Contact with Emptiness

My relationship with the world of meditation practice, Osho and other Buddhas, can best be described as a series of nuclear explosions of consciousness that began in 1974 and has continued ever since. The first major explosion, as said, took place in 74. It was if infinite emptiness exploded into my reality. Any trace of feeling of self disappeared. At the same time, the body was flooded with an electricity that almost felt as if I had placed my fingers into an electric outlet. The sense of pending death in fact was present also.

In 76 I participated in a workshop at Osho's Ashram. It was called Enlightenment Intensive. It was one of the shorter workshops, lasting only 3 days. For the entire time, the central question we worked on was "Who am I." This is the classical approach of Ramana Maharshi. We worked in pairs and also by ourselves. The process was super intense. Somebody in front of you asked you: "Tell me who you are!" And you respond by saying whatever comes up. The idea here is that of peeling the onion. Each answer does not really represent what you are, but it takes away a layer of what you believe you are in that moment. It destroys the layers of your believes.

After three days, I sat in front of a person. Interestingly, he was the person I liked the least of all the participants. He asked the question, when all of a sudden, no answer came. Instead, it suddenly felt as if I was falling inside... and kept falling and falling, the space become vast and vaster.... electricity flooding into my belly, my chest, my brain and my hands to a point it seemed it was killing me.....

Later, during Darshan, Osho asked how I was. All I could say to him, was .... It is electricity! He just smiled and said, "Yes, it is."

What I wanted to ask him, but did not, was..."But how do you manage to live with this every day?"

Samadhis can come in many different degrees, but when they come in high intensity, they come with stunning electrifying power. And it is very important to note that people who have access to those upper echelons of Samadhi, will always tell you about the total absence of any sense of self. They will talk to you about the Void, the Emptiness. It is imperative that you should hear such words that indicate absence of self. They point to the fact that you are facing an adept who lives in the realm of significant cultivation.

Yours in the Dharma,

Andreas Mamet

(Swami Anand Karunesh)