It all began with an Israeli called Rapheek who was making Osho Meditation workshops at a kibbutz in Samar, South Israel. Four years ago he was meeting with his friends in Tel Aviv to watch the World Cup and every Wednesday, Rapheek and about thirty friends would play football together in the park. Some of them were sannyasins from Osho's Resort in Pune, India. The rest belonged to the Rainbow tribe and others were just on the vibe.
"Let's make an ashram," Rapheek suggested one time at one of those football matches. He wanted to create a place of holiness where people could learn about themselves.
Forty kilometers from the kibbutz where Rapheek was making meditations, was a deserted army base. For twenty kms around this place, there is nothing but desert and the nearest cities, Eilat and Mitzpeamim are up to seventy kms away.
In September 2002, after a lot of talk, Rapheek and a handful of people, with the backing of the Samar Kibbutz, turned that old military land, into Shitim - the Ashram.
Breaking walls, they turned the army classroom into a 'group' room and the basketball ground into a Buddha Hall for meditations and events. They built small simple sleeping rooms for themselves and visitors.
In these days about 20-25 people live at Shitim and at weekends many people visit. The visitors come mainly for the meditations, spiritual workshops and the dozen spiritual festivals that take place every year. There's a regular nude festival - 'Pashut' which means 'simple' in English, and others like the popular but still not commercial, Zorba Festival.
Rebirthing, tantra and regulars workshop called 'Breathing' and ‘Trust!' are just some of the therapeutic sessions on offer at Shitim. Guides come from all over the world, like Osho orientated therapist Sugandho who will have you 'melting in love and alloness' or opening up your chakras.
Up till now, the nearby kibbutz has paid for the operating of Shitim and those who live there earn a little money for maintaining the place, but there really isn't much structure. For instance everyone takes turns to cook, cooking whatever they feel like. "Sometimes it happens," says Shitim dweller Satyam, "the food is disgusting and the cook keeps cooking...what to do?"
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As you can imagine, Shitim is all about going with the flow, being in the moment,
sharing and daring. "People enjoy it because it's a risky place. Normally there are meditations every day - and that's about the only certainity. I think people come because it's an adventure with the unknown," Satori, who also lives permanently at Shitim, explains.
The couple both agree that the ashram is in anarchy with no one person saying what to do, and sometimes life is sleeping till 11, and not being bothered to cook. However there is some sort of system going on with the long time ashramites producing and planning, while the enthusiastic newcomers do the less 'cool' work.
With all the dwellers generally doing whatever they want, in the beginning, perhaps unsuprisingly, there were the wild legends about the place (tantra, orgies, free love..) Satyam and Satori are amused by the gossip that has been. The source of which is alot to do with the nudity at Shitim.
"Often people walk around naked, especially," explains Satyam, "when the washing machine broke two weeks ago."
When Shitim has visits from urban people and families who may have read about the place in one of the tourist guides, they can get quite a suprise to meet the ashramites playing in mud, running naked through sprinklers, or just sauntering through the building like so many Adams and Eves.
Despite the freedom at Shitim, there needs to be some level of organisation, and one of the main aims of this place is to create a system that supports 'flowing.'
"In the beginning," says Satyam, "it wasn't flowing that well. We were too much in the mind; everyone bringing their own ideas and trying to impose them. When people insist on their way - you get fighting and drama. But we had the tools to meet each other. Sharing and other therapy processes. Alot of tensions dissolved and nowaday there's less structure and yet more flowing."
Satori adds, "People always want to make Shitim a perfect place but it's an imperfect place."
Perfect or imperfect, the ashramites live in a world that revolves around meditation and community, without tv or newspapers, feeling, according to Satyam, "disconnected but happy."
I try to understand this 'happiness' and I learn that life in Shitim is honest and intense. "In a few days there you meet people, you fall in love, you break apart, move on, do your own process, be creative. It's shanti because we're having fun and not working like ants but emotionally it's not shanti at all. It's as if each day you live ten times more deeply than you might somewhere else."
Maybe that's why, as Satori, also says, nobody imagines living in Shitim for life. Indeed Shitim is a place that represents that spiritual truth - the ever changing nature of life.
To really see Shitim without travelling there, check out the video clip on Shitim in EOL's video clip page, http://www.eolife.org/videos.php