Eighty Four Hours of Wakefulness
Satya Vedant tells us the story of a journey from New York on a bus full of ‘Share-a-Home’ people in 1984. it is how he saw it. But the placing of this article here is an invitation to more general comment on this scheme of Sheela, and also how sannyasins like Satya Vedant responded, maybe nievely, to what was essentially a political initiative by Sheela to increase the number of US citizens on the Ranch and thereby to increase the number of voters on the Ranch.
Satya Vedant’s story below is in response to the question: “What situation at work in the commune became a device for you?”
With a master, around a master, there is no such thing like ‘work’. It is not work, it is one’s way of expressing love for our master. With ‘work’ come expectations, likes and dislikes. With a master, whatever it is, it is always an offering. Whatever happens around a master is essentially a device for our own transformation, however insignificant the occurrence may be.
With Osho, anyway, whatever was happening around him was always a challenge. The Ranch, for instance, was a huge phenomenon on 64000 acres of land with multiple possibilities for creative expression. We used to start at six in the morning and go until eight in the evening with just two hours break when we stopped to greet Osho during drive-by. We were working around the clock in more than 50 departments and we had the opportunity to express our love for our master in as many creative ways as possible. So, everything which was going on there was a challenge. Every moment we had to be aware of “Where do I stand?” Not just “What am I doing,” but “How am I doing it” became significant.
In that context, one day a message was related to us that we would bring homeless people, ‘street people’ as they are called, to the Ranch and show them how to grow, how to bring meditation, happiness and joy to their existence. I thought it would be a real challenge to bring them to the Ranch because they would have had no idea about an environment like ours. But when the message came, no matter if it was in Oregon or in Poona: “Message comes“and you “just do it.” If you ask me what I went through, well, I went through nothing. I was just excited that I would have a chance to comply with a message, a project that was given to me.
Before we left a team had already gone to New York and had set up a base for us in an apartment. There was another sannyasin who came with me, because in those days for projects like these we would always be paired up. We were to fly from Portland to New York.
As soon as we reached New York we started searching for the street people. We walked through streets and alleys to look for them. Then we saw them, lying around on the pavements, screaming, shouting, swearing, and all that. Our next question was: “How do you attract them?” You could be standing there a whole day and they won’t bother about you. We needed to find something we could offer to them, something like a sandwich, juice, and so we did. The first day we did not bother to talk to them; we simply offered them food – which they took.
Then slowly we started spreading the message that “We would like to invite you to come with us to Portland, Oregon as our guests at the Ranch.”
Someone asked “Guest? You mean we don’t have to work or do anything?”
I said, “Yes, you don’t have to do anything, we provide you with food, clothes, shelter and whatever you need.”
It was too good to be true. In this world, and in America of all places, how can you have anything for free? They were obviously skeptical. They simply did not trust us. They used to laugh, make faces and move away. But our job was to persist. By the third day, they slowly began to sense that we were serious and that there was no catch. Someone passed the word that they would only come if their leader gave them permission.
We spotted the leader; he was sitting on the pavement surrounded by his lackeys. His face looked very serious and, for all the time we were there, he was staring at a pocket watch which he was swinging from his hand. We greeted him, “Hello sir, good afternoon sir.”
He wouldn’t even look at us and continued staring at the swinging watch. We continued and said, “We would like to have your friends come with us to our ranch in Oregon, where we have good facilities, food, etc.”
He did not say a single word… and kept staring at his watch. Then suddenly he said, “Take my photograph.”
How to take a picture? We had no camera with us; we hadn’t thought of needing one. I immediately told the other sannyasin, “You run to the store and buy a Polaroid camera.” That was the only way (in those days there were no mobile phones) – so we bought a camera and took his picture which came out nicely.
Then the leader ordered, “Give me fifty dollars for taking my picture!” We were quite surprised but then promptly ended up giving him the fifty dollars – and the photograph.
He took his time and – I can’t recollect what he did exactly, perhaps made a sign or gave a clue – but he did give his consent for them to come with us. People around him relaxed a bit. You can imagine the situation. These were people who had come out of prison, lunatic asylums, from all kinds of broken homes. They were murderers, burglars, you just name it. They were huge guys with dirty shabby clothes, lazing around on the street. As we began to sense that there indeed was a possibility of them coming with us, we told them that on Thursday five o’clock in the afternoon, a Greyhound bus would leave from there and take them to Oregon.
So Thursday came and there was the Greyhound bus. Slowly people started climbing into the bus with almost nothing else than a bundle of clothes. We had clear instructions that we were not to feed them anything non-vegetarian. And what would that be? We had only two choices – cheese sandwiches and peanut butter sandwiches. In addition, we had bottles of wine. That was the only way to keep them calm and make them go to sleep. Moreover, they enjoyed the wine.
Suddenly one guy, who carried a bundle in one hand and a cage with a small bird in the other, climbed into the bus and sat down. The moment he sat down, he lifted his cage and asked, “Hey birdie, do you want to go to Oregon?” As if hearing the bird answer, he said “No? No?… Okay. She does not want to go,” and got off the bus.
Somebody else asked “Where is Oregon? How far is it?” When we said it was three thousand miles, they became afraid that there was something wrong – some of them might not have travelled more than three miles in their whole life. Finally 40-50 people settled down and we started to move.
Now we crossed New York and as we entered Pennsylvania it must have started drizzling. There was oil on the road which made it slippery. Suddenly a car tried to cut in from one side and, although our driver was driving carefully, he hit the breaks forcefully in an attempt to avoid a crash. The bus went through a big jerk and the people sitting in the back seats bumped into each other.
They got so furious, these big guys came swearing to the front and took the driver by his neck. They were about to kill him! I was trying to save him, pleading with them, “Please sir, don’t do it, sir,” while the other sannyasin was stuck to his seat, shaking, unable to move. I was completely at a loss. How was I to stop these guys?
Finally they relented, “Because you are asking us, we are leaving this man alone, otherwise we would have killed him.” They would not have hesitated! They must have gone through many such situations before, even created on purpose…. The driver was completely shaken up but somehow kept his cool and continued driving.
If that was not enough, once on the road again, one guy got up and shouted, “Open the door, I want to leave!” I tried telling him that this is a highway, there is nothing here; where would he want to go?
“No!” he said, “you stop the bus or I will jump from the window.”
Finally the driver had to take a detour to reach a Greyhound stop where the man could be dropped off. It was late in the evening already and we had to knock on the door of the office to wake up the unhappy manager of the bus stop. We gave him money so that a ticket could be arranged for this man to go back to New York. And that is how this particular episode ended.
The next morning we reached Chicago. There were obviously a few men who didn’t have any intention of coming with us all the way to Oregon. About 10-12 people promptly got off and disappeared. Meanwhile, the bus driver had spread the word about the kind of people who were on the bus and how he almost got killed. The authorities of Greyhound in Chicago refused to take us any further. We were in a fix now, as we had clear instruction to bring them to the Ranch. So I called the Ranch and got connected to the lawyers. They in turn called the higher authorities at Greyhound and threatened to sue them for not fulfilling the contract to bring us to Oregon. That changed the situation and they were able to find a bus driver who was willing to come. So we continued the journey with about 35 people.
It was a very intense moment, in the sense that several things were happening simultaneously. First of all we had to make sure that the men were calm and quiet. We gave them wine and served them food, pacified them and treated them with respect. Moreover, it was a challenge to stay awake all the while. I was always afraid that if I dosed off and something went wrong, I wouldn’t have the time to do anything about it. I was sitting right next to the driver and for three thousand miles, which is three nights and four days, I did not sleep. I don’t know how I managed to stay awake all this time.
Meanwhile, the men on board started to become restless. They were completely fed up with cheese sandwiches. How can you have the same food day in and day out? I could understand their frustration but what could I do? I did not have much money on me. By the time we reached Salt Lake City in Utah, it was clear that they were going to create a mutiny or run away. So we stopped in the early morning at a restaurant. However, seeing the men get off the bus, the restaurant owner refused to let them in. I had to negotiate and offer to pay double to make him finally agree to feed them.
While this was happening, suddenly one man took his bundle and started to run away. I ran after him and somehow persuaded him to come with us to Oregon, promising him a return ticket back to New York. Meanwhile our men had a wonderful breakfast with omelets, sausages and everything else you can find on an American breakfast menu. In the process all the money that I had on me was gone. I called the Ranch for more funds and was told that money would be arranged for us to pick up at the Idaho bus stop.
When we reached Idaho, a couple of sannyasins were waiting for us. When I saw them, they appeared to me like angels that had come down from heaven. I hugged them with so much joy! To hear them talk was like music in my ears in contrast to the screaming, shouting and swearing that had been around me for the last couple of days. They gave us some money and told us not to worry. After all, the Ranch was not too far from Idaho.
In the end we finally made it to the Ranch and now the next step was for other sannyasins to take care of them – arranging their accommodation, giving them clothes, feeding them and helping them to settle in. This was the second bus to arrive with homeless people. After that many more buses came from different parts of the country.
The point is that all along our life’s journey, every situation challenges us to see where we are and where we stand. It demands awareness, the alertness and ability to shift from normal gear to a new gear, where we are completely neutral, where we are not reacting against this or that, simply accepting the reality as it is rather than projecting and questioning why a situation is the way it is. I was doing my best to take care of my men but still they were the way they were. They did not know how to relate to me. It was a challenge for me to understand and learn to relate to them.
This is how, in a multi-level framework I was given the opportunity to check my reality – with me as a human being, the work that was going on, and the love for the master and his vision.
This article first appeared in Oshonews without comment.
Satya Vedant is still alive and quite active in public scene. I wonder, when he will gather this much guts to tell the story of his being kicked out from Osho resort and his subsequent shelter with the lost tribe in Delhi.
He was chosen to be one of those 20´s who were part of Inner Circle chosen by Osho to take care of His work on day to day basis.
If such public figures tell the facts about the living Boss, they may get boot marks on their ass, so it is easy and convenient to speak about dead and gone, almost like beating Saddam Hussain´s statue when the man that is dictator is no more there. It is not bad as a catharsis but to get army medal for such bravery….?
I find it a shameful act…
there are some implications in this story….
as the share-a-home story was indeed a ruse dreamed up and orchestrated by sheela….then it shows that the attitude of treating every situation as an opportunity for growth and learning is an option at any moment in life that is possible irrespective of whether it is the service of an enlightened master or a convicted criminal and felonist!
serial poisoner and attempted murderess, that is.
The many masks of the Beloved!
It is beautiful to discuss past, but only if it has the potential to guide the present and lessons for the future. If not, cremate the dead and let the ashes merge in the river of Time.
Dear Frank,
I have a diploma in telephone circuitry (city and guilds 1984 Basingstoke College of Drama and Engineering)…. and I don’t know about you but I’m getting a very crossed line every time you post something these days…Is it the telephone cyber network playing with my googlies or are you attempting to rewrite our glorious leader’s past. It’s people like you with nothing better to do than strut your post religion medals like some North Korean throw back to a time when people couldn’t think for themselves. Oh but you have to go one better than that, not for you the queue at the barking capitalist lackey dog check-out counter, not for you the jacuzzi of thoughts bubbling up from just below the surface of concheesieness in the dairy products section..oh no you had to go one better.. Not content with thinking for yourself , you took on the thankless task of thinking for everyone else…and do they thank you for it..did they learn from the Master to be grateful when someone tells you how great it is to be wonderful..?
Do they heck.. and who is to blame for their lack of gratfulitudenes.
Look in the mirror Frank… be frank, Frank …….
no don’t blame yourself Frank…you were another person then Frank …regret nothing…..and when someone asks you how you feel after all these years… tell them Frank.. tell em the truth…..
”You feel it with your fingers…
you feel it in your toes..
germs are all around you,
especially when you blow your nose….”
most certainly wires are getting the crossed.
also i am receiving posts from CEO of angloindian comedy double-act corporation shantyn and martam.
glorious leaders in korea, syria or pune may not heed the words of whiteskinned subjects of her majesty in basingstoke and beijing but throwbacks will continue to think for themselves despite the barkings of capitalist lackey dogs at walmart counter, turned masters of enLIDLment, without gratitude from jackass contributors reading the works of chogyam chomsky and the dead guys with beards.
after all these years,quite frankly,i am feeling the old..feeling the young,especially at the meat counter of neo-capitalist religious supermarket ,despite my mental age may be neither ethical nor barely legal despite my diploma…
I find this article mildly interesting. Satya’s mindset is perhaps the best part. Satya says, ‘The point is that all along our life’s journey, every situation challenges us to see where we are and where we stand. It demands awareness etc.’ I wonder where that awareness was when allowing himself to be willing actor in such an off-the wall plot.
I don’t see much scope for turning this into an interesting thread because it is all rather ho hum. It feels like pedestrian history. Remember there were no mobile phones back then. Primitive times indeed. I did not go to the ranch and if this account is anything to go by I reckon that it was perhaps not the worst decision I made in my life. Mind you I have made some terrible decisions in my life. Yes, not the most thought-provoking or stimulating news I’ve heard today.
Few loving sannyasins say, ” Osho is everywhere”.
“Yes…osho is everywhere but on wheelchair”.
A thriving Osho will never stop to be in the news, He will never stop to be provocative, He will always be before His time. He will never allow some person or race to impose their projections on Him..
Yes…The phenomenon called Osho is on wheelchair, you can meet Him in some shelf in some bookshop or on some website!
ok, let me have a clear picture of the story, since i wasn’t there i’m trying to figure it out:
“In that context, one day a message was related to us that we would bring homeless people, ‘street people’ as they are called, to the Ranch and show them how to grow, how to bring meditation, happiness and joy to their existence.
Oh, I was told it was just a device from Sheela to have more American citizens to vote in the local elections”…..What nice, socially responsible people you were!
“But when the message came, no matter if it was in Oregon or in Poona: “Message comes“ and you “just do it.” If you ask me what I went through, well, I went through nothing. I was just excited that I would have a chance to comply with a message, a project that was given to me.”
I’ve heard from more than one account that in that time the Bhagwan was all day in his room, taking valium and nitrous oxide and occasionally coming out of his R.R., so from where the message came? We will never know with certitude, but more probably from Sheela than from Bhagwan, wasn’t it? But she was just excited about it, happy to follow what she told was the message from her master.
Now I ask you, is there much difference between this excitement and the excitement felt by the Japanese kamikazes when they were told to die to crush an American battleship? Or the excitement of the German people when they where shouting “Heil Hitler!”? Or the one felt by the Taliban? It looks pretty similar to me. Just people who suspend their own feeling and understanding to follow orders coming from an authority that cannot be questioned, and the fact that you were “seekers”, people who renounce many things in life to find who they are or something like that, and probably many of you were very intelligent and sensible people too, this make it even more ugly.
But I cannot even immagine what it could mean to live there, with all this emotional manipulation going on everywhere, all this surrender to the master bullshit……well, if it was a koan,it was probably too hard for the disciples.
youngman.
it really is a mystery.
legally, financially, personally, interpersonally, psychologically and spiritually…..
parmartha conan doyle couldnt solve it…
sam spade couldnt crack it…
frank columbo couldnt nail it…
maybe its a job for PT Misteryberger?
Shreek Shantam says, ‘He will never allow some person or race to impose their projections on Him..’
That is, of course, with the exclusion of Shreek ‘get a life’ Shantam.
Or, to put it another way, in marketplace there are many vegetables for sale. Call any vegetable and the chances are good the vegetable will respond to you.
Young sannyasin… Osho used to throw himself off 100 ft bridges as a young teenager when the river below was in monsoon..his friend died.. he survived. to continue jumping….
He never gave a toss for the outcome..he was all experience…for the experience by the experience until the experience… the rest was no holds barred interpersonal wrestling…..we wanted some of that arse ! comprende ? we were all in awe… its a nice place to be……its awesome…and the big shit was .. uhm we are soo dumb..ok, so what …? we was dumb.. and ?
-we wanted some of that arse ! comprende ? we were all in awe… its a nice place to be……its awesome…and the big shit was .. uhm we are soo dumb..ok, so what …? we was dumb.. and ?-
something like the family of Charles Manson?
http://youtu.be/nIft1fQQ05k
nah.the ranch was more richard branson
than charles manson.
and too many folks with more brass than class.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwm1049/5359536892/
YS osho was an idiot to put sheela in charge, and was liable.. apparently he himself in the end paid the highest price … although that could well be a good cover story..at the end of the day you better ask amrito what it’s like to have a piece of your arse taken by hypodermic.. and what all that meant.. I can’t say ..
and sure, ours was no example for the world..how naive we were.and also the world up shit creek is no example either… the way we lie is one long violation.. all done with mirrors
and also many still flock to have their arses examined by colon specialists in the pay as you go groups..all rubbish really..but you cannot avoid the shades of life..it’ll come to you and make you what you can be ..osho did the spiritual quickening thing.. so it looks worse than humdrum suburbia.. but only because you are concentrating life in intense doses..and no you wont get anyone to play ‘what if ‘games on the sannyas road…that’s for losers.. you either do or you don’t.. and nobody else can advise you..so take that video down it wont help ….did you used to get scared by someone telling you the boogy man would get you…woooooohh spooky….run..quick
in the old days tantrikas used to eat human shit on the burning ghats
and have sex with dead bodies. fact.
the aim was to dissociate and disidentify from the society and its rules and norms.
neo-sannyas was neo-tantra, and modern too.
so a lot of activities to blast you right outside of society`s norms for ever.
some of it as unpleasant as the behaviour on the ghats…
ok, the hippies were already on the way.
this was the full shit-sandwich toasted on the funeral pyre with relish in the most up-to-date fashion…
a kind of “after this, you`ll never eat lunch in the straight world again thing….”
of course, theres plenty of folks trying to pretend that the shit was really peanut butter…
you`ll find them on osho news etc…
but only a retard (good old osho word,that) would ever buy into that rubbish…
of course, theres plenty of folks trying to pretend that the shit was really peanut butter…
another good shoot from frank.
by the way you find them also on sannyasnews sometimes…..have you read the article at the beginning of this page?
….and the indian sannyasins are claiming that the shit was in fact dal made with desi ghee…
How about Charles Chaplin?
If life allows, i wish to write an article, with the theme: ” End of Rajneeshpuram; human error or divine prudence?”.
Last 10 years have left enough insights about the Sannyas Mind!
(Are there people who think sannyas has only “No mind”? But Mind? No, no!?)
I keyed in on this paragraph here, at the top of the article:
‘With a master, around a master, there is no such thing like ‘work’. It is not work, it is one’s way of expressing love for our master. With ‘work’ come expectations, likes and dislikes. With a master, whatever it is, it is always an offering. Whatever happens around a master is essentially a device for our own transformation, however insignificant the occurrence may be.’
This, to me, relates to the whole problem of blind devotion to a guru. It seems to me that as we grow up in life, we stop regarding the world of discipleship as being separate and distinct from the world itself. It is not just that life around a ‘master’ is a great opportunity to wake up, it is that life itself is such an opportunity. Take that above quoted paragraph, and wherever we see the word ‘master’, if we simply replace it with the word ‘life’, then…
‘With [life], around [life], there is no such thing like ‘work’. It is not work, it is one’s way of expressing love for [life]. With ‘work’ come expectations, likes and dislikes. With [life], whatever it is, it is always an offering. Whatever happens [in life] is essentially a device for our own transformation, however insignificant the occurrence may be.’
As for Satya Vedant (Vasant Joshi), from what I can see, he’s still caught in sentimentalism/devotion, hence his recent book (‘The Luminous Rebel’) seems limited in scope/depth. He of all people had the means to write a truly substantial treatment of Osho’s life, but the book seems to lack any critical appraisal of the world he was immersed in for so long (apart from the standard Sheela/scapegoat-bashing).
YoungSannyasin, you wrote:
‘Now I ask you, is there much difference between this excitement and the excitement felt by the Japanese kamikazes when they were told to die to crush an American battleship? Or the excitement of the German people when they where shouting “Heil Hitler!”? Or the one felt by the Taliban? It looks pretty similar to me.’
There are obvious differences, but yes, there are probably some similarities as well. You may know about Heinrich Himmler and his agenda to prove that the Aryan race was superior, even going to the extent of measuring the height of someone’s forehead to determine if they had Aryan stock. Sheela may not have been so crude, but her vow to ‘paint the streets with my blood’ was reminiscent of crusader fervor.
A question I raised in my own book was is there any link between Osho and Sheela beyond that of the mundane ‘guru-secretary’ thing? That is, was Sheela a reflection of Osho on the level of character? A dimmed down version of his intransigence, his willfulness, his insistence on steamrolling anything in his way? If Judas’ rebelliousness was a dimmed down reflection of Jesus’ rebelliousness, was Sheela’s pig-headedness a dimmed down reflection of Osho’s?
The whole share-a-home idea was crass manipulation, yes, but the absurdity is that is was even allowed to happen in the first place. I was a landscaping grunt at the Ranch, and I worked alongside many of these ‘homeless’ guys. They were as sincere as most sannyasins, even if most of them had no clue what the hell they were doing there.
The term ‘work’ in relation to spiritual disciples is nothing new. Gurdjieff’s disciples worked as do the people drinking ayuhuasaca talk about “the work”. Work was called worship in Poona One. It looked to me like hard work doing 12 hour shifts, but often as not it was great fun and an opportunity to be in the compay of interesting people. When it started to feel too much like work-work I always downed tools and headed for the beach, a practice I continue to honour right up to today.
fuck the truth and reconciliation stuff for a moment, let’s have have a bit of nostalgia in the here and now…..
dont forget…some of those “homeless” dudes knew how to “work” it on the dancefloor, too!
funky breakdance wacko-jacko (this was the 8o’s) full-sweat roofless groovin’ underneath the starry desert sky in the “discos”.
“we`re on the road to nowhere..
we`ll take that ride….”
yeah…happy daze……..
Yes i’ve heard about Himmler……I’ve also heard he was invited to the US after the war….is this true?
Himmler was chief of Hitler’s security services, head of Gestapo and SS, and he offered to surrender (there’s that word again!) Germany and himself – if he was immune from prosecution. Doubt if he was ever invited to the US after the war as he committed suicide in 1945 before he could be put on trial.
Himmler had a brother called Hans Himmler who emigrated to the USA and became a comedian. To see him in action go to
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This is funny!
Alok, what is even funnier is the guy playing ‘Hans Himmler’ is actually John Anthony West, the rogue Egyptologist.
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Well I did wonder if he was too young to be Himmler’s brother.
will this blog stop going backwards ? i’m eager to find out ….if we carry on like this Parmartha will be happy because he will feel young again.. and Dharmen will be too because he will be very wise for his age …it’s something we as writers can give back to our editors , not only nostalgia but also the ability to re-invent the past through useful exchanges.. and it cuts out actually having to go anywhere and hug someone after a sharing..and ….you can blog as long as you like and no-one will be chatting up your gf while you’re busy opening your heart…All in all its a jolly good jape…I don’t think we should stop at 1945 though….I was thinking about having a blog that doesn’t go any further than 1989 actually. Well ok i know technically the last vids were from then…but how about we just refuse to talk about anything later than 23 years ago.I’m sure people would be interested to see my Roxette vinyl record collection and we could worry about the neutron bomb instead of global warming..
I doubt it would catch on though.. silly idea really.. gosh i must be really stupid to not think that one through.. sorry guys.. go back to where you were…..
ehm…ohhh… ahh ha ?? !
There was once a group leader in the early days called Rajen. (I think his legal name was Alan Lowen). He lived in the ashram, and was what they then called an ashramrite. Some thought him a better therapist than Teertha and Somendra. I think he still operates as a therapist in the Pacific.
I did a group with him high in the Welsh Hills, an evocative setting in 1979 on one of his visits to the West. .
I remember him saying that it didn’t matter if Bhagwan (Osho) was a true or false master, whatever was going on was a fun ride. He then said something about it’s just as easy to get enlightened with a false master as with a true one, cos there were always “situations arising” to stretch normal boundaries…
At the time I was surprised, cos back then almost everything had a devotional ring, and for an ashramrite even to give thought to the idea that Osho might not be a true master… well….
Later I did ask myself whether this was a tautology. Much like saying it did not matter if one was with a Master, true or false, or simply living one’s life without any guru.
However, his initial statement that the trip was so much fun did ring very true at the time… after all, those of my friends who continued at that time to lead “straight” lives did seem boxed off and kind of burdened in a way that we were not.
osho visited that disco, too…
it woulda been great if he`d a had a beardcut, donned some levis, got his old bullworker out, flexed his pecs, done a few Hitler salutes and got down on the floor ….
coulda shaken down some of those religious nutters for good…..
yahoo!!
“meditation is really supposed to be fun.
i have great difficulty in trying to convey this idea as people take everything to do with religion seriously”
—-alan watts
meditation and children’s games are closely related, too…
….
staying without blinking for as long as poss
humming
repeating meaningless phrases
talking gibberish
singing
whirling round in circles and falling on the ground
looking in the mirror and pulling faces
dressing up
sitting very still
standind very still
lying very still
holding your breath
follow the leader
hide and seek….that.s what the universe itself is playing….
etc etc…..
Frank…thank you, thank you for putting my blood sweat and tears into perspective…
oh one more question, don’t know if this should go out to be answered by our dear reader…
Question 1) According to Frank’s insight…
.a)…is tantra ,then, playing with my willy?
b) playing silly buggers
c) paying a group leader to be told how much it needs to grow.
Was Alan Lowen son of Alexander Lowen, creator of bioenergetics?
No, he was an English man!!
Still it is a coincidence, isn’t it. I wonder if they were somehow related.
and what about the Pilgrim Fathers?
they set off from Plymouth, sailed across the Atlantic and arrived in….
Plymouth!
co-incidence, or what?
Alexander Lowen wrote Bioenergetics: The Revolutionary Therapy That Uses the Language of the Body to Heal the Problems of the Mind [Paperback]. I remember seeing brochures/flyers in the 70s or 80s advertising a therapist called Lowen; I think he advertised himself as a body oriented therapist. I assumed they were the same guys and was impressed that the founder of bioenergetics had taken sannyas.
Alan Lowen will be speaking at St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London, in June. Sounds as if he’ll be addressing some of the issues often debated here…
T A L K D E S C R I P T I O N
Monday 25 June 2012 – 7.00 PM to 8.30 PM
Keep Being Here Anyway
Self-realisation, spiritual awakening and Osho’s catch-22
ALAN LOWEN
“Deep down, no matter how much we may have shut it down, our soul has to be longing to be allowed into the light of our day. It yearns to inspire our days and our nights with its light. I think this is the dearest longing in all beings. All we are waiting for is our own permission to be here now. To get that permission is our Odyssey, our personal journey of opening and awakening. It is a very mysterious journey because the goal is simply to love the journey.” – Alan Lowen
This evening we welcome Alan Lowen who for many years was a disciple of Osho Rajneesh. Tonight Alan will discuss the blessings, challenges, the meaning of surrender, the paradox in the master-disciple relationship and the extraordinary conclusion to my life as a sannyasin (disciple).
Alan will continue the exploration into the causal links between opening to our feelings, learning to love, experiencing total presence and awakening to the spiritual dimension.
“The further I progress through this life, the deeper the recognition that above all, I am and will always be a learner. I like it so; to be always meeting existence as this new happening, this endless procession of moments in which I have never been before. In this presence! The Zen priest Shunryu Suzuki talked of “Zen mind, beginner’s mind”. That’s what I mean.” – Alan Lowen
Does that include having your cock sucked under your robe whilst leading a therapy group in kalptaru…? Will it be an evening of reminiscences?
Parmartha,
Rajen lives in Maui (Hawaii) anad travels around. He is still doing therapy work. A couple of years ago, to my surprise, he ordered an Osho photo from Viha.
P.S. Does anyone know who discovered a voting loophole in the Oregonian laws and put it up to Sheela to arrange the homeless-voting strategy? Sheela followed someone’s advice, but who is that (lawyer?) person?
so a lawyer was to blame?
there`s a surprise.
oh well,the sannyas movement has certainly moved on.
we dont leave it to lawyers to decide the fate of osho`s vison these days…..
Is this the same person….i think he is based in Devon, UK?
http://www.oshonews.com/2011/09/money-rajen/
Most definitely not!
Yeah, definitely not as Satyadeva says.
Rajen is a finance person and always was, even way back in the nineteen eighties, and still is a sannyasin.
Rajen the therapist was a very different type, and dropped sannyas in 1986, though he still seems very in touch with Osho and apparently often sings his praises. (unlike for example the therapist Teertha, his contemporary).
http://www.oshoworld.com/newsboard/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=1074
Swami Satya vedant; the swami on the left at main photo engaged in the pious work as Osho Missionary..
now,there`s a guy who needs to head down to the burning ghats with his tiffin can!
Heinrich Himmler was chief of Gestapo, yes, but he was also one of the key figures behind the Nazi’s strange escapade in Tibet in 1938 (along with other Nazi ‘think-tank’ luminaries like Bruno Beger and Ernst Schafer). Osho made some wild conjectures on this matter, which was published in his ‘I am the Gate’ book. I read that book around 1980; I think it was the second Osho book I’d ever read at that point. His only other book where he delved heavily into bizarre esoterica was ‘Dimensions Beyond the Known’. That’s the one where he talked about his life in Tibet ’700 years ago’ that ended with him being murdered 3 days before he became enlightened, which necessitated him not drinking milk from his mother’s breast for the first three days of this life — or something like that.
Osho himself likened Sheela’s reign to a ‘fascist camp’. He also had a deep interest in the machinations of power, hence his study of Martin Luther, the Russian revolution, Hitler, etc.
it might have been a fascist camp,but for me,the summer festival was more like
a totalitarian torremolinos…
a skegness of super-consciousness…
a meditative marbella…
an aiya napa of awareness…
a new age butlins
on the redneck riviera..
a zorbo-buddhist benidorm..
lovely…!
“Do you hear me? Do you see me? I stand at the door and knock, and I knock because of a promise made in another life and another age.”
http://my-osho.blogspot.it/2007/02/osho-narrates-his-past-lives.html
Teertha or Parmartha,
May i remind you that queen is still the queen, but Prime Minsiter is not Margret Thatcher but someone else…
Life and its problems are gone beyond Sheela..
Yes, Shrek Shantam, I could not agree more. The queen’s carriage went round the bend and Margaret Thatcher was my heroine also. God save the queen!
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/298100_10150421865268272_691668271_10753771_4236792_n.jpg
What were the facts about this Share a Home programme?
Sheela one day began to collect homeless from the streets, in the fall of 1984 as I remember. She promised a better life and a warm winter for them. After only a few weeks some thousand homeless people were on the Ranch. For some weeks it is claimed there were twice as many homeless on the ranch as sannyasins.
Alcohol, fights and theft suddenly were the daily agenda. To the outside world the whole undertaking was sold by Sheela as community social work. But in fact, something completely different was happening. It was about getting a political majority in the local elections in Wasco county.
During those weeks Sheela tried to convince the newcomers in many public meetings to vote for “us”. It was completely crazy. Certainly the plans did not work, because it was found that the authorities would not issue polling cards to the “immigrants” for the local elections. What a mistake! Surely someone of the many engaged in the Rajneeshpuram legal work, etc should have known this. Maybe they did, and did not speak up. Maybe they didn’t, if so, another example of Sheela having the wrong people in the wrong jobs!
When this was discovered Sheela and her cohorts put strong tranquilizers into the drinks of the homeless and send them out by bus onto the streets again (only later I found out that the homeless were fed separately from the rest of us, because they were sedated with drugs all the time).
Now, at the beginning of winter, the streets of Portland were suddenly filled with the homeless ! Great Community social work!
After the big Moma had left the ranch, Arup (Garimo), who was well known to many sannyasins, tearfully explained in a public meeting that during this evacuation she was asked by one of the homeless with whom she had some kind of human connection, for warm clothes because he would freeze on the winter streets. She refused and put him out on the streets in the below freezing temperatures. She felt real bad about it. I mention this here because I admire Arup’s public statement. It shows real honesty and shows up the total lack of compassion for others that Sheela’s gang had bred through the organisation at that time.
Another way to look at Sheela’s shenanigans is, rather than that she
was evil, she was devoid of any ability to exercise discernment.
She was as thick as a brush, and a degree of ability to discern would have told her this would go tits up eventually.
She was like a child. Unable to vestigially anticipate possible difficult consequences, surrounded by people who in the main, had handed over their personal power.
there was a story here on SN some time ago written by Veena, Osho`s seamstress and taken down quite quickly, i remember.
in it she recounted a meeting she attended where Osho stated that he wanted Sheela to “irritate” the US authorities , like “Gandhi did to the Brits”.
Niren, the main lawyer, got up and said, “you can’t do that with the FBI, they`re too powerful.”
Osho blanked him.
this may well have influenced lawyers’ reactions to Sheela’s idiocies….
thinking in terms of Gandhi and the Brits 1947,
for “cultists” on the redneck riviera 1984 was a pretty bizarre stretch….
and with Sheela as Gandhi..?
mmm pass the hookah…..
but its all water under the bridge,now.
and as PTMistleberger pointed out in his studies of Gurdjieff`s disciples,
close disciples are really unreliable sources of information!
mostly due to their massive emotional/self-hypnotic/political bias/investment, one way or the other.
so, barring any sensational deathbed confessions (would you believe them?)
or the unearthing of a few time capsules with video and audio evidence, we here,on jackass are probably like a bunch of inmates at
the orange people retirement home for the spiritually challenged,
slumped in our seats watching endless reruns of Columbo on ITV 3.
medictation time!
strange how some of you inmates at the orange people retirement home keep on repeating in turn periodically :”its all water under the bridge,now”.
So then where is the reason to keep this site? Maybe some people out there would benefit to learn from your past mistakes,so they will not have to repeat it again….
Btw if you find some strange pills in your old 70′s (orange) jeans,try it! Like this two:http://youtu.be/YRZwXvja05g
an then the orange retirement home will became all the colours of the rainbow!!!
as a youngman, you may believe that you can learn from others’ mistakes….
you may well find out that you can only learn from your own mistakes…..
Frankie Boy,
all our past articles are still available. Back to about 2006 they appear if you click the home page articles on the left. Ones before 2006 are in Back Pages when you click there.
My memory is that Veena wrote a thin book called “A Seam for the Master” in 2004.
We have not ever knowingly took anything down article wise, though we have had cyber attacks from time to time.
If you cant find the article you are thinking about, then let us know. Dharmen is in Rome at the moment, but when he returns I will ask him as he looks after the technical side of this site.
People are discussing Sheela and her acts the way art historians will discuss whether Mona Lisa’s face has signs of some kind of experience in oral actions…
Most of you can afford a round trip to Basel Rheinfelden area and have first-hand information from Sheela and her staff.
In case you come as an investigative sannyasin..let me know..i would like to receive you at Basel Euro airport. If not, go on looking at Mona Lisa’s….!!
going to visit sheela with shree (anyone who’s read a bit of porn) shantam.
maybe get a bit of “oral action” too…?
`kin `ell, man
it’s all got way too weird for me round here……
i`m going on holiday….
maybe something relaxing like munching shit salads at the burning ghats, or something…
‘bye for now.
When things start to get weird is when the real shit starts to come out, and after this, the truth may manifest.
When things start to get weird is when a real growth becomes possible.
And say whatever you want, but I still believe the present and future generations of so called “seekers” may benefit a lot if you old fellows would be able to articulate together a decent, honest, objective and even wise account of the whole Rajneesh saga….something like “A promise of Paradise” from Satya Bharti Franklin, one of the best books I’ve read about it, togheter with “A life in orange” from Tim Guest…..what they tell is not in the other hundreds of books….but if you find it more comfortable to go munching a salad of shit at the burning ghats….bon appetit, frank!
YS says, ‘Maybe some people out there would benefit to learn from your past mistakes.’
What, you mean like the time when I was in my thirties and thought I knew it all? No dear, I don’t think so, because it’s all so very trite.
Water under the bridge simply sounds more poetic than saying a long time ago etc. It comes up so often because much of what is discussed here belongs to ancient history. Like this current thread about bums being ferried into Rajneeshpuram. Some commentators enjoy to pore over the evidence like archaeologists studying shards of ancient pottery in the hope of discovering where it all went wrong.
It’s not only ancient pottery, it’s also the here and now, since the sannyasins are still rounding in the same old circle, he same old scheme again and again………and nobody (in part of someone here on SN) questioning it, because of surrender, no-mind and all this absurd double-talk program, collectively created, which now starts to crash….To watch the point from where it stopped being an alive movement and it started to go in an endless circle, with new eyes and open mind-heart, could bring some understanding and insights, which may help to break the circle.
The past has gone, now there are only memories, and the opinions about the memories, what if I, or they, had done it differently? But what if it was meant to happen like that? Apparently! It’s easy to be wise afterwards, but it’s always the crazy, unpredictable situations that throw us out of our belief system that we think we are! I imagine that must have happened to Satya Vedant, responding to the situation in the moment, so intense that the mind has no chance to come in with: “Oh no, not this, this is so wrong, this shouldn’t happen”! But after the event, yippee…… it can have its way again by being for or against illusions of the past! As far as i can see that’s the purpose of SN: regurgitating the past, and points of view about the regurgitating and regurgitating the points of view about the regurgitating, regurgitating……….I think I’m getting sick! But hee, I’m not complaining, i can see my own addiction. But let’s call a spade a spade, is SN about diversions of the mind or about what is True?
Karima asks, ‘is SN about diversions of the mind or about what is True’.
Well that all depends on how you define diversions of the mind and what is true.
It can be fun, that’s why I participate. I find the current posts a bit uninspiring, but so what? I’d say if you don’t enjoy SN why bother?
Lokesh, what I am missing on SN is more heartful responses. True, I also haven’t done so myself, ’cause it hasn’t felt safe. To be honest I felt touched by Satya Vedant’s story, that’s the most true for me, feeling-wise. My vision is that the “thread” is used for that, to explore first of all what feelings it brings up, and thoughts also, but not as an end in themselves or to bash each other with, but more to use them as a means of seeing what is the most true here, like peeling an onion. I don’t know how this wil work out in practice, but anyhow i like to experiment with it!
Good for you. You say, ‘what I am missing on SN is more heartful responses.’
Pity you are missing that, because there are quite a lot of them and what is particularly enjoyable about them is that they are often quite humourous. Perhaps you need to focus more on your sense of humour.
My rule of thumb for SN is to take it playfully. If I catch myself responding in a heated or somehow angry way I delete what I am writing because I realise it’s my ego talking. So, SN can also be used to reflect where you are coming from. I’m from bonnie Scotland myself.
Thank you Lokesh, I’ll take it to heart!
You said.
‘is SN about diversions of the mind or about what is True?’
Sannyas News is about connecting to fellow travellers, and putting up with the leeches that also attach themselves to the site.
The posts for discussion are just a means to an end.
PS:
Parmartha -
How about posting a random Tarot card and asking the question, what does this say to you about sannyas? About Osho?
But after the event, yippee……
Sure, Karima.
Did you notice for some people it wasn’t a yippee?…….When I hear this kind of bullshit coming out again and again i realise the power of the trance, after so many years some of you are still in it.
Lokesh, if current posts are uninspiring, then fuel the inspiration or someone else should do it?
Karima, SNews can be diversion of the mind, but what is not diversion of the mind?
Reading Krishnamurti or Shri Nisargadattta, or looking at the local book store, who is in the town to give Satsang!
Shantam, you are irrepressible, baba. You can’t keep a good man down.
Yes, I have an idea for a new thread…is life a mystery type thing. It is work time in my very hot and sunny neck of the woods and mind is not so sharp as I am slaving over garden tools or cement bags right now. Just gone midnight and time for a nightcap of I AM THAT..my all time favorite.
Last night attended a gathering centered around a guy channeling a 400 year old Tibetan monk. My bullshit meter went red hot. Ibiza is fast becoming not only Europe’s dance capital but also new age centre. Amazing people from all over the planet are trying to settle here. From Shaman’s to Advaita Vedantists there is something going on here that is attracting beautiful people like a soul magnetic. Cosmic, man!
I will returneth with something more current than raking through the ashes of Rajneeshpuram.
In The Purgatorio Dante considers pride the first and greatest sin that must be overcome by souls reaching toward heaven.
O gifted men, vainglorious for first place,
how short a time the laurel crown stays green
……………………………………..
A breath of wind is all there is to fame
here upon earth: it blows this way and that,
and when it changes quarter it changes name.
Good quote, Arpana. Fame is a bit like money in the sense that it often does not care whose hands it falls into. The other night I met a few famous people, all very successful in the creative arts. The following morning, I awakened to the idea that I was some kind of underachiever. Thanks to a visit from crazy zen master Premal I was soon set on the right path, having once again been reminded of the folly of comparing oneself to others. We headed off to a local pub for a celebratory beer. Ah, the beauties of the simple things in life.
Aha…Great seeker/seer Lokesh also needs some crazy Zen master to bring his driving skills back on the tracks..I was thinking he is self sufficient into oneself!
One does not need a NASA lab to observe those who oppose the specialised clinics for inner healing and research by condemning them as Religion always carry the address book of nearest GP!
Reminds me of a story once told. Even when enlightened one has to dust the shelves. At times I suspect he failed to follow his own good advice. What do I know? It’s a mystery to be lived and not a problem to be solved.