Samadhi writes from Nepal; “At Osho Tapoban I experience the confluence of the paths of devotion and meditation.”
Every year I spend several months at Osho Tapoban in Nepal. I may say, it’s becoming somewhat addictive…
In a few days’ time I will be ending my four months here, months which cannot be surpassed in terms of intensity and depth, let alone described. Nevertheless, I will try my best to write about how much this place has touched me, and moves me again and again.
As soon as I leave Kathmandu, dust and street noise behind me, I pass through the gate and head for the Welcome Centre. Immediately I am surrounded by a pure, clear space of softness and silence. Strangely, even the dust of the road stops at the gate; the air here is empty in the best way.
The ashram is built on a slope, with many steps leading past a number of temples dedicated to awakened beings, past the meditation halls, the kitchen and Osho’s Samadhi.
At the lower rear end of the large ground we see Nalanda House, a block of flats which hosts exceptionally elegant, sophisticated apartments for international guests. The path leading there is lined with flowers of all colours and shapes.
The meditation hall above the Samadhi offers, through its glass walls, a breathtaking view into the jungle of the Nagarjuna Hills.
Every week hundreds of newcomers arrive to take part in the 7-day programmes: Meditation Camps, Mystic Rose, No-Mind or Vipassana.
I always start my day with: Sleeping in! The sun, the jungle noises and the screams of the monkeys reliably wake me up at 6:30am. Time to actively answer the unpleasant question: Dynamic yes or rather no? I am not going to discuss here the answers that come up…
After Dynamic, there is an hour of Yoga accompanied by the golden rays of the rising sun: four different pranayams, followed by asanas to revitalise our limbs and to keep us healthy, energised and flexible.
Then we have breakfast at Sugata kitchen. I particularly love the hot soups and the morning chai. If you prefer continental food, you can get an exquisite breakfast, or any meal until evening, at the Zorba the Buddha Restaurant.
It often happens at Sugata that I cannot understand my neighbour because his words get drowned by the loud laughter around me, constantly rising and falling in waves. There is a lot of laughter and dancing here!
Afterwards it’s free time until about 12:00 noon when we have an active meditation (Nataraj, Chakra Breathing, Chakra Sounds, No-Dimensions) or an Osho lecture. After lunch break there’s a meditation at 3:30pm, usually Nadabrahma.
Kundalini Meditation starts at 5:15pm, after which we have dinner (with a very varied menu). We then take a shower and get ready for White Robe, the evening satsang meditation, which starts at 8:00pm.
That’s the outline of a typical day.
Now I want to talk about Osho Tapoban proper – this powerful, in a certain sense invisible, yet perceptible, tangible, real Tapoban.
For me, it’s the strongest energy place I have known on this planet, a Buddhafield. Here I gain insights and experiences in the shortest of time, within hours, when it would take me months in the West.
Everything, but really everything that I have stored in my unconscious is activated in this energy field, this ‘particle accelerator’, and is brought into the light. It may be shame, anger, cravings, insecurity, judgement, sadness, loneliness or exuberance, joy and vitality – there is space for our whole being here.
Everything is received by living silence. Everything comes from it, everything disappears into it, and here I experience that all those mental contents I have described consist, in effect, of nothing else than silence. Here I have experienced long moments in which no thought has stirred. What remains is what I call happiness.
Buddha calls the essence of all phenomena, including our mental contents, ‘shunyata’, emptiness. I prefer Osho’s word, ‘stillness’, because emptiness is not empty; it contains intelligence, joy, solutions, energy, vitality, fulfilment, simplicity, purity, insights, guidance, and, above all, Osho’s presence.
I am not an esoteric man. You can bring me to task for that. For me, most of the esotericism we find today is nothing else than a Bollywood circus of the mind, permeated by an indescribably childish, egocentric immaturity, an endeavour that tries to manipulate the higher worlds, indeed the entire universe, to serve one’s own desires. But…
I am very aware that the statement made by physicists coincides with that of the mystics: 99.9 per cent of matter consists of invisibility, we only perceive 0.1 per cent of the world – and this 0.1 per cent is also distorted, interpreted and manipulated by our minds! So: keep an open mind, miracles are commonplace!
This brings me to the third, deepest level of what Osho Tapoban is today: a Mystery School.
What is it that I experience when I say that Osho is present here and is working on us?
I come here with many questions. The fact is, as soon as I ask a question, I receive an answer. Through a quote, a conversation, a lecture, or arising from within me, or through Arun’s presence or something he says.
Osho: “Your love, your trust is enough. You can be on the moon and the master will be by your side – really, the master will be inside you – because as your love deepens, something of the master, his energies, start melting and merging with you.” 1
At Osho Tapoban I experience the confluence of the paths of devotion and meditation. These two paths are really one.
My favourite place to sit in is the new, vast Buddha Mandir. An abysmal, healing silence reigns here day and night. Often a prayerfulness overwhelms me completely on its own, without my intention. Of similar depth is the Kabir Temple or the small temple for Shivapuri Baba, who lived and became awakened in this valley.
Finally, I want to mention ‘the cherry on top of the cake’: the Samadhi, which is closed during the day and opens after White Robe for the sannyasins. Anyone who knows the Samadhi in Pune will be aware of what I cannot describe in words. The energy is cosmic and immaculately still and pure. Breathtaking. We often sit here under the trees, almost until midnight, and then go to sleep, deeply moved, silent, still and fulfilled.
1 Quote from Beyond Enlightenment, Ch 7, Q 2
Translated from German by Osho News
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