The Empty Book

Just recently someone took out an empty,  two full-page ad in the New York Times.  At the bottom of the second page was a 12 point web address.  Of course the ad caused waves. And what was it about:  a new movie called the “Book Thief” which apparently shows how one teenage girl thieved books in Nazi Germany to keep them alive, as at the same time the Nazis were burning books.

This was a paradox also in Osho’s life. He tells once in the link below how he never thought of stealing anything, except for books. He told his father if he did not give him the money for books he would steal them. Like a good and shocked Jain father his father agreed to give him the money to buy any books. Soon the Osho household was apparently a library that housed a house, not the other way around.

Somewhere in Zen and in Sufism the value of a book given by a Master to a disciple with a plain cover, and with absolutely empty pages has been discussed. The point of this is not the book itself,  but WHEN it is given to the disciple. That is the point for the seeker to go beyond the word, to wake up to the fact that whatever can be learned in books, which is very much, also has an end, and the door to an empty space and mind truly beckons.

Osho’s world of books and his library were his great sadhana. From those words he endlessly sourced his discourses, and plumbed the depths of the written word in so far as it could go.

Recently a documentary appeared about Osho and his library, it is called “Journey of a Book”. It is a rich resource in a way, and yet relatively unvisited on utube. It is also worthy of comment.

 

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

 

Parmartha

 

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107 Responses to The Empty Book

  1. Lokesh says:

    I found the Book Thief to be an excellant film which gave ordinary German people, living in Nazi Germany, a different, more positive framework to be viewed in. The film received mixed reviews and I loved it. Good article, PM. Further comments will follow.

    • Dionysius says:

      I saw this movie with friends in the last few days after seeing Lokesh’s earlier comment. I agree with him, t’was very good. Much better than the Guardian made out by giving it only 2 stars.
      And a good reminder of the luck we have in living in a society that is free from such inhumanity and totalitarianism, and that it doesn’t take much for us to lose it.

  2. Anand Newman says:

    Good article. Listening/reading Osho I came to know about numerous authors mentioned in the documentary. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to read all even any of them.

    Interestingly, I bought several of Osho books from “stolen book shops” ( weekend footpath bookshops in Mumbai) Osho was mentioning. One of them is “The Search” – The ten Zen paintings of Bull.

  3. Lokesh says:

    Excellent video. Very touching and informative. I experienced an extraordinary synchronicity while watching that I will go into in my next article. My wife passed by and watched for a moment. She commented when viewing Osho’s library, ‘I can understand why people might feel angry if a handful of individuals feel it is their right to control this. It should be open to all sannyasins.’ Right, as usual.

    I was struck, not for the first time, by Osho’s intelligence and it was great to see him speak about something that was obviously very close to his heart.

  4. shantam prem says:

    Say my greetings(Liebe Grüss) to your wife, Herr Lokesh.
    I can understand how capably she has made you grounded. Few women have this magical ancient quality.

  5. Kavita says:

    Even though I / We as sannyasins are / have / had been conditioned not to develope any pride, I feel a sense of pride when Osho talks about books .

    “Recently, a documentary appeared about Osho and his library, it is called “Journey of a Book”. It is a rich resource in a way, and yet relatively unvisited on youtube. It is also worthy of comment.” That could be probably because OIF has only recently (not more than 5 -7 years ) been open to youtube exposure!

  6. Fresch says:

    Your wife should be writing here, Lokesh.

    I can not understand the meaning of this film; it’s the worst mausoleum stuff ever. Library is for people to borrow books, read them and pass them on. This is pure horror. I cannot write about Osho’s words in same post.

    In my country we have one of the best libraries in the world. It was actually my father who took me to the library from very early age. I still love the smell of it, the atmosphere, stimmung. I will go for an alternative book fair next weekend and give poetry a new try.

    • bodhi vartan says:

      Fresch says:
      “It’s the worst mausoleum stuff ever. Library is for people to borrow books, read them and pass them on.”

      These are Osho’s books and are full of personal drawings and notes by him…Do you really expect them to be passed around? What would be useful would be a list of the books so that people can purchase them.

      • Fresch says:

        Might be true that in India people would just steal them. Still, what a waste to keep all this books, Osho’s paintings etc. in just few people’s use. Those kinds of libraries are in use of researchers etc. But, it seems nobody is interested in Osho any more, so….

        • Arpana says:

          “nobody is interested in Osho any more, so….”

          I take it you’ve done research, a lot of research, to be able to say with so much certainty, “nobody is interested in Osho any more, so….”

          Well, I dont want to party poop, but I am still interested in Osho, and I can name a reasonably large number of people who are still interested in Osho..

          We might not be interested in Osho in the way you think we should be, but I for one am not going to lose any sleep over that.

  7. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    ……………..

    Again, there’s another story from Rumi in the Mathnavi about some ants on a piece of paper and a pen which is writing on the paper. One of the ants says, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that this pen can do all this writing?’ And another ant says, ‘No, it’s not the pen, it’s the hand that’s holding the pen that does the writing.’ Then another slightly wiser ant says, ‘No, it’s not the hand, it’s the arm that moves the hand that does the writing.’ And the ants go back and back in the chain of causality.

    However, there’s one ant, who Rumi describes as ‘a little bit sagacious’, who says, ‘No, the writing is caused by none of these things. The writing is caused by the universal spirit that gives movement to all things.’

    so many ways
    to look at empty pages in a book
    empty chairs

    and all that emptiness so full

    ?

  8. Fresch says:

    In case somebody did not know, many people who collect art and give them for public use or some museum’s use (or other places) – for public use, after they pass away, as their collection. How I did not see their insanity before?
    What do you think, would Osho have liked to have had his books and videos been in all the libraries in all over the world? Or would he had liked some broke-up, bankrupt Canadian cult leader selling them for his own purpose?

  9. shantam prem says:

    Our grandfather was the first in the village who went in the university.
    Our dad did Ph.D. in literature. He wrote more than 20 books before he met our mother in a conference.
    In our childhood we grew up around books.
    Thus spoke the proud siblings.
    The cameraman who was filming the documentary asked the siblings during the break, “And in which university you are studying?”
    Brother answered sheepishly, “I am working at Tesco and my sister will be nanny after finishing her three years course.”

  10. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    dear moderators

    whatever answer i posted about your yesterday’s question
    also disappeared into the self-service market flat rate business
    the latter i won t replicate anew – and relax into “what is – IS” freestyle
    Erich Fried, the poet – do you know him? And the poetry about “what is – is”?

    Madhu

  11. bodhi vartan says:

    I used to (only) steal books. My parents used to buy me lots of books but sometimes I couldn’t be bothered to wait and ask… I used to bunk-off school, steal a book from a bookshop, and go to the local public gardens/zoo for some serious reading. One of my first mind changing books was “Childhood’s End” by Arthur C. Clarke (those days I didn’t know he was a paedo-perv). I read that in one day when I was around 13-14 years old.

  12. Kavita says:

    I watched this video for the second time now & found the 9.46 – 10.12 is the most hilarious !

  13. Fresch says:

    I have given Osho books to my ”normal” friends and they like reading him. If I showed this ”documentary”, they would think it’s a joke (me not telling anything beforehand).

  14. Fresch says:

    I was judgmental again, what a mistake. I just remembered that my first contact with osho was the book “The God that failed”. And from then on I wanted to check him out. So, this film can do the same for some one else. So, my mistake, I wish them luck.

  15. Fresch says:

    Parmartha, this was a real thing, wow. Just what i needed. Thanks.

  16. shantam prem says:

    Bodhi Vartan,
    I am willing to bet, in my personal collection, I can have more books if not less than any of you guys here at sannysnews.
    I am not a spiritual master to few that should talk about my book collections.

    Even in the recording one can see, Osho talks about his childhood experience with books in the later part of His life, before His people. It makes sense.
    Osho has spoken quite often and very proudly how He got hold of His people, that He was working systematically for such days. Only before one´s own people, one can tell boastfully and joyfully.

    Unfortunately, that atmosphere has got lost and therefore not many people have shown interest in this video at youtube. As a disciple who has passed this library uncountable times on the way to Samadhi, every day was a complete day to feel the vibes and warmth even though Ac is on most of the time. To build a relation worth calling Relating needs years and decades.

    If I go casually to some lecture and the person starts speaking about his books or other adventures; in 99% cases I will leave the audience. And I am sure, many will do with Osho too.

    • Kavita says:

      “To build a relation worth calling Relating needs years and decades.”

      Swami Shantam, could you specify how many years would that be, so i can be sure of that?

    • bodhi vartan says:

      shantam prem says:
      “Bodhi Vartan,
      >> I am willing to bet, in my personal collection, I can have more books if not less than any of you guys here at sannysnews.
      I am not a spiritual master to few that should talk about my book collections.”

      It’s not the number of books on your shelf but the number of books in your head. Osho could make a dog-turd look interesting.

      • Ashok says:

        Nevertheless, a dog-turd is ultimately and intrinsically a dog-turd! I think it is true to say that Osho conjured up more than his share of dog-turds to go alongside his collection of diamonds.

        Whilst on this subject I think this might be an opportune moment to recall an anecdote from a friend who had been a market trader in Ibiza, as it happens. In an argument with a drinking partner, he had claimed that it was possible to sell virtually anything to the gullible public who frequented his stall. And so to prove his point he found a dog-turd that had been baked as hard as rock in the Ibizan sunshine. He sprayed a variety of pretty paints on it as well as drilling holes at each end of the turd, thru which he attached some leather strips and clasps, thus turning it into a kind of ‘avante garde-dog’ necklace! Needless, to say the dog-turd necklace was purchased within an hour of being put on display, by an unsuspecting punter. Maybe, this is what Osho meant by transformation?

        I think I should make it clear at this juncture that the market trader mentioned here was not Lokesh. All of this happened back in the 70′s. Should I ever make it to Ibiza one day to take advantage of the offer of a café con leche kindly offered by Lokesh in a recent post, I sincerely hope that the coffee will be real coffee and not ground dog-turd powder?

  17. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    friends,

    i copied that from a copy of a copy of a copy from the world of oceanic consciousness
    just to let you know that i enjoyed this day’s ripples of laughter reaching me from your side
    giving me the one or the other break
    and thank you all for this

    “Humour” – “Horoscope”

    Lightbulbs Humour — 25 March 2014

    How many women does it take to change a lightbulb?
    One. What did you expect, you sexist pig?!
    (or “No-one knows, it has never been done.”)

    How many gender equality ombudsmen do you need to change a light bulb?
    None. Let the cow wash up in the dark.
    (from Finland)

    How many Germans does it take to change a light bulb?
    (puzzled expression and slightly dodgy accent)
    One. It is a simple enough household task.

    How many Irishmen does it take to change a light bulb?
    Three. To be sure, to be sure, to be sure!

    How many Noo Yawkers does it take to change a light bulb?
    None of your goddam business!

    How many psychotherapists does it take …..?
    Only one but the lightbulb must really want to be changed.

    How many members of the Religious Society of Friends does it take to change a light bulb?
    None. They simply form a discussion group called ‘Towards a Quaker understanding of darkness’.

    How many folk singers does it take to change a lightbulb?
    Six, one to change it and five to sing about how good the old one was.

    How many surrealists does it take to change a light-bulb?
    Fish.”

    from The Guardian (comments)

    love

    Madhu

  18. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    fresch,

    you write “and from then on i wanted to check him out”

    while you are “checking out” – you are checked out too
    blissfully or not-blissfully unaware of that.

    it is one thing to perform yogic exercises for empowerment – including the vocabulary
    quite another experience that bowing down has nothing to do with proper stretching or a will to (em-)power

    the BOWING DOWN – i speak of – if only once in life experienced – will haunt you for the rest of your life by its miraculous sweetness
    and yet will teach you one thing thoroughly
    it’s not something you are able to manufacture

    it’s a happening

    (not in the freak-show way or like a result of a computer operating system)

    Madhu

    • Fresch says:

      What else do you have to teach me, Madhu? Just unburden your heart.

      • Lokesh says:

        Good heavens! A cat fight on SN. Whatever next?

        • Ashok says:

          Your memory is very short, Lokesh! Have you forgotten the cat-fight to end all cat-fights that was enacted here on SN, a couple of months back ‘tween Satyadeva and Dominic? Now that really was something. If Madhu and Fresch could approach this bout with a similar amount of energy, then us viewers are in for a treat…or maybe not?

          • bodhi vartan says:

            I (and some others) have been trying to get Dominic back ever since but he feels terrorised. To which I say, good. Anyone who thinks he is enlightened needs a round with SD.

            • Lokesh says:

              Ashok, that was a dog fight.

              • bodhi vartan says:

                I some bitch-slapping taking place too.

              • Ashok says:

                Well, Lokesh, I agree that at first sight it certainly looked that way, but upon closer consideration I came to the conclusion that the general behavioural traits exhibited between the two combatants was decidedly more catty than the dignified comportment you would expect from a real dog. Is it possible that they were in fact two cats that had been tarted up (paint-sprayed), to look like real dogs?

            • satyadeva says:

              Thanks for the laugh, Vartan, your last sentence has cheered me up today. Reckon I’ll copy it onto a poster and stick it up on a wall at home (you know, next to my Olympic gold medal).

              PS: This morning’s lesson is taken from the Book of SD (chapter 1, verses to 4):

              “Some people like to dish it out, but cry ‘foul’ when receiving similar treatment.
              They shall cast themselves forth (or even fifth) into the north London wilderness, there to wander alone – perplexed, angry and deluded – until, every seven days, they stumble upon a Refuge of Seekers…
              And there will be, amidst the boiled eggs and biscuits of the multitude, much wailing and gnashing of teeth, much unenlightened self-pity, much blame foisted upon others – much profound unconsciousness. And much tea and coffee”.

  19. shantam prem says:

    Osho told us to arrange books in certain order; we are doing it.
    Osho told us to go on wearing maroon and white in the campus, we will do it.
    Osho told us to wear one piece robes. Yes, robe is robe is a robe.
    Osho told us, Osho instructed us, Osho´s guidelines are; we are suppose to follow them. Are not we?
    What about Human Resource Energy; Mr. Yogendra?
    (Yogendra is a younger brother of Jayesh and heir apparent as Raul Castro is to the Fidel Castro. Personally, he has charming energy as one can see in the video)

    Anyway, technological advanced west is not famous for its Emotional Intelligence. The people around Osho are symbolic traits of this lack of this EI.
    Maybe that is why the words Beloved and Love are used too much. They have proven covers rather state of reality.

    • bodhi vartan says:

      shantam prem says:
      “Anyway, technological advanced west is not famous for its Emotional Intelligence. The people around Osho are symbolic traits of this lack of this EI.”

      Osho had plenty of opportunity to surround himself with Emotionally Intelligent people from the East but that is not what he chose to do.

      What Osho did was what Osho did and you can not do what Osho did. The people around Osho (at the time) were there for a specific purpose. They were there because they were stupid enough not to be able to meddle with His message. Stop looking at them, Shants, they have nothing to offer because if they did, they would have offered it by now. If you really want to ‘follow’ Osho then you would have to be yourself, and confront today’s issues…and not Osho’s (yesterday’s) issues.

  20. Kavita says:

    Seems, Fresch, you read a lot of translations of Lee Falk’s ‘ Phantom ‘ in your early years !

  21. Kavita says:

    Btw, my all time fav is Adventures of Tintin .

  22. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    nothing i have to teach you, Fresch

    just share about my own experience

    if you got that wrong
    i am going to look inside again
    and let go

    Madhu

  23. Arpana says:

    I’ve read him talking about the thief market a few times, but it was a different experience to be sitting in front of him, listening to him talking, watching him talking about that. Was something very personal about the relating. Was about him. He wasn’t teaching, was just sharing with us a life experience, that meant something to him, the memory of which made him giggle.

    If I was a lot younger I could say that was awesome, but I’m not, so I won’t.

  24. Fresch says:

    Kavita, I still love Tintin, he is super cool.

    Madhu, good sharing, I hope the experience was enlightening for you.

    I just found out that some of my friends are angry with me because of my way of writing here. Awesome.

    • bodhi vartan says:

      Fresch says:
      “I just found out that some of my friends are angry with me because of my way of writing here. Awesome.”

      Sannyas (News) has always sorted out your real friends (and real family) from the hangers-on. Hehe. Awesome indeed.

    • Ashok says:

      Sounds like you have some good friends, Fresch. True anger, in my humble opinion, can often be a very beautiful expression of honesty and love. Of course, it does not necessarily mean that the angry person is right!

      • bodhi vartan says:

        After 3 months of me taking sannyas (you know, with the red all that, and pictures of Osho everywhere) my dad got jealous of Osho (bless him).

        The last thing Osho was for me, was my dad. For me Osho was a rock star.

  25. shantam prem says:

    How many neo sannyasins are needed to change a bulb?
    As per Bodhi Vartan, ” None”.
    Our bulbs are blessed by the blessed one. They don´t go kaput.

    People who live in denial don´t need to take stairs to transcend mind. They are already there under the blue sky.

    • bodhi vartan says:

      How about some truth to go with the denial? Sannyasins don’t need lightbulbs, they carry their own light.

      • Parmartha says:

        For me, the light is sometimes on and sometimes off. Perhaps off more than on. My feeling is that applies to most of us. AND that is the only starting and sharing point for an honest sangha.
        Led sadly by some, but not all therapists and administrators, there was always some kind of pecking order (of so-called light) even in Pune one, and this helped to contribute towards the sort of disempowerment of your average Joe that occurred on the Ranch, and in my book helps to explain its denouement.

        • Arpana says:

          Forget not though, P, we take sannyas to resolve our ego problems, even if we don’t know it, not because we don’t have them.

          Osho sannyas is a space for working through ego problems.

        • bodhi vartan says:

          You seem to still carry stuff from the Ranch. Why?

          In the ancient Greek thingy, enlightenment is not something that happens once but something that happens again and again. Something forgets and then remembers again.

          • Parmartha says:

            It is difficult, Varts. If you were a commune member and lived in the Rajneesh communes under Sheela as I did for some years, yes it did imprint one, and if as young Arps suggests it was to offer divestment of the ego, it was a close run call in September/October 1985 to wiping some of us out altogether with the National Guard just over the hill, which certainly, I freely admit, freaked me out at the time.

            I know it is difficult for those who never experienced it. I had a close friendship with Paritosh (Sam) who wrote “Life of Osho” when he was alive and he also felt my unconscious was “shadowed” by those years. But his trick was to have “left” organised sannyas between 1980 and 85, though to his credit he rushed back in when Sheela fell, unlike other lemmings who ran the other way! In my book he was somehow smart to have “disappeared” in those years.

            • Arpana says:

              Well, you came through it, and seem pretty down to earth, IMO, Swami.

              (Some pretty serious ego problems were manifesting then, including among those who looked on and weren’t sannyasins).

              Young Arps. Lol.

            • bodhi vartan says:

              Maybe he (Sam) was smart and maybe he was lucky. And those bad things never really happened. They could have happened (and they got close to happening) but they did not happen.

              Close calls are what make life…interesting.

  26. Fresch says:

    I can not help it but
    Being in wonder
    Why sannyasins express any comments on Turkey/ Krim/Russia about the THEIR censoring.
    While somewhere else/here and now
    is total censoring
    In our own Canadian cult.
    Watching the stars (our own eminent people) in this endless caravanserai.
    Awaresome.
    Staying out (for rest of us) is a statement.
    Aaahh, sky, now I put my pen down
    And just have a cup of tea.

    • shantam prem says:

      Fresch, it goes like this, those who got caught red-handed beating their woman cannot comment any more on women´s related issues.
      Collectively, sannyasins have lost moral high ground to interfere into world matters. As we need to start from our own. Look at the conformists around, It is written in black and white and in colour that the work of their beloved master is hijacked by one autocrat and they are accepting it as silence of the lamb!
      One needs to practise on the home pitch first.
      God willing, Rest till tomorrow.

  27. shantam prem says:

    Osho sannyas is a space for working through ego problems…
    Thus spoke a swami who knows sannyas only through books.

    In North Korea, everybody learns how to resolve ego problems, they follow the advice of their great friend, who has no ego at all!

    It really pisses the sky off when people have no idea about the ground reality but only the scriptural wisdom.

    • Arpana says:

      Osho books is a for working through
      Thus spoke a who people knows sannyas
      through wisdom.
      In North swami ground only reality Korea,
      everybody l sannyas earns ego how to resolve ego
      they follow the advice problems…
      of their great who has no at all!
      It really pisses the sky problems, off when have no space
      idea about the but only end, the scriptural ego

      SWAMI SHANTAM CHUDDY FILLER

    • bodhi vartan says:

      Shants, you are merely projecting. You don’t know Arpy. He gets his wisdom from music. He is in resonance.

  28. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    Reading both of your postings this morning

    Parmartha, and also yours, Arpana,
    the first impulse I felt was
    I wish I could meet you for “tea time” and face- to-face

    what came up is one of the main issues of so- called disillusionment
    and that is
    nobody can ever solve anything by borrowed knowledge
    you have to go through all the trials and errors and pains and joy and bliss attacks and so on and forth by yourself
    it’s ever so seductive to imagine to be so very “special” to have (given) a shortcut way

    in this context (this morning) I remember the master speaking about “his little boxes” as a gift to lovers, what he said about this in a miraculous complex way
    …also about mantras “for support” has been so lovingly intelligent and yet
    the understanding of that love-intelligence may take a lifetime

    or not
    and it’s totally up to the disciple’s capacity – and the “FIELD” for the seed – so to say
    and by that latter I mean something that’s not in your hands to have power over

    it’s not only “Osho sannyas”, “a space for working through ego problems”, Arpana

    life itself is THAT space and every moment an opportunity to face it
    or not
    yet
    I confess that I miss very often to be more connected in an everyday version of the buddhafield as I knew it like anything
    nostalgia…and ignorance as a way of being stuck in the past

    one of the steps I have taken after quite a long time was to get courage to join this chat-caravanserai
    although much courage was needed on my part after a long time of “just looking”

    meanwhile
    sometimes part of the “waves”
    sometimes more aware, sometimes less of what the virtual can never give
    sometimes encouraged, sometimes utterly discouraged, most of the time grateful though
    ——–
    that Fresch brought up the movie “HER”
    and I remembered so thoroughly how the movie “Being John Malkovitch”
    was a fore-runner of a very important issue of these, let us say, “spiritual decades”,
    which seemingly are for all of us a challenge of its own accord
    facing a new way
    That’s what you may have meant, Arpana, about “the work on ego issues”
    or as I would say it
    on the longing to love AND be loved
    as simply as that

    I’m gonna post this morning’s sunshine prayer,
    saying hallo to “Schrödinger’s cat”…no fighting ever…just enjoying if that is possible
    and have a beautiful morning you all
    whom I am knowingly or unknowably addressing here-now

    Madhu

    • satyadeva says:

      Re how films etc. can be useful sources of inspiration, this morning I’ve just read this anecdote from another master:

      There’s often some point in a TV programme or movie that you can use to help you live the truth. It’s like anything else (including listening to a spiritual master or reading one of his books), you’re watching out for the one truth that you can take away with you today: ‘Ah! That’s it. I’m going to live that one.’

      For instance I saw a movie called ‘Accidental Hero’, starring Dustin Hoffman. The hero is a terrible sleaze-bag and con-man. There’s a plane crash and being first on the scene he even steals from the dead. That’s the sort of man he is. Later on he’s pressed to give his son some fatherly wisdom . . .

      ‘Son, you remember how I said I was going to explain about life? Well, the thing about life is: it gets weird. People always talking to you about truth like it was toilet paper or something and they got a supply in the closet. But what you learn as you get older is there ain’t no truth. All there is, is bullshit. Layers of it. One layer of bullshit on top of another. And what you do in life, like when you’re older, is you pick the layer of bullshit you prefer and that is your bullshit – so to speak. You get that? No? Well it’s complicated . . . Maybe when you get to college . . . ‘

      That struck me as very good worldly advice from a father to his son. There ain’t no truth in the world. It’s all bullshit. So know what the world is. And then go and make use of it.

      • Fresch says:

        Madhu, let’s ignore Lokesh’s attempt to transfer HIS Shantam-fever to any cats..or he is always welcome to show his OWN cat’s photos, videos and documentaries.

      • bodhi vartan says:

        The day I need advice from Dustin Hoffman (even if he is rumbling about someone else’s bullshit) it would be the day I need to jump from a cliff.

        Life is complicated, but it is not bullshit.

        • satyadeva says:

          Read the piece again, Vartan. He’s not talking about Life, he’s talking about ‘the world’.

          Do you know the difference?

          • bodhi vartan says:

            Probably not. Life lives in the World… no?

            But Fresch is probably right. It depends on what bullshit means to you. To me bullshit is the stuff I step over to get to the flowers or fruit. It might be necessary for the flowers or Dustin Hoffman but of no consequence to yours truly.

            • Ashok says:

              Don’t forget to add nuts to your intended targets of ‘flowers and fruit’, BV. They are also important for maintaining a healthy, varied and nutritious diet. Remember “Flowery, fruity and nutty, all help me when I go to the potty!”

            • satyadeva says:

              That’s really more than a bit rich coming from you, Vartan, a man who apparently spent a fair number of recent years working as a casino croupier! I suggest that was an almost perfect environmental model of worldly bullshit, wasn’t it?

              But if you can’t perceive the utter bullshit of what constitutes the artificial man-made world then what on earth have you been doing all these years around Osho (& co.)?

              Here are just a few guidelines for contemplation…

              Financial irresponsibility, greed (your former workplace a good example!), lust for power, political and economic corruption, sexual degradation, conventional religious stupidity, unconventional religious stupidity, the lies of anyone with something to sell, violence masquerading as ‘freedom’…For Gawd’s sake we could go on and on ad infinitum…

              If you truly believe that anything like an individual or collective ‘lotus’ can emerge directly from that pile of excrement then you’re either impossibly idealistic or an inveterate fool (or both). But I think you probably misunderstood me…

              Ultimately, the only saving grace is the Life within, which has nothing whatsoever to do with that external hellish condition. And btw, I don’t mean just the ‘normal’ sense of being alive, I mean something a lot deeper than that, more ‘ineffable’. You should know, after all, according to your earlier claims re some ‘realisation’ you’ve had?

              But as we’ve all helped to create that dysfunctional world – and many of us having done ‘rather well’ out of it – we have to dismantle it from within, in the form of all our erroneous beliefs, values, conditioning, aberrant emotions etc. etc. in order to get back to Life itself (aka ‘The Source’, I believe, in certain – or even uncertain! – circles).

              • satyadeva says:

                PS:
                I’m pretty sure you must be aware of all that, but I wanted to make sure you knew where I was coming from with the distinction between the man-created world (of bullshit) and Life itself.

        • Fresch says:

          What is bullshit for you?

      • Arpana says:

        ‘Re how films etc. can be useful sources of inspiration, this morning I’ve just read this anecdote from another master:

        There’s often some point in a TV programme or movie that you can use to help you live the truth. It’s like anything else (including listening to a spiritual master or reading one of his books), you’re watching out for the one truth that you can take away with you today: ‘Ah! That’s it. I’m going to live that one.’

        Totally agree with that.
        Who said it, SD?

    • Parmartha says:

      You can take tea with me anytime in London, Madhu. But methinks you live in Bavaria?!

  29. prem martyn says:

    I’m not certain , but has anything happened since yesterday with the word ranch in it ? I don’t want to feel left out by any musings. Last time that happened, well, come to think of it … was probably 1985…now let’s see…if my memory serves me well ….i was in London…not on the ranch per se…anyway…er hello, anyone there..? Am I still riveting your interest..? Good, then I’ll begin….
    It was a dark and stormy night…I hadn’t gone to the ranch…I tossed and turned…never had I tossed and turned for so long…a lot of tossing I can tell you…then…(please write in with your own paragraph here…)….

    • Ashok says:

      PM, I sincerely hope that this is not an attempt by you to restore order to the general chaos, scragging and fun happening in the classroom, since our Teacher decided to step outside for a few minutes, is it?

      • prem martyn says:

        Dear Ashok (is the other one still in the washing machine? or might it have gone beyond to sock heaven?)

        Ta very much …
        Your paragraph has an elliptical quality to it, which could possibly be included in this term’s best essay…written in 30 seconds. It has a lot of potential and could even be used for spiritual insights if you added more words to it, like ‘goodness gracious’ and erm,’blimey, what a marvellous insight’, or words to that effect.

        See below for the latest world news….

        • prem martyn says:

          NEWS ABOUT THE HOW THE WILD WEST WAS WON by our Wild West Correspondent…Hilarity Jane….

          Following a recent spate of ‘ why don’t UFO’ sightings around the world, the publishers here at Sunnyside News have finally admitted that they are at an unusual loss for words over news that a recent fully loaded opinion, carrying bogus claims and travelling on false biases, has completely disappeared without trace (or copy ), sometime in the wee small hours of last week.

          Professional investigators have been called in to search high and low for any indication of the missing ideas, with some experts claiming that it was falsely carrying a shitload of verbally polished gems, which were priceless.

          There have also been rumours that some writers had recently lost the plot completely and were attempting to carry out some heinous affirmation by sabotaging others with their own preferred belief, despite being all-at-sea themselves. However these were dismsissed today by veteran UFO-ogists as mere speculation, poppy-cock, absurd tittle-tattle and ……absolutely bang-on-the-nail.

          Nevertheless, some fans of the newspaper have launched an appeal for yet more of the same information demanding pictures, photos, and hard evidence of their loved-one, and especially any up-to-date news from 1985 …and proof that some of the survivors could still be alive from that time, still going on about it in bus shelters up and down the country.

          An expert writes: Typically,…. in situations like these, where readers often experience a range of symptoms including; mild agreement, guffawing, dismissal, fits of hilarity, coupled with pontification, self indulgence and vanity …..combined with a catch-all ability to talk to no-one in particular about the value of truth, love and conjecture ……is….. actually ‘ very typical’, said the Anglo-Sino-Danish expert ( Professor Denis Arnott-Mai- Fehlings ).

          Specialists in supporting all sorts of relative notions, have been called in to assist the millions of readers who have been left listless, clueless and in wonder-ing as to what to think really, if you think about it.

          A medical spokesperson for this respected family-friendly blog-roll , who wished to remain anonymous ( Doctor Ed. Notes ) announced a full investigation would be covered up as soon as they had all the evidence, and in the meantime to consider the Infinite, as nothing would be happening any time soon ,( a bit like the waiting room at the clinic ).

          Next week… ‘ Ranches I have Loved ‘ a 2226 page investigation into the……

        • Ashok says:

          Dearest PM,
          I was very touched to hear of your concern for the plight of my other sock. You will no doubt be pleased to hear that it is still lodged in my gob, but at the same time aware that it is no longer suitable for the purpose which it was originally intended…as I cannot keep my gob shut, and I sometimes wish I could. Proof of which is the fact that I was able to make my previous comment on what I thought was an attempt by you to instil order in the current proceedings, but which in fact was intended as a carrot to encourage you to get your creative juices going…..and you have not disappointed me! I could not, however, make the claim that I am speaking on behalf of all SN viewers as a whole.

          With affection from one who is fully appreciative of your creative light and vision.

  30. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    yes, Bavaria – MunicH -Pparmartha

    always here for a long time now
    in London
    i have been 1981 and 1984 last “century…”

    what i wrote this morning has been expressing a spontaneous
    “wish you were here” …
    i could follow here the sannyas Sunday “Osho-satsang and Sunday breakfast ritual – though it dropped me after a long, long, long time going there here
    and that’s a long story too
    not worth to tell here at this spot -

    so
    sometimes it simply comes up
    that song – “Wish You Were Here” and then I give it a smile and enjoy the feeling

    I am not able to move elsewhere for quite a while and for many reasons

    and yes
    that does not at all mean that I am not moved -

    so thank you
    and thank you all for this

    love

    Madhu

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