ACTIVE OSHO MEDITATIONS WORKSHOP

Watching about life on Netflix doesn't mean you understand life

Many people’s only knowledge of Osho is from the Netflix documentary “Wild, Wild Country.” In that documentary you hear Osho speak for only about 10-seconds in the whole documentary. The rest was both critics and lovers talking about the drama that occurred at his ranch in Oregon that eventually led to it being raided by the FBI and his arrest.

This is like a book where there is a single line attributed to Jesus followed by 1000-pages of commentary; you’re not really hearing about the master but more about how people interpret the master. It is possibly still valuable but not from the horse’s mouth itself but instead tainted through the egos of others; like drinking fine wine filtered through a dirty gym sock. But enough about the Bible.

Back when you could respond to Amazon reviews, I responded to a harsh review of the book Babaji and the 18 Siddha Tradition by Marshall Govindan. The review was less about the book itself but closer to one of those one-star reviews that say, “The shipping was late and the book arrived damaged.”

The critic said Govindan was not a legitimate lineage holder in Babaji’s Kriya Yoga because Govindan didn’t come from a particular leg of Kriya Yoga:

Babaji —> Lahari Mahasaya —> Sri Yukeshwar —> Paramahansa Yogananda

This is like saying to St. Paul, “You are a fraud because you didn’t come through the lineage of Jesus through his disciples.” In Govindan’s case, he studied for decades under an Indian teacher who was supposedly a direct student of Babaji. I remember how our group rose up in apt attention when he told the story about how Babaji came to him directly in the Astral Plane and gave him the go-ahead to teach.

I responded to this person’s comment. “I have read this book. I have also had three initiations in Babaji’s Kriya Yoga with Govindan; taken a 500-hour teacher training in Babaji’s Kriya Hatha Yoga under his tutelage; went on two spiritual pilgrimages to India led by him and have found a lot of value in doing the practices he disseminates. I have also had communications with him over the years and he has been very generous in his responses.”

To be clear, I don’t agree with everything Govindan has said and done. But I am guessing I certainly have a better sense of the man and understanding of the teachings than this critic, who I’m guessing probably didn’t even read the book as he acted like a Hollywood actor at the Oscars giving an acceptance speech, who thinks that because they can read lines they memorized from a script and emote on cue that anyone gives a shit what they think about politics.

Regarding Osho, from the first book I read of his I found someone who spoke directly to my heart. I’ve taken an initiation called sannyas at his ashram in India in 2006, where I was doing up to 10 1/2 hours of meditation a day, as well as from one of Osho’s former students in Queens, New York; I went back to his ashram in India in 2016; I’ve read about 40 books by him and an additional twelve consisting of an even split of detractors and lovers; I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of discourses by him; I’ve done many of his meditations over the years; I’ve gone to multiple weekend and day gatherings, as well as attended online gatherings inspired by his teachings and meditations.

I certainly have more of a sense of Osho than someone whose knowledge of Osho is that they watched a Netflix docu-series. I’m a lover but, like with Govindan, I don’t agree with everything he’s ever said or done. If you agree with everything another person says, either you’re in a cult or trying to get laid. This is why I read from his distractors as well, not to disprove them but to widen my perspective of the man, the mystic, how he excelled and where he may have fallen short. When you love someone, you set them free…free, free, set them free…from needing to be your ideal of “perfection.” And I love Osho.

The one thing about Osho that is hard for anyone to dispute is that he was an original. His style was uniquely his, which included sprinkling dirty jokes into his discourses that were always relevant to the teaching. His disciples also gave him Rolls Royces as gifts, which at its maximum accumulated up to ninety-four. While he never asked for these gifts, he knew that it would have his detractors in the media speak loudly against him—and thus drive more people to him! Life to him was a cosmic joke and he didn’t take anything, including himself, seriously.

A Christian teaches from the Bible. A Muslim teaches from the Quran. A Hindu teaches from the Bhagavad Gita. A unique thing about Osho was how he was able to teach from all different spiritual traditions, teachers and paths, offering teachings that cut deeper and expressed in a way that was out of the box of constraints that these traditions imposed. He could also tie in connections and deeper wisdom into teachings from many different books and philosophies into something coherent.

Unlike other teachers and traditions, he allowed sexuality to be expressed however it chose to at the ashram, feeling that repression of sex was actually the reason people were stuck in the visceral instead of transcending, as his most famous book was called, to go From Sex to Samadhi.

He created original meditations that involved being active—dancing, shouting, speaking gibberish—before connecting to silence, saying that the modern Western man doesn’t have the lifestyle, mind or ability of an Eastern man 2000 years ago to sit and immediately connect to their silence.

While I’m a lover of Osho, that doesn’t mean I want to convert anyone to wearing maroon robes and dancing joyfully praising him. But I do want to share an EXPERIENCE with you of active meditation that will help bring you to more of a discovery of Who You Are, which is much more important than knowing who Osho is.

On Saturday, April 6, I will be offering an Osho Active Meditation Workshop where I will be giving three shorter meditations inspired by Osho and my own connection to Inspiration, as well as one longer meditation of Osho’s. There will be a limit of 8-people so please sign-up ASAP!

https://www.wellnessliving.com/rs/event/mastanihc?k_class=648507

“Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived.”

-Osho