This past week I spent five intense days at the Zorba the Buddha Festival at the desert ashram, in the middle of the desert (obviously).
From 8am till 7pm there were 12 different sessions going on in different tents, each tent’s name indicating the type of meditation, therapy, or exercises they offered. Then from 9pm till dawn is live music.
There was the Chai tent, the Hebrew spirit tent, focus tent, yoga, theatre, Buddha, Chi, breathing, New-Mind, therapy, movement… You get the point.
A couple of sessions I went to really sung through.
Doing yoga surrounded by the dry forest of rocks and sand as the rays of the hot sun poked the morning sky was bliss.
Tantra Pulsations was a class aimed at opening the ‘Love Chakra’ (energy pool) where I sat a gazed into a strange woman’s eyes for an hour, no talking, only breathing and gazing.
Belly dancing class, where I was the only one with a Y-chromosome, formed a steel-like comradery between me and the other women of the ashram. I didn’t learn their names, but I could speak to them the next day with a silent side-thrust of the hips and they understood me just fine.
Also, the ‘return to the root of the child’ session where I had to be the baby of an alternate couple who had to stroke me, sing lullabies, and whisper soft words of encouragement was a real experience.
The most powerful of all the sessions was most definitely the ‘AUM’ workshop. No we didn’t just sit in a circle saying ‘Om’ it was quite different.
The easiest way to describe this session was surgery on the soul where you are both the patient, and the surgeon.
The meditation goes from 1am until 5am, you need to bring 1.5litres of water and you can’t leave until the end, just as you can’t leave the theatre before the surgeon has sewn you up.
So we’re in a dimly lit dome tent, packed with 80 people, just enough room to violently stamp your foot on the ground without hurting your fellow man. The session has 12 stages, im not going to mention all but it starts with a trance party. Then you need to summon all your anger and walk around the room and scream “I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!” to whoever you make eye contact with, plus whatever follows on from that (my mum would not be pleased with my language...). Then after 10minutes of that you need to walk around touch a person on the shoulder and say “If I hurt you I’m sorry” and hug. Then you need to look deep in to peoples’ eyes and tell them you love them.
The night progresses, the instructors goal is to tire your body out entirely with through physical movement that you at such an emotionally vulnerable state.
At one point we had to run on the spot with our hands straight up in the air for 20 minutes while listening to motivational music. The instructor lets anyone who is struggling into the middle of the tent so they can feed of everyone else’s energy.
I also spend 20 minutes chucking an absolute tantrum, stamping my foot, banging my fists on the floor, screaming at the top of my lungs “NO! NO! NO!”
The final few stages are sitting with my stomach and chest against a guy I don’t know, legs and arms pretzled in an embrace and head tilled away from his ear shout with every ounce of energy you have left “I’M AFRAID, I’M AFRAID...” then whatever flowed, just go with it. Then “YOU HURT ME, YOU HURT ME, YOU HURT ME…”, then “I NEED, I NEED, I NEED…” until you break down into a 10 minute crying fit with your stranger.
The instructor builds you again through a process of laughter, hugs, a Namaste, and the final “Om” which is actually chanted.
After this session I was exhausted, I woke up with the biggest hang over, no voice at all, muscles aching (could also have to do with setting up my tent of jagged rocks), but also somehow refreshed, awake, and more alive than I’ve felt in so long.
To the Zorba Family,
Together we walked,
Together we laughed,
Together we embraced,
Together we breathed,
Together we pondered,
Together we wept,
Together we deconstructed, dissected, deepened ourselves,
Together we danced like tribal warriors creating rain with their bodies,
Together we sweated,
Together we opened our chakras,
Together got burnt by the desert sun,
Together we loved,
Together we shared,
Together we will remain.
Thank you.
