One of our most powerful longings is for true intimacy. It is also one of our greatest fears.
This fear stems from the idea that we are unacceptable as we are. As we become more loving and accepting of ourselves, the doors to intimacy with others open and we become free to live in love and friendship with our fellow human beings.
An opportunity to connect fearlessly
“If your intimacy is helping you to grow and to become mature, then it is positive and good and healthy, wholesome.” Osho
“Everybody is afraid of intimacy…. The problem becomes more complicated because everybody wants intimacy. Everybody wants intimacy because otherwise you are alone in this universe – without a friend, without a lover, without anybody you can trust, without anybody to whom you can open all your wounds. And the wounds cannot heal unless they are open. The more you hide them, the more dangerous they become.” Osho
To free ourselves from the fear and self-judgment that keep us from experiencing intimacy, first we need to allow ourselves to experience them at a conscious level and then to let go of them. From the space of meditation, we experience a gap that allows us to see clearly that our fears and self-judgments are not who we really are – that they have been imposed from the outside.
We will use gentle non-cathartic methods to support this process including interactive exercises in pairs, introspection, and group sharing.
Osho’s guidance is that Freudian based work, such as this course, is specifically designed for those from western cultures with western conditioning.
Participants may only sign up for the OSHO Opening to Intimacy course after completing an application form, which is part of the process and thus confidential. To receive this form, please write to bela@osho.net expressing your interest in the course.
Each participant needs to return this application form to the same email address before the start of the course or you will not be able to register for the course.
WHY ATTEND THIS COURSE?
“Without intimacy, you are alone here amongst strangers. With intimacy you are surrounded by friends, by people who love you. Intimacy is a great experience. One should not miss it.” Osho
Once we begin to see how we all have similar fears around intimacy we become more playful and light-hearted in our connections with others. We move from the seriousness of the ego to the childlike innocence of the heart. In the innocence of the heart, we do not define ourselves or others, leaving us free to experience the deepest possible intimacy, that of shared meditation. An opportunity to connect in freedom and joy, playfully and innocently.
This course will give you the confidence to be yourself – open to friendship and love.
WHAT WILL I LEARN?
- To understand the importance of, first of all, relating intimately with yourself
- To recognize your parental and social conditioning around intimacy
- How to relate openly and authentically
- How we all have an Inner Man and an Inner Woman
- To recognize and respect your own physical boundaries
- To understand the difference between loneliness and aloneness, and to embrace the space of at-oneness as the ultimate intimacy
WHAT IS INCLUDED?
- A LIVE online weekend course. Saturday and Sunday. Approximately 7.5 hours a day with breaks
- Various techniques to explore your issues related to Intimacy
- Group processes and group sharing
- Osho quotes and insights about our misunderstandings around Intimacy
- Q&A sessions with facilitator
- OSHO Active Meditations
“Only a man of meditation can allow intimacy to happen. He has nothing to hide. All that he was afraid somebody might come to know, he himself has dropped it. He has only a silence and a loving heart. Once you have accepted yourself as you are, the fear of intimacy will disappear. You cannot lose respect, you cannot lose your greatness, you cannot lose your ego. You cannot lose your piousness; you cannot lose your saintliness – you have dropped all that yourself. You are just like a small child, utterly innocent.” Osho