Three Treasures

Punya participated in ‘a transforming healing process’ with laughter, crying and silence.

A week ago I came out of the Three Treasures; that’s the name given by Anutosho and Shivam Nick to a process consisting of 3 days laughing for 3 hours, then 3 days of crying, closing with 3 days of sitting in silence. ‘Treasures’ is a very good description: treasures given to us by Osho.

I wanted to immediately write about my experience, but my writing mind took a few days to click back in. I discovered that my creative mind – the one that thinks laterally, comes up with ideas, titles and jokes – was working perfectly. But the concentrative left-brain did not want to come back for some time after the days of sitting. This state felt very refreshing and new.

Anutosho and Shivam Nick held these first Three Treasures at the Gayatri Mandir in Corfu, where the participants could spend the afternoons walking, lounging on the beaches or go back to their grindstone (for me, my beloved PC).

Three Treasures can be seen as a refresher for those who have already done the 21-day Mystic Rose – one of the last meditations Osho gave us – or as a taster for newcomers. They can get a sense of what the whole process is about before deciding whether to sign up for the meditative therapy group.

As I heard, Osho had repeatedly told Leela – who has brought the technique into the world (over 100 workshops held in 30 years), and who is now writing a book about it (with her son Divakar as ghostwriter) – that each phase should last 7 days and could not be shortened. As an experimental compromise it has been decided that the short version would at least never be called Mystic Rose or mention the name in the advertising. Divakar, who facilitated this version a few years ago in Malta, called it ‘Trinity’.

I had done the Mystic Rose in Pune when it first came out and later as part of a workers’ group. Or maybe I did another one? (Some participants in our group had done it 8 times!) After that I never felt like repeating the experience, although it was held for a few years at my doorstep, also at the Gayatri Mandir. All I did was take part in the last, silent phase, where the locals were invited to join. Hearing that this year’s 7-day Watching on the Hill would be shortened to 3 days, I opted to book for the whole thing. I got so much more out of it than what I’d bargained for!

Having only 3 days for each phase, allowed little time to squabble or avoid being total: we could not waste the opportunity. So on we laughed like mad, infecting each other with uncontrollable fits. And stayed with our own laughter. In Italian we say, ‘mi fai morire dal ridere’ (literally translated: you make me die from laughter). Death felt really very close, making me forever disappear into golden light.

Crying. Sometimes avoiding, sometimes enjoying the gloom, crying about the state of this crazy world, occasionally overcome by the delicate sensitivity that artists, dancers and poets feel. For the first time I heard, or let myself hear, that there can also be tears of gratitude – so beautifully described by Osho in the audio quote. One whole morning thanking everyone in my life for contributing to the richness of it. I could have died then and there having completed my thanks and goodbyes. How wonderful to see the abundance in which we have been and still are, immersed.

Out of the 9 people, 4 were newcomers (two have now decided to do the full 21-days). It would have been difficult to identify them as they managed to melt into the laughter and crying with everybody else. The ‘older’ ones dragging in the ‘younger’ ones.

Silence. The quote from a discourse by Osho at the start of the day was an easy lead-in to silence. Instead of the usual shooing away of thoughts, the energy that had been built up over the previous 6 days, held thoughts at bay quite magically. At one time an email (“I should not have checked my phone before the session…”) had stirred up a lot of energy (anger and frustration) in me. Instead of fighting or expressing it, I let it sit there. It settled and remained comfortably in the belly. No fear of falling asleep in meditation that morning! I also discovered the two minds I mentioned earlier, one that can think and has very clear answers and the more common mind that can concentrate but is also ruminative.

There was the choice of meditating in the open (as I had done before as a guest), but I soon discovered the difference. In the open, at least for me, I spaced out into the surroundings: the wind, the trees, the roaring of the sea, the sound of workers’ tools. Inside the meditation room the energy was contained, I did not get lost but remained within myself.

What a gift these 9 days were. The process went deeper than ever before, and some great spring cleaning has happened! Maybe because of growing with age, perhaps even in wisdom, or just because this format works so very well?

Of course there is the discussion as to whether a shortening of the process is allowed. To go against ‘Osho’s wishes’?

These factors came to mind:

For me at least, better 9 days of meditation rather than none.
In the times when you could work in a high-paid job for three months in the West and then spend the rest of the year in India, doing meditations, workshops and all, a three-week Mystic Rose fitted in perfectly. What about now when jobs are on contract, holidays lasting one month (if you are not living in the US), income reduced, higher exchange rates?
The Mystic Rose needs a venue where the participants can live in their own space, where all their needs – food and accomodation – are taken care of. The Three Treasures, however, can be done in any holistic centre.
I also remember noticing the difference between Pune 1 and Pune 2. How much rougher Pune 1 was; workshops like Encounter, freak-outs in the kitchen. It was as if in Pune 2 we were all riding on a higher energy level. Newcomers would slide into that stream without the need to shovel into the dark soil as we did so deeply before. Maybe now, in 2019, newcomers can step into an even higher level, so that 9 days instead of 21 (if the latter is not an option) could be appropriate? Could this be an adaptation to the times we are living in? Just a question.

8-16 June 2025 with Anutosho, Shivam and Nirvikar in Corfu, Greece. For more information contact anutosho@mysticrose-corfu.com or see leaflet on oshonews.com

Trinity – the Meditative Therapy for the 21st Century – Marc Itzler (Divakar) writes about the 9-day format of the Mystic Rose process (February 2017)
Mystic Rose and Facilitator Training – Punya met Indivar and Chaya last year when they were being trained by Leela to become Senior Trainers themselves. Now they have given their first training in their hometown Sedona. Indivar answers a few questions (August 2019)

Credits for illustrations: Nirvikar (cartoons, originally created for Balu), Shivananda (graphic).