Being and Nothingness: the Nonsense of Jean Paul Sartre

Osho spoke in  in the winter of 1981/2,  during dental sessions which involved nitrous oxide about books that had had some sort of significance in his spiritual and intellectual life. These reflections were compiled later and published in 1985,  as  a book in itself called “Books I have Loved”, reperesenting 16 sessions in the Dental Chair. In the end there were about 170 books looked at by him. However this book does not seem loved by Osho !

Being and Nothingness Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness.

Osho spoke:

“First I must mention that I don’t like the man.(Jean Paul Sartre) I don’t like him because he was a snob. He is one of the most snobbish people of this century. I call him a snob because he has become the leader of Existentialism without knowing at all what it means to be existential. But the book is good – not for my disciples but for those who have gone a little bit nuts, just a little bit. It is unreadable.

If you are a little bit nuts it will bring you to your senses. It is a great work in that sense – medicinal. Devaraj (Osho’s Doctor who was in attendance at the sessions) , note it: medicinal. It should be prescribed in all mad asylums. Each madman should be forced to read it, study it. If it cannot bring you to sanity nothing can. But only to first-degree nuts, like philosophers, professors, mathematicians, scientists – but only the first degree, not those very advanced in madness.

The existentialism of which Jean-Paul Sartre is the representative is a mockery. Without ever knowing anything of meditation he talks about ‘being’, and he talks about ‘nothingness’. Alas, they are not two: being is no-thingness; that is why Buddha has called being, anatta – no-self. Gautama the Buddha is the only man in history to call self ‘no-self’. I love Buddha for a thousand and one reasons; this is only one of the reasons. The thousand I cannot count because of the shortage of time. Perhaps one day I may start talking about those one thousand reasons too….

But Jean-Paul Sartre I dislike – just dislike, not even hate, because hate is a strong word… …  Jean-Paul Sartre knows nothing of existence, but he has created a jargon, a philosophical jargon, intellectual gymnastics. And it really is gymnastics. If you can read ten pages of Being and Nothingness, either you will become sane or insane. But to read ten pages is a difficult task. When I was a professor (of philosophy)  I gave it to many of my students, but nobody ever completed it. Nobody could even read ten pages – one page was too much; in fact one paragraph itself was too much. You cannot make any head or tail of it. And there are a thousand pages or more. It is a big book.

I remember it in my postscript because though I dislike the man, I may dislike his philosophy… yes, I will call it philosophy, even though he wanted it to be called anti-philosophy. I cannot call it anti-philosophy for the simple reason that every anti-philosophy ultimately proves to be only another philosophy. Existence is neither philosophical nor anti-philosophical. It is.

I include the book because he has done such a tremendous task. It is one of the most monumental books ever written, with such skill, such logic. And yet the man was just ordinary, a communist – that’s another reason why I dislike him. A man who knows existence cannot be a communist, because he will know that equality is impossible. Inequality is the way things are. Nothing is equal and nothing can ever be equal. Equality is only a dream, a dream of stupid people. Existence is multidimensional inequality.

Osho, Books I Have Loved (Excerpt)

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13 Responses to Being and Nothingness: the Nonsense of Jean Paul Sartre

  1. shantam prem says:

    Every anti-philosophy ultimately proves to be only another philosophy…

    Please delete this sentence; delete this sentence, otherwise it will break the hearts of many faint-hearted who think their books are so waterproof, one can use them as rain cap!

  2. frank says:

    …plus Sartre was a total speed-freak who needed the whizz to keep himself writing through the haze of barbiturates that he was taking to combat his insomnia!

    That was in between trips to the café to tank up on coffee, fags and booze.

    As Freddie famously declared:
    “Another one bites the dust.”

  3. madhu dagmar frantzen says:

    Frank,

    You obviously are living in a latrine,
    inside-outside.

    Sorry about that
    as you are staying there quite a while.

    Maybe you find a better place
    inside-outside, who knows?

    Madhu

  4. frank says:

    Btw, re Sartre and speed, booze etc.
    it`s all true.

    It’s my specialist subject:
    The drug habits of philosophers, teachers and wisemen!
    Not to mention would-be philosophers, teachers and wisemen!

    Which reminds me,
    Here`s a diagnosis:
    Our very own “engine room” of Sannyas News and self-appointed defender of the faith…
    what is he on..?
    Some brand of SSRIs, I will hazard…
    all the little signs are there for the discerning reader….

    • Lokesh says:

      I suspect the subject is a guinea pig for Pfizer’s new mood-altering drug, ‘Conceitodrone’. Apparently, it gives the patient an excessively favourable opinion of his/her own ability, importance, wit, etc. Really quite amazing that a chemical compound can create such a psychological illusion.

      There are apparently side-effects that include a craving for chuddie burgers and speaking in flowery metaphors that nobody else can understand.

      In one in a thousand instances Conceitodrone can bring about an obsessive phobia concerning the running of Indian meditation resorts and imaginary relationships with dead gurus. In some extreme cases it has been noticed that one manifestation of the latter is the subject is under the illuson that they are somehow doing the dead teacher’s work, although when questioned about this the patient answers in such a way that it is obvious they haven’t a clue what this supposed work consists of.

      The FDA has already approved the use of Conceitodrone. The drug’s name was derived from the fact that all subjects exhibit conceited behaviour patterns and tend to drone on about matters that are of no interest to others, and yet somehow they remain completely oblivious to the effect they are having upon others. Mighty strong medicine, one might say.

    • Parmartha says:

      The efficacy of SSRIs in mild or moderate cases of depression has been disputed!

      • prem martyn says:

        What have Sites of Scientific Research Interest got to do with this..? Anyway, it’s nice to hear the SN site is run as a collective…although it would be difficult to make a collective comment about it.

        Are you to be found running up and down pitches on a Sunday afternoon, looking to the skies and declaiming “Owzat?”, in pursuit of eternal calm joy, mild clapping and a guru swathed in white jumpers whom you adhere to in times of mod-eration when passions need soothing?

  5. Shantam Prem says:

    Rats are discussing the poison.
    Great rats have read psychology of ‘Beyond Psychology’!

    • frank says:

      Of course you are the engine room and chief contributor of Sannyas News…
      No one ever said you weren`t…
      Now don’t forget to take a sip of water with your pills…
      there…that`s better…
      nothing to worry about…

      And Parmartha,the co-creator of the sannyas site you are writing on has nothing to do with sannyas since the Ranch…how could he?

      It’s all a just a horrid creation of those whiteskins who weren`t born in India like you, so they just don’t understand…
      and those nasty whiteskin rats don’t even have anywhere to do dynamic in London…apart from in Manchester, everybody knows that…

      And yes, Katmandu is in Uruguay, of course it is…
      And you know what an old bearded man in the sky wants even though you never met him, I know you do…
      And one day, you will lead dynamic in the Osho Auditorium, I`m sure you will and it will all be just like the old days (’88-’90) -
      but only if you keep taking your medicine…

      Now just sit up for me and take your conceitodrone…
      We`ve given you the biggest dose because you`re the most important patient…
      There`s a good boy!

      And pop these electrodes on your head
      pppffffzzzztttt…
      Everything`s going to be all right….

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