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Published: February 17th 2009
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Be surprised!
Are you ready to be surprised? Beloved friends,
I have decided the time is ripe for me to begin my scribblings, to rewind a little to the start of my time here in India and bring you up to speed. I shall now begin.
I arrived in Mumbai on January 8th and as I emerged from the airport triumphantly clutching my tardy luggage I was relieved to see through the glass my name brandished aloft in the midst of a madding crowd. I myself was here to meet me in an instant reminiscent of the teachings of Mr Kohrogi, the zen master in whose company I had the pleasure of spending a weekend in Glasgow not so long ago. But more of zen masters in due course. I made my way into the dazzling sunlight, led by my taxidriver. Suddenly the tumult, the throng, the mingling, the grace, the quasi miraculous manner in which traffic in India blends hornfully, noisily, with a total absence of fear and road rage. Immediately I relinquished my ordinary highway sensibilities, seatbelts? helmets? bah humbug! and began to relish the chaos of the Mumbai traffic. After all I was in a taxi, not in an opensided rickshaw cosied up next to a bus exhaust, not yet anyway...
Some three hours later I arrived at the front gate of Osho International to be met by fellow Bristol tantrika Malika. Existence had decreed it thus and I was soon ensconced in a concrete cell with a hard narrow bed and a slab of a pillow hmmmm. In the coming days I went through the necessary formalities to be admitted to the Osho meditation resort, the cash, the aids test, the robes, the vouchers, we moved to new accommodation in a dingy room only slightly better than the last and with a neighbour with a fine pair of lungs and a propensity for talking at length late at night and early in the morning as well as a liking for action movies. Felt like I was in bed with a bunch of cowboys, hmmm.
Meanwhile I enrolled for Mystic Rose, a 3 week process devised by Osho in which participants spend the first seven days laughing for 3 hours, the second 7 days crying for 3 hours and the third 7 days sitting in silent meditation for 3 hours, just being a witness. It's an intense process designed to spring clean the being and free up the emotional expression, magnified by the numerological significance of the numbers three, seven and twenty one. I had decided it was time to look at my despair instead of running away from it and this was my main motivation in choosing to take the course. The process was led by Veetmano, a biblical, bearded, laughing buddha of a man who laughed heartily through his very toes, assisted by the infectious Shakti and assistants. Laughing we find ourselves in pure leela, playfulness, joyfulness, spontaneity, ecstasy. We laugh alone or with other crazy babies and as I gave myself over fully to the experience I felt myself open up as a channel to source. Not that it was all non-stop ecstasy, in the first day or two my mind would come in, judging, comparing, dictating. Yet when we truly give ourselves to our laughter or weeping no mind is there.
Weeping, we descend more deeply into our core, into this journey of self exploration, excavating hidden grief, mining our melancholy, unearthing our sadness, revealing our agony,and delving deep into our despair and misery. When drawn we could cry with another and in Veetmano's arms I drew much comfort from his total acceptance and loving holding of the child within. On day 7 of the weeping as the 3 hours drew to a close, he and his assistants gently approached participants bearing for each one of us a red rose. Mine lay velvety against my skin and my eyes were filled with beauty, freshness and the realization 'Ah, so this is the Mystic Rose!'.
On this journey I was reminded of the many different types of laughter and tears; truly tears are a miraculous healing substance and I am astonished by their sudden appearance, their salty blessing anointing my cheeks...And finally we sit just watching, watching our patterns, tendencies, our thoughts. Realizations - I had a few. For instance I became acutely aware of my tendency to fight with my mind both when meditating and in everyday life. The ego fights with others, sits in judgement and I came to the realization at quite a profound level that this illusion of separation is both tiring and totally futile. I came out of the process naked, raw, bringing with me the small but steady flame of awareness. Om shanti.
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Hana
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Blessings darling!
How wonderfull Tara darling to hear of your red nosed mystikal adventures! Thank you for sharing of these magical moments through your gift of words, have more wonderfull non-times, blessings and much love from Hana your serpent sister:) XXXXXX