OSHO ETI NEWSLETTER 5
Updated: May 2015 (Original: November 2011)
OSHO’S COMMUNES & COLLECTIVE CHAKRA ENERGY DEVELOPMENT
I have been working with the chakra energy system for thirty years, and I am continuously learning more. As an Osho disciple since 1980, I have been involved in all three of Osho’s communes. Although I did not experience the ‘Bombay One’ phase in the early 1970’s nor the foundation of the Pune Ashram, I arrived in time to experience the last one and a half years there. Then as soon as the Ashram in India closed I joined the new sannyasin commune in England and later inHanover and Hamburg in Germany. Each summer from 1982-1985our communes went to USA for the ‘Annual World Celebrations’ at the main commune in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. I was very fortunate to stay there for the last five months of its existence whilst I participated in the Osho Counsellor Training.
Having been present at the end phase of two of Osho’s communes, I jumped to be at the beginning of the third commune. Osho returned to Pune on 4 January 1987, I arrived less than a fortnight later. I joined the staff of the newly created Osho Multiversity as Meditation Leader, session therapist and group leader. Although sometimes I had to return to Europe, I remained in Pune as much as possible to be a part of Osho’s third commune and most importantly to be close to Osho.
When Osho left his body in January 1990, a period that some sannyasins call ‘Pune Three,’ I decided to stay and help the commune continue. I was a full time commune worker and resident for several years, until I decided to visit on my own terms. By this time I had been a sannyasin and full time and a commune worker for 13 years. In the following 8 years until the year 2001, on some of my annual visits to Pune (which lasted between 6 – 10 months a year) I was a paying visitor and sometimes I was again a full time worker. From 2002 – 2009, my annual visits became shorter and as did my periods of full time work as an Osho Multiversity group leader. In 2009, after 29 years of sannyas, in response to a change that I perceived in the energyfield of the commune, I decided not to return to Pune until I felt a stronger urge.
As an internationally travelling Osho Therapist, I have often been asked about my view point on Osho’s commune and the future of Osho’s work in the world and in Pune specifically. As many of you know, the policies of Osho Communes have always been controversial. At this time I do not want to go into who is right or wrong, or to get into supporting or criticising any particular camp or side of an argument. I will attempt to explain my understanding of the energetic background of the communes.
If we read, or listen to, Osho discourses on the Tantric Vision on the chakras, he lays out the chakra system of masculine and feminine positive and negative energies. This teaching is foundational to my work in the seven chakra transformation groups and the Oshō Energy Counselling Trainings.
The first, third and fifth chakras are masculine positive and feminine negative/receptive.
The second, fourth and sixth chakra are feminine positive and masculine negative/receptive.
These form circles of energetic pairs, the masculine first chakra pairs with the feminine second chakra. The masculine third chakra pairs with the feminine fourth chakra. And the masculine fifth chakra pairs with the feminine sixth chakra. And in the seventh chakra the masculine and feminine energies finally meet and merge together in a marriage of the inner man and inner woman.
Thus we have three circles of chakra pairs, and as the masculine and feminine energies meet we have orgasms! There are four energetic orgasms possible, the first is when the 1st and 2nd charkas meet, which is the physical and emotional sexual energies meeting. This is what we usually understand by the word orgasm. But as the third and fourth chakras meet, we have another more subtle orgasm, it is called ‘love’. Then when the fifth and sixth chakras meet we have the third, and even more subtle orgasm, the joy of creativity. Then finally as the male and female energies finally meet within the individual, and without the need for another body or person, we have the orgasm of meditation, the bliss of silence, that which can blossom as the opening of the lotus, enlightenment. This fourth orgasm is known in Tantra as Mahamudra.
So how does all that relate to Osho’s communes?
Firstly, it is important to understand that Osho was primarily not a teacher – although he did teach so well – he is a master. Energy, the building and raising of an energyfield that we called the Buddhafield, was a vital part of Osho’s work on his disciples. While Osho was alive in his physical body, it was the major aim of many sannyasins to stay in the Buddhafield, to absorb Osho’s enlightened energy.
Although Osho did tell us clearly that it is intrinsically impossible for him, or any Buddha to transmit enlightenment to anyone. Osho did often experiment in ways in which he could share and transmit his energy to his disciples to be an incentive for them to grow in their own meditation and consciousness.
In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s he offered Shaktipat (energy transmission) in the meditation camps he conducted. This involved people jumping up and down like in the third stage of Dynamic, but with their eyes open and staring at Osho who would be on a stage and sending his enlightened energy to the people.
In sannyas initiations from 1970 – 1981, Osho would touch the 3rd eye of the new disciple to awaken that chakra energetically, as it functions as a doorway to the spiritual dimension. In the last couple of years of the ‘Pune One’ period, Osho also gave Energy Darshans. In which invited sannyasins would receive energy transmitted directly from Osho by him touching the 3rd chakra and sometimes other chakras. I am fortunate to have received Energy Darshan twice from Osho. The experience is to have a glimpse of being enlightened. Such a blast of blissful energy, it is really indescribable!
In ‘Pune Two’ years Osho abandoned direct transmissions of energy and slowed his speech. His verbal pauses became longer and I could feel the same energy coming from him as in the Energy Darshans, but now on a daily basis. Then in the last nine months before Osho left his body, he again transmitted his energy to us during the 10 minutes of music and silence in the evening meetings of the Osho White Robe Brotherhood - which has since been renamed just as the ‘Evening Meeting.’
So energy was an integral part of Osho’s work on his people while he was in his body, and in the period immediately after he left the body, whenever I sat in silent meditation in the Osho Samadhi in Lao Tzu House, I also experienced a transmission of his energy. However while Osho was in the body I experience him through my 3rd eye, as a warm intense pulsation, boom, boom, boom, wow, bliss! It was the fourth type of orgasm, folks! Osho was the greatest lover! Thank you to all my beloved lady friends for the other lower type of orgasms, but the energy from the enlightened master really is incomparable. No wonder Osho said that all sannyasins are female, even the Swami’s are Ma’s (male disciples are female disciples).
After Osho left his body, I could experience his energy above the top of my head, at the 7th chakra. A much more subtle and lighter experience which then descended into my heart, with love, and a twinge of sadness that he has left us too soon.
Now to explain how the chakra energies, Osho’s energy and the events of his three communes fit together.
Osho’s 1st Commune - Pune I 1974 – 1981:
Between 1970 – 1974 Osho was settled in a flat in Bombay. In response to an increase of Westerners coming to India and feeling the pull to Osho, who was called Acharya and then Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the premises for an ashram in Pune are obtained. The hippie era of openness about love and sex, and the ideals of a new age for humanity, that revolutionized Western countries in the 1960’s helped inspired many young seekers to go to India. While the West became disillusioned in the 1970’s, the Pune ashram was a hippie paradise.
In my understanding, Osho changed the way he worked with people in response to who came to him. In the 1960’s his followers sat in silence with him. Then in 1970 Osho developed Dynamic Meditation. As the modern seeker could not just sit silently! In terms of chakra energy, Osho’s active meditations work on the lower chakras, to release repression and tension and then to positively energize them so that the meditator can then experience a few minutes of deep inner silence.
The majority of seekers arriving in the Pune Ashram during this period; were in their twenties and thirties. I arrived in early 1980 just before my 20th birthday; I was one of the youngest around except for the kids of other visitors. The average of visitors would have been around 30 years old. The small main area of the ashram was always crowded with several thousand people. In the high season the Buddha Hall was cram packed; we were like 4,000 sitting sardines in one large can of red robes.
In the daytime when entering the ashram gates, the first impression was usually of couples and small groups of people embraced in a long intimate hug. Around them would be scores of workers and visitors coming and going. The atmosphere was so relaxed and yet so intense at the same time.
The reputation of the ashram as a place for free sex, and of Osho as ‘The Sex Guru’ did attract some people purely looking for as much sex as possible. However the majority of people were genuine spiritual seekers who appreciated Osho’s new vision of combining the spiritual and material worlds. Sex and love were one part of that new vision for the new humanity. But given the time period and the general energy of the young seekers, it was clear that sex, love and intimacy were the primary interest of many gathered there. The therapy groups at that time also encouraged people to openly experiment with their sexuality as well as be freely expressive of their emotions. The most popular phrase I remember being spoken in conversations was ‘follow your feelings.’
Although Osho did speak on Zen and Buddha during Pune I period, and he placed equal emphasise for disciples to choose either the ‘Path of Meditation’ or the ‘Path of Love.’ The majority of us were clearly more impressed by Osho’s discourses on Tantra and love.
Regarding how the ashram was run, there was a clear hierarchy. Non-sannyasin visitors were treated like aliens, but once a person got involved in groups and took sannyas, they were then part of the energyfield. Workers got preferential treatment, I was lucky to get a job in the workers canteen so I could be allowed in the worker-only area of the ashram, as well getting free meals. Several of my fellow workers who got jobs in the visitors’ area of the ashram were jealous of me.
Along with the love and intimacy another common emotion I experienced, especially in the therapy groups and during the work life of the ashram, was of fear. Never mind that the place was supposed to where sex was easily available, I was in a state of energetic shock for the first six months there. Besides which the women were stronger than the men. In those days, and as long as Osho was in the body, it was the women who chased the men! And I ran away a lot! I was also afraid of the group leaders and afraid of my boss. The ashram was based on surrender, you had to surrender your ego to the group leader and to your work boss. Work in the ashram was considered to be more intense than participation in any of the therapy groups. For Osho to work not only on individuals but on us as a collective group, he chose to create a hierarchy and not to waste energy in a democratic system.
Intensity, totality, celebration, energy, sex, intimacy and yet also fear – that was Pune One. It is clear to me that this period of Osho’s work was that of the collective growth of the 1st and 2nd chakra.
Osho’s 2nd Commune - Rajneeshpuram 1981 – 1985:
Towards the end of the Pune One period there was a power play between Osho’s main secretary Ma Yoga Laxmi and her secretary Ma Anand Sheela. While Laxmi was looking for property for a new commune in North India, Sheela took over her role in Pune. At the same time, Osho’s health worsened incredibly and Sheela managed to persuade Osho to go to USA to regain his health. Sheela was a very powerful woman and able to make new things happen quickly. Within a few months of being in USA, Sheela had bought a huge ranch in Oregon. And thus a new phase of Osho’s work began.
A lot has been written, most of it negative, about the few years while Osho was in America. The common view it that it was a disaster with Sheela being blamed for all that went wrong. Our minds tend to judge events and people into black and white, good and evil categories. For me, it was a great lesson in the 3rd and 4th chakra energies, power and love. The love of power as well as the power of love.
As Osho attracted more and more people and Pune ashram was too small, Osho had wanted a large space for many years, so he could expand his work and move onto the next phase. As the Indian government blocked all attempts at relocating within India, Sheela manifested the 160 square kilometres of Rancho Rajneesh. Certainly it was not wise choice of location, in semi-desert of ultra conservative Oregon. Sheela’s powerful but blunt manner, got us the space we needed but in such a hostile environment. The Oregonians wanted us out as soon as we got there.
We were all dressed in red and with malas, still being very affectionate, and still mentioned in the press as a sex cult. Many Americans saw Osho as the Antichrist, and we were instantly in a different atmosphere than in India. Although violence was around us also in India, with an assassination attempt on Osho, and at least one sannyasin murdered by an Indian. In Oregon we now had rifle carrying neighbours who sported stickers on their cars such as, “Better Dead than Red” and by red they meant sannyasins!
In order to build a city for 5,000 sannyasins (although in one discourse Osho has given a vision of a city of 100,000) our energy had to shift rapidly into even harder work than we were used to in Pune. And yet, we had our own city at last, we were building our dream. We were united by this great vision and it was a source of great joy. In a way we were living the American Dream, hippies were replaced by cowboys and construction workers.
At that that time visa restrictions meant I could not just go to USA permanently, so I had to choose between becoming a member of the newly founded commune in England or find my own way to make money and go to USA as a tourist. I chose to be part of the commune. The same commune rules applied whether the commune was in Oregon, England, Germany or Japan. As the commune in Oregon was founded, so too were smaller communes of 50 – 500 people founded in cities around the world. We were all united in living the same lifestyle. Work was our meditation that was called worship. Yes, we were a sect and I loved it. To hell with the rest of the world, we were the dawning of the new man in a new age. We worked 10 hours a day and then we watched a 2 hour video discourse of Osho. Later the work increased to 12 hours a day plus the video.
The communes were run by women coordinators. Some of whom were genuinely caring and loving “Mamas” as they were nicknamed. They cared for their workers, asking each, “How does your heart feel today?” Sometimes they would transfer an unhappy worker into a new job more suiting to the individual. Others were power hungry control freaks, who did not show much care or concern for others and were getting high on being a boss. They enjoyed punishing bad workers with transfers to worse jobs, such as toilet cleaning.
During this time I actually fared very well. When the ranch collapsed and Sheela and her Mamas’ power games game to light, I did not feel hurt. Because I trusted Osho and I trusted in my trust. When the atmosphere got heavy, when the work load became more and we were pressured with more rules. I turned more to trust Osho, his video discourses were my lifeline. In midst of all this, my trust manifested a miracle.
I had been waiting patiently for several years to be sent to Oregon. As an old Pune I worker I was due to given a 3 month period in Rajneeshpuram, but time and again, I was overlooked and younger sannyasins were sent instead of me. Finally in 1985, I was told my time had come, and my 3 months would start after the July Festival. However I was not to join the construction crew there as I expected, I was to be sent to be trained as a therapist! Shock and horror, “But I hate groups” I replied to my commune Mama. But within a minute I realized it was my ticket to be with Osho for 3 months.