Catherine Auman, LMFT » Osho

The Prejudice Against Gurus

Los Angeles Psychotherapist — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:29:10 +0000

It’s true there are charlatans and egomaniacs in the guru biz. The media delights in dramatic stories of crazed followers doing odd and dangerous things, like that guy who had everyone drink the purple Kool-Aid, or those folks who committed mass suicide while wearing brand new Nikes when the Hale-Bopp comet whizzed by. We shake our heads at such ignorance and smugly reject the notion that people surrender themselves to anything at all.

In the West, we’re prejudiced against gurus. Here, ego reigns supreme, and the ego’s first tenet is ‘nobody knows better than me.’ Granted, there’s a lot to be said for how Americans distrust authority, question pomposity, and demand to ferret out the truth for ourselves. But by our closed-mindedness, we miss knowing about higher states of consciousness known to the East that aren’t necessarily promoted on our nightly menu of sexy sitcoms and reality TV.

I got broken open to all this by amazing human beings I met in India. Although I had been studying personal and spiritual growth for decades, nothing had prepared me for the shock of the energy phenomena in their presence. It was like I had taken psychedelic drugs when I hadn’t: the room began to swirl, the lights bending and warping. My breathing changed like it does when you’re having sex – gasping for air, tingling all over. My mind became blessedly silent – everything okay, perfect, just the way it is.

Okay, maybe you’re thinking it was something I ate, or a weird brain fugue or something. I can only explain it as these persons manifest at a higher frequency than we do, that in their presence, our bodies go haywire. It became irrefutable that there’s more going on than Western culture has given us a context for, and that higher levels of human development exist and are available.

The tradition in the East is to surrender to the Guru, and the media is quick to point out abuses. What isn’t shown is the advantage of surrendering one’s belief that ‘I already knows everything and no one can teach me anything.’ The benefit is immeasurable in one’s becoming teachable, of the ego humbling itself in the presence of something so far beyond it.

In the East, it’s believed that the Guru points the Way. We get confused because we think it’s about following another person’s weird dictates, like ‘give me all your money’ or ‘drink this potion’. Osho, a well-known guru, once explained it by saying, “Don’t look at my finger; look where I’m pointing.”

My experience is that absorbing the radiance of a person of higher frequency is in itself uplifting and healing. Sitting in the presence of an Awakened Being will do more for your spiritual growth than years of working on yourself.

Mind the Gap

Los Angeles Psychotherapist — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:31:31 +0000

I visited my sister and her family during the year in London her husband pursued graduate work in play directing. My nephews hated British school, their American ways considered freakish and weird by the other kids. It was hard to eat well there as the produce offered in the grocery stores was at least a week old, but I loved visiting the places I’d dreamed of: Big Ben, the Tate Modern, wherever it was the Bloomsbury crowd hung out, and Carnaby Street, the center of ‘60’s fashion. I cried at Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey seeing the memorials of Chaucer, Blake, Keats, and other great literary figures, comparing the reverence paid to that of American popular culture which considers poets just above the level of dirt.

We took the Underground everywhere, also known as the Tube, London’s clean and efficient rapid transit system. The Tube was great for people watching – nearly everyone looked puffy and as if they didn’t eat many fresh vegetables. There were signs posted all over that said Mind the Gap — a safety reminder for people to watch their step as they traversed from the platform to the train.

It seemed a bit more metaphysical to me.

Buddhists practice a meditation of watching the breath. It can be quite powerful to sit and observe the long inhale as it draws in, chest and lungs expanding, hopefully the abdomen and belly, too. Then to watch the long exhale, with its calming effect. When you sit with the breath long enough, you may experience an eerie sensation that you are not breathing at all — something is breathing you. In fact, it seems more accurate to say we are being “breathed.”

Osho, the great Tantra Master, however, said it’s really about watching for the gap between the outgoing and ingoing breath. It takes a little awareness but you can locate it if you slow way down, and if you look closely, you’ll notice a space between each inhale and exhale where nothing is happening. There’s a gap, a silence, a doorway to another reality. It’s like the silence between words, the white space on the page, the background murmur rather than the foreground conversation. That’s the gap, Osho said, where who you are really exists.

Another of my favorite memories of London was touring the Globe Theater, and our guide whose raucous stories split our sides with laughter. But the thing I loved most about London was these spiritual reminders appearing everywhere, all over underneath the town. Mind the Gap. Remember to find out who you really are.

Dynamic Meditation on the Beach

Los Angeles Psychotherapist — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:01:13 +0000

Recommended to be done in the morning, this hour-long method is a powerful way to kick-start your day. It provides an outlet for tension and withheld emotions as well as being a great energy-booster!

“I love it! Dynamic Meditation is the best way to let go of old stuff, renew myself, enter into stillness and get fit, all at the same time.” – Lokita Carter

“Dynamic is like having Nuclear Energy for breakfast!” – Abhi-Irena

Osho created the active meditations because he said the Western mind is too active to go directly into silence. This meditation is not only fun and ecstatic, it clears plenty out plenty of psychological rubbish.

I usually park in the parking structure on 2nd Street between SM and Broadway, opposite what used to be Exhale, because its free for 2 hrs and I don’t have to bother about coins or tickets etc. and it’s not that long a walk to the beach because there is a foot overbridge right between Santa Monica and Broadway on Ocean Park that takes you straight to the beach and to the spot where we are meeting.

Bring something to share for a potluck breakfast afterwards.

This is a FREE event.

Time: Sunday mornings, 7:00am

Location:3rd lifeguard post north of Santa Monica Pier

Questions? 310-460-9399