroner import duty ‐ far more than it cost to make the costumes. When this was ignored asridicu‑ lous, a fine was imposed. After much negotiation and explanation ‐ the costumes were being sent back after the show, so technically they weren’t imports ‑ the duty was lifted. B u t the fine had to be paid! You can’t mess around w i t h Danish bureaucracy.
Completion of the n e w building left a big brown field of mud where construction equipment had been operating, so the area was quickly cleared, leveled, rolled, and seeded. Nothing much happened for sev‑ eral weeks, but then the June rains came, and sud‑ denly we had a brand-new lawn. Some of us suspect the grass seed is genetically modified because it grows at a frantic rate, threatening to swamp the flowerbeds surrounding it. As for GM scare stories on Facebook, we figure that as long as we don’t t r y to eat the grass, we'll be fine. One evening, dinner table talk focused on o u r desire to video the Summer Festival, and to our surprise one generous-hearted, newly arrived friend from
Copenhagen offered to lend us his state-of‐the-art Sony camera, valued at around US $9,000.
Then he remembered, "Oh, wait a minute, I o w n only half of it ‐ I ’ l l have to ask my business partner.” So we were even more surprised when his partner, who'd never m e t us and knew nothing about medi‑ tation communities, also agreed to lend the camera. Thanks to these t w o , we n o w have a movie about the festival on o u r website: www.oshorisk.corn.
"I woke up to find an attractive woman knocking on my window,” recalled Sudas, a long-term resident. "At first, I thought she wanted a date, but really she was just looking for someone who could stop the noise!” Nana, another long‐term resident, arrived in her
dressing gown and immediately understood that the quickest solution was to remove the batteries. When this was done a blessed silence descended once more on the Danish countryside. Next day, the malfunc‑ tioning alarms were professionally rewired. Adding an exotic touch to this year’s Summer Festival, costumes that had been tailored in India
When the camera had to be returned, the a r t of mak‑ ing video clips became a little more modest: These days, we use an Apple iPhone 45.
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“ 1 India L i t i g a t i o n Update Risk seems to be attracting short-term Visitors from the Middle East. One w o m a n from Dubai has just flown in for the weekend Celebration Camp, while another came from Doha in Qatar for an eight-day stay.
RUHII HOUSE
Many of the people who come here are Scandinavians, but just recently three people were
heard speaking fluent French together in the dining r o o m , while a loud discussion in Italian was hap‑ pening in the kitchen. The official language for this international center is English, much to the relief of those of us who find the strange sounds of Danish impossible to learn. Sudas, by the way, has the dis‑ tinction of being the only Irishman who teaches Danish to immigrants wanting to become residents in Denmark. He retires from the job n e x t year after 20 years of public teaching. During the endless days of summer it’s light when you go to bed and light when you wake up, but now the days are shrinking as a u t u m n approaches. As they say on HBO’s addictive TV series Game of Thrones . , W i m e r is coming!" Never mind. There are no White Walkers here, and Risk continues to offer a full program of workshops, retreats, and trainings throughout the year. And if the darkness gets mo much, one can always hop on
a Finnair flight to Mumbai and take a break on the beaches of Goa. 0mmmmmmmmm. .
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In June 2013 petitioners in Pune filed a n e w w r i t petition with the Bombay High C o u r t of India to place the property of Osho International Foundation (OIF, the Indian trust) and Neo Sannyas Foundation (NSF) in receivership, removing the c u r r e n t trustees, and force the r e t u r n of millions of dollars that have been transferred to private ownership. These are the same petitioners who success‑ fully stopped the gift of property from these trusts to Darshan Trust (alleged, to be in N e w Delhi whose trustees are long-time Resort resi‑ dents).
This writ petition alleges that in a property trade arrangement for the building of the new meditation hall and guest house, millions of dollars in t r u s t property ended up in the hands of Osho Multimedia and Resorts Pvt. Ltd. (OMR), a for-profit company whose board of directors is made up of Mukesh, Vidya, and Devendra. These three people are sharehold‑ ers, along with three others, so they personally receive the company profits. They are also the only three trustees for NSF and operate both the trust and the for-profit company o u t of the same office in Mumbai. The writ alleges that under this arrangement they could freely mis‑ use funds and transfer them to their for-profit company.
Evidence produced with the writ shows that credit card purchases made in the Resort bookstore and for stays in the guest house go directly to O M R and n o t to the trusts _ The Wm also alleges that trusmes 0f 01F 501d an apartment to the Wlfe 0f the how.” 0f the Resort m a i n t e n a n c e contract at a rldiculously low rate, at the same time taking o u t loans at high rates and jeopardizing the financial sta~ bility of the trust. _. .. These petitioners have taken one posmon that is ControverSial' They Claim that NSF (Currently controlled by Mukesh, Vidya, and Devendra) owns the copyrights to Osho’s work. This is a position that has been strongly opposed by the opponents of OIF, Zurich, for a variety of legal reasons.
The f u l l t e x t of the writ petition is available at www.05howork.org.
Oar Mata/M Mm PWWM 5 W W Far/‘be yoym
J77
When I heard that Devageet was coming to t o w n , I thought, great: I ’ l l have a chance to update what was for me an unfinished dialogue that started in the Ranch days. To the extent that I knew him, I’d always liked his panache and openness. During the Ranch he worked on my teeth, but there was never an oppor‑ tunity to have more than a brief conversation. There was t o o much work to do building the city and never time for a leisurely chat. We’d connected again in ’92 at the Pune ashram. I ’ m n o t sure how it came about but I found myself in a little office room doing what might be described ashypnotherapy with him. It was a blissful, deeply relaxing session as he guided me through discovery of deep layers of my early life events. He was adept at bringing back to life old patterns and allowing posi‑ tive change. His session was so simple and straight‑ forward that I carried away with me a curiosity of how it would progress and a wish for his success.
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We quickly established a routine: Apart from o u r morning medita‑
. .. . . ,... tion until 11 am and tea in o u r separate spaces, we talked ‐ continuously. At first he’d described his book in a first-hand way. He’d given us a real-time synop‑ sis of his book, which we had n o t read by then. Our dialogue launched into o u r o w n experiences of being on the Path with Osho. We took t u r n s back and forth in ways to show our o w n intimate transitions and understanding gained as a result of our lives with Osho.
As Devageet explained he has no permanent resi‑ dence and is constantly traveling, so he welcomed a brief quiet time at o u r home. Anandi realized that she wanted to experience one of his sessions. It lasted for over an hour, and afterward she related, and I could see, what transpired was much the same as it had been with me 20 years earlier ‐ a sort of quan‑ t u m relaxation. F r o m what he described he’s been improving his work in accord with Osho’s directions, and I can imagine that to be t r u e .
DIANA RICHARDSON
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So n o w 20 years later he was on his way t o M a r i n . I’d read i n emails that he was looking for a place to stay, and Anandi and I offered him the opportunity to spend the long weekend with us.
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On Sunday after the G u r u Purnima celebration at China Camp, we had an open house, and about 25‐30 people came to listen and talk with Devageet about the book and about his personal time with Osho and the t u r n s that his life has taken since. Devageet also described his group therapy trainings and gave some inspiring examples of how lives of those attending have been affected. Several people there were enthusiastic and expressed interest in having one of his trainings here in the Bay Area. 80 perhaps we will see Devageet here again soonJU
djmatt@pacbell.net Devageet’s book is available from Viha for $24.95 plus shipping.
A Med/7am»ire/Wanner MT/I/ Sir/amt flier/Tanya Keerfi i n Me? AW Remember, if the fear of death disappears, then all other fears disappear automatically, because all other fears are nothing but by-products of the main, basic fear ‐ the fear of death. (The G u e s t , Chapter 1) I m e t Swami Chaitanya Keerti in 2007 at the Osho
Mandakini Meditation Center in Varanasi, India, during a four-day active
meditation workshop that he facilitated. Although I had been practicing Osho’s meditations since 2001, I had never taken sannyas. During the course of the workshop he and I had a wonderful dialogue around meditation and Osho’s teachings. As a result, I made the decision to take sannyas as a formal commitment of my devotion to my meditation practice. I was given the name Ma Anand Usha, "the blissful m o m e n t before the sunrise.” When I learned that Keerti was planning a trip to the Bay Area, Ijumped at the opportunity to assist h i m in organizing events to share Osho’s vision and active meditations with our local community. On August 24, 2013, a group of 30 curious meditators celebrated with Keerti in the home of Ma Jasmine and her husband, Harry, in beautiful Lafayette, California. The daylong event was comprised of a morning discourse on “The Fear of Death,” a three‑ stage active meditation on the Muladhara (the r o o t chakra), a movement and music meditation facili‑ tated by Ma Aparna, a wonderful Indian home‑ cooked lunch prepared by Jasmine, and an afternoon Prayer Meditation to end the day. Nestled in the sun‑ drenched hills of Northern California, we meditated, danced, hugged, and prayed together as a family, celebrating o u r community of sannyasins. The day was restorative, balancing, and ‘- ' energizing.
l/y/m had suffered a massive stroke near Los Angeles and would likely n o t recover. I was absolutely devastated, ripped open, raw. Keerti began o u r event with a discourse that addressed the fear of death, for which I was very grateful. Once we shifted into the medi‑ tation portion of the day, I was able to relax in my body and feel the waves of grief move through me for the first time in a week. The collective conscious‑ ness of the group supported me in staying with some very challenging emotions, and I left with a sense of well-being and ‘ g . clarity. Although i r if" m y m i n d con‑ tinued to tell me I was n o t prepared to face so much loss in so little time, my meditation practice brought me back to the awareness that I have many tools available to me to face difficult times, and this is the result of having a committed daily meditation practice. At the end of the day, Keerti shared with me that he feels his work is to m e e t and share insights from Osho with others, to help others achieve a greater understanding of themselves. He feels this work is a gift from Osho. There is no goal in mind, only the opportunity to help people live with greater aware‑ ness. Thank you, KeertiJU
therealsunriseruby@hotmail. com The next day Keerti and Aparna accompanied Jasmine and Harry to satsang at Viha, with beautiful live music by Teerth and Australian Darpan. After lunch Keerti chatted with the community about his activities and plans and the latest news from northern India. ‐Ed.
I arrived with a very heavy heart that day. A week before the event, I had received news that a very dear childhood friend had taken his o w n life after going missing from his home in the South Bay. And then the day before the event, I received a phone call that
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Rare?” Cemer m Stony Pmm' New York' M o r e than 80 friends from all over the US and
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From My Window: Gossip: from Bali and Beyond by Na Anand Bhagawati The people who have gathered around meare all misfits in the rotten society. Any intelligent person is bound to hea misfit in a society that is dead, out of date, superstitious, based on beliefsystems. F r o m Death to Deathlessness, Chapter 33 I dare say P r e m Leeladhar was the first, and maybe only, plastic surgeon who became a sannyasin. Talk about the original face... I recall Osho speaking about him and his work, some‑ times joking but also stating that sex changes through plastic surgery are a good means for people to expe‑ rience both the male and female mystery. Leeladhar took sannyas in 1977 and was doing "end‑ less groups” before he stayed in Pune One “forever,” working in the kitchen as a pot‐cleaner and a guard at No. 70. He was in Rajneeshpuram from its earli‑ est days ‐ eating and living. at the ranch farmhouse. The best job he ever had was working asa mem‑ ber o f the dam crew with A n a h a t t a , but “then came Pythagoras under Puja: back to all the medi‑ cal obligations with an operating theater, exams to be licensed in America, operating in Madras and Redmond.” Then followed a time of being a rather unsuccess‑ ful "Osho‐appointed ambassador” for Australia in Fremantle ‐ Niseema, his then‐partner’s, home country. The m a i n task was to do the promotion of Osho's 1988 Manifesto. Leeladhar returned to Switzerland and undertook additional training in Psychoenergetics and Family Constellation with H a r i s h a r a n , after having attended the counseling course in Pune Tw o . Moving from the outer aspects to the inner, he worked as a psychotherapist, which resulted in writing the book Liebe und Schmerz: Ein Schlu'ssel zur Gefu'hlswelt (Love and Pain: A Key to the World of Emotions), published in 2002.
N o w retired in Switzerland, he enjoys hanging o u t
with his three grandchildren and is happily married to P r e m Tarshita. Meditating on an "easy is right” basis, wandering for long hours in the beautiful hilly landscape of the Bernese Oberland, meeting old and n e w sannyasins as well as some "straight people,” and remembering what Osho told h i m , "Leeladhar, you are a born misfit.” (The Hidden Splendor, Chapter 21) lErs@bluewin.ch P r e m Bhaven (aka Prem) from Australia took san‑ nyas in Pune in 1976; his brother became Vimukta. In 1978 his mother, P r e m P u n i t a , took sannyas and started a commune in West Australia, which Osho called Soham. Later she managed Karri Valley, the forest resort purchased by Jay H a r m a n , where Sheela infamously created havoc. In Pune One P r e m was one of the pillars of Vrindavan enterprises, where he first worked as a handyman. When he asked to be part of the kitchen, he was paired with Yoga Videh to work the counter for an entire year, and then he moved on to cook with K u t i r. His Rajneeshpuram worship had h i m first asa truck mechanic at Mahavira and then as a farmer at Dadu. F r o m there Neehar sent h i m to work in Osho’s garden, which came as a surprise until he figured o u t the possible reason. He suspected that he, A r p a n a , and Srajan, who all knew little of gardening, had been placed there because "the girls in the house didn’t trust the tough guys with guns that made up the security for Lao Tzu House and who had been p u t in place by Sheela. So they arranged for their friends to be transferred to the garden." One day they were told to stay off the driveway in the afternoon ‐ so they all sat on the roof of the gardener’s hut and saw an airplane lifting off: Osho had left. After leaving Rajneeshpuram Prem came to Bali, which ever since has been a place of transit
for him. Settling later in Fremantle, he worked in a boat-building factory in nearby Perth. He said, "The sangha in Fremantle was alive and well then, in spite of Sheela’s destructive visit earlier."
He had been an enthusiastic diver in the Australian Navy as an 18-year‐old, so whenever he was sighted on Bali’s dive spots people would ask h i m to teach them. Hence a new career unfolded: He would spend half a year in Pune and the other in the off-season with his then-partner, Pratima, on Bali. A year after Osho left His body Prem w e n t to Lucknow where he stayed. for five years, until Poonjaji died. For the last eight years he has been living primarily at Mevlana, a sannyasin housing community in Byron Bay, and visits India almost every year. (I bumped into h i m in Rishikesh during the last Kumbh Mela.) He mused, " I n this phase of life I am practically retired. At 60 I know what is important for me: I prefer to live in the milieu of the sangha, yet what I love m o s t is time spent in celebration and medita‑ tion, often while in a retreat in India. Jai, Osho!” premsephton@gmail.com Australian Anand Vi m u k t a took sannyas
them &utmum
in Byron Bay on September 10, 2001 and awoke the n e x t morning to the news of 9/11. I was jokingly
., . : wondering if she pulled The Tower in the Tarot cards on that day, and she confirmed, "There has been much ’falling away’ since then!”
Visiting the Gondwana community she didn't know how much it would change her life: "This was my first taste of Osho and being around sannyasins, and very quickly I was taken by the energy there. There was ’awake-ness’ in everyone’s eyes, and I wanted that too. I spent several months doing Dynamic every morning, I was hooked, and it was a natural step to take sannyas. It was a precious m o m e n t to open the letter from Pune together with Gyan, Saroja, and Avikal.”
A couple of years later, she w e n t to Pune with Avikal, her partner at the time: " I t was so amazing for me. I remember the first m o m e n t s there, and he was showing me around. I was all eyes and wonder‑
When we sat in Buddha Grove tears started coming from my eyes. I was surprised and bewil‑ dered; the energy was so strong. My time in. Pune and India was very powerful. I felt like I had come home. I spent my days in meditation and found myself becoming very quiet and restful.” ment.
A trained nurse, she made a decision to take care of her dying mother. Vimukta said that this time was also healing for her, as it was probably the closest she had ever been with her mother. " I n her final hours I was very grateful to be with her. It seemed perfectly natural to lie on the bed beside her and hold her hand as she took her final breaths. I was thinking she gave birth to me, and here we are as she is leaving her body. It was incredibly strong, and somehow, nine months later I still feel I am process‑ ing that time and her passing." She and her beloved Prem had a marvelous time on Bali, going to dive sites where he taught her scuba diving. "Facing fears of being in such deep waters, I totally trusted Prem every step of the way. I was blown away when he told me how deep we had gone after the dives.”
Plans are already on the horizon for another visit to the isle... anandvimukta@yahoo.com V
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Human Design 8( The Book of Lines Discover the Person You Were Born in. s
HUMAN: v , nrsi w
Mas/p Rev/W SOUNDS on THE SENSES
MEDITATION RAGAS BY CHINMAYA DUNSTER; NEW EARTH RECORDS, 2013
of one of the physical senses, plus t w o additional tracks, one for the
Mas/'9 Rat/AW #17 Ma/ Praia/M p W / I / f The music began, somehow. The fingers touched the sarod, and sounds emerged. The inspiration came, somehow. The wind, the wave, the flower, the fruit tickled the skin, the ears, the vision, the smell, the taste. The senses poured i n t o the heart, elevating i t , higher and higher, toward the One - awake, aware, alert. If you ask Chinmaya D u n s t e r , h e just laughs and says, " M y fingers just go there. And o u t it comes!” The magic of the music! Perhaps, it’s his love affair with the rhythms that evokes it. Perhaps it is his playful‑ ness. Perhaps it is just magic - a gentleness, the sound softly kissing the silence, making it deeper,
heart chakra (Heart Meditation), and another for the shastrar (Consciousness Meditation). The liner notes include short meditation instructions and a quote from Osho's Book of the Secrets for each track, making this CDa beautiful and practical tool for our meditation
H
practice.' Chinmaya: info@chinmaya-dunster.com;
Damini: prabhudamini©gmailcom Meditation Ragas is available from Viha for $12.95 plus shipping.
My Vow/W7
richer. Chinmaya’s journey began in 1975, on a hippie trail from. the UK to India. Passing through Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, he was touched by the music of the East. In it he felt a deep acceptance, a surrender to something that was beyond the intellect, beyond the seen, the said, the heard. Terra Incognita, the unknown land, was the title of his first album. His latest, Meditation Ragas, is on the journey to that unknown land, a journey that traverses the seen, the said, the heard ‐ our senses.
Each sensory organ can be experienced in t w o dimensions: one that moves outward and another that focuses inward. Ordinarily, we all move out. Touching: We touch another; the other is the focus. Seeing: We see what is outside; our attention is on the exterior. The interiority of each sense remains unopened, unexplored. Meditative traditions from the East have created many sutras, small keys that connect us to the interiority of the energy experience with each of our senses. This album is a unique gift to assist in an exploration of the depth of each of our senses. On his own meditative journey during the creation of Meditation Ragas, Chinmaya says, "All the tracks are based on the sound of the sarod.. While I am playing I am paying attention to the depth of each note. The sarod body is pressed against my navel while I play. Touch sensations: how my coconut plectrum brushes the metal string, how the string vibrates in response; how the skin projects the sound; what it does to my ear, my heart, my belly; ultimately, how sound changes my Consciousness."
Meditation Ragas has five tracks, each exploring the inner dimension
"flip/WW»? #7Mil?» In M a y Deva and I released a 21-day online mantra meditation program through an organization called Mentors Channel, which has released programs on meditation with Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey. They approached us because they wanted to do a project that featured mantra prac‑ tice. O u r sessions received 64,000 reg‑ istrations from 201 different countries! O u r experience over the years has been that mantras act aspasswords to our inner sanctum. With this in mind, we designed the program to be simple and precise with the intention that participants would experience the ben‑ efits of chanting and at the same time receive information asto the nature and significance of each particular mantra. (There are mantras for many different aspects of life, e.g., physi‑ cal healing, sacred lovemaking, inner peace, removing energetic blocks, etc.).
The feedback was overwhelming, and
it led us to review our understanding of Osho’s words on the subjectAs ever, He is consistently contradictory!
He speaks with such beauty on 0m, for instance, and 0m Purnamadha, or the great Tibetan m a n t r a 0m Mani Padme Hum but at the same time warns us that chanting, as any
activity, has the potential to create sleepiness if n o t approached with intelligence and sincerity (hence the famous Coca-Cola reference). The word mantra
.
- ,.
..
,
is untranslatable in English, in any Western language, but its meaning, its significance, can beexplained to you. A mantra is not just something to chant. It is not chanting. A mantra is something to let sink deep in your being, just as roots godeepimothe
earth. The deeper the roots go into the earth, the higher the tree will go into the sky.
A mantra is something like a seed to be allowed to go deep into your being so that it can send its roots to the sources of your life and finally to the universal life. Then its branches, its foliage will go high into the sky, and when the right time comes, when the spring comes, it will befilled with thousands of flowers. ( O m M a n i Padme H u m , Chapter I) This is o u r direct experience with o u r o w n personal m a n t r a practice. I sometimes wonder why the Mystery School never experi‑ mented more with the power of sound. We explored various esoteric pathways, such as crystal energy and various other energetic phenomena, but for some reason, none of us (includ‑ ing me) thought to explore the power of sound itself. Mantras were born in the mystery schools of ancient India. According to the Vedas, the rishis ‐ wise m e n of the time ‑ were experimenting with sound scientifically, asa way to expand consciousness and heal the body. They discovered how certain sounds naturally created obvious responses in the body/mind organism.
Of course, we all acknowledge that sound has power. Compare the difference between a baby’s laughter, for instance, to a scream of anguish, or the sound of a police siren to the sound of a mountain stream. A m a n t r a is basically a refined collection
of sounds that resonate specifically on cer‑ tain areas, certain parts of o u r physical and metaphysical states. Over the years Deva and I have received messages from people from many varied walks of life: from teachers of autistic kids
who tell us how their children respond when they hear o u r music (the Gayatri Mantra especially seems to calm and relax children who suffer from attention deficit), from people on the brink of suicide, from an Iraqi war vet and a 911 firefighter, a brain surgeon, and emergencynurses...all describing how the m a n t r a s have helped them cope with the t r a u m a and intensity of their day-to-day lives. Recently we began taking the m a n t r a s into prisons i n Germany and America. Again, the experience was transformative ‐ tears of release, interns chanting together with us (even lifers), and new friendships born. (I still have pen pals as a result of these visits.) O u r journey was recently featured in an August 25 article in The Huffington Post titled " H o w to Experience True Quiet (And Why You’ll Wa n t t o ) ” The article introduces m a n t r a s as a key to accessing inner peace and recommends a daily practice.
Opening for Deva and me on o u r US t o u r this fall w i l l be o u r friends The
GuruGanesha Band. As you m a y know, Osho speaks lovingly of Guru Nanak, and GG recounts how his guru, Yogi Bhajan, often read segments of Osho’s discourses to his devotees. Their path, although full o f music and m a n t r a , i s way more austere than ours, but ultimately it resonates from the heart in the same way. Mantra means finding your inner sound, your inner rhythm, your inner vibration. Once you have found your mantra it is of tremendous help; just one utterance of the mantra and you are in
a totally different world. (The Ta n t r a Vision, Vol. 2, Chapter 6 ) V www.DevaPremalMiten.com
A Mae/errata. Myrna/e ewe/a of Wonder The correspondence about mantras we’re receiving here
at Viha confirms Miten and Deva ’s experiences with the magical effects of mantras. Here ’5 one letter we received.‑ Months ago I bought Deva's Password CD, and I fell in love with it almost immediately. I listened to it many times and then forgot about it. A couple of weeks ago, I rediscovered it and p u t it in my car’s CD player, which is an old one. The CD got stuck in the player, and it has been playing every day since then: when I get in the car early in the m o r n ‑ ing, when I r e t u r n from the office, when I go back to the office, when I go to visit somebody, when I ’ m stuck into traffic jams, at the drive-through...
When I’ve done this with other music I’ve become tremendously bored with it or even hated the music and never wanted to listen to it again. With this music something else began go happen. Mysterioule things began to change, to improve, to flow more easily than before...in many different ways. Traffic wasn’t bothering me anymore, people began to smile back easily, then they began to smile at me even before I smiled at them, and some people asked
me window-to-window in the traffic: “Why are you so happy?” This was just because I smiled, and I couldn't explain anything. It is just what it is! Then. I started realizing there was something like a mysterious, invisible bubble of wonder moving along with me, a bubble of beauty, peace, and enjoyment, contagious to everyone around. It took more days of beautiful c o m m e n t s and instantaneous responses from so many known and unknown parties before I finally understood: The m a n t r a s were chanting inside of me all day long. Even business at my small plaza, Techos Verdes, got much better; empty suites are n o w filled with new tenants, and more customers are visiting. Meditation programs are moving so much better, architecture workshops are improving, and so on.
SoI looked at the CD box again and read on the back cover: "Mantras are magical passwords that transform the man‑ dane into the sacred.” Deva Premal
I suggest others t r y these m a n t r a s too. It’s just like something Osho said about life, that it is beautiful,
mysterious, and beyond understanding, something just to experience.
Angela Vivek in Hondurasv astassano@techosverdes.net
llSllfll l0 TOUR OWN lll'llllll continued from page 4
What I amtrying to explain to you is drop guilt, because
to beguilty is to live in hell. Not being guilty, you will have the freshness of dewdrops in the early morning sun; you will have the freshness of lotus petals in the lake; you will have the freshness of the stars in the night. Once guilt disappears you will have a totally different kind of life, luminous and radiant. You will have a dance to your feet, and your heart will be singing athousand and one songs.
To live in such rejoicing is to be a sannyasin; to live in suchjoy is to live a divine life. To live burdened with guilt is simply to beexploited by the priests. [...] And the only way to bein contact with life, the only way
not to lag behind life, is to have a heart that is not guilty,
a heart that is innocent. Forget all about what you have been told ‐ what has to be done and what has not to be done ‐ nobody else can decide it for you. Avoid those pretenders who decide for you; take the reins in your own hands. You have to decide. In fact, in that very decisiveness, your soul is born. When others decide for you, your soul remains asleep and dull. When you start deciding on your own, a sharpness arises. To decide means to take risks; to decide means you may be doing wrong. Who knows? That is the risk; who knows what is going to happen? That is the risk, there is no guarantee.
[...] Rejoice! And I say to you again, rejoice as you are. The Book of Wisdom, Chapter 11
i
o
n
Meditation, according to meand my religion, has all
not matter; don't feel sad... Because I am not telling you
the space, the whole of Existence available. You are the watcher; you can watch the whole scene. There is no effort
that it will happen today, or tomorrow, or within three months or six months. I amnot giving you any expectation
to concentrate on anything; there is no effort to contem‑
because that will become a tension in your mind. It can
plate about anything. You are not doing all these things, you are simply there watching,just aware. It is a knack. It is
happen any day; it may not happen. It all depends on how
not a science; it is not an art; it is not a craft; it is a knack.
Soyou have tojust goon playing with the idea. [...]
playfulyou are. Just start playing ‐ in the bathtub, when you are not
doing anything, why not play? Sitting under your shower,
Anytime ‐ lying in your bed, if sleep is not coming, play
you are not doing anything; the shower is doing its work.
with the idea. Why bother about sleep? It will come when it will come. You cannot doanything to bring it; it is not in your hands, so why bother about it? Something that is not in your hands, forget about it. This time is in your hands, why not use it? Lying in your bed, on a cold night under your blanket, cozy and enjoying ‐just play with the idea. You need not sit in the lotus posture. In mymeditation you need not torture yourself in any way.
You are simply standing there; for those few momentsjust
If you love the lotus posture, good; you can sit in it. But
Saturday, or by Sunday at least ‐ within seven days ‐ some
Westerners go to India, and it takes them six months to
day it is going to happen. Just enjoy yourself with the idea
learn the lotus posture, and they are torturing themselves
and play with the idea as many times asyou can. If noth‑
so much. And they think that when they have learned the
ing happens ‐ I am not promising you anything ‐ if noth‑
lotus posture, they have gained something. The whole of
ing happens, that’s perfectly good. You enjoyed yourself;
India sits in the lotus posture - nobody has gained any‑ thing. It isjust their natural way of sitting. In a cold coun‑ try you need a chair to sit on; you can’t sit on the ground. In a hot country, who bothers about a chair? You sit any‑
you played with the idea; you gave it a chance.
where.
Nospecial posture is needed; no special time is needed. There are people who think there are specialtimes. No, not
for meditation; any time is the right time ‐ you just have to
berelaxed and playful. And if it does not happen, it does
beplayful. Walking on the road, walking can bedone by
the body; you are not needed, the legs do it. Any moment where you can feel relaxed, non-tense, play with the idea
of meditation the way I have explained to you. Just be silent, centered in yourself, and someday... And there are only seven days ‐ don’t beworried! So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Goon giving it a chance. Henry Ford said, "Go on jumping and when the chance, the opportunity comes,jump upon
it.” I say just the reverse. You just go on giving a chance to meditation, and when the right moment comes and you are really relaxed and open, itjumps upon you. And once meditation jumps upon you it never leaves.
From Misery to Enlightenment, Chapter 2
Starting o u t with a bit of a pet peeve of mine: We receive many compliments and thank-yous for our 27
years of service of making Osho available. B u t it is a complete mystery to me why some of our Facebook “friends” ~ will post links to Amazon when they are referring to Osho books, which of course are available from Viha. Why would they w a n t to support Amazon and n o t Viha?
l“ l
Book report: The Huffz‘ngton Post recently pub‑ lished a very positive review of Darpan’s Awakened Leadership: Beyond Self‐Mastery, devoting a good part of the review to Darpan’s path with Osho. Devageet’s book, Osho: The First Buddha in the Dental Chair, continues to fly off the shelf here. Niketan v; , in Iowa liked the book so much that he gave his copy to his dentist, and in Healing July we received a grateful o». Power email from another buyer of the book who is a law‑ yer in the Supreme Court i l i t ‘ Yoga ( i f ilkiaauw of India. Wow!
- /’
R a m y a in Arizona alerted me to a very interesting book, The Healing Power of Madras: The Yoga of
the Hands by Rajendar includes the chapter “Osho, Tantra and Mudra.” Check it out!
M e n e n , which
Avinasho and I were delighted to finally meet face‑ to-face a n e w friend from Dallas, H a s y o . A few years ago Hasyo was introduced to Osho by our buddy Praveen of the Cosmic Café, who is like Osho’s Dallas ambassador. Hasyo immediately fell in love with Osho’s brilliance, and when he started a challeng‑ ing new job this year, he felt Osho say, " Yo u need me for this.” This is when he contacted us and decided to take sannyas. We were quite surprised to find out that Hasyo is the general manager at the George W. Bush Presidential C e n t e r,
of all places! (And we were relieved to hear that being a registered Republican is n o t a job require‑ ment.) In August Hasyo and his partner, Chad, came to San Francisco where they n o t only enjoyed the sights but also got married in City Hall, wear‑ i n g the same shirts that they had worn at their Holy Union 13 years earlier. Congratulations! F r o m our electronic inbox: We received a mes‑ sage with the subject line "Technical Issues” from H u m n a in Pakistan, asking, “Can I talk to Master Osho?” Although we were n o t able to directly con‑ n e c t H u m n a with Osho, w e were glad w e could give
h i m the website of the Osho Foundation in Pakistan. And of course, we suggested he visit Osho Tapoban in nearby Nepal. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Indians are
"obsessed" with weddings and reality TV. The article reports that a n e w TV channel, Shagun TV, is merging these t w o fascinations into a 24-hour matrimonial TV station, the first in India offering round‐the-clock wedding entertainment. Its programs feature bridal make‑ overs, honeymoon destinations, and bridal jewelry. One show focuses on the relationships between mothers and daughters-in-law, and coming soon are marriage-themed soap operas. The Indian wedding market is valued at $38 billion a year and is expected to grow 25 to 30 percent annually. The lndian wed‑ ding season starts in October and lasts until spring, and many of us have experienced how difficult it ’ is to get airline tickets in and o u t of India during that time. Traffic can grind to a halt in major cities on wedding dates that are thought to be astrologically auspicious. 0n particularly lucky days, newspapers reported up to 60,000 couples tying the knot in N e w Delhi alone.
A recent article in www.wired.com states that meditation and mindfulness are the new rage in Silicon Valley, and that it’s n o t just about inner peace but also about getting ahead. Google’s corporate campus, for example, offers a meditation class as part of an internal. course called Search Inside Yourself. It's designed to teach. people
to manage their emotions, ideally making them bet‑ ter workers in the process. More than 1,000 Google employees have been through the training, and another 400 or so are on the waiting list and take classes like Neural Self-Hacking and Managing Your Energy in the meantime. The company also has a bimonthly series of “mindful lunches,” conducted in complete silence except for the ringing of meditation bells. The search giant even recently built a labyrinth
Kenneth Folk, an influential meditation teacher in San Francisco: “All the woo-woo mystical stuff, that’s really retrograde,” says. "This is about training the brain.”
for walking meditations. It’s n o t just Google that’s embracing Eastern tradi‑ tions. Across the Valley quiet contemplation is seen as the n e w caffeine, the fuel that allegedly unlocks productivity and creative bursts. Classes in medita‑ tion and mindfulness have become staples at many
of the region’s m o s t prominent companies. The cofounders of Twitter and Facebook have made contemplative practices key features of their n e w enterprises, holding regular in‐office meditation ses‑ sions and arranging for work routines that maximize mindfulness. These companies are doing more than simply seizing on Buddhist practices. Entrepreneurs and engineers are taking millennia-old traditions and reshaping them to fit the Valley’s goal-oriented, data‐driven, largely atheistic culture. “Forget past lives; never mind nirvana,” says the article. "The technology community of Northern California w a n t s r e t u r n on its investment in meditation," and quotes
OSHO M E D I TAT I O N EVENTS I N S I G H T, EXPERIENCE
Another gem from Google Alerts for "Osho : Under the heading "Naked m e n with the munchies cause gyoza shop to close down,” en.rocketnew524.com reported that in early September, “the Katamachi branch of the Chinese food restaurant Gyoza no Osho (King of Gyoza) in Kanazawa City, Japan, shut down after a group of m e n decided to drop in on the restaurant dressed in nothing but their birth‑ day suits.” Reading the article I found that gyoza are a Japanese form of dumplings or p o t stickers. B o n appétit! See you in the New Year! V
oshovz'ha@oshoviha.onc]
Deva Sulaocflrta j; Devaflnecslm 'itt‘t
8rSATSANG W I T H SWAMI SATYA VEDANT
October ‐ December 2013 Dallas, San Diego, Atlanta, Baltimore, and New York Check www.05hona.com for details. Email: OshoNA@ymail.com Anuradha 8t Paritosh (678) 574‐8150 Anand 8t Chetna (404) 274‐2747
Songs on
this ( D :
1. Close to You 2. Here with You 3. From the Smallest Grassleaf 4. Endless Night 5. Because You Are Alive 6. Like Falling Leaves 7. Depth of My Being 8. Just One Look q.This Precious
Moment
Available at www.0shoViha.org
Buddha’s First Noble Ituth is "There is suffering.” The modern equivalent is "Shit happens.” Buddha was concerned with the basics: sickness, old age, and death; while we often get caught up in "tragedies" like financial loss and relationship crises.
Life happens, and not all of it as we want or expect. When things don’t go according to our plans, from a stock market crash or bad investment to an early death, do we react or respond? Can these events be devices for a deeper realization and consciousness? Osho created devices to challenge us and provoke us to break through our egos. If we’re paying attention, life seems to provide plenty of devices all on its own.
Divine Devices BYDHIREN Dip into any Osho book (or discourse) and you may well be dealing with an instant device; for example, shortly before getting the invitation to contribute to this special issue of Viha Connection, 1 came across this:
Basically there is only one way of discovering the Buddha, the truth of your being. But there are thousands of people with different states of consciousness; hence for them, different devices, different small streets joining to the main way have to be created. [..._] But finally, whatever fits will lead you to the ultimate way: turning in. Every device is dedicated to the simple task of turning in. (The Miracle, Chapter 9) I think that pretty much sums it up: Devices are n o t just shocks, they are also invitations; devices are n o t just about suffering, they are there to wake us up, to t u r n us on. and i n , perhaps to nudge us gently. A glance, a.touch, an answered (or un-answered) question from the Master, a challenge, a m o m e n t of insight, a fight: Many of us have had a taste of these kinds of devices around Osho. They seem to me to arise out of the m o m e n t ; contextual, disposable, but also infinitely recyclable.
I am more interested in those devices I experienced with and around Osho that are still valid, the ones that have n o t reached their sell-by date. What kinds of devices are for the n o w and for the future? A r e they to be found independent of a living Master, or do those once-potent triggers inevitably become mere nostalgia? With or without a living Master, any so-called device can become a ritualized belief or a redundant prac‑ tice. Orange robes and malas, koans and therapy pro‑ cesses, communities and relationships ‐ even sannyas
names, Osho reminded us, are n o t to be taken t o o seriously or clung to reli‑
giously. Above all the myriad available devices for future seekers, what will prove to be perennial, I am sure, are the incom‑ parable array of meditations that Osho devised and revived. You have come to me seeking meditation. Meditation is needed only because you have chosen not to be happy. If you have chosen to be happy, there is no needfor any medita‑ tion. Meditation is medicinal: If you are ill, then the medi‑ cine is needed. [. ..] Once you have started choosing happi‑ ness, once you have decided that you have to be happy, then no meditation is needed. Then meditation starts happen‑ ing o f its own accord. ( A Sudden Cash o f T h u n d e r, Chapter 7)
Then there is the commune/sangha of a Master, which has for thousands of years been a tried-and‑ tested source of devices. Osho’s great and novel use of this situation was probably the m o s t controversial aspect of His work.
I feel I have been lucky to have lived in the com‑ munes around Osho from my late teens. Someone or other was always pushing my buttons. "It’s just a device,” was a phrase thrown around with enthusiasm in Pune One (and even more so in, Rajneeshpuram), often by people who wanted to legitimize their o w n abuse of power or authority. Device, enigma, or koan? Take your pick, but it was Osho Himself who often p u t these people into such positions!
In the garden department, we were lucky to have Mukta as o u r resident Zen Master, cajoling, remind‑ ing, capricious, and brilliant in her workings with a
bunch of big guys (and girls) with egos to match. We loved her for it and still do. Zen Masters, as Osho explained, are there to hit, push, and shock us i n t o waking up. As for the nudge element, around that time I w r o t e a question in a letter to Osho and the n e x t day got a blank page back. Thinking that He had n o t got my letter, I sent it again, but once more came a blank page as my reply, n o t even
the usual “Blessings.”
For me, this was a device; I have no idea what the questions in my letters were anymore, but I never forgot the answers! If you know where to look, nudge devices can be found in all kinds of ways, in enlight‑ ened words, in a shock, or a m o m e n t of silence.
That suffering itself could be a device, slowly started to dawn on me only later. Like many others, I have found the relationship device to be an intense means of torturing myself with agonies of jealousy and con‑ fusion, as well as for flying off into various seventh heavens. Devices? Maybe.
a few short, vivid weeks I was dealing with “losing” my Master, my home, and my beloved all at once. The Surrender device had been tough enough, but the Crisis device was the spice that forced me to taste a whole new range of bitter/sweet depths.
On this point I feel that sannyasins who essentially decided n o t to see Osho again in the last phase of His life (because of resentment and whatever else result‑ ing from their commune experiences), miss the point that the communes were never m e a n t to be per‑ manent. Osho had warned us long before that they were “ a n experiment to provoke God.” For me, it is the let-go meditations guided by Osho at the end of his final Zen discourses that are the ultimate device, an incredible leaving-gift from the Master. If energy darshans with Osho, or sitting in morning discourse, had blown my heart and mind CflflTlflUES 0|] FREE 36
If at these kinds ofjunctures, we get help to face o u r unconsciousness and o u r projections and to figure o u t how we managed to get into such messes in the first place, they are devices. Therapy groups of all kinds have certainly been devices to heal, and to see, for example, that my so-called broken heart is some‑ times just a bruised ego.
On the Ranch, the head-honcho of all devices for me was the work itself, and mostly I loved it, whether cleaning, driving trucks, or serving nachos. Cutting many long stories short, let’s just say that in the 1,500 years of Zen tradition, for every satori, or ken‑ sho arising from a direct whack from a Master’s stick or from a koan, a hundred more m u s t have happened
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Considering that Osho was n o t speaking publicly for much of the time at the Ranch, "His" device spec‑ t r u m gained some interesting n e w shades. Build an incredible city in the desert and let it dramatically unfold? No problem! Allow budding psychopaths to work as community leaders? Why not?
Iam creating many devices, because others have failed. I know perfectly well that mydevices will function only while I amhere; they are bound to fail as every other device has failed. I am not living in any fool’s paradise thinking that mydevices will remain asI create them forever. When I amnot there, people are going to distort them. But that is natural; it has to be accepted; there is nothing to worry about.
Despite the fact that life on the Ranch had m o m e n t s when the question of devices seemed far away, replaced instead by various major pains in the butt, there was a weird m i x of grief and relief in having to leave that beautiful place that had become home, that had become a kind of utopia for so many of us. Maybe we had forgotten that it really was “just a device.”
Hence those who are here, please be alert and use these devices as deeply aspossible. While I am here these devices will function perfectly well. In myhands they can be great situations for inner transformation, but once my hands are no more visible these same devices will bein the hands of the pundits and the scholars, and then the same story will be repeated asit has been in the past.
Ashu, my girlfriend at that time, was Osho’s dental nurse and so had left with the small group traveling with Osho to Kulu and later Kathmandu, and so in
Beware, bewatchful. Don’t waste time.
to people while making the miso soup or cleaning up the monastery w i t h the other “Buddhas.”
Be Still and Know, Chapter 4
Everything Can Become 3 Device BY GANGA My garden is an ongoing source of devices for me. Thinking of it always brings m e into the m o m e n t , and i t never stops challenging my perception and awareness. It teaches me via the dharma of plant life. If I don’t get i t , the plants will n o t complain, but they will slowly t u r n into limp, colorless masses before disappearing all together. If I get it, they grow, bloom, and spread their fragrance. The garden. so often highlights my limita‑ tions and nudges me to go beyond them. It lets me take part in the rhythms of life, demonstrates how to live with the seasons. It teaches me about right action, right m o m e n t , about harmony and compatibility and their opposites. In short: Gardening is the end of having it my way; it’s all about surrender. And since there is no one to ask ‐ the plants corn‑ municate in their o w n silent language ‐ after consult‑ ing books and Google, I have to dive into my o w n resources; another precious device. It’s easy to accept the garden as a Master, but more difficult with people. You don’t lose face surrendering to a garden; you are n o t praised or exposed as a failure.
There is no fear of being rejected or hankering to be accepted and loved. Of course, it's fun if the garden is happy and full of flowers, colors, and crunchy lettuces, but there is nobody to say good or bad; it’s all self‑ evident. In all this the benefits of devices become apparent: get‑ ting o u t of the grip of limited understanding; pointing o u t destructive, outdated, or megalomaniac beliefs; pro‑ pelling me into more freedom; kindling t r u s t in myself;
poking holes in unrealistic self‐image bubbles; opening into a wider frame of mind; expanding the horizon; and sharpening awareness. Another memory comes up from the old days work‑ ing in the kitchen with Deeksha. One day she had one of her screaming fits, tickling the freely dangling balls under the robe of a skinny-legged swami, proclaiming loudly, "Not much there.” The poor guy froze in horror and humiliation.
Then it was my t u r n : "Don’t be so German,” among other stuff, while I executed the Gurdjieffian task of deep cleaning a shelf for the second time that day. I heard what she said, and nothing moved inside ‐ no red ears, clenched teeth, thoughts of revenge, no reac‑ tion - just the simple thought: "This is her stuff; it has nothing to do with me.” I had clear boundaries for the first time in my life. There was no feeling of being intruded upon, no feeling of being trespassed
o n , which was one of my biggest fears.
Instead. I experienced directly: "This is where I am; this is where I end. This is where she is; this is where another starts." I tell you, life is different with boundaries. This was huge for me. Her outrageousness triggered this healthy response in me, and I am forever grate‑ ful to her for being the midwife into this new life. Afterward I happily accepted other challenges like: "Bake a sponge cake without using eggs.” ( I n the early days eggs were o u t ; only later did they become part of o u r diet.) And, of course, there are the devices deliberately cho‑ sen by the Masters, kind of hand-tailored for each disci‑ ple. For example, there are sets of koans that have been used for centuries to liberate the student from particular frames of mind; like "Is the m o o n clever or stupid?" "Is the Buddha inside or outside your heart?”
Other koans, like “Who am I? What is love, t r u s t , free‑ dom?” used in the Awareness Intensives (Who Is I n ? and Satori), don’t have answers but are pointers and encouragement to experience, embody, and live the koan every m o m e n t . They are devices t o come o u t o f the thinking mind into no-mind and being. The most famous story of devices is probably the beauti‑ ful story of Mojud, who kept receiving messages from Khidr, the m a n dressed in green, like “Sell your shop and go to...” Mojud never questioned or reasoned. He trusted and ended up enlightened.
Actually, everything can become a device if I am open to receiving and learning. B u t nothing will happen if I don’t recognize the situation as a device. I need to p u t one and t w o together before it clicks, before I can get what I am actually learning. I need to be .in a posi‑ tion to extract the goodies from the situation and savor them. Well, everything works better with conscious‑ ness, doesn’t it? Another device comes to m i n d from the early Pune days. Going to the workers’ tea break while working in the bakery I left my ring on the bread-kneading table, trustng that nobody from my sannyas family would steal it. Well, when I came back it was gone, and I was devastated. It was the only piece I had from my ex ‐ no need to mention attachment. A few days were filled with crying my heart o u t , m o r e over the lost innocence and, I admit, blue-eyed t r u s t toward my fellow travelers than the lost ring. One day Amida came and brought me her precious emerald ring as a consolation ‐ more tears. This time I cried out of feeling loved.
Lesson number one: Trust in Allah but tether your c a m e ] first. Lesson number two: If one doesn’t love you, another one does.
Some time later Amida asked for her ring back. It had done its job, and the wound had healed. I had let go.
The n e x t lesson was to follow shortly after. Some of us were working day and night to get the first white Rolls-Royce ready for the March celebration. I was sewing away on the upholstering of the stretch limou‑ sine. The day after the celebration we were called into the kitchen of Lao Tzu House to receive presents from Osho. "This is for you from Bhagwan,” Vivek said. It was a ring, same color of gold, same size, same deep purple amethyst, but a different c u t . Lesson number three: It’s n o t only okay to let go but I can enjoy even more if I am
beautiful ring is a beauti‑ ful ring is a beautiful ring.
n o t attached. A
One day, years later while I was on a trip, it broke. I wrapped it in a tissue and secured it in my handbag. After the jour‑ ney I threw it o u t while cleaning o u t the bag, by accident, of course. A l l that was left was: gate gate paragate parasamgate... (gone, gone, gone forever) and a giggle. I’ll never forget how surprised I was, waiting for a delayed reaction that never came.
Osho said in His discourse on Mojud:
That’s how it happens on the inner journey. If you trust, something or other will always happen and will help your growth. You will be providedfor. Whatsoever is needed at a par‑ ticular time will begiven to you, never before it. You get it only when you need it, and there is not even a single moment ’3 delay. When you need it you get it, immediately, instantly! That’s the beauty of trust. By and by you learn the ways how Existence goes on providing ‐ how Existence goes on caring about you. You are not living in an indifferent Existence. It does not ignore you. You are unnecessarily worried; all is provided for. Once you have the knack of know‑ ing this, all worries disappear. (The Wisdom of t h e Sands, Vol. 2, Chapter I ) ‘ . info@awareness-aeademy.com
THO’USIIDS or
nmtrtn
When a great Sufi mystic, Hassan, was dying, somebody asked,
"Hassan, who was your Master?” [...]
Hesaid, "It will bedifficult because I had thousands of Masters. I f I just relate their names, it will take months and years. It is too late. But three Masters I will certainly tell you about. "One was a thief. [...] And the man was so lovely, sobeautiful, I stayed for one month! And each night he would say to me, ’Now I am going to mywork. You rest, you pray, you do your work.’ And when he would come back I would ask, ’Could you get anything?’ Hesaid, ’Not tonight. But tomorrow I will try again.’ And hewas never in a state of
hopelessness.” [...] And then Hassan said, "When I was meditating and meditating for years on end, nothing was happening, and many times the moment came when I was so desperate, so hopeless that I thought to stop all this nonsense. There is no God, and all this prayer isjust madness, all this meditation is false - and suddenly I would remember the thief who would say every night, ’God willing, tomorrow it is going to hap‑
pen.’ "So I tried one day more. If the thief was sohopeful, with such hope and trust, I should try at least one day more. And many times it hap‑ pened, but the thief and the memory of him helped meto wait one day more. And one day, it happened, it did happen! I bowed down. I was thousands of miles away from the thief and his house, but I bowed down in his direction. Hewas myfirst Master. “And mysecond Master was a dog. Iwas thirsty, and I was going towards the river, and a dog came. Hewas also thirsty. Helooked into the river, he saw another dog there ‐ his own image ‐ and became afraid. Hebarked, and the other dog barked, too. But his thirst was so much that hewould hesitate and go back. Hewould come again and look into the water and find the dog there. But the thirst was so much that he suddenly jumped into the water, and the image disappeared. He drank the water, he swam in the water - it was a hot summer. And I was watching. I knew that a message had come to mefrom God. One has to jump in spite of all fears. "When I was on the verge ofjumping into the unknown, the same fear was there. I would goto the very edge, hesitate, d co back. And
conrmueson mews
43:3.
.
The Process 0?Acceptance BYSWAMI ANONYMOUS* The other process that also really helped me get through my situation was a workshop that I had done a year and a half previously called Avatar. Avatar is a pro‑ gram about self‐discovery that studies beliefs and belief systems, and how if you can manage to change your . belief about something, it can actually change your reality. Without going into it t o o much, I can say that I learned and experienced so much from it. Mainly what I learned, was how easily it was to p u t labels on things, people, and experiences that would keep me separate. It In the very beginning, the government officials told me also helped me take a very broad outlook on my life in I was looking at five years in prison, which mentally I general and gave me the ability to take responsibility for 'l began to prepare myself for. A week later (after they had what came to me in my life. made me o u t to be a big drug kingpin) because of the So, in the beginning of my arrest and for months after quantity of drugs that they were charging me with and I did go through a lot of “why me?" And yet slowly, because of the new mandatory minimum sentencing slowly as I was able to witness more and was able to laws, they told me that I was actually looking at 10to take responsibility for finding myself in this situation, I 20 years in prison and a one million dollar fine. At that began the process of acceptance. point everything changed, and I told myself that there was no way that I was going to do that kind of time. A couple of incidents worth mentioning occurred about From that moment on and for the n e x t few weeks I seri‑ 10 months after my arrest and after they had moved ously considered taking my life rather than go through me to a prison in California; they helped change my what I imagined to be a living hell. perspective of being in prison. One incident was hav‑
More than 20 years have passed since I was arrested and put in prison. The charge was conspiracy to dis‑ tribute Ecstasy, otherwise known as M D M A . This was January 17, 1992, and the case that they were charging me with had occurred four years earlier. It is hard to describe what it feels like to have your freedom taken away, but let me just say that it is horrible, really hor‑ rible. Alongside this horrible feeling, comes fear: fear of the unknown, fear for my safety and wellbeing.
It took the government three weeks from the time that I was arrested to finally get me to N e w Orleans, Louisiana, where the case was located. I kept hoping that they would let me o u t on bail but there was no such luck, asI was deemed a flight risk ‐ and rightly so because given half a chance I would have been o u t of there. When all was said and done I ended up serving just over t w o years in prison and three years of proba‑ tion. Funnily enough in a way it was the probation that was worse than the time inside, only because when you are inside you are inside, and yet when you are outside and still beholden to the government you are under the constant threat of being put back inside.
There were t w o main ways that helped me deal and get through this ordeal. One was what I had experienced while being with Osho and with meditation, and that was witnessing. I had been around those days in Pune in 1988 and ’89 during Osho’s Zen discourses where He would finish every evening with Gibberish and silence and then us falling back as He would say to us something like: Rush to the very center of your being asif this was your last m o m e n t of life. Witness that you are n o t the body, witness that you are n o t the mind, witness that you are the Buddha, pure consciousness. Experiencing this every evening for months on end had a huge impact on me and was extremely helpful for me in my period of incarceration.
ing been stood up by a close friend who had promised to Visit me and then flaked n o t once or twice but three times in a r o w for various reasons, the worst being that she was hung over from partying t o o much and couldn’t be bothered to make it. The second incident was while talking long-distance to my girlfriend who was in Japan and hearing a male voice in the back‑ ground, it dawned on me that she had someone else in her life and hadn’t told me. That phone call and being stood up for the third time happened on the same day, a Sunday. I was in such a state of anger and hurt that I went to the outside weight-lifting area where there was a punching bag, and I w e n t at that bag with every ounce of energy I had, and I kept punching and punch‑ ing till my knuckles were r a w and I was completely spent. After that, something switched in me, and I become very present and calm. I made a conscious decision in that m o m e n t that I had to forget about my previous life, that I had to forget about Pune and all my friends and everything that wasn’t in my day-to-day life. If someone wanted to write to me, great. If some‑ one wanted to visit me, also great, but I was n o t going to ask or expect anything from anybody. 80 time passed by as it does, and it is interesting how when you change your perspective your reality changes. I would hear the n e w guys yelling on the phone super‑ stressed o u t as they were asking their w o m e n , "Where were you last night?”
* Alhough the Viha Connection does not usually accept anonymous contributions, there are legal
implications of this article that make it an exception. ~Ed. N
llVE UlCll HOUEHT; I would notice guys like my cellmates who had sentences of 10 to 12 years who looked at me as being on holiday; just passing through. It was interesting to observe the m e n who had been inside for a while and still had a while to go. They had
lost everything, their women, their money, and
all their material posses‑ sions and had come to a rather peaceful space, almost Zen in a way.
I will never forget when I was finally let out. You would think that I would have been jumping up and down for joy, but I wasn’t. There was almost an ambivalence in me as if to say, "Oh, now you are letting me out? Okay, bring on the n e x t movie.” As much as my prison experience was trau‑ matic and challenging I can appreciate all that I learned, and as diffi‑ cult as it was, one of the main benefits I got was that any hardships that have come my way since have paled in compari‑ son, and I have been able to p u t things in a bigger
perspective!“ Swami Anonymous can
becontacted through oshovz'ha@oslzovihaorg.
DIE EllCll llOl’lUll Religion is concerned with the art of how to live life and how to die life. Seven years, seventy years, or seven hundred years ‐ what difference will it make? You will goon repeating the same vicious circle again and again and again. You will simply get more and more bored. 50 change the focus of your being. Learn how to live each moment and learn how to die each moment. Both are together. If you know how to die each moment, you will be able to live each moment - fresh, young, virgin. Die to the past. Don’t allow it to interfere with your present. The moment you have passed i t , let it be no longer there. It is no longer there; it only goes on in your memory, it is just a remembrance. Let this remembrance also be released. This psychological hang-up should not
beallowed. [...] Just keep factual things, and your mind will be very, very clean and clear.
Don’t move ahead of yourselfinto the future because that is not possible to do. The future remains unknown; that is its beauty; that is its grandeur, glory. If it becomes known, it will be useless, because then the whole excitement and the whole surprise will be lost. Don’t expect anything in the future. Don’t cor‑ ruptit. Because if all your expectations are ful‑ filled, then too you will be miserable, because it is your expectation and it is fulfilled. You will not be happy about it. Happiness is possible only through surprise; happiness is possible only when something happens that you had never expected, when something takes you completely unawares. If your expectations are fulfilled a hundred percent, you will be living asif you are in the past, not in the future. You come home, and you expected your wife to say something, and she does. And you expected your child to behave in a certain way, and the child does. Just think ‐ you will beconstantly in boredom. Nothing will hap‑ pen. Everything will bejust a repetition, asif you are seeing something that you have seen before, hearing something that you have heard before. Continuously you will see that it is a repetition of
something, and repetition can never besatisfying. The new, the novel, the original, is needed. Soif your expectations are fulfilled, you will remain completely unfulfilled. And ifyour expectations are not ful‑
filled, then you feel frustrated; then you feel constantly asif you propose and God goes on disposing. You feel that God is the enemy; you feel as if everybody is against you and every‑ body is working against you. If your expectations are never fulfilled, you will feel frustrated. Just meditate upon your expecta‑ tions: Ifthey are fulfilled, you will feel bored; if they are not fulfilled, you will feel cheated. You will feel asif a conspiracy is going on against you, as ifthe whole Existence is conspiring against you. You will feel exploited, you will feel rejected, you will not be able to feel at home. And the whole problem arises because you expect.
Don’t go ahead into the future. Drop expectations. Once you drop expectations you have learned how to live. Then everything
that happens fulfills you, whatsoever it is. For one thing, you never feel frustrated because in the first place you never expected. Sofrustration is impossible. Frustration is a shadow of expectation. With the expectation dropped, frustration drops on its own accord.
Ancient Music in the Pines, Chapter 8
I Can Only BeGrateful BYMA PREM SANGEET Six years ago I was diagnosed with tongue cancer and ended up having 60 percent of my tongue removed. As a person who always
considered herself articulate and who liked to talk, this might have been a traumatic experi‑ ence that “ruined” my life. In reality, it was a very different kind of experience that trans‑ formed it instead. The road to the transforma‑ tion began when I m e t Osho, but the story began when I was born.
The story of my infancy is a common one. I was born to a mentally unstable mother and an emotionally absent father. He was pretty typical of his generation, and her level of dysfunction probably wasn't as unusual aswe might hope. I was the fifth child, and they couldn’t afford to support the four they already had. Yet n o t only was abortion illegal, they were Catholics, and for them to even wish for the death of a child was a deadly sin. She did wish for it though, as she later admitted. I don’t think she ever forgave me for stubbornly insisting on being born after she tried so hard to wish me dead in the womb. She was already in postpartum depression from my sis‑ ter’s birth when she got pregnant, and after I was born, she was at the lying-in‐bed-in-a-stupor stage. Today they would pump her full of drugs or hospitalize her, but those were different times. So I was left as a new‑ born infant, lying in a crib in her darkened r o o m for many hours a day, with no other caretaker during the hours my eight-year-old sister was in school.
I forgot m o s t of this as I grew older; I also managed to forget my o w n emotions about it. I knew I had certain baggage and that my parents were n o t top-of-the-line, but I prided myself on getting on with life. I saw myself as competent, capable, and pretty strong. By my late 205 I had decided to take sannyas, yet I was managing to stall for a little while longer. During this time my brother took me to see some psychics in San Francisco, and they told m e , at length, that I had been abused as a child. I didn’t like that image of myself at all. I didn’t see myself as a vulnerable Victim; I was the one who helped other people. I hadn’t been beaten much as a child; I hadn’t been sexually abused or burned with cigarettes, so I j u s t didn’t see myself as abused.
Eventually I stopped stalling, took sannyas, and did a few groups in Berkeley, but then the Ranch was in full swing, and there was no time for foolish things like therapy...or sleep. By Pune Tw o I was still carrying much of the baggage from childhood. When I told Osho I was feeling depressed, He said that I had been abused
as a child and I should do what He called de-hypnosis. Rats! There it was again, and this time I had to pay attention. I began what turned o u t to be a many-year-long relationship with hypnosis.
I continued the work after Osho left the body, and as I recovered more and more memories I became aware of a p a r t of me that had felt so stunned and overwhelmed at birth by the lack of welcome and n u r ‑ turing that it didn’t want to be here. It had always wanted to t u r n around and go back, if n o t into the womb then o u t of the body. That p a r t perceived the world asan unfriendly place where I ’ m n o t welcome and preferred death to a t o r t u r o u s existence here. Though I was aware of that p a r t of me, I didn’t think of it as a threat to my life until at 55 I was diagnosed with cancer. Then I realized that I could die, soon. A healer I was working with also tuned into the part that was choosing to die. It seemed to me that the weight of energy I had been carrying all this lifetime was just t o o much for the body to go on carrying. I had to choose to live or choose to die; there was no more time to sit on the fence.
After some soul searching I chose to live; then began the long road through the cancer treatment and the recovery process. To get through that p a r t I did what I called a gratefulness practice. Every day I would take time to remember things I was grateful for, such as the support of friends, the medical care I was receiv‑ ing, my cat, that the s u n had risen that morning... I found that gratefulness was like turning on a light switch. When you t u r n on the switch the light comes on and the darkness is gone. Light and darkness can’t exist together in the same moment. When I was grate‑ ful there was no space for "why is this happening” and "why m e ” kinds of energy. So, in spite of the m a n y hor‑ rors of the cancer treatment experience, I remained in a good space m o s t of the time. This practice was itself so transforming that I thought I would remember to do it every day for the rest of my life. Of course, I haven’t; I got better and got "too busy” to remember to do the practice every day. But I find I always have access to that space and can erase the darkness of negative thoughts anytime I remember, and when thoughts begin to darken, I usually do remember these days.
There was pain and fear in the cancer treatment. The doctors told me that if they had to c u t across the mid‑ line of the tongue I might never taste again. I knew I would never speak normally again, and there were
Lhce Happens...? Where Are We
When it Does?
BYAMARESH When I look back at my life I remem‑ ber everything good that happened and everything “not so good” that hap‑ pened. Today, when both are over, I only feel that without one the other could n o t exist. Be it a relationship fall‑ ing apart, be it a promotion coming my way, be it a financial loss in a business, be it a medical surgery that I needed, be it an investment I made ‐ I look at all of it and realize that all of it was needed to make me what I am today.
Osho has been in my life since I was five years old ‑ probably one of the last of my generation who saw H i m in person, listened to H i m in discourses, and meditated with H i m live. Since I have been with H i m I have known that His "Zen hits” will keep coming at me with a reminder to look w i t h i n , to meditate, to slow down and witness, to ask myself what is the most important thing to me in my life. Is it the n e x t better house? Is it financial security? Is it job satisfac‑ tion? Is it making more money?Is it a better luxury car? Is it a n e w business venture? Is it a nice bonus? Will any of this make me satisfied? Will any of this make me happy inside? A l l the time I am asking myself these questions I know that I am looking for something else besides all of the above, that something else is within me: my o w n discovery of m e ; my o w n self-odyssey. When I forget to ask myself these questions, rest assured my Master sends me a Zen hit and a reminder ‐ what are you doing, Amaresh? That h i t could be in any form or shape. It forces me to go inside, and if I don’t do that, I am never at peace. Osho keeps on saying that we take life for granted. This never hits us until we face a life-changing adverse situation or condition. The m o m e n t that hap‑ pens we look at everything in life and start figuring out: “What do I do next? What is m o s t important for me? If I had a certain fixed time remaining, what would I do that would be the m o s t meaningful and significant for me?” It shakes a person to the core the m o m e n t he/she faces his or her mortality.
I always wonder: If we have such an intense reac‑ tion when we find ourselves in an adverse medical situation, then why don’t we have the same intense reaction in every day of o u r lives? Do we know how long we are on this Earth? We obviously don’t. Then what is it within us that lets go of the fact that life
is precious? O u r time on this Earth is precious! Everything around us is fragile. We need to be focused on the right priority for us.
My discovery has led me to the understanding that we like to fol‑ low the herd mentality. Yo u m u s t have seen the a n t s that crawl in a line behind one another. I think we are like those ants ‐ walking silently behind each other. We are all in the same r a t race but have no guts to get o u t of the line and be our o w n Master! By the time we realize that it’s a r a t race it is usually t o o late. I don’t mean that we should n o t work or have rela‑ tionships or buy a nice house or buy a nice car or get a nice g y m membership. I m e a n that we can do all these things, enjoy them while they are around, but n o t get so fixated on them that we are always running to acquire them without pausing to think if that n e w dress or n e w car or n e w cell phone or n e w job or new relationship is really important to us as persons. I often ask the question: "Why has this happened? Or that happened? What did Existence w a n t from me? Why did I have to suffer?” B u t I never ask the question: “ W h y has an awesome thing happened? Why was I blessed with love and happiness?” Isn’t this what we all do? I have come to the point where if I w a n t to ask, then I should ask both kinds of questions or none at all. This does n o t mean that I w i l l get the answers to the question of why/what/ how something happens. I w i l l be lucky if those answers are around and can be found. In any situa‑ tion I find myself sooner or later coming to the point where I accept that there are no answers for any‑ thing good or n o t so good that happens in life. H o w can this realization that there are no answers happen? It can happen through any medium you like to use. It could be walking around Vasona Lake or along the bay in Crissy Field Park or working o u t on an elliptical machine or meditating or doing yoga
or sharing with a friend about what is happening in your life.
At the end of it all it’s really up to me as a person to figure o u t a way to deal with any situation I find myself i n . Three years ago I hurt my knees doing intense hiking and running, so I had to slow down due to that and give up the t w o activities I love doing. Of course I was sad about it. What choice was
FlOlll WITH THE RIVER there except to deal w i t h it? What better way to deal with it was there besides looking at it right in the eye and telling myself: “Yes, I am sad, but I will pull through this. I w i l l recover and do some alternate activity.”
In the last year I saw a, few family tensions arise, I saw a career change that backfired, I saw plans going awry, I saw some projects finishing on time, I saw some personal objectives completing on target ‐ all I think of n o w is “Charevaiti! Charevaiti!” i.e. Keep going! Keep going! Through the ups and downs keep going... Just focusing on a few sutras helps me a lot, for
instance ‐ “Easy is right!” or "Keep things simple!" or “Deal with one thing at a time.”
Life happens! And it hap‑ pens in the now! Where are we when it happens?V arora_rz'tesl1@yahoo.c0m
Sothefirst thing to be understood: The ego is impotent. The whole is omnipotent; the part is impo‑
tent. But the part is impotent only if it tries to beseparate from the whole. Once it dis‑ solves itself into the whole, it becomes the whole. Then it is no more impotent; then that part also becomes omnipotent.
If you are trying to dosomething, you will feel helpless. Life happens; it has noth‑ ing to do with doing. In the very effort you are creating trouble for yourself. Don’t try to swim upstream. Then you will feel asif the river is fighting you. It is not the river. The river is completely unaware of you. The river is
completely unconcerned with you. The river is not doing anything to you; the river is not being nasty to you. Only you are trying to swim upstream, hence you feel the river is going against you. [...] There is a proverb that man proposes and god disposes. But why should god be so against man? Why should hebeso cruel? There is no god to dispose anything, and if there is, he cannot be so cruel asto dispose your poor desires. [...]
But the real thing is: The moment you propose, in your very proposal you have created the disposal. You are fighting against the stream. Now you are moving upstream, and you will feel asif the river is moving against you. Start floating with the river, and suddenly you will see the river is taking you to the ocean. And it is not against; it is very friendly, it is very lovely. Noneed to swim even, no need to make any effort ‐ effortlessly just float, and the river takes you. Don't waste your energy. [...] And that is whatI mean when I say drop the ego. Ego is nothing but the illusion of
separation from the whole. Humbleness is nothing but a reunion with the whole, a remarriage with the whole. The ego is a divorce; humbleness is a remarriage, a reunion, unio mystica ‐ when you are united with the original source. Then all that you always wanted to happen starts happening, but it never happens
till you stop wanting. This is the dilemma. If you goon wanting, your very want will create a situation in which it is not going to happen. And of course, the mind will say, "Make more
effort.” [...]
Wearejust the hands and legs of the whole. Wecannot have wills ‐ only the whole. The whole wills, and everything happens to us.
Once you accept this, all effort, all struggle, is gone then. One moves effortlessly.
All weight, all heaviness from the head disappears, all headache disappears. In fact, the head itself disappears. Then life is an ecstasy, a continuous bliss, an eter‑ nal celebration, a benediction. Nirvana: The Last Nightmare, Chapter 10
Letting Go BYJAYADIP It’s a brilliantly clear morning on a steep Himalayan road. O u r Enfield motorbike just overtook some cars, too fast for the sharp bend ahead... The truck appears around the cor‑ ner, its width taking more than half of the road. We are n o t wearing helmets. The centrifugal force pulls us...no chance to escape!
This is it! Suddenly time stops. I . ‘ 3;, realize this life is over ‐ and guess what, it feels derful! I can still recall this blissful m o m e n t of being at the end of physical life. "Let go,” i s a m a n t r a i n the Osho world. A t the m o m e n t of the accident I am encountering it for real.
Letting go of the body and everything that made up Jayadip, I am thrown into the eternity of everlasting “Now I am free.”
While flying the soul commands me, “You have to roll!” And the lights go off. "Jaya! Jaya!” The voice of my unharmed beloved calls me back into my body.
This was n o t my first close encounter of looking into the eye of death. But it had by far the biggest impact.
I had been holding the belief that I can control my life, but the idea was crushed and destroyed in the grill of that truck, while o u r bodies flew past the lorry. In that eternal five-meter flight, my automatic ego-pilot admitted an utter inability to cope with the situation. The system was taken over by the authen‑ tic driver of t r u e self.
Instead of jamming my unprotected skull into the sharp rocks at the bank of the road, the body ‑ following the command from the beyond ‐‐ rolled and landed with all the force absorbed by the feet.
That was a hard landing into the unity of spirit‑ matter. It has made me think that such fusion through experiential understanding might have been behind the violent acts of Zen Master Ma Tzu, when he threw disciples o u t of the window. While an angel, who miraculously appeared as a doctor in this remote mountain area, prevented me from bleeding to death, the space of letting go con‑ tinued. And what is "letting go” other than allow‑ ing?
My damaged right hand forced me to accept help from others for months ‐‐ a hard lesson in, non-doing ‐ an experience radically different from just reading about it.
My second life has never been the same as the one before. Ten years later I am still growing into it. I used to be an angry fighter against outer situations. The world, in short, was my enemy, n o m a t t e r what good came along to convince me of the contrary. That wounded inner child has humbly admitted defeat. The beyond is n o t an idea. It runs the if show, but I have to surrender to it daily. The hydra has many heads! One of the most striking changes I noticed first was that at no point did I feel the accident was a tragedy. On the contrary, I felt it as a gift ‐ one of the big‑ gest in my life. That is in stark contrast to my for‑ mer approaches to calamities. I used to regret, fight, blame others ( i n this case maybe the unsafe roads in India), put myself down for n o t taking better care...
you name it. None of this happened at any time in the long recov‑ ery process after the accident. I just welcomed every‑ thing as a gift. H o w amazing, when we just accept what is! I truly believe this accident was a device of Existence for me to wake up and get real, and strong transformations sometimes come with a heavy price.
When after t w o months my right hand was finally taken o u t of the cast, I realized w i t h amazement that I couldn’t bend the last three fingers any longer. They had lost contact with my will. In the time before the accident this fact alone could have totally freaked me o u t . The blame game would have reached its peak. And mind you, it was the right hand. Instead of going slowly back to the busi‑ ness of my daily life, I was still largely handicapped. Yes, a little better than a hand in a cast, but still... The doctor said m o v e m e n t would come back. Honestly, my mind did n o t believe him. For the first time I got a feeling of what being paralyzed means, even if it was “only” in three fingers. However, a strong power arose in me that said I would n o t give up, though tears were flowing in despair. So, continuing to do the exercises even when there was no apparent success, being confronted with a daily no-success story strengthened my will and trust.
And the miracle happened: Tiny micro movements started to appear. Spirit w e n t into the material body. What an amazing teaching! We usually do CONTINUESon MM
36
DEVICES THFlT
DISIII’I’EHII
Everything is a device, because the truth cannot be said, so only devices can be given. You have to be convinced about the devices, but they will have to be dropped at the last moment. But that does not mean that you have to drop them now! Dropping them now will not help; now you have to use them to their utmost possibility. And then that moment will come byitself. When the device has reached to the peak, it disappears. [...] The whole problem arises because the truth cannot be
said, sosomething has to be devised that will bring you to truth. And the device has to besuch that it will not become anobstruction in itself. Sothe great Master is one who gives you a device that is made in such a way that it is going to disappear automatically, autonomously, the moment you come close to truth. [...] Any device can become a barrier too. It may help you to get rid of other things, but finally you have to get rid of it ‐ and that may bea difficult thing. [...]
But there are devices that will not create such atrouble, and there are devices that will fall automatically. The moment when you are reaching to the climax ofyour being they will simply fall down.
I call a Master a great Master, the perfect Master, who creates devices that are going to fall on their own accord when the moment has come for the person to experience the ultimate. Other devices are created bysmaller people. Perhaps they don’t know that these devices can become attachments themselves.
Soeverything I say is a device. Myspeaking to you is a device so that you can just be here ‐ your mind is engaged, listening to me, and something invisible can go ontranspiring between meand your hearts. That's the real thing. The words will help the mind to remain engaged. They are
likejust toys. When you don’t want children to disturb you - you are studying ‐ you give them toys, and they start playing with the toys, soyou can do your work or study or doanything you want to do, and the children won’t come to you to bother you and ask you questions and this and that. The mind isjust like a child.
The words arejust toys for the mind ‐ not truths, but
simply toys. But while the mind is engaged something can happen from my depth to your depth. You may not understand it, but it will start bringing changes in you, transformations in your being. Sometimes simply sitting silently with me...but then there is always the problem that your mind will disturb you. I have tried sitting in silence with you, and I have seen what the problem is. I can reach your heart less; your mind is disturbing you too much. Speaking seems to be a better device: Your mind remains engaged, and once in a while i f I give a gap between two words, the mind does not disturb. The mind simply looks and waits: "What is going to happen? What is going to be said?" And meanwhile the real work is happening. The real work
is from myheart to your heart. Beyond Psychology, Chapter 36
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you to change and transform into what you were always meant
Mood of the Moment: In the center of all things, there is a calm. When Osho was a boy, he was swimming across a monsoon-swollen river in India and was captured by a whirlpool. If he had resisted the strong force of the whirling current, it would have overwhelmed him and he would have drowned. Instead, he let the current take him down, down to
the bottom, and the same centrifugal force that took him down carried him up again. In the center of pain, there is a calm that does not hurt. In the center of the cyclone, there is a calm that does not blow.
Aries: You were not born with a lot of patience, and this is a time when you have less of this rare commodity than ever before. It isjust not there. Impatience is there. Impatience with the little things you have to do, impatience with daily routine, and impatience with others or any kind of compromise. Good to not even try. Why row up the river against the flow? Better to find the calm in the midst of the storm. When you impulsivelyjump this way or that, best to do thejump with gracefulness.
Y
to be. It is a time of purifying and cleansing anything that is not correct for you anymore. Luck and good fortune are on your
side. You have transits that give you confidence and sense of value in yourself now.
g2 Leo: Good to be very, very practical during this time. Pay particular attention to your money affairs and avoid any kind of high-risk or ill-defined speculation schemes that look too good to be true. Beconservative and look at the situation twice before you purchase anything. Take care of your home and fam‑ ily and take care to stabilize anything shaky or loose. Doall the little things in your routine life that you have been putting off. Dot your i’s and cross your t’s and clean out your closet. Virgo: During this time period you have the energy to do things, but having the motivation to use that energy may be a challenge. Part of the difficulty with motivation is that you don’t know exactly what it is you want to do. Your focus is wide, but not specific. Confrontation is avoided, and you may not be totally open about everything. Other people may hide things from you or not betotally clear. Things work out best when you work creatively or for a cause that transcends material interest.
Taurus: There are some empty spaces in the soul that mortal
5
love does not fill. It is from this empty space that you find the emotional resources and the strength to fi l l the empty space of others. Ask the others you work with if there is anything you can doto make their work more satisfying. Ask the one you laugh with and hold hands with if there is anything you can do to make his or her life more satisfying. This is the path to the deep, deep meaningfulness of life that you seek.
:[I Gemini: Busy, busy at getting things done, but maybe unsure where it leads to. Your goal in life at this time is vast and beau‑
11
Libra: These are not normal times. A powerful once‐in~a‑ lifetime transitis affecting the whole world and all the cardinal signs in particular. Forget about peace and harmony. Events happening in your life now are extreme, one-sided, sudden, intense and life‐changing. You may even find yourself (gasp) becoming angry. Relationships that are not correct for you will be ending now. Good for you to put your foot down and stand upfor what isjust and fair.
tiful, but undefined and vague enough for you to not be sure if you have already achieved it or not. Duality between energy to
get things done and being not exactly sure what is to be done. Maybe you have already arrived at the destination, but the
desire to continue thejourney is strong. If there is any con‑ flict at home, then put more attention into listening. You are famous for talking, but you have a gift for listening too. Cancer: This is a time when security in your life is found not in the old and familiar, butin finding a new path through thejun‑
®
I I l Scorpio: Time to come out and socialize again. my friend. You may have been withdrawn or holding yourself back since your Saturn transit started in November 2012. It has been a period of getting grounded and developing even more self‐sufficiency. Another year of this, while slowly, slowly coming out into the world again at the same time. Good to begin networking with old friends again on the Internet. All of this provides a base of support for when you change everything in 2019.
gle of this life. Demands will be made by circumstances now for
E
34,
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Sagittarius: All the world is a stage, and you play a chief role now in the drama going on. The spotlightis on you in some way, and it is good that you play your part because you are so uplifting, uplightning to others around. You can help them to find the humor in things that a practical, serious mind cannot
do. You may be busy at your work, but the search is on to find an easier way to make it more fun. Sharing emotions with oth‑ ers is meaningful now, and, somehow ‐ as usual ‐ Existence supports your Being.
(’6 Capricorn: The times are intense. Pluto is Shiva the Creator and the Destroyer. It brings transformation and terror, con‑
sciousness and crisis. They are two sides of the same coin. It goes around the wheel every 248 years. When it went into Capricorn is when the "Great Recession” started. When Uranus went square in 2011 is when Fukushima happened. All of this keeps going on until 2018‐2024. The lesson for us (I am Capricorn too) is that all things are temporary, but ourjob is to try to make them last anyway.
Aquarius: It is time to get the big picture, to understand what the hellis going on. You have a gift for synthesizing multiple ideas anyway, and this is a time when it comes to a peak. Your task is to look at old things in a new way that you have never done before. Study, study and observe, and it will come to you in a flash. Then the next step is to find like-minded thinkers to share it with. Donot forget to pay attention to smaller things like your personal finances. There is a tendency to be deceived at this time. Pisces: Dearly beloved precious one, you are the most kind and gentle of all souls. With the Neptune transit going on through Pisces from 2011 to 2026, it will beslowly, slowly like dripping drops of
MIRACLE
water dissolving any hardness of stone you might still have.
Like the shifting shapes of clouds, you will be able to adapt to any environment, to either hugging with the mountains or flowing with the wind. Nothing will harm you because there is nofalse ego to beharmed.‘
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lEllllG (10 by Jagadip continued from page 32 n o t consider o u r ability to move o u r bodies special. But seeing over months the awakening of finger movements taught me what a miracle it is. This training of the paralyzed fingers served as a living metaphor of a higher self, awakening the dead robot
in me. And I know I am lucky ‐ lucky throughout all the steps since the accident. I got comments like: "God must love you!” often enough that I realized this was a message from Existence. As a child I had grown up with the message that I am n o t lovable ‐ another transformative t u r n - a round.
At the time of the accident I had just acquired my mountain house in the Indian Himalayas. The let‑ ting go helped me t u r n it into my meditation “cave.” I could n o t do much anyway, so I accepted the message and surrendered into non-doing. If you had known me before, you would know I was a workaholic and would realize what a change this was. The trans‑ formation process extended into a seven-year semi‑ retreat.
Writing down all the above and seeing the events as a single story unfolding on the computer screen for the first time I realize the extent of the impact this letting-go event had on me. In a way I really died in that accident. Since then, I have learned to take the world and what is happening around me as an open book. I no longer feel isolated and abandoned. Before, the inner and outer were t w o separate worlds, but the letting go has broken the boundaries between my individual self and the whole.
I had a choice: I could have fallen back n o t only into my body, but also into the old structure. Thanks to the guidance of Osho and others, a n e w passage opened ‐ and someone in. me took i t . ‘
jayadip@web.de
DlVlllE DEVICES by Dhiren continued from page 23
in Pune One, these last guided meditations became for me a very deep re-initiation into what Osho had been talking about all along, a final finger pointing to the moon.
To be honest, despite the sell-by-date thing, I think it often needs time to let a device do its work, espe‑
cially in the heat of the m o m e n t of great change or drama. To come back to my question about which devices would get a good F.U.R. (Future Usability Rating): If we go with another good working defini‑ tion of a device as being anything that transforms or distills suffering from a useless dirge ‐ a "tale told by an idiot” ‐ then there’s a great deal of life (and death?) that can be a prickly springboard to a n e w dimension of being. In my experience, it’s a m i x of attitude, grace, and a little training that can make a device work pretty much anywhere, independent even of a living Master or a community of seekers. To some extent we can create o u r o w n devices, dedi‑ cated as Osho says " t o the simple task of turning in.” The kind of training that happens is more or less a side effect of meditation. What gets trained is a capacity for awareness and insight, and that’s always going to bea big deal asfar asI am concerned!’
dhiren 78@hotmail.com
lllOUSl‘lllDS 01‘ llllSlEllS continued from page 25
I would remember the dog. If the dog could manage, why not I? And then one day Ijumped into the unknown. I disappeared, and only the unknown was left behind. The dog was my second Master.
"And the third Master was a small child. I entered into a town, and a small child was bringing a candle, a lit can‑ dle, hiding it in his hands and going to the mosque to put the candle there. Justjoking, I asked the boy, ’Have you lit the candle yourself?’ Hesaid, ’Yes, sir.’ And I asked, jokingly, ’Can you tell mefrom where the light came? There was a moment when the candle was unlit, then there was a moment when the candle was lit, can you show methe source from which the light came? And you have lit it, so you must have seen the light coming ‐ from where?’ And the boy laughed and blew out the candle, and said, ’Now you have seen the light going, where has it gone? You tell me!’ And myego was shattered, and my whole knowledge was shattered. And that moment I felt myown stupidity. Since then I dropped all knowledge‑ ability.” The Secret of Secrets, Vol. 1, Chapter 6
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fin old man goes To The Wizard To oek him i? he can remove a curse he has been living wifh l’or ihe IGGT 40 years. The Wizard says, “Maybe, buT you will have +0 Tell meThe exacf words Thai were u9ed 1'0 puf 1he curse on you.” The old man 9on willwa hesitation, “I now pro‑ nounce you man and Mia.”
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