RISING IN LOVE WITH OSHO - A SURPRISE STORY !
I had planned to travel India, visited the one and only sannyasin I knew in Poona, began listening to Osho and loving him. Begin of story, certainly not the end. Because whether he is in the body or not does not make any difference to my love for him. And my really wanting to live what I feel I have understood through him. It is a big surprise that it all came like that. And I believe my story of “Rising in love with Osho” is quite a Western one. Definitely not a tale of easy surrender.
In the 70s I had a job at the Frankfurt University, worked at an experimental school, was actively involved in the political student- and feminist movement. I lived in a commune of 9 people and we experimented with sharing all our money and possessions with each other. Not easy, but we were of course greatly critical of capitalism. It’s been an intense, interesting and inspiring time. When a very good girlfriend came back from a holiday on Ibizza she was dressed in bright red and orange, wearing a big wooden necklace with a man’s photo around her neck. I thought this rather bizarre. She told me that the photo dangling on her chest showed her Guru, Bhagwan. That she had become initiated on Ibizza to be his disciple. And that she thought meditation would do more to improving the world than all our passionate discussions and political actions. I heard it, still liked her a lot, but somehow could not get interested in this strange trip of hers. Soon she disappeared to India, Poona.
Then my life got shaken up, things collapsed pretty much all at the same time. As we got a more conservative government the project at the university lost its sponsors and me this inspiring job, the experimental school got reorganized to the old structure, my commune collapsed, my boyfriend left me. I felt altogether disturbed, disoriented and had somehow reached the end of my wits. And when my girlfriend in Poona wrote to me “it’s warm here, inside and outside” I realized I was freezing, inside and outside. I decided to visit her and to travel India. I did not intend to learn meditation or anything like that, just the idea of something new and unknown and warm helped me. I packed my jeans and fancy flee-market blouses in my rucksack and booked a flight.
I never forget my arrival at Bombay airport. Of course it was hot and sticky and smelly and noisy - and yet something in me relaxed, a feeling like “FINALLY”.! “Finally WHAT”, no idea, but that how it felt. So I thought I visit my girlfriend first and then head off to my adventure of traveling India. I found her and she invited me to stay with her at Sona Lodge. But after three days only my girlfriend declared that I please find my own space, I was too speedy to bear. I totally agreed.
Ready now to leave this red-orange quiet paradise life just gave me a present which made me stay “a little longer”. A tree house like a jewelry box, decorated with gold silver saris - the owner went to Goa and was happy for me to move in. I made friends with people, still finding this red uniform and big necklace everybody was wearing strange. But these people were fun and I liked their expressiveness, hugs, and laughter and tears and all. They spoke about Bhagwan a lot. So finally I thought I might as well give it a try and visit him. But when I wanted to I got “sniffed out”, for many days, they just would not let me in. Too speedy, nervous, too city like - no meditation nowhere I guess. Being a committed anti-authoritarian this of course challenged me. I washed my hair, stopped smoking, bought a dress like I saw the sniffer ladies wearing and finally made it. I was so pleased!
First I noticed how tranquil his voice sounded. But of course me still having my well trained highly critical mind I was thinking and judging as much as I could. But - first he intrigued me with his humor, then I was touched by his poetry, then fascinated by his love for the paradoxes of life, and to understand life as a mystery was simply wonderful.. And then I noticed that in his presence things in me fell into place, all drama disappeared,I relaxed, no fear. From then on I never got sniffed out again. Of course I did not miss a single discourse and loved them all. And becoming Osho’s sannyasin was the most natural and right thing to do.
Many groups followed, I became a fan of meditation. I love sitting silently, doing it every day. I became very interested in the idea of becoming the master of one’s mind. A couple of years later Swami Santosh was running the first three months training in DeHypnotherapy. When Osho went to America I attended another three months training of DeHypnotherapy in Kashmir, and then Santosh trained some of us to become group-leaders. So I worked with DeHypnotherapy in Australia (in a weight control center) and in Germany and of course in the meditation resort in Pune.
I studied NLP and Ericksonian Hypnosis. In the meditation resort I was running long trainings in “Hypnosis for Meditation”. A couple of months before leaving the body I was chosen to design a meditation containing hypnosis. The “Reminding Yourself Of The Forgotten Language Of Talking To Your Body And Mind” meditation. Under Osho’s direct guidance I designed this meditation. Osho took great interest in this process and only one week before he left Osho asked how the meditation was going. I wrote a letter to him with some questions. But he could not respond any more. So the meditation just stayed the same as it was then.
In the two years before leaving his body Osho spoke a lot about making the mind a friend of your meditation, an allie for conscious living. Because, as he says, a life in consciousness just works better, in togetherness, in aloneness, in creativity, in love. And this is now my work. I am very grateful to Osho to teach me how to combine the brilliant tools of Hypnotherapy and NLP with meditation. So I do understand my work as a practical application of Osho’s message. And it does work, it brings more peace, more self-love and more joy into peoples life. And in mine, thank you, Osho.
Discover Ma Madita at Osho Nisarga:
