SN recently took delivery of this report below, dated March 19th, re the Pune Resort. Oddly enough much of it doesn’t sound so different, say from 1979! Two questions arise, first to those who criticise the “ashram” as they call it. They always complain that “things have changed out of recognition” and for the worse. But here clearly these rules are carbon copies from the distant past. Perfume rules, clothing rules, and coughing rules. All thirty years old or more!
Second question to those who do run the current resort. We all thought that Osho had given you a good bye mandate to “develop” the Resort to widen its appeal, and be less “cultish”. But these cureent rules are historical, and most likely to put off modern day free spirits.
No Coughing And Other Rules Of The Resort
USC students wear red robes outside the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune, India.
No coughing. And no sneezing. Those are the rules inside the black, pyramid-shaped auditorium at the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune, India.For meditation you need quiet, or so the Oshoites say. If you’re unlucky enough to be the one soul-searcher to get a dry mouth in a room full of silent meditators, a volunteer will ask you to take your throat-clearing outside.Those aren’t the only rules. Osho wants meditation to be a distraction-free experience. All devotees must wear the same color—maroon during the day, white in the evening—to rid the eyes of visual annoyances. A guard at the center’s entrance will confiscate your phone if he spots it in your pocket with his metal detector. And forget about wearing perfume—the guards will turn away anyone whose fragrance might pique someone else’s olfactory sense. If you aren’t totally clear on the rules before you dive into the Osho lifestyle, the resort has that covered too. All guests watch a mandatory orientation video, which details all of the ways you might become a nuisance.It may seem extreme, but clearing one’s mind is tough work, especially when you’re meditating the Osho way. The retreat center is known for “dynamic” meditations which can include rounds of wild screaming, physical shaking, or expressive dancing to loosen up the mind and body before sitting or lying down to meditate the quiet, old-fashioned way.Even within the highly regulated meditation zone at Osho, I still had trouble getting rid of my mind’s to-do lists, self-conscious thoughts, and re-plays of conversations.But lying on the floor silently after a long session of shaking and dancing I finally started to feel relaxed. My thoughts slipped away more easily. Then another practitioner somewhere in the auditorium got too deep into meditation. He started snoring loudly.“Gosh, what a jerk,” I thought.
Katherine Davies
I, for a variety of reason, have developed the impression
the number of people, the activity levels at the ashram are more like in 1979,
and nobody complained was too quiet, or wasn’t good enough then.
When I left in 1981, I had started to feel a bit overwhelmed by the
number of people around, especially in the evenings, and actually
began to get away from the ashram speedily after music group, or Darshan.
(She sounds pretty down to earth. I like the closing comment.
Bit of nice, not beating herself up awareness. )
yes – dear Katherine Davies – “rules are for dummies”
AND :
we are all “dummies” as this is one way to “label” that we have lost the capacity to listen deep inside and also to respond in a natural and also respectful way to ourselves as to each other, and to the wisdom whisperer always present
rules will drop you (not the other way round) when the time is ripe.
then and there it will not be like a “fight-the rule-game” – more like a happening
otherwise you can endlessly change surroundings and their rules
because every surrounding has its rules, be they open declared or embedded functioning as control and thread to be exposed or/and expelled or punished and all the mix of it – we know
the less civilized a society is the more rules and control are needed
i tend to give a meditation resort a special place in this context of “rules”
found it for the time being very helpful
to dress different
not to be perfumed
(to have a smart phone in the pocket out of question!)
and to have a certain guarantee of that silence which makes it possible that one’s own ongoing inner chatter is well to be listened to – not to be distracted by “outer” noise
if you can have a longtime experience in this and with friends and fellow travellers
much falls into place
also the resistance to rules in a meditation campus
yes
we are all dummies
anytime
the word dummy includes, beside the meaning of stubborn/stupid etc.
also something very beautiful:
a beginner’s mind
a moment-to-moment beginner’s “mind” is out of my experience the best to face the challenges of life
thank you, Katherine – for sharing your experience
Madhu
These are just common sense “rules” that apply to classical music concerts as well too. Simply good manners.
Rules are for Dummies!
Person who created this sentence must be a dummy himself. I am sure his whole property was sold to pay the tickets because every day he was driving on the right side on the streets of London.
Question is, why not?
1979-2014
An Anecdote
A woman was invited for the wedding of her niece. She said to her, ” Gosh…35 years ago I was looking just like you. Simply beautiful. God bless you, baby.”
The bride expressed her thanks with warm smile.
But aunt did not stop there. She added,”In 35 years, you will again just look like as I am today. You know time really pass very fast.”
“I, for a variety of reason, have developed the impression
the number of people, the activity levels at the ashram are more like in 1979″.
Arpana, do you require some donation to buy a ticket to India and one week stay in Pune?
Eye-witness account will be much more fitting.
Swami Shantam Chuddie filler.
You need to buy a ticket to India and one week stay in Pune.
Eye-witness account will be much more fitting.
If there are no rules there is no game.
One might be mistaken and believe this small group of individuals are the Magnificent Seven. Of course, they are not. They are in fact a gathering of seven of your average, everyday, garden gnome variety Poona One sannyasins.
What I find interesting is to compare these type of people to the photo of the squeaky-clean modern-day Poona Three sannyasins that accompanies the above article. Can you spot the diference?
Which group might comprise people of a rebellious nature that might on occasion break a few rules just for the hell of it?
Which particular group of the two might you feel more attracted to?
If the word ‘dummy’ were to be attached to either group, which group would you say contained the most dummies?
How about potential candidates in the enlightenment stakes, or enlightentertainment stakes?
Which group looks the most fun?
Questions, questions, questions….
You just can’t get off this Furry Freak Brothers thing, can you?
Yes, Arps, I guess you have a point there.
Glad you mentioned them.
I’m half way through the book.
AGAIN.
Literally ROTFLMAO.
This lot definitely get my vote, as opposed to the lookalike Methodist Youth Club members in the Pune 3 pic.
Last time I was in Pune in 2010, Amrito had started to give introductory talks on the subject of meditation and the meaning of being present, or something like that. Possibly just a short step away in my opinion before he starts preaching sermons every nite at the EM.
GOD BLESS THE FREAKS! Of course, these Poona One sannyasins are the most attractive, smart and with the highest potential for enlightenentertainment that i’d ever seen…..
just in picture unfortunately……
You know this already, Lokesh….
what to do?
Time passes,and things are not the same…..
plastic flowers take place instead of real fresh perfumed Flowers of Life…..
so delicate, so easy to be destroyed and/or deceived…….
Lokesh, that is a very good notion. In all movements (communism, women’s or environmental movements like Greenpeace and even entrepreneurs who start a new company) the “first wave” people are the most creative ones. For their individual journey, they go most high and crash down most low, I suppose. “Second wave” try to build on first way in an idealistic (and/or fanatic) basis and fail of course. “Third wave” people are getting more professional, but the idealism is still there, but they “watch their own back” more. “Fourth wave” people are opportunists; they take what they want and leave the rest. “Fifth wave” is that the movement dissolves into the mainstream, the ocean. And then there are just a lot of dewdrops dissolving in all the oceans.
I see my own role being actually in the beginning of the third wave, also in other things in my life. I seem not to be in “the first people” in anything, but get interested in something that is still creative and idealistic. And I am always drawn to it by first wave people. For most people around me it looks like I am in the first wave, but it’s not so. My contribution seems to be in the beginning of the (third) wave and when it takes off, I go for something else. Like at the moment I do not seem to be interested in people who go for Osho now, but I probably would like more people in your picture, Lokesh, even still there is a gap with them too. However, people going for Osho now might not be interested in Pune one type of people (and vice versa).
However, I have been wondering about some of these effects of meditation on human brain. I would like your comments. Being with Osho is a thunder of dopamine rush. Meditation is bringing tranquilliser and opium-like effects, dancing and dating serotonin. Devotion used to raise oxytocin.
There are no oxytocins-raising elements any more, so people come and leave. I wonder why. So, meditation or religion is supposed to be opium for people’s brain, euphoria. Perhaps that’s even healthy. I do not find a place in the brain for consciousness.
Fresch, I find it important to distinguish between meditation and meditation techniques. Currently, I am into self-remembering. We live in a dream world and waking up just to that fact is a hard one. I also think it important not to kid yourself about the awakening process, because ultimately it is your responsibility and nobody else’s.
The problem with power generating and charismatic gurus is that you can mistake their energy for your own and one day down the line find out that you are the same sleepy head you always were.
I have been focusing on Osho’s techniques, dynamic and mystic rose, because I have such trust in him for my meditation. And I have done it in a quite intense way.
However, now that I think about it, I can not remember him saying to what extent you need to “practise” his techniques, it’s all about the whole life anyway.
But since for a while I have given up any techniques and it does feel right. Especially because there was always an element trying to change myself, not to accept who I am.
Instead, I just have several moments that are kind of meditation or watching what happens on the outside and inside – not all the time, but at some moments. My problem is that instead of understanding I slip into mindfucking. I know awareness, I know, but it’s like a shooting star or thin, thin, weak plant. I do not like that.
Osho’s last public words were, “ Remember you are a Buddha, samansati.” It includes everything. Are there any rules in your self-remembering?
Been using the intensive Journal for the last six years.
Get a lot out of it.
http://www.intensivejournal.org/about/article_interview.php
I like that, Arps.
I have kept a journal from time to time, and personally have found it at the very least, to be a very therapeutic tool, particularly in times of great emotional distress.
I didn’t get into it for therapy as such, but keeping it up has been incredibly therapeutic; has played a really big part in balancing my perspective about my life, as it has made me much more aware of the good stuff that has gone on, which then makes the shitty stuff seem much less important.
Fresch enquires, “Are there any rules in your self-remembering?”
Yes. I endeavour to be aware of ‘I am’ every day. I try as a rule not to become identified with thoughts, especially negative ones.
Outer is always changing like a butterfly. Why make distiction between bad and good thoughts? I know for me though, I get more stuck in the negative, but still.
Lokesh says:
“Currently, I am into self-remembering.”
A few years back, me and my ex (of many years ago) discovered that we carried different memories of events we both had lived through and experienced…My conclusion is that memory is selective, and to be honest I no longer trust mine. Memory used to be important in aeons gone by, before writing was invented. These days, who cares about memory?
The now is just as good.
Memory is always at play.
The problem is the identity that goes with it.
If you let go of the ego, or the idea that what happened was special, the memories look different.
This is not a lecture by the way.
I’ve had a few experiences recently, for a very particular reason, of recollecting something
that I was negatively identified with, and now know was certainly not special, so the memory remains, but the charge/burn that accompanied the memory has gone.
I consider everything that happens or happened, special (to me). I can see what you mean about the ego (and very interesting indeed, especially within the context of “the work”) but I also hold “a belief” that I am “in charge” of my direction and therefore everything that is presented to me has some purpose in my direction.
You mean, you believe we have free will?
I don’t advocate free will. What I say is that I have an option in what movie to watch… while most think there is only one movie.
I agree with that.
You can choose to see the glass as half empty or half full.
I choose to see the glass as the wrong size for my amount of wine.
I was reading a while ago that when we recall memories we do not actually recall the original event, but rather we recall the last time we recalled that memory!
So over time our memories are subject to ‘Chinese whispers’ type deviations.
It seems evolution has given us a memory good enough to find food and keep us out of trouble. The need to reminisce with a friend about the ‘old days’ without an argument starting does not seem to have been a priority.
Interesting though that people particularly, remain, don’t age, in our pictorial memory, along with us; which is why memory can burn so much, unless we do something about it, as in the memory of being kicked in the goollies playing rugby at fourteen by that fourteen year old ratbag, still irks, even though the age gap has become rather wide and some.
Arpana says:
“Interesting though that people particularly, remain, don’t age, in our pictorial memory, along with us;…”
And that is why we like to see people who knew us when we were young. We can see ourselves through their eyes.
That means nothing to me.
Not saying it’s wrong, but I don’t resonate with that, even vaguely.
It is possible that you are not old enough yet.
“Rules are for Dummies”
What I think is fair to say on this topic is that some rules are certainly maintained by dummies as far as the Resort is concerned.
What I have in mind in particular is the continuing practice of obliging almost everybody who goes there to undergo a blood test for HIV.
There may have been some justification for this testing in the immediate aftermath of the disease being discovered when there was still a lot of uncertainty around the various means of transmission and so on. However, that is not the case any longer, and therefore to continue with testing falls into the category of maintaining a pointless outdated religious practice, similar to the prohibition of the consumption of pork by Muslims, for example.
Interestingly, some of the more enlightened Osho centres, such as OshoRisk in Denmark, do not bother with the test, whilst some of the more unenlightened, like the Humaniversity, Holland, do!
The current management has been very thorough in outing almost everything identified as being pseudo-religious e.g. awarding of malas at sannyas ceremonies, pictures of Osho etc. but appear to have overlooked the significance of the Aids test. Then bless ‘em, they’re not the sharpest tools in the tool shed, are they? Personally, I think Prem Shantam could do a better job.
Last year I talked to a sannyasin woman who infomed me that she knew of a woman who frequented the resort and harboured a major chip on her shoulder. The woman in question was HIV postive and had been infeced by a sannyasin guy. She is out for revenge and makes a practice of having unprotected sex with sannyasin men in order to pass along her message.
“Gossip calypso, Gossip calypso,
Hear all about it, yakka yak yak,
Every woman up at the window,
Giving out gossip and getting it back!”
Oooohhh! You shameless McGossip
Not that I consider myself any different that is! Now Lokesh, if the story that you have related is true…..then the obvious question to ask, as I see it, is: Is she being allowed into the Resort to prey on potential victims? If she is, then it does not say much for the efficacy of the testing procedure, does it? Or is she operating on the outside e.g. Koregaon Park, for example?
Lokesh, am I getting a bit of me own medicine here? Are you pulling me plonker?
From one with a very sensitive, frail and delicate disposition!
I agree, Ashok. The Aids test “rule” has put off many otherwise motivated seekers. On the one hand the Resort authorities want to “decult” the place, on the other they keep one thing which easily identifies it as a cult!
You don’t seem to have registered with SN, but seem to know us from somewhere, any special reason for not registering?
Laziness!
We need to increase the numbers, said the boss during quarterly meeting. Some idea.
Newly inducted Indian from Los Angeles said in his acquired American accent, “I have an idea. Let me give the power point presentation.”
Curtains were drawn, glasses were filled. Today there were no cigarettes as boss had some throat ache.
One Banyan Tree with vast spread came on the screen. Everybody present knew this tree. They have passed by innumerable times. Swami Indian from LA was feeling elevated with the feeling of addressing boardroom meeting of world´s newest and tech-savvy spiritual movement.
He said, “It is quite simple. This tree has vast spread, uncountable leaves. It looks magnificent. but this is the problem. It is counted as only one. Just this one tree occupies around 150 square yard area. My feeling is we can plant around 300 different kind of bushes and trees in the same area.
“And you know the biggest advantage”, gushes Swami Indian, “We will save the cleaning cost.” He zoomed another picture. Birds were chattering on the tree and floor had many white spots.
Moral of the story – After the death of the master, few disciples become smarter than the master.
“few disciples become smarter than….” Shantam, not you?
re his libary reminding me… well, ok, it’s a ruse…actually it’s not just his library…fill in the other missing reminders at your leisure….
dear fresch ,
i dare to “compile” two of your yesterday’s statements – one of the morning, the other of late afternoon
just to say …. PRECIOUS -
“I do not find a place in the brain for consciousness.”
“However, now that I think about it, I can not remember him saying to what extent you need to “practise” his techniques, it’s all about the whole life anyway.”
and also
I really enjoyed reading all of this (the context)
being able to become more acquainted with some of you
and feeling resonating
It has been my body birthday yesterday starting up “route 66″
and I could not remember having such a beautiful one for decades
full of spontaneous happenings without having had any plans
including uncomfortable stuff also, but that didn’t stay long…
ending up the evening with looking into the “caravanserai”
and – fresch – after reading a lot about “HER”, I have been moving also into the cinema yesterday and there is a lot I would like to share about how my eyes and more did see it
but just now I want to say to you, fresch – that I can understand that you enjoyed the plot deeply
but could and can not follow you to compare that with “a world of Osho”
all is working indeed inside
and where I am with you is to say that essential issues to deal with “spiritually” are touched – others will follow
thank you – and thank you all
and have a beautiful day
Madhu
Yes, Madhu, they (mindfulness Buddhists) talk about the happiest Buddhist monk (the French one), they did scan that in his brain and scanned a lot more. Like even religiousness (not related to any religion, even atheists show same signs). But if we are not the body, not the emotions, not the mind, what is consciousness? Inside, outside? We leave the body, so there must be more than our brain left. And like always in life and in meditations we start a new wave again, new breath in and out. It’s coming. The new wave. Thanks, Madhu. And it’s true we do not have to agree on everything, but we can still resonate.
But there are a lot of female sides in issues not discussed here and it would delight me to have more of that energy here too. Also, more mixed. So, I am happy you are still here.