Find Your Voice Find Your Song

Participants who found their voices and their songs

Sadhana


Everyone of us would love to do it, wouldn't we? But our voices are suppressed so much that many people carry a block in their throat, which is more emotional than physical. Osho Multiversity offers many courses that help people remove their blocks and help the energy flow freely.

One such course is Finding Your Voice Finding Your Song. Recently people from 8 different countries and four different continents participated in a fun-packed intensive at OSHO International Meditation Resort this last weekend culminating in a heart-warming performance on Monday night. This 4-day course is an invitation for everyone to reconnect with their unique instruments (themselves) and their potential for sound and singing. “In a place like this where the focus is on meditation and celebration, music is a wonderful tool to explore and express ecstasy and silence,” says Satyam the course facilitator.

In these four days participants start “making friends” with their voices through playful singing games and interactions. “Many people arrive feeling inhibited – they only sing in the shower or alone in the car, or maybe not at all. In this course by creating a trusting and light-hearted environment people soon open up and soon find themselves performing uninhibitedly with a microphone and then creating their own song inspired by some beautiful words of Osho,” says Abhijat, who has assisted in the course many times.

Watching these people sing joyously one thinks why can't everyone sing like a bird?
Osho says, "If we can destroy the inferiority complex... which is very simple: the teachers and the parents just have to be aware not to impose themselves on the helpless children. And just within two decades the new generation will be free of the inferiority complex. People will express their creativity. There will be musicians, there will be dancers, there will be painters, carpenters. There will be all sorts of creativity around the world. But nobody is competing with anybody else; he is simply doing his best. It is his joy. The joy is not in competing, the joy is not in coming first; the joy is in doing it. It is not outside the act, it is intrinsic to the act."

From Bondage to Freedom

Reclaim the Glory of Tibet

Sadhana

Osho says, " This is the greatest calamity of the twentieth century that Tibet has fallen into the hands of materialists who don't believe that you have anything inside you. They believe that you are only matter and your consciousness is only a by-product of matter. "

The latest turmoil in Tibet only proves that in today's world you can't enslave human beings for long. It is no wonder that more than 100 Buddhist monks who believe in non- violence and peace have kicked off the protests against the cruel regime of China, which quickly attracted hundreds of other Tibetans and saw one of the biggest markets in Lhasa ablaze. It was a "Free Tibet Campaign."
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said the protests were a result of the long simmering public resentment of the "brute force" employed by China to maintain control of the region for more than 50 years. He also urged his fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.

Osho has expressed great concern over the untoward incidents in Tibet:
" The only country in the world which has devoted all its genius to the inner exploration is Tibet. Its findings are of tremendous value. But unfortunately, Tibet has fallen into a darkness. Its monasteries have been closed, its seekers of truth have been forced to work in labor camps. The only country in the world which was working -- a one-pointed genius, all its intelligence in the search for one's own interiority and its treasures -- has been stopped by the communist invasion of Tibet.
"It was such a beautiful experiment, and Tibet had no weapons to fight with, they had no army to fight; they had never thought about it. Their whole thing was an introverted pilgrimage.
"Nowhere has such concentrated effort been made to discover man's being. Every family in Tibet used to give their eldest son to some monastery where he was to meditate and grow closer to awakening. It was a joy to every family that at least one of them was wholeheartedly working on the inner being.
"These monasteries had no comparison in the whole world. These monasteries were concerned with only one thing: to make you aware of yourself.
Thousands of devices have been created down the centuries so that your lotus can blossom and you can find your ultimate treasure. The destruction of Tibet should be known in history, particularly when man becomes a little more aware and humanity a little more humane..."
Excerpted from Om Mani Padme Hum

Abolish Exams

Sadhana

"Unlike in the US, it's not a faulty gun law that's killing kids in India. Here, we have another way to kill our children. It's called exams. At least six students ended their lives across the country, in metros and in villages, on March 13 alone. And all the suicides were attributed to exams. " Reports TheTimes of India on March 17, 2008.
In 2006, almost 6000 students — or 16 a day — comitted suicide across India due to exam stress. And these are just the official figures. Shimla superintendent of police (crime), Punita Bhardwaj, said incidents of children committing suicide because of examination stress often did not get reported as traumatized parents wanted to keep the issue under wraps.
This year the number is mutiplied. So much so that The Parliament of India discussed this issue on March 17th so as to find the solution to this growing problem.
Osho has declared that the current system of education is wrong and he wants examinations to be abolished as they have proved to be killers, and are no criterian to judge somebody's intelligence.
"The education that has prevailed in the past is very insufficient, incomplete, superficial. It only creates people who can earn their livelihood but it does not give any insight into living itself. It is not only incomplete, it is harmful too -- because it is based on competition.
Any type of competition is violent deep down, and creates people who are unloving. Their whole effort is to be the achievers -- of name, of fame, of all kinds of ambitions. Obviously they have to struggle and be in conflict for them. That destroys their joys and that destroys their friendliness. It seems everybody is fighting against the whole world.
Education up to now has been goal-oriented: what you are learning is not important; what is important is the examination that will come a year or two years later. It makes the future important -- more important than the present. It sacrifices the present for the future. And that becomes your very style of life; you are always sacrificing the moment for something which is not present. It creates a tremendous emptiness in life.there should not be any kind of examination as part of education, but every day, every hour observation by the teachers; their remarks throughout the year will decide whether you move further or you remain a little longer in the same class. Nobody fails, nobody passes -- it is just that a few people are speedy and a few people are a little bit lazy -- because the idea of failure creates a deep wound of inferiority, and the idea of being successful also creates a different kind of disease, that of superiority.
Nobody is inferior, and nobody is superior.
One is just oneself, incomparable.
So, examinations will not have any place. That will change the whole perspective from the future to the present. What you are doing right this moment will be decisive, not five questions at the end of two years. Of thousands of things you will pass through during these two years, each will be decisive. "
The Golden Future # 23

Footsteps of Silence

Sadhana

Most of the stress felt by the modern man is because of the continuous inner dialogue that goes on in the mind. There have to be some silent spaces in which the mind rejuvenates and regenerates its energy. In the twenty-four hours of a day you need to be silent for an hour or so, whenever it is convenient. The internal dialogue will go on but don't be a party to it. It is not so difficult if you follw these keys given by Osho.

Detached listening
Sit without doing anything and hear the talk within just as you would hear two people talking, but don't get involved; just listen to what one part of the mind is telling another. Whatever comes, let it come; don't try to repress it. Only be a witness to it.

Wild horses of the mind
A lot of rubbish that you have gathered over the years will come out. The mind has never been given the freedom to throw away this rubbish. When given the chance, the mind will run like a horse that has broken his reins. Let it run! You sit and watch.
To watch, just watch, is the art of patience. You will want to ride the horse, to direct it this way or that, because that is your old habit. You will have to exercise some patience in order to break this habit.

Speak your thoughts
If it is convenient and possible, speak your thoughts out loud so that you can also hear them, because within the mind the thoughts are subtle and there is the fear you may not be very conscious of them. Speak them aloud, listen to them, and be very aware and alert to remain well separated from them. Resolve to speak out whatever comes to mind, but be absolutely unbiased and neutral.
It is absolutely necessary to empty the mind patiently for six months, because all your life you have done nothing but load it with thoughts. If you work at this method wholeheartedly and sincerely, you will begin to hear the footsteps of silence.

Copyright Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com

Freedom Of Women Will Be The Freedom Of Men

Women dancing freely at the Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune

Sadhana

I didn't post this blog on women's day on purpose. I don't like this hullabaloo about woman's upliftment or liberation. As if woman is some retarded creature and she has to be uplifted and brought to the level of man. The fact is, it's the man who needs to be liberated from his inhibitions. If he changes his attitude towards the woman -- inner and outer, the womanhood will get all the space to grow and evolve. Because a woman has to live in the man's world.
Remember the golden words of Osho: "The freedom of women is going to be the freedom of men too. The day the woman is accepted as equal, man will find himself suddenly free."
Osho tells all the men of the world: " You will have to go through a very deep inner spring cleaning and see that the woman is the victim. And because she is the victim and has no positive way to resist, to fight, she finds indirect ways: of nagging, of screaming, of throwing tantrums. These are simply hopeless efforts. And naturally her rage against the whole of humanity becomes focused on one man, the husband.
The freedom of women is going to be the freedom of men too. The day the woman is accepted as equal, given equal opportunity to grow, man will find himself suddenly free from the bitchiness that he used to feel from the women. And he will be surprised that neither is she a cat nor is he a dog -- both are human beings.
It is time.
Man has come to a certain maturity. We can create a world together, with men and women sharing their insight, their visions, their dreams. Because they are different, their dreams are different, their contributions to the society will be different. And if a society can be created in which men and women have participated equally, that will be for the first time the richest society in the world -- and without all this bitchiness and nagging and fighting.

Excerpted from Sermons in Stones

Dropping the armor around

Osho International Meditation Resort Pune, India. A woman practising body movement.




Sadhana

If you experience the feeling of being enclosed, hemmed in by limitations around your body, it may be that you are carrying body armoring around you. These old patterns of protection can be dissolved, allowing you to feel free again.
And it is good that you are becoming aware of it. You are carrying it unconsciously. If you don't carry it, it will disappear.
Osho says, small exercises like breathing, running and visualizing that a load is being dropped, or taking your armor off while undressing for bed can help you regain your freedom. Here are some Osho tips worth trying.

Emphasize your exhalation
While walking or sitting, or whenever you are not doing anything, exhale deeply. The emphasis should be on exhalation, not on inhalation. Throw out as much air as you can and exhale through the mouth. But do it slowly so it takes time; the longer it takes the better, because then it goes deeper. When all the air inside the body is thrown out, then the body inhales. Don't you inhale. Exhalation should be slow and deep, inhalation should be fast. This will change the armor near the chest, and the throat.

Visualize while running
If you can start running a little that will be helpful. Not many miles, just one mile will do. Visualize that a load is disappearing from the legs, as if it is falling. Legs carry armor if your freedom has been restricted too much; if you have been told to do this and not to do that, to be this and not to be that, to go here and not to go there. So you start running…. And while running, also put more attention on exhalation. Once you regain your legs and their fluidity, you will have a tremendous energy flow.

Take off your armor at night
In the night when you go to sleep, take off your clothes, and while taking them off, just imagine that you are not only taking off your clothes, you are taking off your armor too. Actually do it. Take it off and have a good deep breath – and then go to sleep as if unarmored, with nothing on the body and no restriction.
Excerpted from Osho books