Gumdi village/ Nepal/ 300 Sannyasins have lost their homes

Dear Parmartha,
There is a district in Nepal called Dhading.
One whole village “Gumdi”  is full of sannyasins.
300 sannyansins lost their houses. Whole village collapsed.
They are asking for help – food & tents.
Since it is situated in a remote area it is quite difficult to reach there.
We have sent some food and tents,  but it has not been sufficient.  They are deprived of food there.
So my request,  to all the sannyasin friends,  if they can,  help them.
They also run  Osho Benuban Commune which also suffered from major damage.

Most part of the meditation hall got cracked.

Rishi
Osho Tapoban

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13 Responses to Gumdi village/ Nepal/ 300 Sannyasins have lost their homes

  1. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    Dear Rishi, dear Osho sannyasins from around the village of ´Gumdi´,

    besides, that I sent money like a guess a million at least of others here ,
    I would like to share some of a wise women who is posting on Facebook to Her many friends and fellow travelers .
    I am glad, you are alive (and can even use the computer); and I wish you well, and that help reaches your places too.

    Love

    Madhu ( `germany´)
    Clarissas message of April 28th 2015:

    Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
    28. April um 00:16 ·
    Dear Brave Souls: For Post Trauma Recovery in Nepal post-earthquakes and aftershocks, with thousands dead and tens of thousands injured, and at current count, 17 climbers and Sherpa tribal people dead on Mount Everest. The people are pleading for helps and goods. I KNOW you are responding in full, and I thank you for your donations of money and goods and prayers. Easy does it. Keep going. We, the souls of the world, with lanterns lit, are on the move…
    And, as I promised you… here is the English copy of the full Post Trauma Recovery Protocol I use to teach/deputize persons who will continue to live in the community where the tragedy or disaster has taken place–
    those who would deeply like to know how to help the mothers, fathers, children, elders– [and themselves] recover from trauma during the many months yet to come, long after the first responders have gone home.
    For now, in Nepal and surrounding territories, the work continues in triage forms often, to find and tend to those still trapped on the mountains and in the settlements and buildings, to tend to every injured person who can be reached, to find and provide the cleanest water or means to clear water, and food. I hear from my contacts there, that also, many people are already doing ritual, which is right and proper, that the alliance to all that one holds Holy is made and held in this time.
    For many, too, who are safe but traumatized, now is the time for ministering to them. And not too far down the road, as others are brought in– or reached– in outlying areas, then yes, also ministering to them too, always striving in ways culturally that each can understand and put to good use. This Protocol is written to take into account cultural differences, sensitively.
    My goal in training community members in post-trauma recovery, is to create what I call ‘a sudden village’ of deep hearted helpers and healers in situ who will now be educated in the symptoms and helps for persons who have been deeply traumatized.
    I teach each person to, if it is within their ways of understanding, to first say a prayer before we enter the healing space, the encounter with another soul, in order to ask for a listening heart, and sure memory of the life/death/life cycle– that no matter what — we remember as we help others, that, as I put it, ‘death is a night between two days.’
    There are two prayers in the pages below, you might like to use as ‘first prayer’ preparation to enter the helping/healing space.
    Here tis, Dear Brave Souls, May you ever bless others and be blessed by others, in return:
    INTERNATIONAL POST TRAUMA RECOVERY PROTOCOL
    by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
    [We are partnered with La Sociedad de Guadalupe para Derechos Humanos, USA]
    RECOVERY & NORMAL REACTIONS TO SUDDEN SHOCK, EMERGENCY, LOSS, INJURY, AND CATASTROPHE
    Each person, depending on their innate physical and emotional constitution, their time of life, their day to day challenges of life, their prior traumas and luchas, their spiritual ties, is affected differently by sudden shocks and catastrophic events.
    Symptoms arising from shock may differ from person to person also. Yet all will make progress in healing and rowing toward wholeness again… often with new hard-won wisdom, and with scar tissue yes, and also often with a heart broken open… a focused desire to help the needful world in ongoing or in new ways.
    Thus, over a period of time, if you of ‘the inner circle,’ that is, if you are an eye-witness, a helper, a first responder, a victim, a survivor, a person who lost a loved one, or lost cherished creatures, or had a loved one in the path of danger, or seriously injured …
    if you have been suddenly hit hard by tragedy or by fear and shock and heartache for the world as you once knew it… if you are a soul in the midst of the disaster, a brother, sister, mother, father, child, elder… if you are military, fire fighter, health worker, helping-professional, law enforcement, government helper, rescue worker, citizen rescuer, news gatherer, photographer—
    if you have heart, spirit and soul connection to the tragedy– if you are in other close-in relationships such as helping in distributions of essentials, supplier, friend-to-friend, neighbor to neighbor, pastor, spiritual advisor… you may find yourself having one or more of the following reactions.
    (These are normal reactions to sudden shock relating to life and death events, to sudden twists of fate. When one has been involved in a critical incident, one’s body, one’s consciousness and heart (and many believe, too, the spirit and the soul) are shocked as well.
    This is because it is shocking to see in full consciousness, in a split second, how close death ever is near to us, and how suddenly it erupted into our world visibly, palpably, and how fast, how loudly, but sometimes so quietly…
    This witness to the nearness of death and to destruction and the terrible losses of life, are arresting to any human being with a heart and spirit, a mind and body, and a soul.
    NORMAL AND COMMON REACTIONS
    PHYSICAL REACTIONS:
    ● Sleep disturbances including inability to sleep
    ● Lethargy may come from sleeping too much, eating allergenic or spoiled substances.
    ● Exhaustion, fatigue, nagging sense of dread once the crises are far past
    ● Changes in appetite, digestive disturbances
    ● Feeling numb
    ● Crying, sometimes without necessarily knowing why
    ● Desire to comfort and be comforted physically
    ● Nightmares, night terrors
    ● Loss of memory
    ● Trembling, inner and/or outer
    ● Nausea
    ● Heart arrhythmia
    ● Pain in heart, not an organic disorder, but caused by
    sorrow
    ● Aching bones, not an organic disorder but rather,
    caused by sorrow
    ● Headache, pre-migraine syndrome; migraine
    ● Possible augmenting of symptoms of diabetes, prior stress conditions, sciatica, asthma
    ●Regression in children to a previously mastered stage of development
    BEHAVIORAL REACTIONS:
    ● Hyperactivity
    ● Poor concentration
    ● Refusing to talk
    ● Wanting to go away, or hide
    ● Talking ‘out of one’s mind’
    ● Startle reactions while awake or asleep
    ● Isolating, wanting to be alone.
    ● Wanting to just sit, or just stare
    ● Trying to help in any way one can, to the point of
    exhaustion;
    ● Not wanting to leave the scene for aid or safety
    ● Weeping oneself to sleep
    ● Hyper-vigilance, watching, listening, being unable to
    be at rest
    PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTIONS:
    ● Loss of sense of time
    ● Feeling distraught and helpless and alone
    ● Feeling that things are not real, as though in a dream
    ● Inability to recall sequences or retrace all of one’s steps precisely
    ● Feeling the future has been lost forever
    ● Desire to comfort and be comforted psychologically
    ● Feeling one should not cry
    ● Wanting to scream, or screaming-weeping
    ● Inability to attach importance to anything but this event
    ● Flashbacks
    ● Nightmares
    ● Sorrowing in actual and symbolic ways
    ● Intrusive thoughts that cause anxiety
    ● Over-reactions to mild to moderate irritations
    ● Recurrent dreams
    ● Horrified Anger
    ● Broken Heart
    ● Insecurity about the future
    ● Feelings of fear, warranted and unwarranted
    ● Feelings of guilt
    ● Feeling one cannot stop crying
    ● Unusual reserve, acting as though nothing much really occurred
    ● Blaming others, individuals, groups: there may be passionate outbursts
    ● Marked frustration with how long everything takes
    ● Marked frustration with rescue workers, the bureaucracy, anyone who is trying to help
    ● Marked frustration with any who break promises to help, or who are perceived to not be telling all the truth, or who are perceived to be withholding critical information, or giving misinformation or not telling all they know, or who are giving out platitudes or being condescending
    ● Ongoing violent fantasies
    ● Rolling episodes of anxiety
    ● Mild to profound depression
    ● Amnesia
    ● Thinking no one can ever understand, no one can ever help.
    ● Valid fear for one’s safety
    ● Replaying over and over the pain of what one has seen and heard
    ● Keeping secrets about what one might have known beforehand, during or after
    ● Blaming oneself
    ● Deep dread about hearing any more terrible news
    ● Aversion to films, movies, radio, television, anything that depicts catastrophe
    ● Irritability that others go on with life while one is still suffering
    ● Negative judgments about others’ activities or interests that seem disrespectful to oneself and what one is going through
    SPIRITUAL REACTIONS:
    ● Desire to comfort and be comforted spiritually
    ● Questioning one’s beliefs
    ● Not wanting to hear any spiritual counsel
    ● Wanting very much to hear spiritual counsel
    ● Feeling the celestial beings/ greater Power/Creator/God, the true self have abandoned everyone
    ● Feeling the celestial beings/ greater Power/Creator/God, the true self are ever near
    ● Desire to create meaningful ceremony
    ● Praying non-stop, for self, for others, for everyone

    FOR THE SURVIVORS: THE DESCENT INTO, AND THE PATHWAYS OUT OF TRAUMA
    These are normal reactions, though many are painful. Thankfully, no one has all of them, and some, such as ‘more prayer than usual’ can be helpful to many. It is important to remember that all souls have their own ways of remaining strong. Some have a lifetime of ‘not talking.” Yet being quiet may be their way of preserving their own pace and peace.
    Some make jokes as their way of remaining strong. Some weep, and in this they are cleansed and strengthened also. Remember, I tell you: “…tears are a river that can take you somewhere, somewhere better, somewhere new.”
    Some work themselves to exhaustion, for this is their way of staying strong. Some want to hear every update so they can prepare; that is their strength. Some want to hear nothing more, not ever, unless solutions are also offered– and that is the person bulwarking themselves in order to strive to stay strong in the midst of all else.
    The many different ways people ‘stay strong’ in their own ways ought be respected as much as possible, with invitations to join in if there is a better way to proceed in the present. Only if ‘staying strong’ is bringing real harms to the person or to other persons, should the eccentricities of ‘staying strong’ be mediated by offering other ways to move, think, see, hear, feel in attitude and action.
    Going through the pattern of shock symptoms [above], trying to pinpoint each or some, and finding one’s own ways of easing these, putting first things first – health, safety, attitude – these are all part of the direct healing process.
    No one can instantly cleanse these thoughts and feelings away, though I wish we could, for we know they can tear at heart, consciousness, and spirit and can make people feel half-dead or in continual dread.
    But as time passes, many of these will lift more and more, and many will pass from abrupt consciousness too. Especially if we hold to right understanding, right action, right thought. The most important is to know what to do for oneself to help the natural process of mending up after twists of fate that affect us so deeply.
    Many years ago our beloved first-born grandson died suddenly. We made the slow painful walk back from the land of the dead. It took much time. We felt dead ourselves. A succinct truth about coming back after such trauma, eventually came through my dear daughter whose child had been lost. She said. “We never overcome profound loss: We learn to live with it.”
    And this will assuredly be so for you also. You will find your way to live fully again with this time in background, not foreground.
    The day will come. And you will see, month by month forward, this will occur more and more.
    For some persons, after tragedy, they know immediately what they think and feel. For others who are be-numbed, they may not know where and how they stand with the events and with themselves and with others for quite some time afterward. This is alright. New life will come. Being thoughtful and watchful of one’s own processes daily is a good endeavor.
    If you can’t recall the qualities, paths and sanctities most useful, ask trusted others to help you take daily steps to help yourself as needed. Just like a new garden, take one thoughtful step after the other. Assess, spade, seed, water, shed light, weed, tenderly, thoughtfully tend to… then one day comes the flowering and then after that, the fruits.
    For those close in to the disaster, the tragedy, the numbness you feel comes from parts of your self protecting you, softening for a time, the profound overwhelm of all that has occurred, allowing you to at least go through many of the mundane motions of day to day life.
    For the first days after such enormous shocks, it may almost feel as though time has stopped. That all is surreal. The efforts to comb hair, cleanse body, shave, pray, organize may be dulled.
    You may feel as though you are no longer here. As though maybe you are dead or deadened. Even as you go about lifting, hauling, helping. This is because abject fear, horror, and/or tragedy throw us into a process and lock us in for a time – yet, our balancing pathways through difficulties did not die. We can find them and follow them again.
    For most who have been suddenly beset by deep fear, and/or suddenly lost beloved persons, an animal companion, or a homeplace, or all these… ‘descent’ is not too strong a word for the process afterward. To many, it feels like a big iron gate has closed behind them and that life will never be the same again.
    And yet, please also be assured there is an indirect healing process taking place inside you at the same time… time passing is one indirect but strong healing partner. As time goes on, there is also blessing news… and that is, that fear and horror and grief are wheels that turn.
    Grief has a beginning, a middle and not exactly an end, but a release from that trapped place behind ‘the iron gate’ where you may have felt burdened off and on, or relentlessly.
    Eventually the sense of helplessness, fatigue, guardedness, hyper-vigilance, sorrow, blaming oneself or others, and/or ‘not knowing’ why, why why, dwindles and eases. You will daily live and laugh and love life again, more and more … it will happen. Not right this moment. But it will come.
    • As time goes on, less and less will you be dragged backward in time to very briefly, but deeply, feel fearful or grieve anew. Those times will occur with longer and longer spans of time in between. Each episode of ‘sudden remembering’ will be intense, but last for shorter and shorter periods of time. Again, for most of us, we do not ‘get over’ life and death heart-wrenching events. We learn to live with them. We learn to live with the aftermath of memories of bad shocks and irretrievable losses. We learn to live with changes and losses that feel they took meaning of our lives away from us for a time, or that took our spirits from us and our desire to live life as well.
    But, for all souls, like the force of energy at the base of a plant that continues to shine underground even during drought, something in us also is ever sending out strong impulses for us to live again… and well. No matter how weak we feel in the moment, this invisible rhizome, the Life Force of the true self will help us see meaning– and new calling in life sometimes too– as we gradually climb back up to our own vital and vibrant lives in every way. It will come. Like the garden after dry season, life comes back again.
    AFTER THE FIRE
    “New seed
    is faithful.
    It roots most deeply
    in the places
    that are
    most empty”
    [from book The Faithful Gardener by CP Estés, in honor of the 14 firefighters who died on Storm King Mountain 1994]
    ACTIONS TO TAKE FOR RECOVERY
    Please take up all, or any of the following pathways to add to those ways you already know, in order to help yourself. Please know too, that many strangers, as well as those close to you, are focusing in this very moment in order to support you over the miles, saying strong and ongoing fresh prayers for your heart and spirit and True Self to find their ways and to be made whole again. I am but one of those multitudes who calls others to prayers for you and who also prays strong prayers for you.
    EXERCISE AND REST to release accumulated stresses …► Within the first days or as soon as one can, and continuing, do strenuous exercise alternating with rest times. Continue to move daily thereafter. This will alleviate some of the physical reactions, and give your body a way to discharge additional physical and emotional reactions as they accumulate in the coming days. This is a generosity to the body.
    KEEP MOVING, order will return …► REST BUT KEEP BUSY, AS YOU ARE ABLE: do not sit and do nothing. Feeling displaced, angry, sad, orphaned, and bewildered are normal reactions. Do not tell yourself that you have lost your mind. You haven’t. But a huge wind has blown through upsetting all previous order. Order will return. A new order. An order for your life that you decide as you decide it, within your reach, in your own best ways.
    TALK TO PEOPLE rather than toughing it out …► Talk to people — talk is one of the most healing things most can do. Tell your story as you see it. Although some have learned to keep their most precious thoughts and feelings to themselves, they may not realize that by talking some, or a good deal now, they also give others permission to talk out their thoughts and feelings too… and thus to go that much farther in healing. To talk, encourages others to talk. Though each has his or her own ways of dealing with trauma, and no one ought be forced to speak until or unless they wish to, we find that expression of one’s thoughts and feelings about one’s hopes and fears often go farther to release trauma’s after-effects, than trying to tough things out. Any kind of talk now has, as its aim, equanimity. And the talk of the grieving is most often Holy.
    PAINT, TELL, WRITE, DRAW YOUR STORY INTO THE REAL WORLD….► This may be the first time some persons will receive encouragement to speak. Some will be brief, that’s alright. It doesn’t matter whether one’s talk is broken or cohesive… telling one’s own story insofar as one wishes, is what matters. People who have been deeply hurt, may tell their stories over and over again, many times before they lose their massive charge of pain. They may tell it in voice, or in poetry, in drawing, songs, music, theatre, painting, craft, cairn building, old rituals of meaning, and other expressive means and then sharing these with trusted others. Making art is a form of virtue. Expressive art is very healing for many.
    WAYS TO LISTEN AND TO HOLD OTHERS to help them heal …► Don’t push yourself, but if you can, listen to others’ stories; if you can, reach out for those who are poor in resource, poor in spirit, poor in security, for sometimes giving comfort, words of encouragement, is a way to help healing of both teller and listener as well. There are many ways to listen, including being silent together, including a hand on an arm, an arm around a shoulder, sharing around cups of water, an embrace while the other person just leans in quietly, or weeps. This is the quality of loving kindness.
    SOFT EYES, KNOWING NODS …► There are too, those inimitable words that the soul understands perfectly, which are not said with voice, but with nods of the head and with the eyes; gentle understanding eyes. Sometimes soft looks and soft voice, the ‘Oh, oh…’ and the ‘There, there…’ and the ‘Yes my dear heart…’ and the warmth of merciful silence in the midst of din… these are some of the greatest articulations of wisdom and soothing True Self.
    THE SPIRIT IS A SACRED TEMPLE, PROTECT IT IN SELF AND IN OTHERS as much as one can …► Don’t allow anyone to push you or deceive you into anything not good for your soul. Be not led either by others who may insist too soon, “It’s over now, you must move on.” You will move on. But in your own timing. In grief and great change, one’s consciousness has entered a sacred place, one of deep learning and transformative process. The newsmedia cycle is not your healing cycle. Exploitation is not a healing method. It’s best to protect the traumatized psyche from any intrusive anyone, including media whether in person or on radio/TV which may accidentally overwhelm your spiritual needs for privacy in groups and as individuals, because of media’s need to ‘feed the maw of the news cycle.’ Remain to yourself and in and for yourself, in the ways you deem wisest for you and your soul, and those within your reach.
    RELY ON COMPASSIONATE AND PATIENT COUNSEL …► Neither is your ‘leader’ anyone who is not well developed psychologically or spiritually themselves, nor those who become understandably fatigued with the, for now, ongoing cycle of anxiety and/or grief. Rely instead on compassionate and patient counsel. Forbearance and remaining private regarding those who seem intrusive, is one of the best attitudes.
    LOOK TO THE EXEMPLARS WHO HAVE BEEN WOUNDED AND YET HAVE FOUND NEW LIFE AGAIN. You are wounded yet alive, and healing. Look to those angels and saints, the bodhisattvas, the good human beings and creatures, even the birds of the sky, who have gone before you and suffered so, but come back to full life again …► Listen to yourself and to wise others who have come through ‘a great something’ themselves, and mostly recovered or are making definitive progress. It is a paradox and an issue of compassion for self and others: To tend to what is wounded til healed ‘well-enough’, while going on with new life as well. Yes, ‘life goes on,’ as some will say, but the emphasis should be on Life! not on hurrying. A wound to the spirit is like a wound to the body. It takes time to heal from the bottom-most layers upward.
    YOU ARE NOT ALONE: SEEK THOSE ‘WHO KNOW’ THE WAYS THROUGH… ► Feelings of loneliness and deep feelings of worry, or longing toward loved ones injured, or now gone, or a way of life gone for now, can be partially mediated by being with those who understand from the ground up, that is, other people who have walked the path similar to the one you are walking now. Though it can seem like this never happened to anyone else and you and those with you are alone, there are others in the world, in your village, on the internet, within certain groups across the world– who know exactly what you are experiencing, and they can be of great comfort. Seek them and take what they offer in goodness. It is there for you. In this way, we allow others the honor of loving us via kindnesses offered.
    CEREMONY, SYMBOLIC ACTS, RITUAL, MEMORIALIZING, BLESSINGS …► Each time you tell your story partly, or fully, each time you create a symbolic act, participate in healing ceremony, rituals that call the Magnitude to oneself as one knows/believes, note the best of what once was, memorialized now, each thoughtful new barrier set to help prevent ever again whatever twist of fate or tragedy occurred in your world insofar as you can, each time you think back to the disaster in order to analyze and learn something valuable, each time you receive someone’s caring, each time you reach to comfort others, to bless and be blessed by others, you will be healing yourself. And others. This is the quality of mindful effort and ceremony.
    LIFE-LESSONS FROM TRAGEDY …► Try not to cover up your feelings by withdrawing or by using alcohol or drugs or other excesses. Talk your feelings out as you can. As many times as you need to. There is no shame or selfishness in this. You have been through alot. Sometimes after a sudden shock and tragedy, some try to self-medicate with whatever is close at hand. But this is not a time for negating feeling. One’s striving for consciousness is stronger than most realize. This time, despite the horror that began it, will be a time that will bring much to you, much that will be useful for the rest of your life. For many, it will be a time of complete maturing in unforeseen and good ways. We cannot make tragic or profane events go away, but we can make them in some way holy. We can, insofar as we have sight and strength, make our actions and reactions holy.
    BLESSING SELF AND OTHERS …► Reach out to others for help. They really do care. This is a way of allowing others to bless you. Be good to yourself and let others be good to you too. Often, the most healing comes from just allowing others to bless your life anew, and you theirs. I tell the people I meet with– who have suffered great tragedies, but who often ask what they can do to help others. I tell them, ‘Be kind.’ People who suffer greatly will most often forget all the “expert” words or techniques that anyone ever said or did during these first days and weeks, but what will remain forever engraved in memory, are the kindnesses others offered during those first few days and weeks and afterward. Kindness somehow seems recorded by the body internally and externally, by the conscious mind, by the heart, and the spirit, the soul, in ‘sense memory’: Every part of the human being registers kindness.
    SOLITUDE, REFLECTION, AND SOCIALIZING …► Spend time with others. These may be times of reflection and solitude. But, do not isolate yourself. You may also find yourself laughing sometimes, even as you grieve. That is not the potter’s wheel screeching; this is the potter’s wheel being glad to be alive and useful again. It is alright. True mirth is a healing virtue.
    REACH OUT TO OTHERS, TOO …► Ask other people how they are doing. Remember they may be shy to tell a stranger, or even a friend or relative, of their burden unless they are asked, and often. Respect boundaries, but also a soul may need to be asked more than once, in order to gain more of an answer than just ‘Fine’ — when in fact, they are somewhat — to a lot— less than fine. My rule is, as with raising children, ask three times, and likely each answer will be more in depth… and then pressures can be released to the good.
    REST AND TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY WHO HAS NO ONE BUT YOU TO CARE FOR IT …► Adults can become fatigued from this business of remembering and grieving. Grieving is hard work, and as numbness wears off and the mind delivers back images and impressions of the original traumatic event, it can burn up much energy. Rest, take good care of your body. Feed your body in small amounts, as decent food as you can. Soothe and energize your body in ways you have always known work for you in ways that add to your life rather than take from your life.
    GIVE YOURSELF “TIME OFF” FROM TRAUMA …► It’s alright to take time out. It is not negligent to not want to listen anymore. It is alright not to read newspapers or hear the news. It’s alright to never again go to a film that is about shock or loss, in order not to stir up what is now healing or healed. It is fine to protect the wound, even when ‘well enough’ healed, for now, for a while, or forever. Everyone reaches capacity in the grieving process, in recovering from great shocks, in being near the still open wounds. Pay attention to what your body and consciousness, heart, soul, and spirit need, and secure it for them.
    HEALING FROM SHOCK IS NOT A STRAIGHT LINE …► Healing from shock is not a straight line: It is a zig-zag line, sometimes two steps back and three steps forward. Stay with it. There is no one right way nor perfect progress. There is your way. There is your striving to progress. Trust these. You have old knowings that work. Angels and consorts and the Gods, and others may offer ideas too. Consider, take what you need, and leave the rest.
    TAKE TIME CHOOSING LEGAL HELP …► If this is part of the scene, take time to think things through carefully if you are approached by persons offering legal help. For persons who are badly injured or survivors of a family member[s] who died, or those who have lost much, legal support may be offered or considered. But, also be aware that in some instances, involvement in years’ long legal pursuits can thieve freedom to live life again as you please… and instead can dictate one’s highs and lows by how the legal case is progressing each day. Consider carefully. If you need a lawyer, it is best to seek your own referrals from trusted friends rather than respond to lawyers who contact you. At every disaster site, there are charlatans who pour in to take advantage, along with the larger mass of helpers pouring in who really will and do help. Be wise in your considerations.
    THE INNER CIRCLE: SURVIVOR SUPPORT GROUPS …► It is true that some of your far away friends and relatives may never understand what you, the on-the-scene person, experienced …unless they were there too. Sometimes the ones we want to turn to for support, cannot grasp all that occurred. That’s alright. That’s why there are often survivor groups formed. The people in ‘the inner circle’ understand one another innately. The groups are often formed in prayer, in whatever shelter is left standing, in sharing what little resource there is, tending to the worst of the wounds first… and evolving from there. You can be part of such a group or start one. There is no right or wrong way. Only the way of the Heart.
    IF YOU FEEL STUCK IN DEEPENING OR CHRONIC HIGH DISTRESS …► If you find at any time that you feel stuck in endless anger, or want to isolate yourself without cease, or have unabated high anxiety, or continue to be hyper vigilant, have intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, thoughts of hurting yourself or others, nightmares or other sleep distresses, over-reactions to run of the mill events, begin to destroy your most cherished relationships… don’t put it off … seek help with those you trust, those known to help others to heal. It is often only one tiny thing that needs to be tightened or loosened in consciousness or heart or mind or body; not a total reconfiguration of the entire psyche. Seeking aid when needed, is an ancient spiritual tradition wherein one goes alone to the teacher for counsel, thereby exercising the quality of compassionate effort… in your own behalf.
    POST-TRAUMA RECOVERY THERAPY …► It is not a character flaw nor a failure of the person to seek psychological, physical or spiritual wisdom. Please understand that severe, sudden shocks to the body and consciousness can throw off chemicalogical balances in the body. Sometimes the body needs medicine to help to recover the chemical equilibrium that influences sense of self, evens out mood, and sense of ease with the world. Listening to the teachings of a helper, healer, therapist trained in resetting one on the path again, or in post-trauma recovery is useful to untangle thought processes that often become jammed by prior pressure to respond to too many sudden and strong stimuli all at once. The remedy is concentration, immersion in one’s best spiritual and psychological and bodily practices in order to cleanse, strengthen and free the True Self again.
    CONSIDER TRADITIONAL GATHERING AND/OR ALTERNATIVE …► Sitting with a trusted person is also a place to speak the thoughts you would prefer not to speak more publicly or to friends or family. It also is a place of learning to create new life as you now wish it to be, with insight and vision. Some might choose EMDR, a eye-movement therapy that reduces the anxiety of trauma for many; some choose talking; some pray to, for, and with the ancestors; some analyze dreams looking for symbols which free their spirits when understood; some also take specially compounded medicines and herbs; create ceremony; cleansing rituals in dance, art, song, writing, painting, as well as practice meditation, sit satsung, go to Mass in the ruins, keep journals, do yoga, meet in small communities, bless one another, pray together, laugh together, go fishing more often, take up new skills that relax oneself, or go back to those that once did … and many use expressive arts to come to terms. Use any and all and more that honor the soul, as you see fit.
    DON’T BE AFRAID TO TALK TO YOUR CHILDREN ADULT-TO-ADULT …► If you are a parent, help your children, and any child who no longer has able parents, by listening, listening. Just because young children, or young adult children are silent, or just because they laugh or ‘go out’ to work or wander about with friends or say everything is fine, does not mean they are without need of your special regard.
    Consciousness often splits in two during eye-witness and/or sudden trauma. This is a healthy and temporary adaptation to shock. One side goes on functionally, seemingly unaware of the travails (but psyche records all) –while the other side may be, for a time, drowning in bewilderment, helplessness, a sense of the surreal, and sorrow. The two ways of seeing and thinking will come back together again more and more, and with a united vision eventually… a third way of seeing all that has taken place… we need only be present and aware, and allow the blending of realities that acknowledge the real, and also nourish hope and full return to life again.
    “BEING WITH,” undistractedly, heals the duality between the mundane and destroyed world, and the unruined world that one holds sacred. Don’t be afraid to talk to children mind to mind, heart to heart, spirit to spirit, True Self to True Self, and with bodily comforts if a child indicates so: soothing sounds, embraces, songs, comforting little bites of foods. The child will tell you what they would like if you suggest things of comfort, rather than ask what the child needs.
    Do not hesitate to consult the steady and wise persons around you for good advice, and to gain spiritual insights, body work, psychological therapy, ceremony, healing circles, both for yourself and for a child if you think it useful and/ or needed to learn… and to process what one is learning. Children are observant and wise too. You may learn much from speaking to children after a collective trauma.
    CREATING GROUPS FOR CHILDREN TO PLAY AND LEARN, creating groups for children to play in some peace, and to learn under loving guidance, to shelter able creatures under the children’s care if possible, no matter what else, can provide a much needed sense of belonging for children who have lost so much. For all of humanity, one can get through most rough roads if one can feel a sense of belonging—to Source Greater in a way that matters to each in their own ways –and to other people who care. And we find it so, that even if a person does not find belonging with the Greater or with humans, then they will often find it in their admiration and love of creatures, and if not with creatures, than to all of the beauty of the sun, the stars, and the sky. Each will find their own belongingness. Thus, offer many and any safe places, no matter how or where, so the young especially, can belong to that which finds the young, Sacred.
    WITH CHILDREN, DO YOUR LOVING BEST …► Healing from trauma is at its most useful, also educative. Healing from trauma teaches about how one’s consciousness, behavior and spirit actually work together, or don’t– but can… with a few adjustments and conscious good will. Children look to and often follow the mindful tones their parents and elders about such matters.
    If you made an error of under- or over-reacting, just back up, say so to your child, say you know how to do it better now. Children learn so quickly, they will most often back up and follow your new and better mindful lead. Perfection in grieving, perfections in coming back to life, is not the point. What counts most is that you just do your loving best. This is a stable attitude: “doing best” – but not without also ‘doing love’ even more so. You know your child best, and know the ways to love and tend to– that children can most easily understand, and take in as nourishment for their healings also.
    DECIDE TO LIVE FULLY …► In the ensuing days, find things to do that feel rewarding, meaningful or refreshing. These need not be big things, but events or endeavors to offer small balances to the tragedy and overwhelm you have been through. It is alright to live fully, even though precious others have been suddenly injured, harmed, or died. In fact, many of us hold that it is exactly right to decide to live fully in honor of those who currently cannot or could not. There is to be no guilt for moments of happiness or celebrations. Nor for sudden sadness, either. Yet, moments of happiness are, again, the force of the living plant blossoming again. Your life blossoms again. And this is just right.
    THERE ARE TIMES … THAT ARE WORTHY OF SPEAKING ABOUT …► When you feel bad, find a person to talk to, and to cry with, to tell of your anger and other helpless feelings. Don’t keep it inside. If you think you’re ‘bothering people,’ or being’ weak’, remember people who love you will wind up spending much energy being even more worried about you if you go mute. It’s alright to talk, even if it’s not usual for you. There are times of life of great consequence that are worthy of speaking about. This is one of those times. We are what we are, it is true, but also now there are new ways for fine-tuning true selflessness, which includes helping oneself so that one can guide others in wisdom, by saying, ‘Yes, me too, I have suffered also and that is why I know a bit of the way forward, and so here’s my suggestion, with caring, to you’… It is true that those who appear to be most in need often cause the enlightenment of others. These are times that are worthy of speaking truthfully and openly about your own highest knowings.
    TAKE CARE NOT TO OVERINDULGE NOR SELF-MEDICATE …► You are vulnerable in some new ways when recovering from shock; take care to not over-indulge or self-medicate with substances, or other consciousness-numbing addictions, or trying to lose oneself in unprotected sex, or ongoing bitterness, or know-it-allness, or rages, as defenses against feeling vulnerable. Regarding effective anger: Anger is energy to use in controlled and reasoned ways to get things done. It is a fire with a hearth, ought not be an unbanked fire without guardian stones around it.
    SEEK PEOPLE OF SPIRIT WHO LOVE THE TRUE SELF …► Your spiritual beliefs will definitely help you through. Cleave to them in full. For those who have been dispirited by some inhumane ‘religious’ person long ago, do not hold yourself away from this kind of healing for your spirit now. Instead, consider seeking people of spirit who love the attitude of generosity; the attitudes of compassion– there are many of them in the world, some in organized religions and spirituality communities, and some who wander freelance in this wide world. Ally with them. They will have special balm for you.
    MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL: “GOD’S BUSINESS,” “CREATOR’S BUSINESS,” “SOURCE WITHOUT source”…► I would offer this to you too, a personal philosophy I carry… Some may be helped by knowing it is good to develop a category in one’s consciousness called something like “Creator’s Business,” “God’s Business,” “the business of Source without source”– for some things will never make sense. Some things one cannot ever control or ever understand. Accidents are incomprehensible. Twists of fate often have little ‘rational fact’ to them. Evil things are, by definition, insensible. And some things, some events, some outcomes, will forever only be “God’s Business,” Creator’s Business,” The business of Source without source…” and there can be peace, for life, in this way, about many things.
    THE DIGNITY YOU DESERVE …► We all wish to be brave and strong in the face of sudden upheaval and disaster. We all wish to be looked up to for our endurance and our efforts to help others. If you truly care for humanity, then too, be sure to include yourself in their numbers, by giving your own inner feelings and thoughts the voice and the dignity they, and you, so deeply deserve.
    THE WORLD KNOWS OF YOUR PLIGHT AND IS WITH YOU IN VIGIL FOR HELP FOR YOU, FOR YOUR RECOVERY, FOR KEEPING YOUR NEEDS ABOVE THE WATERLINE. Please remember, worldwide there are strangers who are industrial-strength praying men and women and children. Who are strong thinkers and conveyors of goodness in many ways. We have you on our radar and have already called forth all Good and Great, asking that you be watched over and guided into fullest life again. We’re asking that you and all your loved ones be kept safe, that you see miracles during this time, that you ever know that Creator and the angels and the boddhisattvas are near you, touching you gently, and guiding you to ways and means that are helpful and useful to you, guiding you into meaningful life again.
    Please lean on our prayers for you,
    and with love,
    Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
    THE ‘REFUSE TO FALL DOWN’ PRAYER
    Refuse to fall down.
    If you cannot refuse to fall down,
    refuse to stay down.
    If you cannot refuse to stay down,
    lift your heart toward heaven,
    and like a hungry beggar,
    ask that it be filled—
    and it will be filled.
    You may be pushed down.
    You may be kept from rising.
    But no one can keep you
    from lifting your heart
    toward heaven—
    only you.
    It is in the midst of misery
    that so much becomes clear.
    The one who says nothing good
    came of this,
    is not yet listening.
    [The blessing poem, ‘The “Refuse to Fall Down” Prayer’ [originally titled “A Prayer,”] excerpted from The Faithful Gardener, A Wise Tale About That Which Can Never Die, by C.P. Estés, HarperCollins, ©1995. Reprinted by kind permission of publisher.
    ————————————
    Brief Biography:
    Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés is a Diplomate psychoanalyst [Certified IAAP, Zurich] and Specialist in critical incidents and post-trauma recovery, who developed psychological recovery protocol for the Armenian earthquake rescue; served at Columbine High School and community for 3 years after ….and so much so more…

  2. shantam prem says:

    I have seen the link for 3, 4 minutes. Swami Arun landing from helicopter among the adoring followers.

    It is all ok. We all need someone to adore, some legend to lead.

    Osho music in the background hurts my sensibilities. Beautiful people should not walk in the stolen clothes!

  3. Lokesh says:

    I wonder if I met some of these sannyasins from Gomdi how much I would have in common with them. I suspect very little in terms of how they relate to Osho. I also suspect that their ideas about Sannyas must be a very watered down version from what it once was. Having Arun as a self-syled spokesman for all things Osho sends my bullshit meter into the red.

    • bodhi heeren says:

      Since they are devoted sannyasins and you have left the world of Sannyas years ago – as if you ever entered it – obviously you would have nothing in common with these people.

      And since Arun – whatever else can be said of him – clearly is intent on spreading Osho’s vison and to do so out of Love for his Master, no wonder he is a source of irritation for you.

      Considering that your only ‘contribution’ to the world of Osho is to post a constant string of ‘ironic’ and negative comments on SN. Even when the subject is an earthquake and human suffering you can find space for some arrogant negativity – instead of showing a little bit of normal, decent human compassion!

      • avinashi says:

        Bodhi, good post I agree on every point made with clarity.

        • Lokesh says:

          One burning question remains in my mind: Who left the door to the monkey house open?

          That someone being affiliated to Osho warrants them being sent aid over people who are not sounds patently absurd to me. Having experienced first-hand being in a natural disaster and its aftermath I understand fully the complexities of getting aid to the survivors and how most of that aid falls into the wrong hands. If you really are in a position to lay out real financial help to Nepali earthquake survivors get on a plane when it is possible and place your donation directly into the hands of those who need it, otherwise your donations are the equivalent of pissing in the ocean.

          Sannyasin earthquake survivors appears to be something the SN editors wish to focus on, quite naturally, and if I can find the time I will write an article on the matter and the difficulties involved in getting aid to survivors and stop it landing in the hands of human parasites. In the meantime, call the zookeeper and get those nasty chimps back in their cages.

  4. Lokesh says:

    Thus spoke Santo Bodhi, whose, let me guess, normal, decent human compassion amounts to probably absolutely zippy.

    Here we have the ubiquitous spreading Osho’s vison number. Perhaps El Santo would care to share what that vision is.

  5. shantam prem says:

    Just seen a photo of relief material dispatched to Nepal by one of the prominent Osho sects called ‘Oshodhra’, run by “Three Enlightened Beings”.

    My impression is if Lokesh was an Indian he would have been one of the founders of such cults; similarly, founders of such Indian cults in Europe would think and act like Lokesh, Satyadeva, Madhu etc.

    We are the products of our society, culture, its history and immediate environment.
    Here, most of the bloggers from the West forget they are not Indian or Nepalese, and their Osho was also an Indian though with a universal awareness and being.

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