Deva Dosa contemplates miraculous healings and insights from the abundance of Zoom offerings (Part 2).
In virtual sanghas on zoom.us, Anand Arun, founder of Nepal’s Osho Tapoban, offers worldwide seekers tips to help manage their well-being and maintain peaceful tranquility during the pandemic. His virtual retreats focus on new ways to see death and how to be strong during the covid crisis.
Arun emphasizes the value of living a disciplined life during lockdown and watching the mind around the tendency to overeat. “Be careful about your food,” Arun said, “and watch the quality of food you take. Increase natural and uncooked veggies. Resist the temptation to drink more coffee by drinking water with lemon juice, and drink more fruit juices.”
A long-time secular meditation facilitator, Arun emphasizes that physical exercise is a must, and suggested a daily routine of 20 minutes of yoga, 20 minutes of pranayama, and 20 minutes of meditation, along with walking in a garden or jogging indoors. He claims that this practice will increase confidence and help people face the world. “We exercise to make sure the energy does not go to the mind and create problems,” said the author of a number of books including Panchasheel, a book that extols the virtues of discipline.
Arun has written that Osho was never against discipline, as many wrongly assume. Osho says, “What is discipline? Discipline means creating an order within you. As you are, you are a chaos.” ¹ Arun comments further: “To be established in this state of bliss perpetually, one needs arduous meditation and intense purification.”
While it’s easy to report what Arun says during his popular sessions, it’s far more beautiful to share how he pauses before answering and what he doesn’t say. When asked questions from participants online, it appears Arun travels far to inner realms to retrieve the golden answer. Seeing rapt faces in Zoom windows, it seems participants luxuriate in his enriched pauses. But recently when asked what legacy he wants to leave behind, Arun was quick to say, “I don’t have a legacy. Bhagwan made me the happiest person on this planet. It was all for Osho… The future belongs to Osho.”
Arun always stirs up a “love contest” with his presence. There is no doubt that everyone present feels they love him the most and are loved by him the most. He is that beautiful – the wondrous father, lover, friend, and guide that everyone needs and longs for. Meeting him years ago, I excitedly told a friend about this “mysterious Osho-man Arun who is somehow a bull, a rose, a pearl, and the full moon.” With passing years, that description is even more accurate; his presence is continuous grace.
Arun speaks from his experience and points to the eternal relationship between the Master and a disciple. He says, “We must prepare for death like a final exam. We can die peacefully.” As hospice workers and NDE experiencers have often described, spiritual Masters, angels, and guides come at the moment of death to help the departing make the transition. Arun believes that Osho appears to sannyasins at the moment of death, and that the Master comes to give a loving push. Speaking to sannyasins about his own departure, Osho made a truly relevant point in the moment-of-death discussion: “Just look silently and deeply and you will find your master everywhere. The whole existence will become suffused with your master.” ²
Osho also says, “I am available to you, and I will remain as available forever. If you are available to me then there is no need to be afraid, then a link exists… If you are open to me, even if this body disappears, it is not going to make any difference. I will be available to you.” ³
Taking the sting out of death, Arun makes it sound like a great adventure:
“We must prepare for death like a final exam. We can die peacefully.” Arun added that death is a full stop to the suffering of the individual’s consciousness, further commenting, “I’ve had spiritual contact with many departed souls who communicate that within one minute after dying, there is no pain unless you are attached to the body and material things.” Arun said that 90% of those who attain enlightenment, attain at the time of death. Emphasizing awareness of human choice even after we drop the body, Arun encouraged us to consider making a quick comeback after death, saying, “Don’t waste your time in the spirit world. Come back.”
Describing sleep as a “mini-death,” Arun also believes that the Master nourishes you, blesses you, works on you in your deep sleep.
As Osho says, “But for those who loved the Master, the Master is always there. For the people who loved Raman Maharshi, the Master is there… And Raman still answers and Raman still instructs and Raman still comes into their dreams, into their visions. For them there is no need to go anywhere; they have found their Master.” ⁴
Arun emphasizes that whatever you tune into, you will get more of the same, so don’t tune into negative news. Decide if you want fear or joy. “Become a lamp,” he suggests, following the words of Buddha. He also spoke on darkness saying, “Darkness has no power. If you fight it, you will be defeated because it doesn’t exist. Morality is a fight with darkness.”
Of the pandemic, Arun said that crisis forces change. “Currently, globally about 150,000 people die every day. Crisis will create awakening. Free yourself from mob psychology. None of us would have become sannyasins if things were going well.” He also talked about how depression is going to be the next global crisis with one-third of the population projected to suffer from depression, rising from stress about the death toll and economic problems and the fact that about half of the world’s population already lives on less than $ 5.50 a day.
Encouraging meditation, Arun commented that fear is in the air and we need to be careful to avoid absorbing thought pollution: “Seriousness won’t help. Become happy.”
He also suggested that it’s a great time to read Osho’s books and use the beauty of the Internet to find good, inspiring material and meditations. “Seventy percent of the time we see things that disturb the mind, like news and politics. Focus instead on jokes, beauty, and at least 20 minutes a day of laughter,“ he said.
Mentioning that many people are starting joke groups online during the pandemic, he quipped that it’s effective to “joke first, then meditate.”
The Daily Pioneer news service of India recently reported that Arun is the first person to ever share a shaktipath transmission via the Internet. Using remote technologies to effectively deliver a validated spiritual phenomenon around the world, this remarkable event is indeed a totally unique and little-understood milestone in human history.
Arun has been the unstoppable, tireless, and hard-working spiritual tugboat for people’s development. For throngs of people globally, he has pulled them out of depression, superiority, inferiority, anger, wrong perception. But Arun always deflects compliments to His Master. He says, “Thank Osho.” To know Arun is to love him, and for those who know him, our love knows no bounds.
A combination of global coordinators, Zoom technology, and months of pandemic caution have gifted many seekers extra time and opportunities to focus on spiritual growth. Deepest gratitude to organizers Anand Arhat of Osho Tapoban and Krishnananda and team at Osho Nirvana Retreat Center in California.
Osho quotes
¹ Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 1, Ch 1
² Zen: The Diamond Thunderbolt, Ch 9
³ The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 1, Ch 6, Ch 5
⁴ Sufis: The People on the Path, Vol 1, Ch 16, Q 6
Related book review on Osho News – Panchasheel, Five Sutras of Self Transformation
For more information:
swamianandarun.com – facebook.com
tapoban.com – oshosandiego.com
Swami Arun is an author, facilitator, publisher and architect of beautiful meditation facilities. In Nepal, he created the world’s first-ever Death Park, a place of profound meditation at Osho Tapoban and his next project will be a Laughter Temple. He is a candidate for the globally prestigious Templeton Prize in 2021.
Article by Deva Dosa
Read all articles in this Series – Zooming Grace
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