Sambhavya, creator of the Buddhafield Flower Essences, talks to Punya.
When did your love affair with flowers start?
I was once told that in my past life I was a native American and one day left my tribe to look for the secret of nature. I was alone in nature, all by myself and during an earthquake a large rock fell on me and I died.
In this life I grew up in Israel – though feeling more of a foreigner there – and already at sixteen knew I had to find something in this life, but was sad because I did not know what it was. I went to the Sinai desert praying, “What is it that I need to do in this life?”
When I was twenty-one I travelled to Europe, on my own, and became acquainted with the Bach Flowers. They looked like absolute magic. That was the beginning of my exploration into flower energies. I rarely used the book that accompanies the Bach flower bottles. The moment I put away my skeptic mind I could feel the vibrations of the flowers through the bottles. One healer, an American woman called Bonnie, encouraged me in her class to experience them in this way. I still thank her for that.
So Bach Flowers became your passion?
I experimented, on myself and on friends. There were always people around enquiring. That was in Amsterdam, where I had immediately felt at home. It was also the time that I met the ‘orange people’. I thought they were a bit crazy so it took me a while to finally take sannyas in Pune in 1980 (that’s another story…).
I taught Bach flowers to psychologists and healers all over the world, particularly in Argentina, Alaska, and later Japan. When in 1990 I arrived in Poona I was invited by Kaveesha, the head of the Mystery School, to teach Bach Flowers. So I started giving sessions in the Plaza and later came the trainings.
How did the Buddhafield Flower Essences™ come to you?
While meditating and working with Bach Flowers at the Osho Multiversity in the 90’s I would sometimes be suddenly ‘called’ by a flower and often by a blossoming tree. It was not that one day I decided that I would create my own system.
Something in me responded to the calling of flowers and flowering trees around. It happened especially when large therapy groups like the Mystic Rose were going on; the flowers that attracted my attention had the healing qualities that related to the subjects that were dealt with in those particular therapy groups. It was a mystery….
It also happened while vising Greece. I was in Crete – I saw from far away a pomegranate bush waving at me. The flower looks like a woman in a red dress, and then I discovered that the flower is especially beneficial to support feminine energies and difficulties women have. It just happened – and I knew it was right. I never looked for the flowers. They found me.
It took me seven years to create the set; 32 flowers came and recently a 33rd was added, the Yellow Oleander, a flower that supports the quantum leap for inner transformation.
Why was there the need to create another set of flower essences?
Dr. Bach created his essences during the 30’s. At that time it was already a big step to make a connection between the physical body and the psyche. It was not common knowledge that if you are worrying for a long time you will eventually get sick. That was a great discovery then. Now we all know that.
But I made my own research and transformed them into a spiritual tool, because you can. Bach himself hinted at the fact that they also have a spiritual dimension.
The Buddhafield Flowers are like an extension of the Bach Flowers. In the 90’s so many people had gathered around Osho, everybody discovering meditation. The needs were different. We needed another kind of flowers to support meditation. For instance all the lotus flowers support meditation; then we have the Tantric flowers like Hibiscus. We had, and have, other issues.
Why did you call them Buddhafield Flower Essences?
My flower essences were made mostly from the flowers grown around the Buddafield of the Osho Commune in Pune. They are ‘drunk’ with the divine. Osho and thousands of us meditated there and created the Buddha energyfield. Using these essences is like walking around ‘wearing’ a Buddhafield cloak…
How would you give a session with Bach Flowers or your Buddhafield Flowers?
From the very start I never used the book. I always feel the aura of the person, the energy, and see where the blocks are. I feel it with my hand. And according to this feeling I see which flower the person needs. I always work beyond the mind. I am not a psychologist.
I also created another way of working with flowers already then; I call it Flowerpuncture (as in acupuncture). The person lies down and I put the flower essence bottles on certain spots on their body; after a while the person comes back, all tensions released and often with a new understanding concerning their life.
How did you connect with the flowers?
I tell you the story when I was called by a flowering tree in Osho Teerth Park behind the Commune. I walked to the park, totally open, meditative. First just standing at the gate. Right there at the gate is a Pink Powder Puff tree, and each time I enter the park I feel a sense of extra-expansion. There’s like an opening note saying “Ah, Welcome!” (I learned that this flower helps to open the breath and assist in breath therapy. It’s also ideal for singers.)
I continued walking on the path and there was the Red Powder Puff. It was time for that tree to talk to me. Usually they are in blossom when they call and I then stand or sit under the tree, with a totally open mind (or almost no-mind…). I become a channel and at that moment I simply feel what is happening in my body. Then I start to hear words which I immediately write down.
Under this particular tree I understood that the subtle vibrations of its flowers connect us to childlike innocent qualities, helping us to find the real sage within us and give us a sort of centring and no-mind. The sensation was so beautiful and I became so full of that childlike innocence that back in the ashram, when I passed by the people in the canteen, I became aware that there were no judgements, no thoughts in my mind. Such freedom!
If I do not immediately write down what I have discovered, felt or heard, I forget it quickly because it all just passes through me. This is the reason I used to walk around with a notebook – I never knew when I would be called by a flower or a blossoming tree. Sometimes in the middle of a conversation over lunch I would need to get up and follow the call.
How do you create the essences?
A few days after having discovered the healing qualities of a flower or a flowering tree, on a day I feel very clear and open, I get a glass bowl of the cleanest spring water I can find, go to the tree and choose a few flowers (the ones which drop into your hand as soon as you touch them) which I then add to the bowl. I sit under the tree with the bowl in front of me. I watch it to see that no fly swims in it; I am guarding it so to speak, in meditation. Totally absorbed in meditation I feel connected to the spirits of that tree. I am guided by them and they are working with me. They are supporting the whole process.
Suddenly I feel an expansion of energy from the bowl: the water becomes a flower essence. The right moment has come, like when you are baking or cooking; not undercooked nor overcooked. When it is overcooked then the energy just flows out. It has happened once, reason why I know this!
This takes about three hours. It is important that the weather conditions are right, so that the sun can ‘cook’ the flowers in the water. For that I was luckier than Bach who lived in England! The essence is then poured into a bottle with 50% brandy. Like this it can be preserved for many years. It will be the mother essence which can then be diluted further for the bottles I work with and sell.
Quite recently you had a set of cards printed with pictures of the Buddhafield Flowers and are using them like Tarot cards.
Over the years I had taken many photographs of the flowers which I use in the essences and in 2013 I met an artist who helped me arrange them and create the cards with the photos. I found a printer and voila’! The cards are presented in a piece of golden fabric held together by a red ribbon. The fabric folds open and you can use it to spread out the cards on it.
Do the cards work the same way as if they were essences?
It was quite a revelation to me to see that the cards work as if they were the essences themselves. I was astonished to see just how well they work. The 33 cards come with a little instruction booklet in which I explain how to start with a meditation, how to pull the card and also give an explanation what each flower is good for. However, I prefer if the person does not read the explanation before they have meditated with the image of the flower and felt the message directly from the flower. Basically, you look at the card and meditate on it and see what comes.
Another discovery was that the cards can also be used for Flowerpuncture, in the same way as the flower essence bottles. You can put them in certain places on your body or in your aura, places to where they feel attracted to, places that might need support. After a few minutes much of the tensions start melting away like magic.
I have been travelling a lot, also to the Himalayas, meeting travellers, people who have never meditated, and ‘poof’ they immediately got the message from the flower. I have experimented a lot with these cards, and by now many people around the world have been using them, so I know that they work.
I see you have a pendant on your neck. Is it one of your inventions?
The pendent is made of a small glass bottle individually crafted by an old man in Jerusalem (he makes 3 different shapes for me) whilst the silver work is the creation of another, famous local artist. The bottle contains 7 flower essences. I created 10 different formulas for various needs: to heal and balance women’s and men’s issues, for stress release, strengthening the immune system, formula for healers and therapists, for travelling, for supporting creativity, meditation and laughter. And of course there is one for Tantra: Tantric Elexir.
I call it Energetic Jewellery because through wearing them on your body they support the healing of your particular issue, as well as strengthen and balance you energy field.
Is there a story, or two, around the Buddhafield Flowers you would like to share?
For every flower there is a magic story how it came into my life.
For some flower essences I need to have somebody with me. For instance when I found Thunbergia, a flower which, as I later discovered, supports friendliness, the highest way of relating out of love and freedom, I got the message that I needed to call my good friend Varidhi. He and I started together the Meditation Center Osho Afroz in Lesvos Island in Greece. He was happy to come and sit with me when I was doing the essence. I needed his energy there.
For another flower, the White Hibiscus, something else happened. I needed to get a new essence of the purple lotus because I had run out of it (you know, there is the white, purple and pink lotus; all have to do with meditation, supporting different aspects.). So there I was walking with my bowl to the pond next to the Healing Department in Meera where the lotus was – and suddenly felt as if someone was holding my head between their hands, turning my head to the side. In front of my eyes was the White Hibiscus, a flower I had never seen before. I heard, “You do me today.” OK, I was ready anyway with my bowl. When I looked at the form of the flower I could see male and female in a Tantric position…
So there I am sitting with my bowl in the centre of the commune in full high season. Lots of people are walking around but it feels as if nobody notices me sitting there. Suddenly I am vibrating with the energy. It is an orgasmic energy which comes through me – very subtle. It is a beautiful, blessed moment. Suddenly some guy breaks the bubble and sits next to me. He hugs me and then sits together with me in meditation. He doesn’t know what is happening; but he is supportive…. After all, it is a Tantric flower; I need somebody next to me. After about half an hour we namaste; he gets up and leaves and I remain till the end until the water in the bowl is ‘cooked’ and becomes essence.
The next day I meet him by chance in the ashram and he says to me, “I don’t know what you did there, but it was beautiful. Thank you.” You see, I have been supported. For every flower I have been supported by people in the community, in different ways.
On another occasion I met a woman in the ashram. She came up to me with a flower in her hand, a Spothodea. She was laughing so much and said, “Sambhavya, you have to check this one out!”
She was totally open because she had just done an intensive kinesiology workshop, yet at that moment I was not. Because to feel that flower, as I discovered later, one has to have gone through some clearing up of anger – I did not know I had this anger in me.
There I was standing under this very tall tree, looking up at the flowers, but I could not pick any flowers because they were too high up – and no flower would fall down for me. The tree was teasing me. I started to become angry and, of course, this was not the correct mood to work with a flower… The moment I wanted to give up and walk away, a whole flower shower fell over me. Suddenly I heard, “It’s for transforming anger. It’s for the rebel and it is to clear the rebel energy.” This flower clears it up. When you clear your belly from this energy a big laughter comes – a belly laughter, like that of the woman who had shown me the flower.
On a recent visit to the Resort I was walking around Buddha Grove. Do you remember the bamboos? They called me and I opened up, looked, and they showed me this flower lying on the floor. I picked it up and immediately knew what it was about.
I had not made an essence in over ten years, so I understood that it had to do with the times we are living in now. It is a special era where a lot of people are ready to be pushed ‘off the cliff’. They have everything but they need a little push to be transformed into another consciousness, another vibration, a vibration that is effortless. Finished with effort! Let things just happen.
While travelling, wherever I go people need this flower very much. They say to me, “I am in a situation in my life where I do not know what to do next. I really feel I just need a little push.” This flower comes and heals. It is for empowerment and finding the king or queen in us, the power to do anything you like – without effort. Just by your presence things start happening around you. This is the Oleander. A lot of people have been transformed through this flower. When you start to take this flower you feel expanded and you are tuned into what is needed in your life. Lately, while travelling in Sweden and Denmark, I met many people where this flower has been very useful and supportive.
Many of these magic stories are described in my book, Communion with Nature. And there are more that need to be published.
Many thanks, Sambhavya.
Now it’s your turn to get a session with the cards!
Interview with Sambhavya by Punya
Update 7.8.2022: corrected spelling from Kavisha to Kaveesha.
Sambhavya grew up in Israel but became acquainted with Bach Flowers and Osho in Europe. She took sannyas in 1980 in Pune and became a member of the Mystery School of the Multiversity in Pune 2. She developed the Buddhafield Flower Essences™, created Energetic Jewellery and Flower Cards for healing and meditation. She is the author of Communion with Nature. Sambhavya lives in Israel and travels worldwide to give sessions and workshops. buddhafieldflowers.com – buddhafieldflowers.co.il
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