Meditation matters!

On his tireless world travels as ‘Osho’s postman’, Arun possibly spends as much time in the air as on the ground! During a wonderful meditation retreat in February led by Arun, the typically red desert hills near San Diego, California, were emerald green from massive rainfalls. It was hosted by the USA’s premiere residential ashram, Osho Niranjana Meditation Center, a gathering place dedicated entirely to self-realization, awareness and love. Arun will return to San Diego for another meditation retreat July 20-23.

This retreat was super-charged and a number of Osho lovers stayed longer and meditated for several more days in the divine presence of Osho. On day one, Arun commented that the meditation hall at Niranjana had become the same as his Osho Tapoban commune in Kathmandu – super-charged with the Master’s presence.

In meditation with Arun, the mind’s wallpaper of world insanity falls away to reveal a new sky with more heart, a new context of total trust in the way things are, and a sense of awe for the living prana of the Master with whom Arun has spent more than 35 years. In a discourse, Osho defines the word ‘god’ as code for ‘That Which Is’. Arun further described how Existence always protects us. In this camp in particular, Existence was showing herself as a Divine Mother pouring a luxurious rose light onto all of her dancing children:

“Be passive. In your passivity, God comes. Be feminine. In your femininity, God comes. Have you not watched it? Buddha looks very feminine, Krishna looks very feminine. Why? – because it is simply a metaphor. They have been depicted as feminine, graceful, to show that that is their inner quality – receptivity.

When you are doing something you are being aggressive. When you are not doing anything you are non-aggressive. And God cannot be conquered; you can only allow him to conquer you.”  (1)

People traveled from many cities of the USA to attend. Sedona was especially well-represented this time. During our chai breaks we heard many good stories and learned (with raucous laughter) that a number of older sannyasins from the Ranch days no longer meditate but go to the local Elks Club instead. This news sounded like an Osho joke waiting for a punchline.

I love the way this spiritual community welcomes new people and non-meditators. Arun expresses that the problem is always how to make unaware people aware. Newcomers seem to find their way to Osho’s meditation camps when they are depressed and frustrated about shattered dreams and losing control in their lives. With meditation and a loving sangha they can quickly feel supported by a force far greater than the ego and understand how this is the Master doing a renovation or complete overhaul.

Synchronicity always reigns during the wonderful chai breaks between meditations, where friends seem to have divine appointments to meet each other and find how much we need each other, underscoring Osho’s words about the ashram functioning as an orchestra with no solo players.

Divine energy experienced in Osho’s meditations led by Arun cannot be put into words. Poetic imagery can only reach to explain: A radiance shining forth from an inner sunrise. The gratitude I feel for the soul privilege of being with fellow travelers and meditating in the presence of Arun makes me want to shout it from the rooftops. Meditation can jumpstart a sick planet and steer towards health and wholeness!

Arun discussed how seriousness and conflict mean that ego is present. Osho’s effort of avoiding the possibility of a third world war was another focus. Osho says that 100 enlightened souls could turn the direction for mankind.

During the weekend Arun focused a great deal on the power of breathing consciously and the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra sutras about enlightenment. After three days of meditation the power of softness, silence, yielding, and allowing swept over many of us, bringing to mind the words of Osho:

“The woman has to be herself. And not only that: the woman has to be herself and she has to help man to become a little more feminine. Not only does the woman have to be liberated from men, the man has also to be liberated from men. There is a great need for a men’s liberation movement – not liberation from women, but liberation from all the nonsense that has been taught to him down the ages: Be hard! Be steel! Don’t bend! Break but don’t bend! Man has been taught to be hard like a rock – man has missed much.

And now women are following in the same tracks. It is a dangerous situation. If the woman also follows the man, she will be a second-rate citizen, she will never be equal to man.

And not only that: if she follows man and becomes hard, as lib women are becoming – their faces are becoming hard, their bodies are losing roundness, softness, vulnerability, they are becoming more and more angry and less and less loving – the danger is that that will be the end of the whole of humanity, if it happens.

The only hope for humanity is in the quality of feminineness – the only hope. The hope is not with Friedrich Nietzsche, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini: the hope is with Buddha, Chaitanya, Meera – with a totally different kind of people. And we have to turn men and women both into a kind of feminine lovingness.” (2)

We were thrilled to hear that Arun’s first ashram, Osho Tapoban, has published 110 Osho discourse books at cost, according to the Master’s wishes. Free Osho books are distributed to youth-at-risk and prisons in Nepal and occasionally in California, thanks to ‘Buddha behind Bars’, another Osho Tapoban program.

Finally, Osho’s meditations bring the best of two worlds – the dry red desert and the fiery green grass:

“The path of love is more of feelings, emotion; it is greener. The path of meditation has the beauty of a desert, the silence, the infinity of a desert.” (3)

Excerpts from Osho’s
(1) The Diamond Sutra, Ch 4, Q 3
(2) The Fish in the Sea is Not Thirsty, Ch 4
(3) Dance Til the Stars Come Down From the Rafters, Ch 3 (unpublished)

4-Day Summer Retreat with Arun
20-23 July 2017
San Diego, CA, venue tbc
Contact Swami Krishnananda, (760) 407 6746

www.tapoban.com

By Prem Geet