venerdì 15 luglio 2016

Saturday Morning


The father has an incredible desire to make love with his wife…
…but doesn’t know what to do with their 5-year-old son. Without further ado, he sends him out on the balcony and says, “Watch what’s going on outside, and tell us.”
They are both hard at it, when the voice of the little one drifts in from the balcony: “The Jones’s have bought a new car, a Mercedes!”
The father gasps, “Super, watch what else is going on.”
Two minutes later, from the balcony: “The Morton’s just got a visitor from Brighton.”
The father gasps again: “OK, watch what’s next.”
Another minute later: “Just now the Miller’s are fucking.”
Startled, the father jumps off his wife: “Why do you think that?”
Voice from the balcony: “They just sent their son out on the balcony.”

http://www.oshonews.com/2016/07/14/saturday-morning/

lunedì 11 luglio 2016

The Fierce Sweetness of Kali


Excerpt from chapter 11 of Avikal’s new book, ‘When the Ocean Dissolves into the Drop: Osho, Love, Truth and me’.
In a discourse in Hindi in the 70s Osho said:
“Up to now, it has been taken for granted that those in search of religion can have nothing to do with sex, and that those who delve into sex can have nothing in common with spirituality. Both are illusions. The journey to kama is also the journey to Rama. The journey to lust is also the journey to light. The tremendous attraction for sex is also the search for the sublime. … Where are you standing now? You say you long to make the journey to Rama? Good. You say you desire to reach God? Very good. But where are you standing now? Now you are stranded in lust; now you are stranded in sex – and it is from this point, from where you are now, that you must take the first step forward. It is imperative you realize where you are now. By accepting this simple fact, by understanding this stark reality, you can also see the possibility for the future. To know what you can attain, it is important to know what you are.”
And so Osho continually invited his disciples to let go of their fears which were due to repression and conditioning and to explore sex with joyous abandonment. The principle underpinning this was simple: you can’t go beyond what you haven’t fully experienced first. At the same time Osho wove sex, love and freedom into his discourses, constantly reminding us that they were three aspects of Spirit, and that it was not possible to separate them, while directing our yearning towards a sexuality that was not just an offloading of energy and the pursuit of narcissistic pleasure, but an opportunity of communion with oneself and the other person.

The image of that interdependency was simple and effective: the seed of sexuality could transform itself into the flower of love when nourished by freedom.
One particular form of love that was a part of this natural cycle was the love of truth. Night after night, discourse after discourse, Osho wove together different aspects of reality, showing their interrelationships, how they supported and enhanced each other, illuminating the perfection, beauty and intelligence of the universe, and he also invited us to explore, to find our own path.
To illustrate this unlimited inclusivity of everything, this non separation that contained all dualities as complementary, he used a paradoxical language which constantly contradicted itself, therefore obliging us to verify it personally and directly, and preventing the truth from being rigidified into maps or interpretations that were “right and final.” The mystery and adventure of experiencing this lay at the heart of every word, every concept, every exhortation, every invitation, at the very base of every comprehension. In and around Osho and his commune, sexuality was demystified, defused, it was simple, abundant, fun, unpredictable and open, and exactly because of these qualities every individual, male or female, inevitably ended up having to look inside to understand their own shadows, their fears, beliefs, possessiveness and jealousy, envy and desire for power, masochism and hypocrisy. There was no escape from the wave of vitality that continually flowed inside the Commune. Almost every evening Osho would throw in four of five jokes of a sexual nature for good measure to completely play down any seriousness in the matter.
I had heard Osho say many times, half serious half joking, that for a man, a woman was the quickest route to enlightenment and my dedication to Kali, the terrible and wild female, was virtually undivided. I had had a lot of experience of love and passion, and moreover, I had had some relationships where I surrendered every inch of myself, with the rapture of giving myself completely, the joy of giving and taking without holding back, and where I had found myself on my knees before the goddess and the fiendess. And until you have fallen on your knees before a loved one you haven’t yet known the depths of love. But I also felt that something else was waiting for me and that a part of the darkness I carried inside still had to be confronted, illuminated.
That step came towards the end of 1994 through two tapes, and their transcription, a discourse by an enlightened Australian master, Barry Long. The title of the discourse was: ‘Making Love’. The tapes were direct, unrelenting and quite ruthless in stripping bare the hypocrisy of Western culture on the subject of love, the disfunctionality of the male attitude reduced to compulsive satisfaction and orgasm based on selfish and narcissistic ejaculation, and the desperate and opportunist submission of women who were dissatisfied and undermined. The divine nature of the penis and vagina, their innate intelligence and capacity for merging had been betrayed over the centuries and completely forgotten, said Barry Long with such passion and conviction that it left you breathless. But as well as merciless statements, there was the proposal of a direction, a journey into sexuality; the most radical and fascinating I had ever come across.
Just a few months previously, a relationship that I had been completely involved in for the past five years came to an end in a somewhat painful way. Quite simply, it was over because it was over. It was over because we both had different needs and our paths were moving further apart. It was over because new and unknown parts of us were being explored and we needed different models and traveling companions, and our friendship, our understanding, our spiritual closeness and gratitude went its way with the pain of that separation. It was also clear that she wasn’t the one to accompany me on my new journey, the one that Barry Long was proposing, and that the emptiness she had left behind her would attract someone else, because by its very nature this is what emptiness does, inviting and appealing to be filled once more.
For a few months I reacted by throwing myself mentally and physically into martial arts, my work and meditation, and my soul began to find itself once more, also stimulated and excited by those tapes and the possibilities they opened up. Kali was performing her dance, and I realized, also thanks to what Barry Long pointed out, that I was not yet Shiva, that my surrender was not yet complete, that my faith in myself and in my ability to be “absolutely present” in the act of love, was still distorted by some tensions, in my body, my mind and my emotions.
The central element to Barry Long’s approach was understanding how repressed emotions and expectations created and supported an unconscious and mechanic approach to making love, and how the lack of presence made it impossible for love to be manifested and shared: All the things that Osho had taken great pains to emphasize. The approach that Barry Long proposed was clearly explained and well: to first find a partner, preferably someone with whom there wasn’t already a steady relationship; to recognize together the desire to penetrate one’s own defenses and to let go of any form of conditioning still present and, finally, to give voice to the frustration that one’s conditioning was still producing. Then to arrange to meet on set days and times, and with absolute commitment to respecting that agreement, to get into bed naked, unite the genitals without foreplay and stay present one with the other, communicating what was happening internally and leaving the genitals to respond on their own accord. The orgasm, the back and forth, the various techniques and positions and manipulations and enticements and push and pull, in short, the classic routine, were avoided in order to break down the habitual and the known, to facilitate a falling of the normal masks of coitus and to make oneself naked in a situation where neither partner was, or tried to be, in control.
It began to become clear to me that the primary reason for the tensions I still felt was a subtle but persistent attachment to my power and the control that I was able to exert on myself and on women. I also began to look deeper inside.
Perhaps another month passed, maybe two, until one day I was having lunch in one of the Commune canteens, a restaurant next to a wonderful swimming pool, and while chatting with some friends, I saw a woman I knew sitting at a table not so far away. Her name was Halima, blonde, tall, with the look of an Amazon, a primal and tantra retreat leader, and something in me said, she’s the one! Almost without realizing it, as if being pulled by invisible strings, for sure driven by Eros, I got up, went over to her and, falling to my knees, I asked her if she would be willing to make love with me every day, for at least two to three hours per day, for two weeks to start with, and the answer was yes.
The two weeks turned into a month and the month turned into more months.
Together we looked under every single stone, communicating eye to eye, sex to sex, whatever we found, under every reluctance, under every attempt to escape, under every need to manipulate, into the pain of isolation, the need to dominate the other, fear of failure, into crystallized images of my masculinity and her femininity, the vulnerability of not having control, the fear of being abandoned, betrayed, the desire to possess and, one step at a time, one date after the other, with the falling of the masks and our defenses, the mistrust and anxiety that had been hiding somewhere turned into an intimacy I’d never before experienced, into a being whose soul was laid bear, in innocent and deep-rooted honesty, in friendship and closeness, in recognition of the divine incarnated, in me, in her, in my penis and her pussy.
There were tears and laughter, storms and serene lakes, long hours passed without separating, with movements of a subtle and unfamiliar intensity in the genitals, dozens and dozens of meals skipped and substituted with cashews and dates, the food of the tantric lovers. There was sharing of secrets and vulnerability, moments of wild fury and overpowering memories, embraces so strong that our skin burned and dissolved, holding onto each other in order to feel the breath of life, our smiles gentle and timid, illuminated by a light that was love, fragile and delicate, caresses and sighs. We left each other only to go home to sleep or meditate or offload uncontrollable emotions. Halima discovered the fierce sweetness of Kali, I discovered the power and vulnerability behind Shiva’s surrender. Together we discovered a love that was both friendship and freedom.
Excerpt from chapter 11, Kali, of Avikal’s new book, ‘When the Ocean Dissolves into the Drop: Osho, Love, Truth and me’ – photo of Goddess Kali by Piyal Kundu
Note by the editor: the Osho quotes are from From Sex to Superconsciousness, Ch 5 – 1 October 1968
Dedicated page: facebook.com/whentheocean
Available as Kindle from www.amazon.deintegralbeing.com/books
Review on Osho News: When the Ocean Dissolves into the Drop
AvikalAvikal is founder and director of the Integral Being Institute which is active in Europe, Asia and Australia. In his newest books published by O-Books – Freedom to be Yourself and Without a Mask – with the respective, revealing subtitles Mastering the inner judge and Discovering your authentic self – Avikal provides far-seeing insight into his world of training and personal development. Avikal lives in Sydney, Australia. www.integralbeing.com – articles by Avikal on Osho News

http://www.oshonews.com/2016/07/11/kali-avikal/ 

sabato 9 luglio 2016

Humour is Health



Osho on Humour
Humour-600
God has a tremendous sense of humor!
Religion remains something dead without a sense of humor as a foundation to it.
God would not have been able to create the world if he had no sense of humor.
God is not serious at all.
Seriousness is a state of disease; humor is health.
Love, laughter, life, they are aspects of the same energy.”

Osho, Ah, This! Ch 5

mercoledì 6 luglio 2016

Osho: Before You Make Love, Meditate


Osho on Tantra
The buddhist and the hindu Tantra are totally different things. Just the name is the same. If you are confused about them, that can create a very deep conflict in your body. Forget both, mm? because it will be difficult for you to come to a harmony between these two. I will give you a simple method.
Don’t be bothered about hindu and buddhist Tantra.
While making love, three things have to be remembered. One is: before you make love, meditate.
Osho on Tantra
Never make love without meditating, otherwise the love will remain sexual. Before you meet the woman you should rise higher in your consciousness because then the meeting will happen on a higher plane. For at least forty minutes sit looking at the wall with just a very dim light on so that it gives a mysteriousness.
Sit silently and don’t move the body; remain like a statue. Then when you make love, the body will move, so give it another extreme of first being unmoving so the body gathers momentum to move deeply. Then the urge becomes so vibrating that the whole body, every fibre is ready to have a movement. Then only tantric orgasm is possible. You can have some music on… classical music will do; something that gives a very subtle rhythm to the body.
Make the breathing as slow as possible because when you make love the breathing will go deep and fast. So just go on slowing down, but don’t force it, otherwise it will go fast. Simply suggest that it slows down.
Both meditate together and when you are both feeling meditative, that is the moment to love. Then you will never feel tension and energy will be flowing. If you are not feeling meditative, don’t make love. If meditation is not happening that day, forget all about love.
People do simply the opposite. Almost always couples fight before they make love. They become angry, nag each other and bring all sorts of conflict — and then they make love. They fall very low in their consciousnesses, so of course love cannot be very satisfying. It will be frustrating and you will feel a tension.
The second thing is: when you are making love, before you start, worship the partner and let the partner worship you. So after meditation, worship. Face each other totally naked and worship each other, because Tantra cannot be between man and woman. It can only be between a god and a goddess. It is a gesture, but very significant. The whole attitude has to become sublime so that you disappear. Touch each other’s feet, put garlands of flowers there.
The man becomes transformed into Shiva and the woman is transformed into Shakti. Now your humanity is irrelevant, your form is irrelevant, your name is irrelevant; you are just pure energy.
Worship brings that energy into focus. And don’t pretend. The worship has to be true. It cannot be just a ritual, otherwise you will miss. Tantra is not a ritual. There is much ritual in it, but Tantra is not ritual.
You can repeat the ritual. You can bow down to her feet and touch them; that won’t help. Let it be a deeply meaningful gesture. Really look at her. She is no more your wife, no more your girlfriend, no more woman, no more body, but a configuration of energy. Let her first become divine, then make love to her. Then love will change its quality. It will become divine. That’s the whole methodology of Tantra.
Then in the third step you make love. But let your making love be more like a happening than like a making. The english expression ‘making love’ is ugly. How can you make love? It is not something like doing; it is not an action. It is a state. You can be in it but you cannot make it. You can move in it but you cannot do it. You can be loving but you cannot manipulate it. The whole western mind tries to manipulate everything.
Even if the western mind comes to find God someday, God will be in trouble. They will harness Him in some way or other, manipulate Him. They will put Him to some use, some utilitarian purpose.
Even love has become a sort of doing. No.
When you make love, be possessed. Move slowly, touch each other’s bodies; play with each other’s bodies. The body is like a musical instrument. Don’t be in a hurry. Let things grow. If you move slowly, suddenly both your energies will rise together, as if something has possessed you. It will happen instantly and simultaneously together. Then only Tantra is possible. Move now into love ….
Just feel energy descending on you and let that energy have its movement. Sometimes you will start shrieking, shriek. Sometimes you will start saying things, say. Sometimes only moans will be coming out, or some mudras, gestures; allow them. It is going to be a maddening thing, but one has to allow it. And don’t be afraid, because it is through your allowing that it is happening. The moment you want to stop it, it stops, so you are never beyond control.
And when gods make love it is almost wild. There are no rules, no regulations. One moves just on the spur of the moment. Nothing is taboo… nothing is inhibited. Whatsoever happens in that moment is beautiful and holy; whatsoever, I say, unconditionally. If you bring your mind into it you will destroy it completely. If you suddenly feel like sucking her finger and you say ‘What nonsense!’ then you have brought in the mind. You may feel like sucking her breast; nothing wrong in it.
Nobody knows what is going to happen. You are simply left in the divine vortex. It will take you, and it will take you wherever it wants. You are simply available, ready to move with it. You don’t direct it… you have simply become vehicles. Let energies meet in their own ways. The man should be dropped out of it — just pure energy. You will not be making love only through the genital organs; you will be making love through your whole body.
That’s the meaning of shivalingam: no face, no hands, no feet — just the phallic symbol. When Shiva made love he became just the phallus — the whole of his body. It is very beautiful… no face, nothing.
Everything has disappeared.
It is not that you are using your sexual organs only; the sex has spread all over. You head is as much a part of it as your feet. You have become a phallus. You are no more man; you are just energy. She is also no more a woman; just energy, a vulva. It is a very wild thing.
If you meditate before and then worship each other, there is no danger; everything will move rightly.
You will attain to a peak of orgasm that you have never known. Sometimes you will achieve it: a very great orgasm in which the whole body throbs and pulsates. By and by you reach a climax; again you come down. It will cleanse your whole being, the whole system. Sometimes there will be no ejaculation but orgasm will be there.
There are two types of orgasm: the peak orgasm and the valley orgasm. In the peak orgasm you will have an ejaculation and she will have also an ejaculation of some subtle energies. In the valley orgasm you will not have any ejaculation. It will be a passive orgasm… very silent, very subtle. The throb will be there but almost imperceptible. In the peak orgasm you will feel very very blissful. In the valley orgasm you will feel very very peaceful. And both are needed; both are two aspects of Tantra. Every peak has its valley, and every valley has its peak. A peak cannot exist without the valley nor vice versa.
[Osho said not to be too concerned about having an ejaculation. The western mind tends to be too concerned about it happening and feels that something is wrong when it doesn’t happen. The whole thing is to be totally in it and to leave things in the hands of God; it is His business. Your business is just to enjoy, delight, celebrate.]
And when it has happened and you have both achieved to a deep orgasm, don’t pull yourself out of her. After the orgasm, remain inside her and rest for a few moments. That rest is very very deep.
After an orgasm a rest is like a valley. You have reached to the very peak and now you have come back to the valley. It is very cool and shady and you rest.
And really much happens after the orgasm… the merging, the melting. Bodies are tired, exhausted, spent. The mind is shocked. It has almost been like an electric shock.
When you come out of your love state, again pray together; end with a prayer. The difference is that when you meditate, you meditate separately and she meditates separately, because meditation cannot be done together. Meditation is a lonely effort. It is not a relationship. So you may be meditating together but still you meditate alone; you are alone and she is alone.
Then you worship each other. That’s again different. The other becomes the object of worship.
Then you make love and you are completely lost. You are not yourself, she is not herself. Nobody knows who is who. All is lost in a whirlpool of energy. The polarity of man and woman is no more a polarity; boundaries merge, mingle. Sometimes you will feel like a woman and she will feel like a man. Sometimes she comes on top of you. Sometimes you become passive and she becomes active and the role changes. It is a great drama of energies. All is lost, abandoned. Then you come out of that innermost experience; pray together. That’s the fourth thing.
Just thank God. And never complain. Whatsoever happens is right. Don’t say ‘This has not happened. This should have happened.’ Who are we? He knows better. So just thank Him, whatsoever happens; thank Him with deep gratefulness. Bow down and put your head on the earth and remain there for a few moments in deep gratefulness.
Meditation is alone. In worship, the other is important, and in prayer you both pray to God. So these three things have to be involved. They will create the ecology in which Tantra happens. And once a week will do.
If you are moving in Tantra then no other love should be allowed otherwise it dissipates energy. But whenever you want to make love, make sure you have enough time. It should not be done in a hurry. It should not be like work. It is a game, play, and these energies are so subtle that if you are in a hurry, nothing happens. Tantra is not a fragment. You cannot practise it unless you create the situation. It is like a flower.
You have to sow the seed and take care of the plant and water it every day. You look to whether the sun is reaching it or not. You cannot bring the flower, but you can create the situation in which one day the flower comes and the bud opens.
So these three things are sowing the seed, caring for the plant, watering it and being continuously concerned about it; being careful, protecting it. Then one day suddenly — the flower of Tantra. It will happen.
Osho, Beloved of My Heart, Ch 17

 http://www.oshonews.com/2015/06/09/before-you-make-love-meditate/

martedì 5 luglio 2016

Osho: The Age of the Woman


Osho talks on ‘Woman’
woman in sari
My own vision is that the coming age will be the age of the woman. Man has tried for five thousand years and has failed. Now a chance has to be given to the woman. Now she should be given all the reins of power. She should be given an opportunity to allow her feminine energies to function.
Man has utterly failed. In three thousand years, five thousand wars — this is man’s record. Man has simply butchered, killed, murdered; he has lived as if only for war. There are a few days in between two wars which we call days of peace. They are not days of peace; they are only days of preparing for the new war. Yes, a few years are needed to prepare… and again the war, again we go on killing each other. It is enough!
Man has been given enough chances.
Now feminine energies have to be released.
Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 7, Ch 9

http://www.oshonews.com/2015/03/08/osho-on-woman/

lunedì 4 luglio 2016

Osho: The Woman is the Stronger Sex


 
Yashodara tells Osho that there is something on his mind.
Tell me.
Yashodara: I feel weak. I feel more receptive and feminine since Primal. Lots of father-figures coming up — teachers and everything. I don’t know if I should do something or just to let it go.
Yashodara closes his eyes on Osho’s instruction, and clasps the hands held out to him as Pavitra positions herself behind him. Osho tells her to pour her energy into him. Her energy is soft but vibrating, and Yashodara begins to sob, his body falling back and bending into hers.

You have to relax into it; nothing else has to be done. It is perfectly good, you are on the right track. Become more feminine, become more soft, delicate, and allow it to happen. Your ego is trying to create trouble. Your ego is saying to you ‘Be strong, be masculine, be this and that.’ Don’t go on that male chauvinistic trip – forget about it. Relax. Whatsoever is coming naturally is beautiful. This femininity has to be absorbed.
It is not weakness, it is delicateness; it is softness that you are thinking is weakness. To use the word ‘weakness’ is to evaluate it. Your ego is evaluating it, condemning it — that this is something wrong, you are becoming weak. Ego always thinks of softness as weakness. That’s why women have been thought down the ages to be the weaker sex. It is not true, it is just false.
The woman is the stronger sex but she is delicate, that is true. And now biological investigations prove that. Women live five years more than men: their average age is five years longer. More men go mad than women, double the number. More men commit suicide than women, double the number. More men are prone to illness than women; women have more resistance against disease and illness than men. Women are capable of tolerating pain much longer than men. Just think of giving birth to a child or having a child in your womb for nine months and then for years the nuisance that the children create. Only a woman is able to bear it all. She has a kind of strength which is totally different. She may not have muscular power but muscular power is not the only way to judge strength. The deeper way to judge strength is by the capacity to resist illness, death, the capacity to tolerate pain, the capacity to remain alive in spite of all that is against life, the capacity to remain sane in spite of the whole insane world.
Drop that word ‘weakness’ – simply call it softness, femininity, and allow it. Much more is on the way. And it is beautiful!
What groups have you done?
Yashodara: Centering and Tantra… I’ve done six groups but a long time ago.
And what have you been doing recently?
Yashodara: I did the music group mostly.
That’s very good. Continue it.
Yashodara: I don’t like it at the moment.
Then no need – whatsoever you feel, you can do.
Yashodara: But one problem: when I feel like this I’d like to be with a woman. I just sit and just wait and nothing happens, you know. It makes a problem sometimes.
Just hang a small signboard [Osho laughs]: I am waiting for a woman and nothing is happening.
Many women are waiting for a man and nothing is happening — they will start turning towards you! Just let it be known, that’s all. Tomorrow just have a signboard and see: many women will start enquiring.
It is not a problem, not at all. Try a signboard!
Osho, The 99 Names of Nothingness, Ch 2

http://www.oshonews.com/2015/10/14/the-woman-is-the-stronger-sex/

sabato 2 luglio 2016

Osho: Politicians Are Stupid


e. e. cummings has said: “A politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat except a man.”
And that is true: the politician is not yet man – barbarous. The desire to dominate others is ugly; it is violence, pure violence and nothing else. To reduce people to slaves is the greatest violence possible. And that is the desire of every politician: to dominate, to dominate absolutely.
Chilli
Once a politician is in power, he becomes a totalitarian, he becomes dictatorial. He talks about democracy, but behind the democracy is dictatorship. It is always so. When the politician is not in power he is democratic; when he is in power all democracy disappears. It remains a mask, and all kinds of ugly desires start coming to the surface.
Politicians are stupid, and people allow them because people are stupid. Spread intelligence into people, spread thinking into people. Make people more aware of what is happening to their life – it is their life, and they have to do something about it.

A politician had to stop his car right in front of a mental institution, because it broke down. For a very long time he fiddled around with it, trying this and that, but he couldn’t get his car to work. When he was ready to give up, a man came out from the hospital, took a look at what he was doing, and then just moved one screw, and the car started.
The politician was quite surprised. “I thought you were mad,” he said.
“Yes, of course I am mad,” answered the other. “But I am not stupid!”

Politician: Tell me, how do you know when a person is insane?
Psychiatrist: Well, firstly I ask them questions that an average person can answer easily. For example: If Captain Cook made five trips around the world and was killed on one of them, which one was it?
Politician: Er… well…. Couldn’t you ask me a question on another subject? I’m not very good at history.

I’m not saying they are stupid – they are. I’m simply stating a fact. And my fact is so simple, you can find millions of proofs for it on your own. I need not give you proofs, the whole history is a proof. Every day newspapers bring thousands of proofs. The state of the world, this hell that we are living in, is the proof.
Osho, Philosophia Perennis Vol 2, Ch 10, Q 6 (excerpt)

http://www.oshonews.com/2016/06/29/politicians-are-stupid/