Sunday, January 24, 2010

Incredible Pune, India

Spending some time at the OIMR in Pune is always both rewarding and challenging for me.
Rewarding in the sense that whenever I am ready and open to meet the challenges offered, something positive comes out. This time challenges knocked on my door more than once, testing my ability to let go of old patterns and jumping into new unknown spaces.
The end of the year party had a soft and light-hearted ambiance and I’m certain that 2010 will have a similar flavour. No doubt that it will also be a promising year for all and I take this opportunity to express my desire that 2010 carries lots of Joy, Love and Laughter for all during this coming year.
It was soon time for me to set up the practicalities for the 12-day Awareness Intensive training. Although small in numbers, this training carried the flavour of a ‘special vintage’, maybe because all of us have this same love for this process. It certainly was a joy for me to share this passion.
The 3-day Awareness Intensive embedded in the training gave them opportunities to experience the awareness intensive retreat from a different angle as well as offering hands on opportunities to practice and test their newly learned skills. All of them recognized that with this training they gained more understanding about their own growth process as well as being more at ease with the awareness intensive process.
The 3-day helped participants experience spaces of de-identification from the mind and serene tranquillity for some and freedom from old patterns and beliefs for others. Quite a number of grateful hearts met on the follow up day.


Time flies and it is already time for me to pack my case and move on. First to Chiang Mai for a short relaxation time and then to the Usa where I will participate in an intensive at the Arthur Janov’s Primal Institute. I will also take part in an ‘intensive self-enquiry training’ based on the work of Ramana Maharshi.
Quite a program indeed for these first months of 2010!


Check Upcoming event for time & dates of the next courses and connect with me for any info you may require or question you may have.
Looking forward to meet ‘you’ along the way
With Love and a passion for awareness
Namaste to you all
Rakendra

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Tao in Phoenix Arizona…

During the last two week intensive that I participated in, I was working on the question/koan ‘what sexuality is’; little did I know at the time that this would lead me some time later to the Phoenix Taoist center and help me letting go even more of preconceived ideas and beliefs around sexuality, as well as learning many transformative practices.
Tao, ‘the way’, well…. it seems that the concept of ‘Zorba the Buddha’ was something well known from the Taoists since the earliest time. They certainly have a different way of naming and mapping the ‘path’ yet it is all the same, it does lead “From Sex to Super-consciousness”.
I really enjoyed my time there, learning in a different way, playfully and heartedly. It seems to me that like the legendary Phoenix who is reborn from his ashes, I too, am reborn from my ashes and certainly my ‘Tantric Awareness’ courses will take another turn after this new experience!

Finally it happened; ‘Living Our True Nature’ is now available in Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. I used this opportunity to give the site a new look and soon the English and French sites will benefit from it too.
And in preparation, I have a 7 months stream ‘Life is Relating’ which should take place next year in Shanghai.
Now it is time to get a visa for India and journey to Pune for the next months. I’m looking forward to be back to the OIMR and meet old and new friends as well as facilitating a 12-day awareness intensive training mid January. I’m sure it will be a fruitful experience.
See you there...

Check Upcoming event for time & dates and connect with me for any info you may require or question you may have.
Namaste to you all
Rakendra

Monday, December 7, 2009

Meditation & Inner Child in Shanghai….

Time is certainly relative and this whole month that I spent in Shanghai really felt like just a few days, even though my schedule was full on and now it’s already time to move on!
I arrived just in time to celebrate my birthday at the end of October and to get over the jet lag, after these few relaxing days, it was then full on with putting a last touch for the 5-day course ‘Meditation – a key for a transformed life’ which I co-lead with Santa and on we sailed… introducing participants to what meditation is and is not, slowly yet surely, leading them into experiencing what meditation is.
It was a first time adventure to co-lead with Santa and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed this joint venture of leading participants into becoming more familiar with ‘turning in’, with turning the focus inwards rather than outwards and thus experiencing awareness more and more until a space of meditation arise on its own accord. And it certainly did for some of them, not a smooth sailing for all though, yet many harvested a lot from these 5 days. And I take the opportunity of this blog to salute their courage and perseverance during these 5 days.
Then time came for me to do some sightseeing around Shanghai, enjoy nice diners with friends and treat myself with wonderful Chinese massages. I also took time to indulge in my favorite passion…. drinking tea. Since my tea experience in Taiwan some years ago, I always take time and opportunities to discover more about Chinese tea. They are so exquisite and of such a variety!
Next was a plunge into the ‘inner child’ world. Childlike and happy faces were shining at the end of this 5-day course.


It was a joy for me to playfully lead participants into reconnecting, healing and supporting their inner child. I trust that all of them will now enjoy a new way of relating in their daily life.
As this time there were no requests for individual sessions, I used that time to complete the Chinese version of 'Living Our True Nature' as well as a brochure that will come out soon.

And with Serena we have also put together the basis of a 7 months stream 'Life is relating’ that will take place next year. Check here soon for more on this project.
And now it’s already time to move on!
I left Shanghai with a little sadness in the heart, the time left too short, I wanted to stay a little more, just to enjoy friends and doing nothing! Yet I’m happy for all the richness that I’ve experienced and also happy to have been able to share my passion for awareness and meditation with so many friends, also pleased to know that I will be back soon in Shanghai for more.
I cannot end this blog without a warm thank you to Serena for organizing these courses; she and her staff put a lot of energy and care into setting this up in a beautiful way, including the translation which was ‘first class’, thanks to Miranda’s mastery of English and I’m sure that all the participants will have appreciated her skills.
My inner journey is now taking me to the Usa for a couple of week to learn and experience more about Tao. Then it will be time to return to Pune, India for a month or so where I’ll be leading a 12-day 'awareness intensive training' mid January.
So long Chinese friends, do check these blog pages and the website, I’ll post new blogs from time to time.
Namaste to you all
Rakendra

Monday, November 2, 2009

The long and winding road to enlightenment….

Being at the source’ is certainly what we all long for and those who participated in the Odessa 'Awareness Intensives' really put all their effort into just doing that; intending to be at the source. So did all the Uk participants, whether in the ‘Love in Awareness Intensive’ or working on ‘another’ during the community intensive at Osho Leela.

Some reached the source, some regain contact with their ‘amness’, others with their childlike innocence; for sure all of them did face their ever creating mind!
I’m always blown away by the amount of openness and love that these ‘Awareness Intensives’generate. And I also find it amazing and sometimes challenging too, how each participant seems to be just here to reveal a facet of my own mind.
I’m ever so grateful for what I receive through facilitating these intensives.
Yet what puzzle me the most is how we all go on looking away from ourselves for something that is already there, present and available each second of our life.
Nowhere to go really, nothing to look for, just being in one own presence is all that is required. A true existential joke!

Shanghai, China is my next stop. First a 5-day ‘Meditation - a key for a transformed life’, it will be a joined venture with a Buddhist monk to introduce awareness and meditation to busy busy people.

As a vital and essential step on our path towards oneness I will also introduce ‘Innocence Regained’, a 5-day to restore and support our connection with the inner child.

Check Upcoming event for time & dates or connect
with me for any info you may require or question you may have.


Looking forward to meet ‘you’ along the way
With Love and a passion for awareness
Namaste to you all
Rakendra

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Summer was a lovely time for showers… of blessings that is!

I’ve now settled in a beautiful garden - almost of Eden, near Chiang Mai, Thailand. It offers me lush green surroundings, a bird chirping paradise, beautiful starry nights, silence, serenity and sipping coconuts by the swimming pool has now become my regular afternoon activity - what a life!
All this does not make it easy for me to be back on the road again! Yet I cannot do without sharing my passion for self-enquiry work.
I’ll be on the road again tomorrow, first heading for Odessa, Ukraine to facilitate a 7-day ‘Reaching the source’.
And then on to the UK, Bristol, Edinburgh - Osho Jagarity Meditation Centre - and last but not least a 3-day 'Love in Awareness Intensive' in Gillingham, Dorset - Osho Leela.
Shanghai, China will be my last stopover before reaching Pune, India mid December.
Check Upcoming event for time & dates or connect with me
for any info you may require or question you may have.
Hope to meet ‘you’ along the way
With Love and a passion for awareness
Namaste to you all
Rakendra
September 2009

Monday, July 6, 2009

Awareness in motion…Shanghai

The beautiful green and lush surroundings of Chong Ming Island, just of Shanghai were the perfect set up for this 'Awareness in motion'. It was an invitation to stillness and silence and each participant took this invitation wholeheartedly and turned the focus inside intending to directly experience 'who is in'.
During these 3 days, the readiness to cut through layers of identification was no doubt prevailing and the courage to drop ideals, to let go of security was also very present. As self-denial and self-betrayal slowly gave way to truth, contented hearts and smiling faces started emerging. A 3-day course is indeed a short time, especially when one is new to self-enquiry, although a beginners' mind is more often a plus than a hindrance. Yet, the way towards our true nature, the way towards the empty heart – the 'Chan way' – as Chinese like to call it - certainly requires a little more time and dedication!
As for my own 'Shanghai experience', it turned out to be full of surprises for me. I've really enjoyed my stay in Shanghai, meeting new friends, learning more about Chinese teas and about 'relaxing' in massage salon. The art of tea and massage are really a Chinese must! Now is a time for me to rest and enjoy the coolness of Chiang Mai, Thailand. As well as practicing Chi Kung and learning the art of Chinese abdominal massage – Chi Nei Tsang.
I will be back in Shanghai in November to offer a 5-day 'Innocence regained'. It will be an opportunity for all willing hearts to reconnect with the innocence, with the childlike qualities that we are. Restoring and supporting the connection with the inner child is a vital and essential step on our path towards oneness.
Do check Upcoming events for more information
You would like to share something or ask a question… feel free to connect with me
Namaste to you all

Rakendra

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Letting Trust Be….

Well… open hearts and gratefulness were certainly at the 'rendez-vous' during the 'awareness in motion' and the 'letting trust be' that took place in Taichung, Taiwan.
Just as Oolong Tea reveals its fragrance with the right water temperature, it seems that the Taichung heat that prevailed during these 2 weeks helped our Taiwanese participants release their own fragrance.
Conditionings, projections, shock and shame are certainly part of everyone's mind reality. Yet all it takes to lift off their veil and un-cover the naturalness, the innocence of one's own being is a willingness to open. And certainly, intention, openness and a willingness to move through all the difficulties that showed along the way, were the drive that helped participants regain their naturelness.

Touched hearts and gratefulness were also at the 'rendez-vous' during the 'letting trust be' closing talk!
Existence certainly has its ways!
A short stopover in Chiang Mai, Thailand to rest and take care of some practicalities and I will be eastbound again, this time for a 'Shanghai experience'!
A question or something you would like to share…; feel free to connect with me
Namaste to you all
Yves-rakendra