I had visited Osho Nisarga about seven years earlier when the land had been purchased but building work hadn’t started so I was quite amazed to see how the place had been transformed. Everything was beautifully constructed and sparkling clean in the cool mountain air and, wonder of wonders, you could drink directly from the tap – a rare treat in India. The food was delicious and the temperature just right to eat in the open. My room had been described as being in the attic, but was actually extremely spacious and had a beautiful view of the Himalaya. The only drawback were the sloping ceilings which took me 2 days to acclimatise to and stop giving myself brain-damage as I bumped my head in my haste to change for the various meditations.

The participants arrived on the previous day which happened to be Diwali – Festival of Light – so our group started with a party and fireworks! Next morning after breakfast, we assembled in the lovingly built Mandir (or Buddhahall) and began introductions. The retreat was facilitated by Sarita and Chintan and assisted by Santoshi and Niten with help and amazing sound support from Gong Master Suraj and partner Giselle.

I had just bought a sound recording device before my trip, so I was keen to record the teachings and was doing quite well until I attempted to relocate myself with the extension lead – there was a loud bang, a smell of burning and a little pile of soot on the floor. “Oh, I thought – that could have been me.” After that, I thought I was better off just participating and focusing on dissolving my ego rather than my entire physical being!

We were introduced to a beautiful meditation which we would be practicing everyday after dynamic and before breakfast. This involved gazing at an object and allowing ourselves to dissolve in it, sense by sense. The first few minutes were accompanied by gonging by Suraj on his beautiful Venus and Mars gongs. After the first day, we decided to sit outside facing the river which was just gorgeous. After 40 minutes, Chintan lead us all in a slow Zen Walk along the river path. This was quite a challenge and took us most of the week to synchronise the entire line of 40 plus people.

More meditations were practiced covering the 12 facets of Tantra and after three days we slipped into silence to enable us to go even deeper. During this phase, Prem gave us a beautiful demonstration of Sufi Whirling and facilitated a meditation the next morning.

The silence was lifted for the final three days in time for the Shiva Shakti dance. Some of the Indian guys really went to town and appeared painted head to toe in blue and sporting a trident and cobra. The lovely Keerti was particularly generous sharing his blue paint powder with anyone who came near! And Khirad didn’t seem to mind being stepped on by Sarita who played Kali to his Shiva.

During the retreat we went on two beautiful walks in the surrounding countryside – one where we could bathe in the river and another in the forest. I particularly enjoyed seeing the villages and simple lifestyle – it seemed idyllic but was no doubt challenging in ways other than what we are used to in Europe.

The last few days flew by, and suddenly it was time to leave. Many of us were continuing our explorations by joining the Sacred India Tour which started from Delhi the next day. We were given a beautiful send off with drumming and singing and of course lots of hugging. A beautiful experience, which will stay with me a long time.

2010 retreat photo gallery by Rahi

If anyone else has some photos they would like to share, please add a comment and incude a link to your gallery.

Love

Sidika

Oh to be again embracing and being embraced by the tree where Osho became enlightened…held in infinity as in the arms of the most pure and tender lover.

Sending prayers down the Ganges

Sitting under the stars in a little boat on the Ganges, watching our little flower candles carrying prayers and “let go’s” float with purpose in the current til out of sight.

Sitting with death and feeling the Heavenly Comforter at Varanasi’s burning ghat funeral pyres – so natural, so timeless. Everyone should be able to do this once on their life……Anand Aasta

The special highlight for me was visiting Osho’s birthplace and experiencing meeting the local villagers. It was very touching to be greeted by such warm friendly people. Osho’s house had such a wonderful warm nurturing energy and surrounded by such beautiful unspoiled countryside. The magical soft late afternoon sun made the whole experience feel  like dropping back in space and time…..Shraddha

The stunning beauty of Khajuraho

Actually, the biggest challenge for me was to come away in the first place – to an unknown country , with a group of people I hadn’t met before. There are many highlights to mention, but the two that stand out  were the burning ghats in Varanasi and the sunset meditation in Khajuraho. It was deeply moving and emotional to witness the sacredness in which death is held here. The sunset meditation in Khajuraho -a new experience for me to meditate with open eyes in the darkness with the full moon up. And what a beautiful group of people we were. I’ve made many new friends and the whole tour was a complete adventure. I will always remember this time. Thank you all…….Ian

Total abandonment at Osho's meditation rock

Death in Varanasi – what a baptism into death/life. Life in death – each enfolded in the other. Disturbing for me. I came to India to ‘die to self’ – and I ‘lost’ my passport – my identity. I dipped in the Ganges and let go (Challenge) of old patterns of thought that do not support my journey.

Sex in Khajuraho. Ganga’s personal guided tour of the temples and personal chat about non-possessiveness in love was very special.

Birth - total abandonment meditating (Transformation) at Osho’s rock with the sound of Dynamic Meditation in the background. Challenge: letting go of the mind. Transformation: glimpsing the kingdom is within…….Phil Shankland

Definitely Varanasi – deeply touched by the contrast of chaos, noiseness, dirtyness in the town compared to the peace, calmness, quietness at the river Ganga and the burning ghats.

On the banks of the Ganges at Varanasi

Big relief about the natural integration of death in daily life -accompanied by an Indian guide on top of a building near the ghats, I enjoyed a very special meditation watching a body burn. Standing behind the fire source of the burning ghats and feeling the enormous power of the fire and the power of transformation.

Visiting the tantra temples in Khajuraho guided by Ganga – listening to his explanations of the old Tantra rituals and traditions.

Visitng the enormous tree in Jabalpur where Osho was enlightened – getting the message of purification and the value of it for myself and the whole world.

Visiting the Marble Rocks by boat in the moonlight – like an intergalactic adventure – incredible!…..Joy Beate

The endless nectar of the Shiva puja in Varanasi

The puja in Varanasi for Shiva with endless, endless nectar never ending which just reinforced the Tantra group we had done the week before. It just went on and on – this pouring of milk over the Shiva lingam – and at the end placing salt, curd and an abundance of beautiful flowers. Osho’s Buddha tree had amazing earth energy and was the cuddliest tree I ever felt!

The simple house Osho lived in as a boy

And in Osho’s birth place I felt again the intense heat through the ears and cheeks that I had felt in Darshan with Neelam the week before. It has all been amazing!! Good and bad experiences have all created growth and expansion in me….Sophie Churchyard

For me the Shiva Puja in Varanasi was incredibly beautiful and powerful. The chantings by the three priests (with us joining in the best we could) and the many offerings invoked a trance-like state. I felt extremely blessed to be a part of the ceremnoy -though operating my video camera and stills camera was a bit challenging with ghee or milk-covered hands!

Standing at night by the burning ghats was intensely serene and moving.

Listening to Osho’s guide, Ganga, at the temples in Khajuraho was a real transmission  -what a beautiful man!

Sidika soaking up the vibe at Osho's house

Osho’s enlightenment tree opened my heart and brought me to tears – especially poignant when Sarita said that for anyone who hadn’t met Osho in the body (i.e. all of us apart from Sarita), this tree held the same energy.

Marble Rocks by moonlight – beautiful and eerie – I almost expected (hoped for?) a pirate ship with Johnny Depp to appear out of the shimmering darkness!

The last ‘highlight’ was rather unexpected. After narrowly managing to board our return flight from Bhopal to Delhi, complete with 5-Star takeaway dinner in polystyrene containers, the  flight crew amazingly agreed with Niten’s request for us to eat our own food. Niten and I juggled plates and chappatis, curry, rice and dal in the narrow serving space at the back of the plane – ducking between the rest of the flight crew as they simultaneously served up the standard airline food. I negotiated the aisle with laden plates of food, luckily not slopping any over the fellow passengers’ suits. One Indian gentleman in the back row commented, “Never before in my life have I seen anything like this!” I apologise but he appeared amused/bemused rather than annnoyed!

Many thanks to Sarita for inspiring the tour and huge appreciation to Niten and Santoshi for steering us with grace and humour through the chaos and adventure that is ‘part and parcel’ of travel in India….Sidika

Sacred Sites of India 2010 tour party

We began our tour in Varanasi, representing conscious death, a place where people come on pilgrimage to be purged of impurities and meet death as though slipping into the embrace of a lover. In this holy place, the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, they are meeting God while bathing in the river, or being cremated in the fire, or in the continuous flow of music and chanting. I have never seen such a filthy place in all my life, and yet, in spite of this, the transmutation of poison into nectar was luminously present.

Shiva Lingam at Varanasi

The highlight for me in Varanasi was the two hour Shiva Puja which we were privileged to have offered to us. I was completely captivated by the chanting, the presence of the glorious Shiva Lingam, and the very sensuous ritual, where-in we smeared the Lingam with precious scented oils, with ghee, with honey, with spices and ablutions of milk, cleansed and washed it, and finally offered tiers of flowers and fruits. I felt fully blessed through this experience and this quality has not diminished with the passage of time. I felt in those two hours, that we stepped through a transparent veil into another world, another century, another dimension, where devotional love is the ruler of time, mind and all the senses.

Varanasi photo gallery – you can click on each image to enlarge, or choose the ‘slideshow’ option – you can make the images fullscreen by clicking on the icon with 4 arrows.

Sarita

From Varanasi we went to Khajuraho, a series of Tantra temples, representing sexuality and the invitation to allow meditation to be present in all aspects of life, including our most sensual explorations. The temples are simply exquisite, and are maintained in pristine cleanliness, with gorgeous gardens all around. It is a tremendous pleasure to explore them, taking time to be in awe of such masterful artistry. We were truly blessed to be guided by Ganga, a man who was Osho’s tour guide in Khajuraho, where Osho went numerous times. Ganga received a very powerful transmission from Osho on the subject of Khajuraho and on Tantra in general. I could really feel Osho’s presence in Ganga’s words and gestures as he lovingly shared his experiences of being with the Master and receiving his wisdom. Later, when Ganga had become a disciple of Osho and was living in the commune, Osho asked him to go back to Khajuraho and sing Osho’s song, which he has been doing ever since. He runs an esthetic, clean and loving hotel where people can relax into the nurturing ambiance of Ganga and the Khajuraho vibe.

Khajuraho photo gallery

We then journeyed to Jabalpur, where Osho was a student and then a professor in the University. We stayed in an Osho ashram there, which is on the edge of a marvelous forested area with a beautiful lake. The highlight in this place was to meditate on a very big rock where Osho used to go and meditate regularly, between 1952–1960. The rock has definitely received his transmission. The whole group of us who sat there were transported into deep meditation, and then found ourselves in spontaneous, ecstatic celebration.

Receiving the ecstasy of Osho's transmission

We went to the tree in Jabalpur where Osho experienced enlightenment at the age of 21. I believe that none of us were expecting anything in that strange theme park, decorated with huge plastic dinosaurs. And then we met the tree. And in the tree, we met a presence which was so palpable as to be truly astonishing. I have spent years at Osho’s feet, and so am able to recognize his unique fragrance and presence. I experienced that this tree is the body of Osho. Touching this tree, we are touching Osho’s body. Being embraced by this tree, we are receiving Darshan. It was an extraordinary blessing. As we were meditating there, a local television crew came and asked to interview some of us and to take photos and film us imbibing Osho’s sacred presence through the tree.

After that, still drunk on the divine, we made our way to the Narmada River with the famed marble rocks. We stayed in a hotel run by a Sannyasin named Anil. He was an angel with us, taking us to a very moving sunset Puja by the river. After a feast at his hotel, he then took us for a river cruise with the almost full moon lighting our way. To move in silence upstream and to experience the incredible beauty of this place is a darshan in itself. Everything Osho said about the marble rocks is true, it is one of the wonders of the world. We stopped our boat after about half an hour, and clambered out onto some ghostly white marble rocks which were jutting out into the river. Some people meditated, some people slept, and we were all lulled into the very heart of beauty and silence. It was utterly magical. Anil told us, if we want to come back for a longer time, he can take us on a trip to the marble rocks lasting a few days, and we can just be in the nature imbibing the beauty. He also guides people into Tantric experiences using the 64 sculptures at the Yogini temple in his village. When we visited the temple, it was amazing to feel the energy emanating from the deity inside, the only one of it’s kind in the world, a sculpture of Shiva and Paravati on their marriage day, riding on the back of a bull.

Jabalpur photo gallery

Former maid in Osho's house recounts tales of him as a boy

With much gratefulness in our hearts for Anil, we then journeyed 5 hours by Taxi over abominable roads, to reach Osho’s birthplace. There is an Osho ashram there, run by both Japanese and Indians. It is right on the edge of Osho’s birth village, a tiny hamlet, with houses made of mud brick and cow dung. Crowds of children swarmed around us as we made our way to the house which had been Osho’s home for the first 7 years of his life, the house of his grandparents. The house is abandoned, though it has been kept from complete ruin through the efforts of the nearby ashram. What I experienced meditating in that humble room where he was born, is beyond words. Tears kept welling up in my eyes as I found myself in resonance with the immensity of his soul, born into simplicity and innocence, yet brimming over with enlightened presence. We were guided to the mud, straw and stick hut of a very old woman who was a maid servant in Osho’s grandparents house when Osho was a child there. With ever present raucous laughter, she recounted how he never worked, but simply drank milk, a real lord of the manor so to speak. At the end of our meeting, we found ourselves showering her with money and expressing our gratitude to her for looking after the well being of our master so many years before.

Osho’s birthplace photo gallery

At the foot of the holy mountain

The next day, we came to Pachmari, a hill station, which has many sacred sites and breathtaking views over a vast terrain of wild forests, lakes and rivers. Here, we relaxed in a very luxurious hotel, decorated in a style reminiscent of the British Raj with wonderful vibrant gardens, and a staff ever ready to wait on us hand and foot. This is a great way to unwind and relax after the series of very intense experiences. Today, in the morning, we walked up 1200 steps to the top of a mountain with a Shiva temple on top. The temple was not very interesting, having been left incomplete, but the views as we climb up and down are phenomenal. And to top it all off, an Ayurvedic massage with a 3rd generation practitioner of this art, who is very gifted. This helped to iron out  very sore muscles from the climb up the holy mountain.

Pachmari photo gallery

Stay tuned for more sacred tours, with Niten and Santoshi as guides!

Love

Sarita

Last week I attended my first Tachyon group. It was lead by Sarita and Qiming and combined together Tachyon and Tantric meditations for the first time. I originally came across Tachyon at the Osho ashram in Pune, India when my friend showed me her Tachyonised necklace. I think it was the same year when I met David Wagner, the inventor of the Tachyonization process, who was giving a demonstration in the ashram. It sounded fascinating but I didn’t jump in at that time. Many years later, I experienced the restorative effects of the Tachyon cocoon during lunch breaks on Sarita’s Tantra courses at Croydon Hall – quite amazing!

A little more time went by and I had my most quantifiable healing with the cocoon. I was on a 5 day residential Tantra Course with another Tantra teacher and had arrived with an upset stomach – OK let’s be blunt – I had diarrhoea and was feeling pretty untantric. I’d come straight from a voice workshop so it was probably a clearing from that but that was small comfort at the time. As the days went by, I seemed to get weaker and weaker and was not really enjoying myself so much – not so easy to be sitting in Yab Yum where too much relaxation may have been unfortunate!

Anyhow, after 3 or 4 days, the lovely Tanja (who I didn’t really know at the time) asked me in the evening if I was still feeling bad – I nodded bleakly and she whisked me up to her room and put me in her cocoon  while she went off to the party downstairs. Ah what bliss, I began to feel myself being worked on by the Tachyon energy and soon fell asleep. I woke up about two hours later, felt slightly alarmed that perhaps I’d overcooked myself, folded up the cocoon, went back to my room and went to bed. Next morning, I felt like anew person, full of energy, no sign of upset stomach and extremely relieved to be back in the Tantra groove.

And now finally here I was in my first Tachyon group and eagerly awaiting my very own Tachyonised Vortex pendant which I had been assured would align my chakras. I’d been having a bit of a rough ride over the last few weeks so I was looking forward to the energetic support offered. The other participants came from far and wide  -Norway, Poland and Brazil were well-represented – everyone with their different story of how they had first encountered Tachyon.

Sarita and Qiming told us of the coming delights of the group – great anticipation and excitement. “OK, that’s the good news”, said Sarita. “Now for the bad news – the Tachyon pendants haven’t yet arrived and appear to have got lost in the international post!” Tanja and Qiming’s husband Gordon were doing their best to trace them but unfortunately Tracking numbers didn’t translate from one country to another. Always one to see the opportunity value of a ‘problem’, Sarita explained how valuable it was to experience some of the exercises without wearing the pendant and then notice the difference when we did them again with our pendant. She explained that sometimes people got lazy and just expected the Tachyon pendant to do all the work for them, whereas in reality we still had to do the work of transformation for ourselves, with the Tachyon there to enhance and provide a sustained support for the energy work. Everyone seemed remarkably unphased and raring to go pendant or no pendant.

The first day included a fair amount of information on what Tachyon energy is and how it derives from the Zero Point Field and interacts with the ‘subtle organising energy fields’ around all matter. The SOEFs ( a term coined by Gabriel Cousens of raw food fame) are essentially a blueprint or matrix for all matter. I absolutely love this kind of stuff and get really inspired exploring the territory where spirituality and science meet. We looked at the chakra system and how when this is fully open to the descent of divine energy, this is known as being vertically aligned and how trees and plants and most animals are naturally in this state – it’s only in humans and sometimes their pets) were things begin to go awry. The Tachyon pendant helps pierce open this channel and keeps us in vertical alignment.

Sarita explained about the concept of bifurcation – the way life repeatedly switches between order and chaos. In the chaos (or bifurcation) phase there is a choice – a reassemblage to a higher order of evolution or a breakdown into entropy and lower levels of order – it’s all a matter of consciousness. Disease occurs where bifurcation has led to entropy. This period on our planet is also a bifurcation point culminating in the changes in 2012. Tachyon speeds up the bifurcation process and helps us move through our ‘stuff’ – i.e all that is preventing us from living to our fullest divine potential. The various meditations and practices which we would be learning during the group would help us to handle this increased transformational load. I must admit, I had a slight wobble at this point – “Didn’t I already have enough going on already without speeding it up?”, I asked myself.

At the end of a very full day I travelled back on the bus with fellow participant Sam – we had a great time discussing energy, metaphysics and shamanism. Next day we did some beautiful Tantric meditations and began our entrainment practices with the trees, bushes and flowers in the garden.

Here's a tree I would love to have entrained with - isn't she gorgeous!

Entrainment is a process where you come into resonance with something and literally become it – I was already familiar with it from my shamanic studies (where it’s known as grocking) and also through one of the meditations in theVigyan Bhairav Tantra Online Meditation Series. Even so, I did find it quite challenging at times – Oh mind, please be a servant and not the master! Coming into resonance with a tree which is naturally in perpetual vertical alignment, helps us to access that space ourselves. I think I need to divorce my computer for a while and go and live in the woods for a bit – there’s some beautiful woods close to where I live in Bristol and I always feel immensely nourished when I walk there – now I understand better why.

Over the next few days we explored several more Tantric meditations including some of my favourites from the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. A particularly powerful one for me was one practicing The Great Law of Magic which can be stated as “Live the results and the cause will follow.” Sarita asked us to choose one strong desire and then write down what we would be feeling once we had achieved that desire. I wont say here what my desire was (big clue: to do with relationships!) but what I imagined I was wanting through the fulfilment of this desire was to feel ‘relaxed and joyful’. At first, I thought this sounded a bit tame, but it was what came to me spontaneously and the more we continued with the exercise expressing these particular qualities, the more I realised how profound and yet obvious was this insight. I am a self-confessed workaholic and can be a wee bit serious at times. In my early days in the Osho ashram, I was a zealous practitioner of Tibetan Pulsing ( a bit like sustained Shiatsu) and the organ I resonated was Lungs – which in the positive expresses joy and in the negative takes on too much and gets stressed (i.e. opposite to relaxed!). Here was a clear message to me – a useful filter when presented with choices- will this new opportunity bring me joy and relaxation or something else – perhaps more ego-fulfilling, but ultimately less nourishing? Of course, it’s not quite as simple as that (or is it??) but I feel quite excited at the prospect of a new joyful and relaxed me!

I found some of the practices we learned to help us deal with bifurcation accelerated by Tachyon quite demanding. We did some very powerful work on dissolving the ego using a technique invented by David Wagner – something which I will continue to use – as naturally some of my ego escaped! All of this work was hugely nourished by the delicious raw food lunches which arrived everyday and the exquisite raw chocolate cake in the afternoon tea break! Other highlights of the group for me were the party and Qiming’s demonstration of the various Tachyon products available. Finally we came to say goodbye, and were all wearing our beautiful new Tachyon pendants (which arrived by courier at the venue at the same time as the original order meandered it’s way to Qiming’s house!). I’m sure I saw a glint in Sarita’s eye when she kissed me goodbye and said, “Ah Sidika, I’m looking forward to hearing about your bifurcation processes!

For the next four days I found myself on a Tachyon honeymoon – feeling very peaceful and relaxed. A big bifurcation blip on day five, precipitated by some weird dreams and soothed by a couple of self-applied mini Colour Light Therapy treatments (thanks for the suggestions, Kamla!) and then OK again the last couple of days – the process continues! I do really sense a shift in my core to a more self-compassionate, relaxed way of being….something which I hope will blossom in the Tantra Meditation Retreat in Dharamsala next month. Hooray – back to India after an absence of more than six years!

For anyone else who participated in the Infinity: Power of Now Tachyon/Tantra combo group, remember to email Sarita with your experiences – or perhaps even put them as comments on this blog. Happy processing!

Love and alignment

Sidika (newly Tachyonized version)

This one-hour dance celebrates your life energy while opening your chakras. It is an active meditation, where bringing awareness to your body movements helps to create transformation.

Phase One

Dance the quality of each chakra in turn, allowing seven minutes for each chakra.

Chakra             Quality

First                     Sex/sensuality

Second                Emotions/feelings

Third                    Individual truth/egolessness

Fourth                 Love/sacredness

Fifth                     Creativity/expression

Sixth                    Psychic opening/transcendence

Seventh              Bliss/oneness

If you don’t know where the chakras are located, check out Suta’s short video “Live life fully! Learn about the Chakra system”

Begin at the first chakra, focusing on this chakra inside your pelvic region, radiating energy in all directions. Let your whole pelvis fill up with that energy, and dance from there. Then let your whole body be overtaken by the quality of the first chakra.

After seven minutes, move your focus to the second chakra and again let the energy expand as you dance the quality of that chakra, discovering what it is for you personally. Then allow that energy to engulf your whole body and become it, from head to toe, as you continue dancing. Repeat for each chakra in turn, ending with the crown chakra.

Phase Two

Lie down for 15 minutes with eyes closed, simply witnessing your breathing, your mind, and your emotions as a detached observer. You may become aware of all seven chakras vibrating simultaneously.

You can buy a CD to accompany this meditation from the Shop

This is a meditation from the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, the sutra is:

“Blessed one, as senses are absorbed in the heart, reach the centre of the lotus.”

This meditation is using the heart principle, which transforms everything into love. It is very important in terms of not only life but also death, because the heart principle is trying every moment to transform any unfinished business into love. Whatever is not fully lived will be purified in the fire of love in the heart

You can use this meditation to awaken the maximum experience of the senses. At any time of the day when you are having a sensorial experience, you can close your eyes for a moment, absorb that experience in the heart and see how it feels. You can also do it as a specific meditation, with a partner:

Step 1

Blindfold your partner and stimulate their senses in turn: smell, taste, sound, touch and sight.

Smell: using natural scents such organic essential oils or flowers, wave them in front of your partner’s nose and allow them time to drink in the smell.

Taste: using different foods, offer all the tastes to your partner – salty, sweet, bitter, pungent, sour. If we use all the five tastes this will be very empowering for our life, because a rich and full life contains all these tastes.

Sound: you could use very soft music, or tinkling bells, a soft flute, or so on, simply murmur sweet nothings into your partner’s ear, or sing to them. Make sure you give them an experience of sound, then silence, sound then silence.

Touch: for this you can use caressing, massage, drape a silk scarf or a peacock feather over your partner – whatever comes to mind, be creative!

Sight: put on some wonderful music, remove your partner’s blindfold and do a dance for them. They are simply visually connecting with what they are seeing – you dancing!

Once you have been through all the senses with your partner, exchange. If you are doing this with a lover, it is a really beautiful prelude to love making.

For the person receiving all of these different sensorial experiences, just absorb all of it into the heart, each time.

Like to try more meditations like this? Then join Sarita’s Vigyan Bhairav Tantra club! < http://www.schoolofawakening.com/vigyan-bhairav-tantra-webinar.php>

Can Tantra help to transform jealousy?

Love Sita x

Answer

Jealousy is a red hot topic which trips up even the most dedicated meditator. Luckily, one of the meanings of Tantra is, ‘transforming poison into nectar.’ In this sense, we can use Tantra to transform any of the so called negative aspects of our life, including jealousy.

It is good to understand that in fact, if we are jealous of someone, this feeling comes about because we are projecting some un-lived aspect of ourselves onto the person we are jealous about. We are imagining that this person is able to have a level of fulfillment that we are denied. To heal this wound within ourselves, it is wise to ask the question, “if I could do whatever I wanted to right now, what would it be?”

Once you have found out what your underlying desire is, then you can create a meditation out of living it, as consciously as possible. In this scenario, it is important not to believe you need the other in order to act it out. You can distill your desire to it’s very essence, which means you going for your core need.  A sutra from the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra says:   “Objects and desires exist in me as in others. So accepting, let them be transformed.”

By accepting our desires, and acting them out as a meditation, we will be able to discover powerful lessons and insights which will enhance our clarity, wisdom and compassion. An important key in this is to be total. The more honest we are with our core desires, and the more total in acting them out, the more clarity and transformation will happen.  When you are doing exactly what you want, in the here and now with your full passion and creativity, it will be impossible to be in a state of jealousy. You will be so fully alive, so in the flow of who you are meant to be, that you will have no need to project your life force energy on another and compare. You will be in the flow. Jealousy can only exist in stagnation.

With love,

Sarita

Sarita began by explaining that Tantra works with uniting opposites, and that we can see these polarities not as separate qualities, but more like the two banks of a river where they seem opposite but underneath the water they are one. I’ve struggled for years to reconcile the two different people that live inside of me – the wild, crazy, loud party animal and the much more quiet, insular and reflective self. Since discovering Osho’s work, I’ve been better able to accept all aspects of my personality and working with Tantra is happily reinforcing that for me. Tantra also teaches that the unity of sex and spirit produces a powerful energy for transformation and that there is no right and wrong, just opportunities for growth. I like this lack of judgement.

The faces of the group revealed eager anticipation from some and nervous trepidation from others – just what had they let themselves in for? To break down any barriers we were invited to dance individually from our sexual centres, connecting with that raw, potent, creative energy. Then as the music dipped to a slower, softer sound, Sarita encouraged us to dance from our spiritual centres and connect with source energy.

Next we performed the same exercise – dancing from our wild and passionate sides and then softly, meeting our partner’s gaze and connecting with their essence, changing partners as we moved around the room. After dancing with those dichotomies I already felt more alive with energy zinging around my body.

In pairs we were then led into the meditation of the five senses. This began with the male partner lying down and being blindfolded. To stimulate his sense of smell, the women wafted tissues under his nose that had been impregnated with different aromatherapy oils.

Taste was the next sense to be kindled as we fed our partners slices of apple sensuously and with great sensitivity. Sarita suggested that the guys explore their sense of taste by connecting with the tree the apple grew on, the orchard it stood in and the sunlight that gave it precious energy to grow. We are connected to everything and everybody on this Earth but we rarely stop and give ourselves time to appreciate these connections.

Playing with sound, the female partners were invited to hum, sing or whisper in our partner’s ear. I found this the hardest to do as I didn’t have any poems memorised or lines rehearsed. But looking inside my heart I found the words to say. Exploring touch we softly stroked hair and bodies from head to foot, from heaven to earth. And on removing our partner’s blindfolds we inspired their sense of sight by dancing for him like Shakti dancing for Shiva. I enjoyed this part the most as my body’s desire to move had been re-awakened by the dancing earlier, and there’s nothing like a seductive snaking of hips to bring out the goddess in me.

On switching roles, I was surprised at just how much stronger each sense became when I tuned into them. Skin was much more sensitive to touch when sight was “out of sight”.  And I really could taste the sweet rain that watered the apple tree.

Me and my friend Loan at Mind Body Spirit

I had to duck out of the workshop early in order to catch my bus back to Bristol but I left there feeling so much more juicy and alive. This valuable playtime was the perfect antidote to too much work lately and I wouldn’t want to be accused of being a dull girl now would I?

Sarah Shivani Williams

Sarah’s weekly radio show, Vivacity, is broadcast on Wednesday’s at midday on BCFM 93.2 in Bristol.  Tune in or go online to listen and podcasts are downloadable from: www.bcfm.org.uk.

Sarah’s blog is available at: http://vivacityradio.wordpress.com/

How can Tantra be helpful for health?

Nania

Answer

To be healthy means to be whole. The nature of wholeness is when body, mind, emotions and soul function as one organic unity. As Osho has said, “The body is the soul made visible.” In my experience, when someone takes a quantum leap in their state of consciousness, it is essential to then take very good care of the body, so the body can catch up to where the consciousness has gone. If this step is not taken it can have dire consequences for the body. In this sense, Tantra is the supreme spiritual approach, since Tantra honors the body as the microcosm. There is a very beautiful Tantra quote from Saraha Doha:

“Here in this body are the sacred rivers

Here are the sun and moon

As well as all the pilgrimage places

I have not encountered another temple

As blissful as my own body.”

I remember in a Darshan with Osho, hearing him say to me, “Love the body. Love the body. It is through the body you reach the divine.” I have followed his guidance very precisely and have found the reality in his words.

As we move on the spiritual path, and use the body as our entry point into expanded consciousness, we have the opportunity of experiencing the five senses and all emotional states as friends on the path. The body is always in the present moment, and so is a great teacher. Opening sensual awareness brings sensitivity to all aspects of life. As we become more sensitive we can easier hear the music of the spheres, or see with clairvoyant vision, or feel the subtle truth of life situations, or see behind the illusory veil of maya.

The path of healing through Tantra supports us in knowing ourselves in our totality, the infinite mirrored in the finite. It is a beautiful, loving and supportive path of all that we are.

From the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra

To understand this meditation we need to begin from the last word; ‘joyous.’ If you go deeply into the feeling of joy it becomes clear that joy as such has no container. When we are in a state of pure joy, there is no mind, no awareness of physical limitations. Rather, there is a feeling of limitlessness, expansiveness, lightness. There is a saying, “angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” Yes, and humans can also have the experience of being weightless and free to fly. The moment we are in love, there is joyous abandon. In this sense, love becomes the bridge from the density of form to formlessness and expansion.

One of the easiest ways to experience the nectar of this sutra is through orgasm. When you are with your lover, in total abandon, surrendered to powerful surges of pleasure and ecstasy, you can go into such a deep let go that you completely forget you have a body or mind. In the moment of orgasm, even though the impulse for orgasm is physical, it has the capacity of propelling us from a full body experience of ecstasy into an out of the body merging with the cosmos. We literally, “toss attachment for body aside” as we plunge into the free-fall known as orgasm.

Once we have learned the language of orgasm, then we can apply this same principle to meditation in general. Looking at a sunrise is enough to bring it on. Walking through the forest is enough to help you take flight. Sitting on your meditation cushion can become ascension from the finite to the infinite. The language of orgasm is the same language of mystic experience of all kinds.

The first step is to be in a full body aliveness.

The 2nd step is to be in a deep let go, surrendered and in trust of what is arising.

The 3rd step is to move beyond body and mind.

The 4th step is to dissolve into the whole.

Down the ages, mystics have described the experience of enlightenment in very similar ways. Some of the main descriptions which are used are:

“There is no more I as separate from the whole.”

“There is oneness with all that is; I am the tree, I am the rock, I am the rivers and the oceans, I am the whisper of the wind in the trees.”

“Body dissolves into pure light”

“It is the ultimate orgasm with the universe”

You can begin this meditation by learning the language of orgasm, and then apply this quality to as many areas in your life as you can. The sutra in this way will become such an alive and vibrant door for you, that one day, whenever you are ready, you will know the fullness of the blessing that the sutra is describing. You have nothing to lose but your inhibitions, and a whole universe to gain.

Like to try more meditations like this? There’s still time to join Sarita’s Vigyan Bhairav Tantra club! Read Roxana’s blog on her joy of being part of this unique experience. We are currently in the phase where Sarita is speaking live in the video chat room on specific facets of tantra every two weeks. When this is over we will most likely have these live events every 4 to 6 weeks and questions on any facet can be asked of Sarita. And remember, you can jump in at any point – the modules don’t need to be taken in any specific order.