The Mystery School

The Assignment

Osho's Request

More than four decades ago, Osho gave Bodhicitta a lifelong assignment: to update the Tibetan Bardo teachings for the modern world. It was not to be a “cut and paste intellectual job” — but something rooted in authentic experience, inquiry, and living transmission.

Osho had spoken many times about the Bardo, calling it Tibet's eternal contribution to the world of consciousness. He suggested that his people create a more refined version, making it clear that it is a beautiful process and can transform death into a door to enlightenment.

“The Bardo is suggestions to the dying person: ‘Now be silent. Leave this life consciously. Rather than death taking it away from you, relax your hold; don't be defeated by death, don't struggle. Just drop all your attachment. This world is finished for you, and this life is finished for you.’”

In 1986, Osho also entrusted the School for Life and Death Processes to Veetman, later renamed the Institute for Living and Dying. Together with Maneesha, these seekers carry the energy of the Bardo transmission through workshops, trainings, and the simple act of being present with those who are dying.

The Work Continues

Veetman and the Art of Dying

Veetman's first encounter with death was a burning celebration in Pune in 1979. “I was 29 and had just that day completed a Vipassana course, and was in a state of vulnerability and openness. Seeing the body disintegrating in the flames was like an earthquake, uprooting all illusions and dreams.”

That experience became his initiation to a deeper spiritual search. When he heard Osho speak about dying consciously as a potential moment for enlightenment, he understood that this was a door for him to explore through meditation and through dying in love.

“The secret of knowing death, of understanding death, is not in death itself. You will have to go deeper into the existence of the ego. The day it is understood that the ego is a creation of an unconscious mind, the ego disappears, and simultaneously death disappears. The real you is eternal.”

Veetman describes every transformation as having the same elements: Chaos, Surrender, and Transcendence. “Chaos involves the turbulence we experience as we try to come to terms with inevitable death. Surrender is a turning point — letting go of the controlling grasp on the known. And transcendence is our awareness moving into the grace of dissolving into the ocean of consciousness.”

A First-Hand Account

It Happened in Pune

Doug's story of conscious death and return — December 1979

In December 1979, after four months in Pune, Doug became very sick with multiple illnesses. As his body weakened to the point of death, something extraordinary happened — a journey through dimensions, a meeting with Gurdjieff, and a return with the memory intact.

“My consciousness opened like a lotus flower, everything became vast beyond the size of this universe. Every part of the universe was part of me and every part of me was part of the universe.”