A Sannyas Life in Texas

…taking sannyas in Rajneeshpuram and – after Osho left his body – moving to Northern California and back to Texas.

I grew up in Texas and as a young woman during the fifties I married as was customary in those days. However, I was divorced, remarried at 33 and moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and then on to Nashville, Tennessee. Although I had initially worked as an executive secretary, now that I had two children I was a suburban housewife; yet I began practicing hatha yoga and later began teaching it in Atlanta. Shortly after moving to Nashville, Tennessee, I became a widow at 44.

I taught yoga in my home yoga studio for about two years and during this time, one of my students introduced me to Teertha, who was leading an Osho weekend, a residential meditation retreat in Nashville, at the Osho center there. Three weeks later I was in Oregon! I was there a month before embracing my most beloved Master in taking sannyas.

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After taking sannyas, I stayed in Rajneeshpuram for about 3 months before returning to Nashville to sell my condo and return to the Ranch. The condo wasn’t selling, so I returned to the Ranch, leaving it empty.

I participated in seven back to back groups and trainings at the Multiversity without a day off! And during that time I was able to let go of grieving my husband’s sudden death. After about two years at the Ranch, I came back to Nashville to sell the house and it sold the very day I arrived! My plan was to go back to the Ranch and become a resident, which I did, yet at this time, there was some unsettling news that the politicians were trying to get us out of Oregon. I stayed after Osho and many others had left, and then went with Wadud and Waduda on the “Buddhafield Express” around the US and Canada, on a “grief counselling” journey.

While we were in Boston, I heard that there was a month long advanced counsellor’s training in northern Italy at Villa Volpi at Lago Maggiore, being led by some of Osho’s top therapists. I flew there to attend only to discover there was some news that Osho was talking about some of his therapists, and basically “blasting their egos.” And most of those therapists were working at Villa Volpi!

About a year or so later, Waduda sent word to me in Boston that Osho was in Pune again and giving 2 discourses each day for a total of five hours on the master-disciple relationship. I flew to Pune and lived there for three years; one of which was after he had left his body.

From that experience in Pune 2 with Osho, I learned the value of surrendering in working for Him.

The more you work for me, the closer you are to me.”
Osho, Don’t Look Before You Leap

As an Osho therapist, I gave hundreds of counselling sessions; assisted in and led groups, mostly with Wadud and Waduda in the Esoteric Sciences Department. Towards the end of my stay, I counselled new arrivals and also became the Coordinator for the Esoteric Sciences Department in Pune 2.

In early 1991, a year after Osho left his body I left Pune International Commune for northern California, since I’d learned that it was the largest gathering of Osho’s people in the US. I lived with Dhanyam and Avinasho at Viha Meditation & Book Center in Mill Valley, started a weekly women’s group and began to give private sessions in my home to sannyasins.

In the late 90’s I moved to Fort Worth, Texas and soon after got a call from Anugraho, a Fort Worth resident who worked at the Ranch in Edison when I worked in Emerson. Anugraho told me about Unity Church being near where I lived and that there were people there who might be interested in Osho therapy. I resumed counselling people in my home and started facilitating meditation classes at Unity Church. Out of those classes, grew numerous meditation workshops, retreats and the Osho Fort Worth Center.

I’m 77 years old and begin my 31st year with Osho October 30. They have truly been the best years of my life: Transformative. And it isn’t over yet!

Related article Then and Now in the USA with Osho