Zareen:
Bio and Credentials
Zareen is a multifaceted Dance leader and teacher with training and certifications in diverse cultures and movements from traditional Sufism, to the Osho Multiversity, Evolutionary Enlightenment and ancient wisdom teachings.
My goal is to explore things in a way that creates a new perception. Most important is how we use our time to re-create ourselves into participating relatives of the world rather than individual consumers. My overall vision is to come alive in new ways and jumpstart a dynamic participation in life that transforms the world… In other words: Sam Lewis’ peace project.
Story and credentials:
I grew up very, very Catholic.
This gave me an interest from a young age in the esoteric God. After high school I moved out into the woods to find out what it was like to be a natural human being. I realized that our society is very toxic and that the stories that were being fed into my mind were most likely very untrue. I wanted to find out what reality was.
As luck would have it, that goal is actually the secret to everything.
Sannyas
1998
I discovered my meditation teacher in 1988. This was the notorious Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh who later changed his name to Osho. I met him after he had left the US and moved back to India.
In 1988 I was living in Salmon Idaho in a small house with my three children.
A group of Sannyasins from Rajneeshpurim came to live with us. Two of them were Swami Yogino, and Nijen who was also a devotee from a Zen group with a teacher from Pakistan, and a small Sufi Order from a Turkish lineage in California. They were both awakened Sannyasins from the inner meditation circle which maintained the Buddhafield by constant meditation vigils.
You can imagine that I was living in quite the hot bed of enlightenment.
The Path to Certification in the Sannyas World
First Dynamic Meditation.
Swami Yogino tells me, “You are very manipulative. You need to do Dynamic Meditation.”
So I went to my room and started the tape.
Dynamic Meditation starts with wild music. You jump on the heels of your feet. Boom, boom, boom, boom, until suddenly the music stops, and boom you sit down.
Looking back, I think the way reason it works is because your head gets all discombobulated from the thumping on your heels. It mixes up the habitual brain.Then you sit down so fast that all your mind-thoughts stay up above and you, boom! Fall out underneath them.
My mind spit out it’s story. It was like the classic near-death experience where your life flashes before your eyes. What was amazing was the intricate detail. Everything that had ever happened to me and my interpretations of each moment spilled out. The only way I can describe it is a mind vomit.
Then the music on the tape changes and you get up and dance. Then you sit silently with all that mind dump gone. You feel better afterwards, but it certainly wasn’t enjoyable. I remember thinking, “Okay. That was pretty wild and disgusting. Must be good enough. Yes?”
But no. The next day Yogino said, you’re still very manipulative and sent me off to do Dynamic Meditation again.
I go in my bedroom. Cassette in. Jump, jump, jump… sit down. Whosh! Same thing!
Woah! An intense download of brain. In intricate detail of every moment of my life. I don’t know how you can see that many details in one second but every single detail spilled out exactly the same as the day before with one little addition. I could see myself getting up that very morning and putting this crust on myself, and then throughout the day adding more stuff to it.
What a stupid thing to do every day! It was obvious that all I needed to do to rid myself of it was to not put the veil on. Just that simple. Don’t put it on and you don’t have it.
So I decided to never cover myself with that crust again, and I never did.
Yogino never told me to go do Dynamic Meditation again.
Satori
Here’s one other thing that happened. One time I’m meditating and all of a sudden Yogino says “There. That’s Satori.”
Took me by surprise because the only thing that had happened was that I had gone just completely, totally normal. Like ordinary normal. Relaxed. A month after that I had an opportunity to see my full awakened self on the day Osho died: January 19, 1990 8:33 am.
Masters Degree in Spirituality
Shortly after that Swami Yogino certified me as a teacher with a Masters Degree from the Rajneesh Multiversity.
He and Swami Nijen made me head teacher right away because I was focused and clear. Women are natural dynamic leaders. We worked together for four more years until I realized that the old stories and teachings weren’t being effective. We needed something new.
From this point on I was not content with traditional techniques because I saw them leading people in the wrong direction. Time to search for the best of the best that could serve humanity.
Dances of Universal Peace
A few years later I discovered the Dances of Universal Peace and was captivated by the blend of song, dance and mysticism as a vehicle to bring humanity into the new world we need for sustainability.
Since then I’ve been leading in camps in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Colorado and Mexico. I play the guitar, drums, harmonium, flute, clarinet and Saxophone.
I also lead workshops on topics to meet the themes of each camp. Some samples are:
- Climate Reality
- Evolutionary Enlightenment
- Nonduality and the Laughing Mind
- Nonduality and Native Wisdom
- Hazrat Inayat Khan: Self Mastery
- Zen Stories and Mulla Nasrudine
- The Power of Women
- Living Inside the Earth
- Finding Our Ancestors
Certified Dances of Universal Peace Leader
Idaho/Montana 1998
A short list of staff positions:
- Wilderness Dance Camp: Organizer and Staff leader 1999 – 2022
- Lava Dance Camp: Staff and organizer 2000-present
- Washington/Oregon Caravan 2003-04
- Montana Family Camp 2004-2023
- Mentored Leader Training: 2017-present
- Meetings with Remarkable Beings: Zoom meetings 2022
- Wisdom of the Ages Retreat with Grace Marie 2023
- Skyness Retreats: Colorado and Mexico, 2022-present
- With Jeff Carreira: The Path of Love 2022
- Salmon Idaho Wild River Dance Camp 2023-present
- Hamilton Organics Dance Camp 2023-present
Lineage
- Osho: 1998
- Swami Yogino: Osho Multiversity 1990
- Nijen: Osho Mystery School 1990
- Hidayat Inayat Khan: Initiated into the Mystery School 2000
- Andrew Cohen: 2003
- Zamilla: Ruhaniat 2012
- Gatha Studies: 2016-17
Climate Reality Leader
Al Gore 2015
Evolutionary Enlightenment Teacher
Andrew Cohen and Jeff Carreira 2003
- Presentations: Missoula, Idaho Falls, Salmon Idaho, Wilderness Dance Camp.
Teacher: Jeff Carreira Mystery School
- Nonduality: You are Not Two 2023
- Nonduality and Native Wisdom 2023
- Finding Your Ancestors 2024
A poem from one of my students:
Poem of NOTHING
Maria M. Decsy
In a stunning, power-packed instance
I recognize Nothing,
Utterly nothing / utterly everything.
Intimate nothing / everything.
Real nothing / everything.
Silent, playful, nothing / everything andI AM THAT.
My mind is stunned.
It scrambles for meaning,
It is confused, disoriented, perplexed,
Never experienced such comical flailing,
scrambling for words.I spend hours and hours writing utter nonsense,
in absolute useless effort to put into words the incomprehensible.What just happened? How can Nothing be Real and Everything?
I hear heartfelt laughter echoing through the cosmos:Now you know why mystics stutter !
Nothing IS Real and Everything.
I AM THAT! (Namaste)
Kirtan
Kirtan Leader
Kirtan Leadership Institute, 2022
- Kirtan Leading Missoula, Hamilton, Pocatello
Current Events
Nonduality Website is here: