Beloved
Friends of Osho
You
are invited to meditate and celebrate with us
Osho
Celebration Day Meditation,
Celebration and Dinner
This
special once a year event is to celebrate enlightenment
day, which serves as a reminder that we all have within
us the potential to 'Wake Up'! In honour of this date,
we are gathering at The Osho Meditation Hall in Mevlana
with our Beloved Friends to dance, connect, eat, laugh
and meditate.
These are challenging times on the Earth and Osho
spoke about the coming changes and challenges as a
great opportunity for humanity to evolve and wake
up:
"It
is my absolutely clear vision that the world is very
close to its end. Don't giggle it away. Don't find
rationalisations; they won't help. An immediate transformation
is absolutely needed; it is an urgency which man has
never faced before. In a way, you are very fortunate
because this crisis is so big - perhaps it may help
you to wake up"
"Enlightenment
is not a desire, is not a goal, is not an ambition.
It is a dropping of all goals, a dropping of all desires,
a dropping of all ambitions. It is just being natural.
That's what is meant by flowing... "
Enjoy
the flow into movement and dance.
Program:
5pm:
Live Nataraj (Dance Meditation with live music by
The Atmospheres)
6pm
Osho Discourse
7pm:
Healthy Yummy Food for the Belly made with Love for
the Soul
8pm:
Osho Video Clips - Here Now and Before
__._,_.___
Please
arrive 15 minutes before start of meditation session to
settle in. If these meditations are new to anyone, there
will be a brief explanation before we start. If for any
reason you are unable to do dynamic, it is possible to
arrive in time for discourse.
Community
Dinner
for friends of Gondwana
Most Wednesdays
Phone 6684 7210 to check
_____________________
Early
History of the Movement:
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (1931-1990) was born Rajneesh Chandra
Mohan in Kuchwara, a town in central India. Various sources
state that "Bhagwan" means "The Blessed One"
and that "Shree" means "Master". At the
end of his life, he changed his name to Osho.
His parents' religion was Jainism. However, Osho never subscribed
to any religious faith during his lifetime. He received "samadhi"
(enlightenment in which his soul became one with the universe)
on 1953-MAR-21 at the age of 21. Rajneesh obtained a masters
degree in philosophy from the University of Saugar. He taught
philosophy at the University of Jabalpur for nine years and
concurrently worked as a religious leader. In 1966, he left
his teaching post and gave his full attention to teaching
his sannyasins (disciples) while pursuing a speaking career.
He had an apartment in Bombay where he often met individuals
and small groups, where acting as spiritual teacher, guide
and friend. Most of his Sannyasins came from Europe and India
in the early years.
In 1974, Osho moved from Bombay southward to Pune to establish
an ashram (place of teaching) which would provide larger and
more comfortable facilities for his disciples. The ashram
consisted of two adjoining properties covering six acres in
an affluent suburb of Pune called Koregaon Park. Some estimate
as many as 50,000 Westerners spent time seeking enlightenment
there with the guru. In 1979, he saw his movement as the route
to the preservation of the human race. The holocaust of a
global suicide can only be avoided if a new kind of man can
be created." He taught a syncretistic spiritual path
that combined elements from Hinduism, Jainism, Zen Buddhism,
Taoism, Christianity, ancient Greek philosophy, many other
religious and philosophic traditions, humanistic psychology,
new forms of therapy and meditation.
In 1981 he left India reluctantly because of health problems.
He went to the United States in order to obtain advanced treatment.
The group settled on the 65,000 acre "Big Muddy Ranch"
near Antelope, Oregon, which his sannyasins had bought for
six million dollars. The ranch was renamed Rajneeshpuram ("City
of Rajneesh"). This "small, desolate valley twelve
miles from Antelope, Oregon was transformed into a thriving
town of 3,000 residents, with a 4,500 foot paved airstrip,
a 44 acre reservoir, an 88,000 square foot meeting hall..."
He returned to Pune, India in 1987, where his health began
to fail. Here, he abandoned the name of Rajneesh and adopted
"Osho". Some sources explain that the name was derived
from the expression "oceanic experience" by William
James; others say that it was derived from an ancient Japanese
word for master. He died in Pune in 1990.
Beliefs
and Practices
Osho developed new forms of active meditation. The best known
is Dynamic Meditation which often starts with physical activity
followed by silence and celebration. It is true that he felt
that the institution of the family was out of date and that
it should be replaced with alternative forms of community
and ways of caring for children. However, he actually encouraged
individual disciples to make peace with their families. Many
became disciples themselves, including Osho's own parents.
He taught a form of Monism, that God was in everything and
everyone. There is no division between "God" and
"not-God". People, even at their worse, are divine.
He recognized Jesus Christ as having attained enlightenment.
Osho was noted for reading very offensive jokes; some were
anti-Semitic; others were anti-Roman Catholicism; others insulted
just about every ethnic and religious group in the world.
He explained that the purpose of these jokes was to shock
people and to encourage them to examine their identification
with and attachment to their ethnic or religious beliefs.
His contention was that national, religious, gender and racial
divisions are destructive.
