My sannyas is far more complex. You have to live in the market-place and yet live as if you were living in a monastery. You have to accept all the distractions of life and yet remain undistracted. You have to be in the world and not be of it – OSHO.
It was October 2012 when a young friend came up with the idea of beginning a Sunday market in the town square of a local village. I spend a lot of time on my own and I thought to myself that the market would be a good place to satisfy my appetite for social intercourse. I searched in all the cupboards in my house and gathered all those unused things together that one tends to accumulate as a result of living in one place for a long time in a consumer society. A couple of days passed and few cardboard boxes were filled with various objects that I’d picked up from as far afield as Guatemala City and Rishikesh. I was ready to take it to the marketplace.
It all seemed like a bit of a joke at first, but pretty soon it started to become very interesting. A good example would be how a neighbourhood friend, Anasha, asked me if I’d like to sell some Osho books for her. Bring them along next Sunday and we’ll go fifty/fifty, I suggested. She showed up the following Sunday with a dozen brand new Osho books that had been translated into Spanish. I sold the lot in an afternoon. As it turns out Anasha has piles of them for some reason that I’ve never gotten around to enquiring about and I will be only to happy sell them because, apart from being profitable, it’s great fun. (The quintessential sannyasin work ethic)
What I find fascinating is the people who purchase the books from me. For instance, one old Ibicencan man, Juan, who I’ve seen around for years, eventually bought The Mustard Seed and the Supreme Understanding. He haggled, after I informed him that they cost four Euros each. I’ll give you five for two, was his starting bid, but he eventually paid up because the books are an obvious bargain. The thing is, I’m surprised that Juan is able to read, let alone get his head round the Supreme Understanding. But he did. I met him last Sunday in the local bar and when I asked him how he was getting on with the books he looked into my eyes and gave me the gentlest of smiles. Brilliant! We’ve all heard about trickle down economies, but what about trickle down spirituality? It would seem that Osho’s books have such a wide appeal that they have now trickled down into the consciousness of Spanish peasants. Amazing!
After a few months I have had dozens of such close encounters. I think the oddest one was with an Italian women in late middle age. A few bits of red clothing gave her away as a sannyasin. She had the reek of money about her and had her head stuck way up her yazoo. I remember the Mustard Seed as being a good book, so I recommended it to her as part of my role as marketeer. I know about Osho, was her haughty response. Is he some kind of Indian guru?, I asked. I love playing the dummy in such situations. She looked at me as if I’d just sprouted horns and a pointy tail. She bought four books in the end. She paid without the slightest hint of friendliness on her uptight face. Live and learn, I thought. I hope she learns something from the books but I kind of doubt it, even if she does know about Osho. Then again, if there is one thing I learned from psychedelics it is this: you can never be too certain about what level of consciousness another human being is operating from.
Having a stall in a busy marketplace provides one with a comfortable seat from which to enjoy life’s theatre. The stall sets one apart and makes it easy to witness the unfolding of various dramas. Yesterday, one of the dramas washed over my stall and tried to drag me into it. I’d just told the market’s organiser he was, and I quote, ‘A fucking control freak’.(I’ve always been a troublemaker.) It is true; although some control does need to be imposed the poor fellow does, at times, get very carried away with his need to exert control over others. I’d obviously hit a raw nerve because the guy flipped and proceeded to bombard me with all manner of verbal abuse, to the point of threatening to get me back. I eventually managed to calm him down and I suspect that today he will be nursing an emotional hangover, due to having allowed himself to become so angry in a public place. That’s one of the things about anger…it often succeeds in making one look utterly stupid.
What this particular incident illustrated to me was how lost your average man in the street is in his psychological world. As sannyasins we received, at the very least, a basic training in how to wake up to the fact that we are mechanical beings and prey to our emotions and thoughts. Basic stuff, but your average citizen does not understand these things and therefore moving in society we must be vigilant (Unless you are a troublemaker like me and know how to roll with the punches.) as to how asleep everyone is…people are attached to their dreams and if you do something that disturbs their sleep they can become very irate to say the least. That is one good thing about being in the company of sannyasins, even Catholic ones, to a certain extent, a shared basic understanding exists about the nature of such things as projection, witnessing, how to express our emotions in a healthy way, how to maintain a healthy relationship with our sexuality etc. The best outcome of such a mutual understanding is that it can lead to a deeper social harmony and connectivity on a deeper level that moves beyond our limited ego’s limited perception.
What I’m driving at is the need to be free of our false self. The letting go of the need to feel that you are somebody in relation to the world, having the guts to let go and embrace our intrinsic nobody-ness. ‘The truth shall set you free’, but how much longer will it take for the truth contained in that ancient phrase to become truth for us? If you’ve persevered and read this far I’d say you can count yourself as lucky, in the sense that you are amongst the privileged few who can make sense of what I am saying. Humanity is indeed asleep and some of us have awakened to the fact. This was part of what I’d describe as Osho’s real work. Forget about the Resort and the organization set up in Osho’s name, for they have little to do today with what Osho was essentially transmitting. Osho was all for the individual as the following quote encapsulates.
“I don’t preach revolution. I am utterly against revolution. I say unto you that my word for the future, and for those who are intelligent enough in the present, is rebellion. What is the difference?
“Rebellion is individual action; it has nothing to do with the crowd. Rebellion has nothing to do with politics, power, violence. Rebellion has something to do with changing your consciousness, your silence, your being. It is a spiritual metamorphosis.” Osho
Beautiful, I’m sure you will agree. That future has arrived and we are part of it. So if it happens we meet in the marketplace we can share a warm hug and know we are in the right place at the right time and rest assured that we are carrying the torch of light in a very dark world, just as Osho and all the great spiritual teachers taught before him down through the ages. It may well be the case that we might manage to change the world a tiny bit and make it a slightly better place to inhabit, simply by being and accepting who we are (nobody special) and working on revealing our true self, which is a manifestation of the divine. And remember, ‘don’t be a hero, be a zero’, because being a zero carries with it the potential for a smoother ride on your sojourn through life.
See you in the marketplace. I’m easy to spot. I’m the big guy in a straw cowboy hat with a mischievous smile, selling cut price Osho books. One love.
Lokesh
The interpretation of the Zen phrase “Selling water by the river” is difficult… but somehow it arises for me after reading this piece!
Well, Parmartha, I’ve been at it for quite some time now, and very little merit comes from it, but it’s always good for a laugh.
This is the beauty of Sannyas, we have learnt the art of creating stories from daily life situations.
if the whole world goes for work, it is their survival mechanism, their greed their fear, when we go for part time job, it is Buddha in the marketplace.
I am remembering, the second hand book stalls in Chandigarh, hundreds of Osho books i purchased in one rupee till five rupees back in 1986 and kept them prominently in my books cupboard.
The other week, my mother has asked me, can she give all my books to the public library. I was thinking for day or two, then answered, ” you can get rid of all my books. Just keep Osho and astrology books. I may not read them but they have influenced my life and symbolically can stay. Just to look at them is a soothing feeling, warm feeling of being a middle class Indian disciple of a rebellious spirit..
Hi Lokesh,
A town in Spain – very interesting. Where is it exactly? Just so that you know I won’t be dropping by anytime soon as I am not in Spain anymore. I’m just curious to know the exact location, having spent a chunk of my life there.
Un abrazo,
Ashok
Ibiza.
I’m sure we can draw conclusions from reactive-dismissive versus pro active metacognitive behaviour, because people who have lived in intentional therapeutic communities know just how nuts we all are and have exposed it, compared to the disadvantaged private life ones (family nuclei etc ) who have very small operating theatres for their extended personal lives.
I do know that being resolute and persistent requires no effort of will but simply a sense of engagement, a ‘willingness’ to meet (even oppositely) and to enter terrain of re-cognition between people that puts perception and transparency as the common currency. ……then we have to resolve ‘stuff’ ….. This is particularly true under rabid conditions. As they say in the legal trade, projection overruled !
And so dramas unfold. In a technocracy where law and the mechanisms of its dry dusty mind have infected all our educational and self learning processes at least to the same degree as Christian morality,then being metacognitively transparent or engaging is for the telly. Often it’s the only drama social democracy is willing to engage in, because it is virtual and safe.
As for the market place , otherwise known as people , what I have found particularly useful is analysing how deeply technocratic mechanisms, or roboticisms, have influenced our emotive lives to the point where we have a huge split between emotive intelligence and the capacity for it, and …moreover , the need to function , particularly in undemocratic pointless commercial work, that lacks value or cohesion. What happens is that we also get a Nietschean nightmare of people doing do-gooding work, for example Activism as a feeling substitute, but without coherent internal transformations to match the intended social goals, or worse adopting the identity role of regulated ‘compassion agent’ to fill the void. Or we have the major functions of working eight hours a day in blanket denial most often in nightmarish anti empathic functional systematic work spaces.(teaching english is full of mechanistic scary shitheads). Today westerners work many more hours with less free time than the medieval peasant, and have worse teeth.The average peasant worked only the sowing and harvest seasons, with six months off for dancing and singing! I personally have extremely rarely entered the market place, because of a combination of a variety of choices and unmatcheabilities, made since I openly, intellectually confronted school fascism at an early age.
Submitted on 2013/04/02 at 9:26 am
Eds…typo , sorry…para 5….
Osho really didn’t help much in constructing an hierarchical, ‘work is good for your growth’ atmosphere, and short of training to be a therapist from other therapists who sold therapay to those who want therapay, unless they wanted meditation in which case er you could do the same….we didn’t really do much despite the odd occassions when trades were being communally learnt and shared. As far as self subsisting trades go , we gave pay as you go retreats from the therapist glitterati to the world at $ 800 for the transformation….Its a legacy you might not want to add to transforming the world list of ‘to do’s’.
So what we have left is the ability, often hidden under a busel, to be cogent and coherent communicatively, interpersonally for the fun dynamics , in a world where the spectacled bankers rule our cultural emotive lives. And because of this corporate abuse one yearns for a world of collective response-ability / unity mediated by common transforming or even sacred universal experiencing. What we want ,what we ‘ll accept and what we get are often at odds with themselves.
At this point I’m reminded of Rumi who said, hang with those who share your understandings, can use them together, and don’t bother much about the rest …..or words to that effect.
and the Essenes who said , in describing community shared life, our transparency, and how this works to foster the unseen…..
”Let yourself be seen by the whole , so that the whole may be seen through you.”
Great post, PM. I particularly appreciate this wee bit. ‘What happens is that we also get a Nietschean nightmare of people doing do-gooding work, for example Activism as a feeling substitute, but without coherent internal transformations to match the intended social goals, or worse adopting the identity role of regulated ‘compassion agent’ to fill the void.’
Living on Ibiza you run into that sort of thing all the time and the vast majority go for it. If you stand up and cry foul you are labeled as being cynical, especially if you are a Scot.
LKS…
merci de la gracias, enschuldigen sie und danke Lithuania, diez puntos !
prem martyn says:
>> Osho really didn’t help much in constructing an hierarchical, ‘work is good for your growth’ atmosphere, and short of training to be a therapist from other therapists who sold therapay to those who want therapay, unless they wanted meditation in which case er you could do the same….we didn’t really do much despite the odd occassions when trades were being communally learnt and shared.
Absolutely excellent post PM. Tanks. It took me a couple of days to take it in. ( You write a bit like Chuck Palahniuk.) Maybe we should start promoting underground fights …
The part I quote above is a good observation. I said it before that I don’t think what was happening around Osho was any kind of blue-print to be copied over and over. It sort-of worked then because everybody was moving in the same direction, i.e. towards Him. But it is an issue on which I am spending a lot of brain power but I also have to wait and see what kind of talents people bring in.
Lokesh you are such a cool story weaver !
Hear hear!!
Gracias.
Whether Sanynasnews or oshonews or some other Osho related website, all most all the writers have extensive experience of Osho´s presence and communes, and as the laws of nature are, this tribe is shrinking day by day.
In 25 years time, new breed of Osho wise men and women will emerge, who will take over these sites; their experience?
Everyday dose of Osho quotations at facebook and youtube!
shantam prem says:
>> In 25 years time, new breed of Osho wise men and women will emerge, who will take over these sites; their experience?
When Jayesh dies Poona will go back to the Indians and that will be that. The Western adventure (with its encounter/therapy/human-potential stuff) will be over.
Shantam, why concern yourself with what will be happening in 25 years? The truth of the matter is that nobody knows what will happen in the next 25 minutes, let alone 25 years. In relation to Osho it is patently absurd, because his whole approach to life was to live in the present and that the future was composed of nothing more than one’s imaginings. One must, of course, take into consideration that another day will come, especially when living in a material society like we do, wherein the need to support oneself is very important. We are not wandering sadhus. That apart, I am surprised that someone who thinks they have a deep connection with Osho is so concerned about a future that is clearly a product of their imaginaion. 25 years ago you never imagined things like Facebook an Youtube, yet you speculate about what will be happening 25 years from now. Taking into consideration the accelerated rate of change taking place on the planet right now such speculations are simply nonsense and of no concern to anyone with even just a wee bit of common sense in their head.
Nobody knows what will happen in 25 minutes, let alone 25 years.
Oh Yes, let all the wise seekers and founders write a joint letter to all the Novratis and Pfizer, apple and google to halt all the R&D activities.
Also all kind of research in humanitarian subjects should be curtained too, every moment is so unknown, who cares about tomorrow.
And money saved in this way can be used to hire charter flights for Ibiza; summer their is gorgeous. If earth is not swallowed by the black hole, summer certainly will come, albeit few weeks later.
Matter of the fact is, “here and now” and “future is illusion” kind of phrases lose all their shine when used randomly.
All this comment illustrates is your blnkered vision, Shantam, and that you are entirely missing the point. Being present does not mean you cannot work towards something. It means you are focused in the present as you do so. Many of the most here and know people I know are highly creative and skilled people, whose professions range from doctors to pilots to DJs to artists to musicians to massage therapists to gardeners to SN editors. Unlike you, Shantam, they don’t waste their time watching too much TV or speculating about ‘a new breed of Osho wise men and women arriving in 25 years’, because that is utter nonsense.
followers of religions and porn industry have one thing in common.
They adapt to the newest technology.
Mediums can change, basic message is always presented in an up to date format!
Thus spoke the voice of experience.
Sex always sells. India got the “sex guru” and we got the “Rolls Royce guru” … and that’s not fair.
Anyway, the sannyas experience (whatever that is) doesn’t translate very well to the net format as it lacks the visual cues.
There are all kind of people on the earth, therefore there are many kind of disciples.
Few like to keep the memory of their guru intact in this fast changing world, few think why to bother with the fallen leaves. Human civilisation will never stop producing more doctors, nerds and also gurus.
Here is the link to Punja ji´s shrine.
http://www.facebook.com/GangajiCommunity
shantam prem says:
Here is the link to Punja ji´s shrine.
http://www.facebook.com/GangajiCommunity
Will you stop posting that! That Gangaji is hot. I wouldn’t mind receiving some enlightenment from her …
‘Human civilisation will never stop producing more doctors, nerds and also gurus.’
And how would you classify youself in that wee equation, Shantam? What has civiization produced in you? Somebody who likes to keep the memory of their dead guru inact, while failing to follow very little of what the man actually taught?
Interesting that you, Lokesh,
the ultimate expression of Osho Sannyas.
Towering spiritually evolved monolith that you are,
far above Osho even,
are such a nag.
Shantam posts.
You sneer, patronise,condescend, jeer.
Without fail.
How about ignoring him?
Now, now, Arpana, nobody likes to be ignored and I wouldn’ want to hurt his feelings. Thanks for the compliments, that is very kind of you.
Dear Arpana!
Thank you for your post re. ‘The Hootsmon’. (Translation: ‘The Scotsman’, a.k.a. Lokesh, for those viewers here who are not familiar with the pleasantries of the British English version of the language). Let me just say at this point how delighted I was to see the gloves come off and be given a free ticket to the show/spectacle of somebody getting their ‘knickers in a twist’! Quality viewing I must say, and in addition, everything you said about the Venerable Lokesh hit the bullseye in the dartboard. You have honoured him, I feel sure he understands. I hope you will accept my sincere congratulations and deep-felt admiration for your honesty, (clearly you are a true Sannyasin).
Please note Arpana, that I, yes I, in my infinite wisdom and maturity have resisted so far, the temptation to take a swipe at Shantam (which interestingly others do – not just Lokesh, right?), although I have been sorely tempted on more than one occasion, I am happy to admit. Sometimes it seems I can manage to control myself. However, that’s enough about me – let us pretend -for the moment anyway. Let us indeed return to the subject IN HAND – Lokesh. It would seem to me that as sanyassins we should extend him our compassion along with your dressing-down. I mean – as the “poor little luvvy’ has already confessed in his main post, he spends a lot of time on his own, and that the reason he now has a stall on the local market is to satisfy his need for ‘social intercourse’, as he puts it (whoops). I think he has unknowingly been satisfying his need for intercourse by attempting to give Shantam one up his tight little ‘botty’ on a regular basis ( about 3 times a day I think). Quite clearly he has nothing else better to do, has he? But then, who I am to judge? Takes one to know one, as is oftentimes said, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, geddit? Lokesh, as my psychotherapukic training e.g. Osho Count-Selling ‘Certified’ Course and superior intellect and experience would indicate, is obviously a poor little soul in the wilderness crying out for help, and as such he therefore deserves a lot of comprehension and sympathy, doesn’t he?. This explains why I try to jolly him along and humour him a little bit, with a modicum of ‘faint praise’ here and there. It is not because of what Chetna accused me of in a recent post i.e. trying to lick his ‘bum-hole’ – Osho forbid such a thing! There is a great big thickly-woven kilt in the way which makes it practically impossible anyway! Noooo!!!!! He desperately needs our help Brothers and Sisters!
So finally brethren I would just like to suggest as a way of finishing off here, that we all come together and sing the major Osho sannyasin hymn, ‘All Things Bright & Beautiful’, followed by praying for the redemption of the sinner’s soul, and then continue with the ‘Stroke-Slap, Stroke-Slap’ therapy which will lead the offender, the Pilgrim a.k.a. the Venerable Lokesh, to heavenly redemption.
Yours most sincerely,
‘The Lowly & Above All, Humble Pilgrim”
Ashok
P.S. I am open to the idea of alternative therapies for our fellow sufferer Lokesh if any of the brethren have some other treatment in mind. Please enlighten.
My wife gives me into trouble for about everything I do and say. Whenever she hears me say, I spend a lot of time on my own, she tells me to stop speaking so much bullshit. Problem with her is that she is usually right. I confess, I’m a complete bullshiter…very good at it to boot. So if anyone on this site takes anything at all that I say seriously you can’t say I didn’t warn them.
As for dear Shantam I take him about as seriously as he takes me…not at all. I enjoy Shantam’s presence on SN. He’s always good for a laugh(which is more than I can say for some, no names mentioned) and I’m quite sure we would have a good laugh were we to cross each other’s path. If there is nothing else doing on SN he always provides a great target for throwing rotten eggs at. God bless him.
You see, Arpana, you don’t want to be ignored either. So why are you suggesting for me to ignore Shantam? That is simply unfair. Do unto others….
That sounds to me like another nag at Shantam.
Shantam.
Which would you prefer.
To be ignored or nagged.
Shantam doesn’t appear to be around…probably out signing on. So, I’ll answer your pertinent question, which will have to do until the master of nonsensical metaphors returns. Shantam doesn’t like to be ignored, just like you Arpana. As for nagging I’m just trying to help the poor fellow out. He’s not married and without my help he’ll be in for a terrible shock in the unlikely eventuality that some woman or man might want to get hitched with him. Love and marriage both go together like…
What’s this whole world coming to? Things just ain’t the same. Anytime the hunter gets captured by the game.
GRACE JONES
Thanks.
“You don´t follow what our guru told, look at my life, I follow him from A to Z”.
Thus spoke the great disciple.
How about being a leader instead of a follower? Even if you just lead yourself up the garden path. it’s all your own work, with nobody to blame but oneself.
“Hay you and you any you, come on guys, how long you will go on holding the finger and not looking at the moon.”
“You big guy, seems like you have seen the moon. Tell us how it looks like”, enquired one of the person.
“Well, Moon looks like just my wife´s face”, said the moon gazer.
Ibiza you say Lokesh – the island of the beautiful sunlight.! Only went there once but was very impressed with the light quality.
More importantly however, I would like to say that I enjoyed reading your piece – I personally found it well-written, entertaining, thought-provoking and worthy of debate – (could you perhaps at this point,see yourself to lending me some money by the way?). Thank you for that. It is obviously, as a starting point for useful discussion, superior to the great majority of gibberish knocked out on this site in which I humbly (sic) include my own efforts, (please note that they serve to tickle me and represent a kind of public masturbation spectacle – giving me a thrill but most probably inspiring compassion, condescension and/or horror, in the rest of you !). But don’t get me wrong – I am happy for all the written catharsis, venting, posturing, nonsense and gobshoite etc. too . I suspect that, like you indicated Lokesh, many of us spend a lot of time alone and/or are single, and so as a result feel the need for some connection maybe – this site therefore provides a necessary outlet for “All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small.”
I digress however, so let us come back to more interesting matters at hand
(sorry, but I can’t stop myself!) , like some of the very interesting points you made in your short story. For the sake of expedience, you will be relieved to hear no doubt, that I will limit myself to one point here for the time being. You write,
“As sannyasins we received at the very least, a basic training in how to wake up to the fact that we are mechanical beings and prey to our emotions and thoughts.”
Very true Lokesh, so we do and did, this I cannot deny. In my own ‘sweet’ case however, to not fall prey to my emotions and thoughts and get lost in them, is a constant fight. In fact, this is the front line of the battle and an ever-present challenge for all of us, right? It’s what being a spiritual ‘warrior’ is all about, is it not?
Any feedback or sympathy is welcome.’Beggars can’t be choosers’, as they say! Please feel free to enlighten me of my burden.
Ashok.. Good, very good..
tips….
1) Get lost in someone else’s thoughts and emotions, become a therapist, that way you can earn while others worry.
2) Be less incisive and appear munificent and avuncular, invent stories about your personal connection with Osho , keep the stories sweet and watch the faithful flock to your door, which will keep you so busy you won’t have time to worry.
3) Set aside a little shrine, upon which you place a photo of a different emotion every day , then value and praise it so that they all get your full attention instead of this divorce you threaten them with everyday.
4) Spend time not being yourself by indulging in disidentification ceremonies around the world which last from hours to weeks of abandonement of the self, try going to libidinous carnivals, siberian shamanic festivals, west african womens dance parties , voodoo in haiti, or the month long bite of the tarantella music fests in southern italy in august, where you can just dance for hours on end and forget where you left your mind…alternatively any trance dancefest for single males can be held in the privacy of the living room if you have a cd player…
5) carry on writing here , so that I can have a break and join Frank in Brazil, where he overdosed on a combination of ayahuasca and too many babelicious beauties, whilst training for the psychedelic brazilian sex olympics for single men.
6) ask Parmartha if you can join him in wondering whether Christs rising from the dead includes going on and on and on about something for two thousand years or start your own blog on Osho, which might have the same effect.That should keep you busy.
Dear ‘P.M’,
Many thanks for the updates to the Code Manual kindly supplied. The enclosed leaflet on ‘Tips for How to Deal with Bothersome Thoughts & Emotions Occurring Whilst Using ‘Spanking’(TM) Products’, is of great benefit. All ‘tips’ do the required job successfully, however F.Y.O. please note that I have personally found Tip no. 3, to be particularly useful, and furthermore you will be pleased to hear, has inspired me to create my own set of ‘Osho Bothersome Thoughts & Emotions’ tarot cards, which I hope you will consider making available in all your major high-street outlets soon.
The free video-cassette on YouTube entitled ‘Bothersome Thoughts & Emotions Set to Music’ also supplied, is a ‘Master -piece’ of its kind and I would recommend to all of your regular customers that they take a look & listen if they have not done so already. The haunting exotic caterwaul of the ‘unique’ signature tune nostalgically transported me back to those precious sweet moments of mental torture and agony experienced whilst in ‘deep’ process in some deliciously painful therapy group in my past. Yes – a highly illustrative piece that I do not doubt, will one day be given credit as a classic of the genre! Clearly you have a deep understanding and appreciation of your clients’ individual needs and personal requirements, and are able to provide the appropriate customised product when asked to do so.
Thanking you once again I , I look forward to renewing our business relationship in the future.
Yours most sincerely and satisfied for the moment,
Ashok
Ashok, you say, ‘It’s what being a spiritual ‘warrior’ is all about, is it not?’ Yes, to a certain extent. I don’t think its good to fight with thoughts, although overpowering ones do need to be kept in check. Entertaining good toughts and repressing bad ones is a mistake, because by entertaining the goodies one leaves the back door open for the baddies. If thoughts don’t find anyone to hang out with they quickly disappear to whence they came. It is not always easy.
Lending money I leave to the moneylenders. Its my experience that often as not lending money can make a person resent you for putting them in debt to you. Why not get a stall in the market next to me?
Lokesh let me deal with the most cogent and salient points of your message in order of merit :1. Lending me some money. Don’t worry – I was taking a long shot asking a Scot for some dosh, wasn’t I? I can be very naive sometimes. 2. Market stall offer. Thanks but Prem Martyn beat you to the draw with his offer of a full-time writing job on this site while he is on holiday in Brazil. He seems to think that I might have what it takes to produce the necessary verbal diarrhoea that Sannyas News demands on a daily basis and that this will significantly contribute to helping me not getting lost in my thoughts and emotions – a kind of therapy if you will. As I am sure you can imagine, I feel excited by this new and challenging opportunity that seems to have fallen into my lap from a very great height…. I mean from heaven, I think? 3. You wrote in your reply the following: ” I don’t think it’s good to fight with thoughts, although overpowering ones do need to be kept in check.” This sentence reminds me of a little meeting I had with meself a couple of years ago now. It went like this: I was on a plane headed for Italy when I decided I needed to go to the bog. At this juncture I was perplexed with the question of what to do with my passport and wallet as I did not want to take them to the loo – I can’t remember why. The bloke sitting next to me looked a good sort so I thought I would just stuff them in the pocket on the back of the seat in front of me and hope for the best. Off I went and came back a few mins later to find that everything was still there although I did not look inside the wallet. That came later once I had picked up my luggage after arriving. Needing to get some local money I fished out the wallet. I’m sure you can appreciate my horror and surprise when upon opening my wallet I discovered that my debit card was not where it normally is. At that point I had a kind of Freddie Mercury Bohemian Rhapsody epithany i.e. “Mamma mia, Mamma mia, let me go, Beelzebub…..” Right on cue Beelzebub flew into my mind and did the necessary character assassination hatchet job on the suspected thief who was nowhere to be seen by this time. Beelzebub also dusted me up with some strong personal recrimination. Reeling from all of this the next thing I can remember is having the presence of mind to fumble through my wallet to see if I had left the debit card somewhere else. And as I am sure you have already guessed, lo’ and behold there it was lurking in a place it should not be. Too late! The damage was already done – I had looked at the Beast right in the face and the Beast was me! Aaaaagggghhh! So Lokesh whilst I agree with you about trying to keep certain overpowering thoughts in check, sometimes it is worthwhile to take a full look at one’s projections, isn’t it? This experience also brought home to me once again the value of ‘staying in the gap’. Not always easy to do though when one is right in the heat of the battle. Hopefully, I will make it someday, though I wouldn’t bet on it if I were you.
P.S. If you feel that I am in need of some professional clinical help after reading all of this, please urgently contact Prem Martyn because he has personal experience of the complexities of my case.
First off, being a Scot I have had, during the course of my 61 year sojourn on Planet Plongo, donated a lot of money to the cause of proving I am not tight with money. Coming from the north east of Scotland I know how tight Scots can be. I grew up in Glasgow, home to some of the most generous people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Jews still take the cake for being tight in my opinion. On the other hand, some of my Jewish friends are also generous people. Point is, better to view individuals as opposed to ethnic groups when it comes to money matters.
Your comment reminded me of last time I was pick-pocketed. I’d just sold a painting for 4000 euros in Amsterdam. I was feeling chuffed with myself as I sat on a number 10 tram on the Marnix Straat. The man sitting beside me was a well-dressed Arab. He kept rubbing his leg against mine. I got of on the Rosen Gracht, walked a hundred yards and then looked in my wallet for an address. I saw that the 4000 euros was gone. Beelzebub possessed my soul in an instant.
Dear Lokesh!
Ouch! You poor sod. My deepest commiserations – 4000 euros is a serious hit. I would think the Beelzebub model that came your way was XXXL size. The one that came to me was an S only. You live and learn as they say – hope the experience was beneficial in some way. The last thing I said has reminded me of a buddhist story I think it is, that I am sure you must have heard before and would seem pertinent here. The moral of the story is asking yourself the question, “Who can say if it is a good thing or a bad thing?” I am sorry but my memory fails me on the details of the story, something about a beautiful and valuable white stallion that turns up on farm out of the blue ….. I think it is …..you must have heard it I feel sure. Anyway, I would think that there was a long passage of time between falling victim to the pickpocket, and taking on board that kind of wisdom again. However, in your case I could be wrong as don’t know you that well. But very definitely in my own case, the damage caused probably would have been terminal. Better luck next time!
The story you refer to, Ashok, is called a Blessing or a Curse and does indeed begin with a beautiful horse. It was one of the stories Osho told in a discourse circa 74 that has remained with me since hearing it round the back of Lao Tzu House. The other was This Too Will Pass. Understanding and having those brilliant stories under my belt has served me well on many occassions.
It blew my mind getting ripped off that day in Amsterdam..travelled the world and never got burned and then it happens in my own backyard. I suppose it had to do with being cock sure of myself. Trouble is when a small group of pro pick-pockets target you then you don’t stand a chance.
As regards the effects of the market place on taxes, military spending and global warming….
strategically implicitly etc etc…. is there any correlation between our consciouness seeking and the ability to influence world events and policies in our lifetime to bring about a golden age of mutual benefit here and now.. or should I stop reading the news as a quicker solution. And if I happen to be born somewhere really shit, in it and with it happening all around is that just chance or likely considering most of the world is deep in it one way or another.
yours,
a worried realist ..
prem martyn says:
>> As regards the effects of the market place on taxes,
I don’t think Osho believed in paying taxes. Do you think Lo-ki is paying any tax on those books he is selling?
Is that what’s meant by ‘being in the world, but not of it’?
Ashok…
thoughts and emotions set to music.. and sung
same world ..but different…
The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.
Dear Lokesh,
I like and agree with your post. I do my best here to run the Osho center in California in the world, but not of the world.
I want to add an Osho quote (below).
Love to you and keep up your great postings!
Dhanyam
JUST SHARE AND FORGET ABOUT IT. Sow the seeds and go on moving.
AND DON’T LOOK BACK to see what is happening to those seeds. In their time, when the spring comes, something will happen.
The founder of the Theosophical movement, MADAME BLAVATSKY, used to carry two bags on both her shoulders — big bags — full of seeds. Wherever she would travel… if she was traveling in a train, SHE WOULD sit by the side of the window and GO ON THROWING SEEDS.
She might never come across that patch of land again.
People were puzzled and they would ask, ‘WHAT YOU ARE DOING?’
She would say, ‘These are beautiful seeds, AND WHEN THE RAINS COME THEY WILL BLOOM.’
Those people were naturally puzzled. They would say, ‘WILL YOU BE COMING THIS WAY AGAIN?’
She would say, ‘I am a world traveler, I MAY NEVER COME AGAIN… BUT THAT DOESN’T MATTER! Somebody will pass, somebody will see the flowers, somebody will be happy. That is enough.
Just to conceive of it, to contemplate on it… that next time after the rains… and when this train goes by, THOUSANDS OF PASSENGERS WILL BE ABLE TO SMELL THOSE FLOWERS! To see those colors is more than enough! What more can one ask?’
This is what sharing is: YOU SIMPLY GO ON THROWING SEEDS.
So you travel, mm? And throw the seeds!
Good.
Believing The Impossible Before Breakfast
Chapter #21, a darshan diary
I can dig it. I’ve been cutting weeds all day. Back breaking but rewarding when you stand and look at the finished job, never perfect, but just about, just like it’s supposed to be.
I am willing to bet one for thousand, show me a single disciple of any master, alive or dead, who does not believe himself like a lotus in the mud!
It is another matter, many will not be crafty enough to say the same thing in a more glorifying way.
The mud elephant leaves no tracks.
Pearls before swine. Showing a calculator to a dog.
World of religions and spirituality is quite amazing. In this branch, dead CEO´s create better turn over in comparison to the new in the business!
There is a small cult getting build around the legacy of Osho.
They have a very catchy slogan-
SPREAD OSHO FREE !!! sharing OSHO not SELLING OSHO !!!!
I’ll pass on that one. I’ve had enough of cults for one lifetime. Besides, I’m not sure if Osho would approve, because he believed people did not really appreciate things unless they paid for them. PS, wanna by an Osho book cheap?
If you are only disssing on n on on on and doing all short of bla bla bla bla… than u have to do first thing is to enter in way and u will realise about nothingness, chunder, chunder, in your life. and every blade of grass will realise it when time.
- P.D. , George and Robert Earl Burton
Thanks for that SCIFI. Please keep us updated as the situation worsens.