Hey again!

I've been at the Osho ashram for 5 days now; have to say it's been one of the best experiences so far. Basically it's a place for meditation, healing, finding yourself and learning to live for the moment. Unlike any other ashram though it's also got a swimming pool, sauna, discos, and a huge amount besides. It all follows Mr Osho's philosophy that there's no point being either spiritually or materially wealthy, why not have it both!?

The ashram is a very strange place, all the buildings are big black pyramids set in really beautiful gardens full of waterfalls and such. You have to wear maroon robes to day meditations and white robes to the evening meditation. It sounds very religious but the whole belief of Osho is based on freedom from religious constraints and the robes and such are just to give the medititions a sense of collective energy. So I haven't been brainwashed into some sort of cult - there are no demands from you or religious rules to follow so it's really relaxed. 

On Tueday morning I found myself in a room with about 40 other maroon clad people from 36 different countries imagining I was a chicken trying to vigorously blow a pea out of my nose. This is the first stage of dynamic meditation; where you have to breathe irregularly to free your mind and prepare for the second stage when you let go and go crazy.

All the meditations are very strange as well and they mostly take place in a huge pyramid which holds about 2000 people. Everyone inside the ashram is both really nice and really eccentric; the robe lady sings which style of robe she thinks is best for you and the people in the cafe dance as they serve you. There's a lady who just spends all day dancing in the same way; you just sort of come across her in a trance in some remote courtyard and try not to disturb her. Some people are doing a course where you have to laugh for a week, cry for a week and then be silent for a week. It's the laughing week so every day I pass some people laughing hysterically for no reason at all. Everyone who works at the commune is a volunteer so they have a real enthusiasm for what they do and always want to help.

Well every morning so far I've gotten up at 5am and gone to dynamic meditation; such a weird way to start the day but a really special experience. Then I go to the pool and sauna and be really lazy. Then it's a different meditation every day; today it was 20 mins of laughter, then 20 of lying down, then 20 of dancing and tomorrow it's laughing drums (whatever that might be). Then it's Nadabrahma which is a traditional sort of one where you hum to some incredible sounding drums and gongs. then Kundalini which made me really ache because you have to shake for ages. Most of?the Osho meditations are active as this helps stop the mind wandering into what to eat for dinner and such. From the first day I've been hanging around with Jacqueline, a German girl who is always happy and knows loads about meditating and various other strange but wonderful people who randomly hug you and dance for hours on end in wherever they find themselves. Last night I saw one guy about half a mile away from the commune dancing through the streets in his white robe.

Yesterday and today I did one on one sessions which were brilliant. Yesterday I did self-hypnosis dehypnosis with Dr Amriko - an English guy with comedy glasses. Amriko's his Sannyasin name which some people take as a commitment to themselves to grow through meditation. He was fantastic; the session overan by 30 minutes because there was so much to say and take in, he was very intelligent and knew a lot about states of conciousness and taught me a method of self hypnosis to help with anxiety! Apparently he's the youngest ever person to graduate from the Royal College of Surgeons so he knew his stuff. Today I had a session on stress with an Iranian guy called Puja who again really helped. Yesterday I went to the evening meeting for the second time which is really long and peaceful; it's very surreal seeing hundreds of people dressed in white walk across a bridge into a giant pyramid. You're played a video of Osho speaking which you're not actually meant to listen to and then yell gibberish for 5 minutes and then fall back like a "bag of rice". Then you dance a lot. I don't actually know what this is all meant to do to the mind but I left it feeling very peaceful. Unfortunately there are no cameras allowed in the ashram so I'm just going to have to use official pictures :( or sneak in my camera.

Oh I went with a friend to meditate in the Chaung Tzu which was Osho's house. It was like a palace. Afterwards we looked round his house which we didn't realise was out of bounds until a very shocked lady found us in his library. Half the building was a library as he read five books a day and I was well pleased to see Lord of The Rings in there along with some other very strange books :) 

Hope you are all well.

 Tom xxx