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Please note new START time and new PRICING for the Sept 5th day. See:

http://osho-meditation-bristol.co.uk/blog/practical-information-for-active-meditation-days/

I’ve had the phrase “making meditation the first priority” with me a lot recently. So here are some Osho quotes on that theme.

All excerpts (c) Osho International Foundation. You can download the complete discourse of the first 2 quotes inexpensively on www.osho.net – highly recommended.

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I would like you to be more individual, more free, more alert, more conscious, more meditative. And these situations can be great opportunities for meditation. But if you get angry, freak out, start defending yourself, then please don’t ask such questions. I have no interest at all. Your relationship is your business.

My simple concern here is meditation. And this is very strange — rarely do you ask questions about meditation. That does not seem to be your main concern. To me, it is my ultimate concern, the only concern, and to you it seems not a priority — it is not the first item on your mind. Perhaps it may be the last thing on your laundry list, but certainly it is not the first; the first things are stupid things, trivia. You waste your time, you waste my time.

And I am ready even to help you to solve those problems just so that you can get rid of all this nonsense and have simple, loving relationships. But that will be possible only when meditation becomes your priority. Out of meditation, everything else will become graceful; you will be able to see deeply into your own acts, into your own behavior, and you will be able to have some compassion for the other person — his human frailty, the possibility of his committing mistakes.

Osho, The New Dawn, Chapter 12

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One of the Sufis’ sayings is: if you take one step towards God, he takes one thousand steps towards you. But at least one step on your side is absolutely necessary. And your one step is far more important than the one thousand steps of God, because by “God” is not meant any person; by God is meant the intelligence of this whole universe, the consciousness of the whole universe.

You have a very small proportion of consciousness. Your one step is far bigger than the one thousand steps of God, because existence has infinite intelligence. So waiting alone won’t do. Just waiting is a state which is not alive; there has to be tremendous longing, a thirst from every pore of your being. Unless God becomes a question of your life and death, the meeting is not possible.

Almost everybody will be prepared to wait — that means on your laundry list, God is the last item, when you have done everything of the world. And that is not possible, even in eternity; something or other will be left undone. God has to be your first priority. It has to become a kind of haunting in your heart. Breathing in, breathing out, there has to be a rememberance: whatever you are doing is nonessential, and the essential part is to go deep down in meditation.

Osho, The Razor’s Edge, Chapter 12

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So concentrate on meditation. Make it a point that this is the topmost priority in your life, everything else is secondary. I don’t say anything else to my sannyasins, all that I want them to do is to become meditators, and everything else follows of its own accord. Freedom comes, bliss comes, peace comes, celebration comes, virtue comes, transformation comes, and ultimately the experience of god.

Become an image of meditation, become meditation. Walk in meditation, sit in meditation, eat in meditation, sleep in meditation. Let the flavour of meditation spread all over your life — breathe in, breathe out, but meditation continues.

Meditation simply means an awareness of all that is happening. That which is happening outside — that is the outermost circle of your life. Then that which is being done by your body — that is the second concentric circle, closer to you. Then the third concentric circle is that which is done by your mind. And then the fourth is that which is done by your feelings and emotions. And within these four concentric circles is your centre, the fifth.

If you become aware of all that is going on, sooner or later you will become centred at the centre and you will be able to see the whole panorama, the whole drama of the outer world, of physical activity, of psychological activity, of emotional activity. And when you are able to see all this you become free of it because immediately you come to know that you are the seer, you are not the doer. That is the greatest revolution in life, when this shift happens, that you are no more a doer but just a seer, a witness. Than one becomes an image of meditation — a Buddha, a Christ, a Zarathustra.

(From a darshan diary – no audio available.)

Our next Active Meditation day will be on Saturday July 10th at St Michaels Hall in Bristol.

See here for information on Active Meditations, and here for cost, dates, and timings of each day.

The day will be led by me, Islam Andrew White, with help from Suvarna Freeman.

I’ve been a meditator for over 30 years and I know that active meditations are a wonderful, wonderful support for going deeply inside ourselves.  Even if you already have a meditation practice, chances are excellent that active meditation techniques will help you to go even deeper in mediation. If you have never meditated before, or tried and found it very hard, then active meditations are the perfect way to get started.

One of the days on the schedule is specially marked as an “introduction to active meditations” but that is only because we are going to do some special publicity for that day. ALL days are introduction days, open to everyone, newcomers will be made welcome, and all the meditations will be fully explained.

A couple of people from Bristol are off to this festival in Spain:

http://www.oshofestival.es/english.html

so if you want some real sunshine, you might like to join them.

The first live meditation day was wonderful! We plan to run them regularly. The next is on June 12th.

>>> When: Saturday Jun 12th 2010. Starting time is 9:45 for a prompt 10:00 start. (Doors will be open much earlier.)  We need to lock the doors when we start, so if you really can’t arrive by 9:45, please ring me beforehand. [See "Contact and About"]

>>> We will finish by 5:30

>>> Where: St Michael’s Hall, St Michaels Hill, Bristol, BS2 8BE (near Bristol Royal Infirmary.)
For a map see:

http://www.stmichaelsonthemount.bristol.sch.uk/Page%20-%20Contact%20Us.html

On this map, the entrance (people and cars) is by the letter “P” in “Park Ln”. There is free parking in the school grounds. Coming down Whiteladies Road > Park Row, turn left into Lower Church Lane, then left into Old Park Hill. Coming down St Michael’s Hill, turn right into Lower Church Lane, then Old Park Hill.

>>> Cost is £35. There is no early-bird discount.

>>> Please bring: packed lunch; a cushion to sit on;  a shawl or light blanket; and optionally a blindfold.

>>> If you’ve not been before, as well as stillness and silent sitting, Osho meditations involve movement and dance, so you need to wear loose comfortable clothes.

If you’d like music for your meditation event, there are some very willing sannyas musicians in this area. Contact Surabhi on msurahbhi@yahoo.co.uk about her playing either on her own, with one or two others, or for a gig for the whole band. Contact Yatro on premyatro@hotmail.com about her playing for Heart Dance.

I’m delighted to announce a day of Osho meditations with live music by Surabhi and Presence.  It will be held in Bristol on March 27th.

Many of you will know Presence from the meditation events at Croydon Hall. They are a group of amazing sannyasin musicians with a real passion and gift for creating music for meditation.  We’ve very lucky to have them – it was one of those times when the planets align and at quite short notice we could fit people’s schedules together.

It’s very special to do meditations with live music, and an opportunity not to be missed to spend a whole day with Presence.

Where: St Michael’s Hall, near Bristol Royal Infirmary.
For a map see:

http://www.stmichaelsonthemount.bristol.sch.uk/Page%20-%20Contact%20Us.html

On this map, the entrance (people and cars) is by the letter “P” in “Park Ln”. There is free parking in the school grounds. Coming down Whiteladies Road > Park Row, turn left into Lower Church Lane, then left into Old Park Hill. Coming down St Michael’s Hill, turn right into Lower Church Lane, then Old Park Hill.

When: Saturday March 27 2010. Please be there by 9:30 am. We’ll start promptly at 10:00, and finish by 18:00

Cost: £30 on the day or £27-50 paid in advance. Please make cheques payable to Andrew White and on a separate piece of paper clearly write your name and phone number. For address see “Contact and About.”

Please bring: packed lunch; a cushion to sit on;  a shawl or light blanket; and optionally a blindfold.

If you’ve not been before, as well as stillness and silent sitting, Osho meditations involve movement and dance, so you need to wear loose comfortable clothes.

Any questions? For contact details, please see About.

If you want to be kept informed of future events, please enter your name on the mailing list (see Pages on left.)

Music is my contribution to [meditation]. Buddha would not have allowed it. On that point we would have quarreled. He would not have allowed music; he would have said that music is a disturbance. He would have insisted on pure silence, he would have said that is enough. But that is where we agree to disagree.

To me, music and meditation are two aspects of the same phenomenon. And without music, meditation lacks something; without music, meditation is a little dull, unalive. Without meditation, music is simply noise — harmonious, but noise. Without meditation, music is an entertainment. And without music, meditation becomes more and more negative, tends to be death-oriented.

Hence my insistence that music and meditation should go together. That adds a new dimension — to both. Both are enriched by it.

Music comes closest to meditation. Music is a way towards meditation and the most beautiful way. Meditation is the art of hearing the soundless sound, the art of hearing the music of silence — what the Zen people call the sound of one hand clapping. When you are utterly silent, not a single thought passes your mind, there is not even a ripple of any feeling in your heart. Then you start, for the first time, hearing silence.

Silence has a music of its own. It is not dead, it is very much alive, it is tremendously alive. In fact, nothing is more alive than silence.

Music helps you from the outside to fall in tune with the inner.

Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 1

Welcome to this new website.  I’d like it to be a point of reference for anyone in the Bristol area interested in Osho’s extraordinary work.  I also intend to organise some Osho meditation days and other events. It probably won’t be very active as a blog, but the blog format has lots of technical advantages.

So far there are two pages of information. There’s a (very selective) list of Osho-related meditation events in the area, and a pretty comprehensive travel guide to visiting the Osho meditation resort.

For contact details, please see About.

Jai Osho!

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