Miasto, My Love!

The Mystic Mountain

I came to Miasto for the first time in the nineties. I still remember how mysterious it felt driving through Tuscany in the sunset along the highway from Firenze towards Colle Val D’Elsa. Entering the last kilometres up to the mountain through the dense forest was like entering the hidden path to a mystic castle.

With Shunyo, a good therapist friend, I was facilitating a program called ‘Transforming the Quality of Life’. Originally it was a three month long program in the Osho Multiversity in Poona and now we wanted to bring a taste of this beautiful process to Miasto. We had a very sweet group of participants and really enjoyed having our morning sessions in the group room and in the afternoon a work project outside.

Our work project was to create a sitting area for meditation and contemplation in the forest at the little pond at the very back of Miasto close to the rear entrance to ‘Dream Woods’ – Manfredo’s artistic wonderland of miniature stone cities hidden in the dark forest. Today, whenever I pass there, I still enjoy remembering this beautiful experience.

The Joy of Living Intensely

Some days ago a friend came from the Mystic Rose Meditation Retreat and I asked him how he felt in Miasto. He could not wait to answer and it popped out of him: “Great! Great! I love it! It was so intense to be there!”

Exactly this is what I feel whenever I visit – everything is so intense – from the meetings with friends to the therapeutic work in the group room to the daily meditations. For more than twenty years I have spent a good part of my life in Osho’s centres and communes and here in Miasto I realize what we all have learned in these years – the art of living intensely.

Some people say that to be with Osho is like living through many lifetimes at once. I agree and being in Miasto gives you a real taste of it. The day is so full of joyful activities that there is no time for the mind to think, to worry, to get depressed or involved in whatever our ‘normal problems’ are. We just live a little more in the moment and that’s the secret of enjoying our life a little more too!

Before the mind gets started you are already in Dynamic Meditation. After a shower and great breakfast – the croissants in Miasto are the best – the group session starts and throws you into your inner world. Ah, great lunch is coming! And off you are already for the next group session followed by famous Kundalini Meditation.

Then comes the peak of the day – Osho’s White Robe Brotherhood and you dance ecstatically before Osho talks you into the land of inner peace and silence. At dinner, which is always a masterpiece of Miasto’s fancy cooking crew, you realize how fast the day has passed. You feel as though you have lived through a whole lifetime in one day, fulfilled and happy. And what was the key? Intensity, totality!

A Multiversity for Human Growth

For fifteen years I have worked in Poona as a therapist and later on also as a director of the Centre for Transformation, which was one of the faculties in the Osho Multiversity. Osho wanted us to bring all approaches of human growth to his commune to help us prepare for his meditations. He created nine faculties and called this university of life a Multiversity.

I love this approach and I always had the dream that one day it could become a model for all universities in the world. The beauty of Miasto’s group program is that it is deeply embedded in this vision and truly offers the best methods for inner transformation to be found anywhere in the world.

I like that it keeps us therapists connected even if it’s only for a short meeting of saying “hello!” or sitting in the evening meditation together. I like it because it shows that many ways can lead to meditation and people from many corners of the world can come together.

Since Miasto introduced the Living the Commune Program I also feel a big change of energy happening. It feels more and more like one organism moving together and where I am included even if I am a guest only for a short time. It feels a new space of friendship has opened, where residents, Living the Commune Program and group participants move together.

As a therapist I love that finally I have a program available which I can recommend to people who have done lots of therapy and are looking for an experience of living in a commune like the one I had – friends who want to move from individual and group therapy to communal therapy.

Celebrating with Friends

Miasto is really a unique place! Once in awhile I participate in Dynamic Meditation or lead it in Buddha Hall. Afterwards, I love to have my first morning coffee in the rising morning sun on the terrace in front of the bar. It’s so romantic!  I love the Sannyas celebrations Saturday evening when friends celebrate their spiritual rebirth by getting a new name. There is so much heartfelt energy and mind-blowing ecstasy – more than most people can even dream of!

Yes, Osho White Robe Meditation is my favourite meditation and I still remember how it was in the beginning when I came to Miasto. The Buddha Hall was quite empty for the evening meditation and once I asked a staff member: “Why is nobody coming?” – “It reminds us too much of the church!” was the answer. I thought, “Wow, you little rebels, that is exactly what Osho is de-conditioning us from.” Rebellion has passed and today it’s really far out.

Yes, I love this gathering of friends where there is no therapist or participant any more and we all sit together in the luxury boat called “Osho White Robe Brotherhood” sailing towards the eternal ocean of love and consciousness.

Have you heard about “Osho Miasto Village”? That’s what I call the community of friends who have settled around the commune of Miasto and which grows year by year. It’s amazing to go to Saturday night’s dinner and disco in the warm summer nights, the Osho celebrations or the New Year’s Eve Party and see how the village comes together and celebrates.

It’s lovely to live in this surrounding of friends and be able to explore inner and outer nature. I so much enjoy Nordic Walking and a mountain bike drive in the forest or, on special occasions, a visit with friends at one of the great Italian restaurants nearby for a good pizza. A little trip to Siena, to the ocean or one of the hotels with a swimming pool and hot spring close-by makes life here really juicy.

A Spiritual Power Station

Last time we left Miasto my beloved Shanti asked me: “Can you also feel that leaving the place your energy changes?” – “Yes!” I said and we remembered that each time we come here we have a similar experience. Entering the compound feels like getting connected to electricity and leaving it is like unplugging from it.

I have experienced exactly the same feeling in all strong Buddhafields with Osho – be it in Poona or on the Ranch in America or in the European communes. It is like recharging my spiritual batteries for moving on along the path of transformation.

I travel around the world and I am always looking forward to coming back to Miasto to recharge my batteries and be with friends. That’s why I have also settled close to my most beloved Buddhafield. Here I can feel Osho so present and here I can allow my little Buddha inside to relax and take a deep breath again.

This rebellious place of friends has not only resisted several attempts to close it down but has developed in such a way that it feels like being in the garden of the beloved and rejoicing on the divine path of love and meditation. I have found my “Little Poona.”

Thank you so much, beloveds of Miasto! Thank you so much, Osho!

Devapath

www.oshomiasto.it – more about Osho Miasto in this magazine

Devapath has been an Osho therapist for over 30 years and is the Director of the Osho International Breath Energy School. For several years he was the Director of the Centre for Transformation in the Osho Multiversity in Pune. He developed Osho Diamond Breath, a multi-dimensional therapy which includes Power Breathing, Healing Relationships work, Aquaprana Ocean Healing and Tantra-Zen Therapy and Meditation. He is the author of The Power of Breath. www.diamondbreath.de