Tears, The Language Of The Heart (Crying week in Osho Afroz's Octobre Mystic Rose)

Heads don'y cry. Yes, tears come out from the head, where eyes are located but really, it's the heart that cries, not the head. And we may not feel very comfortable about it, since the heart is naked when we are "in front of the mirror of the tears". So we have condemned them. We see somebody crying and we want to console him, take him away from that space. It makes us feel uncomfortable. Among all the stupid conditionings that we've created in our society it's the one that tries to cast away everything that has to do with feeling sad, grief, pain. No wonder why there is so much depression around, when we're conditioned to believe that we have to be happy and in order to be, that we have to suppress what ever has to do with "difficult" feelings. But there's no way we can feel happy or feel anything at all actually, if we don't allow ourselves to experience all the range of feelings there are.

In this beautiful transformative process, Osho's Mystic Rose meditative therapy, in this amazing space of Oshos Afroz, in Eressos, Lesvos, in this particurarly wonderfull time of the season, Octobre, when everything is magically calm, settling down to the roots, and specifically in the crying week of this process, I experienced this conditioning, as something that makes me hide from myself, as finding a numbness in my way to go deep in myself. And the beauty and wonder of this process, is that there's nothing to do about it no conclusion or judgment to make about it, nothing good or bad, it is just as it is. Only to stay present with it.

Tears can find their way to go deep and touch us in the core of our being. Heart is a transformer, it can take our pain or even that of all the world and transform it into love and compassion. And actually, tears don't nessecerily have to do with sadness. Tears flow when we are feeling overwhelmed with emotion. It can be sadness and grief as well as it can be joy, laughter, love, gratitude or anything else, in an overflowing volume. Whatever the feeling, it is the only language to unlock the path and mysteries of the heart, to take us to this truly human space where we are just being. ANd I'm gratefyl to have the oppotrunity to be in this space in Osho Afroz with the amazing presence of the fascilitators Unmata and Salim.

As the Sufi mystic poet, Rumi, said: ‘the wound is the place where the light enters you’.

“Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree, the bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. That’s its balance.” – Osho

The Time Is Dome (Sept.2014, Dome Structure in Osho Afroz m.c.)

When was the last time you were in a place where the coming night reveals an impressive night sky celebrated by the flowing Milky Way? Those of you that have been to Eressos valley have witnessed how the pretty low light pollution unveils what might be the primal inspiration for human kind to keep its heads up.   

                When dark fell for good that darkest night –black moon- of September 2014 in Osho Afroz, only 3 of us defied the chilling cold and started climbing the few steps to the hill where the newly found dome structure stands. It’s the biggest of the 3 domes that took and created space in this Buddha field, and been uncovered since its fabric wasn’t tailored yet, it was the perfect place to sit on a black moon meditation. Which is laying down, eyes open, not just star gazing, watching everything. 

  
Lying on mattresses and covered with a lot of blankets we watched looking at the crystal flow of the river of stars through the web structure of the dome.  Typically I was facilitating the meditation and actually it was the closest I’ve come yet to the feeling of flying a space ship. Next day, while I was moving the mattresses, wondering where I got this bright idea of bringing 20 of them up that slope, I found the following message written on one: “Love U Afroz! Swaha! Good Morning! S.”

                 I was fascinated by the dome structures even before they were put in place, while watching the two cool guys who team Dome Kabisia, creating all the components with a strange contraption and by hand. Later I had this idea that the dome staying unchanged up on that hill while everything around is changing through the movement of spaceship earth, can be used as a metaphor to what can happen in the human inner space, especially in place like Osho Afroz. So I started to steady my camera tripod in places to create time lapse photographs.

 

               But strangely, the idea about this article rose when I visited a festival of alternative therapies. I watched presentations, I discussed with people, went to demo therapies. I had a good time. And even though there’s nothing bad I can say about the event, at the same time I was left with a taste of something incomplete, something not feeling right. From how therapies and therapy in general are presented as a panacea. As something that offers solutions and salvation. But what if therapy is just being present and taking care (which is the ancient meaning of the word)? The other, I believe puts a lot of people in a trip, whichever side of it. 

Talking from my experience, even though therapy can be a great tool, it wasn’t therapy that solved any issue. It was coming to awareness. For sure, we live in a world where we have the idea of a magic pill which will eliminate bad in an instant. And why not have it too. Let’s just remember that whatever issues or solutions we’re dealing with, are procedures. And this is what the Dome on the hill reminds me of, as it watches the sky changing above it. That coming into awareness is to see the big picture, to fully experience the world and knowing myself.