Bodhicitta

Over the following years, Bodhicitta explored the available meditative traditions — Arica, mindfulness, Sufism, Tibetan Buddhism. He played bass in a rock band, was a stoner, did hatha yoga for several years. His life was in profound upheaval. The Limits to Growth had convinced him that mankind was headed for mass extinction, and nobody was paying attention.

One day his yoga teacher came back with a new name — Ma Dhyan Siddhi — and introduced him to Osho. His marriage was falling apart. On a retreat at the Tail of the Tiger, a Buddhist ashram in Vermont, he met the late Chogyam Trungpa, looked at him and said, “You're not my guru.” Trungpa said, “That's right.”

Two days later the thought floated down: “Surrender to Osho.” I've never looked back since. But I've continued to look as deep as I could.

He took sannyas in Pune in 1976 and participated in many groups. After two years in Rajneeshpuram, he spent the next thirty years with Osho's disciple Yog Chinmaya in Nepal, Pune, and the foothills of the Indian Himalayas, and was also close to Veeresh and Kaveesha.

In 1986 in Pokhara, Nepal, Bodhicitta was struck by lightning. He turned blue, stopped breathing, and had no pulse for a couple of minutes. His recollection of that time was being in a dark calm space, and all his memories tumbled out as though somebody had upset a filing cabinet. Then a voice or presence conveyed to him:

After receiving the Bardo teachings from Thrangu Rinpoche in Kathmandu that year, he did the 49-day Bardo retreat, visualizing deities and mumbling mantras. At the end of it, a revealing exchange occurred:

I asked Thrangu, “Do you have any memories of the period between death and rebirth?” He said, “No.” Then I asked, “Do you know anybody who has any memories of that interval?” He said, “No.” Then I asked him, “How do you know what you are teaching me is true?” He said, “I trust my teachers.”

This encounter deepened Bodhicitta's conviction that something more was needed — not just trust in lineage, but direct experience. This became the driving force of his work with the Bardo Mystery School.

Now at 89, Bodhicitta continues the work Osho entrusted to him. He has spent over a decade reviewing all the traditional Bardo teachings alongside the ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Mesoamerican ideas of the afterlife. But he has resisted producing a simple intellectual summary.

“I don't want to just do a cut and paste intellectual job on the update of Bardo teachings. I want to wait until I have some authentic experience. Osho told me 40 years ago to update the Bardo teachings and I haven't done it yet because nothing new has come to me. My meditation is getting more and more silent and mysterious.”

His meeting with Prem Doug, whose conscious death experience in Pune in 1979 became a pivotal piece of the puzzle, opened new doors in understanding. Doug's direct experience — bypassing the traditional Bardo visions entirely and dissolving directly into vast awareness — aligned perfectly with Osho's teaching that a silent mind dissolves into the infinite.

The conversation between Bodhicitta and Doug, rooted in experience, inquiry, and living transmission, continues in workshops and intimate gatherings. Bodhicitta, Veetman, and Maneesha all carry the energy, and their presence in these workshops is itself a transmission.