Welcome to Paradise!
Welcome to Paradise! Reads the sign on the entrance of a very special valley. A valley that once a year, for a week, transcends to a magical place somewhere between the physical world and the non-physical one. A place where unicorns are as real as the trees surrounding it. The home of the OZORA reality, a unique opportunity to disconnect so as to reconnect and open the doors of perception.
The festival along with all the people there radiates a powerful feeling of positive energy connecting people together. It is a festival of visual and visionary arts, live acts, authentic and beautiful music, consciousness expanding workshops and lectures, entertaining circus acts and handmade artefacts. A festival that disregards differences and instead celebrates uniqueness and authenticity.
The thing I find most interesting in festivals like OZORA is that they are a sandbox where interesting socioeconomic experimental projects take place. The kind humanity desperately needs. And all this is made a reality thanks to the incredibly interesting and wonderful souls participating with one way or another in such festivals. Many of them are people who think outside the box, who refuse to be conditioned by modern day society and with a very interesting and positive outlook towards life. They reject social norms. They question the notion that economic progress leads to a perfect world. They prefer a life of freedom and expression rather than a middle class life and conformity. They seek spontaneity, direct personal relations expressing love, and expanded consciousness. They are the ones who imagine no heaven and no hell, no countries, a brotherhood of humanity and who are living for today. They are the ones forgetting tomorrow’s bread for tonight’s conversation. Many of them at Ozora were French, alluding to the 19th century Bohemian Paris.
There are of course also the ones who are not totally immersed into such a lifestyle but who are attracted to and intrigued by it and the ideas surrounding it and yearn for a taste of them. Nowadays more and more people, especially young ones, come to realise that we are living in a society in which we lose our authenticity (if we ever had one to start with) and feel a discomfort.
Heidegger, the German (and Nazi) philosopher believed that man, if he does not question existence and his truth, fails to achieve an authentic life. The inauthentic, he claims, have a special relationship with death. They will say death is definitely coming but not yet. There is still time. And in a way they have to say that as they are not willing to judge the situation they are in right now. They have to believe that there is still time for them to change and to be different, to be other than what they are now. So it is only really the authentic who are ready and willing to make decisions about the conflicting demands they see. Only they are actually in a position to tolerate the thought that death might come now because it is only then that it is actually coming to work their assessment on how one should live.
Many of the people at Ozora are people who constantly question existence and are in search of the truth. They are eager to examine life and contemplate what questions they would ask the universe had they had the chance to do so. Questions like who are we really, what is our place in the universe, is there a purpose to life and all we see around us? They are genuinely concerned about all these existential questions, just like all of us, only they don’t shy away from them. It is extremely difficult to find people to discuss such existential issues – most simply can not bear the thought of them and of the unknown – finding comfort in religions and the promise (true or false) of afterlife with the self perpetuating therein eternally – such is the ego of humanity. Otherwise, life would be unbearable for them. The people you can simply just discuss (never mind making a knowledgeable discussion) about quantum physics, philosophy and life come few and far between – even in well off and educated social circles. So OZORA is a very interesting place to be in this sense. Even the daily 4-page ozorian paper had articles touching lightly upon quantum physics and philosophy.
The feelings of absolute freedom, acceptance, gratefulness and thankfulness are widespread all around the grounds of the festival, giving you a blissful and harmonious feeling and forcing you to at least question your outlook on life, if not reassessing your priorities.
People there are thankful for all the treasures we have received with existence and grateful for this existence itself – being in the here and now – for this miracle we call life. Because it is truly a miracle. Just take a moment to think of all the things that are happening at this very moment all around the world. Chances are this sacred moment will not repeat itself. It is after we truly understand and get immersed into this ephemeral moment that we will truly appreciate it. As Sean Carroll put it [We are] “Ephemeral patterns of complexity, riding a wave of increasing entropy from simple beginnings to a simple end. We should enjoy the ride.” The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself.
So go out there and be kind and compassionate with the people you interact and come across with, share with and smile to everyone – even strangers. That’s what makes life worth living.
A big warm and heartfelt thank you to Daniel and the OZORA team!
Love – Peace – Oneness
May the sun bring you new energy by day.
May the moon softly restore you by night.
May the rain wash away your worries.
May the breeze blow new strength into your being.
May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.
-Apache Blessing-
Recommended music for slideshow (put on loop): Sound & Silence Experience (Greece, Corfu 2016) with Netanel Goldberg || Estas Tonne || Joseph Pepe Danza || Mitsch Kohn
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