Article submitted by Swaram.
I arrived at Osho Tapoban in 2007 for a 2 week visit and ended up staying for a whole year. Interestingly mine it is not an isolated case. I met many friends who have been caught in the net of the Osho Tapoban – Buddhafield. Now the question is: what is so special about this place to change the life course of so many people?
It’s hard to translate into words what a Buddhafield is. There are aspects of reality that the rational mind cannot grasp, yet can be experienced. The Western scientific approach to reality is to investigate, analyse, dissect and attempt to demonstrate the objective phenomena of reality. This has undoubtedly brought advantages and material progress in our modern civilisation; but at the same time whatever falls out of the demonstrable field of investigation, it is simply labelled as non-existent.
My experience with what is called a Buddhafield, is evidence that something inexplicable, intangible, evanescent and yet clearly perceivable is in operation under specific conditions.
My understanding is that some basic requirements are needed to create a Buddhafield such as nature, meditation, a group of people united by the same intention and a magic transcendental element (in this case Osho).
I found all of this condensed in an explosive blend, at Osho Tapoban, an Osho Commune in Nepal. Osho Tapoban is for me the best example of a Buddhafield. It is located in a dense forest, surrounded by pristine nature, where for thousands of years mystics and spiritual seekers have meditated in search of the ultimate truth. It is a place where many young people live together to meditate, celebrate life and share Osho’s vision.
My life was transformed forever at Tapoban and for the better. The sheer joy streaming out of the residents’ eyes, the deep silence of the nature, the powerful energy created by group meditation and the sincere love for Osho are a unique combination of elements which is very rare to find.
Tapoban-Buddhafield has inspired me to dive into regular meditation, which for me is the only way to bring long term inner transformation. It has instilled in me a sense of gratitude towards Osho and existence. It has implanted the seeds of awakening. And it has shown me that transformation is possible. Once immerse in this stream of contagious excitement, I found myself letting go and be transported by an irresistible current of positive mental attitude and trust in my heart.
My understanding is that an experience in Buddhafield is the answer to all sorts of problems faced by many people. The support of the whole environment helps to overcome any obstacle to mental and physical health. I was completely regenerated in my mind and in my heart after the “Tapoban-Buddhafield treatment”. And even more importantly these positive changes have not been lost once I came back to my “standard” life.
I heard Osho saying that man alone is not enough and divine help is needed. For me the total intention towards an object is absolutely required, but at the same time the support of a Buddhafield is an immense, precious and invaluable gift.
So my experience is that exposure to the energy field available at Tapoban (or any other Buddhafield) is an incredible tool for inner transformation. It can help people to heal psychological wounds and somatic conditions as well as to inspire the practise of meditation to realise who we really are.
I am forever grateful towards my Master Osho and to Tapoban, a magnificent Buddhafield where I had the opportunity to experience peace of mind and intense joy. My whole body/mind system has been revitalised and my heart started to sing a melodious song. Can you hear it?
When sannyasnews received this article, I have to admit, I thought ‘not another promo for Tapoban’. Not that I have anything against Topban, its probably the one place on the planet where your’ll instantly get an authentic flavor of Osho wrapped up in 1970’s format (unless its changed since I visited nine years ago). Since that visit, sannyasews has published many articles on Tapboan and Arun, so for me it was, is there anything new being said here? Probably not, although Swaram is couching this one in terms of a Buddhafield effect.
Most older sannyanins, these days, it looks like to me, are more concerned with the market place rather than any Buddhafields, living the ‘be in the world but not of it’ bit.
Well Arun is visting the UK soon, so I guess the timing article might have something to do with that (or has cynicism got the better of me?). Anyway, in my book, Arun is one of the good guys and really should not be judged unless you’ve met him.
Dharmen,
I was asked to write this article for Tapoban’s magazine, due to come out in May, and I thought to share it. Yes Arun is coming to the UK but it’s kind of a coincidence.
Buddhafield: I think it’s been a life-time Osho’s effort to build up an energy field where people can transform… otherwise what’s the point of Ashram, communes, group meditation and sannyas movement? Without a Buddhafield it’s hard to live in the market place (at least for me). I think this is another example of Osho’s work through polarities which complement each other.
I totally agree: Arun should not be judged unless you’ve met him.
99.9% people in spiritual trade are good guys; goodness is one of the most visible sign, almost like stethoscope around doctor´s neck.
Exceptions are those who use their position as sugar daddy to get easily available skin; 25, 30 years younger, the better.
Swaram,
You have really written this article with heart energy. Just wanted to know, are you a Western seeker or the Nepali sannyasin living in the west?
And also, what is the dating scene at Tapoban?
I am sure, it is not controversial as it was in Osho´s ashram, otherwise Media would have created a mountain out of the mole.
Still…want to know your observation.
Thanks…
Shantam,
I am a Westerner and was in Tapoban in 2007/08.
I think there is no point in comparing Tapoban to Poona 1.
I mean Osho is unique and incomparable and he worked through provocation and controversy. I don’t think there will ever be anything like that…
Arun is an incredibly stubborn and dedicated sannyasin who is trying hard to spread Osho’s work according to his understanding. And his style is very diplomatic and not confrontational.
All I can say I really benefited by the energy available at Tapoban, which for me is a special place.
Dharmen, I value and welcome consensual immersion into states and lifestyles and choices and creativities that happily look unlike anything like me.
I also value that consensuality that once, having left a trusting shag in the bedroom, it can maintain it’s softness without having to zip up for the anonymous world of separate individualism.Where potentially there is an unzipped orgasmi-city, that one can carry around and build on. Lord knows some have done a better job than me in promoting that not just for oneself, but as a collective way of inviting extrapolated egos into the sunshine.
There is no ‘but’ to this, and from what I hear of Arun’s energy sharings , people are touched by what he has. I’m all ears if someone wants to describe any contact energy stuff which they might have experienced with him.
In deprived countries he is particularly popular, I instantly think of the former Soviet empire states, and Nepal, where they have some awful governmental inadequate societies to live in and conflicts to recover from. Any kind of initiative is deeply welcome there. Networking is where it’s at. People , we are hungry, to live and love.
Also pictures of the Nepali slaughter fest are not a lot different from Tesco’s frozen meat counter , so I’m not being a xenophobe , but what exactly is Arun saying in private or public about the country he lives in ? Like Osho did, or does he think tape recordings of his Masters voice are where it’s at? Maybe he’s too nice to be confrontational.
One must be very cautious in role modelling these successes for one shoe doesn’t fit all.
I grew up and contributed to countercultural behaviour shorn of modular formal reverence , in a post modernist world of experiences through each and every significant other I ever met. In the last 15 years I have met and avoided sannyassins on different continents, as far as Cuba, Australia, Canada, Thailand and of course Europe.
Nothing I ever came across however had the sheer anarchic fluency of Ko Hsuan School. One, because when I got there , there was also no head honcho, charismatic figure . It was a post Osho period. It was my greatest learning curve in sannyas. I had come home to my friends and enemies, without a template of munificent togetherness. And there was no-one to tell you who to shag so as to grow. Finally I could live it without a ready-made modality, contributed to by whomsoever could handle five hour long Sunday sharings et al. Meditation was judged by how much you could handle the daily demands , not by how much sitting or jumping you did.
Compared to everything else , especially including Pune and the heavy cult atmosphere there, which has always been suffocating for someone like me, the Australian sannyas gatherings ¢res, the Vancouver experience, my experience of poor naive Osho Cuba, and the rest, then the autonomy of Ko Hsuan stood out like a wacky Osho pirate ship compared to say the monastery of Miasto in Italy.
I have never sold heart or love. I have however a good nose for ribald fun, so much so that many of my posts are too irreverent or outre’ for here too.
I’m afraid that sense of vernacular ribaldry , in which one doesn’t need training or states of prefabricated cognition to derive authority from is my playground. If you see the old videos of Deeksha saying life in her Pune 1 kitchen was just a play, take it from me that Italian sannyassins are some of the least playful when it comes to religion. Miasto is a bourgeois stuck up the arse nightmare mind brothel from where these Deekshas arise.Nasty stuff.
A therapist or a priest needs to have an acquiescent bunch of needy heart seekers to engage or sell their loveosho shaped heart to, and I’m not denying the reasons for that. You can’t open up , if someone else is untouched or antithetical.Its not cricket. It’s like paying for sex.
I do actually value their input to create haloes, for sometimes on life’s alleyways we need sacred states and communities. What we don’t have though is the commensurate irreverence or chill time. They shy away from that through extended self important roles of haloer than though usually.My experience is that there is just as much dark as light, unless you do 24 hour nice, or pretend to if its useful.
Osho was displaying both sides, not to admire him but for us to model appropriately and in measure of our own needs. By one’s own standards.
What the glitterati don’t do is ever , like a stand up comedian, let you into their own weird lives, maybe they don’t have one ? or they like wrapping things in polythene, but believe me it’s perfect for creating other waxworks, which like I say in my post on the next page, will melt in the fire of frolicking mayhem.
The person who sells what they are doing as ‘ We have what you want’ is doing a disservice by this repeated two dimensionality. Especially in post post post osho land.
It’s the spiritual equivalent of reading a book on dance music.
Nevertheless I wish them every success, if it makes people and animals happy especially if anyone can contradict that my travels around the world’s osho centres was not evidence enough and that an Arun experience will fill the gaps of my own.
until then,
all the best
ttfn
you cannot fake such happiness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iClUr1YOgcs
chetna says:
>> you cannot fake such happiness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iClUr1YOgcs
Shantam, Shantam, look at all those wet luvvies…
I know where ‘you’ are going next summer.
‘fake’ is an onomatopoeaic word is it ?
Spiritual happiness increases multi fold if it is shared with fellow seekers in presence of Sugar daddy!
Looks like it was always so, from the time of Buddha, Jesus and …..!
If plan A is kaput, plan B is the must.. Show must continue.
Satire apart, sense of bonding and belonging is an existential need. Sorry to use the word, “need”, it creates repulsion in those ladies and gentlemen who think they are free; they don´t need anybody other than their beloved spouse, house, dogs and cats, ATM and insurance card, cars and bikes and yes a democratically elected system to protect their non Neediness.
Arun ji is doing it passionately in his country among his people. Osho´s brother Shailandra with his wife and mentor do the same in India.
Question is how many from the west or highly educated Indians with the similar mind set can get benefits from them.
After all homely Vacuum cleaners even from dyson cannot do much on the streets bigger as educated men´s ego.
One needs Osho or His created set up!
shantam prem says:
>> Arun ji is doing it passionately in his country among his people. Osho´s brother Shailandra with his wife and mentor do the same in India.
I believe Swami Chaitanya Keerti is also doing something in India. Oshodhara are very vocal. They are constantly putting up new entries on You Tube. Over the last few months most of the entries are in Hindi and I think that at some point soon Oshodhara will become completely Hindi and English will be something of the past.
>> It’s hard to translate into words what a Buddhafield is. There are aspects of reality that the rational mind cannot grasp, yet can be experienced.
A Buddhafield is a place where everybody is looking at himself and hopefully is busy enough with that, not to be looking at others and judging them. It is a cycle. As you stop judging yourself, you begin to stop judging others. As profound as that might appear what it all comes down to is … happy faces.
What getting up every day and looking at happy faces does to the human psychology hasn’t been fully analysed yet.
Below is a quote from a man who has lived in a lot of Buddhafields:
“The Osho Upanishad” CHAPTER 22 A journey without end
Question 3
BELOVED OSHO, WHY DO YOU ALWAYS SPEAK OF THE MASTER IN THE THIRD PERSON?
Because I am only a witness. My function as a master is not my identity. It is just like somebody is a plumber and somebody is a surgeon; I am a master – but it is functional, it is not my reality. That’s why I speak in the third person. So I go on talking about the master as ‘he’ – I don’t use ‘I’ – just to make you aware that I am more than the master, that I am watching the master. Just as you are watching him, I am watching him too. You are watching from one side, I am watching from another side.
But I am as different from it as you are different from it.
Vartan, after reading your latest post, my lazy mind has got the idea.
May be I should register the concept and the name of a new reality show,
” Spiritual Voice of India”
There is a new breed of disciples, who love to listen their voice. They are giving their own interpretation on Krishna, Buddha, Zen and publish them too.
I think for the opening episode of my show, they will be gracious enough to participate!
shantam prem says:
>> There is a new breed of disciples, who love to listen their voice. They are giving their own interpretation on Krishna, Buddha, Zen and publish them too.
I am not going to disagree with you. Twitter Buddha. The only Zen you are going to find here is what you bring with you. As for Krishna, is that The Blue One from the movie Avatar?
I consider there is an Osho Buddhafield. But it is not confined to a physical space, whether it is Pune 14 or Tapoban or Humaniversity or cyberspace.
I for one consider I never left it since 1975…
One does wonder about the author Swaram, why did he ever leave the physical paradise he found and reflects fondly on as a Buddhafield..
to look back Swami, it’s a fool’s game.