There has been much dispute on this. Here is the answer of a previous Osho disicple, a contemporary of the Editors, and also someone who many now take to be “enlightened”.
Osho’s Contribution
Osho is unusual in several ways. His reading and understanding encompass the essential themes of all the significant contributions to the science of alchemy. His knowledge is vast.
Second, he breathes new life into old teachings and articulates them with renewed eloquence.
Third, he cuts through the spiritual afflictions of serious-ness and hypocrisy with insight, intelligence and, above all, humour.
Fourth, he has the courage of a lion and confronts human unconsciousness everywhere without regard for the consequences.
Fifth, he values and respects the goddess, and is the first Indian master to fully respect women.
Sixth, he offers powerful approaches for transformation based on Shiva’s quintessential meditation techniques, the 112 methods of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.
Seventh, he synthesizes the vital essence of Eastern and Western traditions into a holistic, playful and effective system of spiritual transformation.
Osho’s teaching of Zorba the Buddha is a synthesis of the ancient esoteric knowledge of the East and modern Western approaches. His work is an invaluable and significant contribution to “Unity”
Maitreya
Just saw the first page of Mr. Maitraya´s site.
A very big caption about his book, that is fine, but a big boasting also..this is bit too much for any sensible person´s taste-
Unity – The Dawn of Conscious Civilization
by Maitreya Ishwara
The book of the millennium for the buddhas of the new dawn
Secondly, i always doubt the intentions of those western “mystics”, who use OM symbol to promote their product.
If you are courageous to drop the cross, why to hang with the borrowed symbol from a different culture and civilization..but i know, in a single brand market of the west, carrying OM gives a bit of PUSH UP!
Did you know him Parmartha?
A good piece by Maitreya. Here are a few responses:
“1. Osho is unusual in several ways. His reading and understanding encompass the essential themes of all the significant contributions to the science of alchemy. His knowledge is vast.”
Agree, but only partially. There is no evidence that Osho understood anything about the science of alchemy, beyond a rudimentary general sense. To grasp alchemy in its esoteric teachings one has to read Evola, Burkhardt, Eliade, Parcelsus, Agrippa, etc. Osho never talked about these guys (someone please correct me if I’m wrong there). Osho was a generalist, not an esoteric specialist. “Alchemy” gets used as some sort of broad definition of spirituality, but in fact it is a very specific inner art, with an extended history, much like Tantra.
“2. Second, he breathes new life into old teachings and articulates them with renewed eloquence.”
Agreed, but again, only very generally.
“3. Third, he cuts through the spiritual afflictions of serious-ness and hypocrisy with insight, intelligence and, above all, humour.”
Agreed.
“4. Fourth, he has the courage of a lion and confronts human unconsciousness everywhere without regard for the consequences.”
Agreed about the “courage of a lion” part, but was this lack of “regard for the consequences” taken too far? That was the main argument I made in my book ‘Magi’, in that Sheela & Co.’s mis-adventures in Oregon were partly a reflection of Osho’s disposition. That is, his brazen flaunting of conventions, and need to steamroll whatever was in his way, was reflected, in a much cruder and degraded way, in Sheela’s character/actions. To me it’s an open question.
“5. Fifth, he values and respects the goddess, and is the first Indian master to fully respect women.”
This is very dubious. There have been many other Indian gurus who have “respected women”. Of course, India, as much as any other culture, is a nation of misogynistic tendencies in the religion domain — no one would argue that — but to suggest that Osho was the only one to respect women is stretching bias to the breaking point. (Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, and Dayananda Saraswati being three examples of respected gurus who showed no evidence of mistreating women, unless I’ve missed something, and doubtless there are many more).
“6. Sixth, he offers powerful approaches for transformation based on Shiva’s quintessential meditation techniques, the 112 methods of the Vigyan Bhairav Tantra.”
I think that Osho’s meditation techniques are simplified and Westernized methods good for neurotic Westerners (us), but I don’t think he devised 112 methods as some sort of analogue to Vigyan Bhairav Tantra. Far as I know he simply gave a series of lectures on Vigran Bhairav Tantra, re-interpreting them for modern men and women.
“7. Seventh, he synthesizes the vital essence of Eastern and Western traditions into a holistic, playful and effective system of spiritual transformation.”
Agreed. Osho’s strength was in being a master-syncretist, and in being attuned to the Zeitgeist of his era.
Maitraya! An old friend from Poona One. Of course he’d probably say that a new being has been born, who has nothing to do with who he was…Baskar.
Last time I saw him he had a very powerful aura of meditation around him. I think very few of his contemporaries take his enlightenment trip seriously. He gets a few people to meditate..that’s cool in my books.
I had a little bet with myself that you would do a bit of name dropping and claim to know this guy.
LMAO.
If I had lost I had to eat humble pie and apologise. No chance. Ha. Ha. Ha!!!!
Unlike Lokesh I could not say I knew Maitreya (Baskar) in Pune one. I knew who he was, but he certainly had a mixed reputation at that time.
I did know him circa 1999/2001 when he used to give satsangs in the library in Hampstead!, London, and oddly enough in a nice setting on the banks of the Poona river in 2000.
Paritsoh and I used to go to his satsangs there and in Poona. The latter felt quite Biblical.
As you know I am sceptical of the whole enlightenment paradigm but happy to say that “sitting” with Maitreya was moving, and stilled my type of mind ! So in that way it was an echo for me of sitting with Osho.
I like the way that he has not stayed in the advaita mode, though he reckons he got enlightened through that path. His small communal experiments have been and are experientially based, and include many of Osho’s techniques without dressing them up, and with full acknowledgement which I respect.
He seems to have many enemies. As Osho also had many enemies. I think that those who judge should at least experience his presence themselves. He certainly has not lived an “impeccable” moral life and is similar to Osho his Master in this way. As I have said elsewhere “behaviour” is not integral to a so-called enlightened state. Andrew Cohen claims it is, but having sat with him also, I know who I would choose!
I was in the town. Quite pleasant weekend and spring feeling in the air. City was full with people in their best clothes and youthful energy.
Not a good sign for those Indian based spiritualists who think west is dying from the burden of melancholy, it needs some does of meditation.
I do some survival work with an ex. sannyas community created by nice and loving man Bhaskar. His community of 12,15 people treat him as enlightened, and has a suitable name for him, “Fil”(friend in light).
Every second month he give series of three talks, his people fix the billboards on all tram stations. In a city of two hundred thousand people, 10, 12 people surely turn up for the meditative evening, when most of the others are before television or in Sushi bars(It is chic to be there).
I was suppose to go to get my weekly wage, but postponed; as today there is a talk, something like ” What the world needs urgently, power of the feminine energy”.
Parmartha, you are welcome to Freiburg for a week end, if you like to have someone who arranges the atmosphere for stillness of the mind!
Come on Shantam. This is just bullshit. If you want to discuss Maitreya, then you need to give him a chance and sit with him. You live in Germany sometimes dont you. Go with an open mind, dont prejudge..
Oh..I did not realize this was a new thread.
The last contact that I had with Maitreya was by e-mail a couple of years back. I asked him how he saw Osho in retrospect. His response was positive and sensible, and I appreciated it.
Now Maitreya is in the guru business himself it certainly does not do him any harm to sing Osho’s praises. This also ties in with what he said to me personally about Osho, whch kind of ran along the lines of remembering Osho for all the good things he did and said. Fair enough. Personally, I like to have a more all-encompassing vision of Osho that includes all the bullshit that he pulled as well. Of course it has to be taken into account that I am not enlightened and Maitreya claims to be and that is why we see things the way we do.
Maitrya concludes, ‘His work is an invaluable and significant contribution to “Unity”’
It’s that old oneness number again. You know, the one that says unity is so much more superior than diversity. Isn’ that a judgement?
Both fits within the “Self”, Pantheisms same as Monotheisms.
Lokesh,
I’d like to thank you for that previous thread. There were cerainly a lot of responses. It did get a little bit heated but we had some laughs. Your comment about unity, diversity and judgement is interesting.
It reminded me of the polytheist/monotheist debate. Today we have the judgement of many extreme monotheists who are intolerant. We know that in every American hotel room there is an Apocalypse – Gideon’s Bible. I think that Homer’s Odyssey would be better at those hotel bedsides. Was there a battle between literalists in Oregon? Literalism is monotheistic and dogmatic. Osho did say that those in the State of Oregon who are against me are no different from those who are for me. This was on 60 Minutes with Jeff McMullen. One could probably download the interview. These two had a few laughs and Osho said he might one day move to Australia but not immediately. Osho wasn’t a crude literalist. Did some of us become lemmings? Wasn’t his game to constantly breakdown how literal we could become? As you’ve pointed out painful mistakes were made. To what extent he was responsible I don’t know. I’ve always lent to a multiplicity of approaches as opposed to crude fundamentalism of any sort. One only has to look at the battles between crude extremists of any persuasion to feel disgust. In a book I’ve just been reading on Iranian poetry it is pointed out that up to 80% are not strong practising Muslims and try to turn a blind eye to the regime. Try telling that to some. Perhaps literalism has become our real disease and we could do with a some rampant polytheism? A loosening up of our projections? A bit more poetry and music.
For me Osho helped me see through some of my literalisms and become a bit more open. The institution around him could promote literalism but in the end sannyas fragmented and we have many different sites and takes on Osho which is healthy. This site allows you not to be so literal and play around a bit.
parmartha, it is not my intention to down grade anybody or sing the praise for somebody else. I just mentioned Bhaskar, as he is also a Poona One sannyasin (who knows you guys from that time have seen him), to make this thread bit more juicy to bring other players also In.
Here is the web site…
http://www.uma-akademie.de
its good to see / hear a lion roaring . . . in that roar I see & hear a part of me
Sannyasins and ex. Sannyasins can claim to have a unique world record. More enlightend disciples compared to any other group or cult in the ratio of 1 to 10,000.
I wonder, why the world is not taking notice, at least not more than Santa Banta jokes!
99 % adicted to the profane. If you ask for respect of the profane, you need magic tricks
And I wonder who compiled the statistics Shree Shantam is referring to. I suspect it was the invisible man.
Like Teertha, I am not at all sure of this fifth proposition which Maitryea advances.
“Fifth, he values and respects the goddess, and is the first Indian master to fully respect women.”
People are people. It’s much better to simply treat people with skills as the best for any given job. Osho did by the way have a male Secretary before Laxmi, pre, 1970.
The whole culture of “moms” which totally dominated the Ranch and was Sheela’s idea is totally disempowering for both men and women. To even begin moving towards the other shore one needs to be “mature” in the ordinary sense. No need for “moms” everywhere, they are for infants.
Reverse discrimination as commune members such as myself experienced it between 1977 and 1985 was a mistake, it disempowered people with good skills. particularly administrative and executive skills, and ended up with people filling those jobs solely on grounds of gender.
Just a small contribution to your musings. Only that.
This is the first commune in the whole world which is not in any way parasitical. Here everybody is doing everything. In fact, there is so much movement — professors become plumbers. One day you see the
professor teaching in the university and another day you find him plumbing. And you are surprised — what has happened? He says, “I got bored teaching, teaching, teaching. I am on holiday from teaching, and plumbing is beautiful.”
Osho.
From the False to the Truth
Chapter #29
Chapter title: Freedom from blind biology
John Godfrey Saxe’s ( 1816-1887) version of the famous Indian legend,
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approach’d the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!”
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, -”Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!”
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a snake!”
The Fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he,
“‘Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!”
The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!”
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a rope!”
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!
MORAL.
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
The feminine-bias at the Ranch was almost as bad as the chapter in Eckhart Tolle’s new age treatise “The Power of Now” that is titled “Why Women are Closer to Enlightenment”. What interested me was to note the effect it all had on the men. Most men at the Ranch seemed caught in some sort of weird feminization of their masculine core. It was a piece I didn’t begin to see/understand more clearly until years later when I participated in a non-sannyasin men’s growth seminar.
That said, Osho’s general effort to bring balance to the gender issue, in the context of a radical spirituality, can only be appreciated. It’s the split between he and Sheela, and all that that represented on psychological, and even mythic/archetypal levels, that is endless grounds for study as a means to understanding our own internal divisions.
Gurdjieff taught that people need to deeply embrace their own gender before they can hope to transcend it into some sort of higher consciousness — a man must first be a man before he can become awakened, a woman must first be a woman — and I think Osho came to that position more so in Poona II, especially when those ‘men’s/women’s liberation’ groups were introduced. The Ranch was a radical experiment in swinging far into the feminine polarity, and that included both light/dark aspects of that polarity. We saw the result. It was not that of ‘alchemy’ gone right, but rather of an improper mix of chemicals and subsequent explosion.
Well put, Shree Shantam.
Lokesh, i am from that part of India where every family is affiliated to some guru, some religious movement. In my personal surroundings of around 500 families, i am the only one, the spoiled one who went to “Acharya Rajneesh”, all others are with more stable and respected spiritual movements.
It is just recently that all the car makers from the west are opening their show rooms in every town and city, before that there were only religious sects aquiring acres of high way lands or creating their Satsang halls with pure white marble.
And without doubt, they serve their purpose, they provide shelter to the wounded hearts and senstive souls who cannot make big in the competetive and ruthless world of power politics.
These people are my source. For example, sannyasins will make too much hoo halla about meditation, whereas people involved in the Braham kumari (BK) movement do much more meditation and live very Pure (Satvik) life. Only when they speak about their simple beliefs, i feel like yawning otherwise their presence, their way of life, their aura speaks much more than words can describe.
These are the people, i can leave treasures behind and be sure, everything will be given back. Even the best from their creed, will not speak about their personal enlightenment but only of Baba´s…
May be they are not too ambitious like their counter parts from the west, where every degree must be achieved in a certain time frame. Enlightenment has become just a bogus degree..something like 10 million dollar note from Zimbabwe!
Traditionalism is a big drag on the path to….
By being a drag and a pet slave of some father figure as people in India usually are,you can only have some ‘peaceful’ moments with your meditation but beyond that it’s a bit difficult.
You need to have the balls to live the life you want it.
I think osho was visionary in this sense,he saw it that there are millions who become yes-man but their condition is just like a cow,very serene but very boring and static.
Compared to that people who start living at the edge first have to stand against the society,that standing against reflects on your mind inside which is converted inside your mind to be a fight between all irrational archetype which are governing your life.If you get rid of them first then it’s an open field after that .
I respect all claims to enlightenment , why one day i hope me and Parmartha will share a pint on Dharmens expense account…. still that might take longer than enlightenment…
Anyway i’ve packed my bags and am off to Bhaskars to feel the energy…be reduced to heart spaces unheard of before and to eye up the angelic looking girls….all in the cause of course…
actually out of the worlds girls , then I’d say sannyasin babes for all their head trips were the equivalent of nectar of the gods… my thanks to them for providing me with the desire to follow enlightened truths way past midnight….
i call it my version of sitting at the feet.. except it wasn’t the feet…or at…
do the words ‘ git one sad old i’m ‘ trigger some desire to re-arrange my reality… could we have a shagyasnews classified for people who keep wanting to lose their way on the path deliberately.
don’t tell me i’ll only be manipulated and complain bitterly afterwards……some people never learn eh… lost cause an’ all..
not to lose track of the last and more interesting thread.
can we say that this maitreya`s predictions of the end of the world in 2000 and of the bio-terror attacks in europe in 2006 were more lies (in the tradition of that long line of frauds, literary and otherwise that teertha mentioned),designed to help us ignorant and lost souls to the truth?
another dose pseudologica fantastica for the benefit of humanity?
more meditative mythomania?
cathartic compulsive lying?
a cocktail of confabulations in the service of cosmic consciousness?
or just good old fashioned total bollocks?
I don’t know what Maitreya said on that term, he may hope that’s a way of making people alert. Or he works for the same Lodge (kidding!). Have done little research, because of these people Teertha alludes in the last thread. 80% of these people have been or are organised Freemasons.
Often I have said to friends, the new New Age Meditators are bent within Ideas of Ideals of an Enlightenment which keeps them bent. At the same time our world is being abused for a contruct that they called in Versailles “Voelkerbund”, League of Nations. Behind this are revealed the Dirty Interests planing further development. But not for Humanity, they are the Creators of Chaos and Destruction. With wrong Meditation they bent many intelligent people. Not Osho, he always tried but needed to keep many things back, otherwise he would be only a conspiracy theoretician, and his goal was Meditation, to bring it to the West, maybe I am wrong in that. But it takes time and understanding. At the same time they keep on going, all the negative and wars are a product of the Fr..m…. together with Monar…. and they will not stop. These people will continue with it, birching the Humanity, because of their hate. Their hatred is rooted within the knowing, that all their wealth is not theirs, it is of the people they hate for it, because it hurts so much seeing not being the gods on earth.
But, it does not mean that Meditation is a fiction. Meditating into the blue, what for many seems to be Meditation. But Meditation begins with the realized “Self”, all before is a kind of preparation. For that all the Intelligence of Mind is needet. We should create our world commune on the basis of our true “Self”, on what is not a fiction. Within the Gold of Varuna. “Self is poetic mechanic”.
Sorry, for the writing mistakes
Arpana, what happened to that beautiful commune, Osho was always in favour of?
Trains are always full, one needs to make an advance booking for a false to the truth journey. Question is whether the trains come back empty…Do all the passangers get swallowed by the figures in Europa Park or Disney land of truth!
Seems like, return journey is free of cost. Who would not like to avail such facility!
Shantam I dont understand what you are saying, are asking me.
I can’t tell if you are having a go at me, or are just making a remark.
Arpana, when you paste Osho´s quotation about His commune, is it not common sense to ask, what happened with that commune?
Last year I was introduced to a young couple who had taken sannyas the previous year and spent three months at the ashram.
They were as delighted, loved the place as much as those of us who dived in when we were required to wear the mala and red clothes and Osho was called Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Were as thrilled by Osho and sannyas as we were then.
Was really uplifting.
n
.
Arpana, thanks for your musing.
Actually therapists who were famous before and outside of sannyas, like Paul Lowe and Micheal Barnett, almost all actually operated as therapists in the Pune one and Ranch communes. So they did not become plumbers and carpenters as Osho implied in your quote. In my view this was a mistake, especially for their growth!
There were in Sheela’s time a few who were called Papas…. I was one in Hamburg, known as the DiscoPapa cos I ran the 2 discos there for a while. The discos made a lot of money for the Ranch, and were well run. But Moms and Papas….. just a load of bullshit to me, then and now. Real growth has to be outside that sort of paradigm.
I find it worth remarking that whilst the word “commune” has been bandied about by sannyasins ever since, most have chosen to avoid such places. Communes are often the resort of those who cannot stand on their own two feet!
Parmartha.
You summed it up perfectly when you remarked about all these Zen koans, including the Koan of did he mean these things to be so, or were they a mistake.
We shall never know.
The next bit is a caveat. Not aimed at you beloved moderator.
(I dont want this remark to be interpreted as anything more than something very low key. I haven’t done any research. I dont intend the remark to be definitive, the final word etc. Just tossing it into the mix in a sociable way, as you do, or not. I wont have a hissy fit if someone dares to say anything different, although I suppose I might, but then again I probably wont. (._.)
I recall Osho saying years ago, to me, and others I assume, a remark which I heard as ‘drop your ideals. T hats why you are so dissatisfied’, (Paraphrase.) but I’ve never really got past idealism,. just become more pragmatic as well, but whenever I recall him saying that I want to charge into his room and say,
‘That’s a bit rich coming from you Osho Bhagwan Shree. Could you be any more idealistic if you tried?’
I seem to recall Lowe worked repairing typewriters at the ranch, which doesn’t disprove the general rule. ( I heard I should say. )
addendum.
Little lesson for you their Shantam.
Bet you were a fuckin’ great disco papa. *(^O^)*
Paul Lowe, (group leader Teertha) did have his feathers ruffled a bit in the Ranch period and did work in other places, but mainly still a group leader as far as my memory goes. But happy to be corrected if anyone knows more.
Patricia Lowe (Punam) his wife, was the Co-ordiantor of Medina and seemed happy in that role for four years. In 1984 Festival she was “retained” on the Ranch by Sheela, and not allowed to return to Medina. She worked on a pipe crew on the Ranch for a month or two, but then left the communes and returned to life in London….
Always thought that ironic as she was fond herself of taking peoples’ egos down a peg or two by giving them manual work or whatever in Medina…
This next is unadulterated gossip.
I’m not repeating this to you and fooling myself that in some ways this will raise your consciousness
A couple of times I heard, picked up remarks on the lines of, well say what you will about Sheela, at least she brought that ******* *** Poonam down a peg or two.
Swam.
You will recall the phrase, ‘say yes to everything’
Possibly where we fell on the spectrum, cant say no to anything, cant say yes to anything, determines, determined how we dealt with what goes on, went on.
The point is to eventually be able to draw appropriate lines in the sand, which means using appropriate yes, and appropriate no euphemisms, until forced to use the N –O word.
(@_@)
Not sure of your drift, Arpana.
But the phrase “just say yes” indeed was a commune sannyasin phrase, and also outside the communes, at that time, 81 to 85.
I can remember singing along to it, and did not feel unhappy doing so at the time!
But clearly I and many others were mistaken. Guess one has to pass through such a mistake to recognise it later. I have heard it argued that that was Osho’s intention.
- Disco Papa, well a good experience in some ways for me – guess I may not have ever done such a job had I just followed up doing a conventional career after LSE.
But there was a fault line – basically the whole structure of Mamas and Papas infantilised those who worked under you, and robbed them of initiative, which is not the way I prefer to work, or even then preferred to work. The secret of really good leadership is delegation and giving those so-called under you, freedom of initiative.
The old communes, and basically much of ordinary working life is based on the psychology of control… in trade union terms – bullying of one sort or another!!
One of the things that confused me over the bullying, the agression of those years, and ever on, was, I realise now, my expectations, that meditators, spiritual people wouldn’t behave like that, and the confusion is they were no worse than many I had come across in my life up until then; which is where the cant say yes, cant say no spectrum comes in.
I really did learn to set boundaries, and I came to see, in hindsight. ( Thirteen schools probably played a part in that. ) I couldn’t say no, and I have learned to say no and yes appropriately, and to me that is connected to Osho and sannyas, situations I found myself in, around sannyasins and not sannyasins, situations i would not have got into if not for Osho. You it worked for me. Ain’t been easy but it worked for me.
Some people couldn’t say yes. Some couldn’t say no. Those who couldn’t say yes abused, bullied those who couldn’t say no. Some of those who couldn’t say no ran away, and are still complaining and feeling vengeful and blaming Osho because of what happened. Some of those who couldn’t say no learned to do that, and put some of the bullying no sayers in their place. Some of those no sayers ran away and are still caterwauling, whining and tripping about Osho and sannyas as if they were victims, because they got shot down by people who wouldn’t put up with them, and others who were learning to say no appropriately. Osho sannyas is an opportunity not a panacea.
Roman thanks for that comment.Is an healing to read it