Arihanta has a look how to go about living with increasing global disasters, madness and violence.
Unless you have been meditating in a cave or chain-smoking marijuana for the last few years, you know that in every arena of life there is madness happening here in the US and the world. This is beyond the “normal” madness that Osho has talked to us about, that results from living in the mind. The shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children were killed, and the carnage in Boston leave me with little doubt the Mayans were right. Not so much that this is the end of the world, just that there is an unimaginable new normal.
A dramatic increase of energy on Earth, possibly caused by global warming and/or other factors still unknown to the scientists, has spawned chaos across the planet. All we read and hear about are the negative results. Yet the effect this energy is having on people who have been on the spiritual path or those unaware they are near it is unseen and, for the most part, unwritten about. We need to acknowledge both the negative and positive effects this energy is having on people’s behavior and sense of who they are.
The magnitude of the madness is unquestionable and is happening in every aspect of our reality. With regard to the environment, even the naysayers are now admitting that global disasters are being intensified, if not totally caused, by global warming. In this country we are having droughts, flooding, and tornados called once-every-100-years events. Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy showed us the ravage a single storm can make.
Political and economic chaos seem to be tied together. There is a revolution in almost every Middle Eastern and African nation. Nations like Iceland and Argentina have declared bankruptcy, and Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland are close. Yet the most mind-boggling is the violence occurring daily with guns and bombs. The New Orleans parade, Boston Marathon bombing, theater in Aurora, Colorado, and the school in Newtown are just the beginnings. Violence is and will continue to happen daily. When is it going to stop? I cannot imagine it will stop any time soon, because what energy or persons are going to stop it?
The Buddhists have a saying that there is a positive and negative aspect in everything. One could question what was positive in Newtown or the Boston bombing. So, I am going to bail out my Buddhist friends with a story Osho told many years ago.
There was old man driving his horse and cart in a terrible winter storm. He wanted to reach the warmth of the fireplaces in a Russian village. Along the way he passed a woman carrying her child, also trying to get to the village. The old man said, “Come sit next to me, and I will take you to the village.”
After a few minutes the old man grabbed the child from the woman’s arms, pushed her out of the cart, and sped off. The woman picked herself off the ground and ran after him screaming. After a few minutes he stopped the cart and let her back onto the seat. Immediately she grabbed her child and yelled at the old man, “Are you insane, why did you do that?”
The old man said, “When you first came into the cart you were turning blue, and you could not give your child any warmth. You and your child would have died before reaching the village. Now you have been running and screaming, there is color in your cheeks, and now you can give warmth to your child.”
Looking at this act from afar, it certainly appears to be a cruel act. And this is what I argue is going on here on Earth. If someone just looks at the daily newspaper or Internet stories about acts of cruelty and violence or political or environmental chaos, that person will think they are truly living in an asylum.
There does seem to be an energy available to people now that lets them ‘act out’ what they have been repressing for years or lifetimes, and they are willing to die in the process. People are no longer worried about the consequences of their acting out. Osho has said that the highest energy is in an insane asylum because people have no inhibitions, but this energy is not grounded. If someone wants to be Napoleon one day; no problem. They just go on believing they are Napoleon. Daily we are seeing people all over the Earth deciding that they are Napoleons. This is why I feel there is very high energy, with nothing holding back the chaos that’s happening. The entire planet has turned into an insane asylum, and a strong grounding energy to balance the ‘acting out’ events has not yet developed.
Yet I believe this high energy on the planet will also affect seekers and those that are close to becoming seekers. Remembering our experience at satsang, darshan, or a celebration in Pune or on the Ranch with Osho might give us a clue to what will be possible. I would not be surprised if seekers had experiences of satori or of the emptiness and nothingness where we feel one with Existence during ordinary activities or meditation. And how about the unimaginable: self-realization or enlightenment? At the very least, a clarity into our own unique beingness could be experienced more often. I think there will be many who know nothing or little of a spiritual path who will find themselves meeting and sharing with sannyasins or followers of other spiritual teachings. These new seekers will take their first steps toward learning the truth of who they are. It would not surprise me to see, in the coming years, a whole new crop of sannyasins worldwide be attracted to Osho’s teachings and energy.
I remember Osho saying something like, “Life is not living on either side of the railroad track, it is living on the tracks with the train coming down at 100 mph.” Okay, beloved Master, it’s here, the train is coming down at 100 mph, and the tracks are very difficult to avoid. Osho’s whole energy was for us to become free, to experience what he has found to be truth. It feels to me we will need to remember our life’s experience with Osho more than ever, especially in staying grounded with what is. More than ever it feels like time to meditate and be together as a community to support courage and trust as the world collapses around us.
As my beloved friend Amitabh would say, “I may not be right, yet I am absolutely certain.” Well, I may not be right, yet I keep feeling that something big is going to happen. I don’t know what it is, yet the feeling I get is that it will be a gift to those who have courage and trust. Without the foggiest knowing of why it comes to me, I keep thinking of what Osho said when talking about leaving his body, that there would be thousands of shining lights turned on. If this has not happened already, my beloved friends, it is showtime!
First published in Viha Connection Magazine
Arihanta took sannyas in 1978 in Pune. In Berkley, he opened the Rajneesh Meditation Center and lived 2 years in Rajneeshpuram. He lives now with his beloved Suburo in Moraga, California. In 1991 a psychic told him he was to write a book about love; that night the title “David The Beloved” came to him. Twenty years later, after healing from cancer, the written word came alive in his heart. In this book, he will share how he came to love his cancer as well as himself. www.davidthebeloved.com
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