“Yahoo”
I can’t remember exactly when the Yahoo lecture series started. Maybe 1987/88? During this series of lectures the Yahoo “salute” was initiated. Both hands raised as Osho entered and left the Hall and shouting in unison “Yahoo”! For some it had Hitlerian overtones, for others it was a great joke that parodied totalitarianism.
Shunyo (Chetana) who used to tuck Osho up before he slept at that time, records that he seemed tickled by the Yahoo (one is not to sure whether it was to be sourced with him or some Secretary), but as she pulled the blankets over him looked at her and used to always say “Yahoo Chetana!.”
During this series there was what others, though not myself, have described as a Zen Stick for the commune, and of which one could, on the face of it , not make much sense. For a few days there had been giggling, unprovoked, and presumably cathartic laughter, coming from a few people. But the culmination for this strange business was during a lecture in which Osho was talking about, of all things, silence.
At some crescendo of oratory during the lecture hysterical laughter was heard, though Osho continued to speak. Then a few others joined in the mad laughter.
Osho stopped speaking…. and said
“This has gone beyond the joke”, but still defiantly the laughter continued. A few minutes went by of this strange interlude, but then Osho put the clipboard down, stood up, namasted everyone and walked out. At some point Osho is reported to have said to someone, “Don’t wait for me tomorrow night”!
According to Shunyo (Chetana) in her book “Diamond Days” Osho returned to his room and went straight to bed, and then called Neelam, Anando and Amrito, and talked to them for two hours. He explained he was in a lot of pain, and only living for us. It was just for us that he came to speak each night, and if we could’nt even listen….
However Osho did return the following night and the laughter was never heard again, the originators, one suspects, having been carefully excised by the powers that be, from lecture.
I do heavily note though that a few weeks later Osho brought another three stage mediation to the auditorium. First there was a “Gibberish” session, and then after a Stop” from Osho, a frozen period of sitting, and then an invited let go collapsing on the floor. During the let go Osho spoke various soothing words to accompany the meditation of coming home.
For me the two things were linked. Clearly at that time, even though late in his ministry some disciples still needed catharsis. This meditation ensured (and ensures) that at least there was (is) a universal space for the nonsensical garbage of our minds to be released in gibberish.
Parmartha
“…a universal space for the nonsensical garbage of our minds to be released in gibberish”
I raise my glass to that.
Long Live Sannyasnews!
Yahoo!
At last … the sweet sound of gibberish…It’s been a long journey from the Ranch, via the myriad tales of the thousand and one posts…but at last we have arrived in Al Jabbaria, where you have nothing to lose but your head…
To think only the other night I was frastuming the cornspithes when all of a sudden there was a pantumnity of mithing at the window…Luckily, the strothing figure, whose shadow was perplexing even my trusty dog into a shathering wreck, was creeping with excessive pertrimnation, and so I was able to launch my sparger at it.
“Take that!”, I cried, as the spingleing threat started to open the window, “and that, you horrid fiend!”. Whereupon, Rufus, my chum from down the halls of residence, wailed, “Stop, stop, it’s me, japing”.
Of course, a few dampting chims with a sparger never hurt anyone, as I guffawed out loud. “Rufus, of course it’s you, who else could you be?” I asked winsomely, as I chivvied him along with the top of the flinger along the bedroom’s ledge….
Not sure who you are mimicking here, Martyn. Is it Henry Fielding, or what? The phrase “pantumnity of mirthing” has that sort of ring.
Cheers, Parmartha.
Have written this out of the top of my head – as usual! Not familiar with the name Fielding at all…shows you I’m a self-taught thespian, plus my crap punctuation which I hate self-correcting (especially on a 7-inch tablet) and not a literary man by study. Actually, despite my wordsmithing, I dislike reading, prefer documentaries and people talking, don’t own any books – well, two, both from or on Havel, really! And he loved absurdity.
Anyways, the only lateral prompt lurking in my neurons is this, from The Bonzo Dog Doo Dahist, but I didn’t remember it until after my writing:
The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.
And the main wonderful use of gibberish, apart from the sannyas ascent into hilarity, has been via, in my case, the wonderful world of Commedia dell Arte, in which I happily trained abroad, where the ancient art of Grummelot, or gibberising and becoming incandescently incomprehensible, is an hysterical art given to use by all the assembled characters in turn, especially if pontificating on a subject of which they know nothing. But its performance uses are myriad.
Martyn, ieks, knienos, was. Oeripietanaasa! Cradiostos, oefatanikolo mia mora. Koeto diablos animos, vrata pizza croutos. Basta, basta pronto miasta. Kronkol di sonkol vladimara postara, oeree,oereee….
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7XqMF5ou7hE
Aaaahhh,my siester! at laaastaadipaasta, i tienka she waas deaddaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh,,,,,,,,,oh my gottaaaaa,i’m soooohapppiezzzz!
“He explained he was in a lot of pain, and only living for us.”
Osho’s love for us was incredible. In spite of the physical pain he felt, he continued to work with us in Pune Two until we were able to enter into silence. He continued in spite of our sometimes immature or recalcitrant attitudes, taking us beyond our inappropriate behaviour and lack of appreciation for the love being showered upon us.
Osho lovingly made sure that we were able to enter the silence before leaving his body. By taking us deeper and deeper into our buddhahood those nights in Pune Two, Osho was preparing us. I have heard that after leaving Buddha Hall one evening, Osho stopped to listen to the silence of the assembled buddhas and commented: “I can leave now; they don’t need me anymore.” Shortly thereafter, he dropped the physical body…but his love continues to shower.
There is no way words can express the mystery, the joy and the depth of this ongoing love affair with Osho called Sannyas.
In the gossip halls of Sannyas in the nineties, some used to claim that ‘Yahoo’ was a word that should have been trademarked to Osho! This was when it seemed to be adopted by David Yand and Jerry Filo in 1994 when they started up their (to become famous) company of that name. Actually, it was an acronym for ‘Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle’. They did also add that they liked the original meaning from ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ by Jonathan Swift. Swift coined the word to humorously describe a race of brutes in his 18th century book.
However, there was a second meaning for Yahoo which has been used in English since the 1970′s, which is an ‘exclamation of great joy or excitement’. For example, “I wish I had a dollar for every time I spent a dollar, because then, yahoo!”
One imagines that it was this second meaning that Osho was using, or whoever suggested it to him, had in mind.
So for the record, the word did not originate from Sannyas or Osho, but it seems to me not a bad word to adopt for what Osho was about.
Re “yahoo…used in English as an expression of great joy or excitement”
I have a vague feeling that it may have been a beatnik thing from Kerouac et al.
In any case, for myself, I specifically remember myself running as fast as I could into the cold sea and hurling myself into the waves in the 70s, shouting it…
It was a kind of freak thing like running down the side of a steep hill out of your head on magic mushrooms shouting: “You can`t fall off a mountain” type of thing.
I can see why Osho adopted it.
Yahoo!
I recall ‘yahoo’ from cowboy films on tv, dating back to the 50′s, ie an exclamation of excitement etc. along similar lines to ‘yippee!’
I can presume from the regular bloggers on this site, other than me, Frank and Martyn were there in Pune during those historic days, when Master-Disciple thing was on its peak. Being profound in English, they can write commentary in a much better way.
I don’t think Osho has any liking for western music. It is very much possible he has listened to this Hindi movie song during his young days…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbzgnwMWq30
Wonderful clip, Shantam, absolute classic, hilarious!
(Best thing you’ve ever posted).
Impressive research, chaps.
I stand corrected.
No wonder Osho was ‘tickled’ by the whole thing.
Getting a bunch of seekers to shout red-neck cowboy Bollywood romantic comedy slogans whilst giving quasi-Hitlerian salutes in an attempt to get enlightened!
You can’t say the old boy didn`t have a wicked sense of humour!
Yahoo!
Very interesting, Parmartha…thanks for that!
When a speaker to a large assembled group of people, drones endlessly on and on for long periods of time, it is surely natural that some of the audience will become anxious, nervous and fidgety, isn’t it? Particularly in this case as many of the assembled were non-native speakers of English and were probably having a hard time understanding what Osho was on about in the first place. In addition, the seating facilities were hardly comfortable for those from the ‘West’, were they?
Could it be that Osho was not ‘a joke unto himself’? It would seem in this case that he initially went into reaction, perhaps taking himself too seriously. From what I have heard this kind of reaction was not unusual for him. I attended a talk in Buddha Grove, Pune, in 2003 or 2004, given jointly by Shunyo and Anando, in which they both indicated that Osho was not always easy to be with, frequently behaving like a petulant, irrational and demanding spoilt child.
In my opinion, good teachers are self-critical and do not expect to perform without error, ultimately responding to their own teaching mishaps after an initial struggle with the ego. To my mind, this would explain the devices added to the EM, esp. the gibberish, which provides a very useful outlet if you need to let off a bit of steam (the only bit of the EM which I like). Maybe Osho experienced a moment of reflection concerning his own part in instigating the laughter and responded positively? This would make sense to me.
Ashok…In some aspects I can see some useful points you make.
In the Pune I knew, Osho was also iconic, amongst the many attributes. This is inevitable, it seems, in the world of the attached conscientious objectifiers who have never been able to be chummy or matey with any advaitist, guru, therapist, master or mistress. It’s just not the proper form ol’ chap.
Familiarity and convivial presumption with that stuff and all it represents is like chalk and cheese. So the idea that some Japanese nutter Ma screeching her head off whilst El Maestro is trying to give it ‘loads of welly’ and get you ‘to bust a gut’ (translation: these idioms mean ‘effort’) dont mix.
I’m familiar with the video and Osho responds as you would if you get pissed off. In my book, he can do what he wants without an a-priori definition of proper masterful behaviour. In context, I hear the laughter as nutcase stuff. So he throws a wobbly, great…and ups the ante…just ‘cos he can.
I don’t agree that he spent time reflecting on the pros and cons in this case although that consideration is not anathema to presence, it just isn’t laden with historical self-doubt, because the self he lived in was neurologically shorn of temporality.
It happens all the time in nature, things respond, react even – but out of their essence. A dog doesn’t think of himself going for a walk, he just walks. Osho couldn’t have plotted or ruminated over a personal issue to save his life. In that way he was totally selfish, but without anyone home to be selfish for. This is not a put-up job, it’s just things as they are…
A bit like being conscious of Alzheimer-type forgetfulness, then forgetting to give a shit….
I suppose I should be grateful, PM, that you have not resorted to the ‘smarm’ smear about my valuable contribution here! In addition, let me also say that I feel honoured that you have actually taken something I have written seriously…Could it be that I am starting to show promise?
It would seem to me in my infinite wisdom, that your expressed viewpoint places Osho on some kind of a pedestal. I prefer to look at him from a much more ‘earthly’ and ‘grounded’ perspective…as above all, the man that he was, occasionally prone to error as we all are. Of course, I may be wrong in this case, and quite clearly I am speculating.
However, my viewpoint was partly influenced by a talk I had with Neelam (the founder of Osho Nisarga), a few years ago. She told me that she had worked on the team which had developed Dynamic Meditation. She said that she had reported frequently to the ‘Old Boy’ and that he had been very open to making changes, modifying, adapting and so on if certain ideas of his weren’t achieving the desired results.
Ashok, are you saying that relative stuff about all being mortals because it permits you to be, or because it makes your understanding less demanding and less exacting of what is unknown and absolving? Ie the trippy stuff ?
The trippy stuff that Osho regaled us with is actually much closer than we dare imagine, exists in all beings and is shown by the urge for the sacred: once tasted it never ever leaves the heart. The daily stuff is made more bearable by it.
Otherwise what are we/you or….doing hereabouts?
I like what Rumi says because of what it touches in me. I love who Osho was and is, adore it /him/that for whatever motive one wishes to apply, functional /dysfunctional. I shan’t justify or ask for that from others in respect of their choice of internality, but will seek their source of knowing when interacting…
So of course how we interact with each other on the way is significant, so how we experienced Osho reveals our own proclivities. And that’s why the Buddhafield was and maybe is unique and sacred. Some of us cried like we never cried before, thanked the earth like we never thanked before, kissed the marble podium with a thank you filled with goodbyes…
If that’s special and marvellous, well actually, isness is a bit like that – as if I knew it all along until it startles me and says “OI!, I’m frigging well here!!!” because I even felt that when I said goodbye to our pet husky cross in the same way…that marvellous grateful isness…
And that’s my Osho. When that happens I’m both on my own and yet deeply connected…
The rest is totally fine, any and all use of language, ideas, feelings – that was precisely what sannyas contributed in spade-loads to anyone ever so slightly curious enough until… GOTCHA!!!
Oh yes, what Rumi said was that all our love(s) is not to where we strive for but from the fullness of love from where we have come…(Excuse me, Rumi, for such poor abbreviation).
Cheerrs, Ashok.
Cheers, PM.
Heavens forbid, Martyn, whatever makes you think I don’t like the trippy stuff? TRUTH is, kiddo, I love the ‘trippy’ stuff too…I mean I like reading your trippy, zany, crazy posts even tho’ I don’t understand a lot of wot u r on about. No matter, hand on my heart, bro’!
To give you your full due, I like your scribblings for the some of the same reasons, I like stuff like ‘Do Not Adjust Your Set’, ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’, ‘The Bonzo Dog Doodah Band’, ‘Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band’ et al. There is audacity, craziness, effrontery, puerile nonsense, outrageousness, experimentation, anti-establishment rhetoric, cheekiness, non-seriousness and a large helping of ‘let-go’ etc. etc.
You and I are part of a very rare, select and special breed of ‘Light-Workers’, who endeavor to bring some respectability to a full-on ‘gibberish lifestyle’.
Hope that clears things up for PM.
Warm rgds,
Ashok
P.S: I know Lokesh seems to think that I am being a gentleman now, but I was just being a ‘phoney bastardo’ for a change! (Honest!).
You’ve got strong symptoms of that online cricketing disease, E-bowler, which causes the player to throw a wobbly before shouting “How is that?!!”, then remonstrating furiously with another’s definitive version of the rules of the game.
Unfortunately, there is no known cure for the complaint, forcing you to play on under duress.
Some patients or players develop resistance over time to these attacks, and the rarer virus form of the deceptive ‘Backhander Complementii’ which can prove impossible to deal with unless you look both ways before crossing the pitch and make a dire run for it, hoping you’ve covered all options
“Backhander Complementii” is a bit rich coming from you, old chum, is it not? Let me remind you (though it pains my conscience) of the way in which you opened your batting in response to my full-length, straight and true bowling:
“In some aspects I can see some useful points you make.”
If that isn’t a case of trying to ‘damn somebody with faint praise’ then I’m a lezzo! In fact, I think it could be classified as a ‘full-blown’ case of ‘Backhander complementii backus stabii’, as opposed to just being BC positive.
Regretfully, PM, I am beginning to think you might be a ‘hippo shit’! And believe me…I know about such things.
Why is it nobody believes me when I try to be serious?
Because you met your mixaphors luding to confession…it’s a priblom everloon has whon theay writ deen thar thuts expucting worms to curry moaning…instoad of antopritation.
Oh come on now, PM, farting in the phone-box just isn’t cricket, ol’ chap! Time for me leave methinks. See you on another thread once you’ve cleaned everything up.
“No wonder Osho was ‘tickled’ by the whole thing. Getting a bunch of seekers to shout red-neck cowboy Bollywood romantic comedy slogans” – Frank
Actually, Frank, that is an inaccurate characterisation. Why bring in Hitler? Throwing your arms into the air and joyfully shouting “Yahoo!” in no way resembles a Hitlerian salute.
Also, as Shantam has correctly pointed out, “Yahoo!” is from the 1961 movie ‘Junglee’. The word Junglee means ‘wild’ or ‘ill-mannered’ (from the point of view of the aristocratic class). ‘Junglee’ is a movie about laughter and love and living authentically. It is a romantic comedy with a message that very much resonates with Osho’s message of breaking out of your cultural and family conditioning.
‘Junglee’, which features the Yahoo! song, is about becoming carefree and falling in love – and celebrating and being in love with Existence is what Osho’s Sannyas is about.
That`s interesting.
I am not so well up on Osho`s connection to Hindi pop-culture.
I am curious, Kabir, when Osho first brought in the ‘Yahoo’, at that time how many Indian sannyasins would have been familiar with the film ‘Junglee’ and seen the connections between the themes in the film and what sannyas was about?
I have said before that I would like to have seen a sister book to ‘Books I Have Loved’: ‘Movies I Have Loved’.
I would have liked to hear Osho`s comments on the films he had seen….’Zorba the Greek’, ‘Woodstock the Movie’, ‘The Ten Commandments’, ‘Patton’ and now ‘Junglee’.
In my observation, more than 80% Osho disciples and sincere readers get some new capacity in their eyes. To look at the life is never the same again. It does not matter from which religious and socio-economic background they come from, they develop more penetration to look at the theatre of life in a more observant and holistic way.
Another aspect, which is the shadow side, is the unimaginable silent suffering.
During His lifetime, Osho as a master was very careful not to take the stones away unless he gives better version.
For example, if Osho speaks against traditional marriage, He gives the opportunity to create love stories. With His words Osho was eliminating the old software and creating through his people a new society as per His new software.
This was the reason Osho became controversial and a kind of spiritual terrorist. It was not because of His words but the intention to create visible world out of these expressions. So now the situation is such, through the power of Osho’s words, old houses, old value system gets broken but there is no system around to create new values, new relating, new friends.
Osho took all kind of diwalis and christmases away, but provided with new festivals, festivals which fit with the new values. Half-eyed disciples became smarter than the master. They deleted festivals created by their master. Now Osho disciples have become donkeys who are nowhere at home, lost souls of the humanity.
So disciples and future readers will be in dilemma. Old will seems like going away, New won’t be there to replace.
In my opinion, people who are selling half Osho, I mean just his words or changing people’s identity without giving them something to hold are the crimnials of our time.
If you cannot give better world then for God’s sake don’t take the old world away. Leaving people naked by not giving them new dress is an act of criminality and not charity.
It is no more yahoo but yaboo!
The person who has originated this thread maybe is not aware that after yahoo, yaboo was added. As i know, Osho never left the arch incomplete.
Yahoo; the Mystic Rose includes laughter as well as tears. After yahoo is yaboo.
Silence follows only….
You’re right, of course, Shantam, that almost everyone who’s experienced Osho will never be the same – which, btw, is surely the case for anyone who has truly been with any genuine (or perhaps even false) master.
Yet if your main point concerns the absence of formal structures to ‘usher in the ‘New Man’ (as it were), particularly festivals at the Pune ashram, then the impression I have is that whatever transformative good you experienced in those years hasn’t been enough to bring you to a point of independence, by which I mean that you appear to have little or no idea of how to proceed in your spiritual life, without the presence of a large crowd of fellow-seekers to provide implicit support, sustenance and, er, ‘diversion’.
I’d never suggest you’ve simply wasted your time, I’m not as disrespectful of you as that, but if you feel you’ve somehow been left ‘high and dry’ then either you haven’t grasped or practised essentials of the teachings specially relevant to you, or the teachings themselves have been inadequate for you.
As a remarkable guy called Marshall Lever said to me back in ’77, something like, “People join spiritual communities searching for transformation, a more profound ‘balance’. Yet you don’t necessarily need a community to be ‘balanced’. And if you’re ‘balanced’, you don’t need to depend on a spiritual community.”
“People join spiritual communities searching for transformation, a more profound ‘balance’. Yet you don’t necessarily need a community to be ‘balanced’. And if you’re ‘balanced’, you don’t need to depend on a spiritual community.”
This makes sense. If you can be cured by general physician, you don’t need hospitalisation.
There are billions of people around the world who are doing fine without Osho or similar people. There are billion-plus Christians who have their calling somewhere else but not in the monasteries.
Why not appreciate every person’s unique choice?
In the world of Osho, though, I have come across many “balanced” types who feel touched by such sentences as “If you cross the bridge, break the bridge” – they really went for it.
They broke the bridges where others could have walked!
“You can’t say the old boy didn`t have a wicked sense of humor!”
You see what you see, from where you are, what you are, Frank.
And please, look again -
Madhu
Sorry to jump in here, Frank, before you have had a chance to reply (‘assuming that you want to?), but I just wanted to check with Madhu in the first place to see if she intended you to take a look at yourself ‘with knickers’, or as she seems to prefer, in the more revealing ‘without’ mode?
I just read through all the above comments. They kind of encapsulate where everyone is at today.
El Chudo still living in his golden past:
“Pune during those historic days, when Master-Disciple thing was on its peak.”
Which leaves me wondering how he worked that one out. Could it be to do with the fact the period described centres around the Great Chud actually being there? It does not require genius to work that out.
Frank gives his unique take on watching the river flow, but like everyone else I was shocked to hear him confess, !I am not so well up on Osho`s connection to Hindi pop-culture.” Dhum-dara-dhum!
Kabir, obviously read that book ‘How to be a Good Catholic Sannyasin’, by Ma Goody Two Shoes.
Martyn has definitely been softening up lately…I suspect he is in love, or maybe just a new pussy cat to play hide the mouse with.
Ashok is displaying that he is a gentleman at heart – heavens above.
SD delivers his balanced view. Is justice blind?
Madhu, obviously in a reflective mood, perhaps in preparation for the October Bier Fest.
PM, our dear ref…we should put the hat round for him to get better specs and a louder whistle.
Me? Viewed through the retrospective looking glass, Osho was always up for trying out a new gimmick…some worked, others flopped. In the early days, Laxmi was instrumental in this and probably a few of the real inner circle played a part, and doubtless had a good laugh in the creative process. Wear orange, a mala, change of name. Osho obviously liked the latter and, not wishing to feel left out, followed suit.
Back then it was radical and certainly involved an element of risk and letting go. The years passed and the mainstream flowed into the ashram. I can remember new kids on the block visiting our well and shouting out sannyas slogans as they took a plunge. There were occasions when I cringed at the sound of it. Those people were fresh, but also too green for my jaded taste buds.
I am sure that the Yahoo numero was a big deal for many who were present, yet I always found it corny. White Robe Brotherhood cultish and stale.
It still surprises me that sannyasins still go for all the double-think bullshit that keeps the old boy up on a pedestal. They just don’t get it that Osho was a man, he made mistakes and probably tired of the game from time to time. Kabir being a prime example. He just does not get it that Osho was quite capable of employing emotional blackmail were he not to receive the reception that he craved. ‘If you tossers don’t get your act together, I am going to leave my body, so there!
We all went for it. That was the last thing on earth we wanted. I dare say some of us would have given our lives to prevent that happening at the time. Now, I think it was bullshit and not the highest card to play. I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.
Yahoo certainly did turn out to be a moneymaker. I am surprised the Catholic sannyasins have not dreamt up a scenario, wherin it is belived that Osho was delivering a not too subliminal investmant tip that would have made us all rich had we been open enough to listen.
Yahoo had its peak stock prices during the dot com bubble when it skyrocketed to over $118…you could have bought in during the early days for $33…that would have been a 400% return…Then again, without Osho to guide you, you would have not forseen the eventuality of the bubble bursting and Yahoo shares plunging to $8…Today, they trade at $43.
Now that I think about it, there is definitely a parallel between Yahoo stock movemnts and the life and times of the Osho commune. Full circle. Yahoo!
Mind-fuck from a self-centered Scot.
He really needs a real alive master for the required kick on the stale brain cells.
If you run away, you have to start again from the point you ran away.
So seems to be the laws of evolution.
Run away from what exactly, Chudweiser?
P.S: Evolution is not observable, repeatable, or refutable and thus does not qualify as either a scientific fact, law or theory. Evolution must be accepted with faith by its believers, many of whom deny the existence, or at least the power, of the Creator.
Good stuff, Lokesh! I like very much the new term you have coined i.e. ‘Catholic sannyasins’, which I think sums up my sentiments concerning that kind of sannyasin too.
As I am sure most of the viewers here will appreciate, I am of Irish origin and was therefore subjected to a heavy load of ‘holy Catholic bull-shoite’, whilst still of a tender age ( same as now compared to most around this neck of the ‘Queen’s’ woods).
Once you have been exposed to the vile stench of cat-lick (Oirish Gaeltachtless dialect), dog-ma, it is unforgettable. Consequently, when I get a whiff of it on SN, I feel it is my duty to pounce on it like a ‘beggar on a tenner’ (regardless of whether it is dressed up in knickers or not) and deposit it in the nearest doggie poo bin, where it rightly belongs.
It would seem, Lokesh, that you are of a similar mind-set. Thank you for all your support.
From Ashok (Chairman of Keep SN Streets Clean Campaign)
I have this vague fantasy of buying a wee cottage on the west coast of Scotland…all my sensible chums laugh about it and quite rightly too, because it is bullshit. I grew up in a strongly Presbyterian ‘hood in Scotland.
I recently talked to a friend who’d returned from way down southern Ireland. “Could you live there?”, I asked. “Fuck, no”, he replied, “those Pressies are worse than the Catholics. Take five year-olds to the beach and wrap towels around them to chamge into their swimmies!”
Mind you, not as bad as the Hindus. Those jokers keep all their clothes on when they go for a swim. Chuddies included.
“It still surprises me that sannyasins still go for all the double-think bullshit that keeps the old boy up on a pedestal. They just don’t get it that Osho was a man, he made mistakes and probably tired of the game from time to time. Kabir being a prime example.” — Lokesh
Pedestal? Straw man much, Lokesh? Sannyasins who listened did get it when Osho said he was ordinary. He never claimed to be a messiah or saviour on a pedestal. Nor did he say he never made mistakes.
“I am an ordinary man just like you. I am very much fallible.” — Osho, From the False to the Truth, ch 4
“I am an ordinary man just like you. I am very much fallible.” — Osho
“Osho was a man, he made mistakes” – Lokesh
Lokesh, you are being a good sannyasin by emphasising what Osho said. Keep up the good work.
Kabir, that is cool.
Kabir1440 wrote: “I am an ordinary man just like you. I am very much fallible.” – Osho, From the False to the Truth, ch 4.
That’s more like it, Kabir! Maybe I have been hasty in my rush to condemn you before you revealed yourself to me in your full glory (like Madhu recently did). I, believe it or not…can also be fallible.
I am prepared to believe you when you say, “He never claimed to be a messiah or saviour on a pedestal etc.”
I think the problem might be that there are those who, despite what he said, do elevate him to some higher spiritual status to satisfy some purpose of their own.
“I am curious, Kabir, when Osho first brought in the ‘Yahoo’, at that time how many Indian sannyasins would have been familiar with the film ‘Junglee’ ” – Frank.
Almost all of them, Frank, since educated Indian sannyasins are familiar with their national film production (which is more prodigious than Hollywood). Just like as a high percentage of educated western sannyasins are aware of ‘El Cid’ or ‘La Dolce Vita’, movies which came out the same year as ‘Junglee’ and were also super-hits.
Kabir,
Thanks.
So the ‘Yahoo’ could be seen as a subliminal/direct message from Osho to his Indian sannyasins, suggesting something like:
“Don`t be sucked in by serious Brahminical Hindu crap about aristocratic and spiritual people not having a good laugh and instead of walking around like you`ve got a prickly pear stuck up your ass, follow the example of Shami Kapoor, start boogying anywhere and everywhere like you’ve got Tourettes, get yourself a lovelife with a girlfriend your mum doesn’t approve of (preferably low caste or even outside the caste system altogether) and get a life.
I can relate to that.
Yahoo!
Letting the ‘Yahoo’ sound come through clears the throat and connects the Hara with the Heart; that´s how i experienced it.
And I am all with Shantam, when he reminds us on the stages of the Mystic Rose Meditation, where ‘all’ suppressed laughter is followed by ‘all’ suppressed tears (‘Yaboo’) -and then – Silence…
To say ‘all’ is quite exaggerated as anybody has accumulated tons and tons of suppression and any moment suppression is reloading anew, if we don’t take care-
The inappropriate ‘laughter’, which is also a subject in this thread, belongs in the latter context: not to be able anymore to respond and respect where you are and with whom and what´s up in the moment.
I remember that the phase the ‘Yahoo’ was introduced was preceded by a phase where we would freeze, like in one of the ‘Stop!’ kind of Gurdjieff exercises on top of the energy rousing in music and dance, at the beginning and ending of the evening meditations, that was – is – very strong too. So we could take that with us – inside.
The last meditations He introduced us to are very special and very playful too. Everlasting invitations to everlasting journeys, as Kabir has mentioned.
As I wrote this here, and it is still dark outside, such a strong and loud electrical up- and downloading in nature – I have been intimidated like the little girl i once was by the sky’s roaring.
Now – utter Silence again…
Wish I could have the morning tea with you – being out there – somewhere…
Madhu
“Letting the ‘Yahoo’ sound come through clears the throat and connects the Hara with the Heart; that´s how I experienced it.”
Football fans will be able to relate to this very important point.
You’re definitely onto something here, Lokesh. I have always thought of going to a football match as a kind of ‘Dynamic Meditation’ with alcohol. The similarities are obvious, aren’t they? Catharsis, jumping with your arms held in the air while you chant a mantra, freezing when your opponents score, dancing when your team scores etc. etc.
Ashok,
Don`t forget the mindless chanting!
Which reminds me, I was once getting some anger out in Dynamic, shouting “Arsehole! Arsehole!” repeatedly, when suddenly I heard this voice from the back shouting, “Tottenham! Tottenham!”
(MOD: Arsenal and Tottenham are rival London football teams).
Yes, I remember going to an Old Firm game in Glasgow as a teenager. Two tribes go to war. Got hit on the noggin with a beer can that someone had been kind enough to urinate in. I was pissed off…or maybe that should be on. Once bitten, twice shy: I never returned to Hampden Park.
(MOD: Old Firm game MEANS A FOOTBALL MATCH BETWEEN THE TOP TWO GLASGOW TEAMS)
Looked (late) at the vid´you posted in this thread, Prem Martyn and – like quite often before wondered what your non-violent-vegan approach to life is all about…
Wouldn´t pass through your exam, Prem Martyn, we would probably feel quite uncomfortable with each other.
What a pity -
Madhu
P.S:
Some of the cathartics of the ‘LIVING THEATRE’ I have experienced (and am experiencing these days) just as indulging in distributing shocks, the stronger the better the maxim – but often didn´t (don´t) feel that they are really interested in the audience besides – contempt.
Lokesh ‘the only Scot’ who went to India for great search has written, “White Robe Brotherhood cultish and stale.”
How it can be otherwise? He was not there. He has seen only some video.
Osho was giving his best to finalise his work and legacy and Lokesh kind of absentees call it cultish and stale!
It shows how childish and immature he is. Buddha Hall was packed like never before or after, Osho did not have the time to mourn for those who disappered.
To disappear is their right but to comment in a rude way shows the mind of the jilted lover.
White Robe Brotherhood obviously did not have a very transformative effect on poor old Chudo.
Now he is talking about being rude. My, my, perish the thought that one could descend the spiritual ladder to such a depth of abomination that one could be rude. Must be the devil at play.
One can only surmise that it is perfectly all right to be a sexually repressed racist, who never meditates, in El Chudo’s ‘Guidebook to Correct Sannyas Behaviour’.
The Beauty of NO-MIND, Karima, is that it is not happening on an internet website; that´s dignity left after all.
Otherwise, anything seems to be possible, even that the ‘Big Blue’ plays schach (and wins) or that the ‘Big Blue’ by its very machinery makes (or loses) so much money in a nanosecond even Lokesh can not figure it out because reading the trade is outdated reading the moment you see it.
And what the ‘Big Blue’ also does, meanwhile, is to find his role in wars and killings.
But NO-Mind stays unavailable for the ‘Big Blue’ even though ambitionists are going for artificial ‘intelligence’ (and cloning) – but most of them with the same rotten mind which goes for power and nothing else.
So – enjoy your Pizza today, Karima.
Madhu
I don’t know, Madhu, if No Mind is not on the internet, disguised as mind, perhaps?
“Football fans will be able to relate to this very important point.”
So true, Lokesh, but see what comes out of this kind of ‘relating’?
P.P.S:
For Lokesh:
Even your ‘jaded taste buds’ would be surprised, I promise you, if you once would try the whole procedure of the Meditation mentioned! You can also be surprised up to now, can’t you?
Madhu, smiling at your little ratings – and yes, how to pass on the hat for Parmartha, you will find a way, will you?
Madhu says, “I promise you, if you once would try the whole procedure of the Meditation mentioned!”
Please recap, I am not sure what it is you are referring to.
“Osho’s Sannyas – Is this a religion, spiritual movement, B&B Resort or simply a cult?”
I think we need to take note of Sannyas origin and its present state with passion and detachment.
Maybe I try to create a string.
And yes, Lokesh, Justice IS blind.
The rare occasional wise insights of worldly intelligence in sculpture but also in reality are dealing with that matter.
And alas, again…a woman´s naked body is needed for that performance to smooth it up, which is the case…Anyway, only in rich countries to be seen so often.
Madhu
Als Spracht Maggiethustra!
No, Karima, no disguised ‘mind-thing’.
Disappearing into nothingness and yet very ‘private’ – a living paradox – a dignity left in these days, a refuge, how the Tibetans roundabout name it: knowing that which has no name.
These days, where inner landscapes have become a trade market of performances. Overloaded with so much stuff we call ‘information’, sometimes, it may be that the Thirst and Urge to come ‘Home’ this way may have to be re-discovered and felt.
You know, I sometimes feel we are living in a bulimic time: stuffing stuff endlessly into ourselves, like these poor human creatures who are sick of it all and then vomiting it all out, just to start again stuffing…and so on…
The truth is, this way you are going to starve (on all levels).
And Life is precious, isn´t it?
Love,
Madhu
Madhuji enquires, “Life is precious, isn´t it?”
This brings up a few questions for me. In comparison to what? We value what we love. If there is value there must be something which lacks value, i.e. war? Is war worthless? It would appear so, yet others might disagree…A freedom fighter trying to oust an oppresive force. War, on this planet, is also life, for some at least. Then we have death, the apparent opposite of life. Yet one can not exist without the other. Best encapsulated in the Taoist’s ying-yang symbol.
What I am indicating is that there is something beyond life and death, a third force that encircles and balances the opposites. It is always present, and has always existed. What is it? Is it worthy of worship? Can one value it? Or is it beyond our conceptual apparatus?
Something which we can not name and give form to with words, or anything else for that matter, except perhaps by employing some great symbol or other. Something we cannot grasp with logic and leaves us looking up at the stars in awe. Our feeble minds unable to grasp the enormity and magnificence of the space those stars shine in.
Why not call it Life (ie with a capital ‘L’), Lokesh?
Which conceives forms of life, eg us, that are animated by the vital energy, ‘Chi’…
All three forming an extraordinary system, distinct but not separate from each other.
Perhaps our (ie the human race’s) problem is that it’s lost touch with Life – (and even, in many cases, with ‘Chi’)?
But isn’t that what we’re all supposedly up to, to somehow get back to Life itself – to bring us back to Life, as it were..?
Once we realise this separation, alienation from our very Source, then there’s really no going back, is there? Unless one prefers to be, er, ‘normal’, which, even if we’ve had the slightest glimpse of ‘Something Greater’, would be tantamount to spiritual suicide…
In this respect, no matter our person-al differences, we’re all seekers in the same boat, I guess.
As I see it, one of man’s greatest tragedies is losing contact with Nature. I sit on the rocks by the sea and watch tourists stumbling around. City dwellers unused to uneven ground. Burnt, bloated bodies lying on the beach, in the noonday sun, their postures ruined by a lifetime of bad habits. Little kids eating bags of processed food that their uneducated parents feed them to keep them quiet. The list goes on…
To be normal these days means to be sick.
Couldn’t agree more. Some say Nature is a reflection of our essential nature, which somehow seems about right.
I referred to the whole three weeks of the Mystic Rose Meditation, Lokesh, three hours daily, a very challenging process at any age.
Got it, Madhu. Never participated myself. My wife has done it twice and found it worthwhile.
yes, very worthwhile , Lokesh, happy you can hear that from your wife too.
in my case, attending it couple of times, i confess , i remember having been still dependent on feeling good with the atmosphere and energy field of meditation leader/ing too – so – it has also been besides the deep experience also an insight again, that choicelessness from my part is surely not a stabilized.
right now – i am still ´hooked´may you last ´PS´about e v o l u t i o n a r y
processes – and words of response didn ´t come yet.
But thank you for your ´PS´
and have a nice day with ´natural´friends, be they human, be they rocks and plants and smells of THIS !
(the people you yesterday saw – i am seeing everyday, when i leave the house,
and it was touching me what you posted about that, and that pain of seeing, what that is ..)
Madhu