OSHO Resort - Part I

Leaving Bombay:
Two days ago I departed Bombay east to Pune where the famous OSHO retreat center is located. As my departures and arrivals have proved, they are always full of experiences. I said good-bye to the "girls" the Polish Girls, Edyta and Magda and went to the train station. It was sad to say good-bye to them. I had a great time as both of them are differently wonderful. Who knows they may come to Brazil next year.

I arrived at the train station and quickly discovered that no trains were available right away and that I would have to wait for several hours. After a good tip for a man who was helping some wealthier travelers I rushed downstairs to have my first LOCAL train experience. I was to go to Dadar where I would catch a bus to Pune. First I could not find the local ticket seller, when I did he spoke no English. So I heard a guy say Dadar, give the attendant R10 and did the same. Then, I ran after the guy and followed him throughout the station. He hoped on a train, and I hoped on a train. The train was surprisingly nice since it was not rush hour when people apparently hang out the window and such. I decided to stand next to the door just in case I saw Dadar and had to jump out. A few stops passed the train started to fill up. In India, like nowhere I have been, the concept of WAIT FOR PEOPLE TO GET OFF, then GET ON is TOTALLY LOST. So, this amounts to a mad rush of pushing and pulling and bumping and a great hope that you will get out in time (15 secs). I watched this carefully and realized that no man, woman or child was safe. And, I added, no foreigner either. I knew my station was coming up so I prepared myself. Got pack on, put day bag in front of me, tightened everything and man, the minute that door swang open I just started banging people with my bag from side to side and people came in and other grabbed on to me and I rushed out and people were all over and voila - OUTSIDE! There, my local train experience.

I also knew from VAST EXPERIENCE that I would arrive at the train station and the richshaw vultures would come for me. I got ready. As I walked down the stairs I could see them all salivating. So, mid-way down I started to run (with the pack gravity has a way of making it impossible to stop) and I just ran and as they started to come at me I yelled OUT OF THE WAY and broke through them and ran out on the street. Some ran after me and I stopped them and said, OK, OK ONE QUESTION FIRST! WHERE IS THE BUS STATION. They all pointed down the street. I said SHUKRIA (TY) and started running through the streets flailing my arms up like a crazy man screaming, NO RICKSHAW SHUKRIA, NO RICKSHAW SHUKRIA. This went on for two blocks as other rickshaw and taxi drivers joined in running after me yelling - PUNE? PUNE? PUNE? wanting to offer to drive me there for R750. I laughed so hard I nearly hyperventilated. I got to the bus station/stop and after receiving India information I waited for the Deluxe bus to arrive. India information? That means one person told me the bus was coming at 1:45, the other said 2pm, the other said they had no tickets to sell, the other said the bus had 10 seats and the other said the bus was empty. Oh yes, these were all uniformed men. I got on the NICEST BUS I HAVE EVER BEEN IN IN INDIA. It was brand new and so clean and the plastic was still on the seats, and this is India, so no one dared to take the plastic out. It was lovely. I tried to take a picture of me on the bus, in peace to show you, but when I took out my camera a nice man came to sit beside me and we talked for an hour until Pune.

OSHO:
I am here because I am curious, and I am here so that I can tell Nicole (and all of you) about this place. A little background. OSHO is the bad boy of meditation. In the 80's he moved to the US and started an ashram in Oregon. The ashram had thousands of people who turned what had been a dead town into an oasis. But, the US government and others were reluctant about it (like WACO) and deported him back to India. He is also a bad boy because he (like Bikram of the yoga I do) melts the east and west. That means that he, like Bikram, has a rolls royce collection, used to wear on only diamonds and lived lavishly. He is dead now, but his followers (mostly Westerners) continue to live the dream, however deferred.

The OSHO ashram is like THE ISLAND if you saw that awful movie. The basics:
To get in you need to get an AIDS test. In the 80s they had a tantric problem and now this is required. To get in you need R1250. To get in you need a maroon robe for the day and a white robe for the night when you meditate and listen to OSHO (ON SCREEN!) and got to the Center OSHO AUDITORIUM. To stay in you need to pay about R500 a day. OK, I am here for 6 days and I will have spent R5000 by the time I am done. This does not include lodging. Yes, my daily average has jumped from R700 to R1400. So, YES NICOLE, YOU CAN CERTAINLY HELP ME PAY FOR THIS ANTRHOPOLOGICAL EXPERIENCE. Ok, several massages will do. hehe.

So, why am I here? Several reasons.
-Pune is a nice little town in which to wait for Tricia.
-The Center has recently changed its name to Resort and has a beautiful pool, sauna and great organic foods and a cappucino bar.
-The meditations include dancing and I have needed to move my body. I have done so much my body hurts, but it's good.
-The Resort is QUIET AND CLEAN two things the India I have been traveling in does not offer.
-I totally feel like I am in the twilight zone and in some odd way it is nice. I don't feel I am in India or anywhere else really. I don't even feel I am at the OSHO since I am totally not in the place to listen to or have a guru. So, I enjoy my (mostly) anonymity as just another person in a maroon robe.

One of the really cool things that happened is that in the orientation which takes several hours and includes them telling you how you should serve yourself at the cafe and that you can only use the pool with maroon swimwear and that you must use maroon outfit for Zennis (zen tennis) I met Etimati, Kushal and Samantha. Etimati is a wonderful woman from Australia whose life consisted of planning conference for years but who has left it all to become and astrologer, Samantha is Indian and a massage therapist and choreographer, and Kushal is a famous Bollywood movie and Indian TV star who is currently in the cover of a magazine in India. The four of us are crazy. We do meditations together, "world dance" together, eat together and we laugh a hell of a lot at about everything. We both love and laugh at what the hell we are doing. So, what are we doing?

Many of the OSHO Resort meditations are based on movement. They require that you breath madly and blow air (and snot) out of your nose, shake violently and then stand absolutely still for 15 plus minutes. They also have dersvish spinning which is a supphi (sp) meditation where you spin for 30 minutes non-stop (I nearly puked my guts out after 10 minutes), dancing meditation, and many many other things, including quiet sitting meditation. I have only tried a few, tomorrow I will be up at 5:30 for the 6am DYNAMIC MEDITATION. Oh yes, for a description of all got to www.osho.com (of course).

The place has bout 1,000 people, mostly Europeans, Americans, Australians (read, a lot of white people) and then lots of Japanese and middle-upper income Indians. A lot of the people are Oshoites. They come here every year, the follow all of his teachings, they buy all his books, they OSHO OSHO OSHO, but nobody is converting anybody. They just "model" they don't recruit. Well, not yet anyways. The highlight of the day is the Evening Meditation. This is the only required meditation if you are at the resort. For it you must buy a separate white robe.

At 6:45pm everyone congretates at the OSHO auditorium, a pyramid building that looks like a mini-Las Vegas Luxor with black reflective windows and all. The floor is marble and the AC is pumping. At 6:45 a live band comes on and plays "meditative trans music." All 1000 of us dance - translike - to the sounds of the band, then when the music crescendos, people start to go crazy (like feeling the spirit stuff) and crazier and crazier and then there is a big drum beat and people throw their arms in the air and scream intensily OSHO!!! This dance is about 20-30 minutes and this moment happens two single times - OSHO! and OSHO! and ends with an overly excited, three times OSHO!OSHO!OSHO! And then, in quite an amazing fashion the room goes COMPLETELY SILENT and everyone sits down.

Osho comes on a big screen and for the next 1hour he does a talk, which was, of course, recorded before his death, just in case a lot of money could be made. He teaches us all about life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness from a throne (literally) in a beatiful outfit, with a diamond watch and huge, beautiful sunglasses. He is really funny actually and ends the talk with jokes. I can totally see why people love him, he is greagarious, charming and magnetic. After his talk we meditate for 5 minutes and then suddenly, in unison everyone starts to talk gibresh (sp). Yes, I said that, gibresh. People scream sounds and words that no one can understand and go crazy for about 5 minutes and then again, in an amazing fashion everyone falls silent. We meditate for a few more minutes, then do meditation where we imagine being dead and then it ends.

How do I feel about all of this? Honestly, I have been to many crazy things - 10 day silent retreats, retreats to get in touch with my inner child, places where I imitated monkeys, slep with stuffed animals and wrote letters to myself. So, I cannot judge. We each find our path. But, today, here, I am not open to any of this. I am open to learning new meditation techniques, to meeting interesting people and to laying in the pool or strolling in the amazing garden, but not to OSHO. I am not in place in my life where a guy who wore diamonds and collected rolls royces can teach me about buddhism. Buddha gave it all up. Osho and Bikram build their empires. I also don't blame them. Capitalism is what we make of it and we (including me) participate. So, he is smart.

Last night the main point of this talk (I think) was that the student is ready to "see" when s/he is ready to see. At that point s/he will find their guru. I am not sure he is right, but if he is that is exactly what is happening with me right now. Osho, or the Swami I listened to in Rishikesh, or any other messengers I have read are not satisfying me. Maybe someday, but for now I am in good place seeing things for myself. I am looking for authenticity, and even though I believe it may be gone (from religion and other such things), I would still like to feel it in my heart.

Finally, in case you wondered I could not shout OSHO, OSHO, OSHO. So, when that moment happened I shouted the first thing that came to mind - GARFIELD! GARFIELD! GARFIELD! Even funnier is Kushal who thought you were supposed to shout your name and so he did, the second time the thought, OH MY G-D, is everyone shouting my name? Yes, Bollywood and Hollywood stars are all the same. Still, tonight the four of us decided we will shout - KUSHAL, KUSHAL, KUSHAL.

Ok, 6:12pm, gotta get out of my maroon robe and put on my white one. Kisses to all.

Julio

"Into the Woods to Find the Giant..."
www.brazilbean.net