Histórias com Osho – Maniko

American singer-songwriter and workshop facilitator, Maniko, is interviewed via zoom by Sufi Abheeru and Aminah Divya

About the songs Maniko has written and her connection to Osho:

“Songs just decide they need to come.”

“I could feel [Osho] working on me – it was one of those transmissions – and in that moment I recognized that I’m an instrument. And that’s all, and I’m totally happy to do that.”

“We’re so blessed.”

About living on the Ranch:

“It was fabulous, to make a long story short, and it was incredibly challenging. First of all,
living with 5,000 people who were all totally committed, all remarkable, intelligent people from all over the world, is in itself probably the finest education a human being can have. It’s just incredibly rich. When the word came that all the energy goes into the work I was like, ‘Okay, yeah. I’ll do that.’ I was totally on board with creating an oasis in the desert.

“After two years [the work] got more, and it got more, and it got more. Everybody at the time was saying, ‘What is really going on here?’ As long as [Osho] was there I was clear I was going to stay, no matter what. He promised an experiment – I was on board, completely. As the politics and the weirdness started, I just kept stepping back – and they were happy to have me step back because I was not easy to manipulate and I had no ambition. I knew what I was there for. Toward the end I was just driving night taxi, because they wanted me out. It was beautiful because just the spirit of the place was so accessible and it was very rich. Even when Sheela and the gang left and everything got really crazy and chaotic, I just got quiet and grounded.”

“[Osho] left because the Feds were coming in. If they had come, there would have been bloodshed.”

“I just feel so much love and gratitude and sorrow – all together – because it was such an elegant thing to do…. I went through the rise and fall and all the disintegration process. When I went into ‘the world’ I was like, ‘What’s this?’ I just decided the world was my ‘new commune’. The re-entry was very rough because everybody was floundering. Everybody had a different attitude; some people felt betrayed, some people were clinging – they couldn’t wait to follow him; people were finding other Masters… I just kept staying close to Nature and silence.”

“Most of us weren’t even paying attention to other people’s interpretation of what’s going on… I saw people, who I loved, grabbing things and being angry…. I was someone who had given everything. I gave my house, my business, my property. I walked away with nothing. I think we were given $200 or something to re-enter the world. That’s not the point. The point is that if you give everything and you’re not looking for something in return, you’re always at peace. At least that’s my experience.”

“[On the Ranch] we got a preview [of the madness which is going on in the world now]. We went through the whole drama of the human condition – in four years. We created it, we celebrated it, we destroyed it, for all the same reasons that all this stuff is going on, and on and on… At some point you just step out – and step in – and be in the flow of what is true in this beautiful existence.”

“All I can say is, it’s fabulous that it happened – and I would go back in a heartbeat.”

Regarding her retreats:

“I am a treasure hunter.”

“I go for the jewels in everybody.”