The Osho Experience...Part One

I’m now into my third week here, and I have to say it’s been eventful! I was imagining a place of peace and tranquility and picturing how I would be a big ol’ bundle of Zen nothingness inside 24 hours. Wrong!

There is an immense peace here, especially if you are coming from elsewhere in India, or even just from downtown Pune. Once inside the gates and amongst the beautiful gardens with gorgeous statues of the Buddha dotted about, it is very easy to forget where in the world you are.

Now that I am on the new programme I am getting a chance to really experience the peace, and it’s blinking hard! My tendency to fill up my days with all manner of distractions has meant that I am still fighting with the practice of ‘doing nothing consciously’. I guess it’ll take time, but in the meantime what a blast it’s been! Good and bad.

When I arrived I was a bit shell shocked to be honest, the mad week running around Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, followed by a fairly frantic attempt to acquaint myself with the city of Pune in about 24 hours, meant that I’d been experiencing a sensory overload when I walked through the gates.

This was topped up as I was walked through the procedure of registering, being shown to my room, where the laundry was, what my timetable was, etc., etc. The room was better than I expected. I really was imaging a sparse little cell and while it wasn’t too far removed from that it was kinda cute. I was up in the attic with a single bed that was the smallest bed I’d slept in since I was about four years old, and I shared three loos and four shower stalls with about 10 other people. Bit of a shock, but not earth-shattering. I amazed myself by how not a big deal this was.

The food wasn’t a surprise, I knew it was vegetarian. The surprise has been that I don’t miss meat at all! Ever since my by-pass I’d cut back immensely on my meat intake because digesting it is difficult, but apart from half a chicken panini when I played hooky for an afternoon last week, I’ve had no meat or fish since 10 Feb and I really don’t crave it at all. My portions have significantly reduced too, before I came to India my weight was creeping back up, slowly but still going the wrong way on the scales. I gained a couple of stones back when I gave up smoking, and another one was making it’s presence felt when I took out my winter clothes this time. There’s no weighing scales here in paradise, but the fact that all of my “civvy” clothes are hanging on me, and I’ve gone up three notches on the belt I bought in Kuala Lumpur last October tells me I’m losing it again. Those things and the fact that there were scales in the hotel I stayed in before I came into the commune. On those I’d already lost nine pounds since leaving London, and I was eating lots outside here!

I was given some time to get my bearings and as I walked around I was aware of what was missing, the hustle and bustle of everyday life, the cars, the incessant pomping of horns that is surely the national sound of India, all gone.

The next day I was given an orientation talk about the Work as Meditation programme and I was all for it. I got the concept, I saw how it could be put into practice both in here and outside in the real world, it made sense. Now I’ve done a whole separate post about my experience with the work part of this, so I won’t go into it here. Suffice to say, in 20 years nothing’s changed, the corporate world still isn’t for me.

Outside of work there’s been some amazing things here. The sound of the birds singing all day long, the bright green parakeets who are as common as pigeons here, the two new commune members, a pair of glorious peacocks, one of whom has fallen in love with the rooster alarm call that sounds every hour here. It took me a couple of days to realise the rooster was on tape, I wonder how long it will take the peacock? I love hearing him respond to it! They come and sniff about for scraps in the Zorba restaurant and they are so haughty that when you give them a few crumbs they look at you like you should’ve served them on a silver platter. It’s awesome to be able to study them so close up, the colours are amazing.

The lush greenery and the almost constant sound of falling water, add to the Zen quality of the place, the architecture is pretty fabulous too. The Osho Basho where they house the gym, lockers and changing rooms & showers for the pool wouldn’t look out of place at Chiva Som or somewhere! The pool itself is wonderful, there’s no chlorine used but the water is crisp and clear and fresh. It’s not pool shaped eg rectangular, it’s like a lake and it’s a joy to swim in. As the time passes and the temperatures creep up to an expected 45C before I leave here, something tells me that will be where I do most of my meditations!

Speaking of which, there are so many different kinds of meditation available, most of which take place inside the enormous Meditation Hall which is a huge black marble pyramid on the other side of the campus. It’s so cool and quiet in there, the perfect space to begin to let go of the outside world.

The meditations begin at 6am with Dynamic Meditation, which if I were to try and explain would just sound bonkers. I did it for seven days in a row and apart from a pair of severely swollen knees, I also gained some clarity of thought. Enough to change programmes at least! There’s something rather wonderful about being up at that time of the day too.

From then on there’s almost constant meditations taking place in there, most last an hour and there’s a 15 minute turn around time - the place is organised a bit like The Pleasance in Edinburgh only with a few more comedians! Of the ones I have tried I love Vipassana and Kundalini most. They’re pretty much opposites of each other but work really well. I have gotten further with my meditation in here in 19 days than I did in seven years of sitting in front of my shrine at home!

Every evening at 6.30 we got for the Evening Meeting. There’s a bit of dancing to a live band most nights. Dancing is very big here. When I first started I was doing a bit of a shoe-gazer shuffle, now I am in full on “hands in the air” mode at least three times a day! It sure loosens me up.

Then we sit for about 15 minutes where there’s some silence and some amazing Indian music, the two alternate. Most nights I count the breaths in this part. At 7pm they show a video of Osho giving a talk. The structure is very loose and the idea is that if you try and sit in silence your mind will wander all over the place (ain’t that the truth!) but when you listen to Osho speaking in that very peculiar way of his - which I am told is deliberate - you are aware, your mind is focussed on the here and now. It works too. Apart from a couple of nights when I was still doing the work and was so tired I fell asleep, I am more present during his talks than I’ve ever been anywhere, at any time!

There’s even meditations at 9.30 at night but I have yet to take part in any of those due to being knackered, however I plan to hit at least one of them in the next couple of nights.

Some flowers for my new "deluxe" room. Even in a cut down water bottle roses are beautiful!