Satchit reveals a profound early inner opening through reading the first words of an Osho book…
One of my first contacts with Bhagwan, as he called himself in those times, was a book a sannyasin Ma gave me as a present, with the title: ‘The Book of the Secrets’, Volume 5.
The first sentence in this book was:
“Life is not a problem but a mystery.”
Reading this, something happened: the feeling that he was saying exactly what I thought. Maybe he could express himself a little better than me, that was all.
Later I understood that it was not something in the words, it was an energy that opened inside me, a transmission.
It was a kind of resonance.
At that time I lived in a communal house with friends and my opinion was: maybe the others need a Guru, but certainly not me.
But surprisingly it was me who did fall in love with the Master.
So there was no seeking for me, it simply happened.
If I seek something, then I have a problem that needs to be solved. But there is no problem.
Life it beautiful as it is.
So in Osho you found someone who gave expression to what you felt. That’s very beautiful, Satchit.
I was thinking this morning, perhaps the discourses that Osho gave came from a different place, a kind of Osho energy, which may have been quite different from the man Osho. It’s an idea that arose out of a sort of intuition, but it gels with the fact that Osho seemed to be different people in private and in public.
Yes, this is possible, NP.
In his discourses he could have been the instrument for
divine energy and in private was still some ego working.
Maybe, says my intuition.
There is another intuition coming:
Maybe the discourses part was the Buddha part.
And the private part was the Zorba part.
Remember Zorba the Buddha!
Not an absurd idea at all.
After a few months of little to no spirituality, the last few weeks things have been picking up. I’ve been re-reading Eckhart Tolle’s book ‘A New Earth’ and finding it still has things to teach me.
What did Tolle teach you?
For a change, another Guru is a good idea.
Tolle talks a lot about the dysfunctional patterns of the mind. It’s interesting because if you say you understand the mind you must also understand the dysfunction within it…
His main teaching is about awareness, Being and Presence, and he says that once you start looking beyond the egoic patterns of the mind that are the source of dysfunction, that you can get in touch with living in awareness.
I think there is not so much difference between the teaching of Tolle and the teaching of Osho.
Here is something about ego.
Special at 3:27.
https://youtu.be/NumTAjoJnDI?si=vur1t2s-eDIqvBEs
https://ashramsofindia.com/maps/
Still on the road?
Haha, no, I am strictly an armchair voyager these days as I have some day-to-day responsibilities looking after an elderly, ill and recovering family member. Also I don’t really feel drawn to another ashram or another cult.
I feel that if a spiritual teacher’s teaching cannot be summed up in one reasonable-sized book or documentary, he is probably not worth listening to. And not all of those who do that are in fact worth the time.
Tolle emphasises joy through awareness. That is a beautiful path, there are many things you can let go of along the way.
I came across an interesting saying attributed to a Zen master: “One can be enlightened and yet be an asshole.” It seems that enlightenment doesn’t change all the characteristics of the person’s personality, and that there is as much diversity in the enlightened as there is in normal people.
So if you are lucky enough to meet an enlightened person, it’s one thing to recognise them, and another to assess their personality. Especially if like Osho they choose to hide certain things from view.
Listen up, this ain’t your mama’s meditation homie…
Enlightened asshole is the thesis,
If a Guru’s spreading faeces!
Yo, check it, they call me Zen G,
Spittin’ truth bombs in a Ben Z
Got Osho on the dash, with enlighten-Minted cash
But wait up, ain’t no halos, just shit flyin fast
Cuz that Zen master said it best,
Put your mind to the test:
“You can be woke as fuck,
You’ve seen the light
But still be an enlightened Asshole
Day and night!”
See, y’all thinkin’ enlightenment’s a Disney flick with flowers
With unicorns ’n heart emojis ’n rainbow showers
Nah, it’s a battlefield, ego’s on the ropes
You might reach the summit, then you’re down on the slopes
We idolize these gurus, put ‘em on a pedestal high
Expect ‘em to be perfect, then wonder why they lie
They fully human, a flawed twisted blend
Like Osho in his Rollers, pretendin’ to transcend.
He dropped some truthful bangers, with some soulful namaste
But he went kinda cray cray, in a lot of ways.
Controversy his middle name, mystique his disguise
Hid the man behind the guru, right before our eyes.
He had the charisma, the following was vast,
But behind the velvet curtain, shadows from the past.
Built a cult of personality, it was doomed to fail
Hid the flaws in the applause, behind a mystic veil.
Enlightenment ain’t a magic wand, “poof!”, then you’re a saint
It’s a fuckin’ process, dealin’ with what you ain’t
Embrace the journey, the mess, the grace
Enlightened assholes, welcome to the human race.
We all imperfect, striving for something more,
With wolves for the sheep at the spiritual store.
Next time you’re seekin’ wisdom, from some enlightened dude
Don’t just swallow the kool-aid, check his attitude.
Is he preachin’ liberation, while livin’ in excess?
Is he talkin’ ’bout compassion, while gettin people stressed?
Projectin all our fantasies, on a spiritual charade.
Enlightenment ain’t a bug-free software update
Gotta sharpen up the third eye, trust your own gut
Check yourself, before you wreck yourself, use your nut,
Find your own truth, not just served up on a plate
Be a GPS unto yourself instead of blind faith
So when you see a guru, with an ego out of control
Remember what the Zen guy said, “he’s just an enlightened asshole”.
Word up, Zen G out, peace.
“Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration.
I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced.
I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, of adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet.
This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable.”
(William Shatner, actor)
“I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death.”
A powerful experience indeed, and who can argue that this is our physical home, a simply magnificently wonderful place? Although the shocking confrontation with the reality of death of the body (itself “a tiny oasis of life”) is perhaps not surprising, even overdue, at the age of 90, especially after a lifetime of apparently looking far outward for “adventures” rather than deep within.
As for describing the universe as “an immensity of death”, I hear that cutting-edge science is discovering that the universe is in fact very much alive, far from being just ‘dead space’. But although these findings are mind-blowing, knowing this isn’t going to help the likes of William Shatner or us until we realise that we are Life itself, that the forms of life are mortal, not our essence. Or so I’m told….
If you’re a fan of science fiction it can be easy to be sucked into the belief that eventually we will colonise the Solar System and other star systems…there are so many books, tv series and movies that tell these stories that it is tempting to take it as some form of proof of its inevitability.
But really we are not making much progress. Rockets are still the dominant form of transport to orbit, and beyond a few robot explorers there have not yet been any significant forays into the outer Solar System. The propulsion technology just isn’t there, and there isn’t much reason to be hopeful on this front.
So perhaps we should tell stories of a different kind of future, one where we stay on this planet and instead our civilisation gets old. What if we have a thousand years of books and movies to choose from, instead of just two hundred? What will AI look like in a thousand years? What will our culture look like, shaped by that?
Seems that way, NP, although Barry Long said that the human race is preparing to leave “the dying planet Earth” although this will happen “in epochal time”, ie not anytime soon. And he explained UFOs by saying that they’re piloted by “us in another time”, travelling faster than the speed of light. Something to ponder on a Saturday night, if there’s nothing much on….
The “dying planet Earth”, hmm…It seems to me that life on this planet has gone through multiple ages, and that after humans have been wiped out by disease, nuclear war or an asteroid strike, the Earth will recover and it will just be the seventh mass extinction event in the planet’s history.
As far as UFOs are concerned, they might well be humans from another time or dimension. Now that we know that matter is intelligent, perhaps there are ways the shamans can persuade it to form orbs of fast-travelling substance or even light.
Have you ever seen the film ‘Gattaca’? It’s a fascinating story about a society in which people’s destiny is determined at birth by their genetic make-up. It makes you wonder whether a society like that is likely, it is ultimately a meritocracy and in fact where we seem to be heading is a mix of plutocracy and idiocracy.
Some meditators or Satsang-Sitters have gone mad with all kind of esoteric bullshit and conspiracy crap. Why?
Instead of finding clear truth the need seems to be to provide interesting substitutes.
Sannyas is not immune to this kind of sharing, but Osho was…if you almost forget his old works, where he may have wanted to attract late hippies and Deadheads
I have been thinking today on what it means to be sane. I think that if you know what is of benefit to yourself, and what is of benefit to your fellow humans, animals and even plants, and handle in accordance with that, then you can call yourself sane.