The Fire of Awareness

Insights

Himani’s insight on protection after reading a quote by Osho

The first time I had an insight about ‘protecting myself’ was in Osho’s commune, in Pune 2. I had taken sannyas in 1980 and been meditating regularly. I had also received the Reiki Master Training after practicing Reiki for seven years. Besides becoming more joyful and celebrating, I also felt to have become more sensitive and vulnerable. As this seemed to be a problem I started to look for ‘tricks’ to protect myself.

One of my key experiences was this: I was sitting in a rickshaw one day, driving through town – just imagine the bumping of the vehicle without shock absorbers, the noise of cars honking their horns, the heat, the pollution … Yes, sitting in a rickshaw! I happened to have my hands resting on the seat to the right and the left of my body. Aha! I realised, this seat is taking Reiki through my hands! It meant there was an energy flow and my hands turned hot.

This experience gave me an insight: I can help myself by using my hands to create an overflow of energy around me. And from this overflow the rickshaw can absorb, maybe even the driver can receive it. And I feel protected in my energy field.

Himani, Zwischenraum, 21+22

Some time later I found a question put to Osho about protecting oneself. I was surprised that Osho had talked about this issue already in 1973. So, I was not the first, not the only one, not unique … I had no reason to keep on suffering. It had taken so long for this message to finally reach me!

What I understood from that quote was that I will never need to protect myself against anything, what I had to do is to become more centered, more full of energy or more aware … so that I would not be scared or irritated, but that I could accept the situation as it presented itself to me. I am still practicing this.

Whenever one of the participants in my courses brings up the question about protection, we sometimes share our small attempts how we protect ourselves … until I read them the big answer that Osho has given us:

Question: A meditator who is vulnerable, passive, open and receptive, feels that with these characteristics he suffers due to the influence of the non-meditative, negative and tense vibrations around him. Please explain how he can preserve his vulnerable psyche from the harmful vibrations.

If you are really vulnerable, nothing is negative for you – because the negative is your interpretation. Nothing is harmful to you – because the harmful is your interpretation. If you are really open, then nothing can harm you, nothing can be felt as harmful. You feel something is negative and something is harmful because you resist, because you are against it, because there is no acceptance of it. This has to be deeply understood.

The enemy exists there because you are protecting yourself against him. The enemy is there because you are not open. If you are open, then the whole existence is friendly; it cannot be otherwise. […]

Let me put it this way: if you are vulnerable, it means you are ready to live in insecurity. Deep down it means you are ready even to die. You will not resist, you will not oppose, you will not stand in the way. If death comes, there will be no resistance. You will simply allow it to happen. You accept existence in its totality. […]

What does the negative mean? The negative means that which you want to deny, that which you don’t want to accept, that which you think is harmful. Then you are not open, then you are not in a meditative state. […]

Meditate, become open, and then you will never bring this question to me, because in the very opening the negative will have disappeared. Then nothing is negative. And if you think that something is negative, you cannot become open. The very fear of the negative will create the closure. You will be closed; you cannot open. The very fear that something can harm you … how can you become vulnerable? That’s why I emphasize the fact that unless the fear of death disappears from you, you cannot become vulnerable, you cannot be open. You will remain closed in your own mind, in your own imprisonment. […]

Be open – and in the very opening of yourself, all that is negative in existence disappears. Even death is not negative then. Nothing is negative. Your fear creates the negative. Deep down you are afraid; because of that fear you create safety measures. Against those safety measures the enemy exists.

Look at the fact – that you create the enemy. Existence is not inimical to you. How can it be? You belong to it, you are just a part of it, an organic part. How can existence be inimical to you? You are existence. You are not separate; there is no gap between you and the existence.

Osho, The Book of Secrets, Vol IV


Article and illustration by Himani

HimaniHimani has a Masters Degree in Philosophy from the University of Hamburg and took sannyas in 1980. She became a Reiki Master in 1989 and developed Osho Neo-Reiki Energy Work which she taught for a decade at the Multiversity in Pune. She is still teaching Reiki and enjoys painting, recently in Palma de Mallorca.. www.oshoneoreiki.com

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