Beloved Friends,

First of all, thank you for your patience and for bearing with us so far while we were in the process of reaching a decision on the opening of the OSHO Afroz Meditation Center this season. As for sure you can imagine, it’s a very complex and delicate matter so we would like to take this opportunity to share the ins & outs with you on how we intend to operate this year. We invite you to receive the following sharing from our hearts to yours, above and beyond just a regular newsletter.

A few days ago, it was announced that we will open the Center on 10th July. For some time, we were debating whether to open at all this season, for many reasons, but we now feel assured and delighted to officially confirm this decision.

We were very lucky to not feel pressurized by any financial concerns or motivations influencing this decision as Afroz would be financially sound enough to sustain operations even with a year of no income.
So our decision-making process was more based on our responsibility as hosts and an assessment of everybody’s safety, including our guests, our team, as well as the local community in Eressos & on Lesvos island. As you are probably aware, with the on-going humanitarian crisis in the refugee camps on the island, the local infrastructure and especially healthcare providers are already under a lot of pressure so it is not merely a matter of complying with regulations coming from the authorities but also a question of “doing the right thing” when we invite friends from abroad to this island during a global pandemic.

We were guided by Varidhi’s original vision for us all and for the Center – he wanted a) for people to come here and meditate with all the tools we have received from Osho, and b) for the Center to support the individual meditator in every possible way to go deeper in his/her experience. The Center fulfils this vision in many ways through its broad offering of workshops, mediations & events but what we consider most important is that Osho Afroz provides a space for us all to come together, meditate & share a way of life. We call this shared energetic heart space the Afroz Buddhafield. THIS is what we feel is most needed during these challenging times.

So we are opening the Center with the intention to revive the Buddhafield, in the physical space of Afroz as well as in the vast heart space that connects us all over the world.

From 10th July, we will start with a limited offering of our most precious gifts, the OSHO Active Meditations. There will be a daily program of Vipassana, Kundalini and Evening Meeting Meditation, all outside, in the Buddha Grove. In the mornings, we will also offer Dynamic Meditation in two locations to allow for sufficient space for each participant. Night events and morning classes of yoga, pilates or tai – chi might also take place, depending on facilitators’ availabilities, all outside. Each guest will receive a set of personal equipment for exclusive use (meditation chair, pillow, mattress and blindfold). There will be stickers on the floor of Buddha Grove so that each one of us has a dedicated and adequate space to sit, dance and meditate. Of course, masks and disinfectant liquid will be available for everyone’s use (masks will not be mandatory for outdoor activities).

To start with, we are inviting a few friends to stay inside the Center, only for bookings of two weeks or longer. We want to keep the numbers of stay-in guests low to begin with until we see this approach unfold in a safe and harmonious way. If you wish to stay in, it is essential that you stay for a minimum of two weeks, which allows you to fully ground and energetically connect into the Buddhafield and to support it with your presence and participation. Any friends who will be staying outside of Afroz, in Skala Eressos, Cambos or Eressos village, are welcome to join the daily activities with a valid entry pass (seasonal, monthly or 10 day passes will be available – there will be no daily entry passes this year).

IMPORTANT – Please note that we will NOT open the communal kitchen to begin with, so anyone staying inside of Afroz will have to take care of their own meals (the kitchen will be CLOSED so there are no cooking facilities on site). Most of the tavernas & cafes in Skala & Eressos village will be open and there is a good choice of affordable, healthy & yummie foods to be had (plus, it is also lovely for our guests to support local businesses during these challenging times). We will also not provide a laundry service on site this year.

Workshops that were scheduled for July will be canceled or postponed to a later point in this season or to next year. We intend to host a few smaller workshops in August, depending on how everything goes until then and also the official guidelines by then. We will announce further details regarding workshops in August in early July. For now, the schedule for September and October stays as it is. We have every reason to be optimistic that we will be able to go ahead with workshops as planned in the autumn, keeping fingers crossed that Greece & the whole world continue to do well in keeping the pandemic at bay.

We intend to offer the OSHO Remembering the forgotten language of the talking to your body-mind process – for sure, this is one we all need so much right now!! Sadly though, we have to cancel this year’s festival as we cannot take the risk of bringing several hundred people together under these circumstances (and, of course, such a gathering would not be compliant with government safety guidelines). There is always next year…!!

There is an on-going dialogue within the Afroz Facilitator Team to determine whether we will be able to offer a No Mind or Mystic Rose at the Buddha Grove. We are awaiting their decision and will update you as soon as we have news. All changes to the workshop schedule will be on our website on time, at least 6 weeks before the first day of the workshop.

Dear friends, it has been a very challenging times for all of us. But we all know that these are exceptional times for inner growth and expansion. Clear space for the new to come. With awareness. With trust. As always…

Love, OSHO Afroz Team

P.S. Svarup refers to this way of functioning this summer as “Back to the Roots”. She is right, Varidhi started Afroz just with White Robe, Dynamic and no electricity. At least we have electricity (usually). And each other…