Day # 21 of “A.O.Y. 21 Day Immersion”… “Thank you Osho, for being Enlightened”

Osho, Thank-you for being Enlightened!

Hi Beloved Friend,

23 years today, March 21st, 1988, i was on Osho’s balcony in Pune… waiting for him to come for our morning “touching meditation”.  When he came in, he namasted me, with a beaming smile radiating from deep inside.  I felt touched to the core.  He removed his lunghi { he always came in bare-chested}.   We had been having daily sessions for the previous 7 weeks, and we were really inter-connected in the journey… his body was having strange pains in many places, ever since his time in custody in America 3 years before… and he always responded well to our sessions.  Although, the pains and strange sensations would keep traveling around his Energy-Field.  But i never once had the feeling that he was “suffering”… he was amazing in how dis-indentified he was of his body, and absolutely present and sensitive at the same time.  Anyway, after inquiring how he was feeling today, i asked him to lie down face up.  I put my hands under neck, careful not to pull his beard or long hairs.  After a few minutes of touching, i paused and said, with tears in my eyes… “Osho, thank you for being enlightened.  You have given us all so much, i could never express it.”

Here, you can read an article that i wrote for a Spanish magazine in Madrid, on the 50th anniversary of Osho’s Enlightenment… i feel that it is a very beautiful touch for our “21st Day of ARUN/ OSHO Yoga 21 Day Immersion”.  And we will extend our Yoga another week, to give beautiful energy to the “Green Smoothie Cleanse & Detox” that we begin today with Anasha… there are a number of things that i still want to add to our “Song for Yoga”.

Have a beautiful Spring Equinox, enjoying “our Enlightenment Day”.

This year is the 50-year cycle of this modern day, Zen Master’s Enlightenment. In the fields of Human Potential, Psychology, Meditation, Healing, Art, Music, Conscious sex, and Creativity, Osho has been last centuries’ most profound, illuminating presence. Osho’s influence and contributions to the present age have infiltrated everywhere. In major and minor cities throughout the world, you will find many people working with people, using Osho’s methods, active meditations, and insights into natural living. Also world-wide, you will find that Osho’s sannyasins (disciples) are deeply immersed in the “New Age” music stream – in fact, some of the best musicians are meditating, using Osho’s methods and ways of raising consciousness.

After his enlightenment , in the 1960’s and early 70’s, Osho was conducting “Dynamic Meditation Camps” for thousands of people, throughout India. His teaching was, and is, to learn how to use your physical body ‘as a door’ to go ‘inside’, and to reconnect with your inner peace and silence; which is cuurrently bound up in physical, mental, and emotional tension.  This “going-in” enables you to live life at its fullest, without anxiety and unnecessary tension.

Osho’s basic message is ‘love’. Love of the Body, love of oneself, of other people, animals, nature.  Love and respect for all that existence has to offer us.  Re-emphasizing the understanding of Gautama the Buddha, Osho teaches us to experience: “This very body, the Buddha…This very place, the Lotus Paradise.” Obviously, living with such love and awareness needs “a totally new kind of education”!

In a Meditation Camp at Mount Abu, India, in 1970, Osho shared keys to more ‘conscious living’. He explains the difference between living from your intrinsic wisdom, or ‘knowing’, and living out of your mind.  Feel, and try to understand what he is saying.  Sense how it can apply to different areas of your life.  (I know it has transformed my life!)

“‘Knowing‘ is always spontaneous, whereas all beliefs are always to past knowledge, to memory.  When you borrow from your memory, you are not in the moment of knowing.  One must not borrow from anyone, not even from one’s own past.  One must live moment to moment, and live in such a way that everything which comes to you becomes part of your knowing.

“If I look at you, my look can be knowing only if my memory is not in between. If I am looking at you through my memory of our past meetings,then I am not really looking at you.  But if I can look at you without the burden of the past, the look becomes meditative.  If I can touch you without the burden of any experience that my hand has known in the past, the touch becomes meditative.

Everything that is innocently spontaneous becomes meditative

“The third point that I would like to stress is that a meditative mind lives ‘moment to moment’.  It does not accumulate, it is always in the now, receptive to each moment as it comes.”   Osho

This approach to understanding our natural potentials, needless to say, is not how our children are taught in our education systems.  Quite the contrary!  Our education, unfortunately, basically consists of learning “how to be tense”. We teach through competition…how to criticize; how to analyse; how to accumulate useless information; how to always compare ourselves to others; in short, how to live in fear and anxiety.

Anyone who enters into their own body-mind-consciousness without preconceived conclusions, is in for many surprises. “Watching inside” as a neutral witness, transforms the whole experience we call “Being alive”. The conditions you need to fulfill in order to “watch inside neutrally”, are not as easy as they first sound.  Your own education has not yet provided you training in “relaxed, non-critical observance of moment-to-moment activities”.

ARUN “Living Brain” Exercise: Looking meditatively

Our vision, (physical and metaphorical), is clouded by our past and our prejudices.  We don’t ‘look’ in the way Osho is indicating.  And, our eyes are directly filtered by our mind.  There is much tension, worry, and mistrust related to our eyes.  You can learn to become more conscious of your eyes and “to look” meditatively.

Sometimes, when you have 10-20 minutes to be with yourself, just close your eyes a moment, breathing like you do at the ocean.   Simply, relax your breathing system. Allow one slow, full breath into your lungs; then one into your heart center; and then one into your hara (or belly) center. Each time, let the air out consciously, directing your muscles to let go and soften.  Let your watching be inside and alert.  Notice the center of your spine from your sacrum through to your neck and head, and allow it to lengthen “just a little” with your inhalation…

Now, internally, allow your awareness to shift to the “back part” of your head and brain, where the “relaxation center” lives.  Take your time and allow the back of your brain to become the “center point” of your interest.  Call to it, feel it, and become receptive to its energy, size, and constant contributions to your well-being.  Good…

When you are ready, shift your awareness to your eyes.  Feel them resting and living inside their homes. Sense your eyes from within.  Gently, place the palms of your hands over each eye, tuning into them through the touch. Then, talk to your eyes; tell them you want to connect deeper with them.  Persuade the tiny muscles surrounding your eyes: “Relax…there is nothing to fear right now… I am here to take care…you can relax”. And, you will be surprised!   Just if you approach any part of your body lovingly, it listens to you.  It follows you.  It is your body!

After allowing this inner dialogue 3 times, continue “palming” your eyes at least 2 minutes,inviting them to expand and to let go of any tension.  Then, remove your hands, and just feel the effects for a few moments… Now, begin to play with the idea of energy, or light flowing freely from the center of your left eye; to the center of your right eye; to the top  of your forehead. (An imagined vertical “triangle” of energy swirling from point to point). Although the eyes are one of the most serious and fearful parts of our energy field, this is not a serious exercise!  Do it about 12 times in each direction.  Then rest, with unfocused awareness, and feel your eyes just “being there”- relaxed and alive.  Wait a minute and then form a different “inner anatomy triangle” (there are many in the human energy field);  eyes connected with the back of your brain. Let your consciousness travel from your left eye, to the right eye, to the back of your brain, to left eye, etc. for 12 “triangles”.  Rest a moment and then reverse for 12 triangles.

Now, relax, breathing into belly, and then when you are ready, open your eyes slowly and let your vision be fresh.  Osho says: “If I can look at you without any burden of the past, the look becomes meditative”.   Slowly, you will get the knack of it, and many enhancements and openings will happen for you.

“Dancing Hands” Meditation

This is one of the most beautiful and direct ways to help your hands and touch become more conscious.  Sometimes, either sitting or standing with eyes closed, let your hands “really dance’!  Any spontaneous and creative movement is encouraged. Play with all the possibilities of movement and energy flowing through your hands…in new and fluid ways…slow or fast.  Forget everything else and flood your hands with love and awareness, while they move spontaneously.

Don’t worry if you do it “right” – they are your hands dancing!  Stay fluid…let each hand moves as it likes. Be conscious and enjoy.  After some time (10-15 min. is best), stop the movements, and look inside without any focus, without moving, for at least 5 min.

You will be surprised at the beneficial effect this simple meditation has in all your daily activities!

You will touch with more sensitivity and presence.  As there is a “cross-connection” between the hands and the cerebral hemispheres of the brain, it can be very helpful in times when our minds are “overloaded”, tense, worried, or when we can not sleep at night.  It also opens your heart and sensitivity.  Try it!

Osho says: “If I can touch you without the burden of any experience my hand has known in the past, the touch becomes meditative”.

Everything that is innocently spontaneous becomes meditative.

“The third point that I would like to stress is that a meditative mind lives ‘moment to moment’.  It does not accumulate, it is always in the now, receptive to each moment as it comes.”   Osho

This is the essence of “ARUN/ OSHO Yoga“, as well as ARUN Conscious Touch. We will be sharing more practical “insights” in the coming days.  Keep taking a little time each day “just for you”… you deserve all the love and attention!

So, “thank-you Osho, for being enlightened”.  When I said those words to Osho 15 years ago during a massage on his balcony in India, he opened his eyes, looked at me, smiled from deep inside, and then closed his eyes again.

May we all realize our enlightenment… Namaste friends,
Anubuddha