Day # 13 of “A.O.Y. 21 Day Immersion”… from “Osteopathy” to “Osteo-awareness” to “Buddha-bones”

Hello Beloved Friend,

I hope you are enjoying this ARUN/ OSHO Yoga 21 Day Immersion… i am absolutely LOVING IT!   I enjoy sharing with you and hearing your feedbacks, but the more precious gift for me is realizing how many secrets Osho has shared with me { and the world } over all of these years, and how these seeds have unveiled mysteries inside of my Energy-field that continue to flower every day… i feel truly blessed to walk this “long and winding road”… it’s the pathless path to deeper love and awareness!

Let me relate a little personal/ Osho history and background of how and why i came to call what we are sharing and teaching in ARUN,  “Buddha-Bones”… it’s perhaps what i love most about Yoga and Conscious Touching.

{ let me say it now… this will be a long song… don’t get upset with me, please!  You can leave it until the right time, if it is too much for you now… i want to be total with this ! }.

In August of 1976, i had already been in Pune for 2 months.  I went to Osho’s Discourse in the mornings, did the monthly Meditation Camps, a few groups, enjoyed being around the Ashram, and 4 days a week i went to the Yoga School of B.K.S. Iyengar, which was also in Pune { Iyengar is still there, by the way.  Maybe i will tell stories about my time with him another time}.  In answer to a question of mine, Osho said i could begin teaching Yoga in his Ashram, because at that time, there were no classes happening there… this was quite a humbling situation for me.  I knew that i loved Yoga, and i had done Yoga asanas 1-2 hours daily for 3 years, and i had taught classes back in San Diego at Pujari’s Rajneesh Yoga Institute, but i was also clear that i was just a 24 year old kid, and many of the things i had heard Osho say about Yoga were so far beyond my own experience, it was ridiculous!  2 days before the starting day, i received a telegram {some of you have probably never seen a telegram! } It was from my Father in California.  The telegram said that my Mother had unexpectedly died the day before. I remember reading it just on the steps in front of Krishna House, while a gentle monsoon rain was falling.  This was such a bizarre moment for me… even though i had decided to stay in Pune “forever”, i instantly knew i should return home to be with my family.  So i went to Laxmi and told her, and she told me to come that night to see Osho.  I won’t tell everything, but that meeting with Osho was unbelievably deep for me… he said not to worry, my mother was fine… that death is not what we think it is, and that i should share yoga and meditation back in California, and come back when the time is right. “Help my people there, and don’t worry, you can never leave me”.

So i went back to live at Geetam Ashram, the big Osho Center in the High Desert outside of L.A. { I had found and sold Geetam to sannyasins as my last Real Estate transaction, earlier that year}.  Just after visiting my mother’s grave and being with my family a bit, i did a basic and advanced training in Postural Integration, and began teaching “Rajneesh Neo-Yoga” classes and giving sessions at Geetam.  This was a magical time… there were about 25 sannyasins living full time there, and on weekends and holidays and Full Moons, we would be up to a 100 people.  1000’s of people came to Osho through Geetam.  During this time, i started “catching up” and studying what Osho had said about Yoga and Tantra.

This small teaching from “THE TANTRA BOOK OF THE SECRETS is “pure gold” for anyone interested in learning about Touch, Inner Visualization, Yoga, Health, or Meditation!  EVERY TIME  I read it, it is new.  Remember, Osho gave these talks in 1973!  It taught me something that is still expanding inside of me.

Osho:

“Shiva says: ‘PLACE YOUR WHOLE ATTENTION IN THE NERVE, DELICATE AS THE LOTUS THREAD, IN THE CENTER OF YOUR SPINAL COLUMN. IN SUCH BE TRANSFORMED’.

If you can, concentrate on the spinal column, and then on a thread in the middle of it — on a very delicate nerve like a lotus thread running through it. Concentrate on it, and this very concentration throws you to your center. Why?
The spinal column is the base of your whole body structure. Everything is joined to it. Really, your brain is nothing but one pole of your spinal column. Physiologists say it is nothing but a spinal column growth; your brain is really a growth of your spinal column.

Your spine is connected with your whole body — everything is connected to it. That is why it is called the spine, the base. In this spine there is really a thread-like thing, but physiology will not say anything about it because it is not material. In this spine, just in the middle, there is a silver cord — a very delicate nerve. It is not really a nerve in the physiological sense. You cannot operate and find it; it will not be found there.
But in deep meditation it is seen. It is there; it is non-material. It is energy, not matter. And really, that energy cord in your spinal column is your life. Through that you are related to the invisible existence, and through that also you are related to the visible. That is the bridge between the invisible and the visible. Through that thread you are related to the body, and through that thread also you are related to your soul.
First, visualize the spine. At first you will feel very strange, you will be able to visualize it, but as an imagination. And if you go on endeavoring, then it will not be just your imagination. You will become capable of seeing your spinal column.

“I was working with a seeker on this technique. I gave him a picture of the body structure to concentrate upon so that he would begin to feel how the spinal column can be visualized inside. Then he started. Within a week he came and said, “This is very strange. I tried to see the picture you gave me, but many times that picture disappeared and I saw a different spine. I t is not exactly like the picture you gave to me.”
So I told him, “Now you are on the right path. Forget that picture completely, and go on seeing the spine that has become visible to you.”
Man can see his own body structure from within. We have not tried it because it is very, very fearful, loathsome; because when you see your bones, blood, veins, you become afraid. So really, we have completely blocked our minds from seeing within. We see the body from without, as if someone else is looking at the body. It is just as if you go outside this room and look at it — then you know the outer walls. Come in and look at the house — then you can look at the inner walls. You see your body from outside as if you are somebody else seeing your body. You have not seen your body from inside. We are capable of it, but because of this fear it has become a strange thing.
Indian yoga books say many things about the body which have been found to be exactly right by new scientific research, and science is unable to explain this. How could they know? Surgery and knowledge of the inside of the human body are very recent developments. How could they know of all the nerves, of all the centers, of all the inner structures? They knew even about the latest findings; they have talked about them, they have worked upon them. Yoga has always been aware about all the basic, significant things in the body. But they were not dissecting bodies, so how could they know?
Really, there is another way of looking at your own body — from within. If you can concentrate within, suddenly you begin to see your body — the inner lining of the body. This is good for those who are deeply body-oriented. If you feel yourself a materialist, if you feel yourself to be nothing but body, this technique will be very helpful for you. If you feel yourself to be a body, if you are a believer in Charvak or in Marx, if you believe that man is nothing but a body, this technique will b e very helpful for you. Then go and see the bone structure of man.”

Can you imagine the scene that Osho just related?!?  Osho giving anatomy pictures to a seeker?  And then saying that we can see our bones from inside?  And saying that most people are afraid to see their bodies from inside… how the Spine and Brain are one unity… how Yoga discovered many significant things that modern research is just beginning to understand, just by meditating on the inner life… How your spine is not exactly like anyone else’s spine?}

Now Osho continues… to follow the steps of how we reached to the treasure of “Buddha-bones”, you need to read the words of Osho above and below very mindfully… then some methods of teaching in ARUN will become clear for you also:

“In the old tantra and yoga schools they used many bones.  Even now a tantric will always be found with some bones, with a man’s skull.  Really, that is to help concentration from inside.

First he concentrates on that skull, then he closes his eyes and tries to visualize his own skull.  He goes on trying to see the outer skull inside, and by and by he begins to feel his own skull.  His consciousness begins to be focused.  That outer skull, the concentration on it and the visualization, are just helps. Once you are focused inside, you can move from your toes to your head.  You can move inside — and it is a great universe.  Your small body is a great universe.

This sutra uses the spinal column because within the spinal column there is the thread of life.  This is why there is so much insistence on a straight backbone, because if the backbone is not straight you will not be capable of seeing the inner thread .  It is very delicate, it is very subtle — it is minute.  It is an energy flow.  So if the spinal column is straight, absolutely straight, only then can you have glimpses of that thread.

But our spinal columns are not straight.  Hindus have tried to make everyone’s spinal column straight from the very childhood.  Their ways of sitting, their ways of sleeping, their ways of walking were all based, basically, on a straight spinal column. If the spinal column is not straight, then it is very difficult to see the inner core. It is delicate — and really, it is not material.  It is immaterial; it is a force.  When the spinal column is absolutely straight, that thread-like force is seen easily.

… IN SUCH BE TRANSFORMED. Once you can feel, concentrate and realize this thread, you will be filled with a new light. The light will be coming from your spinal column.  It will spread all over your body; it may even go beyond your body. When it goes beyond, auras are seen.”

So, Osho gave us a clue here… i started bringing my refined inner anatomy knowledge, my Yoga, and my “watching inside” together… as a unity.  No one had ever said that was possible to me before.  During the 1st Stage of Kundalini, for instance, i would visualize my Bones shaking and becoming free… but i would really see them. Or, while doing “the Cobra”, or the “shoulder Stand”, or walking… i would visualize and feel inside with my anatomical eyes… and this changed and opened a whole new experience of meditation and of inner anatomy.

Then, in 1980, through the alchemical magic of working and meditating in Osho’s Multiversity in India, {an authentic “Mystery School”}, comes the next step in finding the inner Treasure of “Buddha-bones”…

From “Osteopathy“ to “Rebalancing“

For 2 years, i lived and worked at Geetam, then i returned to Pune in !978.  Around Osho, there were thousands of people, and everyone has their own story, depending on where they were, and what their focus was while with Osho.  I was always around the “Healing Arts” area of the Ashram, so that is what i know the best.  But with Osho, everything was and is inter-connected and part of an amazing symphony of love and energy.

In 1980, Osho gave us the name “Rebalancing” for our work { instead of Rolfing or Postural Integration}, i was one of the 5 original Rebalancers.  At the same time, Osho again asked me to lead Osho Neo-Yoga classes in Buddha Hall.  I was really ready for both jobs!  This is one interesting quote from Osho about Deep Touch and the Energy Body and Yoga from that time:

“In the West also a few people have come across this phenomenon — Alexander Lowen or other bioenergetic people who have been working on bioenergy. That is prana. They have come to feel that people who are afraid, their chest is tense and they are breathing very shallow breaths. If their breathing can be made deeper, to go and touch the belly, the hara center, then their fear disappears. If their musculature can be relaxed, as it is done in Rolfing…. Ida Rolf has invented one of the most beautiful methods to change the inner structure of the body. Because if you have been breathing wrongly for many years, you have developed a musculature, and that musculature will be in the way and will not allow you to rightly breathe or deeply breathe. And even if you remember for a few seconds — you will breathe deeply — again when you are engaged in your work you will start breathing shallow chest breathings. The musculature has to be changed. Once the musculature is changed, the fear disappears and the tension disappears. Rolfing is tremendously helpful; but the working is on pranamaya kosha , the second — bioplasma body, bioenergy body, chi body, or whatsoever you want to call it.”

When Osho was in the Body, in his Healing Arts Academy, we all learned and shared with each other.  One great gift i was given during this time was a 3 hour class in “Osteopathy” once a week for 10 weeks, taught by Shiva, a 2nd generation Scottish osteopath, named Shiva.  Osteopathy was discovered by Andrew Still, who i mentioned yesterday.  While Still was alive, in the late 1800’s until 1920, he started a movement in America that is very different, but has some similarities to the movement that happened around Osho… Osteopathy was an utter rebellion against the Medical Profession. It was a very inspired spiritual vision of the Human Body, and how it could be kept healthy without drugs.  Andrew Still was a scientist and a mystic.  In 1980, a deep appreciation for this Man was stirred within me.  He was a VERY TOTAL AND COURAGEOUS MAN!   “The old Doctor” was famous for “not teaching specific treatments”… he would insist on his students understanding the inner workings themselves.  I think it can deepen your own vision to tune into him…

This is Dr Still addressing his students in 1904:

Philosophy of Osteopathy, by Dr Andrew Taylor Still:

“The philosophy of manipulations is based upon an absolute knowledge of the form and function of all bones belonging to the bony framework of the human body.  We must know the position and purpose of each bone and be thoroughly acquainted with each of its articulations.  Simply to know that our heads rest upon the atlas and axis, that we have 7 bones in the neck, 12 in the dorsal region and 5 in the lumbar is of little use.  We must have a perfect image of the normal articulations of the bone or bones that we wish to adjust.  We must be critically certain that we know all articulations of the bones in the whole system.  We must know how the blood is supplied and when that arterial blood has done its work we must know how it returns and what would be an obstruction that would prevent its return.  Without this information our opinion as to cause of variations from the perfectly healthy condition is without foundation, for our mechanical detection has failed to acquaint our minds  with the cause that produces the abnormal condition in a perfectly healthy system.  A normal, clear image of the form and function of all parts of the body must be seen by the mind’s eye, or our work will condemn us.

Dr Andrew T. Still, the founder of “Osteopathy” feeling and meditating with the Femur… over 100 years ago

Andrew Still continues…

“For 35 years I have labored to acquaint myself with the exact form of every bone that belongs to the framework of man’s whole body.  I have given attention not only to the form of each bone but also to why it is different in form and action from all other bones; to its exact location and articulation so that when it is removed from its place I know just where it belongs and how to take it and place it in the position that the builder intended for it.  For days, months and years, and many of them, I have examined and criticized the normal and the abnormal position of all bones of the whole system.  By this extensive study I have formed in my head a perpetual image of every articulation in the framework of the human body.”

I have often thought of and tried to sense what Still was trying to convey by calling his vision of total health “Osteopathy”.  He was a Doctor, and really fighting against the powerful Medical Profession. He was saying, that if you can put all the bones in their “proper place”, and keep all the blood supply and nerves to and from each bone flowing without restriction, then you will have no illness in the Body, and it will never help to fight disease with drugs.  I respect his understanding, and think that to a certain extent, that Still is correct.  But Osteopathy itself, after his death, has gone far away from his vision and experiential wisdom.  And, any name or system with the word “pathy” in it, was not how i prefer to reason.  I think he did a great work, and he definitely healed many diseases, and i agree with him on many points.  But i also think that an even higher synthesis is possible…

Andrew Still’s premise is a very evolved understanding, and worth experimenting with… that it is possible to see each bone as an individual unique member, with its special reason for being where it is.. and it is possible to minutely see each surface of each bone.  And if you can see each bone, and keep all the blood and nerves flowing freeing around them, then you will experience health.  So, for many years, i have been watching the skeleton with my heart open, listening to it, talking to it… seeing the complexity of relationships between the 226 bones.  This was a very big part of Osho Rebalancing… deeply understanding the Body Structure, and how to help it be in its natural position.  Andrew Still felt that “Osteo” was the key… This led me to the next step… “Osteo Awareness”.

I began playing with the words “Osteo-awareness”- not “osteopathy”.  Taking the cue from Osho and Buddha that “awareness brings transformation”, i started seeing that clearly that the essential health of Body, Mind, and Spirit is not dependent on the “position of each part”… what is most important is the “love and awareness” of each part.  Meeting Anasha, and learning from her about deep relaxation, let-go, and the “Breath of Meditation” led us to the next step…

“Buddha-bones” or Conscious Breathing Bones

This is very important for ARUN/ OSHO Yoga:

Use the time while moving your body in the different asanas to “feel in” with each bone; to “think in” with each bone; to “be in” each bone… EVERY BONE has a top {north} part; bottom part {south}; east part {right}; west part {left}; front; back; inside; outer walls; “boneskin” {the periosteum, where the highest concentration of sensory nerves are located}… EACH BONE has one of more articulations… in the articulations {or joints} there are “proprio-ceptor” nerves.  EACH BONE (with the exception of “Talus” in center of ankle} has muscles attaching to it that pull/ move it in various directions relative to its neighbors.  EACH BONE is a valuable part of the Energy-field.  As you stay in the various stretches, or when you’re walking, or sitting, or lying down… see your Bones.  The deeper and more often you see your bones, the more conscious they will become.  It is as if you are “coating them”, or “painting your bones” with your love and awareness.  There comes a moment when you are not “trying to see your bones”… YOU ACTUALLY SEE YOUR BONES!  THIS SEEING BRINGS YOU 2 THINGS SIMULTANEOUSLY…  YOU ARE “IN YOUR BONES”, BUT ALSO YOU ARE DIS-IDENTIFIED WITH THEM AT THE SAME TIME!

This deep love and awareness with detached witnessing of the Bones is something that is very hard to talk about… I sense that it is a Natural Harmony { ARmonia UNiversal, or “ARUN” } that is very healing, and from this space, many beautiful energies become available.  I like to call this inner awareness “Buddha-bones”.  We will leave it here for now…

Feel many good vibrations flowing your way… with love,
Anubuddha