by Avikal
In September 1987 my photobook The Coast of The Sun and the Moon (in Italian and English under my legal name Emilio Costantino, and with my friend Andrea De Luca) was published in Florence, Italy. The book was a collection of pictures I took in the years I was living on the Amalfi Coast in the south of Italy: the Divine Coast, as it is known. The introduction to the book was by one of the most famous and iconic Italian movie directors, Franco Zeffirelli. I was at the peak of my freelance career then, and, as it happened, also at the end.
In October of that year I finally managed to go back to Pune, India, to be with Osho, my Master.
When I arrived at the ashram I went to see Ma Neelam, Osho’s Indian secretary and a friend, and I gave her a copy of the newly-published book, and a photo of a drop of water on a leaf, to give to Osho as a present.
Three days later Neelam called me into her office and told me that Osho had kept the photo of the leaf on his bedside table the previous three nights. And, he sent a message for me: “He wants you to take a picture of a drop exactly in the moment when it starts falling.”
As, puzzled and trembling, I started contemplating this, I immediately recognized the touch of the Master.
However, I first tried to find practical, technical ways to address the task – soon realizing that it was impossible without a laser beam (in India in 1987?!). And it became clear that what was being asked of me was something very different than a practical task and the reaching of a little goal.
As I was at the time one of the guards in Lao Tzu House, I asked to be on shift between midnight and 6 am, so that I could be in his garden every day at first light and see all the thousands of drops falling from the trees and the flowers.
One morning I SAW! My mind still, my attention intent, fully present in that magical moment, I saw what was happening as a drop was falling off.
You see, a drop and a leaf are like two lovers, embraced and merged. When the moment of separating arrives, they start trembling, exactly like we do… and then they let go.
I took the picture, had it printed, and brought it to Ma Neelam. She called me the next day. The message from Osho was: “Very well. Now you will be taking pictures of me!”
And that’s when my freelance career ended. I stayed in Pune for the next thirteen years.
It was also when I finally understood and stopped fighting against my trembling.
#avikal #osho #trembling #drop
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