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I first encountered Dave Oshana back in summer 2003. We met, of all places, in Hyde Park, central London. One of Dave’s contacts there met us at a designated spot and we were all led to a meeting point. I waited with a certain amount of trepidation until Dave finally appeared. He was walking with what appeared to be a certain amount of circumspection, as if cautiously approaching a bomb site! After moving slowly to a chair, Dave sat down and proceeded to speak. At first I could not believe what I was hearing; not the sound of some high-fluting ascetic (whatever that is supposed to be) but the cockney voice of an east-end boy from the rough part of town. After doing a double take, and wondering if perhaps Dave had been replaced at the last minute by a London black cab driver, I finally composed myself enough to actually hear what was being said. Fortunately, a lot of it concurred with what I already understood from my own experience and understanding, though some of it seemed downright provocative and outrageous. It has to be said, however, that all of it was delivered with large quantities of good humour which had the assorted attendees chuckling if not laughing out loud. At the end of the meeting, the jury was still out as far as I was concerned. Yes, it had been humorous and entertaining and had elements which were recognisable to a truth-seeker. But at the same time there was a reactionary quality which seemed dismissive of sacred texts and traditions which I had hitherto considered sacrosanct and this felt uncomfortable. Nevertheless I deemed it necessary to stay the course, at least for a while, because to dismiss the experience simply due to my own discomfort would not have been a sufficient reason to stop.
Further meetings in Hyde park followed, each one having its own unique set of challenges and events. What became clear from repeated attendance was that Dave was not interested in following a particular established doctrine, but, like many spiritual teachers had cut his own path. Dave regaled us using current day analogies with which we were all readily familiar and many stories from his own quest for enlightenment which had been extensive, thorough and wonderfully sincere. Gradually, after numerous discourses and conversations, I began to realise that there was more to this teacher than a witty turn of phrase and a disdain for dogma.
As the summer of 2003 drew to a close it became impractical to meet in Hyde park and meetings were switched to a rather grim shop in the Edgware Road area. The number of attendees had whittled down somewhat and in the cold, damp conditions of our meeting place we continued to enjoy the trials and tribulations of Dave’s meetings. One thing that helped to maintain warmth however was the introduction of energy-work. Dave’s rather unique way of enlivening the body and helping to purge it of stuck energies and emotions. A simple series of exercises, which though at first appeared random, haphazard and puzzling began to take on more significance as I became more attuned to the movements of my energy body. The reason for the seeming lack of consistency in the teaching method was because the student has to feel for him or herself the energetic movements, and of course Dave reacted to the energetic needs of the moment, so to mechanically repeat the same set of standard exercises would have been contrary to his own methods. Additionally it helped to keep us on our toes.
As we moved into 2004 the meetings continued. Dave introduced us to ‘no-mind’ a state in which the movements, thoughts and agitations of the mind are laid to rest. This is a facility which Dave has the ability to project and seems to occur quite naturally during encounters, either as a group or during individual meetings, which are termed one-to-ones. The individual meetings allow students to focus on particular issues and provide insights into problems which might otherwise appear insuperable.
As 2004 progressed, meetings with Dave diminished somewhat as he was spending more and more time in Finland (where he has a partner). Fortunately, when they did occur they were in the much more comfortable surroundings of Covent Garden. Since however, the meetings were becoming so rare, I decided in 2006 to make the bold move to attend a week-long intensive in Finland. These take place during July on an island in the archipelago off the south western coast. Here, in the bosom of mother nature, accompanied by Dave and a goodly collection of like-minded aspirants one can enjoy energetic and enlightenment teaching to its fullest extent. These events are like no other in my experience and speaking for myself have been the source of a rich variety of spiritual experiences, which, though they are not an end in themselves, are for me a sign of the authenticity of the spiritual direction.
Julian
Experience with Dave Oshana by Julian Green
Aug 04, 2009
I first encountered Dave Oshana back in summer 2003. We met, of all places, in Hyde Park, central London. One of Dave’s contacts there met us at a designated spot and we were all led to a meeting point. I waited with a certain amount of trepidation until Dave finally appeared. He was walking with what appeared to be a certain amount of circumspection, as if cautiously approaching a bomb site! After moving slowly to a chair, Dave sat down and proceeded to speak. At first I could not believe what I was hearing; not the sound of some high-fluting ascetic (whatever that is supposed to be) but the cockney voice of an east-end boy from the rough part of town. After doing a double take, and wondering if perhaps Dave had been replaced at the last minute by a London black cab driver, I finally composed myself enough to actually hear what was being said. Fortunately, a lot of it concurred with what I already understood from my own experience and understanding, though some of it seemed downright provocative and outrageous. It has to be said, however, that all of it was delivered with large quantities of good humour which had the assorted attendees chuckling if not laughing out loud. At the end of the meeting, the jury was still out as far as I was concerned. Yes, it had been humorous and entertaining and had elements which were recognisable to a truth-seeker. But at the same time there was a reactionary quality which seemed dismissive of sacred texts and traditions which I had hitherto considered sacrosanct and this felt uncomfortable. Nevertheless I deemed it necessary to stay the course, at least for a while, because to dismiss the experience simply due to my own discomfort would not have been a sufficient reason to stop.
Further meetings in Hyde park followed, each one having its own unique set of challenges and events. What became clear from repeated attendance was that Dave was not interested in following a particular established doctrine, but, like many spiritual teachers had cut his own path. Dave regaled us using current day analogies with which we were all readily familiar and many stories from his own quest for enlightenment which had been extensive, thorough and wonderfully sincere. Gradually, after numerous discourses and conversations, I began to realise that there was more to this teacher than a witty turn of phrase and a disdain for dogma.
As the summer of 2003 drew to a close it became impractical to meet in Hyde park and meetings were switched to a rather grim shop in the Edgware Road area. The number of attendees had whittled down somewhat and in the cold, damp conditions of our meeting place we continued to enjoy the trials and tribulations of Dave’s meetings. One thing that helped to maintain warmth however was the introduction of energy-work. Dave’s rather unique way of enlivening the body and helping to purge it of stuck energies and emotions. A simple series of exercises, which though at first appeared random, haphazard and puzzling began to take on more significance as I became more attuned to the movements of my energy body. The reason for the seeming lack of consistency in the teaching method was because the student has to feel for him or herself the energetic movements, and of course Dave reacted to the energetic needs of the moment, so to mechanically repeat the same set of standard exercises would have been contrary to his own methods. Additionally it helped to keep us on our toes.
As we moved into 2004 the meetings continued. Dave introduced us to ‘no-mind’ a state in which the movements, thoughts and agitations of the mind are laid to rest. This is a facility which Dave has the ability to project and seems to occur quite naturally during encounters, either as a group or during individual meetings, which are termed one-to-ones. The individual meetings allow students to focus on particular issues and provide insights into problems which might otherwise appear insuperable.
As 2004 progressed, meetings with Dave diminished somewhat as he was spending more and more time in Finland (where he has a partner). Fortunately, when they did occur they were in the much more comfortable surroundings of Covent Garden. Since however, the meetings were becoming so rare, I decided in 2006 to make the bold move to attend a week-long intensive in Finland. These take place during July on an island in the archipelago off the south western coast. Here, in the bosom of mother nature, accompanied by Dave and a goodly collection of like-minded aspirants one can enjoy energetic and enlightenment teaching to its fullest extent. These events are like no other in my experience and speaking for myself have been the source of a rich variety of spiritual experiences, which, though they are not an end in themselves, are for me a sign of the authenticity of the spiritual direction.
Julian