07 Feb Moving Deep into Meditation

“You cannot really work with people without working on yourself.  If you don’t work on yourself first, it will be impossible to create radical transformation in another.”

Sambhavo, Path of Love Leader in Europe and Mexico, is a highly qualified therapist with a passion for human potential and self-discovery.  He started working as a therapist at the age of 25 after graduating with a degree in Clinical Psychology, has over 20 years of experience in personal development groups and therapeutic work, was a teacher and researcher at the University of Florence (which he loved), and has a PhD in Psychology.

Sambhavo has created and is now running his own therapy groups around the world, but at a young age he met Osho and began his own journey of self-discovery by participating in many therapy groups – anything he felt would be effective. He says, “”You cannot really work with people without working on yourself.  If you don’t work on yourself first, it will be impossible to create radical transformation in another.”

When he participated in the Path of Love, it was love at first site…he experienced Path of Love as one of the most beautiful, powerful groups he had done in his life.  Afterwards, he thought, “What did this group give me that other groups did not?  To open my heart on a level that is inconceivable.  What a gift to feel your heart open, and it is not only your heart, it is a heart that belongs to the others too, you feel it, they feel it. Even to say your own heart is not correct. There is not something like my own heart. When touching this heart space, you are in deep connection with the core heart of the existence that is all dimensions of living.”

As a student, teacher, and researcher, Sambhavo learned many therapeutic approaches and methodologies, but when he became involved in meditation and awareness work, his passion and longing to help people led him to realise that, “Just therapy is not enough, you need to move deep into meditation, discover the invisible behind the visible, feel the spirit, touch the soul, move behind the mind, open all dimensions of the being.  Feeling that presence/light that is behind all the doing and happening of your life. Good and bad, ecstatic or depressive, the light is always there, shining, present, watching. Finding and feeling this light is a great miracle in a person’s life.”

When asked to talk about the Awakening of Love work, he said, “Awakening of Love is a three-day course and there are many of these offered everywhere in the world by qualified AOL experienced therapists.  What is unique about Awakening of Love, is that it makes people experience the possibility to connect and feel themselves, starting (maybe for some, really the first time) to have an awareness of their own feelings, and to become empathetic with the feelings of others.  And once this emphatic heart field of feelings happens, a place of vulnerability and openness starts to happen. And then each single heart becomes one heart in the group. And each one story becomes your own heart story. Compassion arises not as act of a will to be, but as natural, spontaneous love flowing from one heart to the others hearts. It is really something you can touch, experience, feel.  It makes you ecstatic, realising this space of not separation. Feeling that you have your own heart, but there is an element of your heart that belongs to everyone’s hearts and vice-versa.  As the days progress, people even experience this with the existence around us. Sky, birds, trees, sea…whatever is around, the experience of life is tangibly felt as more vivid and coloured, giving the feeling of belonging to your deepest core.

So this oneness feeling of the heart bridges you to the existence. When people finish the workshop they have a huge capacity to empathise with people and nature.  You go to the sea, and you feel the sea.  Not just water, but a clear feeling that water touches your heart, your belly, all your body.  You feel the sea not separate from you. This is what happens when people finish the group, they have an incredible capacity to feel, to sense. I must say that all the senses are much more powerful then before. Everything is more sensitive and perceptible.  Even when the people speak, you can feel that these are not just words that they speak, they are words from their own heart and they touch you deeply.  No one would come out of an Awakening of Love and say, “nothing happened to me.” It is going to melt you.  That is what is unique about this process, the deep connection with others, with the existence, with all.  Opening the heart, moving your feelings, a natural arising of compassion and the melting of any separation in one deep feeling of belonging with the existence, this is what Awakening of Love is. That is the miracle, the alchemy, the transformation.”

When talking about why he loves this work, Sambhavo shared, “Why I love Awakening of Love and Path of Love is that it resonates with what I loved from childhood, which is when people are true.  That is why I chose to study psychology and to become a psychotherapist.  I want to know what makes people cry, or be happy, or ecstatic. There is no fakeness in deep tears or laughter or joy. There is no falseness in a deep red sunset on a blue sky. It is not the same when you see the sunset covered by the smog of a city and hardly you can see the sun and it’s red.  Because I want to feel existence in a deep core of the being and people in their deep true, I choose to support people to evaporate their smog from their being and heart, encouraging them to empower in any aspect of their life. This is what I’m passionate for and this what this work does.”

When asked whether he wanted to share anything personal, he said, “I like momentum. I’m passionate for it. The feeling of being in the right place at the right moment, living my life in a challenging way and feeling fulfilled and in that moment a sense of eternity and love melting together. This is my momentum. If you don’t experience “momentum” in your life, you are very scared to live and to die. This passion brought me to kite surfing. The Path Retreats work brings a lot of this momentum, because when people are opening, sharing themselves at the core of their lives, they naturally jump in to the momentum. This feeling of momentum, being open, present, connected is there also when I kite surf. Being on the open sea, so wild, vivid, present and challenging. The big waves, the strong wind. I need all my presence and all my strength to be able to surf. This brings me fast in the momentum. It gives me intensity, passion, joy. It gives me the feeling that I live my life in the moment and I can die in this deep momentum”. That’s why Awakening of Love, Path of Love, and kite surfing are so important for me.

Sambhavo has created and is currently leading therapy groups around the world.  He leads Path of Love in many countries around the world, including India, Italy (in both English and Italian), Israel and Mexico (in both English and Spanish).