His body was brought to the Amsterdam burning ghats by boat, on the very boat he had just bought. While in hospital he had planned a boat-trip to Paris and explained to everybody in detail the route: it was very complicated, through all the canals and rivers. When he heard that the cancer had spread from the brain to the lungs he accepted the situation in a matter-of fact way and said: “If it is like this… OK… then it is so!”

Never a complaint was heard from his mouth, but he would have loved to go back to his big house-boat which was located just outside Amsterdam in the middle of nature. During his illness he was taken care by those living with him on the boat. He had welcomed many sannyasins to live there, some of whom stayed for longer or shorter periods. The boat was famous for the yearly birthday-party which was always a huge gathering of friends.

“Piet had a big heart where many people had their place. He loved good company which he also found in Pune, but particularly in the Jabalpur commune. He loved India. Although his English was limited, he managed to connect and have conversations with everybody around him. He will be missed by all his friends, but I think mostly by Pathika,” writes Baul.

Tributes

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote to be published on Osho News using our contact form (pls add ‘Pieter’ in the subject field)…

The garland you have weaved
from flowers of love
has a fragrance that I can catch!
And the love-vine you have sown
spreads through my heart!
The tears of your love and joy
bring light and strength to my eyes!
How blissful it all is!

Kalyan was born in Switzerland and began learning the cello at age eight. As a teenager he learned guitar and bass and soon had his first school band. He took sannyas in Pune 1 and dedicated himself fully to music when he left a boring job at a bank in 1987 to live in India. He explored the huge range of Indian instruments and discovered in particular through the rudraveena a new approach to music, which he calls Musicality. He is a multi-instrumentalist and currently lives in Quebec.

Available at www.kalyanmusic.com
Read our interview: Kalyan Mitto: Tightrope Walker with a Cello

Review

The cello has a long history, having come into existence after the violin, during the fifteenth century. About two centuries later, cello and harpsichord were used to fill the harmonic texture of a musical group to a higher degree. Haydn and Mozart gave prominence to the cello in their compositions, and famous works include Beethoven’s five sonatas for cello and piano, and concertos by Dvořák and Debussy.

There are two kinds of cellos in use – the traditional acoustic one, and the electronic 20^th century version. Kalyan usually plays on traditional cellos yet his music is anything but! For his latest CD he chose one made out of carbon fibre. He said, “I was fascinated by the visual aspects of the carbon cello and the fact that it is not made out of wood. And I wanted to show that music is responsive and fluid like water.”

Already enchanted by listening to the first two tracks, Liquid Sky and Space, the Waterprints brought up an image of the gentle surface of a still lake fringed by ancient trees. The powerful yet calming strokes throughout captivated me to go along with the music and let the sound penetrate and merge with the cells in my body, filling me with joyfulness.

The fullness of sound is entrancing and has a strong effect – never allows the mind to wander. A divine gift presented by an exceptional and meditative musician.

Bhagawati, Osho News

Credit AP

According to authorities the reactor on the northern island of Hokkaido was closed down for mandatory routine maintenance. However, since the horrific earthquake and tsunami in March 11, 2011, no reactor halted for checkups has been restarted. The general public is wary of nuclear technology and has become frightened about the effects of radiation.

All reactors in Japan are required to pass new tests to withstand quakes and tsunami and have to gain local residents’ approval before restarting. As the government is concerned about blackouts and rising carbon emissions by presently using oil and gas for energy, they are eager to restart the nuclear reactors.

However, a recent examination of the Fukushima nuclear plant has revealed radiation levels up to ten times the fatal dose. The news alarmed the population who has been living in constant fear of radiation exposure. A study by psychiatrists at Fukushima Medical University found that almost a quarter of Fukushima’s residents hospitalized after last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami were diagnosed with a “psychiatric disorder” because of their fears over radiation. Officials have been repeatedly caught lying about the real situation at Fukushima and many locals live in constant stress over the possibility of radiation poisoning.

All is not well in Fukushima. It is a total disaster area in every sense. A 20 km exclusion zone remains in place around the plant but the radiation is not limited to this area. According to a recent article written by Makiko Segawa and posted by the Asia-Pacific Journal, Japan Focus, there has been a continuous leakage of radioactive waste water into the Pacific Ocean, radioactive waste water that includes strontium-90, and the dire claim that “Fukushima’s radioactive waste water contamination will spread all over the world, reaching to Kamchatka, Hawaii and the U.S. soon.”

There have been several reports about the huge amount of floating radioactive debris in the Pacific Ocean pulled out of Fukushima by the tsunami moving towards the Canadian and US west coast. Once the currents have reached, they will turn toward Hawaii and back again toward Asia, circulating in what is known as the North Pacific Gyre.

The Telegraph stated that “Japan’s government estimates the amount of radioactive caesium-137 released by the Fukushima nuclear disaster so far is equal to that of 168 Hiroshima bombs.”  We can only imagine the nightmare what impact all that is going to have on the fish and ocean life.

Earlier this week it was reported that radioactive water was still pouring into the Pacific, as yet another leak sprang in the Fukushima plant’s makeshift cooling system. The increase in radioactive water, which is used to cool the nuclear fuel rods, is another major concern for Japan. They are quickly running out of space to store the material, and experts fear that interrupting the water supply could cause major problems at the already troubled reactors.

Kevin Kamps from Beyond Nuclear joins Thom Hartmann (liberal author, radio host and progressive political commentator) in this short video from early April, speaking about the radioactive waste headed toward the West Coast of the United States. Every citizen on this planet ought to be aware that this means our oceans have been contaminated…and it is not going to be absorbed fast. As we know, the Chernobyl radiation is still hanging around the planet, 26 years later.

Bhagawati, Osho News

A study recently cast fructose as the arch-villain in the expansion of your waistline. The research showed that fructose dramatically enhanced lipogenesis – the process in which your body converts sugar into fat.

People in the study who drank a fructose-based breakfast drink produced twice as much body fat as those who had a glucose-only breakfast drink. This was measured during the four hours after breakfast.

Fructose is mainly a fruit sugar. Sweet fruits and fruit juice are high in fructose. But by far the worst culprits are processed foods, because most of them contain fructose in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) (2). Virtually everything that has been sweetened – biscuits, breads, cereals, crackers, juices, soups, salad dressings and other beverages all have it. HFCS is a cheap way for food manufacturers to sweeten their products and make them more addictive.

A small glass of fruit or vegetable juice that you squeeze yourself is a great part of a meal. But remember that orange, carrot and beet juice is high in fructose, and not helpful if you are trying to lose weight.

(1) Dietary sugars stimulate fatty acid synthesis in adults, Parks, E. J. et al., Journal of Nutrition 2008 Jun; 138(6):1039-1046
(2) Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism (Vol. 2, pp. 447-458), August 2006

Grahi is the author of Grow Youthful
Read Bhagawati’s article on Grahi’s work: Youthful and Healthy At Any Age

The fascinating subcontinent is also a photographer’s paradise. And on the many photos published, there is always the display of a sense of humanity, a sense of humor and sometimes depictions of the impossible. On the internet, a variety of photos are forwarded regularly to all and sundry – here are some new ones.

Credit Abhiyana

Dressed in orange-colored long robes and meditating with abandon – this is how the followers of Bhagwan became world famous in the 70s and 80s. Bhagwan, who later called himself Osho, was the founder of the Neo-Sannyas movement. He was the best-known and most controversial guru in the world. His followers saw him as a charismatic leader. Especially young people from the western world made a pilgrimage to India – many were concerned that they would completely submit to him. Sannyasin centers exist to this day – also in Munich – publicly accessible and not particularly mysterious.

Through Ecstasy to Truth

Every morning sannyasins meet at the Osho Leela Center to celebrate the Dynamic Meditation. It is a fierce meditation which consists of five phases. From chaotic breathing to laughter, screaming, crying, dancing, jumping up and down, to standing motionless – it’s all there.

The sannyasins don’t consider themselves a religious community. But one cannot describe them as a youth sect either, as they were called during the seventies. Above all they want to live their own individuality and reckon they will reach to truth through spiritual experiences – often during an ecstatic meditation.

Patik from Osho Leela Centre in Munich explains: “When someone tells me I should be loving, for example love your neighbor, then that is something being demanded from me. It has more value to me when I have experienced what love is. How that feels.”

Done with old Dogmas and Traditions

The first rule for sannyasins is that there are no rules. Only experience counts, which they search for in meditation. According to Taru, sannyasins consciously attempt to move away from old dogmas and traditions – because this was taught by Bhagwan and they still practice it to this day in Bavaria.

Patik has been a sannyasin for more than 30 years, and is particularly fascinated by “finding out more about myself, my opportunities. And to share that with others who are similarly inclined – friends with whom I can do that together. I am a musician and play music with people in this context. That is very important to me. Besides, I also like to meditate and love Osho.”

Osho – as he called himself during the last year of his life – brought the tradition of the guru, the spiritual master, to the western world. In search of enlightenment thousands of young people followed him and many left their families. They were given a new name from him in order to become a new person. Bhagwan placed himself at the center. His students submitted to him unconditionally, did what he asked of them and donated their money to him. He preached free love. With his teaching he hit upon the spirit of the times: the era of the flower power movement. The deification of Bhagwan was also a shock to society, especially for the parents who lost their children to Osho – at least for some time. Bhagwan himself about his movement:

“More than anything sannyas means courage, because it is a declaration of your individuality, a declaration of your freedom, a declaration that you are no longer part of this mass madness, this mass psychology. You won’t belong to any country, to no church, to no race, to no religion.”

Note: We at Osho News could not find out where this quote is from.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, aka Osho (1931-1990)

He founded an ashram, his first large meditation center in 1974 in India. Seven years later, in 1981, he built another community in the state of Oregon in the United States. For many the trip to self-discovery became a horror. More and more scandals became public. His students worked for him for free, he had them spied upon, accumulated a lot of money, there were even murder attempts on sect opponents. He was finally accused of tax evasion and was forced to leave the country in 1985. He returned to India. He died there in 1990 at age 59. His followers opened meditation centers around the world. Some exist until now. In the 70s and 80s the Bhagwan movement in Germany was still classified as a youth cult. Today, the sannyasins are seen as less dangerous, and without their guru the movement has lost its appeal.

Synopsis

Bhagwan was the best-known guru of the 70s and 80s. His followers, the sannyasins are looking for the truth through spiritual experiences. His movement has always been controversial; some see in him the prototype of a guru.

Facts and Figures

Most followers experienced the movement in the 70s and 80s. It is estimated that between 30,000 – 40,000 sannyasins live in Germany today. There are no figures available for Bavaria.

Faith and Goals

Sannyasins mainly want to have spiritual experiences in ecstatic meditation. They insist on finding their particular individual spiritual path.

Note: It is interesting yet not surprising to see that although the beginning of the article is fairly positive, the short paragraph on Osho has all the hallmarks of the usual negative German press coverage – we have seen similar descriptions of Osho since the so-called Eva Renzi scandal broke in the late seventies! One would wish the German press archives would be updated with some more accurate information about Osho and sannyasins.

Read original article in German: www.br.de

Translated by Bhagawati for Osho News

Just a few days ago I was talking about Proper Sagar, the perfect Englishman. Somebody has asked me, “Do you know why he is perfect?” I know, but I cannot tell you because he will feel very offended, very offended. He is such a perfect Englishman that if I tell you the truth he will be very offended. If you promise me not to tell anybody, then I can share it: he is really a German pretending to be an Englishman. No Englishman can defeat him! There are hundreds of Englishmen here – has anybody the guts to defeat Proper Sagar? Impossible! When a German tries to be anybody he is always perfect. To be German means to be perfect – they are synonymous.

So it is happening in Germany: Siddhartha is dreaming that he has become enlightened. And I go on playing jokes: I have given him one of my chairs and one of my robes! So with my robe on he sits in the chair — and being a German he is very methodical: on one side sits a woman who is Mukta; on the other side are two women, one who is Vivek, the other Laxmi. And in front of Laxmi is a man who is Shiva. Germans do things perfectly!

Come, Come, Yet Again Come, Ch 13, Q 1

Osho, is this world insane?

Siddhartha,

It seems so. At least up to now it has been insane. Man is not born insane but is driven towards insanity by the priests, by the politicians, by the parents, by your whole educational system, by your morality, by all that is enforced upon you, by all the conditionings. You are driven insane.

Man need not be insane, but it has not been possible yet to accept man in his naturalness. We create a structure around him, we prune him, we go on and on giving a certain form and pattern to him, we don’t allow him to be himself

And that’s my whole effort here: to accept humanity with deep respect, love, trust, so that man can regain his sanity. And the problem is that man is driven insane by your so-called well-wishers. The people who are trying to help you are the people who are poisoning you. Great mischief is being done by public servants, missionaries, by the so-called saints. They are the most mischievous people in the world — not intentionally, not consciously, but that’s the ultimate result of whatsoever they have been doing. they have been driven insane by other saints and they are driving you insane. And if you don’t follow them you feel guilty; if you follow them you become hypocrites. They don’t leave you any other alternative, only two alternatives: either be insane like them or feel guilty. And both the alternatives are ill, sickening.

Siddhartha, watch life all around you and you will find in every possible way that man is insane.

When the seven-year-old started for school. his mother suggested softly, “Son, put a smile on your face and have a happy time!”

But when the lad returned home his face was a big frown.

“What happened?” his mother asked. “I thought you were going to smile and have a happy time at school.”

“It didn’t work, Mom,” he said. “I tried to keep smiling, but the teacher thought I was up to something and was always giving me dirty looks!”

Nobody wants you to be happy. If you are happy, everybody will become suspicious of you: “You are up to something. Why you are looking so happy?” If you are sad you are accepted — you are part of the crowd. Everybody is sad and you are also sad; it fits. But if you are dancing and rejoicing then you are crazy, mad. Then you have to be put into a hospital, you have to be treated, given electric shocks or something, because how you can be happy? How you can be so blissful? When the whole humanity is suffering, you have to suffer.

And the crowd has always been against the people who were blissful. They crucified Jesus, they poisoned Socrates, they murdered Mansoor; and their only sin was that they were trying to be blissful, that they were not part of the mob, the sad, sick society. They were trying to be individuals.

The marriage counselor was asking a woman some questions about her disposition. “Did you wake up grumpy this morning?”

“No,” she answered. “I let him sleep.”

A woman driver passed a red light and collided with another car. Jumping out of her car, she snapped at the other driver, “Why don’t you watch where you’re going? You are the third car I hit this morning!”

When a customer was told he could no longer buy his favorite patent medicine, he angrily berated the druggist.

“But I tell you, it has now been banned,” the druggist insisted. “Now you need a doctor’s prescription because it is habit-forming.”

“It is not habit-forming!” the customer cried. “I know it’s not because I’ve been taking it every day for twenty years!”

A client was complaining to a marriage counselor that his wife’s immaturity was causing his marriage to go on the rocks. “She is so immature,” he charged, “that every time I take a bath she comes in and sinks my boats!”

The elderly millionaire emerged from his exclusive club feeling despondent and hopeless, and slowly climbed into his limousine.

“Where to, sir?” asked his chauffeur.

“Drive off a cliff, James,” was the reply. “I am committing suicide!”

A leading sexologist interviewed on television was asked, “What do you think of the view that impotence is on the rise?”

“I think the question is self-contradictory!” he replied.

It is an insane world!

In old age Diogenes stopped a veteran and asked, “What were you in the last war?”

“Oh, I was only a private,” replied the veteran.

Diogenes rocked as if about to fall. “Ye gods!” he gasped. “At last!” Then after catching his breath he blew out his lantern and went home.

You think over it – it is a little difficult.

I am That, Ch 16, Q 3

After the huge 9.3 earthquake in the Indian Ocean and following tsunami that hit the region in December 2004, several safety measures and early warning systems were implemented all along the critical coastlines. Safety regulations have been made public and the general populace got over the trauma and went on with life. Yet a few weeks ago, an 8.5 magnitude earthquake hit the same region and all systems in place either didn’t work or not as fast as one would have been hoped for. A tsunami did not happen – this time.

So no, we are not ready for the next disaster because on the purely physical level nobody can possibly be. And these catastrophes happen not only in so-called third world countries, but anywhere, here, now. Every disaster has a unique signature and only one thing in common: it happens out of the blue, as do also nuclear ones as we have witnessed in Chernobyl and in Fukushima. So preparations for a destructive event won’t work. What can?

Osho answers to the question, “With the threat of nuclear destruction, how can we be ‘joyful and serene’?”

What else can you do? Time is short – dance, sing, be joyous! If there were no nuclear destruction possible, no threat, you could have postponed. You could have said, “Tomorrow we will dance.” But now there may be no tomorrow; you cannot postpone.

This is for the first time that tomorrow is absolutely doubtful. It has always been doubtful, but this time it is absolutely doubtful. Individually it is always doubtful: tomorrow may never come, even the next breath may not come in. Individually death is always imminent, but this time it is something global, universal. The whole earth may disappear, may explode; not only all human beings, birds, animals, trees, the whole life on earth may be gone.

Now it is up to you. You can cry and weep and you can beat your head against the wall; that will not stop nuclear destruction and its threat. In fact it may bring it closer and faster because sad people, miserable people, are dangerous people. Misery creates destructiveness.

But if the whole humanity can start dancing, rejoicing, feasting – seeing that the threat is very close by…. The third world war can start any moment. The foolish politicians have enough atomic energy piled up to destroy this earth not only once but seven hundred times. That many atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, have accumulated that we can kill each person seven hundred times – although a person dies only once. But politicians don’t want to take any chance, so seven hundred times you can be killed. It will not be needed, one time will do – because we have heard only one story of resurrection; that is Jesus Christ. And even if Jesus Christ is resurrected and everybody is gone, what is he going to do? He will have to commit suicide.

Rejoice! – because then there is a possibility. If the whole earth can become full of joy it will be less possible to destroy – because who is going to destroy it? We are the people; it is up to us to decide that we want to live or that we want to commit suicide. If we start a new climate in the world – of rejoicing, of dancing, of singing, of meditation, of prayer – and if people become full of bliss, cheerfulness, laughter…. If the world is full of laughter, there is every possibility we can avoid nuclear destruction, because joyous people don’t want to destroy, they want to create.

And anyway, you are going to die. Whether the whole earth remains or not does not matter. You are going to die, that much is certain. How does it matter to you whether the world continues after you or not? If it continues, good; if it does not continue, good. How does it matter to you? You will not be here anymore. As far as you are concerned, death is absolutely certain. Still you love, still you sing, you listen to music, so what difference does it make?

If destruction has become global, we have to make laughter and dancing also global, in the same proportion, to counteract it. Why be sad? And what are you going to gain by sadness? Is it going to help in any way? It may be just a trick of the mind to keep you sad, it may be just a defense. You must be sad; now you are trying to find more and more rationalizations for remaining sad. And this is a beautiful rationalization, that, “What are you talking about? Telling people to dance and sing and rejoice, and the world is on the verge of destruction? Tell people to be sad; tell people to cry and weep and forget all laughter and forget all love!” Is that going to help in any way? It will bring the universal suicide closer.

But somewhere deep down in you there is a sadness that does not want to leave you, and that sadness is trying to find rationalizations.

David came from an orthodox family. One day he announced, “Mama, I am going to marry an Irish girl named Maggie Coyle.”

The woman froze in shock. “That’s nice, David,” she said, “but don’t tell your papa. You know he has got a weak heart. And I would not tell your sister, Ida – remember how strongly she feels about religious questions. And don’t mention it to your brother, Louis – he might give you a bust in the mouth. Me, it is alright you told. I’m gonna commit suicide anyway.”

Somewhere deep down you must have a suicidal instinct. You are just finding rationalizations.

Yes, I know the world is facing a danger, but each individual has always faced the danger of death. Still Jesus says: Rejoice and rejoice! And again I say unto you, rejoice! And in fact, Jesus was saying to people, “This world is to be destroyed soon. The Day of Judgment is very close by.” It was never so close as it is now. Jesus was wrong! Twenty centuries have passed, and he was saying to people, “In your very life you will see the Day of Judgment!” His prophecy was not fulfilled.

In fact he was not a prophet, he was a mystic. He was saying these things for a totally different purpose. He was saying, “The Day of Judgment is very close by – transform yourself! Don’t waste time, don’t postpone!”

Now the day of universal death is really close by, so don’t postpone. Rejoice, rejoice, I say unto you again and again, rejoice – because if you can die rejoicing, you will transcend death, you will go beyond death.

One who can die blissfully never dies, because in death he comes to know immortality.

And if the time is short, then you have to spread this orange laughter all over the world. Then it is time that we should make people more and more joyous. Tell them that death can take over this earth any moment – the days are numbered – because the politicians are fools, and the fools have so much power now that it is a sheer miracle that the third world war has not happened yet. It should have happened. Why it has not happened yet is a mystery. Having all these stupid politicians all over the world having all the power…. Just pushing a button and the process can be triggered, and within ten minutes the whole earth will be on fire – a fire that can melt steel and rock, a fire that will melt everything. The whole earth can explode.

This is good news! You don’t have time to waste. Come on – join the dance!”

Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 4

In 1995 he and other friends once again purchased a large property, the Zschachenmühle in the Thuringian Forest, some 200 miles northeast of Munich and called it Osho Stadt. A big project again where many of the buildings are still in process of being refurbished.

Siddhartha is also the author of many books on how to build a commune, on life in communes, Tantra, gardening and psychology.

He dies shortly after his 76th birthday.

Siddhartha’s body will be cremated in a private ceremony on 16th May and his Death Celebration will be on Sunday, 20th May where everybody is welcome. You can also arrive on Saturday. Contact Osho Stadt: www.oshostadt.de

Osho has spoken many times of Siddhartha and presented him with one of his chairs. Here a collection of quotes – with jokes: Osho Talks to and about Siddhartha

Siddharta’s artwork: www.y-fongi.de

facebook.com/OshoStadtCommune

Tributes

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote to be published on Osho News using our contact form (pls add ‘Siddhartha’ in the subject field)…

I haven’t laughed more about an author – loved his humor and playfulness. Although we never met physically he is my soul brother. Fly high, beloved!
Raji

…the universe is singing a song
the universe is dancing along
the universe is singing on a day like this
and it’s high time to dance
it’s high time to dance
so wake up and dance….

Thank you for reminding, beloved. Siddhartha was one of the first sannyasin I met in 1976 at Purvodaya, an amazing place at that time. Love, Love, Love…
Virochana

Beloved Siddhartha, the heavens must be in joy and celebration at the sight of your Light and the Beauty of your Soul. You have been one of the most precious gifts in my life. Thanks so much for your love, your beautiful heart, your tenderness and devotion to life. Here on earth you were like a huge leafy tree that gave shade to so many… in your strength there was also vulnerability and so much playfulness… I feel so blessed to have been so close to you sharing so many adventures, laughter and love. Your smile and tenderness remain within my heart. And our journey through eternity will continue in so many different forms… Feel the embrace…
Pratito

It all started for me there in Purvodaya, 1978. I did the Bodhidharma Veeresh summer group and took sannysas there. I also lived in Siddhartha’s commune RajneeshStadt. Thank you Siddhartha for your communes and for being who you are! We celebrate you!
Surajo

The latest revelations are that not only did Hitler eat marmalade for breakfast (courtesy of Britain’s National Archives), based on his medical records he also used cocaine to clear his sinuses and soothe his throat, ingested some 28 drugs at a time to relieve uncontrollable flatulence, and received injections of bull testicle extracts to bolster his libido. The records include 10 X-rays of various views of his skull, the results of several EEG tests and sketches of the inside of his nose.

Cocaine can give the user a rush of power and control. Researchers now speculate that Hitler’s cocaine use pushed him into becoming a psychopath.

In relation to that, here’s a short news flash taken from the Akashic Records:

“Adolf Hitler pushes the doorbell at the Pearly Gates of Heaven and demands to be admitted. He kicks up such a fuss that Saint Peter calls Jesus to come and deal with the situation.

“I want to come in,” cries the Fuhrer, “and I will reward you highly if you let me stay.”

“What do you mean?” asks Jesus. “You cannot possibly come in. Just look at what you did on earth!”

“Look,” says Hitler, taking Jesus to one side, “if you let me in, I will personally present you with Germany’s highest award for bravery, the Iron Cross.”

“Really?” says Jesus. “That’s a very tempting offer. Just let me make one phone call.”

So Jesus calls up God the Father. “Dad,” says Jesus, “I’ve got Adolf Hitler here at the Pearly Gates, and he wants to come in. What do you think?”

“Jesus Christ!” shouts God. “Are you kidding? The guy is a psychopath!”

“I know, Dad,” says Jesus, “but you see, he has made me this terrific offer. He wants to give me the Iron Cross!”

“The Iron Cross?” shouts God, in amazement. “You idiot! Look what happened when you got that wooden one!”

Osho, Rinzai: Master of the Irrational, Ch 6, Q 1

Related article about DNA tests and Hitler’s bloodline 

She had a difficult time finding a yoga course in Germany during the sixties. She says she wasn’t a Hippie so she didn’t travel to India. Accompanying the yoga lessons, she also participated in the first meditation course – meditation with stones – but at the time she didn’t understand why she had to return the stone she had been using during the meditation. Today she knows: “Only the moment counts. It is about presence.”

She has been using stones for meditation to this day but her favorite is the Dynamic Meditation: “Sitting quietly for a long time is not my thing,” says Anne. “Dynamic Meditation was developed by Osho; it has five phases, is physical and starts with violent breathing, followed by cathartic rage, jumping, pausing and dancing. All this with music. At the end there is peace within.”

When she was in her mid-forties, Anne trained to become a yoga teacher. She is holding more and more workshops and prefers weekend seminars: yoga, meditation, singing bowls, walking. She also gives a weekly course at the Community College in Luenen who even supplied meditation stools for her group. The groups has been meeting for ten years now, the oldest woman being 82 years old – and only very few men participate. “To sit silently within a group is more beautiful – and simpler,” says Anne.

I have no system. Systems can only be dead, they cannot be alive. I am a nonsystematic, anarchistic flow; not even a person, just a process. I don’t know what I said to you yesterday. The person who said it is not here to answer; he is gone, I am here. And I am answerable only for this moment, so don’t wait for tomorrow for I will not be here. And who is going to make consistency, who is going to find a thread that is not contradictory? There is nobody. And I would like you to be the same.

Just this moment exists, absolutely consistent, for there can be no comparison. There is no past, no future; only this moment is. How can you compare? If you live in this moment there will come a consistency which is not of a system, which is of life, which is of the energy itself. That will be an inner consistency of your very being, not of the mind.

Osho, A Bird on the Wing, Ch 5, Q 2

I am not much of a religious person, I am not a saint, I have nothing to do with spirituality. All those categories are irrelevant about me. You cannot categorize me, you cannot pigeonhole me. But one thing can be said, that my whole effort is to help you release the energy called love-intelligence. If love-intelligence is released, you are healed.

Osho, The Book of Wisdom, Ch 13

Now the time has arrived. Wake up! I’m not giving you another dream, remember. You hanker for it, you would like me to give you another dream, but I am not going to give you another dream. That’s why to be with me is difficult and arduous – because I am insisting that you wake up. Enough is enough. You have dreamed a lot; since eternity you have been dreaming. You have just been changing dreams. When you get fed up with one dream, you start changing it; you dream another dream. My whole effort is to shake you, to shock you – to wake you.

Osho, Come Follow to You, Vol 1, Ch 6, Q 1

Apart from a few desk jobs (such as editing in Pune 1) most of my work incarnations have involved my face, body and image, particularly as a model, actress and TV presenter. So a level of ‘self-consciousness’ has been part of my stock in trade. Plus, I have always been rebellious and the very phrase ‘aging gracefully’ makes me itch.

Currently helping others with their image, I now work as a dermal therapist in the thriving industry of ‘cosmetic medicine’ where enhancing and revitalising the face and body is a normal everyday focus. We call it ‘maintenance’—repairing physical wear and tear just as you’d get your car panel beaten or house replastered.

For many sannyasins it will seem absurd to combat the ravages of time. While I also see this absurdity, I still go daily into battle with an arsenal of skincare tools and products, a foray in which I’ve invested for close to 30 years—ever since undesirable aging enzymes first began munching at my collagen fibres. Over the years, I’ve spent up big on skin care—the kind that works, not fluffy ‘organic’ lotions and potions which do diddlysquat to restructure aging skin and tissue. Sorry, dear hippies and earth children, but that’s a scientific fact.

My early investigations revealed department store and beauty salon brands to contain little but fragrance and illusion, with some further bulked up with derivatives from the petroleum industry. Yet certain ingredients and technologies can slow down, even reverse, aging. These I have hunted and devoured with enthusiasm, including starting my own skin care business in 1993.

As for Botox and fillers—fabulous, darlings! My frown lines have been banished for so long that whenever they struggle to reappear, a little jab of Botox does the trick, smoothing them away for another year. Tense and anxious versus smooth and serene? For me, it’s a no- brainer!

Yet despite continual advances in ‘anti-aging’ technology, non-surgical cosmetic treatments and skin care can only go so far. And taking the next step, going under the knife, has never daunted me. On the contrary, I find the science fascinating and surgery an adventure — the high cost of procedures being the sole inhibiting factor.

I honestly find no contradiction between being a sannyasin and tidying up the body. I’ve somehow wondered what Osho’s comment might be on this subject and expect he might say that while it has neither a positive nor negative effect on one’s awareness, why not enjoy the physical form, beautify, adorn and celebrate it while inhabiting it? Just as wearing rags and starving the body has nothing to do with spirituality, ironing out a few wrinkles, nip-and-tucking saggy skin, has zilch to do with consciousness.

Last year, the long smooth neck which had always been a feature of my face, collapsed almost overnight: it had now gone beyond Botox. ‘Not living with that!’ said I, and began checking out various surgery centres in Asia, particularly Thailand. Despite the sterling reputation of many of these hospitals, the prospect of travelling alone to an unfamiliar country, spending two weeks in a hotel and having my face sliced by an unknown Thai surgeon lacked appeal. So I decided to consult a leading Perth surgeon—choosing the one to whom my boss prefers to refer her cosmetic medical patients when she can no longer ‘fix’em with fillers’—to discuss my sagging neck. I felt an immediate liking and trust in this practitioner: warm, kind, with a lively sense of humour; he also gave me a fantastic bargain quote, due to my working in the industry, so I signed up on the spot for a neck lift in two months’ time.

My lovely boss and another doctor from her practice decided to sit in on my procedure which was done under twilight sedation with local anaesthesia in the surgeon’s day clinic. It was almost like a party! I remembered having my tubes tied in 1980 in Pune 1 by Dr Saraswati: two sannyasin friends were present, looking down the laparoscope at my soon-to-be un-reproductive system while he performed the surgery under local anaesthesia—like a mini energy darshan!

My neck surgery was similar. Warm friendly vibes filled the operating theatre; I floated blissfully under sedation though conscious all the way through, the surgeon making risqué remarks while nipping my neck. A practitioner known as much for his generosity and goodwill as his surgical skill and artistry, he gave me lots more than a neck lift. I was later amazed and hugely grateful when the bandages came off, seeing the extent of his wonderful ‘work’!

I took no pain medication following surgery though did take Arnica before and after the procedure. Any bruising was almost gone after 7 days when I returned to work!

I love my ‘new face’. It makes me happy and fits how I feel inside—which is not a ‘geriatric 65 year old lady’. While I look younger, smoother and refreshed, even my own mother has not noticed I’ve ’had work’—only commenting that I look lovely as always.

People generally don’t talk about, admit to having, Botox—let alone plastic surgery. I haven’t told my family, mostly because while they’d never judge me or disapprove, they know I am a penniless old hippy with no retirement plan and they would be worried. But I’ve decided to write about this experience, particularly for sannyasins, because for me this quite ordinary life experience is something I know scares many people. Fascinating to some, daunting—even abhorrent—to others, cosmetic surgery for me has been a wonderful walk in the park called ‘living in the body’ and has refreshed this physical form for its next 10, 20, maybe even 30 years of life on this amazing planet.

Osho spoke a lot about plastic surgery, very often in the context of changing gender. And he also said this:

“Have you ever thought about it? The shape of your face is given by the body. It can be changed by plastic surgery. And you will not be changed by the change of the face: your nose can be longer, shorter, your eyes can be different, eyebrows can be different – much can be done now. And you will remain the same. So the face is not your being, it is just the shape of your body. It is not your face. Have you got any face? Sometimes with closed eyes go deep into it… and you will be surprised to see you don’t have any face. God has no face at all – and you are gods and goddesses.

That’s why one is never contented. One can never be contented with this face, howsoever beautiful. This face is not going to satisfy you unless you come to the original face, the facelessness of your being: purity with no shape, the formless, the attributeless. The form is of matter. The form is not of consciousness; consciousness is formless. Your body is a meeting-place of the form and the formless, of matter and consciousness. Your body is a container. The contained is you, and that contained has no face. So always, any face is funny. The very idea of having a face is funny because all faces are false. Face as such is false.”

Osho, The Divine Melody, Ch 2, Q 5

Vandana, Osho News

She looked through the phone book, found a full page ad for a guy calling himself Tender Tony – a very handsome man with assorted physical skills flexing in the photo. He had all the right muscles in all the right places, thick wavy hair, long powerful legs, dazzling smile, six pack abs and she felt quite certain she could bounce a sixpence off his well oiled bum….

She figured, what the heck, nobody will ever know. I’ll give him a call.

“Good evening, ma’am, how may I help you?” … Oh my, he sounded sooo sexy!

Afraid she would lose her nerve if she hesitated, she rushed right in, ”Hi, I hear you give a great massage, I’d like you to come to my motel room and give me one. No, wait, I should be straight with you. I’m in town all alone and what I really want is sex. I want it hot, and I want it now. Bring implements, toys, rubber, leather, whips, everything you’ve got in your bag of tricks. We’ll go hot and heavy all night – tie me up, cover me in chocolate syrup and whipped cream, anything and everything, I’m ready! Now how does that sound?”

He said, “That sounds absolutely fantastic, but you need to press 9 for an outside line.”

Credit Vandana

So they enter heaven and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, one woman accidentally steps on one.

Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw. St. Peter chains them together and says, “Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly man!”

The next day, one of the other two women steps accidentally on a duck and sure enough along comes St. Peter, who doesn’t miss a thing. With him is another extremely ugly man who St. Peter chains to the woman, with the same admonishment as for the first woman.

The third woman has observed all this and, not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly man, is very, very careful where she steps.

She manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to her with the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on… very tall, long eyelashes, muscular. St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.

The happy woman says, “I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?”

The guy says, “I don’t know about you, but I stepped on a duck!”

Credit Premesh

astronomer: moon starer

desperation: a rope ends it

the eyes: they see

george bush: he bugs gore

the morse code: here come dots

dormitory: dirty room

slot machines: cash lost in me

animosity: is no amity

election results: lies – let’s recount

snooze alarms: alas! no more z’s

a decimal point: i’m a dot in place

the earthquakes: that queer shake

eleven plus two: twelve plus one

Credit Fatima

Swagato has released, together with the band Olinôs, the CDs: ‘Sabura’ and ‘Amazed by your Face (En kantod k’bo Rosto)’. With the Olinôs he has also visited Europe on tour in 2009. And his CD ‘La Negra Caliente’ was released on his 60th birthday (13th June 2009).

He has also contributed to countless CDs of friends in Cabo Verde but also to Sambodhi Prem’s ‘Mirrors of the Sun’ and to the live Buddha Hall tracks we all know so well: ‘Garden of the Beloved’ and ‘Shadow of the Pines’. More on his website: swagato.com and myspace.com/olinos and myspace.com/swagatomusic

A celebration is scheduled for today 16:00, organised by his former partner Prem Pipiet, musicians from Mindelo and friends.

Swagato on the saxophone

On the sax

in concert

in water

With Olinas on the roof top

Olinas in Zurich 2009

Swagato e Olinos - Sabura CD cover

Swagato

Olinos tour poster

Swagato's 30th sannyas birthday

in San Vincente

Swagato with the silver flute

Swagato on sax in Rajneeshpuram

Drive-by on the Ranch

Swagato's sannyas initiation

At the age of eighteen  I was exploring the world of free jazz with my saxophone and into this intense period burst the ‘cultural revolution’ of the so-called 68-movement, and I abandoned my saxophone and joined the ‘political movement’ – the intellectual and radical fighter for human rights was born.

It led to a dead end, by the year 1979 I was a doctor of philosophy applying for a life long career as a professor of sociology. These years have brought professional success, but also personal despair and frustration.

The ego was nourished, but not my soul. I discovered the difference between intellectual satisfaction (and its opposite, frustration) and creative fulfillment (and its path of longing).

I have respect and support for the political struggle for a better world, but I am convinced that only an inner revolution and a new cultural expression can make the change for a better world. We musicians can be great ambassadors for this transition.

Swagato

Obituaries in the Press

Body of famous German musician found in the suburbs of Mindelo, Sao Vicente.

The German musician Uli Bracher, 62, known in the music industry of Cape Verde by Swagato, was found dead by companion, on the morning of Thursday, in a house under construction next to the residence where he lived in the city of Mindelo, on the Cape Verdean island of São Vicente, established the PANA police source.

Although local authorities have not yet ruled on the cause of death of the German citizen, living in Mindelo since 2001, the Cape Verdean News Agency (Inforpress) revealed it was improbable that Swagato would put an end to his life by committing suicide.

The musician, born June 13, 1949 in Heidenheim, southern Germany, was considered a good performer of wind instruments, including saxophone, and actively participated in a lot of concerts during their staying Cape Verde, and recordings of some individual disks.

He also participated in musical works given to the pattern by artists such as Bius, now deceased, Gabriela Mendes, Bau, Dulce Mathias, Nando da Cruz, Cheka, Homero Fonseca, among many others.

Swagato, who was a sociologist and Doctor of Philosophy, also participated, alongside artists such as Tchala known, the composition of groups that parade marches every year in St. Vincent Carnival, considered one of the biggest cultural events in Cape Verde and one of the main tourist attractions of the archipelago.

Cape Verde News – www.mycapeverdenews.com

Tributes

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote to be published on Osho News using our contact form (pls add ‘Swagato’ in the subject field)…

When I had my 50th birthday in 2009 Swagato wanted to come and play at the party which everybody enjoyed very much. Today I post this video because our friend has left his body a few days back.
Wendelin

A really old and dear friend of mine, Swagato, is now no longer on this planet. He was a magic flute player who could play his way into people’s hearts and a juicy saxophonist who could get people up and dance. What can I say? I love and treasure life but I see that there are those of us who get into spaces where the only option is to get out – it’s quite overwhelming and sad – but this is what’s happening.
Pratibha

In the late 1980′s Svagato passed through Berlin and played saxophone at one of our celebrations in ‘Pashyo’s Dancing Place’. I loved the sound of his sax and enjoyed spending the night with him. He left the next morning and I remember him being a breeze of fresh air in my life. Visiting Pune in the following years I always enjoyed listening to him playing in White Robe. Svagato, hope your travel is easy…
Pashyo

Keep blowing that sax wherever you find yourself, old friend! Your big heart and big sound will be missed.
Abhiyana

Chapeau,
beloved Swagato.
You decided to leave this stage,
I dare not imagine your darkest hours,
the pendulum of moods always swung hard for you.
You – the king of broken dreams.
Be sure to know, I love you for who you are:
You – the big-hearted man with open arms.
You – the gifted musician with groovy tunes.
You – the honest lover of Osho with desire for truth.
You – the believer of dreams of all kinds.
All I can hope for now is that my tears will turn into little lights on your passage to the beyond.
I will miss you here.
Love,
Ajara

Thank you so much, Swagato, for your music and the joy you shared… bon voyage…
Zumati

It hits me that you left! Just three days ago I played your music and wiggled with joy while cooking… puhhh, I realise how hard it is to ‘know’ someone from the inside, really. You were so cheering, cracking jokes at Wendelin’s birthday party some years ago in Freiburg. I remember that well… Swamiji, fly, fly high and let the universe shake with your vibrant saxophone tunes…
Mahana

I remember Swagato playing with Milarepa’s One Sky band on tour in Oregon. What fantastic music you made, dear one. Blessed journey to you.
Roshi

We all will miss you, Swagato. I am so touched by Ajaras words – I have nothing more true to add to those lovely words. Fly high!
Anasha

It was June 2005, we were with Olinôs in Hillsingen at Swagato´s sister´s home town. The concert was taking place in a beautiful, huge hall (like a warehouse) in the local museum. They had played a few songs, and when the flute solo started – we were at the very back of the hall together with his sister – hundreds, maybe thousands of birds came to sit on the roof and sing with him. I had goosebumps for the whole part. His sister had tears in her eyes. Even the birds felt his playing so deeply beautiful. I am so sorry, my friend, there was nothing I could do for you. I will always talk about the beauty of your playing and the honesty of your being. I know for sure you did manage to make a living with what you loved to do most, play the sax and the flute. Thank you for the time you gave us, me and Chetan. I hope you are happy palying with the angels. No more pain my beloved.
Santosh

There are very few people who walk on this planet and you want to walk with them and be with them ’cause they are magic, fun to be with, laughing, playful, full of life, always smiling, humorous, and most of all, good hearted. ‘Papa Bear’ as we use to call him had more then this. We toured together with Milarepa, played music and had a good share of our lives together. His music had magic, touching souls everywhere he went, mesmerizing people from all walks of life. Papa Bear, you are and will always be in my heart and I know in all the hearts that know you and also who listen to your music. Lots of love and bliss out there for you from the Pune Osho Commune where you played endless music for the Master of masters. Love love love all the way
Vatayan

A very generous, silent, smiling person. Thank you for your presence in Pune. I remember you with love.
Dhyan Elena

Dear Swagato, fare-well from one sax player to another – we only met a few times, but I have sweet memories of you and those meetings! We will miss your spirited blowing and your music. With love and gratitude,
Praful

Beloved friend, For the past year I tried to contact you, my messages unanswered. I reached out for you, directly and through mutual friends who lived close to you. But you were already unreachable. For these past weeks you were with me a lot, and I heard myself speak your name many times. Restlessness coming to an end, now that I know you at peace. Thank you my friend, for your sensitive music, your brilliant mind and your big heart. You will always have a place in mine.
Nutan

I never met you… but I met your music, which still is here, now, tomorrow, after … like pearls in my life. Thank you for your soft, mild and dreams creating music.
Karla

“Before taking sannyas Rama had a bookstore in Maui. In Poona 1 he worked with Pratima and the books in the godown and later became a samurai. In Rajneeshpuram he was one of our Antelope residents and often drove the shuttle down to the Ranch. He was the coordinator of Buddhaghosha (book department) at the Ranch and also was a member of the Peace Force. After the Ranch he worked for sometime with Gangaji and then moved to Sedona to be with Robert Adams who he was very close with.

“Last summer he came over to Prescott from Sedona when he heard that our friend Shakyamuni was visiting. We had a nice lunch. It was a wonderful meeting! (The photos are from that time.)

“He told us a marvelous story where Rama and another sannyasin were going to Bombay, sometime in the late seventies, on printing business and were given an assignment. Amido scribbled down the story so as not to forget it. And here it is:

The Beedi Baba

One day, the Master asked
Two disciples to visit the Beedi Baba

They rendezvoused with Vivek
In front of Lao Tzu house
To obtain directions

They found his shop
“Smoke?” he asked
They nodded
“American?” he asked
Again, assent
All sat in the smoking area

Silence descended
And met silence ascending
Silence unrelated to sound
The silence of another dimension

He left
So did they

What transpired
Remains
A mystery

And the Beedi Baba was Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Tributes

You can leave a message / tribute / anecdote to be published on Osho News using our contact form (pls add ‘Rama’ in the subject field)…

Rama, you are one-of-a-kind, a devotee of the Truth, and an ornery bugger! Fly high, big fella! You walked your talk!
Abhiyana

I shared my house with Rama for a while in the early days of living in Sedona. He was an easy man to have around. A gentle soul, with a quiet, strong presence and a kind heart. So like him to slip away when no one was looking. Fly high, sweet Rama,
Jyoti

Rama was my boss in the godown upteen years ago in the ashram… he knew the perks of relaxation then… he is really relaxing now! Blessings on him!
Anado

Rama,
You were never afraid to call a spade a fucking spade!
Your search for Truth took you to many wonderous places, both inside and out.
Your Heart was even bigger than your body.
Farewell old friend.
Abhiyana

After morning oatmeal and coffee on the cliffs of Arambol I would use the saucer from my coffee cup, the lid from a sugar bowl, or the salt and pepper shakers to trace the circles for my doodles. A cheap paper pad bought at the Dragon Boutique next to the German Bakery in Pune made it easy to hold in my lap and rotate constantly during the doodle. A few moments to still my hand, empty my thoughts, and I would just begin, not knowing where I was going with the drawing. I found it a beautiful experience each morning – splitting my attention between the drawing, sunrise and people starting the day.

Anupada took sannyas in 1979 and now lives happily in Corfu, Greece, participating in the Corfu Buddha Hall scene.

Credit Fatima

But when astrologers started interpreting my chart and, with stern faces, were talking about oppositions, difficulties and tensions, I understood that being born on a full moon was not such a good thing! In reality I did not really understand what they were talking about. I thought that, as one does, everybody must be living in the same turmoil, at least judging from the way we all behaved. So why was I more challenged? My worries settled when I finally met an astrologer in the States who commented on my question about the oppositions with “What’s the problem? This is great, a lot of energy, a great challenge.This is an asset!”

In the meantime I had heard that also Buddha was born in May on the full moon, that he became enlightened on the same full moon and died on the May full moon day.

So maybe some tension is good to ‘get there’, or rather ‘nowhere’. With all this I do not mean to say that my chances to enter nirvana is greater than anyone else’s. It was merely an introduction to these wonderful Osho quotes about Buddha which Kul has put together for us:

“It is significant to understand that there is only one person, Gautam Buddha, who has used nothingness, emptiness, for the ultimate experience. All other mystics of the world have used fullness, wholeness, as the expression, the indication of the ultimate experience.

Why did Gautam Buddha have to choose a negative term?

It is significant to understand – for your own spiritual growth, not for any philosophical reasons. I do not speak for philosophical reasons. I speak only when I see there is some existential relevance.

The idea of fullness, the idea of God, the idea of perfection, the idea of the absolute, the ultimate – all are positive terms. And Gautam Buddha was amazed to see the cunningness of human mind.

The innocent mystics have simply used the positive words because that was their experience. Why bother about the misery which is no more? Why not say something about that which is now? The innocent mystics have spoken out of their ‘isness’. But throughout the centuries the cunning minds of people around the world have taken advantage of it.

To the cunning mind, the idea of fullness and the positive terms indicating it became an ego trip: ‘I have to become God. I have to attain the absolute, the Brahma; I have to achieve the ultimate liberation.’ The I became the center of all our assertions.

And the trouble is that you cannot make the ultimate experience a goal for the ego. Ego is the barrier; it cannot become the bridge.

So all the positive terms have been misused. Rather than destroying the ego, they have become decorations for the ego. God has become a goal, you have to achieve the goal. You become greater than God.

Remember, the goal cannot be greater than you. The achieved cannot be greater than the achiever. It is a very simple fact to understand. And all the religions have fallen because of this simple innocence of the mystics.” [...]

Gautam Buddha was the most cultured and the most educated, the most sophisticated person ever to become a mystic. There is no comparison in the whole of history. He could see where the innocent mystics had unknowingly given chances for cunning minds to take advantage. He decided not to use any positive term for the ultimate goal, to destroy your ego and any possibility of your ego taking any advantage.”

Beyond Enlightenment, Ch 13, Q 1

Of all the enlightened masters, Buddha has enabled the highest number of people to become enlightened, says Osho. How? Osho explains:

“Buddha is unique. He is neither atheistic like Jainism, nor theistic like other religions. He is a superb agnostic. He says there is no need to worry about unnecessary things. Think of the essential, think of the intrinsic, and don’t be bothered about the accidentals.

If you are authentic, if you are compassionate, if you are meditative, then if there is a God he will come to you; you need not go in search for him. And if there is a paradise it will descend in your heart. There is no need to be bothered about such abstract ideas; they simply waste your time.”

The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 9 Ch 7

Bliss is more like the moon than like the sun it is not hot, it is cool. It is not fire, it is light. It has an intensity of its own, but there is no feverishness, no passionate excitement. It is a state of no-passion, no desire.

Buddha became enlightened on the full-moon night. The story is that he was born on a full-moon night, he became enlightened on the same night – the full-moon night – the same month, he died the same month, on the same full-moon night. It may not have happened historically – it may have happened because that coincidence is possible – but though it may not have happened historically, its significance is great.

It has nothing to say about Gautam the Buddha, the man. It says something about the state of Buddhahood: the state of Buddhahood, that state of awakening, is born as a full moon, matures as a full moon, and one day it disappears into the totality as a full moon. That full moon is a symbol, a metaphor: a metaphor for silence, peace, calm, quiet, equilibrium; a metaphor for a poetic existence, for music, for love a metaphor for the mysterious, the miraculous.”

Don’t Let Yourself Be Upset by the Sutra rather Upset the Sutra Yourself, Ch 1

The moon will swing in 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) from our planet, offering skywatchers a spectacular view of an extra-big, extra-bright moon, nicknamed a supermoon.

Great time to tune in!

Credit: Tim McCordSkywatcher Tim McCord of Entiat, Washington caught this amazing view of the March 19, 2011 full moon – using a camera-equipped telescope.

Available in: Nook – Kindle – iBook

Sooner or later man will devise small computers which you can carry in your pockets. They will carry all the knowledge of all the libraries in the world. It will not be necessary to teach it to you: you can simply push a button on the computer and the computer can supply you the knowledge.

Osho, Journey of the Heart (1975)

Despite the main crew being busy to the max in their parallel universe, that universe which allows us to feed body and find shelter from the weather (article to follow soon), many pieces have come together at the end of the month – just in time for the newsletter – thanks to unexpected contributions from authors and collaborators from all over the world.

We start with our two profiles, about sannyasins of different generations:

Chinta’s life story continues with Reiki, Family Constellation, Aura Soma and more in From Osho to Ambrosia – Part 2

And Upavas, whom you already know from last month’s music samples and review of his CD, is telling us his life story in: Meeting Osho and Making Music

In the featured articles follows part 1 of Max Brecher’s radically new look at Osho and a controversial American commune: The Zaitz Alert

Biologist Urmi’s article on what happens in our brain when we daydream: The Secret Life of the Brain

And Anando’s insights on ‘The neuroscience of happiness’: The 4 Keys to Happiness

In INSIGHTS we also have:

Jeevan recalling the time her son Bob died in an accident: My Son Bob

Philip Gould, Baron Gould of Brookwood, a British political consultant and former advertising executive, shares in a video: When I Die: Lessons from the Death Zone

Madhuri on romantic clinging: How Clinging Happens
HEALING & MEDITATION

Mahabha shares a few tricks how to change our habits: Relax your Routine

Therapist Chris Walker interviews Maneesha about Conscious Dying

An amusingly and apt illustrated easy guide on how to achieve inner peace by Matthew Johnstone (Mail Online): Give your brain a break…
REMEMBERING IN THE HERE&NOW

Part 10 of Bodhena’s ‘Samsara’, The Last Mango in Poona

Part 5 of Bhagawati’s interview about her years in the commune given last year in New Delhi: Work in Europe, Returning to Rajneeshpuram and Life in Pune 2
REVIEWS

Review of a documentary about a Tibetan monk who had served his Lama for 23 years and is given the task to find the reincarnation of his master – Unmistaken Child

CD by Dutch mantra singer Sadhya – Royal Swan by Sadhya
CREATIVITY

Madhuri’s take on Poetry – with some of her poems in audio: Death by Poetry

A taste of Sudha and Ravi in concert: Mantras and chants by Ravi and Sudha
NEWS

Mega is organising another gathering in Munich to take place from 22-23 September: Osho Tribe Reunion 2012

Greg Shand speaks of his experiences of immersing himself in an Indian ashram and finds it has a profound and positive effect: Scream, Pray, Freeze

Crop circles with an accurate depiction of the planetary alignment on December 23, 2012: Crop Formations Keep on Cropping Up

The creator of ‘Loox’, a magazine recently launched in Germany, finds Osho Inspiration for Fitness Magazine

An article by Alice Park in Time Magazine (April 9, 2012): Death by Chocolate – The Sweet Revenge (to go with Madhuri’s ‘Death by Poetry‘)
OSHO

Rare footage from a talk given by Osho in 1972: Osho in Woodlands

A Cup of Tea (22)

A Cup of Tea (23)

Osho’s answer to a seeker’s question: What is Happiness?

Osho on being a missionary, on doubt, our minds and success: Hot Chillies 4

Osho suggests to Christians to focus on Christ’s resurrection rather than on his death during the celebrations: Happy Easter

Osho answers the question: “In what way do you envisage democracy playing a part in your communes?” in  The Future Belongs To Meritocracy
RECIPES

This soup has a really buttery flavour even though it contains no oils or fats aside from the fresh almond milk. Combined with a few spices added, it tastes delightful! Butternut Squash Soup
Lots and lots of new jokes in HUMOUR

Ah, and for the first of April Bhagawati published an article which became extremely popular – unfortunately is was only an April fool’s joke: Breaking News: Greece and Osho

Although you always manage to find it by yourself, here is the link to Sitara’s Horoscope for May 2012
VOYAGES

Ma Deva Sitara: 13th April 2012
Amrit Bhaskar: 7th April 2012
Ma Prem Diana (now with partner Chetan’s tribute and slideshow): 14th March 2012

We wish you a wonderful month of May!

Your Osho News Team

Photo of an amarillis by Punya

When the heart is full it pours into the words
and so few are needed.
An ocean of love can be contained in just a jug!
As for scriptures on love –
it is enough to know the four letters of the word!
Do you know how many times I read through your letters?

Mood of the Moment
The positive mood continues with increasing momentum – so that optimism and joie de vivre not only lighten up life, but also energy and productivity. Despite of the passion that we commit to our cause, we never lose sight of the fact that we are tied to laws far beyond our personal lives. Therefore, a pleasant element of humility always remains among all our creative actions.

This month’s focus is on all things Mercurian – learning, communicating, writing, networking, inquiring, and sharing. While all this seems to work out all by itself during the first three weeks, special attention is needed during the last third of the month. The existential impossibility of making ourselves truly understood or to really understand others is being felt rather painfully. For that matter this is a time more suitable for calm reflection; at the very least we need more patience if we want to learn, explain, or inquire. Possibly, telephones or the internet won’t function and we may have to fall back on other resources.

In fact, by the end of May it is first and foremost about reconnecting with what really counts, i.e. to see banalities for what they really are and deprive them of our energy.

Aries: This month, developments that began in November and December come to a close. It is about three things: to find the right balance between playfulness and purpose; an awareness of the enormous energy available to you right now; and an awareness of the vulnerability of the people around you. The latter goes hand in hand with being aware of your own vulnerability. In addition, another crucial theme in May is communication. Use simple words to build bridges between yourself and others.

Taurus: All traffic lights continue on green! Enjoy this last month with Jupiter in Taurus. Even though Venus already asks you to bring more ease and flexibility into your life, besides Jupiter also Mercury, Sun, and Lilith provide you with stability, strength, and openness. Exchanges with others and all forms of learning are especially fruitful. Search for new spiritual challenges; your spirit is capable of deepest insights. Moreover, it is now easy for you to put your insights into action.

Gemini: New times ahead: In May, Venus – astrologically also called ‘little fortune’ – is the vanguard for Jupiter –‘great fortune’ – which will bring blessings from June onwards. The full force of Mars and Pluto is added in mid-May, lifting you onto a different energy level although there will be a few challenges. From the silence of the heart flows unconditional love – along with a knowing that is unclouded by emotional entanglements and mental duality. Surrender to this heart space.

Cancer: Let yourself fall within and be with what you find there. Whether pleasant or not – look at it and leave it the way it is. The very fact that you see it is a clear indicator that it is only about objects of your perception. You, the observer, are something other than what you’re observing – be it the world, your body, your emotions or your thoughts. If you manage to start the second half of May with this understanding, the New Moon will grant you a genuine new beginning.

Leo: In the first half of May it is about reconciling intensity and comfort. Both might polarize in your relationships, so that others always strike you as too intense or too comfortable. Give both a place in your life. In the last third of the month you are wrestling for mental clarity. Should you loose it, don’t look automatically for a remedy but rather consider this fog as a sign of an expanding horizon and simply wait for a sharper image.

Virgo: At first things are moving along hesitantly. Don’t fret about it but use the time to become more clear about your priorities. In the second half of May stride into action. You have the clarity, guts, determination, and the mental depth to master also really big projects. Don’t get ruffled by possible deficits, no matter whether they are due to you or to circumstances, and don’t be afraid of chaos. If you get stuck, things need to develop by themselves for a while.

Libra: This merry month of May has a lot of challenges in store for you; except for during the beginning of May, it is rather difficult for you to be extrovert. With both Saturn and Venus retrograde, you are being thrown back onto yourself. Now several things come to the light of day that you had swept carefully under the rug in order to maintain a semblance of peace and harmony. The good news is that you’ll grow. Facing the problems will put you in a position to bear conflicts and also solve them.

Scorpio: A harmonious May! You are in tune with yourself and the world. Coping with the simple facts of life is just as easy for you as tackling or pursuing big tasks. Projects that started end of last year and came to a turning point in March, are now coming to a crowning finale. In all of this you stay humble while being aware that although you are giving your best the result is not in your hands – simply because there are too many factors involved in the play of life.

Sagittarius: Make this May a month of pampering. With Jupiter in Taurus experience the world with all its senses and enjoy the here and now – something that Sagittarius often neglects in view of higher goals. Smaller hurdles reveal themselves mostly due to your getting annoyed about pedantry and distractions that are caused by people who place to much emphasis on trivialities – while you are fidgeting in the start holes. You will notice, however, that some of the resulting delays will ultimately be beneficial for you.

Capricorn: Up to mid-month there are dominating influences that strengthen and support you in all your endeavors. If you pay attention to well-oiled communication, you will be successful implementing your ideas. In the second half of May there seems to be sand in the gears; seek the cause for this in misunderstandings and in the fact that others feel pushed to the wall by your resolute and powerful deployment. Show your commitment by asking others for their impressions and take their opinions seriously.

Aquarius: Circumstances call for continuous powerful intervention and innovative implementation but also demand precision and circumspection. Meeting all these demands without you pulling back to the safe ground of analysing and theorizing is not easy. In mid-May you are more in touch with your gut feeling, which simplifies spontaneous action . In the second half of the month the earthy heaviness dissolves and everything becomes more playful. Now begins one of the most interesting and exciting times of your life!

Pisces: The first half of May presents you with constructive connections, deep insights, and important moments of quietness. By contrast, the second half of May is rather difficult. Don’t take on too much, as you may lack the requisite energy or events are fatefully barring your way (don’t worry though, nothing dramatic!). Moreover, it seems that everybody around you lives on a different planet and speaks a different language. There is nothing you can do about that right now. Withdraw a little and wait.

Sitara became a disciple of Osho’s in 1979. She has settled in Germany and for 12 years now, has been writing the horoscopes of the German Osho Times. Astrology has been her passion since childhood, and she has published several books on the subject. She gives personal sessions and also over phone or skype. Moreover, Sitara offers spiritual counselling as well as end-of-life care free of charge. She is currently writing a book about traditional advaita vedanta for Western seekers. www.astro-sitara.de

11° Taurus – 11° Gemini

One of the early delights of mine was to mimic all kinds of quirky sounds in my surroundings with my throat and mouth – like the screeching of a rusty old door. And animals were always a delight to mimic, especially once I got the knack and managed to fool them. Life was good. Living with my mum and older sister there was little to worry about; mum seemed to make enough money for all of us with her job as a teacher in an elementary school. Things, however, were soon to change.

In the hippy commune

With headphones and soap bubbles in the hippy commune

At Rajneeshstadt, I am sitting dead center in the front row (arrow)

My first time at Café Bliss

At the film school

My first mixer experience at the film school - yup, that was fun!

A Foley lesson at the film school: a cloth track

My first Dj set in Hawaii, 2002

Solar Eclipse Festival in Tunisia, 2005

Welcome back to Hawai'i celebration, after my DJ worldtour

Welcome back to Hawai'i after world dj tour

In active meditation

Me, here and now, this very moment

One day my mum came home with a long-haired guy who was wearing a kind of blouse with flowers all over it. His car was a blue VW bus. I remember him telling my mother all kinds of ideas, like how cool it would be to move to a farm in rural Bavaria and grow vegetables and drop out of society.

About a year and a half later a farm was found, mother left her job and we all moved there.

The place was a wreck as far as I can remember: no bathroom, no flushing toilet, no running water – ‘luxuries’ I missed a lot. What the place did have was beautiful nature all around. There were many other hippies coming and going to and from our commune. One of them left a guitar in our attic which I found and started playing. Soon thereafter I was happily jamming along with all kinds of weird characters who came to our home on a regular basis.

A strange fellow visited us when I was seven years old. He wore bright orange clothes and because his name (Anand Svadesha) was too weird to remember at the time, we kids called him Orangenmann (Orange-fruit-guy). “Orangenmann” always wore a necklace with a locket showing a picture of a man with a beard. The man seemed to have an aura of sanity about him, something I missed in pretty much everybody who frequented our commune or lived in it, except maybe my mum. I was strongly drawn to the man in the locket and asked about him. Svadesha told me that this man was a guru. He also told me that he was about to go back to India to see this man again and, if I wanted, he could take a letter to Osho from me with a request for sannyas.

I hadn’t got a clue about sannyas or gurus and what it meant; all I knew was that it felt absolutely right. Mum refused to sign a letter of consent and told me I was not to send a letter to Osho, but I finished writing it anyway and snuck it to Svadesha who took it to India in 1977. Three months later came a reply from someone called Ma Arup. I was told that I was too young to take sannyas and that I had to wait until I was fourteen. If, however, my mum would sign a letter of consent, then I could take sannyas earlier. Bummer…

In 1980, during a summer vacation, I stayed in Ticino, Switzerland, with hippy friends of my parents. There was much music to be made, a lot of people to jam with, and guitars and bongos became constant companions of mine. One day I saw a Stern magazine there, with Osho on the cover. The article described how ‘a careless and unloving Osho left his poor disciples stranded in Poona while he lived a life of luxury in the United States’. I went on an anti-Osho trip, obsessing about it so much that someone told me to be careful or I might end up there. I did not heed her advice…

Fast forward to Munich, 1983. My mum and my stepfather had broken up, the hippie commune was being sold and my mum had disappeared. I had no idea where she was and my stepfather unnerved me and I didn’t want to stay with him.

I knew that Munich, with the orange people, would be a fun place to be so I hitchhiked there and went to the same Anand Svadesha who had taken my sannyas request letter to India with him six years earlier. He had two kids about the same age as me, both sannyasins. Life as a sannyas kid had its ups and downs. But the mischief part was great and with sannyasins one could get away with a lot.

Sometimes we used to hang out at the Munich Sannyas Centre (Satdharma) and do everything one was not supposed to do – like dunking sannyasins’ burning cigarettes into a glass of water (just to enjoy watching their annoyed facial expressions) or digging deep into the desserts of the therapy groupies. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. The centre leader, Ma Kama, had a hard time with us, but somehow she must have had a soft spot for us too because she always let us get away in the end. It was also the first time I saw an Osho lecture on video.

Soon thereafter my mum returned and got together with Svadesha and together they set up an organic tofu factory.

Next stop was Rajneeshstadt in Hessen, Germany. I was fourteen. There were lots of new sannyas-kid friends, more mischief and happily more of the nature and privacy I had missed very much in Munich. It was there that once again I sent a request for sannyas. It was written something like, “Dear Bhagwan, I love you. Now please no more delays. I am fourteen now!”

Three weeks later two letters arrived – one simple, another gold-embossed with big letters saying Ma Anand Sheela on it. I opened the simple letter first. It had my new name written on it: Swami Paritosh Upavas. The meaning is ‘Contentment’ and ‘Coming Close To One’s True Self.’ There was also a note that I remember to this day. ”This is my teaching: to help you sing, to help you love, to help you dance”.

I received my mala from Prasad (a therapist) in Purvodaya and one year later my mum and older sister also took sannyas.

Music pretty much faded into the background for a while, until Swami Anand Madhu took on the task (with monetary compensation from me of course) of teaching me music theory. The lessons were tedious and boring, but I stayed with it and did learn the basics. In 1985 I dropped out of high school and worked full time at the Svadesha Tofu Factory in Munich. Osho was doing his world tour at the time. It had always been a dream of mine to meet him in Poona so I started saving money for Poona even though he was travelling – first in Uruguay and later in Greece. In December 1986 I bought a ticket to Bombay Airport after explaining to my worried mother that I was now leaving to go to India. Osho had just arrived in Bombay and there were rumors that he would go to Poona soon. The time had finally come to meet the Master.

When I arrived in Poona in January 1987 there were very few sannyasins there and the lectures were held in Chuang Tzu Auditorium. Osho came into the hall for his evening discourse and greeted everyone individually. As soon as I saw him something in me went “Wow, that’s it, that’s really and finally it!” At that very moment Osho looked at me for the first time, his hands folded in the namaste greeting. He looked ancient, very deep. He was not smiling. He just looked at me in a very direct, open and peaceful manner and suddenly I felt like it was me, looking at myself. At the same time, something very powerful went right into my solar plexus and there was a kind of whoosh sound with a long reverberating tail, almost like thunder. I don’t remember anything after that until a Ma came and kindly told me to get up, because the spot I was sitting on was the only one she hadn’t cleaned yet and it was past 11pm already.

I have been hopelessly in love with Osho ever since.

Poona 2 proved to be a true blessing for me. I lived in a place called Surrender Garden on a bamboo platform where we had drum sessions going deep into the night. Some people also brought guitars and there was always music around. In one of Osho’s silent periods I decided to go and check out Goa for a little while. When I arrived in Anjuna, there was a non-stop party going on and here I came into contact with electronic music for the first time. It had a deep impact on me. It was fiesta galore.
Back in Poona there were three people I would like to mention. One who inspired me with his music was Karunesh, playing his synthesizer before discourse. Another was Chaitanya – I liked listening to him playing his guitar in the ashram’s smoking temple and it was only much later that I found out that his other name is Deuter… The third person was Shantam Dheeraj. In an eye reading during the Tibetan Pulsing Intensive in which I participated in 1993, he told me to finish what I had started, “… like your music… finish it”. His statement went straight to my core. However, buying equipment to make my own electronic music was too expensive for me at the time.

But finally, in 2002 in Hawaii, I got my first computer and a music-sequencer with it. This is when I started fully going into making electronic music. I was also promoting parties in Hawaii, in a café called Bliss, and on some beautiful beaches. My DJ skills improved big time but my own creativity felt incomplete.

After a tour of DJ-ing in Japan, Europe and North Africa, I moved to Vancouver, Canada in 2006. In 2007 I graduated from a film school after completing a course in sound design for visual media. Further studies in recording and mixing audio, combined with commissions to create sound design for a couple of short films and the release of three dance music EPs, finally led to the creation of my first full ambient album ’Solar Energy’, which was released on January 1st, 2012. A second ambient album of my music and a dance-live-act are currently in the works.

Website: www.upavas.com
Read our review: Solar Energy: CD by Upavas
Listen to two tracks from his latest CD: ‘Solar Energy’ and ‘Going In’

If the sunrays pass through the water droplets at a certain angle and meet the eyes at a certain angle, only then is a rainbow created. Don’t think that a rainbow is only out there: your eyes are participating in its creation… The soul is also an experience and as long as you don’t have the eye of meditation, you cannot experience it.

Osho: Flight of the Alone to the Alone, Ch 15

This time, I am sitting in Tropicana, Arillas, Corfu. It is April. Rivers of white, golden and pink flowers ooze softly under the olive trees. Cypresses and Judas trees contrast with the blue variations of the sea melting with the sky in natural harmony.

In the first part of this presentation, I had promised to tell you about rainbows and Ambrosia. Well, here they are, real, filling the space with their density. My eyes register rainbows of flowers everywhere and my soul experiences deep joy and gratitude for this place to be. These are the precious moments when earth looks like a paradise and life as a perfect work of art.

My class giving Reiki to food

Giving Reiki to Bashir (André) and Célestine Kowouvi

Greeting the Minister of Transport

The Reiki class had offered me a traditional dress

An Aura-Soma class in Grenoble

Giving a Lomi Lomi massage to my niece, Manda

An Aura-Soma consultation with Darshan Raimondi

With Visarjana

Agios Georgios – Corfu

On the road up to the Pantokrator – Corfu

River of flowers in Arillas

Ambrosia – golden essence

Reiki: only love and meditation can truly heal

From 1990 to 1995 Visarjana and I dedicated our lives to share what we had received from Osho. Reiki was the perfect tool for passing on the message that only love and meditation can truly heal. Our students did the meditation of the Four Directions, sometimes Kundalini, Gibberish or Chakra Sounds. We were present in the French part of Switzerland and had been invited to teach Reiki in Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, Brussels, Rumania and Africa by wonderful people who organised the practical things for us. Within five years, we had initiated more than two thousand people. We had large groups and tried to support our students by organising monthly gatherings and offering them deepening retreats on specific aspects of the essence based on the chakras.

Many highlights dot those years. We simply fell in love with Paris, Montmartre, Saint Germain des Prés, the Boulevards, but above all, the spirit of Notre Dame and May 68 were still impregnating the air. You would think that being in a big town the connection with subtle energies would be difficult. But this was not at all the case in Paris. On the contrary, it was particularly easy there to plug into the white, silvery aspect of essence.

I still travel to Africa once a year to teach Reiki and I’ll never forget my first seminar in Libreville, Gabun. I had been invited by André Kofi Kowouvi who was at that time Togo’s ambassador there. He had come across my Reiki book in Tel Aviv as he was on mission in Israel and had decided to explore the method. One day, the phone rang:

“Bonjour, I am the Secretary of His Excellency the Ambassador Kowouvi. Please hold on, I’ll pass you on to His Excellency.”

“Bonjour,” came a deep male voice with strong African accent, “I cannot leave the country because I am on a mission here, so it is up to you to come to us.”

And I simply said, “Yes, with pleasure!”

André, who later became a dear friend and sannyasin, gathered his friends, ministers and high secretaries and on the first day of the seminar I found myself standing in tee-shirt and sandals before twenty-five beautiful black men, sapés sur leur 31 (costume and tie), with shining teeth and shoes. That’s the kind of situation when you better not think too much. I said, “I love African dancing and drumming. It helped me a great deal to come out of my white and rigid conditioning, so let’s have a dance.”

I usually started the seminars with a bit of free dancing, so we danced also this time and everything went well.

The intense practice of Reiki had intensified every aspect of my life by bliss, clear insights, synchronicity, feeling loved, protected and inspired by the universe; also money, respect, a bit of fame. Through people I met, I learned, loved and discovered a great deal.

Yet at the same time, the dissatisfaction over other aspects of life didn’t stop growing. It doesn’t make sense to teach healing and meditation while stressing by running from one place to another. I felt split between my wanting to stay loyal to the teaching of a lineage of masters on one side and the evidence of what life was teaching me on the other. Furthermore, from 1994 on, the French government decided to harden the fight against sects by infiltrating groups and listing Reiki as a dangerous method of brainwashing, responsible for destroying families. People who had known us for years through our teaching, who we had shared our intimacy with, who had trusted us and even had become friends suddenly turned away from us.

Interesting enough, to be restrained by abusive governments doing our work with Reiki drove me on to explore more essential states. I no longer wanted to be only a vehicle for light and love, I wanted to be it, to radiate it. I was tired of the glittery insubstantial image of being a successful Reiki master. I needed to be in peace in all the little situations of life and wanted to be a source of light by myself. I was happy to be a channel for healing, but I was longing for more. I wanted to be healed and whole myself.

Aura-Soma: shining, appealing, mysterious bottles

That’s when Aura-Soma barged in. I was keen on the flow of colours I could see flooding through my third eye when I was giving Reiki and here came these magical coloured Equilibrium bottles shining, appealing, mysterious, like little beings of light reflecting the nature of the soul.

The coloured Equilibrium Bottles containing the energy of plants and crystals are fascinating, because they are materialised light and because they vibrate at the natural frequencies of the rainbow. Receiving their vibrations is extremely awakening, harmonising and healing for body, mind and spirit. It restores the subtle bodies. They are a mirror for the soul, they help us to clean the dust of our illusions so that we may become the transparent droplet that reflects all the essential aspects of light, the whole rainbow.

More than twenty years later, I am still looking into that mirror of the soul and applying the essences on bodies, subtle or physical, including my own. In 2001, I started to teach the Aura-Soma system and give consultations, and in 2005 I founded Aura-Soma France and became a distributor of Aura-Soma products in France and Switzerland.

Aura-Soma has been a very important stage in my process because I had to find precise words to describe what happens on the subtle levels of the being. It harmonizes right and left brain activities. Colour is a language that has been used by all the spiritual traditions to approach the divine. But, it did also something I had not expected. The packing of the products, waiting in the post office, writing the bills, carrying hundreds of bottles, walkabouts at exhibitions, answering people’s questions and doubts with patience seemed unworthy to my academic degree. My ego hated it, my superego was judging me for being so unsuccessful, yet I did it all the same and got finally a bit closer to my humanness. It is so relaxing to be an ordinary person and so worthy. After all, I was bringing spirituality into the market place.

Family Constellation: watching the Mahabharata

In 2005 Poona called again. Svagito was giving a training in family constellations at the Osho Meditation Resort. We were a group of fifty people from all around the world. Watching the unfolding of their family stories over generations was like watching The Mahabharata or the Odyssey. A very moving initiation into humankind and a deep lesson of essential love. Seeing how the process of family constellation had taken off loads of guilt and inherited structures, Visarjana decided to be trained also and went to Paris, where he worked with Bert and Sophie Hellinger. We both agree that through the process our and our family’s relationships have been freed of old entanglements and could evolve towards more peace, maturity and much better communication.

Diamond Logos Teaching: a new dimension

Another keystone came a bit later, with the Diamond Logos Teachings. Bhakta, also a good friend from the Geneva connection, was speaking of Faisal with so much love that I had to explore this as well. Rafia, Turya, Avikal, and Vasumati were already working with the Latifa – the Sufi word for essential qualities of the light. This was the input I had been waiting for to give my work with Aura-Soma a new dimension.

We all are born with a perfect body of light, the full spectrum of divine qualities. But each one of us gets a specific blend, some a bit more of yellow, others a bit more of red and others a bit more of blue and we mix into different greens, orange, violet, turquoise, gold and so on. We could say that our essential or light body is our individual blue print. It makes us unique and identical at the same time. Our essential body is meant to inspire our personality and the choices we make in life. Unfortunately, it is often the opposite. We take our decisions based on our conditioned personality.

Difficult situations in childhood create holes, dark spots in the light body. While trying to protect our inner light, our inner jewel, in the urge to overcome layers of terror and insecurity due to the loss of light, we have very creatively developed strategies, compensatory behaviours. This has enabled us to survive, but it has also separated us from our being. We have been separated from our Beloved, we have ceased to be in love with our true nature and we may even have started to hate it.

Healing myself

For years, I had remained caught in states of distress, self-hatred, watching my suicidal impulses. In spite of the rather successful life I had and of all the meditation, I never felt content. No wonder, I still hadn’t reconnected with my very essence. I had been born with a clump foot as the last of four children. My family took well care of me. But although my body of light was strong and healthy, I sensed that something was wrong with me. Now, a baby cannot mentalize about these things and they get carved in it’s cells, in it’s whole personality structure. In my case, it created a state of basic shock of I do not understand, and immediately after that, the belief that I am not acceptable as being, not lovable.

Although the seed of the narcissistic wound lies in the soil of the first moments of life, its damages become visible only years later. Because the body of light, the essence is so strong and supported by the universal Source, it resurrects again and again, like the phoenix out of its ashes. The damages become visible only years later. I remember very well the last time I experienced love for myself during childhood. It was twelve at noon and the class was over. I had a ten minutes walk home. For no exact reason, at that moment, I felt so totally inhabited by life and it was overflowing so intensely that it seemed to fill the whole space around me up to the sky. I started to run down the hill. My schoolbag was hitting my back at each footstep. My heart was pounding strongly in my chest and I was deeply in love with myself. Every little bit of it. Not only was I in love with myself, but the whole universe was echoing it. I know it, because I had the clear feeling of being carried, lifted up by a bigger energy. My feet had wings and I trusted hundred percent that I would not fall. I was nine and this was the last time I felt that I was accepting and loving every bit of myself until I met Osho. I had made all possible efforts to deserve love through learning and taking action, and as a result, I had given up on myself.

Around Osho it was easy to connect with essence and love, but it took me all these years to find my way back also in ordinary life and in this presentation, I have tried to share with you the main steps of that journey.

The last little piece happened last year. Suddenly it hit me that there were still bits of myself that I did not like and that these bits were like grey scraps hanging out there in my energy field. I discovered that each time I stopped to push them away, I said to them instead: “You are also part of me, I take responsibility for what happened and I take you back within me, I love you,” I would feel more complete and more at peace. So, I started to recollect every bit of my body of light. It was a very interesting process.

Literally, it was like doing some magic. Every little disowned piece of our life is like a speck of dust, a dark spot that tarnishes the transparency of the droplet we are. It distorts the rainbow. But the eye of meditation has the power to detect these spots and to find the right angle that allows us to become one with the Beloved.

At this point in time, not only have I efficient and refined tools to help me find my way back to my eye of meditation, but my inner space is clear enough to allow the complete rainbow to unfold. My point of light has landed.

Ambrosia: a new birth in Corfu

Last September, Visarjana and I felt that we were ready to share our life experience in a new way. The birth of this process – Ambrosia, the Way Back Towards Essence – happened in our new second home in Arillas, Corfu. Ambrosia is the food of the gods on the Olympus that confers immortality to them. Each god and goddess of the Greek pantheon stands for an essential quality and the colours of their costumes reflect those virtues.

Socrates and Pythagoras’ teachings have set the footprints for us, and in our Ambrosia seminars we will use the 2,500 year-old structure of preparation, purification and perfection as described by Osho in Philosophia Perennis to help us unfold our rainbows. Coming soon, a related article on Ambrosia.

www.keola.com

Israeli director Nati Baratz, while on assignment for another documentary about a group of Tibetan Jews, was drawn into filming the search for the reincarnation of Geshe Lama Koshong after meeting Tenzin Zopa while studying Tibetan Buddhism in Kathmandu’s Kopan Monastery in 2002. Tenzin spoke of Geshe Lama Konchog with great love, and asked everyone to pray for the swift return of the reincarnation of his master. “It could have been just another inspiring night in Asia, but it was not,” Baratz says. “I could not sleep the whole night, realizing that this great young man was actually searching for his master’s reincarnation. This was a story that had to be turned into a movie.”

It took five years to document this search with the cooperation of the Dalai Lama and several other Rimpoches, who gave him also the permission to film hitherto unseen sacred rituals and meetings.

Review

After Geshe Lama Koshong’s cremation there are signs among his ashes that he will reincarnate. Tenzin Zopa who was the caretaker of his revered Lama is given the task to find the reincarnated boy. After astrological calculations made by a Tibetan Lama in Taiwan, a direction and some keywords are given – the father’s name of the incarnation would begin with an ‘A’, the place would have the syllable ‘TS’.

Tenzin sets out on this challenging journey with incredible longing to see once again his revered master. He is utterly devoted to the search, saying that to locate him is “a thousand times more important” than anything else. His gentleness and heartfelt manner is so touching to the point of tears welling up in my eyes.

To watch the unfolding of this incredible voyage is letting yourself be deeply immersed into another realm – a world where mysticism is a fact of life, where trust in existence is being lived day by day. To see the respectful interaction among the Tibetan population and Tibetan monks, the humor in their eyes, is an incredible rare gift.

The visuals are stunning, following Tenzin’s journey by foot, mule and eventually helicopter through fantastic landscapes and remote Tibetan villages, asking the people about their young children of age 1 to 1 ½, who seem to have special characteristics. He performs rarely seen tests designed to determine the likelihood of each child showing signs of being his reincarnated teacher.

It is the devotion of Tibetans to the liberation of all sentient beings that is of utmost importance in their lives – so totally contrary to the material world – and it is incredible to perceive. I highly recommend this authentic film to all those on the path ….

Bhagawati, Osho News

Schaller answered, “Yes, one cannot find any tourists there. I love that. Three years ago I travelled to India again and passed by Osho – aka Bhagwan. When I was a kid, I’ve always seen him on television. He is no longer alive but I thought to stop by to look at his meditation center. I spent two days there. On screen one sees video messages from him. He talks about his legacy, his teachings and what he means by this. Analogically, he said the following: “What kind of a God is that who does not permit any other doctrine?” In his view, anyone who has success and is good at what he does, can build up something by himself and become an expert. And I thought to myself, why don’t we do this also in the fitness industry? There is not only one school of thought on the subject of fitness. There are people who have the same goal and can also achieve it, but via different paths. And so, Loox was born. A magazine that does not claim to know the ultimate way, but where many experts can have their say, describe their way, and everyone can choose what suits him better. Depending on whether you want to look good, build up strength, lose weight or successfully run a marathon, for example. With Loox we want to create a platform that allows for many different approaches… “

www.loox.com

He believes it’s time for the thinking elements to take a closer look at their state’s dismally lopsided, self congratulatory and brainwashing reporting record on the subject and at least consider the book’s subtitle and major theme: A Radically New Look at Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and a Controversial American Commune.

On Friday, February 18, 2011, Austrian sannyasin Ma Anand Bhagawati got an email from Les Zaitz, “senior investigative reporter” of The Oregonian. He had been soliciting postage stamp sized stories from “former sannyasins” for an alleged 25 year retrospective about Rajneeshpuram, and she had alerted her international network of friends and acquaintances about him.

In essence, she warned, he had repeatedly demonstrated his true colors in his scurrilous stake out journalistic attacks against them, their home, and, more importantly, the life and work of their beloved master. And unless he owned up to and apologized for all that he wasn’t to be trusted now.

The Oregonian reporter got wind of her “Zaitz alert” and was mightily injured and offended. “I received a copy of your message distributing my request for memories from former sannyasins”, he began. “Former sannyasins”? As if Bhagawati and her rich collection of friends had inadvertently slipped into the past tense.

Most, if not all of them, are still sannyasins ‑ some for 30 years or more ‑ and have an abiding sense of love, gratitude and responsibility toward the buddham, sangam and dhammam. That is, Rajneesh, his commune (not necessarily something physical and limited in space and time), and the eternal law (“tao” in Chinese, “logos” or “nomos” in ancient Greek, the “beyond” or “source” in seat of the pants modern English). They have subtle, je ne sais quoi qualities to share and stories to tell that are radically different from the short sighted and lopsided slander Zaitz has been hell bent on pushing as gospel.

Zaitz then went into a lot of self serving arm waving about having done his utmost in real time to get the story straight, but had been thwarted by sannyasins at every well intentioned step. In short, he was, then and now, only interested in getting at the truth. After all, that’s what reporting ‑ especially the hard hitting investigative kind ‑ is about. Right?

In principle and our most cherished romantic dreams reporting is a noble search for what used to be known as ‘objective truth’. And sometimes it actually comes close to living up to those sky high standards. But not always. As has been more than amply demonstrated in the not always admirable annals of the very mixed bag of whatever has appeared in newspapers, magazines and pamphlets and subsequently been deemed “journalism”. For example:

Anti-Irish Catholic tirades regularly appeared in a variety of forums: newspapers in cities such as New York (Daily News, Horace Greeley’s Tribune, the Evening Express, and the Herald), in speeches by those like popular orator Edmond A. Freeman (who once claimed that the best remedy for whatever is amiss in America would be if every Irishman should kill a negro and be hanged for it …), and in pamphlets and publications by authors such as the telegraph’s inventor, Samuel F. B. Morse. In an essay printed in 1835, Morse concluded that Catholicism was a foreign conspiracy by the Vatican to take over the Republic, and he advocated forcible relocation of Catholics to restricted areas on the frontier. [1]

In more recent times some may recall Janet Cooke of The Washington Post, Stephen Glass of The New Republic and other bright young thugs who were making it up as they went along. Sucking it out of their thumbs, as the Dutch say so picturesquely. Others swallow ‑ or at least print ‑ without checking, cross-checking and -referencing and analyzing in terms of probability and provability the fibs, rumors, insinuations and outright lies gift wrapped and spoon fed to them by unreliable and anything but disinterested sources.

Indeed, they seek out and build up exclusive, me first relationships with exactly those kinds of sources. Like Pulitzer Prize winning Judith “WMD” Miller, formerly of The New York Times, and so many other less than meticulous and scrupulous practitioners of the craft. [2]

Working Hypothesis

Before anyone can approach the truth about anything ‑ let alone “the full truth” ‑ they must first wade through minefields of thorny questions surrounding the seemingly simple subject of truth itself. Such as what’s included and what’s left out, and who decides what it does and doesn’t contain? Edward Herman, a media analyst and professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, provides a succinct introduction to some of the issues.

What type of diversity in news and news interpretation is “meaningful”? The tenets of democratic theory suggest that it has to do with definitions of “truth’” and the range of information and news necessary for an informed citizenry. First the issues selected for attention by the news media should encompass all issues that are of substantial interest to the population at large. Second, when there is a range of plausible facts and frameworks of interpretation that bear on an issue, all of these facts and frameworks should be available for public inspection. In other words, the “whole truth” is a corollary to “nothing but the truth.” So if only a subset of issues or facts is made available to the general population, diversity is not fulfilled. Or, if issues, facts, and views that deviate from an established view are confined to the fringes of the media and do not reach the bulk of the population, the result is what might be called meaningless or “marginalized” diversity. [3]

In this context, Les Zaitz’s interchange with Ma Anand Bhagawati could ‑ and should ‑ have been included in his Rajneeshpuram Retrospective to show that a sizable number of people who were witnesses to the events he was so relentlessly passing judgment on had a radically different take on what had ‑ and hadn’t ‑ happened. And they were explicitly challenging his previous reporting on the subject and willingness and ability to ever get it right. But there wasn’t a peep about it in what finally appeared in print. And for his readers it was more than pushed toward the margins. It was as if it had never happened.

Other explosions waiting to happen on the often long, obscure and untraveled dirt tracks leading to truth are what’s admissible and inadmissible evidence and where’s the border between the two? When weighing up complicated and often contradictory evidence and coming to conclusions how much emphasis is to be placed on this as opposed to that? What grounds are used to make those sorts of decisions and for what reasons? In other words, what underlying philosophical, intellectual, financial, social, psychological and political assumptions, theories and agendas are being supported and reinforced? What’s being shut up and out?

When I began my investigations about Rajneeshpuram in 1988 I had a few working hypotheses. In my opinion, all focused research ‑ especially on controversial topics like this ‑ have to start with something similar. Otherwise, the field’s too wide and researchers will quickly get mucked and mired in the storms of facts and opinions ‑ their own and everyone else’s ‑ they’re bound to bang into along the way. Anyone who has done this sort of work will immediately know what I’m talking about. If you spend much time trying to connect the dots, you’re in grave danger of going dotty

One of my hypotheses was pretty standard and off the shelf. A social experiment and spiritual movement gone astray. Why spiritual? Because Rajneesh was first and foremost a spiritual leader. A fact that is easily lost sight of in the work of The Oregonian in general and senior investigative reporter Les Zaitz in particular. But “lost sight of” is something of a misnomer, because it implies that they and he had it in their sights to begin with.

The proof of Rajneesh being a spiritual leader is in his hundreds of books explicating and commenting on other spiritual leaders, such as Buddha, Sufi mystics, Zen masters and Lao Tzu. Books, which when spread out on dedicated tables in book stores and lined up on their shelves have made many an aspiring writer ‑ myself included ‑ livid with envy. How had he managed to write so many? But when they get over their initial aversion, sometimes verging on burning hatred, and start reading what’s under the covers many find them to be impressive, refreshing, amusing and, well, enlightening.

There’s an aphorism currently making the rounds on the Internet. “The truth will set you free. But first it’s going to piss you off.” [4]

In my opinion ‑ and it’s not necessarily the opinion of all good and rational sentient beings, or “the truth” ‑ Rajneesh had managed to crack the code. That is, translate the often weird and maddening metaphors, symbols and paradoxes of the ancient esoteric literature I had long struggled with into terms that modern skeptics like me could relate to and just begin to fathom. He had something original and powerful to say on well recognized spiritual subjects. Love, life, meditation, death, and the quest for something beyond the merely mortal.

And I wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines. Spiritual because people came to him from the four corners of the earth ‑ and are still coming more than 20 years after his death ‑ not only because of what he had to say on matters closest to their hearts, but how he said it. Who he was, what he embodied (not represented) and how he glowed for them in a world that was all too often dark and without hope.

A second working hypothesis was, and is, that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. And that includes CEO’s, presidents, and whole groups, institutions and organizations. Call me a cock-eyed optimist or plain fuddy duddy old fashioned, but it’s still one of the basic tenets most post-Enlightenment moderns pay lip service to. [5]

Starting from those premises, my work was to be a basically historical-factual-journalistic investigation ‑ with generous helpings of what some call “religion” and others “spirituality” ‑ into how it all went south. My basic questions were: What had happened, when and why? Who, if any, specifiable people were responsible and even legally culpable? And no one was to be left out of the equations and given a free ride.

But at the same time I wasn’t going to be attack dog aggressive and intrusive. Not hide under the beds, sniff the spreadsheets, comb through the trash, and rely on the testimony of ex’s with axes to grind and dubious and even criminal activities to defend and legitimate. Because people are human beings ‑ a value loaded hypothesis often lost sight of in contemporary public life ‑ and are not only entitled to be considered innocent until proven guilty, but also have the right to have secrets and remain silent.

[1] Anson Shupe, “Vicissitudes of Public Legitimacy for Religious Groups: A Comparison of the Unification and Roman Catholic Churches”, Review of Religious Research, December 1997, p. 178

[2] Judith Miller’s reputation was tarnished and eventually ruined by much of her reporting in and around the 2003 Iraq War, both before and after the shock and awe invasion. Most notably, her dubious reporting about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and her involvement in the outing of Valerie Plame, a former CIA agent and wife of defiant US Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

[3] Edward Herman, “Diversity of News: ‘Marginalizing’ the Opposition”, Journal of

Communication, Summer 1985, p. 135.

[4] Attributed to Gloria Steinem. But you never know.

[5] That notion runs counter to a much older and possibly still more emotionally loaded and intellectually deep rooted belief that all humans are basically flawed and can only achieve the not too terrible (redemption) through their own relentless repentance and true contrition and the intervention (grace) of God and his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. For more on original sin, see Chapter 3.

Max Brecher is a communications specialist living in Amsterdam. Besides  A Passage to America, he is the author of 9 more books.  

Human (H): “Cool. Shall I take you to our leader?”

A: “Your what?”

H: “Our leader. The guy in charge.”

A: “The guy in charge of what?”

H: “Well, in charge of everything.”

A: “You have one guy in charge of everything?”

H: “No, no. He’s in charge of Government.”

A: “What is ‘Government’?”

H: “Well, Government makes the rules for us. It tells us what we can do, and what we can’t do.”

A: “So, Government is really smart? They come up with wise rules for you to follow?”

H” “Well, mostly. But some of its rules really are stupid.”

A: “Do you disregard those rules?”

H: “No we have to follow the rules, even if they are stupid or we disagree with them. Government punishes anyone who disobeys the rules.”

A: “So, you are a slave to government?”

H: “No, no. It’s not like that at all. Government works for us, the people. It serves us. We are the boss.”

A: “It tells YOU what to do. And it punishes YOU with violence if you disobey it. And, yet, you’re it’s boss?”

H: “Yeah.”

A: “But there are some things government does that you don’t like?”

H: “Well, yeah. Not everything government does is popular. Like, spending on wars, for example.”

A: “What is a ‘war’”?

H: “It’s when the Government spends the people’s money on weapons and soldiers and sends them over to the other side of the world to kill a bunch of people over there and destroy their country. I don’t like that the Government does this.”

A: “Well. I can see why you might not like that. Have you humans reached the stage where you generally consider stealing, enslaving, and killing each other to be … bad things?”

H: “Oh, yeah! We know that! Don’t steal. Don’t attack. Don’t assault.”

A: “But you give money to Government and they use it to kill people.”

H: “Umm, yeah. But the Government does good things with tax money as well.”

A: “Why don’t you stop paying for the things you don’t like, and only pay for the good things it does?”

H: “No, we can’t do that. You can’t just decide to stop paying taxes because the rules say that everyone has to pay taxes.”

A: “But the rules come from Government, don’t they?

H: “Yes.”

A: “So Government made the rule which said everyone has to pay the money?”

H: “Yes.”

A: “So, everyone pays taxes because if they didn’t Government would punish them using violence?”

H: “Yes, but most people don’t mind paying taxes. Most people feel obligated to pay taxes and obey Government laws because it’s for the good of society. Society needs Government so that means we all must pay taxes ”

A: “So, just to make sure I’ve got this straight. Government makes the rules and you feel obligated to follow the rules, even the ones you don’t like. And it tells you what to do and threatens to punish you if you don’t do what it says, and it uses some of the money it takes from you using threats of violence to pay for things you don’t like, and actually think are immoral like, mass murder.”

H: “Yes, but we can ask it to please tell us to do smart things like, please don’t use our money to kill people. We’re allowed to ask them to tell us to do what we want them to tell us to do.”

A: “Are you guys just scared of this thing? Is Government some huge monster which can just squish you at any moment if you disobey?”

H: “No, Government isn’t a monster.”

A: “Well, what is it then? Can you draw me a picture of it?”

H: “Government isn’t really the sort of thing you can draw a picture of.”

A: “Maybe you can take me to it. Where is Government?”

H: “You mean the buildings?”

A: “Government is a building?”

H: “No, but the politicians who make up the Government have buildings they work from.”

A: “So, Government is a group of these politicians?”

H: “Yes.”

A: “OK. Then what species are these politicians?”

H: “They’re human.”

A: “Like you??”

H: “Yeah.”

A: “So, politicians are human and they’re Government. You’re human, but you’re not Government.”

H: “No.”

A: “So it’s the politicians they’re the ones that boss the rest of you around and make you do things you don’t want to do and take your money using threats of violence. But, even though you’re all humans you’re not allowed to boss them around and take their money?”

H: “No, they’d put us in a cage if we did that. But, look, it’s not like the politicians can just do whatever they want. Like, a politician can’t just come up to me on the street and make me give him money. They can’t do that. Politicians can only do things like that in their job when they are working for Government.”

A: “Oh, so politicians aren’t Government. They just work for Government.”

H: “Yeah.”

A: “OK. So, Government isn’t a monster, and it isn’t a building, and it’s not politicians. It’s something else. But it employs politicians, who are just regular humans who get to boss everyone else around and take their money. How does a regular human become a politician?”

H: “Well, that’s the great thing about our Government. It’s a Democracy. And that means that the people actually have the power because we get to decide who among us get to be politicians. We get to vote! If a politician starts doing things we don’t like we can just replace them with someone else in the next election.”

A: “So the people that get chosen to be politicians only get to boss people around and take their money for a short time, and then they go back to being regular humans?”

H: “Exactly.”

A: “Sounds like a powerful position to be in. But if you get to choose who does that I assume that politicians are always the wisest, most honest, caring and perspective people among you.”

H: “Well, no, not really. I wouldn’t say politicians are known for being honest or wise or caring. And they’re certainly not the most respected people among us. Come to think of it, most politicians are lying power hungry crooks.”

A: “The ones YOU chose?”

H: “Yeah, they’re always doing things we don’t like. They use taxpayers money to enrich themselves and their friends. And they never keep their promises to voters. They’ve been caught stealing and lying and taking bribes. And they mostly do what the big corporations want. Yeah, they’re always doing stuff like that. They’re completely corrupt. They’re a bunch of lying crooks.”

A: “But, … you said that most humans know that stealing and beating each other up and killing are wrong. And you said you have the power because you can change who’s in charge. So why don’t you just replace the lying, thieving, murderous, crooked politicians with some regular people.”

H: “Well, we don’t try to elect lying crooks. It just turns out that way. But we have to have a Government because some humans are nasty and they might kill or enslave or steal. Civilization just couldn’t survive without Government.”

A: “Let me get this straight. Because you are worried about the small number of nasty people who are willing to kill and enslave and steal, you think it is necessary for your survival to have a system where some humans among you for a short while get to call themselves the Government and they get to order everyone else around like slaves, and if they want commit mass murder overseas, using money they stole using threats of violence. Politicians get to enslave and kill and steal because if they didn’t … someone else might? And you try to elect good honest people to be politicians but what happens every time is that the people you elect turn out to be corrupt evil lying crooks. That’s your system?

H: “Yup. That’s pretty much Government.”

In order to keep the bank from repossessing the farm, they need to purchase a bull from the stockyard in the next town so that they can breed their own stock. They only have $600 left between them.

Upon leaving, the brunette tells her sister, “When I get there, if I decide to buy the bull, I’ll contact you to drive out after me and haul it home.”

The brunette arrives at the stockyard, inspects the bull, and decides she wants to buy it. The man tells her that he will sell it for $599, no less.

After paying him, she drives to the town post office to send her sister a telegram to tell her the news. She walks into the Post Office and says, “I want to send a telegram to my sister telling her that I’ve bought a bull for our farm. I need her to hitch the trailer to our ute and drive out here so we can haul it home.”

The Postmaster explains that he’ll be glad to help her, then adds, “It’s just 99 cents a word.”

Well, after paying for the bull, the brunette only has $1 left. She realizes that she’ll only be able to send her sister one word.

After a few minutes of thinking, she nods and says, “I want you to send her the word ‘comfortable.’”

The operator shakes his head. “How is she ever going to know that you want her to hitch the trailer to your ute and drive out here to haul that bull back to your farm if you send her just the word ‘comfortable’?”

The brunette explains, “My sister’s blonde. The word’s big. She’ll read it very slowly: com-for-da-bul.”

So, the lawyer asks if the senior would like to play a fun game.

The senior is tired and just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and tries to catch a few winks.

The lawyer persists, saying that the game is a lot of fun…. “I ask you a question, and if you don’t know the answer, you pay me only $5.00. Then you ask me one, and if I don’t know the answer, I will pay you $500.00,” he says.

This catches the senior’s attention and, to keep the lawyer quiet, he agrees to play the game.

The lawyer asks the first question. “What’s the distance from the Earth to the Moon?”

The senior doesn’t say a word, but reaches into his pocket, pulls out a five-dollar bill, and hands it to the lawyer.

Now, it’s the senior’s turn. He asks the lawyer, “What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down with four?”

The lawyer uses his laptop to search all references he can find on the net.

He sends e-mails to all the smart friends he knows; all to no avail. After an hour of searching, he finally gives up.

He wakes the senior and hands him $500.00. The senior pockets the $500.00 and goes right back to sleep.

The lawyer is going nuts not knowing the answer. He wakes the senior up and asks, “Well, so what goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?”

The senior reaches into his pocket, hands the lawyer $5.00, and goes back to sleep.

Jeevan adds: “Don’t mess with old farts!”

The pharmacist asked, “Why in the world do you need cyanide?”

The lady replied, “I need it to poison my husband.”

The pharmacist’s eyes got big and he explained, “Lord have mercy! I can’t give you cyanide to kill your husband, that’s against the law? I’ll lose my licence! They’ll throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen… Absolutely not! You cannot have any cyanide!”

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist’s wife. The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, ”You didn’t tell me you had a prescription.”

Credit to Jeevan

The woman below replied, “You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.

“I am,” replied the woman. “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of you, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help so far.”

The woman below responded, “You must be in management.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the woman, “you do not know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made ​​a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems.

“The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault!”

A book of the same title has been published in the UK posthumously by Little Brown.

Credit to Baul

Bhagawati, Osho News

Then Osho went into silence. At first it did not even appear to be that. On March 10, he had given the last discourse of the series, “The Goose Is Out”. The next morning he did not come out – supposedly his body was not well – nor were there discourses during the weeks that followed. Nobody really knew what was going on. Then, on April 10, he sent a message through Laxmi that he would from now on speak only through the language of silence, and that this would be the ultimate phase of his work.

Ashram main street, gateless gate in background

It was also announced that, starting on May 1, Osho would be giving silent satsangs. (By definition, satsang means to be in the presence of an awakened being. From Sanskrit “sat”, meaning truth, being, and “sangha”, meaning community.) This got the Ashram really humming. Buddha Hall was completely remodeled, a new podium was built that was a bit higher than the old one, and we even raised the elevation of the driveway behind Buddha Hall by about two feet, so that Osho would be able to leave his car and get onto his stage without having to climb any steps. From what I heard it was his back pains that were the most serious of his health problems, so we were making it as easy and comfortable for him as possible to come out and sit with us.

Still, although the results of our building activities had a certain solidity to them, were quite tangible and appeared rather permanent, there was a quality of uncertainty in the air, of impending change, did many of us feel deep inside that we were heading for the Grand Finale. What gave some credibility to this were the traveling activities of Sheela, Laxmi’s assistant, who had been to the States several times in the past weeks. Also, in a rather hushed-up move, a group of about a dozen crack carpenters and handymen were sent to renovate the “Castle”, as the building housing the Chidvilas Rajneesh Meditation Center in Montclair, New Jersey, was called. Chidvilas had been developed into the largest sannyasin media center in the western world and was run by Jayananda, Sheela’s second husband, who also happened to be an investment banker by trade.

The May satsangs to me were the true climax of my Poona days, perhaps of my whole time as a sannyasin. They just rolled over me, and left me feeling incredibly high. What made them even more intense and added a very unique flavor to them, almost like a few grains of salt, was that Osho was going to leave us. This was never officially announced, but many of us just knew.

Every morning, he came out and sat with us, and it was very obvious that his body was not well. Once, he needed three attempts until he was able to get up from his chair that had been designed especially for the occasion. Between periods of silence, there were readings of Kahlil Gibran’s “Prophet”, and the Ashram musicians, led by Chaitanya Hari and Govindas, played some of their best music ever. When I listen to some of those tunes today, they still invoke the magic of those days for me.

On June 1, during the morning hours, Lao Tzu gate opened, and the white Rolls-Royce with Osho inside was slowly driven towards the main gate. Whoever happened to be there had the opportunity for a last namaste. My old friend Kirti who was on guard duty at the gate rolled it open, the Rolls went past, and then it was gone. In Bombay, Osho and a few close disciples boarded a Pan Am jet and left, bound for New York, and from there on to the Castle.

1981 Chidvilas - Osho's first car ride in the USA

So, there we were. The master had flown the coop. Within a few days, it was becoming very clear what was going on, the dice were cast. The Ashram was closing down, and we were going to have our “new commune”, in far-away America. Although there had been plenty of rumors to that effect, this came as a bit of a surprise to many of us. And a lot of us were quite thrilled, since we had become somewhat weary of living in India. While there were some that were feeling lost, disoriented or even devastated, others were in good spirits and immediately started to scheme and plan how they were going to catch up with Osho.

The big question for anybody committed to being in the commune became, “How am I going to get there?” The official line from the Ashram was, “Go back to where you came from and wait, we’ll call you.” However, we knew it wasn’t going to be the same for everybody, and the new commune certainly wasn’t a place where you could just go – it was by invitation only.

Meanwhile, word came over from New Jersey that Osho was fine there, that he was going out on occasional cruises in his Rolls and that he was playing frisbee on the lawn in front of the Castle, wearing an “I love NY” T-shirt and shorts (the latter, I must add, did not prove to be factually correct).

For the time being, though, we had to concentrate on the business at hand, we couldn’t just pack up and leave in a day or two. Demolition crews were working 24 hours a day to take down all the structures we had built without proper permit. Buddha Hall was torn down, leaving only a bare, oval concrete slab. Other crews were working around the clock to pack tens of thousands of Osho’s books and his whole library into wooden crates to be shipped to the US. On my late-night rounds through the Ashram, I’d see them taking breaks, standing in circles and giving neck- and back-massages to each other. There was a big sale going on of Ashram property like sound- or electronic equipment, as well as all kinds of stuff from individual sannyasins that were leaving. Particularly at night the Ashram emanated an almost eerie feeling, which was accentuated by the monsoon rains and by the ensuing dampness.

Being sannyasins, we did it with our customary gusto. One of the big movies during the seventies had been “The Last Tango in Paris”, starring Marlon Brando. In a take-off on the title, our silk screen-printing department created T-shirts with “The Last Mango in Poona” printed on them, which were a big hit with the sannyasins celebrating their departure. When Mariam Canteen closed to merge with Vrindavan, we had a “last supper” there, by candlelight, with wine and on real tablecloths.

The Indian business community was less excited, though, which was expressed in a headline of the Poona Herald reading, “A Recession Named Rajneesh”. After all, we had spent lakhs and lakhs of rupees in Poona, and at least moneywise we were certainly going to be missed.

And just about as little excited was an unfortunate swami that I met, who, a couple of months before, had been out of the loop of what was coming down and had invested all his money in bamboo huts that he was going to rent out to sannyasins. He was not going to be sitting at the feet of the master now, while the rupees were rolling in by themselves. The only thing he got back was the scrap value.

Many of us who had been here for a long time were going to have a problem just getting out of India, since our visas had expired long ago. I hadn’t had a valid visa for way over a year, but I was lucky. The Ashram made a deal with the Indian immigration authorities for long-term workers and ashramites, and I got my exit stamp, no questions asked.

Still, I didn’t really have any place I wanted to go back to. I had no connections to any Osho center or sannyasin community in the West, nor did my native Germany appear like a very attractive place to live, even for a limited time, until I’d get “called”, whenever that might be. So Devika, my American girlfriend and I decided to stay together and, via Germany, go on to the US to see what we could do there.

From Bodhena’s Adventures in Samsara – read more excerpts…

Bodhena took sannyas in the late seventies in Pune where he worked first as a handyman for the group department, then as a Krishna Guard. After living in Geetam for a few months, he was invited to the Ranch where he worked in construction, security, Magdalena Cafeteria, Chaitanya (accounts) and as a paralegal at Rajneesh Legal Services. In early Pune II he worked for the Rajneesh Times, and then again as a guard at Lao Tzu House. In recent years, he has been living in Clausthal, Germany, practising nowhere to go and nothing to do. bodhena (at) hotmail (dot) com

Freedom makes even love beautiful.

And never sacrifice; for if you sacrifice you cannot forgive and you cannot forget.

Osho

I am not talking here about the natural clinging of the infant to its mother. Primate babies, including humans, have a powerful grip to enable them to grasp their mother’s fur. I think most human babies/mothers (there might always be exceptions) would benefit by doing what the gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos do: Baby stays physically connected with Mom for the first year of its life, cradled in her arms or clinging efficiently so as never to fall (humans can use those nice canvas pouches.) Happy, happy! I am going to suppose that such felicitous clinging would give the child such a basis in herself that in later life she would naturally range farther and farther afield with courage and impunity, leaving Mom behind.

No, I am talking about romantic clinging. You know the kind: can’t-bear-to-see-him-leave clinging, phone-him-several-times-a-day clinging, mourn-horribly-if-he-is-gone clinging. The sort that drives the other away and makes one’s own self weep disconsolately night and day.

Now, I am quite sure that this sort of painful syndrome has roots in inadequate nurturing in childhood/infancy; either by mother or father or both. But suppose that you have been doing your homework; you have had therapy and more therapy (lovely, lovely stuff – it becomes by and by as delicious as honeydew melon, that delving,) and yet still you mourn and cling to your lover. And the lover is inevitably beginning to resist you. And the panic mounts.

Now, love is like breathing. There is an ingoing and then an outgoing breath; it is natural to be together and then to be alone. When one is alone one returns to the purity of one’s being; one empties of influence, one rests. And then to see the other is a delight again. (Marriage kills this by and by unless much space is somehow built into the arrangement.) Chakras too have an opening-and-closing life; they breathe. Sometimes the heart is open; sometimes not. Quarreling with this natural rhythm is futile.

I know whereof I speak. I spent decades as a clinger. I drove away many perfectly nice lovers. I got stalkery, I followed them about, I rushed in on them while they were under their mosquito net with another woman and threw water on them as if they were yowling cats (and actually I would not do that to a cat.) I scratched my own face in despair while they stood by horrified. I lurked outside their doors examining the small shoes and the large that lay there.

Now, this was all quite long ago, and by and by I met a man who was also feeling bruised and we made a good match of it: our aesthetics chimed, our hugs were warm and smelly in the best way, our solidity together emerged and flowed about us in benevolent healing of our pasts. Mostly. But there was a small, common scene that would happen between us and one day it led to an epiphany for me that I have never forgotten….

We would go out to dinner on his Enfield (this was of course in Poona, India, where we lived each in his/her own place) and afterwards he would drive back to my apartment, I riding in splendor on the back. And he would pause outside the gate and I would hop off and turn to him for the goodbye kiss. Now, I would be in the mood to be alone. We would have spent two rich nights in a row together by that time and I would naturally want space to breathe, empty out, relax in my own precious company, doing my own small things. And he would put out his full lower lip a bit, like a six-year-old, this six-foot-four guy (we will call him Aksel;) and say, “Aksel wants you to stay the night with him! He would really, really like that! ” And there would seem to me to be a doleful bit of threat in his words.

So: Here was my moment of choice, of opportunity. Something had come towards me and I had to decide what to do. These moments are sooo important – for if we rush and ride over ourselves the important moment of Knowing, of apprehension of our inner reality, is lost forever! This moment, waiting: truth or untruth? I did not know then that all I had to do was close my eyes and watch what my body did inside: did my stomach feel a sense of closing? Did my heart seem to fall? Or did energy rise in welcome?….For that is my way to know things. It might or might not be yours.

Society teaches us untruth. Be polite/acquiescent/don’t hurt anyone. But what are we here on earth for…to continue being faithful to a third-grade teacher’s chiding, or to be faithful to our own mysterious moment’s knowing? That teacher with her flipped hair and pointy glasses is no doubt dead now!

I would often say that now I needed to be alone, sorry. I could feel my yearning for that private space….But he would persist. “Aksel would really like it….” And then I would cave in and hop back on the bike and go with him to his beautiful dwelling among the trees and flowering shrubs….But that place wasn’t mine.

Now, what exactly happens inside a person who has just gone against her truth? (And it would be easy to blame him and say “He did it” – and it would also be untrue, and a huge waste of energy. He did what he did, the reasons were none of my business; I was there responsible for me.) For the whole of that night I would be in a warped state, really; my knowing was that I should be alone; my situation was, I was relating. And in the stillness of one of those nights I watched carefully inside myself and saw this: For some weird reason I can’t quite describe, going against oneself creates clinging. I became weakened by my ‘No’ to myself. I was no longer in myself properly. I was then prey to neurosis. I then began to cling to him: For if I cannot trust myself, I will have to grab onto the nearest person! And the clinging escalated from that point, and I was weakened further still. Eventually we broke up. He rejected me, and I mourned; but in the breakup I saw another hugely valuable thing: If I tell my truth, the minute fact that I am experiencing right then, not an opinion, but a state – “I feel a shrinking in my upper diaphragm. I think of my own room now.” Or, “I feel a sense of hollow falling inside my stomach. I want to stand still and feel it. My tongue is also tingling as if it wants to eat something, but my belly is uneasy and does not want that actually.” “I feel drawn to you, but also pushing away from you. The confusion seems to demand that I just stand still.” That truth is more powerful than any six-foot-four man, no matter how in awe I am of his seeming power. My small-person ‘No’ would have, had I stuck to it, preserved me my dignity and beaten back the overwhelm of the big-person “I want you” that I had succumbed to.

And when I saw that, I mourned no more – I had gotten what I came for. And we even became friends.

I think all addiction is like that. We think we are addicted to something because we love that thing and it makes us feel good. But in fact allergy research shows that we become addicted to something that is toxic to us; the toxin creates a strange buzz, a high; but it is perverse. The rejection of what is natural gives rise, inevitably, to perversity. “I am with you when I want to be alone -” I am in a state of perversity. I am uneasy in my skin, and the skewing-sideways will make me kiss you harder, say more sweetish things, just to cover it up….I eat six pastries, and the knowing in my body that this is weird and sick will make me eat more, because I will not stop. I am beguiled by poison. If I stop I will have to feel the pain of my original refusal of what I really wanted. I don’t want to feel that layer.

Love breathes. Food beckons truthfully. The body knows. But if I don’t listen – who can help me?

And if I do listen…a revolution is accomplished, inside me. I am strengthened, I can breathe, I am made staunchly at home in myself. I can stand firmly on my own two feet and say, “No” or “Yes, ” genially enough; and mean it. This is truth, this is beauty. This is freedom. And I am still working with this lesson, day by day. It is an utter challenge, and it is the best!

 

Text and illustration by Madhuri

Instead of your usual early morning walk, run or gym session to get your day going, try this hour-long workout: 10 minutes of blowing as hard as you can through your nose, then 10 minutes feigning total madness, followed by another 10 minutes jumping up and down on the spot with your arms held high, shouting the mantra “hoo” as you land. When commanded to “stop!”, freeze your body however you land, making not the slightest movement for 15 minutes. For the last 15 minutes, relax, dance and sway to Indian music in easy celebration.Freezing like a sculpture after half an hour of such activity makes you extraordinarily sensitive to your physical reactions and emotions. It’s much more than your heart beating furiously; you sense the blood coursing through your veins, and feelings seem to well up from all over your body. The dancing that follows is magical, as though you’re in a trance.

I know this because I did this every morning for most of a recent 16-day stretch. It sets you up for a highly aware and alert – but also tranquil – day. It is called “dynamic meditation”, as practised in one of India’s best-known spiritual and meditation ashrams, the Osho international meditation commune in the city of Pune, near Mumbai.

Osho has become one of India’s most popular tourist destinations, attracting some 200,000 visitors from all over the world each year. Most are drawn by hopes that after a few weeks or months, they will emerge as more rounded and balanced individuals, and thus better equipped to deal with the modern-day stresses of the outside world.

Osho – or, as he was formerly known, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh – was one of the subcontinent’s most colourful and controversial mystics before his death in 1990 at age 58. He has since been lauded by Indian media, along with figures like Gautama Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, as one of the 10 people who have most changed India’s destiny, in Osho’s case by “liberating the minds of future generations from the shackles of religiosity and conformism.”

According to Osho, the major barrier to this search for self-discovery is the egotistical mind that rules and distracts most people, and especially Westerners, with its constant preoccupation with personal advancement. Stripped bare, this is really all about ambition, wealth, greed and lust. Such cravings and strivings, he said, can only lead to a state of permanent frustration and dissatisfaction with the relatively ordinary lives most of us are predestined to lead. It also explains why so many people, sensing they are adrift in the materialistic superficiality of modern-day life and its incessant hype, remain deeply dissatisfied with their fates.

The challenge I confronted during my stay is the quest for “no mind”, or a state of meditation that tries to at least contain – and, better still, silence – the mind, albeit temporarily. This, Osho said, opens the path inwards, so you can pay undivided attention and give expression to the true feelings and emotions of your inner “god” or being – which will reveal the true, inherent personalities we are each born with in the interconnected world of Buddhism.

I thought I knew a bit about this when I arrived at the rather-grander-than-I-imagined black marble entrance to the Osho commune after six weeks of travelling in India. I was familiar with the writings of Eckhart Tolle, the best-selling author of The Power of Now, which also shares the Osho philosophy: to lead happy lives, people have to learn to live in the present, and not waste time and energy dwelling on the past, or being constantly preoccupied with trying to imagine a better future. Tolle’s teachings are also based on techniques to liberate people from the “enslavement of the mind”, and go beyond any particular religion or established doctrine.

So I entered the ashram thinking I should be able to cope with whatever lay in store. But I was not prepared for the extraordinary reality. Once inside the ashram’s high walls in the affluent suburb of Koregaon Park, you discover you are in a five-star resort, with guesthouses, ­restaurants, cafes, pools, jacuzzis, beauty and massage parlours, plus dozens of self-contained meditation centres, all set in 11 sprawling hectares of lushly manicured gardens and parks.

But the centrepiece is the “Buddha Hall”, a pyramid that serves as the commune’s main gathering place and meditation centre, reputedly the largest in the world.

Day one was an eye-opener: as I traipsed along in my new full-length maroon robe, along with hundreds of other maroon-garbed meditators, heading towards the hulking black pyramid towering above us in the early morning darkness, it seemed like a surreal scene from the movie Eyes Wide Shut.

On the first two mornings of “dynamic meditations”, I struggled to overcome my inhibitions and self-consciousness. “Is everyone really going mad?” I would ask myself as I broke the rules and peered around me. But once I let it all scream out, the 6.00am sessions soon became a staple of my day, such was the natural high I enjoyed as I emerged into the daylight.

Other set-piece “dynamic meditations” followed, including an hour-long session in the late afternoon consisting of 15 minutes of full-body shaking, 15 minutes of full-on dancing and 30 minutes of silent meditation. Later, white robes replaced maroon as disciples attended the popular evening meditations, which involved more dancing, followed by a video lecture from the long-dead guru himself. Osho encourages you to bring all your life’s baggage with you. The group meditations and a wide range of intense smaller-group therapies and courses are all designed to make you let go and express your feelings and emotions, good or bad, in a non-judgmental environment.

During my short stay, I did some extraordinary stuff I had never contemplated: like spending 72 hours locked away with 12 other people, eyeballing each other and repeatedly asking in rotating pairs: “Tell me, who is in?” I also did a day-long “breath energy” course, which involved instruction on various intense breathing exercises. That night, I again felt euphoric.

I also did a day-long “fast track to ­yourself” awareness course and the next day an “emotional freedom” course. We spent a lot of time shouting out our emotions and banging pillows on walls, when we weren’t quietly consoling, comforting and hugging each other. Some spent the whole day crying off and on, such were their long-bottled-up emotions.

And I only really had an entrée experience to the world of Osho. The most recommended course is 21 days long, comprising three hours laughing every day for a week, three hours of weeping each day for a second week and three hours a day of silent meditation in the final week.

No doubt many people will find this account of my experience difficult to relate to. Cynics will be dismissive. But it had a profound and positive effect on me – my only regret is that I didn’t stay longer. I’ll leave the final word to one of Osho’s spiritual successors: “Few Kiwis come here. I don’t know why, whether we are off the radar or just too far away. But your country would provide an amazing setting for a meditation commune like this. The trouble is, my impression is most of you Kiwis live in a box.”

 
www.listener.co.nz
www.osho.com

A couple of nights ago, I was out for a few drinks with some friends at the Marriott Hotel and had a few too many beers and some rather nice red wine.

Knowing full well I may have been slightly over the limit, I did something I’ve never done before: I took a bus home.

Sure enough I passed a police road block but as it was a bus, they waved it past.

I arrived home safely without incident, which was a real surprise as I have never driven a bus before and am not sure where I got it.

Credit Premesh

Mega writes: “This year’s event will take place again in Munich, Germany, and it will be on the weekend, 22-23 September. So keep those dates free! Like last year our Med Mob will take place at the Odeon Platz at 11 am  – and we got the OK from the local authorities already.

After the Med Mob, our International Osho Tribe Reunion will take place in an outdoor cafe just around the corner. It is called ‘Cafe Tambosi‘ and in case it rains (one never knows) we will be in the ‘Residenz Weinstube‘ which is also located next to the Odeon Platz.

There will also be a party in the evening (time and place will be updated here).

We are still working on the programme for Sunday (23rd September).

An accomodation department for friends coming from abroad has also been created within our FB group ‘Bavarian Osho Tribe‘.”

Read Samai’s report on Osho News from last year’s Gathering: Sangham Sharanam Gachchhami
You can also read Mega’s story who had initiated similar events in the past: International Reunion in Munich

If you live in the Munich area, there will be another MedMob there on 24th May.

These formations are created by the flattening of growing crops – wheat, barley, or rye to name a few. How they keep popping up seemingly out of nowhere (they appear very fast, usually overnight) is still a mystery to be unveiled. Most people are convinced they have been created by aliens and the many other ideas posted widely on the net make one’s head spin! Quite possibly a source of energy comes into play that we are unfamiliar with – as of yet.

In any case, just looking at the intricate patterns makes it clear that this wasn’t made by two elderly gentlemen with a couple of broomsticks as some sources have insisted as being the absolute truth. Also, as more than 25 countries reported the appearance of approximately ten thousand crop circles in the last third of the 20th century, I can’t see how they possibly could have been the creators of all of them!

A specific image from 2008 discovered at Avebury Manor is now being widely disseminated and speculated upon. It shows our solar system in the precise manner of what we will see on that widely proclaimed day of December 23, 2012 when we look up into the sky. So how did that one happen? What are we being told? What are we to understand?

Look for yourselves:

Photo credit to Steve Alexander and Nyako Nakar

Bhagawati,  Osho News

“It is not an economic moment, it is a religious moment. So I don’t say that it can help in any way to make a pour country rich, it cannot. But it can help a poor man to be rich in a very non-economic sense. If riches only mean outward things then it is absolutely irrelevant. But if you think that inner consciousness, peace, a blissful attitude, a life lived as inner celebration…”

Credit Deepak (French)

That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific, Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Bluetooth [it's red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Noble talking to my wife and everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. I had to take my hearing aid out to use it, and I got a little loud.

I mean, the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside that gadget was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, “Re-calc-u-lating.” You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to make a U-turn at the next light. Then if I made a right turn instead… well, it was not a good relationship.

When I get really lost now, I call my wife and tell her the name of the cross streets and while she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.

To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven’t figured out how I can lose three phones all at once and have to run around digging under chair cushions and checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden “Paper or Plastic?” every time I check out just knocks me for a loop. I bought some of those cloth reusable bags to avoid looking confused, but I never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, “Paper or Plastic?” I just say, “Doesn’t matter to me. I am bi-sacksual.” Then it’s their turn to stare at me with a blank look. I was recently asked if I tweet. I answered, No, but I do toot a lot.”

P.S. We senior citizens don’t need any more gadgets. The TV remote and the garage door remote are about all we can handle.

Credit to Sohana

Serves 10 (depending on bowl size)

Ingredients (use organic)

3 cups chopped, peeled butternut squash
2 1/2 cups shredded coconut
6 cups fresh almond milk (make your own almond milk)
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon curry
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt
4 cloves garlic

Preparation

Blend all ingredients in high-speed blender until smooth and creamy. Serve at room temperature but do not heat it up, otherwise the enzymes will be destroyed.

From Katina

Throughout the journey I thought of you
and of the tears falling from your eyes.
Nothing in the world is more sacred
than tears of love and joy.
Such tears, so pure, are not of this world.
Though part of the body,
they express something which is not.
Whatever can I give you in return?

Over a 24-hour period we can process up to 70,000 thoughts, even as we sleep. Each day contains 86,400 seconds, so that equates to a different thought every 1.2 seconds,  your brain never stops!

Left unchecked, this incessant chatter can turn to the dark side and become an chorus of self-criticism and blame. Negative thinking can become much more dominant than the positive and supportive kind.

These thoughts tend to become stuck and repetitive — leading to anxiety, depression and burn-out.  Only by freeing ourselves from them can we grow calmer,  more focused, more present  and happier.

Meditation has been proven to ease stress, improve metabolism, reduce pain, lower blood pressure and enhance brain function. And all you need to do is . .. nothing. Any time is great.

Find a firm but comfortable chair and a blanket to keep warm. Sit in the quietest room in the house and make your space as snug and peaceful as possible. Keep a soft light on to stop yourself nodding off.

Your posture should be upright and symmetrical. Think of a Buckingham Palace guard — alert but relaxed. Put your hands on your lap and keep your chin up.

For best results, ‘hush-proof’ your surroundings. Take your landline phone off the hook, turn off your computer and mobile, and banish your family from the room. You can even wear earplugs.

Find a spot on the wall in front of you. Take six deep breathes,soften your focus and close your eyes. Focus on the sounds outside the room. Next, bring your focus to the sounds within the room.

Now, listen to the sounds inside your body — your breath and heartbeat. This is where your attention should be, within yourself. Don’t think, just focus on your breath.

Keep thinking about your breath. Imagine your nose as a lighthouse from which you take all your bearings. If you feel you’re losing your focus, concentrate once more on your breath. Just keep breathing in and out, nice and slow and steady.

It is a well-known fact that smiling helps release endorphins (the brain’s natural relaxant), so as you relax picture yourself with a gentle smile. You’ll probably find by doing this you will have one during the meditation.

Your thoughts will naturally bubble to the surface. The most important thing is not to get upset with yourself. Thoughts during meditation can be the mind’s way of releasing stress. But there is still great benefit in sitting quietly.

Do not pursue these thoughts, judge them or reject them. Simply acknowledge them, then let them go.

Each time you breathe, think of your feet growing roots into the floor. This thought anchors you and keeps you centred.

After 20 minutes gradually bring your awareness back into the room. When you’re ready, take a few deep breaths, fill the lungs and gently open your eyes.

Before you get up, sit for a minute.  Think about how peaceful you feel in this moment. Most of all, feel proud — you’ve managed to meditate.

 
Extracted from Quiet The Mind, by Matthew Johnstone (£7.99, Robinson).

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk