| This article is about the spiritual teacher formerly known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.January 19, 1990), better known during the 1960s as Acharya Rajneesh, then during the 1970s and 1980s as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and later taking the name Osho, was an Indian spiritual teacher.He lived in India and in other countries including, for a period, the United States, and inspired the Osho movement, a controversial spiritual and philosophical movement that still has many followers.If you really want to know who I am, you have to be as absolutely empty as I am.At the time, an astrologer predicted that he might die before he was seven years old according to the birth chart.Osho said this was a major influence on his growth because his grandmother gave him the utmost freedom and respect, leaving him carefree; without an imposed education or restrictions.He explained that he received a similar kind of respect from his paternal grandfather who was staying with them.Everyone may tell you that you are wrong.But nobody knows which situation you are in.Do whatsoever you feel is right.He resisted his parents' pressure to get married.He started his public speaking at the annual Sarva Dharma Sammelan held at Jabalpur since 1939, organised by the Taranpanthi Jain community into which he was born.He participated there from 1951 to 1968.Eventually the Jain community stopped inviting him because of his radical ideas.Osho said he became spiritually enlightened on 21 March 1953, when he was 21 years old.He said he dropped all effort and hope.The whole garden was asleep, the trees were asleep.It attracted me, it pulled me towards itself.He finished his studies at D.He resigned from his teaching post in 1966.In 1969, a group of Osho's friends established a foundation to support his work.They settled in an apartment in Mumbai where he gave daily discourses and received visitors.The number and frequency of visitors soon became too much for the place, overflowing the apartment and bothering the neighbours.From 1971, he was known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.Shree means Sir or Mister; the Sanskrit word Bhagwan means "blessed one".It is commonly used in India as a respectful form of address for spiritual teachers.Pune had been the secondary residence of many wealthy families from Mumbai because of the cooler climate (Mumbai lies in a coastal wetland, hot and damp, Pune is inland and much higher, so it is drier and cooler).Osho International Meditation Resort.The Ashram now began to offer a growing number of therapy groups, as well as meditations.Osho taught at the Pune Ashram from 1974 to 1981.Osho went to the United States in search of better medical care (he suffered from asthma, diabetes and severe back problems).Osho stayed in Rajneeshpuram as the commune's guest, living in a modest home with an indoor swimming pool.Osho ended his period of silence in October 1984.September 1985, fleeing for Europe, Osho convened a press conference and called on the authorities to undertake an investigation.This eventually led to the conviction of Sheela and several of her lieutenants.In late October 1985, Osho was arrested in North Carolina as he was allegedly fleeing the U.Osho then began a world tour, speaking in Nepal, Greece and Uruguay, among others.Being refused entry visas by more than twenty different countries, he returned to India in July 1986, and in January 1987, to his old Ashram in Pune, India.He resumed discoursing there.In late December 1988, he said he no longer wished to be referred to as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and shortly afterwards took the name Osho.On January 19, 1990, four years after his arrest, Osho died, aged 58, with heart failure being the publicly reported cause.Prior to his death, Osho had expressed his belief that his rapid health decline was caused by some form of poison administered to him by the U.It does not matter which poison has been given to me, but it is certain that I have been poisoned by Ronald Reagan's American government.His ashes were placed in his newly built bedroom in one of the main buildings (LaoTsu House) at his last place of residence, his Ashram in Pune, India.The epitaph reads, "OSHO.With 200,000 visitors annually, the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune, India, is one of the largest spiritual growth centres in the world today.Today, Osho's books are more popular than ever before, with translations published in 55 different languages.Osho's death, there has been a sea change in public opinion.In 1991, an influential Indian newspaper counted Osho, among figures such as Gautama Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, among the ten people who had most changed India's destiny; in Osho's case, by "liberating the minds of future generations from the shackles of religiosity and conformism".Osho is one of only two authors whose entire works have been placed in the Library of India's National Parliament in New Delhi (the other is Mahatma Gandhi).India's Minister of State for External Affairs from 2003 to 2004.Philosophy
Osho taught that the greatest values in life are (in no specific order) awareness, love, meditation, celebration, creativity and laughter.He was a prolific speaker (in both Hindi and English) on various spiritual traditions including those of Buddha, Laozi, Krishna, Guru Nanak, Jesus, Socrates, Zen masters, Gurdjieff, Sufism, Hassidism, Tantra and many others.It is a totally different thing, and it will take time for the world to recognise that a tremendously different experiment was going on.You are not making any effort; neither am I making any effort.But in all these activities, the fundamental remains meditation.You can see my beard: it has become grey so quickly because I have lived so intensely that I have compressed almost two hundred years into fifty.Hinduism, Jainism or Christianity.Hindu fundamentalist in 1980.Active Meditation techniques to prepare the ground.Some of these preparatory exercises can also be found in western psychological therapies (i.His most significant meditation techniques are today known as "OSHO Dynamic Meditation", "OSHO Kundalini Meditation", "OSHO Nadabrahma Meditation" and "OSHO Nataraj Meditation".For each meditation, special music was composed to guide the meditator through the different phases of the meditations.Osho said that Dynamic Meditation was absolutely necessary for modern man.If people were innocent, he said, there would be no need for Dynamic Meditation, but given that people were repressed, were carrying a large psychological burden, they would first need a catharsis.So Dynamic Meditation was to help them clean themselves out; then they would be able to use any meditation method without difficulty.Apart from his own methods, he also reintroduced minimal parts of several traditional meditation techniques, stripped of what he saw as ritual and tradition, and retaining what he considered to be the most therapeutic parts.Royces (more than 90 in the end) appeared in the press.Osho dictated three books while undergoing dental treatment under the influence of nitrous oxide (laughing gas): Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, Notes of a Madman, and Books I Have Loved.This led to allegations that Osho was addicted to nitrous oxide gas.In 1985, on the American CBS television show 60 Minutes, his former secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, claimed that Osho took sixty milligrams of Valium every day.When questioned by journalists about the allegations of daily Valium and nitrous oxide use, Osho categorically denied both, describing the allegations as "absolute lies".There have also been recurrent allegations that Osho was connected to criminal activity, going back to the early days of the Poona ashram.Osho was not directly involved, he was aware of, and gave his blessing to, this kind of activity.At Rajneeshpuram, it has been claimed, Osho must have been at least aware of some of Sheela's illegal activities, such as arranged marriages designed to enable foreign followers to stay in Rajneeshpuram, and must have condoned them.However, there is no hard evidence to support any of these allegations.Sheela claimed to have tapes implicating Osho in various crimes; however, no such tapes have ever been released by the US authorities, and without them, many of the charges against Osho cannot be substantiated.The author of a recent academic study of the Osho phenomenon has remarked that the "answer to whether Osho was a manipulator, addicted to power, etc.Further reading
Osho, Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic (St.Studies in Contemporary Religion Series, No.New Oregon Publishers, Inc.ASIN B000DZUH6E
George Meredith, Bhagwan: The Most Godless Yet the Most Godly Man (Rebel Publishing House) 1988 ASIN B0000D65TA (by Osho's personal physician)
Hugh Milne, Bhagwan: The God that Failed (St.University of Sagar website.Article in The New Yorker magazine, Sept.University of Oregon Libraries Collection, Historical Note.Times of India article dated 18 Nov.New York Times article dated 16 Sep.Article in The New Yorker magazine, Sept."Leadership, Director, Office of Policy and Planning, Joseph R.Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, September 25, 2006.In his book Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram, Chapter 28, audio available on osho.In his book The Last Testament, Vol.New York Times article dated 13 Nov.See for example his book Come Follow to You, Vol.Sam, Life of Osho, Sannyas, London, 1997, p.This page was last modified 18:02, 31 December 2007.All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.Nell'Osho website puoi sperimentare la meditazione, visitare un resort di meditazione, avere una lettura di tarocchi online, leggere una rivista online, e inoltre comprare libri, audiocassette o video che ti aiutano a fare della consapevolezza il tuo stile di vita.Prendi in considerazione l'idea di aggiornare il tuo browser con l'ultima versione di Netscape Navigator o Microsoft Internet Explorer, oppure abilita JavaScript nel tuo settaggio.Rajneesh Chandra Mohan in Kuchwara, a town in
central India.At the end of his
life, he changed his name to Osho.His parents' religion was Jainism.However, Osho
never subscribed to any religious faith during his lifetime.Rajneesh obtained a masters degree in philosophy from the
University of Saugar.In 1966, he left his teaching post and gave
his full attention to teaching his sannyasins (disciples) while pursuing a speaking career.He
had an apartment in Bombay where he often met individuals and small groups,
where acting as spiritual teacher, guide and friend.Most of his Sannyasins came from
Europe and India in the early years.In 1974, Osho moved from Bombay southward to Pune, India.In reality, it was to establish an ashram (place of teaching) which
would provide larger and more comfortable facilities for his disciples.He went
to the United States in order to obtain advanced treatment.Antelope, Oregon, which his sannyasins had bought for
six million dollars.Many of the local folks were intolerant of the new group in their
midst, because of religious and cultural differences.One manifestation of
this intolerance was the town's denial of building permits to the
followers of Rajneesh.Some buildings were erected on the ranch without planning board
approval.When officials attempted to stop the construction, their office was firebombed
by unknown person(s).When the local city council repeatedly refused to issue
permits for their businesses, some sannyasins elected themselves to the
city council.The town of Antelope was renamed City of Rajneesh.Top aides of Osho were charged with a number of crimes, including the
attempted murder of Osho's personal physician.There
were stories of a hit list.Two were eventually convicted of conspiracy to murder
local lawyer Charles Turner in an
attempt to prevent closure of the ranch.In 1983, Osho's secretary Sheela Silverman predicted on behalf of Osho that there would be massive destruction on earth,
between 1984 and 1999.Fearing a
raid of the type that later happened in Waco, several of Osho's disciples
arranged for him to be flown to Charlotte for safety.He allegedly arranged a number
of phony marriages between some of his Indian followers and American citizens so that the
former could obtain clearance to stay in the country.He returned to Pune, India in
1987, where his
health began to fail.Osho developed new forms of active meditation.The best known is Dynamic
Meditation which often starts with strenuous physical activity
followed by silence and celebration.Prior to 1985, the disciples wore red robes, and a necklace of 108 beads which had an attached picture of
Rajneesh.Osho assigned a new name to each of the disciples.Although most members lived a frugal,
simple lifestyle, Rajneesh himself lived in luxury.His collection 27 Rolls
Royces, given
to him by his followers, was well known.Some sources say he had as many as 100 cars).Many became disciples themselves, including Osho's own
parents.He recognized Jesus Christ as having attained enlightenment, and believed that he
survived his crucifixion and moved to India where he died at the age of 112.He
explained that the purpose of these jokes was to shock people and to encourage
them to examine their identification with and attachment to their ethnic or
religious beliefs.His contention was that national, religious, gender and
racial divisions are destructive.Osho repeatedly stated that he would not appoint a successor to replace him
after his death.He viewed each disciple as his successor.New Agers as well as followers of
Osho.Since it was established it has been expanded from 6 to 32 acres.Osho International in New York,
NY, administers the rights to Osho's works.US Trademark Board of Appeals.They have a list of Sannyasins, Osho information centers, etc.ST,
Martin's Press, (1997).Insights
for a new way of living.This Osho world website offers the ultimate experience.World Galleria, read tarot, listen to Audio Discourses or download them.Site also offers the osho biography of Enlightened Mystic, Meditation Centres, India as well as around the world.Centers, groups and individuals inspired by his teachings can be found all over the world, but the movement is most visible in India and Nepal, where it has entered the mainstream of society.In the 1980s it had an intentional community near Antelope, Oregon, United States, called Rajneeshpuram.The movement was very controversial when Osho was alive, both in India and in Western Europe and the United States.The Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune attracts 200,000 visitors annually.The movement's main center today is the Osho International Meditation Resort in Pune, India.The press in India tends to refer to them as "Oshoites".Studies in Contemporary Religion Series, No.Excerpts available here)
Latkin, Carl A."While many Indians originally rejected Osho's eccentric ideas on sex, he is today considered a national treasure, with admirers including India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sikh writer Khushwant Singh."San Francisco Chronicle article dated 29 Aug.New York Times article dated 13 Nov.Willamette Week Online, Portland, Orgeon, article dated 2 Feb.Osho International Meditation Resort
Neosannyas.You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.This page was last modified 18:02, 31 December 2007.Maharaj Charan Singh, Sikh Guru
From "Divine Light," p.Translation
of Pandit
Subrahmanya Sastri, F.The
Theosophical Publishing House, p.Osho
is the worst thing that ever happened to spirituality in the west.He
rode herd over a mob of naive, idealistic spiritual seekers, but
definitely lacked the traits of an enlightened
master."Enlightened masters are not drug addicts.He has sufficient merit to receive protection and his honored
in his lifetime.Osho was
basically a kind of pimp who used the base desires of average people,
along with their beautiful hunger for real spirituality, to build a
financial empire and a following of worshippers who would do whatever
he asked.What a harvest
of potential saints that was!Vivekananda or a
Ramakrishna."Thousands of sincere western seekers were misled and harmed by the
novel
teachings of Osho.Despite Osho's "indulgence
technique,"
they never
got over sex addiction and lust."This was one of the Big Lies that Osho told: That by indulging your
sex
desire you would transcend it.Buddha, who was
frequently ripped off by "the Bhagwan."Osho's teachings, though
sprinkled here and there with mystical truths, were dead wrong in the
most basic ways, and ultimately spiritually destructive."The proof is in the pudding.Osho set Yoga back in
the west perhaps hundreds of years."The saddest thing is what happened to all those children of Osho
followers.Osho wanted them to grow up not knowing who their Fathers
were; raised by a mob, with no particular person as Parent.Krishnamurti was
right:
Osho was a criminal."This
episode has the unfortunate distinction of being the first instance of
modern bioterrorism in the U.The child of an Osho
disciple recounts his crazy life growing up under the "Rajneesh."Find
out how bad it was.Many
letters here from other grown Osho children, or those raised in similar
situations.East and
West
and reveal the true esoteric secrets, without what I considered to be
the
excess baggage of Indian, Tibetan, or Japanese culture.Rajneesh was
the
answer to my quest for those deeper meanings.At 21
years
old I was naive about life and the nature of man and assumed that
everything
he said must be true.Rajneesh spoke on a high
level
of intelligence
and his spiritual presence emanated from his body like a soft light
that
healed all wounds.While sitting close during a small gathering of
friends,
Rajneesh took me on a rapidly vertical inner journey that almost seemed
to push me out of my physical body.Many phony gurus have claimed
to
have these mysterious abilities, but Rajneesh had them for real.Those who came near
soon
learned of them through direct contact with the miraculous.One year earlier I had meet
another enlightened
teacher, known to the world as Jiddu Krishnamurti.Listening to Krishnamurti speak
was like
eating a sandwich made of bread and sand.Krishnamurti,
while fully enlightened and uniquely lovable, will be recorded in
history
as a teacher with very poor verbal communication skills.It became clear to me that enlightened people are as
fallible
as anyone.They are expanded human beings, not perfect human
beings,
and they live and breathe with many of the same faults and
vulnerabilities
we ordinary humans must endure.Rajneesh's spiritual presence was identical to that
of
J.Krishnamurti, who was recognized as enlightened by every high
Tibetan
Lama and revered Hindu sage of the day.Rajneesh pushed the envelope of
enlightenment
in both positive and negative directions.He was the best of the
best and the worst of the worst.He was a great teacher in his
early
years, with innovative meditation techniques that worked with dramatic
power (see explanation and warning about Osho's Dynamic Meditation
technique
near the bottom of the page).When former university
professor Acharya
Rajneesh suddenly changed his name to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, I was
dismayed.The famous enlightened sage Ramana Maharshi was called Bhagwan by his
disciples
as a spontaneous term of endearment.As most human beings who are
treat
as kings, Rajneesh lost touch with the world of the common man.Rajneesh calculated that
the
majority
of the earth's population was on such a low level of consciousness that
they could not understand nor tolerate the real truths.He thus
decided
on a policy of spreading seemingly useful lies to bring inspiration to
his disciples and, on occasion, to stress his students in unique
situations
for their own personal growth.Acharya, Bhagwan Shree,
Osho...Rajneesh could not cover up the fact that he
was still a human being.He had ambitions and desires, sexual and
material, just like everyone else.All living enlightened humans have
desires.All enlightened men have had public lives that we know about and all
have
had private lives that remained secret.Rajneesh never lost the
ultimate existential
truth of being.He only lost the ordinary concept of truth that
any
normal adult can easily understand.Tantra," but that too was dishonest.Those lies had nothing to do with
Tantra
or any selfless acts of kindness.Rajneesh knew everything that
Buddha knew and he was everything that Buddha was.It was his
loss
of respect for ordinary truthfulness that destroyed his teaching.He suffered from what Europeans call myalgic
encephalomyelitis
(ME) or what Americans call Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).Rajneesh was constantly sick
and frail
from the time I first met him in 1970 until his death in 1990.In reality he suffered from a singular chronic
illness
with flu like symptoms that can last for decades.In his last years Rajneesh used
prescription
drugs, mainly Valium (diazepam), as an analgesic for his aches and
pains.He
also inhaled nitrous oxide (N2O) mixed with pure oxygen (O2) which
helped
his asthma and brain hypoxia, but which did nothing for the quality of
his judgment.Rajneesh died in 1990, with
heart
failure listed as the official cause of death.There was much speculation in
the American
media that Osho had actually committed suicide by taking a drug
overdose.As no one has confessed to giving Osho a lethal injection, there is no
hard evidence to support the suicide theory.Osho's constant ill health and disheartenment over the loss of
Vivek,
his greatest love.Vivek had taken a fatal overdose of sleeping
pills
in a Bombay hotel one month before Osho's passing.Pointedly,
Vivek
decided to kill herself just before Osho's final birthday
celebration.Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had threatened suicide at the Oregon commune
several
times, hanging his death over the heads of his disciples as a threat
unless
they obeyed his wishes.On his last day on earth, Osho's is
reported
to have said "Let me go.My body has become a hell for me."The rumor that Osho was
poisoned with
thallium by operatives of the United States Government is entirely
fictional
and contradicted by undeniable fact.Osho died with a full beard and no exceptional baldness other than
ordinary
male pattern baldness at the top of his head.Those symptoms can include ataxia (uncoordinated
movements),
numbness, standing tachycardia (rapid heart rate upon standing),
paresthesia
(sensations of prickling and itching), nausea, and irritable bowel
syndrome,
which causes alternating between constipation and diarrhea.The only proven cases of
poisoning related
to Osho were carried out by Rajneesh sannyasins themselves (a sannyasin
is an initiated disciple, one who takes sannyas).Sheela had the habit of poisoning
people who either knew too much or who had simply fallen out of her
favor.United
States of America.There is no direct connection between meditation and ethics and the
dangers
and limitations of teaching ethics are far outweighed by the
destructive
anarchy that a lack of teaching creates.But Osho taught that you should do
as
you please and many of his disciples and he himself committed many
ethical
crimes.Those unfamiliar with the
Rajneesh story
can read the book Bhagwan: The God That Failed, by Hugh Milne
(Shivamurti),
a close disciple of Bhagwan during his Poona and Oregon years.Originally
published by Saint Martin's Press, the book can be found through
Amazon.Milne
states about the life of Rajneesh in Bombay and Poona though I have no
first hand knowledge of the tragic events at the Oregon commune.My contacts with people who were there lead me to believe that most of
the facts Mr.Milne presents of the Oregon era are also highly
accurate.Firstly, Rajneesh did not
suffer from
"hypochodria," as Mr.Rajneesh had a very real
neurological
disease, probably inherited, which he mistook for frequent viral
infections.Rajneesh became unusually afraid of germs only due to his very innocent
and understandable medical ignorance.The Void has no ambition
whatsoever,
a fact which current Osho disciples keep forgetting.Rajneesh
could
only speak for his own personal animal mind, which is the case for all
of us.The Void is infinity and beyond human desire, so how can that which is
beyond the human mind have human ambitions?The phenomena we
called
Rajneesh, Bhagwan, and Osho was only a temporary lens of cosmic energy,
not the full cosmos itself.Milne
has learned that fact very well, but many fanatic Osho disciples have
missed
the point entirely.Rajneesh had a
wonderful,
melodic, and naturally hypnotic voice which would be a great asset to
any
public speaker.However, in my personal opinion, Rajneesh's power
came from the intense energy field of the universal cosmic
consciousness
which he channeled like a lens.Enlightenment is not something you own.Even the chemical energy of our
metabolism
is borrowed from the sun, which beams light to the earth, which is then
converted by plants through photosynthesis into the food we eat.No human being owns the Atman and no one can speak for the TES.Both men
used
their cosmic consciousness to overwhelm and seduce women, which was
largely
a harmless affair in my opinion.In Oregon
he even declared to the media that "My religion is the only
religion."Rajneesh and even warned his
disciples
not to have blind faith in him.Gurdjieff wanted his students to
be free and independent with the combined abilities of clear mental
reasoning
and meditation."Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac."After leaving India, Rajneesh
created
his Oregon commune from his own powerful mind.He made himself
the
ultimate dictator, his picture placed everywhere as in an Orwellian bad
dream.That totalitarian atmosphere was just one of the many
reasons
I did not stay at the Oregon commune beyond several brief visits.Rajneesh put such a high emphasis on his disciples following orders
without
question that they did just that when Ma Anand Sheela, Rajneesh's
personal
secretary, gave absurd orders to commit crimes which Rajneesh himself
would
have never approved of.Hitler, Stalin, or for Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh.Rajneesh's voting fraud scheme
failed and the once again homeless were returned to the streets after
the
election was over, used and then abandoned.This betrayal caused Vivek, his longtime girlfriend and companion, to
commit
suicide.Rajneesh even lied about her death, slandering his
greatest
love in her grave by falsely claiming that she was chronically
depressed
due to some intrinsic emotional instability.Vivek was never
depressed
during the years I knew her and she was the most radiant women I have
ever
known.Rajneesh drove her to suicide
because
she could not understand nor tolerate his mental decline and
collapse.Rajneesh lied about her death simply to avoid taking responsibility for
his own bizarre behavior, which was the underlying cause of Vivek's
despair.The very same Western disciple
who administered
nitrous oxide to Osho has been spreading negative rumors about Vivek,
claiming
that she was not a meditative person (as himself) and that she
committed
suicide because of a hormonal imbalance and also because she was
depressed
about reaching the age of forty.This same sannyasin denied to me
emphatically that he gave Rajneesh irresponsible levels of nitrous
oxide,
but later admitted to others that he gave Rajneesh one to two hour
nitrous
oxide "treatments" every day for five months.That fall could happen
only
if the enlightened man makes one wrong choice, one false move, from
both
the heart and from the mind.Rajneesh overestimated himself
and underestimated
his own disciples.But Rajneesh had been a high guru for such a long
time,
not just in this life but in previous lives as well, that he came to
see
himself in grandiose terms.His disciples deserved honesty but he fed them fairy tales "to give
them
faith."While Rajneesh was a brilliant
philosopher,
he was a lost babe in the woods when it came to the world of
science.Worried about worldwide overpopulation, Rajneesh pressured his
disciples
to undergo medical sterilization procedures.The current
population
expansion is largely a phenomena of poor, third world nations, not a
problem
originating in the USA, Canada, and Europe, where birth rates are
actually
falling.North America and Europe are only experiencing population
increases
due to legal and illegal immigration from third world nations.Having
his European and North American disciples medically sever their
reproductive
capabilities only added to this imbalance and many former disciples now
regret they complied without question to his thoughtless edicts.He thought he
could
escape nuclear holocaust by building underground shelters and slow the
spread of AIDS by having his disciples wash their hands with alcohol
before
eating meals.His more reasoned admonition was for his disciples
to always use condoms.To enforce his sexual rules, which also
involved
elaborate instructions on the use of rubber gloves during sexual
encounters,
Rajneesh encouraged his sannyasins to spy on each other, reporting the
names of those who failed to conform to his orders.The disaster of Rajneesh
appointing himself
the singular great brain of the universe was compounded by his lack of
real world reasoning skills, and this was the case even before he
started
taking large amounts of Valium.In the world of science you have to prove what you say is true through
testing.In the world of philosophy and religion you can say
anything
you desire and throw caution to the wind.If your words sound
good
to the masses they will sell, whether they are fact or fiction.Rajneesh had no understanding
of, or
appreciation for, the scientific method.If he thought something
was true, in his own mind, that made it true.His disciples
were
judged by their ability to surrender to his will and any opposing views
were branded as negativity and an unspiritual lack of faith.Rajneesh's poor reasoning
became even
more apparent during and after the Oregon commune scandal.Even in his fifties Rajneesh was still lying to get his own way, still
demanding to always be the center of attention, and by 1988, suffering
from drug and illness induced dementia, was pouting that his box of
toys,
his expensive car collection and jewel encrusted watches, had been
taken
away.The idealized fantasy of perfect enlightenment does not
exist
anywhere in the real world and it has never existed.Rajneesh
was never more infallible than any other human being.Visitors to his ashram in Poona, India, who are open to meditation,
will
feel a giant wave of consciousness there.That wave use to be
connected
to a human body we called Rajneesh.Krishnamurti's
presence can still be felt at Arya Vihara, his former home in Ojai,
California."What you tell them is true, but what I tell them (the useful
lies)
is good for them."The contradiction of corruption
and enlightenment
can occur because the brain is never enlightened and enlightenment
never
says or does anything.In a way no one ever really becomes
enlightened.The words do not come froM the enlightenment
itself.It is absolutely silent
and beyond any need to speak.No matter how you count the layers they do exist and
the purely mental layer is always there if you have a physical
body.That layer can be affected by disease and chemical exposure.Osho died addicted to Valium
and he experienced
all the negative symptoms of drug addiction, which included slurred
speech,
paranoia, poor judgment, and lowered intelligence.At one point
his
paranoia and confusion were so great that he thought a group of German
cultists had cast an evil spell on him.His physical disabilities
and drug abuse were simply more than his mortal brain could take.He lied by pretending that the therapy groups run by
his disciples were not mainly a money making device.He lied by saying
that
he was adopted in a phony scheme to get permanent residence
status.The ridiculous thing is that all of his lies were
totally unnecessary and counterproductive.Honesty really is the
best policy.Rajneesh knew what kind of
person
Sheela was and he chose her because of her corruption and arrogance,
not
in spite of it.In a cowardly attempt to evade his own failings
he
changed his name from Bhagwan to Osho, as if a change in name could
wash
away his sins.Bhagwan gave great advice but he could
not heed his own wise words.It is better to observe how people
live
and put less emphasis on what they speak.Actions
are more costly and telling.Do enlightened men have
egos?Rajneesh
had
an ego when I saw him on television in chains being transported from
jail
to an Oregon courthouse.It was not what he said but the look
in his eyes that was positive proof for me.Once you see something that
clearly no rationalizations can cover up the basic truth.Rajneesh
was magnificently enlightened but he was also profoundly egotistical.Now the Void is your center of
awareness
and the ego is at the periphery.Ego does not die, it just no
longer
takes the center stage of our attention.Enlightenment is a functional
and desirable
disassociation of identity which is rooted in subtle body development
and
in physical brain function.If you did
not have an ego you would not be able to think, speak, or find food,
shelter,
and clothing.If the body and brain becomes
physically
ill with high fever and the centralized ego center is damaged, the
backup
ego mechanism may temporarily take over its function.You do not have to consciously tell your heart to beat 70 times a
minute
because it will keep on beating regardless of your awareness.The
brain function that controls heart rate is automatic (autonomic) and
does
not need our consciousness to make it work.Because of the overwhelming importance and power of sex, most gurus,
enlightened
or not, have maintained active sex lives which are often kept secret
for
purely political reasons.Later on, after his position as a guru had become solidified, Rajneesh
publicly bragged about having sex "with hundreds of women."Rajneesh's sex life was of no
interest
to me and I do not find any fault with him for having the same sexual
desires
that all men have.While living in Bombay, Rajneesh made one
young
woman pregnant through an aggressive and unasked for seduction.The
young woman was highly upset and forced by circumstance to have an
abortion.Most of Rajneesh's close disciples believed the young woman, not the
much
older "enlightened" man.Being President, or being "enlightened," does not always ensure good
behavior.Some enlightened human animals
have become
fooled by the phenomena of ego displacement and thought they no longer
had any personal selfishness that could cause trouble.In truth he was very egoistic and
should
have realized that even enlightenment is no excuse for bragging.Ramana Maharshi had the right approach in this regard and that is one
reason
he is still beloved by all.Everyone who experienced
Acharya Rajneesh's
oceanic energy still loves him, myself included.Acharya Rajneesh, never
Osho,
because he was at his finest when he had no manipulating political
organization
surrounding him.When Acharya Rajneesh was just a man in an
apartment
with one old Chevrolet, not dozens of Rolls Royces, he was more honest
and true.When he became his own political establishment things
started
to go wrong and that is often the case with men of great power.It is time to realize the
source
of all things directly.If we realize that enlightenment is just a gradual progression of
expansion
of consciousness then the goal is attainable by all of us, given enough
time.If we work for hundreds of years, through many births and
deaths,
with a simple goal of just going a little deeper every day, then with
scientific
certainty I believe those who seek enlightenment will attain it in
time.All of the enlightened men I have known or have read about have made
that
statement in their own words.To date about half of the letters
have been from former Rajneesh disciples who generally agree with my
comments
and who thank me for putting them on the Web.Those who agree
tell
me they see "compassion for all involved" on my Web page and that I got
it "just about right."The other letters I receive are
from
current disciples of the now deceased Osho, many whom have never
actually
met the man in person.The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance also gets lots of hate
mail,
but from many different cults, not just from one.It is
interesting
to see how most cults are alike in this regard.Meditation has nothing to do
with cults,
organizations, politics, or business, but for many meditation is a
secondary
issue.For them it is all about hero worship and blind obedience
to the memory of a now dead guru, which is a silly waste of time in my
opinion.Why not go directly to the source of all gurus and
religions
through your own meditation?There is an old Zen saying that "One
should not become attached to anything that can be lost in a
shipwreck."Several Rajneesh sannyasins
have written
me claiming to be enlightened and I hear reports that many Rajneesh
disciples
now make that claim.One man said that he was "the new Osho" and
invited me to visit his Web page.Russia who he claimed were practicing "Tantra."So for him
"enlightenment"
and being "the new Osho" literally means to be a pimp.Another man, who had never met
Osho in
person, seemed to claim that reading Osho's books helped him get over
his
"mental illness" and now he was "enlightened" himself.He then
forcefully
instructed me to rewrite my Web page to make it "less judgmental" and
suggested
that Osho's hypocrisy was just a means to convey his enlightenment to
others.Well, he certainly conveyed his hypocrisy to others!One young
woman,
who grew up on the Rajneesh Oregon commune, asked me how she could make
money out of teaching Osho's meditation techniques.It shocks me to find that many
Osho disciples
do not care about the crimes that were committed and are not bothered
by
the lies and hypocrisy of their own movement.The unrelated but equally
infamous Aum
Shinrikyo (a Japanese cult) nerve gas attack on a subway station in
Tokyo
worsened this situation considerably.The attitude of many Osho
sannyasins
seems to be that as long as they get their psychic kicks out of a cult
that it does not matter who was hurt or how unethical and disgraceful
the
behavior was.In their minds everyone else in the world was
responsible
for the Oregon debacle except them.As a result of this careless
attitude many Americans now feel that if a meditation group starts an
ashram
nearby it is time to buy a gun and a gas mask.One long time disciple of
Rajneesh expressed
to me how angry she was at the Dalai Lama for only visiting the
Rajneesh
ashram in Poona once.Osho was a serious supporter of Adolf Hitler.It
seemed
to me that he was just playing with people's minds, but he made his
position
ambiguous enough, with enough expressed sympathy for the Axis cause,
that
many young Germans were thrilled by his words.Those who lost
loved
ones during World War II were justifiably shocked.He was crazy,
but
I am crazier still."He was joking, but he had lost the common sense to
know
that one does not joke about loving a man who has killed millions of
innocent
people.At the time of my visit Osho
was in silence
as he was angry at his own disciples.He wanted his sannyasins to
demonstrate in the streets of Poona against some Indian officials who
had
spoken out against him.Wisely, no one was interested in creating
a new confrontation.This spell of sanity among the flock
irritated
Osho who canceled public talks as punishment.On the taped lecture Osho was ranting
emotionally,
and factually incorrectly, about how the police in the United States
had
stolen his collection of jewel encrusted watches.This
Osho
was a far cry from the serene, dignified, and highly eloquent man I had
met years earlier.Why did Osho own 90 Rolls
Royces?Why does Saddam Hussein own dozens of luxurious palaces?Looking
for hidden esoteric explanations for obsessive behavior is
pointless.Is there a secret spiritual reason that Osho had a
collection
of dozens of expensive ladies' watches?The universal cosmic
consciousness
is completely neutral and without any need to possess, impress, or
dominate.Acharya Rajneesh of 1970,
then bring him up through the years to meet the Osho of the late 1980s,
that the two men would be at war with each other.Osho would have never
tolerated
the young Acharya's brash criticisms.Acharya Rajneesh spoke of
freedom
and compassion.Osho once said that he wished someone would
"shoot"
(assassinate) former Soviet leader Mikael Gorbachev because he was
leading
the Soviet Union to Western style capitalism instead of his own
imagined
"spiritual communism."The change in his teaching was remarkable,
to say the least.For those who suggest I am not being loyal to Osho, I counter that I am
honestly trying to be loyal to Acharya Rajneesh, the man I took sannyas
from, not Osho.He was a man I still deeply love and
respect.But that Acharya Rajneesh died along time before Osho was even born and
the two men were as different as day and night.In the end where is meditation
in all
of this?"Color Puncture," "Tantric Tarot Readings," encounter
groups,
and every phony crackpot scam in the book is being peddled by Osho
disciples
for large sums of money.But what about meditation?The
corrupt means have gotten so far out of hand that the original intent
of
the ends, Acharya Rajneesh's original noble vision, has long been
forgotten
by many, but not by me.Nothing Existed Except the Eyes of the Maharshi
by N.An Interview with Byron Katie by Sunny
Massad.Interview With David Godman.The Power of the Presence Part One by David
Godman.Collision with the Infinite by Suzanne
Segal.Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, was a fully enlightened
master who lived during the twentieth century.He has left
us a great legacy: his books.Osho's lap while riding to the
doctor in a bullock cart.He was a professor of philosophy at the University of
Jabalpur for nine years.This leads to mindlessness, which in turn leads
to enlightenment.He explains this technique here.Meditation: The First and
Last Freedom,, recommended below.The Book of Secrets,
recommended above.Watching your mind leads to mindlessness.International Foundation and Friends
of Osho.Osho from Friends
of Osho.Real Osho: a short biography by Sw Deva Sarlo.Osho by Christopher Calder.Osho and the organization he founded,
see here. |
