DEEPAK AND HUMAN DESIGN
I
pulled up in front of the porch of Ferdinandito’s in Ibiza,
Spain on this big, black Harley Davidson with thump, thump,
thump deep throated mufflers that felt like power, sounded
like power, that vibrated with power with every stroke of
the 1500cc Fat Boy chrome engine. I had just driven thousands
of kilometers from Holland through Germany
and Switzerland
and Italy and France camping out by myself along
the way and really felt like I had accomplished something
to reach my destination. All those hours in the saddle with
the roar of the engine in my ear and the wind in my hair had
put some hair on my chest. I needed hair somewhere. I was
55 years old and was losing it off the top of my head.
There
were maybe twenty Osho sannyasins sitting up on the porch
and I climbed the steps like a man’s man with my motorcycle
boots and leather jacket and gloves and helmet in my hands
and everything. People recognized me and started calling out
and saying, “Hey, Deepak is here”.
I was well known in Osho world. I had been writing
the monthly horoscope for Osho Times and my picture was in
every issue. There were over 50,000 sannyasins that read that
magazine all over the world and usually they turned to the
horoscope first.
Some
guys I know from the ashram in Pune,
India invite me over to their table
and ask me about the big Harley and start making a fuss over
my adventures and tell me how much they like my horoscope.
There is another guy lying on his back over three chairs with
a baseball cap over his face that says ‘No Choice’. It looks
like he is sleeping, but it doesn’t feel like he is sleeping.
Pretty soon he sits up, tilts his baseball cap back up over
his head, and looks me straight in the eye.
“My
name is Ra”, he says. I don’t think he held out his hand.
He just said his name and looked me in the eye.
“Yeah,
yeah, I heard about you”, I said all puppy dog enthusiastic,
“you are really doing some good work”.
I
lied. I had heard about him, but I had no idea of what kind
of work he was doing. I had run into it in a strange way.
A couple of years before in the ashram in Pune I had run across
a book or box of huge cards that looked like a book with some
strange, appealing designs. There was no text or written description
that made any sense, but they had a strange allure for me
and I had looked at them, just looked at them many times wondering
what they were. They were from a guy by the name of Ra and
here he was.
“I
want you to come visit me,” Ra said. He didn’t ask. He didn’t
command. He just said.
“Yeah,
yeah, sure”, I said, lying through my teeth, “I’ll do that
someday”. I had just gotten there, I didn’t know where he
lived, and I was leaving it up to the flow. I am a famous
procrastinator. Never do today what you can put off until
tomorrow.
“Now
or never,” he said while looking me steadily in the eye.
Well,
that was kind of straight and to the point. Kind of took my
breath away. I dropped my jaw and nodded my head and we got
into his old beat up Mercedes and took off into the wilderness
of Ibiza over the dirt, bumpy
roads to his finca. Only Mercedes and Land Rovers are tough
enough to survive the roads on this island.
“I
don’t know why I am doing this”, he said, “I never take anyone
to my home”.
We
drove on in silence, slowing down for particularly bad bumps,
turning this way and that, and he added, “And I never give
anyone a free session”.
We
get to his stone house in the middle of nowhere. He goes to
turn on the generator so we can have some power and then we
go into a little stone hut where his office and computer are.
No small talk, no chit chat, no pleasantries or social niceties
or shows of affection or bonding. Just to the point. He asks
my birthdata, makes my Human Design, turns on the tape recorder,
and he begins to talk.
He
says something I recognize, something true about me, and I
interrupt him and say, “Yeah, that’s right, when I was a kid
I ……”
“Shut
up”, he says calmly as he turns and looks me steadily in the
eye, “if you have any questions at the end of the session,
I will answer them then”.
It
kind of took my breath away. Again. No one had ever told me
to shut up before. I was Mr. Silver Tongue that had amused
and beguiled the multitudes. I shut up and I listened and
I was enthralled. He was so incredibly clear. It was not just
information he was giving. It was some kind of transmission.
He talked about riding the emotional wave, about waiting to
make a decision until I had been at the top of the wave and
the bottom of the wave both, about waiting to be invited,
about listening to the sound in my throat, about my restless
moving moving, about listening to the telephone with my right
ear, about being an individualist and deaf to others, about
having to struggle to prove the value of life,about having
a fixed rhythm.
“If
you like to have your supper at 6pm and your wife brings it
at 7, then change the wife”, Ra said.
At
the end of the session, Ra turned to me and asked if I had
any questions now. I didn’t. I was speechless, really speechless.
Something had happened beyond words. He told me it would take
7 years for the knowledge I had received to sink down into
the cellular level.
I
spent the summer on Ibiza
having all kinds of adventures and showing off on that big,
black Harley Davidson. Every time I saw Ra, he would give
me some information or tell me something or give me a book
of his. I didn’t realize how special it was the treatment
he was giving me. I don’t think I was grateful enough, but
it wasn’t gratitude he was looking for. He himself didn’t
know why he was doing this. His Authority is from the Spleen.
He acts in the Now according to his little voice of intuition
that speaks softly only once.
The
summer was over and it was time for me to go. I took off on
the Harley and headed for Holland going through France
and Switzerland and Germany and finally back to Den Haag
in a cold, driving rain that left me soaked and freezing.
I booked a ticket for Mexico
and gave the first Mystic
Rose group in the history of Mexico
City. It was 3 hours a night every
night for three weeks. The first week was three hours a night
of non-stop laughing for no reason at all. The second week
was three hours a night of non-stop crying for no reason at
all. The third week was three hours a night of sitting silently
in meditation for no reason at all. There were ten working
people who had jobs during the day and no one missed a night.
I was proud of them.
After
three months in Mexico,
I went back to America
for the second time in 7 years. I bought an old Ford custom
van in Seattle with a bed in the back and I drove down Highway l
to L.A. and then over to Arizona. A friend I had met in India had a house in the desert in southern Arizona and said I could
stay there rent free if I would feed his chickens. I stayed
in beautiful nature all by myself for three months in total
silence and isolation with only the stars twinkling in the
sky at night to keep me company.
I
had friends in Sedona, Arizona
and they told me Ra was giving a workshop the next week. I
drove the five hours up there in the van to go to the workshop.
I sat in the front row and when Ra came in, he was pleasantly
surprised. After the workshop, he took me to where he was
staying and gave me another free reading, a transit reading
about the changes in my life. Good it was for free because
I was broke again and living on nothing. I slept in the van
and washed my face and upper body at the rest stops on the
highway.
Ra
was moving to Sedona. He had been living in Taos,
but his students had tried to make a guru out of him and he
moved with his wife, Ambuja, and their two kids to Sedona.
I found a place to park the van at night and that is where
I would sleep. It was winter and sometimes the snow was high
enough to cover the wheels. A German friend, Satdeva, I had
met in India,
let me sleep on his
porch in a beautiful little trailer park outside town called
Trout Fish Farm. It was enough for me. I was o.k.
Ra
was kind to me. He invited me to stay in his room in his house
with Ambuja and the kids for a week while he took a trip back
to Taos.
He had lived this life himself before. On Ibiza,
before he heard ‘the voice’ and began teaching, he had lived
in the wilderness in old abandoned finkas or caves. He had
no money and they had to give him food at Ferdinandito’s to
keep him alive.
He
kept giving me knowledge and books. I would spend my days
reading, reading. I would visit him and he would sit with
me and just talk and talk and I would just listen and listen
and let it all soak in. One day he told me that a dedicated
student by the name of Randy had paid him his very high fees
for 15 hours of private teaching, just him and Ra. Ra had
asked him if Deepak could sit in. Randy was kind enough to
say yes and it was just the three of us for 3 hours a day
for five days to sit with Ra. Again it was more like a transmission
than information giving. It was deep, it was profound, and
it transformed. At the end of it, Ra told me that he was giving
me a professional Human Design teaching license that was good
for Europe. He had already
sold the rights for America.
That was o.k. It was 1999 and I had had enough of America. It had changed into something
scary and not so human. I was on my way back to Europe and
India anyway.
I
saw Ra again when he was giving a workshop in Cologne,
Germany
in 2002. I stopped to visit him at his house when he was living
outside of Munich, Germany
in 2003. I was driving the big, black Harley again and took
Ra’s oldest son, Loki, for a ride around the small village
to show off to his friends. Ra was moving again. Ambuja was
German and Ra had moved there to give it a try. Now they were
moving back to Ibiza again
to settle down once and for all. The house was full of packing
boxes and everything was labeled, listed, and computerized.
I was amazed at the efficiency of it all.
I
didn’t see Ra again until October, 2005. My tiny, precious
new wife, Ming-Yng, and I were staying with my best friend,
Tom, in Den Haag for three months. I saw one of those one
week package trips to Ibiza
for an incredibly good price during off season. For some reason
I wanted to go to Ibiza and see Ra again. I wanted to show Ming-Yng Ibiza
and I wanted to introduce her to Ra. He was kind enough to
invite us to his house for dinner a couple of times that week.
He is very particular about whom he invites into his house
and his auric ‘bubble’. I felt it was a gift to ever be invited
by him to anything.
I
was impressed all over again. There are not that many people
in this world that good to impress me and I am always happy
when I find them. Yeah, Ra was living in a beautiful house
overlooking the Mediterranean Sea,
but it was the condition of his family that I loved the most.
They were all glowing. Ambuja was shining. The kids were happy
and free. Ra’s older daughter, Sarah, was centered and fulfilled.
Everybody was being true to themselves and recognizing each
other’s truth also. This was the proof of the pudding. Human
Design is not just some abstract do-nothing mind fuck like
psychology and most spiritual philosophies. Human Design is
about how to live your life in a true and fulfilling way and
everyone I have ever met who knows this knowledge is glowing
with gratitude that it exists.
Having
met Ra and his family in person, Ming-Yng has found a deep
interest and personal connection to Human Design. She is as
totally enthused as I am. I have taught her Astrology and
I have taught her NLP and it is Human Design that she loves.
Me too. We have ordered thousands of dollars of books and
tapes and transcripts and excitedly share our insights with
each other. We are both Generators and have learned to ask
each other questions and listen to the Sacral Sound to find
our truth. We both have defined Emotional Centers and have
learned to sleep on it before we make major decisions in life.
Life is good and getting better.
Oh yeah, after we saw Ra on Ibiza and got
back to Holland, I realized it had been exactly 7 years since
he had first given me the transmission the first time that
long time ago.