On the Move

Off to Corfu

The first bit of news is that Punya and Amiten have relocated to Corfu and are no longer in the UK! They went to Corfu for a holiday in September and liked it so much that they decided to go and live there for awhile to see if this might be a permanent place to be. Apart from the obvious delights of warm weather (in comparison to Glasgow!) sea and little coves and beaches, they enjoyed meeting up with the various sannyasins who live there: Ganga, Vimal, Rajendra, Samda and Loki and Indradhanu. Vasanti and her partner Michel have built a beautiful meditation hall. This Buddha Hall is the main reason for Punya and Amiten to move to Corfu as meditation with other sannyasins is a very special thing to them. Amiten is now training to help Punya with her website business.

Punya says that despite the move, she will continue to do the OshoinUK website and keep it updated (many updates have come in) so please keep on sending stuff as it keeps the website fresh and alive.

Off to China

Veena is in count-down mode for her departure to China in early February. As it is too cold to live near her beloved Song Mountain she is first going to a southern tropical China island where she has been invited to stay with the family of one of her young Chinese friends to celebrate Chinese New Year. She will be able to have some sun and sea and eat loads of papaya and mangoes and pineapples. Yummmm. Panky will join her towards the end of February and they will then take a 10 hour train ride to Henan Province to visit Song Mountain, the San Huang Zhai monastery and the kung fu school where they plan to learn and practice some special movements under the instruction of Master Wu Nanfang. And, of course, MEDITATE.

Return from Ethiopia

Panky, Samarpan and Atiraj have just returned from a month long expedition to Ethiopia. The trip was mainly to photograph birds – Samarpan with his camera and Panky with her new HD video camera. You can see some of Samarpan’s amazing bird photos here – he says the birds in Ethiopia are amongst the most colourful he has ever seen. What makes Ethiopia stand out is the high density of different species to be found. Read a short account here... Once Panky has finished editing her video footage to her satisfaction she will put some of it up on YouTube and/or Vimeo so everyone can enjoy. Addresses will be on her Facebook site. For Panky a special trip was to the Simien Mountain where she stayed in an incredible lodge – the highest in Africa – built very recently by an Englishman. He built it in the local style but it is very luxurious inside. She also visited some very strange churches bizarrely built underground into the rock. You can only see the top of it in the photograph of her.

And then there are the passages to India...

It seems there is a mass exodus from the Totnes area to India at the moment. Sandhya and Premgit are off on their usual wild expeditions to get extraordinary photographs and experiences and Abhar will travel with them but go to Pune and meet up with them again in Goa. Surabhi has joined her boyfriend for a few weeks in South India and Nikhila, Devika and Yatro are in Pune. Adarsha and Pramod are flying to Delhi to join Chinmaya and other Indian musicians in a big concert for the environment This will be recorded and made into a CD. Narayani is joining Samaya in Varanasi – he has been travelling in India for the past two months. And Samarpan is off again soon to India for more photography. Wow!

Off to Australia

Shankara is leaving for Australia on January 20th. After many years at Croydon Hall where he has had a huge number of varied experiences -- soaring to blissful heights in meditation and getting down and maybe dirty with the private ecological sewage system at the bottom of the garden – Shanks is off to the sunny climes of southern Australia. Read his interview here...

A Journey of a Different Kind

Rajen was in the UK for a flying visit a few weeks ago. Since becoming involved with Premal and Miten his life has taken some amazing new directions with many trips to various countries, most recently the USA. Quite took my breath away! A trip of a different kind has become a bit of a challenge, however, as he has recently discovered that he has prostrate cancer – fortunately still at an early stage. He will be undergoing a new kind of treatment, with a high success rate so far, at the RD&E Hospital in Exeter on – guess – the 19th of January! I said this was a most auspicious date as he could tap into heightened sannyasin energy flying around. Certainly I will be diverting some energy his way with wishes for a quick, total recovery. See more about this particular journey on his blog... Rajen says: ‘Guys – get yourself checked!’

Leaving Home

Within the UK, Madhura’s landlord is selling his property so she has to leave her home of the past 4 years. With her very bad arthritis, movement of any kind is not so easy for her but she is looking forward to new beginnings – maybe in the charming village of Crewkerne which has a group of people very active in arts and crafts, Madhura’s major love.

And last but not least: Tibet or Bhutan anyone?

Mutribo invites people to journey with him to these sacred lands. He writes: In response to some requests I have had this year, I am offering a new, shorter 14 day journey into Bhutan in April 2010 along with the previous 23 day journey that I normally do. It was difficult for some people to fit the longer journey into their working schedule. Both of them will be very similar except that the shorter one will not include the seven day trek to the base of Jumolhari, Bhutan’s most sacred mountain. www.mutribo.com I will revisit the unique beauty of Tibet in May 2010 and there will be another Bhutan journey on motorbikes in October 2010.

text by Veena – January 2010