This video is now 40 years old. But to someone like me who was around when the ashram was as portrayed here it is like yesterday and very meaningful. You can get from this, if the mind is a little unengaged, that the whole thing is about “energy” and that cannot be intellectualised.
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Not long after I returned from Poona, I recall running into a friend and her kid in the coffee bar of the local park. She went off to get coffee, and the kid, who would have been about twelve then and who had been really relaxed around me before Poona, was a bit on edge because of a TV programme about the ashram that was being talked about, because we were being talked about, in our very conspicuous malas and red clothes. But he eventually started to relax and asked me what had been going on (he was a good kid, gave me a chance).
Eventually, I said to him, “You know when a teacher comes on you and some other kids, and the teacher has already decided something bad has been going on, and you try to explain to the teacher it wasn’t like that, however things look from the outside, that isn’t what was going on?”, and he got me.
Well, watching that video enables me to see how outsiders might have seen what was going on, because after all these years I have some distance, especially over the group interactions, but I know that’s not what was going on inside, so in a way I now know the situation as outsider and insider.
Is this the film that was called ‘The Ashram?
No, Bodhi Vartan, this is not the movie ´Ashram in Poona´, which was to be seen in Program Cinemas in the seventies. What we see here is a very special British ´family-album compilation´.
Featuring mostly those British Star Therapists, Teertha (Paul Lowe) and Rajen (Alan Lowen) and their relatatedness to the London and then also Europe-wide (and Californian-wide) at that time prevalent ( Janov,
Fritz Perls, Rogers and others ) Human-Growth Therapy and Encounter-Therapy movement.
Yet the play-field in Pune has been more radical as elsewhere, that one can see in this ´vid, as also in the movie you mentioned.
No wonder if some of the British chat-contributors (of the elders) feel ´home´ as if it was ‘yesterday’. So far just now to say to your question, Bodhi Vartan.
Madhu
P.S:
I fortunately didn´t know, when I´ve been in Pune 1, that guys with cameras were in the Group Rooms or cameras running during the medititations.
When I got back from Pune all hell broke loose…I brought my heaven back and it was hell for others…made one particular family member terribly vindictively jealous for life.
I’d love to tell the full story to all my online fans but it would be edited here, so just know that one of the most moving and heartwarming highlights was chasing my bi-polar violent father around the garden until he hid in the neighbour’s house.
What did I manage then to spontaneously call my three heart-attacked father at full bellow? Oh yes, I remember: “A walking bag of period pus”, whilst managing also to include my neighbour as a “bourgeois shit for protecting him for years and playing deaf.”
I was just 21…
It was fun…
To hell with Osho…sure, count me in…I’m galloping there on horseback…Oshowww
Life lived like that was worth living – still is.
P.S:
I’m not sure why I publish this as anyone who has more than tea with me always gets to hear these stories in person, which is much more fun in the telling. But I’m typing with a smile on my face and giggling…and so that must mean I’m just enjoying the ride.
Tea, anyone?
A Disclaimer:
If you or anyone you know has symptoms of having lived and loved and still hang with the insanest-loveliest Guru on earth and his mates and lovers because he made you cry with laughter and burst your heart apart – then please, please, please Ring our Helpline. We’d love to know what we missed out on as we lived in suburbia until he died. And read books on Buddhism.
Thanks for sharing, Prem Martyn, and grateful to make us/me informed about your ´Disclaimer´.
Madhu
Thanks for this, P.M.
Good to know I wasn’t the only one who went completely bug fuck after the early days were over.
Nostalgia arises when past Is better than the present Was!
Nostalgia and clinging to the past is certainly your area of expertise, Shantam.
“You can get from this, if the mind is a little unengaged, that the whole thing is about ‘energy’ and that cannot be intellectualised.” (Parmartha)
Yes, I agree here, Parmartha.
However, I would say that anything, like ´this whole thing´, how you put it, is about ‘energy’. And it takes quite some awareness to understand, why some-´thing´ is posted, and when, and how, and addressing whom in the WWW (the now-IT-conditionary context) and so on and getting clear about one´s own motivation as the sender and the receiver (known, unknown ) as well.
Actions as re-actions are also all about ‘energy’, I presume, always.
And the mental, emotional, psychic, spiritual and socio-political surrounding fields and their implications have changed more than a lot since these four decades.
These daring humans, one can see here, giving in, to stay naked and vulnerable, getting rid of their masquerades in a secluded corner in India (or elsewhere) have been in a state of trust to do so, better to say, trust ´to let go´ of the masks.
Quite something else as the ongoing peepshows or reality soaps of nowadays, which fill the minds of so many, so many, even an increasing majority of adolescent children, playing on their smartphones or the computer. Not to speak of perverts, who claim to be ´grown-ups.
We have to consider (energetically(!), I mean), that the eyes of EROS are very much damaged nowadays, to view this or that, and I want to give that into the sharing here.
And by the eyes of EROS, I mean those eyes who know how to differentiate between a ´porn or even a violent porn´ or, let us say, something that also could have been happening in Guantanamo´s prison stance (see wikileaks) and to differentiate that from a tiny group of humans (also in the seventies, tiny, btw), who went for a daring adventure, to dig what´s behind the personal masks.
Some decades ago, I have been very fortunate, having been able to live as a woman and human in a social climate of – relatively said – much greater tolerance agreements on innovative daring ´social sculptures´ (how the artist Beuyss has been putting it) than the conditions* are nowadays, so to say.
To cope with the nowadays conditions and to oppose such with dignity and to let go of masks and develop trust in doing so, in the midst of the social climate now, needs other forms, I feel. That´s why I shared the stance of a Marina Abramovic´s ‘The Artist is Present’, amongst other stuff, for example.
And what I also want to share is that I feel that the human eyes and the human ears are in another way energetically damaged these last decades, as well as a potentially understanding what one sees or hears.
Strange, by coincidence, during you have been preparing in London the vid to be shown here, I´ve downloaded at my place the ‘NO_BOOK’, a Darshan Diary of these historical times (August 1977) and have very much enjoyed reading by heart (and more than reading).
Sincerely,
Madhu
P.S:
*Prem Martyn was quite right recently, speaking of “some suburban prison”.
That I objected the way I did was my way to respond (energetically) to the energy of arrogance and lurking fanaticism and self-righteousness, I feel, in some like this of his posts: a non-loving attitude towards possible readers, he might not know ´a thing´ about!
When I tried to play this it comes up that it cannot be played due to copyright infringement, which is kind of weird.
Hiya Lokesh,
FYI…Yes, the vid does the same for me – unviewable. I can tell you that whilst in Nisarga I met a young, very nice Indian guy who worked in Pune. Just happened to work in the net department where their job is to stop stuff getting out on the net that they claim infringes legacy rights etc.
I actually don’t mind, thus far, Pune’s stop on others’ publications of Osho info. Maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t seen anyone else display their capacity for the role better than they do to keep a sense of diligence in the legacy for the newbies. Anyone with anything more useful to do is doing Today effectively and doesn’t need officialdom anyway. But the input is massively needed for the legacy in other ways.
As you know, I’ve been helping some ex-KH guys with their activities in Spain. I’m so glad the larger sannyas community exists in many areas around the world. I keep moving between them and will be re-visiting as always this year.
I don’t enjoy an amorphous New Ageyness in depth or nostalgia-laden stiff-stuff-celebrating as I’m into intentional, Osho devotee-soaked hug-ins…without the warbly bollocks…But I reckon the Humaniversity deserves another visit from me after many years – and they never put a single Osho video on when I was there in the eighties, but Osh came through loud and clear, through Veeresh, in his own way of course.
Enjoy the New Year, best wishes come true and all…
M
As always I have very little idea of why I write other than because Osho is.
Cheers.
Cool, M.
Who are “exKH guys” in Spain or elsewhere, Prem Martyn? Is it convenient to clear that for non-insider?
Sure, Madhu…
Ex Ko Hsuan.
I’m not giving out the address here as I have a troll idiot who hacks my accounts and blocks passwords, plus another troll idiot who is just born nasty and snooped on me for a long time here using my comments against me in my personal life.
I’m not paranoid, these are facts.
Thanks, Prem Martyn.
And yes I understand; you are not the only victim of such cyberstalking of your privacy and human rights, dignity and freedom. I understand that too.
Madhu
…
Is this man some guru from America, who nourishes the inspiration of Pussy Generation? I mean leftists who hate their right hand.
Lokesh,
Yes, this has been taken down very quickly as soon as SN featured it. No doubt OI manipulations, etc.
I think one of our collective downloaded a copy…and will see if we can put it up independently but that risks us also being attacked in some way…but what the hell…
I think that the group room scenes are what seem to freak people out, but that old charlatan Somendra was a sort of trade magician and good at fronting what was simply good energy with crazy-looking gesticulation.
“…risks us also being attacked in some way…but what the hell….”
We’ll fight them on the beaches…Time to dig out your old tin hat and dodge the incoming, PM.
It is kind of weird to imagine someone sitting in an office in Poona checking for copyright infringement on SN. We helped build the place and now are the baddies because we want to watch some film footage from the ancient times.
This morning I did the last weekly shopping of fruit and vegetables before flying to the coast of the North Sea, btw some degree warmer than here.
A small girl or boy smiled at me through all the winter clothes. Despite the cold, my beard, my fast walking pace uphill, he/she smiled at me. I responded to his/her 2-3 y.o. smile, accompanying it with the gesture of Ciao!
Immediately after, his/her smile turned in a tender pride, before crashing against the stern gaze of the probable mother, who had meanwhile opened a house door.
Smile at a stranger, is it daring? Fear of the unknown, is it wise?
I am a little surprised that the selection of images does not include flashes of the mythical encountering sessions, those where sometime, I heard, people came to the rough physical contact. Removed, or those fights never happened?
However, fights aside, I do not know if it is true that those people were daring, or, if at least, more daring than those who nowadays continue to do in the groups similar things that we see in the video, but without the direct master’s support, trusting the only master available, the interiorized one, that one we have recognized within.
For me, the audacity of some of them, as westerners, more than for the therapy groups, which seen through the eyes of an Indian sannyasin might appear just redundant, was their going with lucidly (sober) into dimensions beyond the known, that access to does not require much more than a relaxed and clean perceptual system, the same of a child, and without the adult’s compulsion always to direct toward important events.
But more than courage in those people what touches me is their humbleness to drop all the things they learned, a lot I guess if I look at some friends here (SN), those who at that time were already intellectually and culturally structured, yet available when they had to clean toilets or wash dishes.
But perhaps this, like about audacity, should be contextualized if one do not want to appear presumptuous expressing judgments speaking through absolutes…I said that if I’m not assertive you can cut off my head…in a loving way.
Perhaps with all that love available dancing in the heart of Osho people did not need their mind, that super- efficient tool with which until then they had learned how to impress, in order to get a little love, perhaps.
I will not impress anyone, you are neither humble nor daring…maybe just lucky, but only those who can still smile at the unknown, in short, those who are still assertive, as children.
Love
VF
Hi Lokesh and Martyn, and others,
We have put the video up again on vimeo…
Let’s see whether they try and attack us again.
Can’t believe that someone somewhere is watching us.
Thank you, PM.
Just the first few moments of the celebration brings it all back home.
Osho is and remains.
PM, just wrote a long take on the vid, to have it disappear when I posted it. Wasn’t meant to happen.
Interesting subject matter, to say the least.
Did you know Greek Mukta died a couple of weeks ago?
Thanks, Parmartha, for putting the vid up again; now seen it twice, leaving in the second view just a very few moments out, which I found too intimate to view such; kind of intruding, I felt, when I saw it, days ago.
Otherwise, the interview with Michael Barnett (aka Somendra), who is living in Freiburg/Germany now, isn’t he?) and the ways he did (is doing?) energy work, I could capture better in the second view.
The lecture parts of the vid I even more enjoyed than in the first view: like what He is saying about synchronicity and Truth, which can not be traded; or given as an object from one person to the other and so on…In the Dignity of THIS, I’ve always felt Home, am feeling HOME.
And I love (and also need) to be reminded, over and over again, especially when feelings of discouragement have a grip on me…
It´s a universal truth herewith shared, has not even a name, and sometimes I feel, that seeds of THIS are growing and found their places. And what a Joy then sensing some human caravan(serai/s).
Madhu
PS (-energy) of the evening…
….two e mails lost, I wrote to the SN chat…….
….Arpana proudly as ever ´having the last word´
Trump-style ( denied)…as buisiness is buisiness in the chat-net….constellation…
….Frank very fortunately ´switched in re moderating in terms of energy-work , when that was really needed…and gave me the only laughter of to-day. And thank you, Frank, for this…
– So- NOW
Have a good night everybody with my ´no-news-no-fake´
as I went to the ´home cinema´watching again the movie, called ´PHOENIX´*( Christian Petzold, 2014) which was on offer by ARTE today
And that was a blessing, you might not believe it
and with the Tears of a Clown,
I wish you all well, readers, travellors
Madhu
* very recommendable movie-plot but needs Silence, to get it
@Parmartha
From Italy the vimeo video is ok, but I didn’t check the old one after the attack.
Hug
Newsflash:
Rumour has it that Resort intelligence agencies who have been monitoring SN have accessed Shantam`s webcam and have shocking evidence of him ejaculating to Sannyasnews, which could be used to compromise his campaign to become President of Osho International.
It is believed that they also have video footage of Shantrump urinating on members of the inner circle`s bed whilst cavorting with some Tamil actresses.
Thus far, however, it appears to be an unconfirmed leak.
After reading , Lokesh’s 11 January 2017 at 10:13 am post about Greek Mukta, I thought I could share the photo here, which I received through a message from a sannyasin friend on 3rd Jan, 2017.
Thank you so much, Kavita, sharing that with us all (me).
We are all going on unique trails then…
Here we see grace – at least I see it.
Madhu
Maybe James Dean was right. Better to burn out than fade away. Who knows?
Lokesh,
I think you’re probably right.
Dementia is not a nice way to go, for sure.
I agree, Lokesh. And here is Roger McGough with a poem I have celebrated for many years in the same spirit:
Let me die a youngman’s death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holy water death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death
When I’m 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an all night party
Or when I’m 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber’s chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns burst in
and give me a short back and insides
Or when I’m 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one
Let me die a youngman’s death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death,
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
‘what a nice way to go’ death.
(ROGER MCGOUGH)
That’s a prayer, Parmartha. Not a poem.
Says more and more as we get older. (•̀o•́)ง
Roger Mcgough is doing a few gigs this year. Well worth it if in your area.
On the subject of death:
Do you remember the idea that ‘repression causes cancer’?
It was picked up by sannyasins via Reichian therapists from the work of Wilhelm Reich, who first floated the idea. I heard that at Humaniversity and Osho Leela they are still shouting it at participants in cathartic exercises as encouragement!
I remember believing it myself altho` for quite some years it has struck me as unsubstantiated nonsense (like a lot of Reich`s claims). It definitely found it`s way into the sannyas (and some New Age) credo but is it just more newage sewage?
I decided to do a survey of the causes of death in the Oshonews ‘Voyages’-obit section.
Interestingly, the main cause of death(by far) amongst (western) sannyasins is…cancer. However, there are very, very few deaths attributed to cardio-vascular/heart disease which is very unusual compared to the general public.
My conclusion, for what it`s worth, is that leaping about cathartically, dancing etc. does not protect from cancer at all (that belief is cultish nonsense) but is very good for your heart and cardio.
Hoo hoo hoo!
It really was `the way of the heart`, after all!
PM, I enjoyed that wee ditty.
Only just realised that Michael Palin based this on Michael Barnett…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqaQ_Bhgmrc
But seriously, I`m glad that Barnett cleared up the misperception that it was a cult and made clear that it was, in fact, Voodoo!
@ Frank
“Michael Palin based this on Michael Barnett.”
Is that true, Frank, or is it post true – as in you’ve made it up?
Arps,
Yes,in the post-truth world of fake news, it is very important to know what`s what and what`s not and whatnot.
I was at the Body Centre (the Osho meditation centre in London) in the 80s. I was just pulling on my underwear after doing dynamic when I heard two familiar voices next to me. It was Michael Palin and Terry Jones, who had come in for a game of squash. They were terribly posh. I remember them wittering on about house-prices and how poor old so-and-so had to sell his to pay off the wife`s divorce etc. etc….
Fully clothed now, I knew I had to ask Michael Palin the question that had been burning inside me for years:
“Mike, you know that bit where you did the boring prophet in Life Of Brian – who did you base it on?”
He looked sheepishly at the at the ground and shuffled uncomfortably for a moment before answering: “It`s a bit embarrassing, actually, but er…it was one of your lot.”
“Oh, who was that?”
“You know that bloke waving his arms around in the video. Funny thing”, he continued, “was that I also saw him down at the Arsenal, dressed from head to toe in red one Saturday afternoon and waving his arms around there, too – people thought he must be out of his mind. I think he must have been doing some catharsis, as he waded into Peter Cook shouting, “Who are you calling c..t,You f…ing f…ing c..t?”
“Wow, heavy”, I mumbled, genuinely shocked by the cultish behaviour of such a great therapist.
“Btw, Mike”, I continued, “have you ever been round the world in 80 days?”
“No, I`ve never thought about it, actually”
“You should check it out”,I said, “It`s just a hunch but I feel it could be good for you.”
“Bye.”
I put my mala on and went out to meet the day….
Frank,
What an amazing story. How could I possibly doubt the veracity of the tale?
Curiously enough, I did dynamic a few times at the body shop, but can’t say I recall you being around – not that I’m doubting you were, mind you.
@Kavita
Thank you.
“…drinking a wine of paradox, looking into what can’t be seen flying into the empty sky vanishing….”
Ciao, Ma Mukta!