AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TANTRIKA (AND A YOGI): An Essay from Phoenix
Osho suggested to me two paths, one of meditation, one of love (paths perhaps also – I am less sure of this after so many years – described as yoga and tantra).
These paths can be seen as alternative routes to the same ‘destination’, or, in another context, as two wings, both of which are needed to fly.
I am reminded of all that as I read a book understandably considered by many as a spiritual classic: Paramhansa’s ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’.
The book has, after my overcoming of several obstacles to my ability to integrate it, fascinated me.
As I read it, I take both (a)the path of (kriya) yoga, as outlined in the book, and (b) my own long experience of neo-sannyas with Osho, as two mirrors to each other, thereby working towards a deeper insight into the relative import of both.
I mentioned obstacles.
Certainly, I found certain passages of the book hard-going. I was left incredulous at the many miracles; and often dubious at the grand systematic thinking.
An example of the latter is the proposal that spiritual evolution unaided by kriya yoga takes a soul a million years… but that kriya yoga adepts benefit from impressive short cuts. The most adept among them needs six years for self-realisation, while slower students need 12, 24 or 48 years. However, it apparently never takes 5 or 7 or 43 years… or indeed any odd number of years at all!
The reader is offered, by way of explanation why realisation always takes a multiple of six years, the twelve signs of the zodiac and the way they mirror the six lower ‘chakras’ in their dual aspect (whatever that is)… I find it at best all rather puzzling, at worst quite unlikely.
But certainly there is, despite my scepticism, something appealing in the idea that there is some simple mathematics underlying all the various aspects of our psychological cosmos.
I accept such things in physics: a handful of elementary particles, a handful of fundamental forces, both describable mathematically; I even accept the attempts to unify these handfuls within just one matrix, one theory.
So if I accept such things in physics, why not in metaphysics?
In any case, though, I go forward in my own way, trusting that the speed at which I move is right. I have no need to achieve self-realisation by any particular date… Perhaps I do not need it at all, perhaps I already ‘have’ it… Just I use a different name.
As to the miracles in the book: they are myriad.
Train wheels can turn, yet the train be detained in the station by the master, so that the disciple does not miss it. Yogis can be in two places at once, are adepts at telepathy, can markedly influence behaviours of unwitting third parties (for a good cause), can heal sickness, even bring souls back from the dead… and so on.
The explanation for these capacities is something like this: that self-realised beings are perfectly attuned and in connection with the cosmos, and so avail of all the powers present in the cosmos.
I do not find the explanation totally without merit. Certainly at the cosmic level things do materialize and events (are made to) happen, so why should I or anyone not avail of these powers?
I am reminded here though of the words of Osho: that enlightenment
happens, but not to you, rather to nobody…
In the same way, cosmic powers are surely available to the cosmos, but not perhaps to any one person.
That is my agnostic angle on this matter.
From what I understand of Paramhansa, he might consider that angle poor, my enquiry lazy, failing to get to the level where the truth of miraculous powers is seen as self-evident.
Maybe.
There is another way though of construing this dichotomy: that the differences between his experiences and mine are not deep, that the same one truth available to both of us just manifests differently at the superficial experiential level, reflecting personal and cultural factors.
For instance:
Like Paramhansa, I too had a master in India.
However, when I first read how Paramhansa met his master, my reaction was initially one of estrangement and/or envy.
Paramhansa did it like this: rushing up to a total stranger on the street, prostrating himself, exclaiming ‘gurudeva’ (divine teacher).
I first ‘met’ Osho, and took sannyas, in London, a year before I ever saw him in the flesh.
That opening to sannyas seemed to me, last month, when I first read of Paramhansa’s initial encounter with HIS master, a very different form of initiation, much less impressive.
However, on reflection, and after jotting snippets of this essay down on facebook – because this essay is an extended reworking of two facebook posts - and after responding to comments there, I have come to see that my taking of sannyas was just as ‘miraculous’ as Paramhansa’s finding of his master was.
It was a sceptical friend on facebook who got me realising this, by pooh-poohing my account of the matter on facebook.
I responded thus:
‘In my twenties, a time when I was virulently against gurus, I fell in with a certain band of people. They were very clearly the friends I wanted and needed.
They were disciples of Osho.
I hung out with them.
Although I was against gurus, one day this inner revolution swept through me despite myself. Things that were disjointed fell into place. The denied – joy, love, trust, and more – was admitted. It was like a book from which every second word had been excised suddenly recovering those words. The book, up to that point incoherent nonsense, suddenly makes sense. That was how my life changed’.
So I realised/remembered this month on facebook this: that my taking of sannyas over three decades back was in fact profoundly magical, just the event had become second-nature, so that the magic was forgotten… until I wrote it down on facebook…. And saw the magic again.
It was magical too in another way. I took sannyas from Osho via a method spoken of so doubtfully by myself above: via telepathy.
Initiation happened inside me, within a warehouse building in London…. not with Osho, not in Pune.
Yet it was surely direct transmission.
Still, until today I would not have called it telepathy, because telepathy occupies a very fringe position in my cultural and personal make-up. But telepathy it was.
Not only that. Telepathy was perhaps the only road to sannyas available to me. Would I have ever then have accepted a sniff test, foreheads prostrated to the floor, even kissing of feet?
Without parallel universes as controls, I cannot be sure. But my guess today is that I would, had I gone to Pune in those very early days, have shied away from any such formalities of surrender, even at the cost of refusing sannyas.
As I say, I cannot be sure. Later I accepted the bowing down, the sniff tests. But only after I already had the mala round my neck.
So perhaps telepathy was the only way I could ever have taken sannyas.
What I remember at this juncture is that I took sannyas without ever engaging in any ‘ceremony’ at all. Neither did I take it directly from Osho, nor did I ever take direct part in any of the other sannyas celebrations conducted by other sannyasins in Oregon and Pune and elsewhere – neither as a brand-new sannyasin, nor, as many who were already sannyasins did, by requesting a repeat or belated ceremony even though they already had name and mala. I had ample chance to do so, as I attended many such celebrations in Pune, both the white robe and candle versions, and the later DIY versions, and always with such joy.
Still, I contented myself with my own stripped-down version. (I got my mala in London simply by showing a letter sent back from India and having the mala taken out of a drawer in the Kalptaru reception desk.)
So perhaps telepathy was the right, even only, way for me.
Which leaves me seeing on reflection that I both accept and value spiritual telepathy.
…
Putting the obstacles aside, what else have I derived from the book? Much. Here are a couple of topics.
One:
SELF-RESTRAINT
There was glamour and excitement and vanity in much of my sannyas years.
Now, my focus has shifted…. And my reading of this book echoes that shift.
I am less inclined these days to ask myself questions such as:
‘How can I be happier/more ecstatic?’
I am less inclined to ask thus, as I now think happiness more a by-product than a direct goal.
So these days I favour grander questions, such as:
‘Are there practices which I need to start or intensify so that I may live more purposefully, harmoniously, and peacefully?’
I was reminded of the significance of such questions while reading the book… though there the corresponding question asked in his youth by the author was often simply:
‘How do I see and know God?’
(I do not see meaning in that formulation, which is why I substitute purpose, harmony and peace for God.)
Anyway…
I think there are such practices for me. They include things such as restraint, and love towards all beings (especially towards those from whom I am currently estranged).
There were times in my life when I lived and worked (largely) alone.
Now I live with many children, who can easily exasperate, have married into a family whom I cannot quite avoid, but with most of whom I can hardly get on, and run a sizeable business, so that I face constant (and conflicting) demands from many employees and partners.
All these positions seem to require from me qualities such as toughness, holding a line, setting boundaries.
Can those qualities be joined with self-restraint, with a calm, always open, heart, qualities which the Yogis of the book seem to radiate?
I would like to think so, even if I have not succeeded yet.
Two:
DETACHMENT AND TRANSCENDENCE
There is the suggestion in the book that detachment from sensory excitement is needed to clear the soul so that it may see God.
Spiritual evolution is presented as transcendence of the body.
I went a more tantric route with Osho, more sex and drugs and rock’n'roll. (The drugs fell away after a while, the other two did not.)
Still, Paramhansa’s exposition of the purported body-psyche split – something which has exercised theologians and philosophers since antiquity – has appealed to me more than most similar expositions.
I tended to suppose as a sannyasin that transcendence of the body happened purely organically, by exhausting the possibilities of the body, thus without further input or effort. For instance, sex should simply, Osho seemed to tell me, ‘drop at 42′.
(I think I was a slow learner there.)
But there is another way of understanding this transcendence than the simple falling away of immature habits.
For instance: that the tantric decades with Osho left me finally open to accepting Paramhansa’s book, a work I would surely have rationally and hedonistically dismissed as far too fantastic, and ascetic, only for the gullible and the nay-sayers, thirty years earlier.
Now I can engage with the book easily enough.
(I no longer respond though to the suggestion in the book of the need for a master with the same love-hate dynamic as thirty years ago. Then I was against gurus, but in the end I got one, or one got me.
Now I am quite open to mastery and discipleship, yet rather doubt at the same time that any new such force will come into my life. In that way, a certain work has accomplished itself in me… and with it comes the realisation that it is that openness that matters, not the master. As Osho said, surrender is the key. Surrender to a master is easiest for many, but it can be surrender to anything.
Now the master – skilful, transformational, alertness – is within me.)
I have digressed from the initial topic: Transcendence of the body.
Not a topic I would have embraced at all until recently.
Still…
If you were to read my other facebook posts this year, you would see a repeated search for renewal, for a more universal basis in the work I do, in the life choices I make.
This book gels with that very well. It presents the need for, and possibility of, cosmic awareness very succinctly and clearly.
It reminds me of the need to cast off limiting identifications.
Just this week I was mulling over – again on facebook – the inherent frustration of identifying with being male (namely that I then feel ‘deprived’ of the female experience).
It suddenly seemed obvious to me – for the first time – that the only way out of this subtle suffering, which has accompanied me much of my adult life, is to move towards the neutral metaphysical, and to disidentify with masculinity.
But that is not the only identification I might cast off.
Osho told me that we could discard all such conditionings wholesale, as soon as we desire that development enough, are ripe.
Paramhansa says it takes a million years without kriya yoga.
Am I ripe? Or do I still have 999,938 years ahead of me?
I am not sure what to say to either idea, both can seem silly.
Certainly, I do not find the million or so years a burdensome problem though. Sure, life can hurt… but isn’t the joyous fun bigger than the hurting?
Anyway…
Though I heard and ‘accepted’ Osho ending all (?) of his final discourses with the guided meditation that included the words: ‘You are not the body. You are not the mind’, it seems to me today that I ‘concurred’ with those words only by entering a dream state, one that no longer interests me much.
I no longer have a master.
And while I love the book that has prompted this essay, I am not taking up the precise methods of kriya yoga…. Or any other method or teaching or dharma.
I walk more alone.
I sometimes feel myself still caught in a jungle. At the same time though I can easily accept the idea now that it is the jungle of karma, that I planted it myself…. and got attached by its limiting tentacles.
So I take a cutlass. I move forward resolutely.
And…
In 999,938 years, and today, and on all the days inbetween, there will be and is a party. Everyone is invited.
Phoenix
As to the content…..
Maybe having two masters can be compared to a woman’s breasts, one isn’t enough and three are too many (that one’s for shantam!)
It is stated ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ is an indian classic, but classic what?
Classic indian spiritual b******t perhaps that sells well..
Blind devotion to any spiritual guff spoken by someone in authority is the order of the day in India since the average population is uneducated and inured in the conservative patriarchy of vedic culture.
But one’s brain has gone offline to give this any creedence.
The kriya practices seem to involve oxygen deprivation and ‘Oms for the Omless.’
The Phoenix is rising from the ashes of searching for formulas that he can sign up to and have faith in, conceivably to assuage feelings of lostness and anxiety.
This is what the vampires of religion, tradition and fundamentalism feed on.
He says “So if I accept such things in physics, why not in metaphysics?”
Because religion answers everything while science questions everything.
He seems to be wrestling with two sides of his nature as much as two teachings, Osho’s modern embodiment and the traditional yogic detachment, and is left to find his own way. Searching for it in books and authorities can only cover up the inner confusion and puts the trust and empowerment outside of himself.
These days there is NO excuse not to do some research at least on any spiritual heroes dead or alive, instead of taking their spin at face value.
Otherwise (telepathically reading the guru’s mind)….
“By the time they realise the truth , we’ll be long gone with all the money”
Here’s geoffrey falk on parahamsa and the self-realization fellowship for a long starters….
http://www.strippingthegurus.com/stgsamplechapters/yogananda.html
yes,all these yogis still have these amazing powers.
rest assured,indian trains are still being detained at the station by the thought-power of the masters.
i first became aware of how commonplace this occurence is,in the 70s,when i purchased an english-hindi phrase book. in the chapter “useful phrases”,i came across the phrase: “the train is 24 hours late”.
“how could you tell?” i wondered in zen-koan style, thus triggering in myself a lifelong enquiry into secret india and enlightenment.
it was a pivotal moment,and in the ensuing 35 years of weekend astral travelling to babajis ashram in shangri-la,i learned many yogic methods to stop a train…..a special mantra in the ear of the conductor.a bit of baksheesh to the driver, and even pulling the old emergency cord were just some of them…
yogis can still be in two places at the same time.it happens pretty much every day in india.
the yogi is simultaneously in his room in deep meditation and then also found in another back room banging some “tamil actresses”
some of those siddhis are well worth learning,even as a tourist,for example,surviving without eating and excreting is obviously a very handy skill to have in india,especially if you dont fancy chilli and the ensuing visits to the ..er…public toilets, which require a more detailed knowledge of the “left-hand” path.
and look at our yogis in pune.they are also perfectly capable of “influencing the behaviours of third parties for their own good” without even going out of their rooms….they just invoke the magical powers of a breed of left-hand tantrik spirits called “lawyers”…
and of course,these tantrik yogis of ours are following in the tracks of the ancient tantric yogis,who drank snake venom just to test their awareness levels,but in a thorughly modern way- by sinking enough bombay gin and johnny walker black label to kill an elephant…its impressive stuff.
and on this heady mix of soma, they are even able to travel back through time and get vital information and autographs from long-dead enlightened masters on 10 rupee notepaper.
yogananda.eat your heart out!
even here on sannyasnews there are yogis who can perform amazing feats.
you must have heard about the aghoris, the extreme left-hand tantricas who hang around burning ghats and literally eat shit.
well,our shantam has been spotted down the local churchyard,of an afternoon,stuffing himself with cut-price meatballs and frikandel from lidl…..
top that,parmahamsandwich guy!
and this phoenix fellow.he is well on his way with his new book: “autostimulation of a yogi”
its already beginning to look like a classic up its own genre……
Another sattvic extract from Sri Bananarama Frankietwopintsandahamsandwich’s tantrika travelogue of yogic hippie studies. His Grateful Dead-ication to the pathless path leading to the gateless gate then turning left-field for the publess pub, activates our chuckle chakras while quarantining all cosmological black holes. We blissfully benefit from the prasad while chanting our favourite SN Mantra… ‘Nuckin’ Futs Nuckin’ Futs Nuckin’ Futs…..Ooommm’.
The final instalment of Phoenix’s oeuvre will be called “Autoasphyxiation of a Yogi” focusing on the kriya of oxygen deprivation, and will leave us gasping for more. I’m breathless with anticipation!
I know this because my teleported avatar, a highersuperconsciouscosmicethereallightbody that lives in eternal presence told me so.
on a more serious note.
wasnt there a yogi in rishikesh,who recently wanked himself to death as an asana?
like everything in the 21st century in india,being a saddhu is a lot more competitive,now…
stopping trains,levitating,standing with your hand in the air for years and vandalising your genitals with a stick just doesnt go far enough these days….
and what about that indian holyman who just the other week chopped his bollocks off to prove how unsexy he was?
i to be fair,i reckon that pretty much worked.
You mean poor old Swami Rubadubalingam, a bit of a Brah-man I heard, who over-extended himself in throbknobasana.
As for the other fella doing Ardha Cutacockasana a very advanced practice which makes other poses like Pidlasana even more difficult.
I guess the thinking is “If you can’t detach from the body then detach the body from you”.
It’s all a bit saddhu if you ask me…..
Although on the upside a decrease in testosterone (an immune suppressant) can lead to a longer life.
Apparently inception, x-men, avengers, superman, neo in the matrix were all yogis who had received their siddhis from the Supreme Swan, Parahamsa no less.
on the”Daily Show”(do they broadcast the show in England?) recently, they showed a brief video of a baboon wanking itself into a frenzy… my question to you Frank- does that make him a yogi, and thereby a candidate for entrance into nirvana, and could that baboon wank itself to death? just wondering.
it takes a million years without kriya yoga….
What kind of person can say such a thing?
Many times I think what will happen if entrepreneurs start thinking like gurus.
They advertisements will be like hammer.
Only and only with Sildenafil you can get it up, If you try Cialis, everything will disappear!
Tablet from my ashram can heal your worries if you try the others, you wife will run away with her brother in law!
I think if a person born in the west gets attracted to Indian books, I think it should be treated as deviation.
If not healed on time, chances are sickness will go to the extent of Amritanus!
‘ Which leaves me seeing on reflection that I both accept and value spiritual telepathy.’ wrote a sixty two year English , father , tantrika (yogi ) , ex osho sanyasin .
Well Frank , even though you haven’t till now verified your real identity, this sn identity of your’s is enough for me to testify your true existence !
I have no master, not two.
Still, I am a level three gnani. That means that I can read books that are up to 99.72% bullshit, and still immediately pick out the small residue of value.
Autobbiography is only 73.2% bullshit, so is easy meat for me…
But perhaps it is beyond the powers of discernment of others, others who may need to refer to the htm words, if not books, to be see what to make of it. Don’t despair it takes the normal soul only a few millennia to get to level 3.
One very quick shortcut is to understand Projection. Note the subtle shift in Dominic’s post above from Metaphysics (my word) to Religion (his). This may happen because Religion is a straw dog that he knows how to kick, whereas Metaphysics is beyond him.
Other readers should understand that Metaphysics is, like the science that Dominic praises, an academic subject that asks questions.
One thing I do wonder however is how many contributors here are covert anti-cultists, coming here to find lost souls to deprorgram. Maybe Dominic is one. Well, his intentions may be good, so Thankyou. But rest assured, I did not even finish the book and certainly not write to the SRF.
Sure sometimes I feel lost and anxious. As you say, I must then find my own way forward alone… I do have a cutlass!
Let the party roll!
Ps (wonders) is this the same Dominic whom I used to play with in London Music Group in 96? If so, please know that I STILL can’t play Reggae, even though it is all around me here in Ghana.
i’m sorry i’ll say some of that again.
The tone was too sharp, too much like my old abrasive style. Now i have mellowed out and am practicing yogic lovingkindness.
So i rephrase: Maybe Religion is a straw dog he knows how to kick, while he is not sure what kind of animal Metaphysics is.
Namaste Phoenixji (aka Onandonananda just kidding!)
First of all I don’t care what other people say, I respect your right to say it!
As they say “Don’t poke fun at Phoenix until you have walked a mile in his shoes. That way when you do you are a mile away and you have his shoes”.
If you have had a meta-physical checkup recently then there’s no cause for alarm. Although I’m a little confused, I thought level three was ladies’ underwear. Must have got my levels in a twist!
Reading your post slows time down especially with all the large spaces in between. I guess that’s so we have more pause to take in these perils of wisdom.
If you are happy reading books that are 73% or 99 % BS who am I to judge. Whatever “milks your goat” as they say in ghana.
It would be too much omwork for me and I couldn’t keep my third eye open long enough.
You say you’re discussing metaphysics though it sounds like religion and Woo to me. Statements like…
“Spiritual evolution unaided by kriya yoga takes a soul a million years… but that kriya yoga adepts benefit from impressive short cuts. The most adept among them needs six years for self-realisation, while slower students need 12, 24 or 48 years.”
and all the other ‘miracles and fantastical stories’, come under my category of fiction not metaphysics.
It is to metaphysics as jabberwocky is to logical thinking.
Still who knew language could be used so creatively, and it does offer plenty of spiritual practice for the spiritual olympics at the akashic stadium on cloud nine in the land of the Seven Heavens in 5012.
Perhaps we could meet halfway and call it metaphysical ganga, valium or softcore vedic spiritual porn.
You’ve sussed the covert ops here. Damn!
Though it’s less to save souls and more for the zen sport of guru bashing and master baiting.
Enlightenment has taken out a restraining order on me so I am for now marooned on SN as a safe refuge. A disclaimer though, should anyone gain benefit from anything I have to say they have clearly misunderstood.
Joking aside this is kali yuga and the present moment’s not what it used to be.
London music group? Shiver me timbers… perhaps, I can’t remember though….
A cutlass arrr! while walking the metaphysical plank into davy jones locker.
All ze best. Fire in the hole…
Addenda: Straw dogs is a very violent movie. See what the yogic shadow throws up as it tries to be loving. The other animal is a snake… Metaphyssssicsssssss
Be as sharp as you like or what’s the point of a cutlass?
Forgive me lord for I am channeling a snarky demon today and I haven’t even read the book which maybe I should at least attempt, if only to better taketh the pisseth.
Anyways welcome aboard phoenician pirate. It’s all Irie. Rastaferi.
(Trying to remember someone with a can’t play reggae disability…)
note well:
i called myself agnostic as to the miracles. I neither believe nor disbelieve.
My focus is elsewhere: whether these purported miracles have (even remotely) parallels in my own life, and thus reveal myself and my world more to myself. In the sense that i now ackowledge telepathy, i think they do.
In Life of Brian there is a man who is told a parable starting somethng like: A woman had three sons. He insists on knowing the woman’s name. Of course the woman does not have or need a name. The man thus misses the point of the parable.
Be over literal here, and you miss my point.
Be open to seeing yourself and me and the cosmos in a new light.
To be honest not quite sure what your points are P.
That anything is, is already a miracle.
And prefer to ‘keep it simple stupid’, a kind of general being here now approach and true to one’s experience.
At the same time we have swallowed so much spiritual bunk over the years that a little humorous deconstruction if not demolition is called for to regenerate and move forward. Nothing personal though and not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are sooo many sources of inspiration today and awakened teachings with more progressive paradigms and syntheses, that I am not drawn to look back to yogis like Yogananda, and even Osho is cast in the perspective of that evolution.
Check out conscious tv, batgap, nevernothere, youtube etc for example.
Words are just a small part of communication. Here’s PY anyway, can’t take him seriously though…
http://youtu.be/ZIxNgQ-CwPo
note taken & I am so waiting for the new light ( would prefer a cfl ! ) .
Cfl (certified f*****g Lunatic) vs Led (lovingly enlightened Dictator)
Which do you prefer, or does the thought of either make you feel incandescent ?
you make Led sound better , I prefer coolness these days , I’ll go with cfl .
Note well taken though led is the future i’m told (cfls are mercurial and a bit dim if not stupid!)
I guess dim is better than dumb !
dominic, yes.
One major point of mine is: context is the message.
Once we understand the contect, we can translate the content into the context we know and thus find value/meaning where before we could finf none.
I will warm up with two aimple examples.
Context example one:
The Music Band:
Rehearsals in N4
Nityananda on bass
Dominic’s on guitar and vocals…
Mr X on keyboards….
a hint.
1983 or so
A bar near Mornington Crescent tube.
Three or more amaziugly young people meet there, later they go on to the Music Machine, later Camden Palace.
The three are:
Dominic
Mr X’s then gf, Supriya
Mr X.
In the context of 2013, Mr X is Phoenix. In the context of 1983 and 1996 he is called what?
Context example 2: the Cutlass
In my first post I mentioned a jungle and the Cutlass I use to cut through it.
A little later Dominic starts calling me a pirate.
At first I did not understand why, was puzzled, took it just to be a wild mental lurch off topic.
Later I realised.
My current context is Ghanaian. A previous context of mine, partly forgotten, is British.
After a time of puzzlement, I retrieved my half-forgotten British context, within which a cutlass is typically found in the hand of a pirate.
Ghana has no big seafaring tradition, thus no pirate folklore.
Everyone here though knows what a cutlass is, me too…
It is a broad blade used for removing dead coconut branches, cutting grass for thatch, and so on.
Yes but why the ‘spaced-out’ post ?
Do you want to make your potent Posting look bigger than it is?
Most important part of a spiritual seekers life is-
THE BOOKS.
It is well known that Elvis was a big fan of PY. He sought advice from Daya Mata his successor, and asked to be initiated into kriya yoga and become a monk. In fact many of his songs originally alluded to this…
Kriya-ing in the chapel. Unchained Kundalini. Patanjali Rock.
Always on my mind, Parahamsa. A little less conversation, a little more meditation.
Blue Krishna shoes. Can’t help falling in samadhi. Return to pranayama.
Gita hotel. Tutti frutti Prana. Big hunk o’ Shakti.
That’s alright, Brahmacharya. Bhakti dog. Are you Moksha tonite?
(You’re the) kali yuga in disguise. Suspicious Vasanas.
Always on my Mantra. Burning Muladhara. Viva Las Vedas….
Elvis was also a big fan of meth… so you have a cranked out yogi , twisted like a pretzel, while gyrating his hips.. Sign me up, i’ll follow Elvis anywhere.
Now that we have practiced thinking outside the box, I move on to elAborate on and elUcidate (my first post), to elIminate (misconceptions), to elEctrify (your psyche) and to elOngate (your you-know-what).
I am going to tell you some stories. If you are sitting comfortably, then I will begin.
Story 1:
You are a senior engineer at Boeing. You happen to get a book about the Manhattan Project (which led to the first A-bombs) in your hand. You are fascinated. A colleague reproaches you, how can you be so interested in something so evil?
You reply: I abhor nuclear weapons. But what interests me is something else: the way the project teams were trained and motivated. Very different from how we work at Boeing. I think this way of working will produce better airplanes, I will propose it to the Board.
….
You see what you are doing? Distilling out the valuable.
….
Story 2
An old radio is ‘repaired’ by a fool. He wires it up wrongly, so that the tuning knob rotates non-stop. The result is poor delivery of information. You may hear a snatch of input from one station, but the knob keeps turning even though you have not touched it, so that you then hear static, then nothing, then another station briefly, and so on for ever…
One inspiring value that I found in Paramhansa’s work was the idea that I can ‘rewire’ myself (or ‘regroove myself’, to quote one of those whose praise for the book is on the back cover, George Harrison)… And that I will thereby reshape, reform, reinvent myself, that I will then see what I did not see before.
Or in other words:
that I can by the application of a certain inner ‘technique’ see better or more clearly.
The detailed technique is not my INITIAL point. It could be breath, anything. I do not choose breath, I said so. (so do not go on about breath again!)
In fact I choose as technique this:
To let intensified reflection settle, bearing in mind the intention of broader vision.
….
Now, let us come back to a radio. In a well-designed one, all components are well co-ordinated. If the transistors are ideally 0.2ohm, then replacing them with 0.3ohm versions may leave the radio working, but less well.
OK. Maybe the cosmos is similarly beautifully co-ordinated, with the mathematical specifications of the various ‘parts’ all related to each other.
Once one accepts that possibility, the idea that self-realisation occurs within a certain number of years – found so implausible by myself and some of you – starts looking possible.
The rotation of the earth and psychic development are then co-ordinated. Just as the transistor should be 0.2ohm, the process of self-realisation should either complete in six years or wait another six years. Why not?
Is the cosmos thus co-ordinated? It is the same question, though in a different context, as: Does God exist?
http://i.imgur.com/URcCopl.jpg
We are not worthy P. Sheer bloody Wizdumb and metafizzycal profundetunessity. You’ve clearly thought this through.
Start now and get back to us in 6 yrs. I’m holding my breath… Oops I mean I’m definitely Not doing anything with my breath … whatsoever… at all.
Next time I bump into Nits I’ll poke his musical memory, mine must be running low on ram, the files have gone awol.
I can say without doubt, sannyasnews writers, I can not say about the hidden behind the curtain readers that they need a living community of seekers around them, a vibrant Sangha.
Without this, it is all thoughts and thoughts and thoughts…
Both cynical and idealistic at the same time.
When we had ‘sangha’ (big time) a little more thought and free speech would have been nice, now you have it (with online sangha) you disparage thought and yearn for a vibrant 3D sangha.
I say without doubt it may be true for shantypants but not everyone.
this is addressed to whom exactly? Yourself, that I accept. But you claim the right to speak for other writers too… Hmmm… why not let them speak for themselves?
As for me: there were long periods in my life when I strongly desired having the sangha around me, and sometimes I still miss it. But I would not say I need it any more.
All is thoughts and thoughts? Maybe you need to discipline yourself to think right. If one senses the needed conclusion, and knows how to reach it, thoughts will stop.
Look at me here. I read a book. Many thoughts arose. I got busy reflecting, formulating… Eventually I wrote something, posted it, I read and answered comments…. I have understood what I wanted to understand, the topic can be seen as exhausted, I am free.
Points to Contemplate-
Men´s heart is like a women´s body. If it is not provoked and sensualised, it can remain dormant till eternity.
in general Widow/ers live their life more peacefully and in a siren space compared to all those who are in relationship.
We have online Sangha(community) is almost like saying, all the girls in the internet porn are my lovers.
I bow to your own vast experience and browser history to confirm your last analogy Shantam ‘pay-per-view’ Prem.
Like a modern day Rumi your poet’s heart consistently reveals it’s hidden shallows.
“A siren space” and a serene space , two very different things!
But yes real sangha is a beautiful thang, no arguments there, and I miss it too. Just takes a little more effort these days to find it…
yes.
You see SP, the writers want to speak for themselves. Take your own medicine, don’t thrust it down the throats of others.
I like the way Dominic compares the old physical sangha and the new online one. It harks back to the Transcendence of the Body I spoke of initially… Thoigh one may want to say that Paramhansa failed to ground himself via the body, and thus lost himself in mental delusion.
I also found the old sangha too philistine at times. In a German commune I was once ridiculed for asking if anyone had a stamp for a postcard. True, maroon-blooded sannyasins didn’t write postcards, that meant using the evil mind.
That postcard story takes the proverbial biscuit – the front runner for my best laugh of the day.
Encapsulates the absurdity of a certain type of fundamentalist, cultish mentality.
As the saying goes, you really couldn’t make it up.
Phoenix- you mean true German sannyasins don’t do that- here in the States and Italy, one post card is never enough…
Early sannyas was a paradox. It attracted those who were and in some cases like Phoenix remained what I would call worthy “Individualists”. And as I remember him, and also as I remember Dominic they were individualists who whilst enjoying the sangha, and being part of it, were not suited to “commune” life.
I had visited various ashramas, personal growth centres, Buddhist places, etc before turning up in Poona in December, 1974. I was immediately “impressed” by comparison at that time by the Osho sangha, it felt like being a practice teacher as I had been at Leicester Art College, but without having to prepare lessons. People seemed creative and alive. Frankly that was initially a large part of why I stayed – I felt I had found as it were my korass…. I still do.
I respect the effort and work that Phoenix put into this “essay” . However I still live in the ambiance of those kundalini dance sections he and I must have been the same part of in early sannyas when he sure was an inspiring “wild child”.
Love.
You’re probably right Parmartha. I too had explored different groups but ‘orange juice’ proved my favourite flavour without necessarily excluding others. My introduction was primarily kalptaru and medina in the early days. I got booted out of two very brief stays in the devon and medina commune by Poonam ( aka shelob, mother superior, nurse ratchet, cruella de ville, margaret thatcher, the wicked witch…. am i being harsh?). Though I did live in Medina for 2 months while doing groups at the weekend, I suspect I wasn’t very good at ‘surrendering’.
Still good times, though it all seems like a dream now. Did any of it really happen except somewhere in a parallel universe?
How would it be today? Probably much the same, take the best and leave the rest. But I stand to be much better informed and sceptical with google as my extended global brain at the keyboard.
As above with Parahamsa… A fatty, died early from heart failure, sexual scandals etc. Did he practice what he preached? Look at a few youtube clips… meh. Next and so on.
I used to go to more satsang teachers than I do. If my interest is piqued I might go to youtube and get a feel. I’m not just listening to the words, it’s more the whole package… presence, vibe, body reading etc. Maybe do a background check. It’s great, saves cash, wasted time and develops a more critical attitude. Yet does leave out the sangha aspect of non-digital seeking, even if you have to listen to a plonker like Tony Parsons.
Here’s one of a series spoofing his approach btw…
http://youtu.be/t3OEPqgi4UU
I forgot to add there is a new kriya practice that has caught my attention and can add years to one’s life.
It seems very natural, effortless, ancient yet timeless.
I’ve heard that it was a favourite of Osho’s (and obviously Shantam’s!)
“Great news for girl watchers: Ogling over women’s breasts is good for a man’s health and can add years to his life. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, “Just 10 minutes of staring at the charms of a well-endowed female is roughly equivalent to a 30-minute aerobics work-out” declared gerontologist Dr. Karen Weatherby.
Dr. Weatherby and fellow researchers at three hospitals in Frankfurt, Germany, reached the startling conclusion after comparing the health of 200 male outpatients – half of whom were instructed to look at busty females daily, the other half told to refrain from doing so. The study revealed that after five years, the chest-watchers had lower blood pressure, slower resting pulse rates and fewer instances of coronary artery disease.
“Sexual excitement gets the heart pumping and improves blood circulation. There’s no question: Gazing at breasts makes men healthier. Our study indicates that engaging in this activity a few minutes daily cuts the risk of stroke and heart attack in half. We believe that by doing so consistently, the average man can extend his life four to five years.”
not so much a paradox, P- most sannyasins i met were into it for the sex… whatever came afterward was just an extra benefit(s).. even during the ranch days , many ignored Sheela’s edict to cut out the orgies and 3-somes… many even ignored the condom only rule that was implemented during early 1984… same with monogamy which was encouraged but rarely practiced.
Happy memories!
I wrote at the start here of falling in with a certain band of friends in my twenties. Parmartha was one leader of the pack then, and very kindly took me, as a newcomer, under his wing. It helped me a lot. It was true that I was a ‘wild child’ then, in some ways very free, but the wildness was also a self-centred limitation, I was not balanced, and my sannyasin friends, Parmartha included, were above all the ones in my life who helped me learn how to balance myself by both being ‘free’, true to myself, while at the same time developing a steadier, social, interface so that I could make and keep friends better.
But even then I never managed to spend long INSIDE a commune, true. The most I ever got to was five months. I was several years in Pune, altogether, but that commune was so big it was easy to stay free…, and I never stepped up to that much-coveted status of ashamite, I always lived outside.
Let me tie this in with ssomething else.
As part of the search for renewal this year (described above) I thought often of writing a book. I wanted it in outline well structured before I ever started. For various reasons I never started writing it yet, one of them being this: the scruple that a book so structured would impose on the reader, would not respect her/his freedom, would be too prescriptive.
I am connecting this scruple with the topic of Grand System Thinking brought in at the very start of this thread. The very last time I touched on this, I speculated that the cosmos is intelligently ordered (which is, I said there, another way of saying that God exists.)
After writing that, I saw that I had found one possible way out of the scruple described above.
If I write a book describing the cosmos as I see it, and if there is pre-existent order in that cosmos, then there will be order in what I write… but I have not imposed it (on others).
To what extent is there such an order? Or, to take a lesser, neo-Kantian position: to what extent do we all together impose a common order on the cosmos?
Or, to quote a much-loved-by-me title of a book by Osho, to what extent is there a HIDDEN HARMONY?
(Or to change the musical modality slightly, Dominic, to what extent do band members have to abandon their inner sense of rhythm and give in to a common rhythm, a problem in ’96 – and here is another hint – between Mr X, who wanted to bend the rhythm, and Nityananda.)
Wildness, surrender, freedom, order, individuality, the cosmos… perennial koans.
Parmartha reminded me of the wild child I once was and contrasted him with the person writing now, seeming perhaps to favour the former.
It is yin and yang Parmartha, alpha and omega, the same one thing.
Yes, my dance then was wild. But in a hidden way, I was absolutely surrendered to the tyrannical dictates of Gravity. And that surrender served my wild dance. I kept dancing all night and NEVER FELL OVER.
That opening paragraph is so generous. Good on yah.
if the post is for me, Arpana, then thankyou.
If it is for Parmartha, let me say thankyou on his behalf.
For you Phoenix.
)
Great Post Phoenix.
Simply from the heart and life experiences..
and thanks to Parmartha too for sharing the light with you without
Tri Tra Tralala!
For the research Phoenix, some further thoughts on the meaning of life, free will etc. Gurus are getting younger…
http://youtu.be/SvMiXk2gGSk
Booted out, Dom.
Probably a good thing, though maybe painful at the time.
I remember my commune “career” ending up cowering around on the Ranch knowing the National Guard was over the hill, and might come in…. … would not have minded getting booted out earlier given that!
I know what you mean about the joy of the sangha, but it was an interface thing, I dont think commune members lived lives that were a constant bundle of joy.
No point in personalising it around Poonam, she was as they say simply doing her job! She herself ended up sort of being booted out of the commune, she certainly left the Ranch in a hurry.
Osho always said he would not have come near the commune when he was a seeker, not even the Poona one ashram, and he sure was an individualist…
Face it the communes were often run by English public school boys and gals, like Amrito and Savita, they were used to institutionalisation, and being “good”, and being competitive, and being taught they were born to lead.
“She was as they say simply doing her job”.
Aah yes I remember that line from Nuremberg, an evergreen classic.
Personalising…moi? Saw her recently at the miten bash, her face still the same, which suggests a pact with the devil or the surgeon’s knife.
When I say sangha these days it’s a very loose term suggesting, a korass (thx for new word!) of individuals with similar interests and shared experience. I have an apple sangha that goes into bliss when we receive the latest shaktipat or transmission from our beloved overlords.
Oh the rapture this Fall!
I wasn’t born to lead (though public school) but I wasn’t born to follow.
http://youtu.be/3hEfcawx6Fc
You loose credibility when you give space to this kind of esoteric bullshit.
Going back to Paramhansa, this for additional clarity.
I think that Dominic has accepted my idea that I simply distilled out of the book certain inspirations that I wanted… And that therefore it may not matter to me that much if Paramhansa is shown, by the actual circumstances of his life, and/or on youtube, to be a fraud.
Even so, let us allow, for argument’s sake, the caveat – do not trust the guru’s words before you have studied his actions, his lifestyle – to be of great value.
Even so the inspirations I have derived from the book might remain unchallenged.
Why?
Well, anyone who reads the book might conclude it would better be called: Biographies of Yogis. Because very large parts of the book consist of Paramhansa describing the life and teachings of his guru, Sri Yukteswar, within and alongside which parts are more large chunks again consisting of Yukteswar describing the life and teachings of his guru, Lahiri Mahasaya, who seems arguably the real hero of the book, him and the great deathless guru behind them all, Babaji.
So if you ask me from which of these four gurus the inspiration I collected originated, I will tell you I don’t know. I also rather doubt whether there are Youtube proofs of fraud regarding all these three other gurus.
So I don’t know… and don’t care.
”I think that Dominic has accepted my idea that I simply distilled out of the book certain inspirations that I wanted.”
I’ve had insights triggered, standing in a supermarket q, idly and accidentally overhearing a remark one individual made to another.
mandiro…
Who exactly loses credibility?
And what is the exact bullshit you are objecting to?
Is it my input? Fire away.
(I have a cutlass).
So the question in my mind is can one seperate the teaching from the teacher? Do as I say not as I do, if you will.
I guess that’s a personal judgement call with discussions around integrity and ethics, unless you’re a ‘crazy wisdom’ aplogist.
As for the dead guru’s society…well the most revered and haloed teachers are always dead ones.
We have little clue what Buddha or Jesus actually said or how they said it.
How would they fare in the spiritual marketplace today? Or a Ramana or a Nisargadatta? Just like any other poor sod who wants to stick his head out and say come follow me. I doubt we’d pay them the same respect we do as now they’re dead and they’ve had spin doctors building them up for years.
There is also the cultural issue. The Indian yogic vedic root of which buddhism is a branch may have many insights yet still represents a certain life negative attitude and little depth psychology, which permeates most of the teachings, whoever the geeji is whether fraud or not.
The ‘Teaching’ will condition what you’re going to find. Curiously buddhists will always find suffering and impermanence round every corner, with perhaps a smidgen of noself because watching your breath for forty years is well just watching your breath for forty years…
Osho (partial fraud.. benefit of the doubt) represents a break in that line with zorba the buddha and is forward looking and life affirmative.
For me, it’s just one possible direction worth moving along? First we become the teaching (realization, facts, understanding) after that realization a teacher of what our root are. My understanding according respect differs; it has nothing to do with an outer behavior. For me respect is the inner realization of our joint home of love. Only from that place even outer respect is truly possible, the rest is confusion. But the Babylonian family does not sleep; they are fierce, scheming restlessly night and day.
Thought arising out of Parmartha´s post.
One of the Biggest downfall of Osho movement is that the work of the master born into a rural middle class background was being hijacked by the British boarding school chaps who have this idea they were born to lead.
As long as master was in the body, this brought glamour and creditability, but once he is up in the sky; competition and inside rivalry has brought the whole project on the verge of bankruptcy.
Religious movements stay alive only as long as there is a spirit of service and humility.
Sannyas is not familiar with such terms.
and when you take into account the way you can look at a rose and see a pile of shit, all a bit hopeless really!!
Something arising out of SP’s firm posting.
Saying “sannyas is not familiar with such terms” is as if to say Management have removed all Porn sites and now there is only one website left on the internet – bringbacktheporn.com
dominic asks: can one separate the teacher from the taught?
One simole answer is:
if one is not confident that one can discern truth of words with one’s own eyes, one may want to see the proof in the actions of the one who spoke them.
However, if one just uses an inner lodestone to know if psychic input is good for one or not (just as nose and tongue assess the nutritional/poisonous qualities of food), then the character of the source is irrelevant.
One might despise the morals of the baker, but still love his bread.
Food made without love doesn’t taste so good, or in a world full of bakers why pick one who uses poor ingredients has a cockroach infestation, charges high prices and never eats his own product.
Surely trust and a heart connection form the foundation of any relationship, especially one with a ‘spiritual teacher’.
So no I cannot separate the dancer from the dance or say that “the character of the source is irrelevant”.
ps Dom
don’t go looking for those senior gurus on youtube. According to PY, those guys could transcend photography,,,,,,,,,, if they so wished, the negative would remain blank even after their photo was taken.
Few months ago I came to know a woman in Germany, who runs a Yoga school.
I was amazed when she told, she was in Copanhagen for a retreat, and it was part of Kriya Yoga, the Ananda Marga path craved by Paramhansa.
I was curious how many people were gathered. After all, Europe is not like India where numbers less than 10,000 does not count for such events.
As she is single, I enquired teasingly, but why you have not found some suitable yogi in that gathering.
She said laughingly, ” It was not Osho people gathering. Only meditation and yoga and Satvik life. Though she would have surely given the try to Osho Ashram. But feels like, it is no more as it was.”
Now first time she has gone to the pilgrimage to India with fellow yogis.
PS-from the word pilgrimage it sounds Old traditional mind. New mind don´t indulge in such kind of sentimental things.
When too many wise cooks with new mind gather, they don´t break eggs in a traditional way but on each other´s nose. It is called Encounter therapy!
Winner is that person who never gets a single drop of egg on his face.
you hate the baker’s lifestyle, yet he might sttill bake with love…?
Whatever butters your toast.
But in my language…
How far do you need to bend over before realizing you’re being f****d up the gluteus maximus? Please don’t answer.
Friends used to insist that Osho knew, at the time of speaking it, that his last discourse was indeed his last.
I was never sure, but then I was always sceptical about most claims about the master made by sannyasins and by himself, starting with ‘enlightenment’…. In 25 years of sannyas, I almost never used the word. And that wasn’t a problem. I didn’t sign up to orange and the mala to get enlightened. As Osho told me, sannyas was a love affair… and about that I had no scepticism, simply because in the high realm of love, scepticism finds no foothold.
But to get back to that last discourse. Even though I was sceptical, I had to admit my friends had a point, after all, Osho’s last (?) sentence started: ‘The last words of the buddha were…’
I am reminded of that by the fact that Dominic’s last words above are ‘Don’t answer that’, surely a fitting coda for an online thread. Those words get me thinking that this particular initiative of mine may (soon) have run its course.
In case that is so, let me say Thankyou for the way it has gone, having extended way beyond my original pitch, without losing cohesion… and having been funny without drowning in flippancy. I have found old friends, even if one may not know who I am (ask Parmartha, he should tell you I used to be called Satgit, now just the name for the Indian restaurant at my beach resort), I have met new friends.
As I say, I am an ex-sannyasin, so I am grateful too to even be allowed on sannyasnews!
There is now no master-buddha that I acknowledge (except within), and no dharma and no sangha less than the cosmos (except facebook).
(I always loved Camus’ question: How to be a saint without god?)
For that ex-ness reason, please do not think me egotistical if I now, having cultivated my own thread here and enjoyed the feedback, do not come back to post on others’ threads. I may do so, but most of what I have seen here centres round identities and statuses and internal politics which are no longer current for me… I may read the threads with interest, but I will not write.
As I said: except facebook.
I will therefore revert, if I write again on themes like this, to my facebook page, even though there I count myself lucky to get even 5 responses.
You are all welcome to befriend me or follow me or just snoop on me there, via:
http://www.facebook.com/phoenixrisingaccra.
Somehow after reading this comment , phoenix aren’t you forming an opinion of sn writers ( who are responding to you for the first time ) too soon ?
in any case , it has / you have , been a good read & all the best incase you don’t happen to write here
“As I say, I am an ex-sannyasin, so I am grateful too to even be allowed on sannyasnews!”
I think Parmartha’s passport control is pretty relaxed.
I also would count myself as pretty non-denominational these days and with the guru within approach.
As far as I can tell it’s licquorice all sorts here… lovers, true believers, wannabees, sceptics, exes, ac/dc. Maybe Osho’s party is a bit like the hotel california.
“You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! ”
What the point of it all is I have no idea. One is just drawn in to jest and discuss, for the craic as the irish say, and keeping the grey matter exercised.
A bit like discussing PY metaphysics. Whatever floats your boat… until it doesn’t.
If it’s to be a one-night stand….
We won’t cry because it’s over but smile because it happened.
“My former master Osho suggested to me two paths…”
This is the opening line of an article written by Phoenix Thompson on his facebook wall..
I feel like appreciating this truthful expression, My former master!
Phoenix, after the former, do you have some recent master or still single?
SP, as i said, single.
Kavita
Thanks.
You certainly have a point, it is a bit prejudiced of me,even arrogant…. And I have struggled for an answer….
First some history which you may not know.
On the former SN chatboard, I was the second most prolific contributor, both via my own threads and those of others.
One particular thread which I started ran for almost 3 years. I changed the title several times, but the original title was: What happens after sannyas?
As you can see from that title, I had already decided to leave.
I kept the thread going so long, partly for the sheer hell of it, but also for a more serious purpose. Sannyas had been the biggest, sometimes almost the only, thing in my life, and if I was leaving, I wanted to leave totally, which meant that I wanted to root out ALL unfinished business, confusions, open questions… And complete them al… after 25 years a big task!
And in the end I did something like that, in fact with Parmartha’s help, as he pulled the plug on the chatboard, and showed me the way out fast.
I never came to the new board before now except once. I have often dipped in here to read with interest, but always suppressed potential comments, and I realise now that I did so to support that decision of mine: if I am out, then totally out!
What I suddenly realise at this point is that I need to modify that quote above. Yes, sannyas was a love affair, but like all the other big love affairs in my life, I managed to turn it into a bit of an addiction.
It took me about five attempts to stop smoking, and the last time I realised that it wasn’t just about stopping, what I needed to do was stop AND MAKE A TOTAL RESOLVE TO FOREVER REFUSE TOBACCO THEREAFTER. (That happened very wonderfully at a party I attended at a place in California, where I went after the First World Celebration in Oregon, a place called Last Chance Valley.)
Osho used to annoy me totally by telling me that sex would drop at 42. I now think he may have meant the ADDICTION TO sex should stop…. not necessarily sex itself. And that is not a bad thing.
If the addiction is over, there is maybe less need for this kind of portentous statement of mine: ‘You may be seeing me for the last time here’.
I note that I came back here last week with a platform spanning two gurus, and therefore addicted to none, it was a new platform quite of my own.
Let’s see…
Thank you , phee .
I have myself thought many times to finish all business( ? ) here on SN , only to realize this business is beyond any business !
Anyway it has left me wondering , to see your & the Open letter from IC have the exact same timing , you sure have chosen an amazing name for yourself !
Just sharing , I decided not to be involved in anyway to IC / anyone’s business , I am too preoccupied with my own .
I think soon someone should start a new string, ” Life after Sannyas.”
May be I drop my addiction, after crusade. it is a kind of fun to think of removing the regime operating in the name of that master, who was poking finger into every other religion´ ass.
In a way, it is a meditation to put the hands in the sewerage and clean the blockage!
if ‘I am the gate’, then pass though me, and do whatever you need to do beyond the gate, on the far side.
For me, Phoenix, what is beyond is something fresh, certainly not the same gate…
As to others,,, well, they have different speeds, different futures. Either they never passed through the gate at all, or they did, only to find themselves caught up in a Gate Trademark Forum on the far side… Enjoy!
But i am not going there.