OSHO on Truth, Awareness and Enlightenment - Page 82

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 07:57 AM

Quote:

There is something ahead; something more has to happen. Something HAS happened, but only partially. Look back and you find the pig contented; look ahead, and you see Buddhas contented. You can become a Buddha! A Buddha means one who is conscious and contented. The pig is one who is unconscious and contented. And the man is just between the two: a little bit conscious, just a little bit. Conscious enough to be aware of the pain of life and the misery and the suffering, but not conscious enough to be aware of the ecstasies that life makes available.

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 08:06 AM

Nature has a beautiful arrangement. - YouTube

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 08:34 AM

(The interview was taken by Swami Aatmo Neerav on Osho’s Mahaparinirvana day on 19th January)
from sannyasworld.com

18 years have passed since Osho left his body and much has changed inside, outside and around the sannyas world. The wild dance of his energy, the wisdom in his words and the flight of his movement is reaching many and is taking its pace in acceleration. We sat down and discussed the controversies, the happenings, the poignant moments of this movement of the new man with Swami Anand Arrun, an old disciple. Here are his words.

What is the difference between Nirvana and Mahaparinirvana?

When a person attains nirvana or enlightenment he becomes free but remains in the body due to his past karmas and sanskaras. After a master attains nirvana he works for the world and makes connection with the people before dropping the body or mahaparinirvana. At the same time a part of his energy is also engaged in maintaining the body and body related relationship and work. Before mahaparinirvana, ultimate freedom is not possible because we remain confined or centered with the body. Osho has mentioned that remaining in the body was an imprisonment for him and he sometimes felt suffocated.

Once the master drops his physical body his energy becomes totally free and available for a disciple. His consciousness becomes one with the existence and then only he becomes all powerful and universal in true sense. When Osho was in physical body it was a great task for us to reach him, in Rajneeshpuram it was very difficult for the Asian disciples to get the visa and to arrange for the travelling expense. But now you don't have to travel to any specific place to come in contact with him. You just have to close your eyes and remember him with love and trust and he will be available anywhere you pray for his presence. This is the difference.

Its almost two decades since Osho left his body and the work has still continued. Do you see any difference?

Yes there are differences. Superficial people who were connected only with his words and his physical body thought that the movement was over. They started searching for another master and dropped sannyas. When I travel in the west people are surprised when I talk about Osho in present tense. People ask me, "Movement is still alive in Nepal? Do you still wear mala? Do you still have commune? Is sannyas still happening like the old days? We thought it was finished." For those who thought that his physical reality is the only reality, his physical absence has made a difference.

But for us who trust in him and his energy it has become easier to contact him. Before when he was in Pune, I used to visit him three times in a year.

But you couldn't go near Osho because of the crowd. In Pune II, darshans or interviews were not possible and we saw him only during the lectures. We could only send him letters. So for us he has come closer after dropping the body. It has become easier for him also. When he was in the body then also he was travelling out of the body to help his disciples but only for a short period because you can't travel out of the body for a long time. A lot of care had to be taken because the temperature of the body should remain the same when you leave and re-enter the body. That's why his room was on air condition between 18-20 degrees centigrade all the time. Before starting sannyas Osho preferred to remain in open air but after sannyas he had to confine himself to air condition. That's why a yogi moves to the Himalayas because the temperature there always remains the same. It's cold there and prevents the body from decaying.

So these are esoteric facts which are difficult for general people to understand and spiritually I am not permitted to go in details. But I can tell you that after Osho dropped his body he has become more active, more available and his work has accelerated. So spiritually we have not lost anything.

The leading Osho communes don't seem to be in harmony with each other each claiming that they are doing the right Osho work. What is your view on this?

It is natural. It always happens when the master leaves his body. When Buddha left his body his disciples immediately divided into 36 sects even though Buddha had already declared his successors. But in Osho's case Osho did not declare any succesors. He didn't do that for certain reasons. So there is no central figure and unfortunately the most important ashram, The Pune Ashram (currently known as Osho Meditation Resort) is being managed by efficient resort managers who don’t care about spirituality. They created as much confusion as possible about sannyas, mala or calling yourself ma or swami.

They instructed meditation centres not to hang Osho pictures or play Osho songs. So when such instructions came from the "headquarters" it created much confusion around the world. A lot of Osho disciples dropped sannyas and went to other masters and most of the centres got closed in the West.

The remaining centre leaders and therapists also started giving their own instructions. Therapists started claiming themselves as enlightened and real Osho succesors and started inventing their own therapies which were not even approved by Osho. In India also a new sect Osho Dhara came up and other centre leaders also started giving their interpretations. When there is no guidance, no central figure to give you guidelines this happens.

This is natural and I am not surprised.

Recently the American court made a decision against the Osho International Foundation suspending their hold over the word Osho as their business trademark. Please comment.

This is a rather late decision. It should have come much earlier. Because of the confusion created by the management of Pune resort, uselessly for ten years sannyasins had to fight a court case. Pune resort also spent a lot of money to protect their trademark and Sw. Atul and sannyasins also spent a lot of energy and money to make Osho free. So a lot of money and energy was wasted in something which was useless.

Right hand had to fight with the Left hand and the energy which could have been put into Osho work was wasted in fighting. It was a nonsense decision to create Osho as a business trademark and have copyright over it. But thank god that truth and justice has prevailed and Osho is free from this trademark. All over the world people are happy except for a few managers who want to make a business out of Osho. This is a good decision.

There are a few controversies attached with your name. One is that you claim that you are enlightened.

I am only a seeker on the path and I am honored to be his disciple. And I don’t need any other adjective other than that. I have never claimed that I am enlightened. In 1984 Osho declared few people as enlightened, Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas. My name was also declared as a Bodhisattva and Acharya he said that all his Boddhisattvas will become enlightened in this life and they will not have to take another life. And I am one of the oldest centre leader. So I have all the ingredients to declare myself enlightened.

But I have never said that I am enlightened. People are with me since a long time and nobody can quote me say that anywhere. I am against anybody who's making this claim because I know many of my friends who have declared themselves enlightened have done it because of some inferiority/superiority complex or because of impatience. They cannot wait.

All of us will become enlightened, we are on the path and I can wait. And when the journey is so beautiful what is the need to claim that I have achieved to the goal. So these people who are making this allegation on me, maybe they think that I am enlightened.

Are you a self-proclaimed guru?

I have seen Osho go through so much torture just because he was trying to help people. The first thing is that after he started giving sannyas his health deteriorated and he had to be confined to his air conditioned room all the time. He was criticized all over the world because he declared himself a master or Bhagwaan.

He was not only tortured in America but many parts of the world because he wanted to help this dying humanity. If he had lived by himself, he could have lived a very comfortable life for a century just from the royalty from his books. But he suffered because he wanted to help this humanity which is MAD, SICK, which doesn't understand compassion and always misbehaves with the masters. Anytime any master is born in any part of the world, this humanity will always crucify him whether it is Socrates, Jesus, Rajneesh or Mansoor. It could not even tolerate a simple and honest man like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. who were murdered simply for telling the truth and didn’t even claim themselves enlightened.

So I have seen how this world behaves with a real guru. And the torture I have seen Osho go through in American jails, in Indian media, it is horrible.

Still people are devaluating Osho and they haven't been honest with him. In India, anybody who writes two or three popular books or serves the Indian language gets a lot of respect; he gets Padmashree, Padmabhusan or Gyan Pith Puraskar. Osho has given about 300 classical books in Hindi and 400 classical books in English that havev been translated in all major languages and are bestsellers and yet he was not duly recognized even as an author.

He has designed 300 beautiful techniques of meditation for this sick society, do you see anybody giving him thanks? I have seen how this cruel society, how his own disciples have misbehaved and tortured my master and are still damaging his work. So looking at the whole drama only an idiot will try to become a guru and I am not an idiot. I will be the last person to become a guru.

Why are you so much interested in the media?

Yes, it has some truth in it. Through media I have made Osho popular in Nepal. I have used the media. I have regularly spoken on television, given interviews on radio, published books, written articles in newspapers and magazines. I have worked hard otherwise how I could reach all the people in Nepal and I have no power, no personal radio station or newspaper. It is a torture to write articles spending hours sacrificing your meditation time. It is a torture to face mundane questions of journalists. But that is how I have made Osho popular in Nepal by using the media. Osho started sannyas in 1970 and in 77 his words had reached all parts of the world. This happened because of the power of media. So I have learnt from my master. Because of active support of the media we have over 50000 sannyasins in Nepal, 4 active communes and four upcoming communes and seventy active meditation centres.

Why are you always surrounded by the crowd?

Living in a crowd for a meditator is a torture. You lose your inner balance and your energy in the crowd. I am not a politician and I don't need any vote from the crowd. Being in the crowd is a torture for me but I am in the crowd because I can help people. How many people can I meet in a day if I meet them individually? If I want to share Osho I have to remain in the crowd as long as my body permits me. But it is becoming difficult every day. It is not a pleasure for me to be in public, it is a torture but sometimes you have to go through it.

It seems that you like foreigners otherwise why do you travel so much.

There are no foreigners for me. I believe in universal family and in universal brotherhood. We all belong to the same planet and this term is not applicable for us. It is applicable only for politicians who keep the world divided. And Osho has instructed me to take his message to different parts of the world. Unfortunately in the west there are not many leaders who are conducting meditation camps. They are only doing therapies. In the west it is difficult to find people interested in expanding Osho's message, opening centres or spreading sannyas. Our meditations are group meditations and our work is school work and without centres and communes the work will not have roots and spiritual growth is difficult. So looking at this I started travelling in the west conducting meditation camps and opening centres. My main objective is to open centres and communes and inspire people for regular activities so that the work continues even after I leave this body. So that's why I am interested in travelling.

People claim that you are only interested in the rich and executive.

Although I have been trying to, unfortunately I have not been able to reach the rich people otherwise we would have had a lot of centres and communes in the West. Those who come to my camps are young professionals and young professionals don't have much money. Business men have money. Politicians have money. Those who come to my camp are rich in soul, they are rich in consciousness, and they are rich in understanding. But if I meet people who are rich in pocket I'll be happier.

Osho devoted his whole life for the new man and you have already given four decades of your life. Has it been worthwhile? Do you see that light of hope?

Yes, I see that light of hope. You are young and I see a lot of hope in you that's why you are here asking me these beautiful questions. Although my beard and my hair are getting white all my friends are young. And I see much hope in young people. For instance when I was in Canada I met Amrito who is of your age. I inspired him for Osho's work and now he is full of spirit. He's working hard running a centre, conducting meditation camps and when somebody writes against Osho, me or Tapoban on any media he is the first one to respond. So the new man will come and we have to wait because it is not like a seasonal flower. People have to be free from their old conditionings and mature in meditation and understanding, it takes time. Osho worked so hard for 39 years. When I first met Osho I was one of the most miserable person. He gave me the hope to live. If I had not met him I would have died a miserable death much earlier. But he helped an ordinary miserable person like me and today I see myself as one of the happiest person on Earth. I see hope because if my life can change a lot of other people around the world can also change. And I have seen it happening. Whenever I go back to cities where I have taken camps and initiated people into sannyas, I see that they have become happier, wealthier, and are more loving. I know I can't change the whole world but if I can change even a person like you my job is done. He will make the other mad person like me and the chain will continue. People are changing and it takes time.

Please share with us one of your most memorable moment spent with Osho.

There are many but I can tell you one. When Osho was in Manali after Rajneeshpuram he stayed there for one and a half months and I was there with him. There were only 18-20 disciples. Every morning at 9 o' clock he used to walk near the Vyas River and sit in silence watching the Himalayas and the river for an hour. Sometimes he used to call somebody to sit with him in meditation or talk intimately with him. He called me on the very first day I arrived and I was the first person who was given this privilege. He was sitting on a wooden bench and I was sitting on the sand near his feet and I was free to ask him any question. Just sitting in his presence was a blessing and I can't describe it to you in words. I can't create that milieu. You are immediately transported to some other plane whenever you are in his presence. So a few times he called me and I was with him for an hour. Those were the golden moments of my life. No river can be compared with the beauty of a Himalayan river and no mountain can be compared with the energy of the Himalayas. So amidst this beauty I was sitting with Osho, something I had not even dreamt of. I asked him many personal questions because it was just two of us. I asked him one question which I would like to share with you.

It had just been two days after he had come back from Rajneeshpuram where he had access to all the luxuries in the world including his palatial bedroom, bathroom, and his 99 Rolls Royces. And now here he was in Manali living in a small room which was around 12sqmtr. His bathroom had a geyser but there was not enough power to heat the water. He had come from the airport in an old ambassador car and you know how dirty Indian taxies are.

But he had no complaint and he was not missing anything. I missed Rajneeshpuram and I was sad and everybody else was sad except for Osho. He was damn happy in the Himalayas. So I asked him, "Osho don't you miss anything?" and he replied, "Why should I miss anything? You look the mountains are so beautiful and see that cloud over there. Do you have this type of cloud in Nepal? Oh I love the Himalayas and I had always dreamt to come here and finally the existence brought me here. I am so happy in Manali." That was his statement.

I said to Osho that when I was in Pune I had purchased a second hand bicycle in 40 Rupees and somebody stole it. It was my entire saving and after that I couldn't even afford to take a rickshaw. I missed the bicycle for a long time. I asked Osho, "You had 99 Rolls Royces, don't you miss the cars?" Bhagwan said, "No, I don't miss them because I had never thought that they were mine. They were toys and I played with them. The play is over. You miss your bicycle because you thought they were yours. I never thought that the cars belonged to me. I was not attached with them but you were attached with that old bicycle. That is the difference and this is the lesson that I want to give to you. Don't get attached with anything but enjoy everything that life gives to you. And in that way you will always remain free." That was his message.

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 08:45 AM

Quote:

CONSCIOUS COMMITMENT

The only treasure worth searching for is your own nature. The real adventure is to go within yourself. Once it becomes your commitment -- a deliberate, conscious commitment, a decision that "whatsoever happens I have to find myself, my nature, my being : I am not going to miss this opportunity of life." Once this decision is clearly there and your energies start pouring into it, there is no reason why one should fail. Nobody has ever failed. Whosoever has put his energies into the inner search has always found himself.

Knowing that "I am not the body," is the beginning of a great pilgrimage. Then knowing that, "I am not the mind either," is a further step; then finally knowing that, "I am not even the feeling," is the last step.

In these three steps the journey is over because on the fourth step you discover your being, and that being is vast, infinite; as vast as the ocean, as vast as the sky. To experience it is to experience God. And to experience it is to experience bliss, ecstasy. --OSHO--

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 08:51 AM

Nobody Channels Osho

An Interview with Osho's medium, Ma Anando

About people who claim that they are channeling Osho
(Appeared in the Osho Times International (OTI) of May 1, 1991)

Osho and Anando

OTI: Different people around the world are claiming to be receiving messages from Osho as mediums. Others say they are "channeling" him. On his last day in his body, Osho specifically chose you to be his medium. In fact, his very last words are.... "Anando will be my medium." So what is your response to these reports?

Anando: Yes, I heard there are some sannyasins in Switzerland claiming to be receiving messages from Osho. Osho speaks about this in The Hidden Splendor. In response to his old and much loved disciple, Sarjano, who said that he heard a message from Osho. Osho says:

"It is just your imagination, Sarjano. ... You love me, and you are so full of me that even if you speak in your imagination, you may hear my voice. But remember one thing: except for silence, everything else is your imagination - howsoever beautiful. ... My path is not the path of imagination. It is the path that does not use the mind at all. Imagination and projection and hallucination and illusion - they are all parts of the mind. My simple approach is transcendence of mind. So only when you start seeing absolute nothingness, utter silence, can you see that I am very close by. In that silence you have heard me. In that nothingness you have seen me. But if you see something, if you hear something, then it is your imagination - you have fallen from the beyond, back into the mind."

OTI: So Osho is saying that his message is silence, and that except for silence, anything else people think they hear him say is imagination?

Anando: Yes. He says that people claiming to receive "messages" from the beyond, even if those people are authentic - and he says ninety percent are frauds - they are in fact only channeling their unconscious mind:
"Out of ten, nine are not authentic. If somebody is authentic, then all that happens in reality is that he relaxes, his conscious mind goes to sleep, and from his unconscious mind, collective unconscious mind, cosmic unconscious mind, things start coming up. You can say they are coming from ghosts. You can talk about them in psychological terms and say they are coming from the unconscious. Or you can talk about them in California terms: they are coming from channel number one, channel number two. But they are all coming from your own unconscious mind."

OTI: Doesn't Osho also suggest a way of checking who is authentic and who is a fraud?

Anando: Yes. First he tells a very funny story about how he used to go up to fakirs and poke them with a needle to see if they could remain in their trance. Then he says:

"If there is someone sincere, that means he is relaxing to the point where the unconscious mind starts throwing up its repressed contents. It has no spiritual value. But it will be good to check. Go to any person who is channeling with the galaxies, but keep a good needle with you! With the needle, the person will start dancing, jumping, and his galaxies will start going higher - from one channel to nine channels. You can check. If your needle does not work, that means the person is at least not a fraud, but he is simply falling into unconsciousness and allowing his unconscious to reveal its contents. But they have no spiritual value."

OTI: But Osho also says that people who love him will be in contact with him even when he leaves the body, doesn't he?

Anando: Yes. But he is talking about his presence, not about "messages" for people. It is said to a group leader who asks whether he is deluding himself about being a vehicle for Osho - allowing his love and silence to pour through him when he works. Osho responds:
"If you have loved me, even when I am not in the body there can still be a contact. For love it makes no difference."
That is a totally different phenomenon from someone claiming to be getting messages for people from Osho. As a vehicle for Osho, the sannyasin therapist is not claiming to be dialling Osho on the hot line and acting as a telephone operator. He is simply being who he is, and sharing whatever wisdom he has embodied as a disciple. If he is sincere he will say something like: "This is my understanding of Osho but don't depend on me. Start your own search, read Osho's books, watch his video discourses, do his meditations and discover your own connection with the Master." So the therapist will not create any dependence by putting himself between the person and Osho; he will not say "I have a message for you from Osho." Priests have been doing that for thousands of years because their whole business depends on it. But a meditator needs no intermediary.

OTI: Doesn't Osho speak about the gap that can happen when a master leaves his body, and the danger of the disciples being exploited?

Anando: Yes, many times. He says that in this vacuum people with guru minds will jump at the opportunity to exploit people - that the gap creates a feeling of vulnerability, and that in the whole world today there isn't anywhere such a pool of seekers as here, and that is irresistibly attractive to the guru mind.
The guru mind he describes as like the mind of a wolf which sees vulnerable people as sheep and can't help itself. He says there are guru minds both inside sannyas and outside, that the guru mind has always existed in sannyas, but was unable to move because of his presence in the body.

"When I leave the body," he warns, "the guru mind will sense the opportunity to move." He says Teertha was always in competition with him, but couldn't make his move until Osho was not available to his people because of the world tour. Then the mind saw the opening and he had to move.
"When I am no longer present in the body," he says, "the people who were in competition with me under the surface will make their move. The guru mind, the exploiting mind, the wolf's mind, can't help itself. Like Teertha it will move. But it needs the sheep - without sheep, the wolf is no problem."
And what creates sheep is the gap - or the fear of the gap, the fear of being alone. This is inevitable when a master leaves his body. That is why he speaks of it so many times, warning us to be alert for this after he is no longer with us.

When a sannyasin asked Osho about needing personal guidance from someone tuning into him, Osho's response is very clear:

"The idea of personal guidance is mind's old habit to become dependent on someone... Nobody needs personal guidance because all personal guidance is a beautiful name for dependence on somebody, and he is going to distort you...

A meditator needs no personal guidance. A meditator, on the contrary, needs only one thing: the atmosphere of meditation. He needs other meditators; he needs to be surrounded by other meditators. Because whatever goes on happening within us is not only within us, it affects people who are close by. In this communion people are at different stages of meditation. To meditate with these people, just to sit silently with these people, and you will be pulled more and more towards your own intrinsic potentiality."

OTI: As the one who is left by Osho in the role of his medium, you have probably looked into this whole issue pretty thoroughly, haven't you?

Anando: Yes. As I see it, he rules out the idea of any verbal messages to people on an individual or personal level, or relating to issues of everyday life. In fact, for many years now he hasn't been giving people individual advice about what they should do and what they shouldn't do in their personal life, what is best for them, etc.

He says that he has said everything, that people should read his books and listen to his discourses, that his only interest is to get us into meditation. So it is not his way to give these kinds of messages. But it is an obvious way for the guru mind to establish spiritual authority.
There's one more thing I'd like to say: Osho specifically speaks about messages from disembodied masters. He says:

"When a message comes from a master, it has to be something so absolutely needed that the masters who are no more in their bodies feel that a message should be sent to all unconscious, sleeping, blind people. But it is only when there is something urgent; otherwise there is no need."
He says that only in a state of No-Mind is it possible to receive such a message. If it ever happens, I'll let you know!
A sannyasin wrote to correct Anando on one point:

One thing about the paragraph above: even towards the "end," Osho WAS still giving individual advice to written questions. Many such questions continued to be submitted. Most of them, I understand, were dealt with by others, "routine" questions that could be dealt with by stock answers, but not all. Some questions he still answered himself. I know of such cases.

The short written answers were delivered by one of his secretaries, Neelam, Hasya, etc, and explained, enlarged by that secretary's personal insight, but there is no question that he WAS still giving individual guidance to rank-and-file sannyasins, if you'll pardon the expression.

Beloved Osho,

The other morning before lecture, I suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to touch, with great gratitude, the floor where you walk. In that moment I heard again that voice - it still sounds like your voice: "If you can kiss in gratitude the place on earth where I have stepped... I want to tell you, that I've stepped everywhere on this earth." This is really too much, for I see myself in tears, kissing every spot on the earth. And again that voice comes in me, or from me, whispering, "If you can kiss in gratitude all the earth, and all that abides on the earth, you don't need me anymore." Please, Osho, tell me that I was just imagining, that it was just a dream. You haven't said that to me, have you?

Sarjano, the idea is Catholic. You come from the country of the pope, and that fellow goes on kissing the earth wherever he goes - even in India, where kissing the earth means kissing cow dung. When he kissed it here, that very day I said, "He has tasted something of Hindu religion."

It is just your imagination, Sarjano. There is no need for your gratitude to be expressed in stupid gestures. Just being grateful, your eyes full of tears, your heart just melting and merging with existence, is enough. Kissing the earth is just an idiotic symbol; I could never have said anything like this to you. But you love me, and you are so full of me that even if you speak in your imagination, you may hear my voice.

But remember one thing: except for silence, everything else is your imagination - howsoever beautiful. Only your silence I can say has my support, because only in your silence are you close to the very center of existence. In absolute silence, you become the very center yourself. But remember to avoid any kind of imagination - all imagination - even beautiful imagination, apparently looking like the divine.
(Osho - The Hidden Splendor #9)

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 09:02 AM

The Mumbai suburban highway, much pockmarked by recent heavy floods, finally gives way and we emerge onto the shiny new Mumbai - Pune expressway.."the newest and best road in India" I am assured by my driver, and I can believe it. It's a full-blown pay-toll motorway, with remarkably little traffic.

I am heading for "Osho International Meditation Resort"...for the first time, having known of it for decades and yet only in the last few years did I start meeting current and ex devotees of Osho and become curious enough to go. I am feeling slightly apprehensive....will I make it through those gates? (I know of people who did the same thing and somehow just couldn't ...).

We get to Pune and in heavy traffic jams find our way to Koregaon Park. My driver gets lost. "I came here before but it was a long time ago..." We are driving down the leafy lane that leads to the ashram itself, waterfalls, gates, red robed people ....my God here we are.......

I'm self consciously standing with my shiny silver suitcase at the high tech, high design marble reception area. water tinkling everywhere, be-robed people behind the desk with cool looking computer screens. other newcomers looking like I feel. Bizarre aids test moment all over in a few minutes....you will need red robes from the shop over there...buy your spending vouchers here... credit card style thing for entry to the ashram....that's xxx rupees, cash only, you are registered. All very military, but friendly.

Meditation Sufi style at the OSHOInternational
Click thumbnail to view full-size

Osho International Meditation Resort video

I’m taken to the Osho Guest House across the road, in the grounds of the Ashram.

It’s extremely Zen (almost too much so), minimalist. clean lines, attentive staff in uniform, quiet. It is nearly empty as far as I can tell, or is everyone just being very quiet? It’s low season…late September. The rooms simple but quite high quality…no TV of course and no phone. but lots of AC..it’s freezing.

On the morning of the next day I join a mandatory introduction group for first timers, where we get a lightening tour plus a brief intro to some of the meditations that happen at the ashram. A big benefit of this is that I get to meet a peer group, and some of the people in the tour become my friends while I am there. I am grateful for this, as I can see how one could easily feel a bit lonely, especially if you don’t stay long.

I had originally intended to stay for 5 days but by day 3 it was apparent that to get a feel for the place I needed longer….so I booked out of the hotel and found a very nice room in an apartment rented to westerners 15 minutes walk away. Although it was very convenient to be in the hotel for the first days, I was nevertheless slightly relieved to be staying outside the bubble of the ashram.

It took a deep breath to get through those gates…the robes take some getting used to and some resistance…..I will not wear a uniform! I will not be subjected to an aids test! Don’t tell me what to do! But once I had decided to surrender to the uniform and the “rules” - none of which seem particularly offensive or daft - it is an easy place to be.

There is a pleasing lack of any pressure to be involved in anything, no pressure to take Sannyas or even be interested in Osho per se, as far as I can tell. The one exception is that if you take any of the courses (I did a breathing workshop) you are expected to attend Dynamic in the morning, Kundalini in the afternoon and White Robe in the evening.

They call it a resort and you can treat it as such, just behave yourself reasonably, follow the rules and wear the robe! They are even promoting a “wellness weekend” package with a glossy brochure.

I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the people there…ones I met anyway…were not seasoned guru hoppers and not knowing much about Osho…many quite young…just curious and open minded and looking for something, a kind of innocence and freshness.

Koregaon Park (and Pune as a whole) I found to have a nice atmosphere, people are friendly. I had thought there might be a jaded feeling, as in many touristy parts of Asia, after so many years of exposure to multiple westerners, but that wasn’t my experience. I had some surprising encounters with all sorts from rickshaw drivers to internet shop owners to barbers. Has some of the good vibes of the Ashram washed off on the area? Or is it the other way round? There is also the currently much vaunted “Pune effect”. The newspapers have been touting Pune as “the most liveable city in India”, and even “the happiest city in India”. Apparently, in a poll of Indian city dwellers, Punites came top of the charts in claiming to be happy!

The Osho movement has inherited a reputation for sexiness…often disapproved of even now by non converts. I personally came up against it (the disapproval) several times from unexpected quarters before and after my visit. I have found myself being defensive about my motivations for going - and defending the ashram itself. My impression is that the ashram/resort has worked hard to become mainstream and reputable, particularly since Osho’s death presumably. The place and Osho himself now seem to be well regarded and considered fairly respectable in India. I don’t doubt that should sexual adventures be on your shopping list this would be available here, there seems to be plenty of single people around, but sex is not emphasised or encouraged overtly in the way some would have one believe.

The Ashram is immaculately beautiful and high quality. I did find some of the architecture somewhat bizarre… a lot of dark grey stone buildings and pyramids, but much greenery to cover them which helps. The expense and energy which must have gone into the creating of it is impressive, not least the Osho Teerth Park created out of two city blocks of what was apparently badly polluted wasteland, with a river running through it.

One of the more bizarre – to a newcomer – but also exceptional places is Osho’s Samadhi, situated in what appears to be his house complete with library, dental surgery, Rolls Royce, and other personal effects. In addition to that a “raw” marble floor which the stern overseers of the hall make sure you don’t touch with your body or clothes, and expel you if you cough or fidget. I went to meditate in there a couple of times, the atmosphere is peaceful, there is presence in there.

Overall it was a positive experience to be at the resort. The atmosphere is warm and stimulating, the place is well run, and while I did not find a teacher there (as far as I know!), the therapeutic work seems very strong and professional, and contrary to the somewhat negative, even abusive, impressions that are thrown around in some quarters, I found a certain innocence and straightforwardness about the place. It is, at the end of the day, exactly what it now claims to be - a “meditation resort.”

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 09:14 AM

Saying 'Osho' Meditation

[A sannyasin says: I’m going back to Bombay tomorrow. I just wanted to ask you about my meditation. I’ve been doing the Gourishankar followed by a hot and cold bath as you told me to do. I feel to do meditation but I have this problem that my whole body starts throbbing. If I don’t meditate, the whole Bombay scene and work gets too heavy for me. And I don ’t seem to be able to sleep very well.]

Osho - Drop Gourishankar. Start another meditation. And many times meditations have to be changed, because the body, the mind, go on changing. So sometimes one meditation helps, sometimes another. One has to be very much aware, otherwise one can get attached to meditation too.

When something becomes uneasy, there is no need to carry on with it. Never be a masochist; don’t torture yourself in any name whatsoever. People have tortured themselves very much in the name of religion, and the name is so beautiful that you can go on torturing yourself.

So remember – I teach happiness, not torture! If you feel sometimes that something is becoming heavy, becoming rough going, just tell me – it has to be changed. You will have to change many times. By and by you will come to a point where no change will be needed. Then something will fit absolutely – not only with your mind, with your body, but with your soul. Now it is a very complicated thing. Sometimes something fits with the soul, does not fit with the body.

Sometimes something fits with the mind, does not fit with the soul. It is complicated because there are three layers of your being. If it were a question of one layer, there would be no problem – one thing would fit. But there are three demands and on different levels and different planes. So it may be fitting your mind – as I see, it fits with your mind, so you feel good and Bombay does not bother you. But it doesn’t fit with your body so the body starts getting into trouble.

Then again if the body is in trouble, the mind will be in trouble. So you choose one thing to avoid one problem; another problem arises out of your choice. So change it. Start one simple meditation.

[Osho said that he could do the meditation sitting in a chair, or in whatsoever position was comfortable; comfort should be the prime consideration, otherwise trouble is created for the body. Lights should be dim so there is no tension for the eyes and breathing should be left completely to fall into its own natural rhythm.

Our breathing is affected by many different emotions through the course of a day – sadness, anger, happiness. In this meditation it should be just natural – not particularly with an effort to be deep. Each day there will be a slight variance as one may not have slept so well or something may be happening in the body which affects the rhythm.]

Within three, four minutes you will feel that the body has relaxed; the breathing has come into a rhythm. Then with each outgoing breath, simply say, ’Osho’ inside; not very loudly – just a whisper, but inside so that you can hear it. When the breath comes in, just wait. When the breath goes out, you call, and when the breath comes out, allow me to come in. Don’t do anything – simply wait; so your work is only when the breath goes out.

When the breath goes out, go into the universe. The outgoing breath is almost like dropping a bucket into a well. And when the breath comes in, it is like the bucket being pulled out of the well. This is only for twenty minutes. So four, five minutes to get into it, and then twenty minutes to remain in it. So in all twenty-five minutes at the
... You can have music, but something classical. Try without it also. In Bombay there is so much traffic noise, but try both ways. Try without music.

If you feel good, good. You can try with music also, but the music has to be forgotten. You are not to consciously listen to it, otherwise this meditation won’t work. Let it be just a background. It is there, it will be relaxing, but you are not to listen to it.

So put on some music that you have listened to many times so you know what it is; there is no curiosity. Never put on new music, but something that you have listened to thousands of times. You are almost fed up with it, bored with it; you already know what it is. Then it becomes just a background – and that’s a good background. Just like incense, music is a good background. But the whole point is that you are not to listen to it.

You can open your eyes after twenty minutes and look at the clock, but have no alarm and don’t tell anybody to knock after twenty minutes. That will be very disturbing because you will be in such a deep state of sleep and awakening both. You will be so relaxed that anything sharp can go through you like a knife and can be very disturbing.

[The sannyasin asks: And incense? Use the incense like music – as a background?]

Yes, just as a background. It will become a background. Fragrance always becomes a background. Nobody attentively smells; it is a very unconscious phenomenon. Maybe for the first time when you enter a room, you smell, but after two, three minutes it becomes a background; one settles with it.

The nose is not so nosey, and the mind does not function much from the nose. In fact because the mind cannot function much from the nose, the nose has become almost dull, because the mind doesn’t need it; the mind can go on without it very well. So people don’t have noses. And don’t be deceived by appearances – the nose exists there physically, but the smell capacity is completely lost.

So smell, fragrance, music – everything in the background. Just close your eyes and go into it.... You can do it anytime. You can do it during the day, in the night. It’s no problem.

Source: " God Is Not For Sale , Chapter 15" - Osho

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 09:18 AM

Quote:

If you feel good, good. You can try with music also, but the music has to be forgotten. You are not to consciously listen to it, otherwise this meditation won’t work. Let it be just a background. It is there, it will be relaxing, but you are not to listen to it.

So put on some music that you have listened to many times so you know what it is; there is no curiosity. Never put on new music, but something that you have listened to thousands of times. You are almost fed up with it, bored with it; you already know what it is. Then it becomes just a background – and that’s a good background. Just like incense, music is a good background. But the whole point is that you are not to listen to it.--OSHO--

lighthouse · 26-05-2012, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonestar

lol

yes, but they broke the mould when they made you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by heartbeatsalute

Osho on Gurdjieff's Science of Idiotism

Gurdjieff certainly forced people to drink, but only the people who were against alcohol.

Gurdjieff...

But I get this, cause usually until every prejudice and rule falls, nothing really changes. People are all about the rules. Direct or very subtle ones. They run from one form of spirituality into another, the same, just so they could be applied to the same rules they are allegedly running from.

Quote:

Originally Posted by heartbeatsalute

An idiot is a person who is trying to find joy where joy does not exist at all, who is trying to search for something which he has never lost in the first place. The enlightened person is one who has looked into his being before searching for anything anywhere else.

- Osho

Bolded part, felt many, many times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by heartbeatsalute

The person who is interested in alcohol must be living in misery, in a kind of suffering. That′s why he wants somehow to forget it all. Alcohol is nothing but a chemical strategy to forget your miseries, anxieties, your problems, to forget yourself.
My whole effort here is to help you to remember yourself - and you want to forget yourself. By forgetting yourself you will be creating more and more hell for yourself and for others. Remember, rather, remember yourself.

- Osho

In one way, I agree. In another, I don't.
Why? I am highly anxious person by default. My physical reflexes are one of a Formula 1 driver, and I could be only lying unconciouss or dead not to immediately react to some threat or danger. That was usefull in traffic.

The point is, I easily detect and feel threats in my hologram, my world.
That is not a nice world to live in.

My point is.. 6 years ago freedom tapped me on my shoulder and said to me I could be yours, I'm here. If it weren't for alcohol, I would lose the whole situation in my terrible fear, because I could never believe it was really happening to me.
I know, it is sad. But that's how it was.

I could never go through all this layers of despair and death that pilled up on me through the years.
Back then I didn't got the strength, and something should be done in that very moment.
Alcohol let me to consider the fact there is Life.
And Love for that matter.

No matter how outrageous and hard to believe that sounds,
in that way I forgot myself, but in a good way. Because when you drink, emotions are overiding the mind, and heart always knows best.
Back then, my mind was anything but aware of the truth.
And it had to be completely shut down and formatted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by heartbeatsalute

My methods are different from George Gurdjieff′s. I am not in favor of any alcoholic beverages. I am not in favor of any psychedelic drugs either, because they all create illusory worlds for you and they all are distractions. They make you more and more oblivious of your own being, unaware of your own self.

- Osho

As I say, in 99 % of the cases, this is true.
For most people, thoughts and feelings brought up by stimulants are even worse illusions than their sober ones.
The problem is when a strongly controlling person tries to grab hold the deep, deep layers of himself.
It's extremely hard to tear those filters of Ego that are operating flawlessly for decades, declaring themselves usefull and highly spiritual...

lonestar · 26-05-2012, 06:14 PM

drinking is my last vice. and i tried them all....

all i drink anymore is piss tasting light beer and i dont know or even care if i will ever quit that. you mentioned fear. i admit to still having a lil fear. but its nothing compared to all the fear i sense in people around me. beer helps me take the edge off sensing that in the people around me. i swear fear is like a virus. im not judging them. it is what it is. but its so obvious to me now watching them hate things to hide their fear. they hate politicians, bankers, friends and family rich people or poor people and any kind of adults who get paid to throw or kick a ball. lol they hate iranians, jews, and i could go on and on and on and on...sometimes it all just starts looking like mirrors and reflections everywhere to me and i need a fucking beer after realizing that.

ps i still smoke weed and drink coffee but i dont consider those vices

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 07:41 PM

I don't have addictions mainly, no drugs, only social drinks once in a while, but I guess if you don't feel the need of having them, you don't have the vice.
I don't smoke, mainly because my parents never let me start with that, and did me a favor.

I suppose we are bombarded or we get hooked on either drugs, tobacco, or alcohol, and in this way we are controlled. If this doesn't happen, then there are beliefs, as opposed to experience.

And if someone finds the truth, in time they are killed in one way or another , as all spiritual Maters, who have people following their footsteps, because they have become a danger to TPTB, of all ages, who control society.

So I suppose that Lao Tzu is right when it says we should not show all that we are,all that we know, or we will be destroyed.
when he says: Don't try to prove your worth and reduce yourself to a
commodity. Remember, the greatest experience of life comes not through what you do, but through love, through meditation.

Lao Tzu and his disciples, went through a forest where all the trees had been cut exceptt one.
Lao Tzu asked his disciples to go and inquire why this tree had not been cut. The woodcutters said: "this tree is absolutely useless. You cannot make anything of it because every branch has so many
knots in it---nothing is straight, You cannot use it as fuel because the smoke is dangerous to the eyes. This tree is absolutely useless, that's why we haven't cut it."

Lao tzu laughed and said: "Be like this tree, If you are useful you will be cut and you will become furniture
in someone's house. If you are beautiful you will be sold in the market, you will become a commodity.
Be like this tree ,absolutely useless, and then you will grow vast,and thousands of people will find
shade under you."

Lao Tzu has a logic altogether different from yours.
He says: Be the last. Move in the world as if you are not.
Don't be competitive, don't try to prove your worth---
there is no need. Remain useless and enjoy."

TAO

Osho Neo tarot card: WORTH

"There is use for your uselessness too. I will make you a tree with a big foliage,
and those people who make useful things, will sometimes need to rest in your shade."
TAO THE THREE TREASURES, OSHO

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 08:27 PM

http://ashwita.com/zen/peace.php?q=Sex+and+Meditation

Delightful Cooking
Sex and Meditation

The last day of my recent trip to Tiruvannamalai, Jacqueline discussed tantra, sex and spirituality. I must mention before I begin that I'm mostly just quoting what I understood from the satsang that day, but I felt the need to share the information, so here it is.

Tantra is always thought of in relation with sex, and often looked down upon by most other 'spiritual' people. Ofcourse, anyone who knows anything about Tantra knows that sex is merely a small fraction of it, and it encompasses so much more. But looking at it from the aspect of physical desires, tantra isn't about encouraging the 'evils' at all - far from it! The sanskrit word for desires based on greed or other vices would be 'vasana'. Tantra isn't about vasanas at all, it is about transcending them, so that the actions associated with those vasanas become meditation, not a fulfilment of the cravings of the mind. So in this regard, Tantra is really about taking the 'sex' out of sex!

When I first heard that Osho said there are hundreds of meditations, it confused me. As I know it, there is really only one meditation - witnessing. But I now realise how all these meditations - the dancing meditations, the walking meditations, make sense. Meditation isn't a 'doing', its not something you sit down to do, and get done with, in 15-20 minutes to then get on with the rest of your day. Meditation is a state of being, remaining in awareness all the time, throughout all activities.

So if remaining in meditation is really your goal, you want to be doing it all the time. What better way than to practice it in small bits, like walking, or dancing, for example? You gently get used to it, and then go on to do it all the time in 'real' life.

While it is not too tough to remain in meditation in calm and serene moments, I've observed that my awareness goes straight out the window when I find myself in an intense situation, either a happy or a difficult one. So any extremely happy or sad situation is really just a test of your meditation - could you meditate through this event? For most people, sex is one of the most intense things they experience. Can you maintain your awareness throughout it, and not get carried away?

She read out a piece by Osho, in which he said that the temples of Khajuraho were not an education or encouragement for perverted activities, but a way of transcending them. Ofcourse there is no way I can verify this information, but it just feels right when I hear it. He talks of how a student wasn't allowed to enter the temple initially. One had to meditate - yes, meditate - on the sculptures outside the temple, one sculpture at a time, until all they saw in the sculpture was art, and nothing else. There was no excitement, no sexuality left in that sculpture anymore, just art, just meditation. It took a student about 6 months to go around the temple and when he or she finished, he was finally allowed inside, into an empty space - because once you transcend the most intense excitements of life, nothing else is left, just bliss.

Now I can see why Osho's teachings were taken out of context, because people could easily interpret this as oh well, then we just do what we want until it stops exciting us. That is not how it works, not in my understanding. This is the FINAL test! Tantra is no tantra without meditation and one has to be very proficient in meditation before one attempts a tantrik relationship. As I understand it, a tantrik relationship also involves deep commitment and plenty of meditations together, using the combined energies to heal and lift both people up together.

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Tantra is always thought of in relation with sex, and often looked down upon by most other 'spiritual' people. Of course, anyone who knows anything about Tantra knows that sex is merely a small fraction of it, and it encompasses so much more. But looking at it from the aspect of physical desires, tantra isn't about encouraging the 'evils' at all - far from it! The sanskrit word for desires based on greed or other vices would be 'vasana'. Tantra isn't about vasanas at all, it is about transcending them, so that the actions associated with those vasanas become meditation, not a fulfilment of the cravings of the mind. So in this regard, Tantra is really about taking the 'sex' out of sex!

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 08:49 PM

How To Stop my Thoughts ? – Osho talks

You cannot stop that which you have not started. Don’t try it, otherwise you will simply be wasting time, energy, life. You cannot stop the mind because you have not started it. You can simply watch, and in watching it stops. Not that you stop it: in watching. it stops. The stopping is a function of watching, it is a consequence of watching.

It is not that you stop it; there is no way to stop the mind. If you try to stop it, it will go faster; if you try to stop it, it will fight with you and create a thousand and one troubles for you. Never try to stop it. This is the truth: you have not started it, so who are you to stop it? It has come through your unawareness; it will go through your awareness. You have to do nothing to stop it except become more and more alert.

Even the idea that one wants to stop the mind will be the barrier because you say, “Okay, now I will try to be aware so that I can stop it.” Then you miss the point. Then even your awareness will not be of much help because again the same idea is there — how to stop it. Then after a few days of futile effort — futile because the idea is there, so it will not happen — you will come to me and you will say, “I have been trying to be aware, but the mind doesn’t stop.”

It cannot be stopped; no method exists to stop it. But it stops! Not that you stop it; it stops by itself. You simply watch. In watching, you withdraw the energy that helps it to run. In watching, the energy goes into watching, and thinking automatically becomes feebler and feebler and feebler. Thoughts are there, but they become impotent because the energy is not available. They will move around you, half dead, but by and by more energy will be coming to the awareness. One day suddenly energy is no longer moving into thoughts. They have disappeared. They cannot exist without your energy. So please forget about stopping them. That is none of your business.

And the second thing, you ask: “How is it possible that the mind can go on producing thoughts constantly?” It is just a natural process. Just like your heart goes on beating constantly, your mind goes on thinking constantly; just like your body goes on breathing constantly, your mind goes on thinking constantly; just like your blood goes on circulating constantly and your stomach goes on digesting continuously, the mind goes on thinking constantly. There is no problem in it; it is simple. But you are not identified with the blood circulation; you don’t think that YOU are circulating. In fact you are not even conscious that the blood circulates; it goes on circulating, you have nothing to do with it. The heart goes on beating; you don’t think that YOU are beating.

With the mind the problem has arisen because you think that you are thinking; the mind has become a focus of identity. The identity just has to be broken. It is not that when the mind has stopped, then it will not think forever, no. It will think only when it is needed; it will not think when it is not needed. Thinking will be there, but now it will be natural: a response, a spontaneous activity, not an obsession.

For example, you eat when you are hungry. But you can get obsessed and can go on eating the whole day. Then you will go mad; then you will commit suicide. You walk when you want to walk. When you want to go somewhere, then you move your legs. But if you go on moving your legs when you are sitting on the chair, people will think you are mad and that something has to be done to stop you. If you ask how to stop your legs from moving and if somebody says, “Stop them by holding them with your hands. Force them!” then you will be in even more trouble. The legs are moving and now the hands are also engaged, and your whole effort is how to stop them. Now your energy is fighting with itself.

You have become identified with the mind, that’s all. It is natural because the mind is so close to you and you have to use the mind so much. One is constantly in the mind. It is as if a driver has been driving a car for years and has never been out of the car. He has forgotten that he can go out, that he is a driver. He has forgotten completely; he thinks that he himself is a car. He cannot go out because who is there to go out? He has forgotten how to open the door, or the door is completely blocked by not having been used for years. It has gathered rust, it cannot open easily. The driver has been in the car so much that he has become the car, that’s all. A misunderstanding has arisen. Now he cannot stop the car, because how is he to stop it? Who is going to stop it?

You are just the driver of the mind. It is a mechanism around you, your consciousness goes on using it. But you have never been out of your head. That’s why I insist: drop a little out of the head, go to the heart. From the heart you will have a better perspective that the car is separate from you. Or, try to go out of the body. That too is possible. Out of the body you will be absolutely out of the car. You will be able to see that neither the body nor the heart nor the mind is you; you are separate.

Right now, continue to remember only one thing: that you are separate. From everything that surrounds you, you are separate. The knower is not the known. Go on feeling it more and more so that it becomes a substantial crystallization in you that the knower is not the known. You KNOW the thought, you SEE the thought — how can you be the thought? You KNOW the mind, how can you be the mind? Just drop away; a little distance is needed. One day, when you are really distant, thinking stops. When the driver is out, the car stops because there is nobody to drive it now. Then you will have a good laugh, seeing that it has just been a misunderstanding. Now, whenever you need it, think.

You ask a question to me: I respond. The mind functions. I have to talk to you through the mind; there is no other way to talk. But when I am alone, the mind doesn’t function. The mind has not lost the capacity to function. In fact, it has gained more capacity to function and to function rightly. Because it is not functioning constantly, it gathers energy; it becomes more clear. So ‘when the mind stops’ does not mean that you will not be able to think again. In fact, only after that will you be able to think for the first time. Just to be engaged in relevantly irrelevant thoughts is not thinking. It is a mad sort of thing. To be clear, clean, innocent, is to be on the right path for thinking.

Then when a problem arises you are not confused; you don’t look at the problem through prejudices. You look directly at it, and in that direct look the problem starts melting. If the problem is a problem, it will melt and disappear. If the problem is not a problem but a mystery, it will melt and deepen. Then you will be able to see what is a problem.

A problem is that which can be solved by the mind; a mystery is that which cannot be solved by the mind. A mystery has to be lived; a problem has to be solved. But when you are too much in your thoughts, you cannot know what is a mystery and what is a problem. Sometimes you take a mystery as a problem. Then your whole life you struggle and it is never solved. And sometimes you think of a problem as a mystery and you foolishly wait: it could have been solved.

A clarity, a perspective, is needed. When thinking — this constant inner chattering and inner talk — stops, and you have become alert and aware, you are capable of seeing things as they are, you are capable of finding solutions — and you are also capable of knowing what is a mystery. And when you come to feel that something is a mystery, you feel reverence, you feel awe. That is the religious quality of being. To feel reverence is to be religious; to feel awe is to be religious. To be so deeply in wonder that you have again become a child is to enter into the kingdom of God.

Source – Osho Book “Come Follow To You, Vol 1

heartbeatsalute · 26-05-2012, 08:50 PM

Quote:

You have become identified with the mind, that’s all.

It is natural because the mind is so close to you and you have to use the mind so much. One is constantly in the mind. It is as if a driver has been driving a car for years and has never been out of the car. He has forgotten that he can go out, that he is a driver.

He has forgotten completely; he thinks that he himself is a car. He cannot go out because who is there to go out? He has forgotten how to open the door, or the door is completely blocked by not having been used for years.

It has gathered rust, it cannot open easily. The driver has been in the car so much that he has become the car, that’s all. A misunderstanding has arisen. Now he cannot stop the car, because how is he to stop it? Who is going to stop it? --OSHO--

heartbeatsalute · 27-05-2012, 12:21 AM

Osho speaks about his "OSHO Talks", the way he is talking and why.

"...I don't think anybody has spoken really spontaneously the way I am speaking. And I was not aware that my spontaneity would have such a tremendous effect on people. I am not an orator; I have never been trained for oratory. I am just talking the way I talk when you see me personally; I don t see any difference.

But one man who was the first to introduce me to the West, Aubrey Menen.... He is an Anglo-lndian journalist, but he lives in England -- a very famous journalist, one of the topmost. He was the first man to introduce me to the West. He wrote the first book which mentioned me. The book's name is The New Mystics. Not only did he mention me, he has my picture on the cover.

I could not believe what he had written about me. He wrote that he has heard the greatest orators of this century -- Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Jawaharlal Nehru, President Kennedy -- he has listened to all these people, sitting very closely, in the front row, because he was a top journalist. And he says that he was never influenced by anybody the way he was influenced by me. He not only compares me with these people -- Adolf Hitler, President Kennedy, Winston Churchill, and Jawaharlal Nehru -- but he believes me to be the best orator that he has come across. It was a surprise because I am not an orator at all.

I could not believe my eyes. I said, "What is this man talking about? Adolf Hitler was a great orator, Kennedy was a great orator, Jawaharlal was a great orator, Winston Churchill was a great orator; and he is comparing me, who is not an orator at all, with them? What has impressed him?"

He says, "What has impressed me is that I could see simply that this man is absolutely unprepared. He does not know what he is going to say next, but somehow even, thing falls in line. His sentences are small, conversational, as if he is talking man to man, not to a crowd." When you are talking to a crowd, you are talking to the walls: you are not human in your talk.

Winston Churchill said that when he started talking and became an orator, he was very nervous. Later he said, truthfully, he was still nervous when he stood on the podium; he still felt the same first nervousness he had felt sixty years before. But the same trick always helped. And what was his trick? This must be the trick of many great orators. He says, "the first thing that I repeat in my mind is that all these people are idiots; you need not be afraid of them. And once I settle it in my mind that these are all idiots, then I start speaking. Who is afraid of idiots? And then one word leads to another and then gathers momentum; then one is just going like a computer."

All your great orators are just repeating speeches already written by their secretaries. Jawaharlal's secretary, told me that all his speeches were written by him. Not only has he told me, he has written in his memoirs that all those great speeches that Jawaharlal was famous for were written by him. And before going, Jawaharlal would have a look at the speech, and figure out how he was going to manage it.

But with me it is a totally different matter. You are not idiots. I am speaking to people who are potentially enlightened beings; I am speaking with immense respect and love. And I have never felt any kind of nervousness because I am not an orator, I am just conversing with you. Hence, many times it is bound to happen: I will tell only half a story, and then, wherever the wind blows, my cloud starts moving. I have never made any effort that things should be otherwise.

I want to remain absolutely spontaneous.

And I want you also to hear me spontaneously.

In the same way I don't know what I am going to say, you should also be in that emptiness where you don't know what you are going to hear.
Then there is a possibility of a transmission of something which is not in the words but follows the words like a shadow or an aroma.

Then the word will be there; you will hear the word, but the fragrance, the shadow, will enter your being and will stir your heart.
My whole effort is not to convince your intellect:
It is to have a little love affair with your heart.
These are heart-to-heart talks, not oratory:
Not great lectures, but just simple, human talks.

So forgive me, I am going to remain the same way but you can always remind me that I have left something out in the middle. I can always complete it. I would love to complete it but what can I do? There is so much to say -- and nothing to say.

You can understand my problem: so much to say that even if I go on for lives it will still be there -- and nothing to say, because that which I want to give to you is not something which can be said. I am living in this dilemma but trying for some middle way; and I have the feeling I have found the middle way."

Source: From Personality to Individuality #25

heartbeatsalute · 27-05-2012, 12:26 AM

Quote:

All your great orators are just repeating speeches already written by their secretaries. Jawaharlal's secretary, told me that all his speeches were written by him. Not only has he told me, he has written in his memoirs that all those great speeches that Jawaharlal was famous for were written by him. And before going, Jawaharlal would have a look at the speech, and figure out how he was going to manage it.

But with me it is a totally different matter. You are not idiots. I am speaking to people who are potentially enlightened beings; I am speaking with immense respect and love. And I have never felt any kind of nervousness because I am not an orator, I am just conversing with you. Hence, many times it is bound to happen: I will tell only half a story, and then, wherever the wind blows, my cloud starts moving. I have never made any effort that things should be otherwise.--OSHO--

heartbeatsalute · 27-05-2012, 12:36 AM

OSHO: Heart to Heart Talks - YouTube

heartbeatsalute · 27-05-2012, 01:06 AM

The Talent of Creating Wealth
Discourses — 31 August 2011

Osho, Can you talk about money? What are all these feelings which are around money? What makes it so powerful that people sacrifice their lives for it?

Beloved Osho, Can you talk about money? What are all these feelings which are around money? What makes it so powerful that people sacrifice their lives for it?

Osho namaste

This is a very significant question.

All the religions have been against wealth because wealth can give you all that can be purchased in life. And almost everything can be purchased except those spiritual values – love, compassion, enlightenment, freedom. But these few things are exceptions, and exceptions always prove the rule. Everything else you can purchase with money. Because all the religions have been against life, they were bound to be against money. That is a natural corollary. Life needs money because life needs comforts, life needs good food, life needs good clothes, good houses. Life needs beautiful literature, music, art, poetry. Life is vast!

And a man who cannot understand classical music is poor. He is deaf. He may hear – his eyes, his ears, his nose, all his senses will be perfectly right medically – but metaphysically….

Can you see the beauty of great literature, like The Book of Mirdad? If you cannot see it, you are blind.

I have come across people who have not even heard the name of The Book of Mirdad. If I am to make a list of the great books, that will be the first. But to see the beauty of it you will need a tremendous discipline.

To understand classical music is possible only if you learn – and it is a long learning. It is not like jazz music, for which no learning is needed. Even monkeys can understand jazz – in fact, only monkeys understand it. It is not music, just a few crackpots making all kinds of noises, and you think it is music.

You will find better music in a waterfall, or when the wind blows through the pine trees, or simply when you walk in the forest in autumn on dry leaves, and sounds are created. But to understand that, you will need to be free from hunger, free from poverty, free from all kinds of prejudices.

For example, Mohammedans have prohibited music; now they have deprived man of a tremendous experience.

It happened in New Delhi… one of the most powerful Mohammedan emperors, Aurangzeb, was on the throne. And he was not only powerful, he was really terrible.

Up to his time Mohammedan emperors were saying only that music was against Islam, but that was all; Delhi was full of musicians. But Aurangzeb was not a gentleman, he was really a Mohammedan. He declared that if any music was heard in Delhi, the musician would be immediately beheaded. And Delhi was the center, naturally, because it was the capital for thousands of years. So it was the place where all kinds of geniuses were living.

When this declaration was made, all the musicians gathered together, and they said, “Something has to be done, this is too much! They used to say it is against Islam – that was okay. But this man is dangerous, he will start killing.” So as a protest, all the musicians – of which there were thousands – went to Aurangzeb’s palace.

He came on the balcony and asked the people, “Who has died?” – because what they had done… they were carrying a corpse the way it is carried in India. There was no corpse inside, just pillows, but they had managed to make it look like a corpse. Aurangzeb asked, “Who has died?”

And they answered, “Music. And you are the murderer of it.”

Aurangzeb said, “Good that it has died. Now please be kind enough to me – dig as deep a grave as possible, so that it can never come out from the grave again.” Those thousands of musicians and their tears had no effect on Aurangzeb: he was doing something `sacred’.

Music is denied by Mohammedans. Why? – because music was basically played in the East by beautiful women. In the East and in the West the meaning of the word ‘prostitute’ differs. In the West the prostitute is selling her body. In the East, in the past, the prostitute was not selling her body; she was selling her genius, her dance, her music, her art.

You will be surprised that every Indian king used to send his sons who were going to become his successors to live with great prostitutes for a few years, to learn etiquette, to learn gentleness, to learn music, to learn the delicacies of dance – because a king should be really rich about everything. He should understand beauty, he should understand logic, he should understand manners. That has been the old Indian tradition.

Mohammedans disrupted it. Music was against their religion. Why? – because to learn music you had to enter a prostitute’s house. Mohammedans are very much against any rejoicing, and the house of the prostitute was full of laughter, songs, music, dance. They simply prohibited it: no Mohammedan can enter a place of music; to hear music is a sin.

And the same has been done by different religions – for different reasons, but they have all been cutting man’s richness. And the most basic teaching is that you should renounce money.

You can see the logic. If you don’t have money, you can’t have anything else. Rather than cutting branches, they were cutting the very roots. A man without money is hungry, is a beggar, has no clothes. You cannot expect him to understand Dostoevsky, Nijinsky, Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, no; that is impossible.

All the religions together have made man as poor as possible. They have condemned money so much, and praised poverty so much that as far as I am concerned, they are the greatest criminals the world has known.

Look what Jesus says: A camel can pass through the eye of a needle, but a rich man cannot pass through the gates of heaven.

Do you think this man is sane? He is ready to allow a camel to pass through the eye of a needle – which is absolutely impossible, but even that impossibility he accepts may be made possible. But a rich man entering into paradise? That is a far bigger impossibility; there is no way to make it possible.

Wealth is condemned. Richness is condemned. Money is condemned. The world is left in two camps. Ninety-eight percent of the people live in poverty, but with a great consolation, that where rich people will not be able to enter, they will be received with angels playing on their harps, “Alleluia… Welcome!” And the two percent who are rich are living with tremendous guilt that they are rich.

They cannot enjoy their richness because of the guilt. And they are deep down afraid: perhaps they may not be allowed to enter into paradise. So they are in a dilemma. Riches are creating guilt in them – they will not be consoled because they are not mourning: they will not be allowed in paradise because they are having so many things on the earth. They will be thrown into hell.

Because of this situation, the rich man lives in a very fearful state. Even if he enjoys, or tries to enjoy things, his guilt poisons it. He may be making love to a beautiful woman, but it is only the body that is making love. He is thinking of paradise where camels are entering, and he is standing outside and there is no way to go in. Now can this man make love? He may be eating the best food possible, but he cannot enjoy it. He knows this life is short, and after that is just darkness and hellfire. He lives in a paranoia.

The poor man is already living in hell, but he lives with a consolation. You will be surprised to know that in poor countries people are more contented than in rich countries.
I have seen the poorest people in India with no dissatisfaction at all. And Americans are going around the world to find some spiritual guidance – naturally, because they don’t want to be defeated by camels; they want to enter into the gates of heaven. They want to find some way, some yoga, some exercises, as a compensation.

This whole world has been turned against itself.

Perhaps I am the first person who is respectful of money, of wealth, because it can make you multi-dimensionally rich.

A poor man cannot understand Mozart. A hungry man cannot understand Michelangelo. A beggar will not even look at the paintings of Vincent van Gogh. And these people who are suffering from hunger don’t have enough energy to make them intelligent.

Intelligence comes only when you have superfluous energy in you. They are exhausted just in earning bread and butter. They don’t have intelligence. They cannot understand The Brothers Karamazov, they can only listen to some stupid priest in a church.

Neither the priest understands what he is talking about, nor the audience. Most of them are fast asleep, tired after six days of work. And the priest finds it more comfortable that everybody is asleep, so he need not prepare a new sermon. He can go on using the old sermon. Everybody is asleep, nobody will figure out that he is just cheating them.

Wealth is as significant as beautiful music, as great literature, as masterpieces of art.

There are people who have a born capacity to be a musician. Mozart started playing beautiful music at the age of eight. When he was eight, other great masters of music were not anywhere near him. Now, this man is born with that creativity.

Vincent van Gogh was born of a poor father who worked in a coal mine. He never got educated, he never knew any art school, but he became one of the greatest painters of the world. But in his whole life he could not sell a single painting. Now each painting…

There are only two hundred of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings available; he painted thousands but he gave them away just for a packet of cigarettes, or a meal, or a cup of tea. Now each of his paintings is worth a million dollars or more.

What happened? Why couldn’t people understand his paintings? His paintings need tremendous intelligence to be understood.

Just a few days ago I saw a picture of one of his paintings. For that painting he was laughed at by all painters, what to say about others? – because he had painted stars in a way nobody had seen stars: like nebulae, every star in movement, like a wheel turning continuously. Who had seen stars like that?

Even other painters said, “You are going mad – these are not stars!” And moreover, the trees that he painted underneath the stars are going higher than the stars. Stars are left far behind, trees have reached far ahead. Now who has seen such trees? This is just madness!

But a few days ago I saw a picture of this type. Physicists have now discovered that van Gogh is right: stars are not as they look, they are exactly the way van Gogh has painted them. Poor van Gogh! What eyes that man must have had, to see what physicists took one hundred years to find out, with all their big labs and big technology. And Vincent van Gogh, strangely enough, just with bare eyes figured out the exact shape of the stars. They are whirling, they are whirling dervishes; they are not static the way you see them.

And when he was asked about his trees, that “Where have you found these trees which go above the stars?” he said, “These are the trees I have found, sitting by their side listening to their ambitions. I have heard the trees say to me that they are the ambitions of the earth to reach to the stars.”

Perhaps a few more centuries may be needed for scientists to discover that certainly the trees are the ambitions of the earth. One thing is certain, that trees are moving against gravitation. The earth is allowing them to move against gravitation – supporting, helping them. Perhaps the earth wants some communication with the stars. The earth is alive, and life always wants to go higher and higher and higher. There is no limit to its aspirations.
How are the poor people going to understand? They don’t have the intelligence.

Just as there are born poets, born painters, I would like you to remember there are born wealth-creators. They have never been appreciated. Everybody is not a Henry Ford, and cannot be.

Henry Ford was born poor, and became the richest man in the world. He must have had some talent, some genius for creating money, for creating wealth. And that is far more difficult than to create a painting, or music, or poetry. To create wealth is not an easy job. Henry Ford should be praised just as any master musician, novelist, poet. In fact, he should be praised more, because with his money all the poetry and all the music and all the sculptures of the world can be purchased.

I respect money. Money is one of the greatest inventions of man. It is just a means. Only idiots have been condemning it; perhaps they were jealous that others have money and they don’t. Their jealousy became their condemnation.

Money is nothing but a scientific way of exchanging things. Before there was money, people were in real difficulty. All over the world there was a barter system. You have a cow and you want to purchase a horse. Now it is going to be your whole lifelong task…. You have to find a man who wants to sell a horse and wants to purchase a cow. It is so difficult a job! You may find people who have horses but they are not interested in buying cows. You may find people who are interested in buying cows but they don’t have horses.

That was the situation before money came into existence. Naturally, people were bound to be poor: they could not sell things, they could not buy things. It was such a difficult job. Money made it so simple. The man who wants to sell the cow need not search for the man who wants to sell his horse. He can simply sell the cow, take the money and find the man who wants to sell the horse, but is not interested in a cow.

Money became the medium of exchange; the barter system disappeared from the world. Money did a great service to humanity. And because people became capable of purchasing, selling, naturally they became more and more rich.

This has to be understood. The more money moves, the more money you have. For example, if I have one dollar with me…. It is just for example, I don’t have one; I don’t have even a cent with me. I don’t even have pockets! Sometimes I get worried that if I get a dollar, where am I going to keep it?

For example, if I have a dollar and I go on keeping it to myself, then in this mandir there is only one dollar. But if I purchase something and the dollar moves to somebody else, I get the worth of the dollar – which I will enjoy. You cannot eat the dollar. How can you enjoy it just by keeping it? You can enjoy it only by spending it. I enjoy; the dollar reaches to somebody else, Now if he keeps it, then there are only two dollars – one I have enjoyed already, and one is with that miser who is keeping it.

But if nobody is a clinger, and everybody is moving the dollar as fast as possible – if there are three thousand people, three thousand dollars have been used, enjoyed. That is one single round. Just give more rounds and there will be more dollars. Nothing is coming in; there is, in fact, only one dollar, but by movement it goes on multiplying itself.

That’s why money is called currency. It should be a current. That’s my meaning. I don’t know about others’ meanings. One should not keep it. The moment you get it, spend it. Don’t waste time, because that much time you are preventing the dollar from growing, from becoming more and more.

Money is a tremendous invention.

It makes people richer, it makes people capable of having things that they don’t have. But all the religions have been against it. They don’t want humanity to be rich, and they don’t want humanity to be intelligent, because if people are intelligent, who is going to read the Bible?

Just the other day, I received the information that one atheist group in America has published a Bible with pictures. That Bible will be condemned by all the Christians, by the government, because it is pornographic. It is more pornographic than anything else, because in the Bible there is so much pornography….

Just by reading it you are not aware. Now, when I was talking to you about Sodom… in this new Bible they have made pictures of men making love to animals, women making love to animals. There is adultery, there is homosexuality, there is sodomy, there is rape. You name it and it is in the Bible!

I have said that we should immediately order it. My people should start reading the real Bible! And order it immediately, because there is every possibility it will be prohibited. Never in the world has any book been so pornographic as this Bible.

And they are not doing anything which is not in the Bible – they are just making pictures of it. You can understand pictures better. Just reading the word `rape’ is nothing, but when you see a series of rapes pictured, then you become suddenly aware – this is a holy Bible.

Religions never wanted man to be intelligent, never wanted man to be rich, never wanted man to rejoice, because people who are in suffering, poor, unintelligent – they are the clients of churches, synagogues, temples, mosques.

I have never gone to any religious place. Why should I go? If the religious place wants to have some taste of religion it should come to me. I am not going to Mecca, Mecca has to come to me! Otherwise I don’t care. I am not going to Jerusalem, I am not mad – just a little bit crazy, but not mad. And when we can create a place of joy and laughter and love here, what is there in Israel? We have created the new Israel.

Drop all ideas that have been imposed upon you about money.

Be respectful to it.

Create wealth, because only after creating wealth do many other dimensions open for you.

For the poor man all doors are closed.

I want my sannyasins to be as rich as possible, as comfortable as possible. This is the first commune in the whole history of man where every house is centrally air-conditioned. Never before has any commune happened with air-conditioning.

This is the only commune where, while I am talking to you, you can laugh, you can enjoy, you can dance, you can do anything – because your laughter connects you to me more than your sitting there sad, with a long face.

You cannot laugh in a church the way you are doing here. Just looking at Jesus Christ hanging on the cross all laughter will die.

In fact, for the first time we are giving religion its true color, its music, its dance, its love, its laughter.

Osho, From Death to Deathlessness, Ch 22, Q 3

heartbeatsalute · 27-05-2012, 01:11 AM

Quote:

All the religions have been against wealth because wealth can give you all that can be purchased in life. And almost everything can be purchased except those spiritual values – love, compassion, enlightenment, freedom. But these few things are exceptions, and exceptions always prove the rule. Everything else you can purchase with money. Because all the religions have been against life, they were bound to be against money. That is a natural corollary. Life needs money because life needs comforts, life needs good food, life needs good clothes, good houses. Life needs beautiful literature, music, art, poetry. Life is vast!--OSHO--

26-05-2012, 08:34 AM	#1623
heartbeatsalute Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 10,193	(The interview was taken by Swami Aatmo Neerav on Osho’s Mahaparinirvana day on 19th January) from sannyasworld.com 18 years have passed since Osho left his body and much has changed inside, outside and around the sannyas world. The wild dance of his energy, the wisdom in his words and the flight of his movement is reaching many and is taking its pace in acceleration. We sat down and discussed the controversies, the happenings, the poignant moments of this movement of the new man with Swami Anand Arrun, an old disciple. Here are his words. What is the difference between Nirvana and Mahaparinirvana? When a person attains nirvana or enlightenment he becomes free but remains in the body due to his past karmas and sanskaras. After a master attains nirvana he works for the world and makes connection with the people before dropping the body or mahaparinirvana. At the same time a part of his energy is also engaged in maintaining the body and body related relationship and work. Before mahaparinirvana, ultimate freedom is not possible because we remain confined or centered with the body. Osho has mentioned that remaining in the body was an imprisonment for him and he sometimes felt suffocated. Once the master drops his physical body his energy becomes totally free and available for a disciple. His consciousness becomes one with the existence and then only he becomes all powerful and universal in true sense. When Osho was in physical body it was a great task for us to reach him, in Rajneeshpuram it was very difficult for the Asian disciples to get the visa and to arrange for the travelling expense. But now you don't have to travel to any specific place to come in contact with him. You just have to close your eyes and remember him with love and trust and he will be available anywhere you pray for his presence. This is the difference. Its almost two decades since Osho left his body and the work has still continued. Do you see any difference? Yes there are differences. Superficial people who were connected only with his words and his physical body thought that the movement was over. They started searching for another master and dropped sannyas. When I travel in the west people are surprised when I talk about Osho in present tense. People ask me, "Movement is still alive in Nepal? Do you still wear mala? Do you still have commune? Is sannyas still happening like the old days? We thought it was finished." For those who thought that his physical reality is the only reality, his physical absence has made a difference. But for us who trust in him and his energy it has become easier to contact him. Before when he was in Pune, I used to visit him three times in a year. But you couldn't go near Osho because of the crowd. In Pune II, darshans or interviews were not possible and we saw him only during the lectures. We could only send him letters. So for us he has come closer after dropping the body. It has become easier for him also. When he was in the body then also he was travelling out of the body to help his disciples but only for a short period because you can't travel out of the body for a long time. A lot of care had to be taken because the temperature of the body should remain the same when you leave and re-enter the body. That's why his room was on air condition between 18-20 degrees centigrade all the time. Before starting sannyas Osho preferred to remain in open air but after sannyas he had to confine himself to air condition. That's why a yogi moves to the Himalayas because the temperature there always remains the same. It's cold there and prevents the body from decaying. So these are esoteric facts which are difficult for general people to understand and spiritually I am not permitted to go in details. But I can tell you that after Osho dropped his body he has become more active, more available and his work has accelerated. So spiritually we have not lost anything. The leading Osho communes don't seem to be in harmony with each other each claiming that they are doing the right Osho work. What is your view on this? It is natural. It always happens when the master leaves his body. When Buddha left his body his disciples immediately divided into 36 sects even though Buddha had already declared his successors. But in Osho's case Osho did not declare any succesors. He didn't do that for certain reasons. So there is no central figure and unfortunately the most important ashram, The Pune Ashram (currently known as Osho Meditation Resort) is being managed by efficient resort managers who don’t care about spirituality. They created as much confusion as possible about sannyas, mala or calling yourself ma or swami. They instructed meditation centres not to hang Osho pictures or play Osho songs. So when such instructions came from the "headquarters" it created much confusion around the world. A lot of Osho disciples dropped sannyas and went to other masters and most of the centres got closed in the West. The remaining centre leaders and therapists also started giving their own instructions. Therapists started claiming themselves as enlightened and real Osho succesors and started inventing their own therapies which were not even approved by Osho. In India also a new sect Osho Dhara came up and other centre leaders also started giving their interpretations. When there is no guidance, no central figure to give you guidelines this happens. This is natural and I am not surprised. Recently the American court made a decision against the Osho International Foundation suspending their hold over the word Osho as their business trademark. Please comment. This is a rather late decision. It should have come much earlier. Because of the confusion created by the management of Pune resort, uselessly for ten years sannyasins had to fight a court case. Pune resort also spent a lot of money to protect their trademark and Sw. Atul and sannyasins also spent a lot of energy and money to make Osho free. So a lot of money and energy was wasted in something which was useless. Right hand had to fight with the Left hand and the energy which could have been put into Osho work was wasted in fighting. It was a nonsense decision to create Osho as a business trademark and have copyright over it. But thank god that truth and justice has prevailed and Osho is free from this trademark. All over the world people are happy except for a few managers who want to make a business out of Osho. This is a good decision. There are a few controversies attached with your name. One is that you claim that you are enlightened. I am only a seeker on the path and I am honored to be his disciple. And I don’t need any other adjective other than that. I have never claimed that I am enlightened. In 1984 Osho declared few people as enlightened, Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas. My name was also declared as a Bodhisattva and Acharya he said that all his Boddhisattvas will become enlightened in this life and they will not have to take another life. And I am one of the oldest centre leader. So I have all the ingredients to declare myself enlightened. But I have never said that I am enlightened. People are with me since a long time and nobody can quote me say that anywhere. I am against anybody who's making this claim because I know many of my friends who have declared themselves enlightened have done it because of some inferiority/superiority complex or because of impatience. They cannot wait. All of us will become enlightened, we are on the path and I can wait. And when the journey is so beautiful what is the need to claim that I have achieved to the goal. So these people who are making this allegation on me, maybe they think that I am enlightened. Are you a self-proclaimed guru? I have seen Osho go through so much torture just because he was trying to help people. The first thing is that after he started giving sannyas his health deteriorated and he had to be confined to his air conditioned room all the time. He was criticized all over the world because he declared himself a master or Bhagwaan. He was not only tortured in America but many parts of the world because he wanted to help this dying humanity. If he had lived by himself, he could have lived a very comfortable life for a century just from the royalty from his books. But he suffered because he wanted to help this humanity which is MAD, SICK, which doesn't understand compassion and always misbehaves with the masters. Anytime any master is born in any part of the world, this humanity will always crucify him whether it is Socrates, Jesus, Rajneesh or Mansoor. It could not even tolerate a simple and honest man like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. who were murdered simply for telling the truth and didn’t even claim themselves enlightened. So I have seen how this world behaves with a real guru. And the torture I have seen Osho go through in American jails, in Indian media, it is horrible. Still people are devaluating Osho and they haven't been honest with him. In India, anybody who writes two or three popular books or serves the Indian language gets a lot of respect; he gets Padmashree, Padmabhusan or Gyan Pith Puraskar. Osho has given about 300 classical books in Hindi and 400 classical books in English that havev been translated in all major languages and are bestsellers and yet he was not duly recognized even as an author. He has designed 300 beautiful techniques of meditation for this sick society, do you see anybody giving him thanks? I have seen how this cruel society, how his own disciples have misbehaved and tortured my master and are still damaging his work. So looking at the whole drama only an idiot will try to become a guru and I am not an idiot. I will be the last person to become a guru. Why are you so much interested in the media? Yes, it has some truth in it. Through media I have made Osho popular in Nepal. I have used the media. I have regularly spoken on television, given interviews on radio, published books, written articles in newspapers and magazines. I have worked hard otherwise how I could reach all the people in Nepal and I have no power, no personal radio station or newspaper. It is a torture to write articles spending hours sacrificing your meditation time. It is a torture to face mundane questions of journalists. But that is how I have made Osho popular in Nepal by using the media. Osho started sannyas in 1970 and in 77 his words had reached all parts of the world. This happened because of the power of media. So I have learnt from my master. Because of active support of the media we have over 50000 sannyasins in Nepal, 4 active communes and four upcoming communes and seventy active meditation centres. Why are you always surrounded by the crowd? Living in a crowd for a meditator is a torture. You lose your inner balance and your energy in the crowd. I am not a politician and I don't need any vote from the crowd. Being in the crowd is a torture for me but I am in the crowd because I can help people. How many people can I meet in a day if I meet them individually? If I want to share Osho I have to remain in the crowd as long as my body permits me. But it is becoming difficult every day. It is not a pleasure for me to be in public, it is a torture but sometimes you have to go through it. It seems that you like foreigners otherwise why do you travel so much. There are no foreigners for me. I believe in universal family and in universal brotherhood. We all belong to the same planet and this term is not applicable for us. It is applicable only for politicians who keep the world divided. And Osho has instructed me to take his message to different parts of the world. Unfortunately in the west there are not many leaders who are conducting meditation camps. They are only doing therapies. In the west it is difficult to find people interested in expanding Osho's message, opening centres or spreading sannyas. Our meditations are group meditations and our work is school work and without centres and communes the work will not have roots and spiritual growth is difficult. So looking at this I started travelling in the west conducting meditation camps and opening centres. My main objective is to open centres and communes and inspire people for regular activities so that the work continues even after I leave this body. So that's why I am interested in travelling. People claim that you are only interested in the rich and executive. Although I have been trying to, unfortunately I have not been able to reach the rich people otherwise we would have had a lot of centres and communes in the West. Those who come to my camps are young professionals and young professionals don't have much money. Business men have money. Politicians have money. Those who come to my camp are rich in soul, they are rich in consciousness, and they are rich in understanding. But if I meet people who are rich in pocket I'll be happier. Osho devoted his whole life for the new man and you have already given four decades of your life. Has it been worthwhile? Do you see that light of hope? Yes, I see that light of hope. You are young and I see a lot of hope in you that's why you are here asking me these beautiful questions. Although my beard and my hair are getting white all my friends are young. And I see much hope in young people. For instance when I was in Canada I met Amrito who is of your age. I inspired him for Osho's work and now he is full of spirit. He's working hard running a centre, conducting meditation camps and when somebody writes against Osho, me or Tapoban on any media he is the first one to respond. So the new man will come and we have to wait because it is not like a seasonal flower. People have to be free from their old conditionings and mature in meditation and understanding, it takes time. Osho worked so hard for 39 years. When I first met Osho I was one of the most miserable person. He gave me the hope to live. If I had not met him I would have died a miserable death much earlier. But he helped an ordinary miserable person like me and today I see myself as one of the happiest person on Earth. I see hope because if my life can change a lot of other people around the world can also change. And I have seen it happening. Whenever I go back to cities where I have taken camps and initiated people into sannyas, I see that they have become happier, wealthier, and are more loving. I know I can't change the whole world but if I can change even a person like you my job is done. He will make the other mad person like me and the chain will continue. People are changing and it takes time. Please share with us one of your most memorable moment spent with Osho. There are many but I can tell you one. When Osho was in Manali after Rajneeshpuram he stayed there for one and a half months and I was there with him. There were only 18-20 disciples. Every morning at 9 o' clock he used to walk near the Vyas River and sit in silence watching the Himalayas and the river for an hour. Sometimes he used to call somebody to sit with him in meditation or talk intimately with him. He called me on the very first day I arrived and I was the first person who was given this privilege. He was sitting on a wooden bench and I was sitting on the sand near his feet and I was free to ask him any question. Just sitting in his presence was a blessing and I can't describe it to you in words. I can't create that milieu. You are immediately transported to some other plane whenever you are in his presence. So a few times he called me and I was with him for an hour. Those were the golden moments of my life. No river can be compared with the beauty of a Himalayan river and no mountain can be compared with the energy of the Himalayas. So amidst this beauty I was sitting with Osho, something I had not even dreamt of. I asked him many personal questions because it was just two of us. I asked him one question which I would like to share with you. It had just been two days after he had come back from Rajneeshpuram where he had access to all the luxuries in the world including his palatial bedroom, bathroom, and his 99 Rolls Royces. And now here he was in Manali living in a small room which was around 12sqmtr. His bathroom had a geyser but there was not enough power to heat the water. He had come from the airport in an old ambassador car and you know how dirty Indian taxies are. But he had no complaint and he was not missing anything. I missed Rajneeshpuram and I was sad and everybody else was sad except for Osho. He was damn happy in the Himalayas. So I asked him, "Osho don't you miss anything?" and he replied, "Why should I miss anything? You look the mountains are so beautiful and see that cloud over there. Do you have this type of cloud in Nepal? Oh I love the Himalayas and I had always dreamt to come here and finally the existence brought me here. I am so happy in Manali." That was his statement. I said to Osho that when I was in Pune I had purchased a second hand bicycle in 40 Rupees and somebody stole it. It was my entire saving and after that I couldn't even afford to take a rickshaw. I missed the bicycle for a long time. I asked Osho, "You had 99 Rolls Royces, don't you miss the cars?" Bhagwan said, "No, I don't miss them because I had never thought that they were mine. They were toys and I played with them. The play is over. You miss your bicycle because you thought they were yours. I never thought that the cars belonged to me. I was not attached with them but you were attached with that old bicycle. That is the difference and this is the lesson that I want to give to you. Don't get attached with anything but enjoy everything that life gives to you. And in that way you will always remain free." That was his message. __________________ The belief that society exists has sabotaged every effort to change mankind. It is the reason why revolutions have failed. It is about a totally different revolution: the revolution in the heart of the individual. Last edited by heartbeatsalute; 26-05-2012 at 08:37 AM.

26-05-2012, 08:51 AM	#1625
heartbeatsalute Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 10,193	Nobody Channels Osho An Interview with Osho's medium, Ma Anando About people who claim that they are channeling Osho (Appeared in the Osho Times International (OTI) of May 1, 1991) Osho and Anando OTI: Different people around the world are claiming to be receiving messages from Osho as mediums. Others say they are "channeling" him. On his last day in his body, Osho specifically chose you to be his medium. In fact, his very last words are.... "Anando will be my medium." So what is your response to these reports? Anando: Yes, I heard there are some sannyasins in Switzerland claiming to be receiving messages from Osho. Osho speaks about this in The Hidden Splendor. In response to his old and much loved disciple, Sarjano, who said that he heard a message from Osho. Osho says: "It is just your imagination, Sarjano. ... You love me, and you are so full of me that even if you speak in your imagination, you may hear my voice. But remember one thing: except for silence, everything else is your imagination - howsoever beautiful. ... My path is not the path of imagination. It is the path that does not use the mind at all. Imagination and projection and hallucination and illusion - they are all parts of the mind. My simple approach is transcendence of mind. So only when you start seeing absolute nothingness, utter silence, can you see that I am very close by. In that silence you have heard me. In that nothingness you have seen me. But if you see something, if you hear something, then it is your imagination - you have fallen from the beyond, back into the mind." OTI: So Osho is saying that his message is silence, and that except for silence, anything else people think they hear him say is imagination? Anando: Yes. He says that people claiming to receive "messages" from the beyond, even if those people are authentic - and he says ninety percent are frauds - they are in fact only channeling their unconscious mind: "Out of ten, nine are not authentic. If somebody is authentic, then all that happens in reality is that he relaxes, his conscious mind goes to sleep, and from his unconscious mind, collective unconscious mind, cosmic unconscious mind, things start coming up. You can say they are coming from ghosts. You can talk about them in psychological terms and say they are coming from the unconscious. Or you can talk about them in California terms: they are coming from channel number one, channel number two. But they are all coming from your own unconscious mind." OTI: Doesn't Osho also suggest a way of checking who is authentic and who is a fraud? Anando: Yes. First he tells a very funny story about how he used to go up to fakirs and poke them with a needle to see if they could remain in their trance. Then he says: "If there is someone sincere, that means he is relaxing to the point where the unconscious mind starts throwing up its repressed contents. It has no spiritual value. But it will be good to check. Go to any person who is channeling with the galaxies, but keep a good needle with you! With the needle, the person will start dancing, jumping, and his galaxies will start going higher - from one channel to nine channels. You can check. If your needle does not work, that means the person is at least not a fraud, but he is simply falling into unconsciousness and allowing his unconscious to reveal its contents. But they have no spiritual value." OTI: But Osho also says that people who love him will be in contact with him even when he leaves the body, doesn't he? Anando: Yes. But he is talking about his presence, not about "messages" for people. It is said to a group leader who asks whether he is deluding himself about being a vehicle for Osho - allowing his love and silence to pour through him when he works. Osho responds: "If you have loved me, even when I am not in the body there can still be a contact. For love it makes no difference." That is a totally different phenomenon from someone claiming to be getting messages for people from Osho. As a vehicle for Osho, the sannyasin therapist is not claiming to be dialling Osho on the hot line and acting as a telephone operator. He is simply being who he is, and sharing whatever wisdom he has embodied as a disciple. If he is sincere he will say something like: "This is my understanding of Osho but don't depend on me. Start your own search, read Osho's books, watch his video discourses, do his meditations and discover your own connection with the Master." So the therapist will not create any dependence by putting himself between the person and Osho; he will not say "I have a message for you from Osho." Priests have been doing that for thousands of years because their whole business depends on it. But a meditator needs no intermediary. OTI: Doesn't Osho speak about the gap that can happen when a master leaves his body, and the danger of the disciples being exploited? Anando: Yes, many times. He says that in this vacuum people with guru minds will jump at the opportunity to exploit people - that the gap creates a feeling of vulnerability, and that in the whole world today there isn't anywhere such a pool of seekers as here, and that is irresistibly attractive to the guru mind. The guru mind he describes as like the mind of a wolf which sees vulnerable people as sheep and can't help itself. He says there are guru minds both inside sannyas and outside, that the guru mind has always existed in sannyas, but was unable to move because of his presence in the body. "When I leave the body," he warns, "the guru mind will sense the opportunity to move." He says Teertha was always in competition with him, but couldn't make his move until Osho was not available to his people because of the world tour. Then the mind saw the opening and he had to move. "When I am no longer present in the body," he says, "the people who were in competition with me under the surface will make their move. The guru mind, the exploiting mind, the wolf's mind, can't help itself. Like Teertha it will move. But it needs the sheep - without sheep, the wolf is no problem." And what creates sheep is the gap - or the fear of the gap, the fear of being alone. This is inevitable when a master leaves his body. That is why he speaks of it so many times, warning us to be alert for this after he is no longer with us. When a sannyasin asked Osho about needing personal guidance from someone tuning into him, Osho's response is very clear: "The idea of personal guidance is mind's old habit to become dependent on someone... Nobody needs personal guidance because all personal guidance is a beautiful name for dependence on somebody, and he is going to distort you... A meditator needs no personal guidance. A meditator, on the contrary, needs only one thing: the atmosphere of meditation. He needs other meditators; he needs to be surrounded by other meditators. Because whatever goes on happening within us is not only within us, it affects people who are close by. In this communion people are at different stages of meditation. To meditate with these people, just to sit silently with these people, and you will be pulled more and more towards your own intrinsic potentiality." OTI: As the one who is left by Osho in the role of his medium, you have probably looked into this whole issue pretty thoroughly, haven't you? Anando: Yes. As I see it, he rules out the idea of any verbal messages to people on an individual or personal level, or relating to issues of everyday life. In fact, for many years now he hasn't been giving people individual advice about what they should do and what they shouldn't do in their personal life, what is best for them, etc. He says that he has said everything, that people should read his books and listen to his discourses, that his only interest is to get us into meditation. So it is not his way to give these kinds of messages. But it is an obvious way for the guru mind to establish spiritual authority. There's one more thing I'd like to say: Osho specifically speaks about messages from disembodied masters. He says: "When a message comes from a master, it has to be something so absolutely needed that the masters who are no more in their bodies feel that a message should be sent to all unconscious, sleeping, blind people. But it is only when there is something urgent; otherwise there is no need." He says that only in a state of No-Mind is it possible to receive such a message. If it ever happens, I'll let you know! A sannyasin wrote to correct Anando on one point: One thing about the paragraph above: even towards the "end," Osho WAS still giving individual advice to written questions. Many such questions continued to be submitted. Most of them, I understand, were dealt with by others, "routine" questions that could be dealt with by stock answers, but not all. Some questions he still answered himself. I know of such cases. The short written answers were delivered by one of his secretaries, Neelam, Hasya, etc, and explained, enlarged by that secretary's personal insight, but there is no question that he WAS still giving individual guidance to rank-and-file sannyasins, if you'll pardon the expression. Beloved Osho, The other morning before lecture, I suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to touch, with great gratitude, the floor where you walk. In that moment I heard again that voice - it still sounds like your voice: "If you can kiss in gratitude the place on earth where I have stepped... I want to tell you, that I've stepped everywhere on this earth." This is really too much, for I see myself in tears, kissing every spot on the earth. And again that voice comes in me, or from me, whispering, "If you can kiss in gratitude all the earth, and all that abides on the earth, you don't need me anymore." Please, Osho, tell me that I was just imagining, that it was just a dream. You haven't said that to me, have you? Sarjano, the idea is Catholic. You come from the country of the pope, and that fellow goes on kissing the earth wherever he goes - even in India, where kissing the earth means kissing cow dung. When he kissed it here, that very day I said, "He has tasted something of Hindu religion." It is just your imagination, Sarjano. There is no need for your gratitude to be expressed in stupid gestures. Just being grateful, your eyes full of tears, your heart just melting and merging with existence, is enough. Kissing the earth is just an idiotic symbol; I could never have said anything like this to you. But you love me, and you are so full of me that even if you speak in your imagination, you may hear my voice. But remember one thing: except for silence, everything else is your imagination - howsoever beautiful. Only your silence I can say has my support, because only in your silence are you close to the very center of existence. In absolute silence, you become the very center yourself. But remember to avoid any kind of imagination - all imagination - even beautiful imagination, apparently looking like the divine. (Osho - The Hidden Splendor #9) __________________ The belief that society exists has sabotaged every effort to change mankind. It is the reason why revolutions have failed. It is about a totally different revolution: the revolution in the heart of the individual. Last edited by heartbeatsalute; 26-05-2012 at 08:54 AM.

26-05-2012, 09:02 AM	#1626
heartbeatsalute Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 10,193	The Mumbai suburban highway, much pockmarked by recent heavy floods, finally gives way and we emerge onto the shiny new Mumbai - Pune expressway.."the newest and best road in India" I am assured by my driver, and I can believe it. It's a full-blown pay-toll motorway, with remarkably little traffic. I am heading for "Osho International Meditation Resort"...for the first time, having known of it for decades and yet only in the last few years did I start meeting current and ex devotees of Osho and become curious enough to go. I am feeling slightly apprehensive....will I make it through those gates? (I know of people who did the same thing and somehow just couldn't ...). We get to Pune and in heavy traffic jams find our way to Koregaon Park. My driver gets lost. "I came here before but it was a long time ago..." We are driving down the leafy lane that leads to the ashram itself, waterfalls, gates, red robed people ....my God here we are....... I'm self consciously standing with my shiny silver suitcase at the high tech, high design marble reception area. water tinkling everywhere, be-robed people behind the desk with cool looking computer screens. other newcomers looking like I feel. Bizarre aids test moment all over in a few minutes....you will need red robes from the shop over there...buy your spending vouchers here... credit card style thing for entry to the ashram....that's xxx rupees, cash only, you are registered. All very military, but friendly. Meditation Sufi style at the OSHOInternational Click thumbnail to view full-size Osho International Meditation Resort video I’m taken to the Osho Guest House across the road, in the grounds of the Ashram. It’s extremely Zen (almost too much so), minimalist. clean lines, attentive staff in uniform, quiet. It is nearly empty as far as I can tell, or is everyone just being very quiet? It’s low season…late September. The rooms simple but quite high quality…no TV of course and no phone. but lots of AC..it’s freezing. On the morning of the next day I join a mandatory introduction group for first timers, where we get a lightening tour plus a brief intro to some of the meditations that happen at the ashram. A big benefit of this is that I get to meet a peer group, and some of the people in the tour become my friends while I am there. I am grateful for this, as I can see how one could easily feel a bit lonely, especially if you don’t stay long. I had originally intended to stay for 5 days but by day 3 it was apparent that to get a feel for the place I needed longer….so I booked out of the hotel and found a very nice room in an apartment rented to westerners 15 minutes walk away. Although it was very convenient to be in the hotel for the first days, I was nevertheless slightly relieved to be staying outside the bubble of the ashram. It took a deep breath to get through those gates…the robes take some getting used to and some resistance…..I will not wear a uniform! I will not be subjected to an aids test! Don’t tell me what to do! But once I had decided to surrender to the uniform and the “rules” - none of which seem particularly offensive or daft - it is an easy place to be. There is a pleasing lack of any pressure to be involved in anything, no pressure to take Sannyas or even be interested in Osho per se, as far as I can tell. The one exception is that if you take any of the courses (I did a breathing workshop) you are expected to attend Dynamic in the morning, Kundalini in the afternoon and White Robe in the evening. They call it a resort and you can treat it as such, just behave yourself reasonably, follow the rules and wear the robe! They are even promoting a “wellness weekend” package with a glossy brochure. I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the people there…ones I met anyway…were not seasoned guru hoppers and not knowing much about Osho…many quite young…just curious and open minded and looking for something, a kind of innocence and freshness. Koregaon Park (and Pune as a whole) I found to have a nice atmosphere, people are friendly. I had thought there might be a jaded feeling, as in many touristy parts of Asia, after so many years of exposure to multiple westerners, but that wasn’t my experience. I had some surprising encounters with all sorts from rickshaw drivers to internet shop owners to barbers. Has some of the good vibes of the Ashram washed off on the area? Or is it the other way round? There is also the currently much vaunted “Pune effect”. The newspapers have been touting Pune as “the most liveable city in India”, and even “the happiest city in India”. Apparently, in a poll of Indian city dwellers, Punites came top of the charts in claiming to be happy! The Osho movement has inherited a reputation for sexiness…often disapproved of even now by non converts. I personally came up against it (the disapproval) several times from unexpected quarters before and after my visit. I have found myself being defensive about my motivations for going - and defending the ashram itself. My impression is that the ashram/resort has worked hard to become mainstream and reputable, particularly since Osho’s death presumably. The place and Osho himself now seem to be well regarded and considered fairly respectable in India. I don’t doubt that should sexual adventures be on your shopping list this would be available here, there seems to be plenty of single people around, but sex is not emphasised or encouraged overtly in the way some would have one believe. The Ashram is immaculately beautiful and high quality. I did find some of the architecture somewhat bizarre… a lot of dark grey stone buildings and pyramids, but much greenery to cover them which helps. The expense and energy which must have gone into the creating of it is impressive, not least the Osho Teerth Park created out of two city blocks of what was apparently badly polluted wasteland, with a river running through it. One of the more bizarre – to a newcomer – but also exceptional places is Osho’s Samadhi, situated in what appears to be his house complete with library, dental surgery, Rolls Royce, and other personal effects. In addition to that a “raw” marble floor which the stern overseers of the hall make sure you don’t touch with your body or clothes, and expel you if you cough or fidget. I went to meditate in there a couple of times, the atmosphere is peaceful, there is presence in there. Overall it was a positive experience to be at the resort. The atmosphere is warm and stimulating, the place is well run, and while I did not find a teacher there (as far as I know!), the therapeutic work seems very strong and professional, and contrary to the somewhat negative, even abusive, impressions that are thrown around in some quarters, I found a certain innocence and straightforwardness about the place. It is, at the end of the day, exactly what it now claims to be - a “meditation resort.” __________________ The belief that society exists has sabotaged every effort to change mankind. It is the reason why revolutions have failed. It is about a totally different revolution: the revolution in the heart of the individual. Last edited by heartbeatsalute; 26-05-2012 at 09:08 AM.

26-05-2012, 09:14 AM	#1627
heartbeatsalute Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 10,193	Saying 'Osho' Meditation [A sannyasin says: I’m going back to Bombay tomorrow. I just wanted to ask you about my meditation. I’ve been doing the Gourishankar followed by a hot and cold bath as you told me to do. I feel to do meditation but I have this problem that my whole body starts throbbing. If I don’t meditate, the whole Bombay scene and work gets too heavy for me. And I don ’t seem to be able to sleep very well.] Osho - Drop Gourishankar. Start another meditation. And many times meditations have to be changed, because the body, the mind, go on changing. So sometimes one meditation helps, sometimes another. One has to be very much aware, otherwise one can get attached to meditation too. When something becomes uneasy, there is no need to carry on with it. Never be a masochist; don’t torture yourself in any name whatsoever. People have tortured themselves very much in the name of religion, and the name is so beautiful that you can go on torturing yourself. So remember – I teach happiness, not torture! If you feel sometimes that something is becoming heavy, becoming rough going, just tell me – it has to be changed. You will have to change many times. By and by you will come to a point where no change will be needed. Then something will fit absolutely – not only with your mind, with your body, but with your soul. Now it is a very complicated thing. Sometimes something fits with the soul, does not fit with the body. Sometimes something fits with the mind, does not fit with the soul. It is complicated because there are three layers of your being. If it were a question of one layer, there would be no problem – one thing would fit. But there are three demands and on different levels and different planes. So it may be fitting your mind – as I see, it fits with your mind, so you feel good and Bombay does not bother you. But it doesn’t fit with your body so the body starts getting into trouble. Then again if the body is in trouble, the mind will be in trouble. So you choose one thing to avoid one problem; another problem arises out of your choice. So change it. Start one simple meditation. [Osho said that he could do the meditation sitting in a chair, or in whatsoever position was comfortable; comfort should be the prime consideration, otherwise trouble is created for the body. Lights should be dim so there is no tension for the eyes and breathing should be left completely to fall into its own natural rhythm. Our breathing is affected by many different emotions through the course of a day – sadness, anger, happiness. In this meditation it should be just natural – not particularly with an effort to be deep. Each day there will be a slight variance as one may not have slept so well or something may be happening in the body which affects the rhythm.] Within three, four minutes you will feel that the body has relaxed; the breathing has come into a rhythm. Then with each outgoing breath, simply say, ’Osho’ inside; not very loudly – just a whisper, but inside so that you can hear it. When the breath comes in, just wait. When the breath goes out, you call, and when the breath comes out, allow me to come in. Don’t do anything – simply wait; so your work is only when the breath goes out. When the breath goes out, go into the universe. The outgoing breath is almost like dropping a bucket into a well. And when the breath comes in, it is like the bucket being pulled out of the well. This is only for twenty minutes. So four, five minutes to get into it, and then twenty minutes to remain in it. So in all twenty-five minutes at the ... You can have music, but something classical. Try without it also. In Bombay there is so much traffic noise, but try both ways. Try without music. If you feel good, good. You can try with music also, but the music has to be forgotten. You are not to consciously listen to it, otherwise this meditation won’t work. Let it be just a background. It is there, it will be relaxing, but you are not to listen to it. So put on some music that you have listened to many times so you know what it is; there is no curiosity. Never put on new music, but something that you have listened to thousands of times. You are almost fed up with it, bored with it; you already know what it is. Then it becomes just a background – and that’s a good background. Just like incense, music is a good background. But the whole point is that you are not to listen to it. You can open your eyes after twenty minutes and look at the clock, but have no alarm and don’t tell anybody to knock after twenty minutes. That will be very disturbing because you will be in such a deep state of sleep and awakening both. You will be so relaxed that anything sharp can go through you like a knife and can be very disturbing. [The sannyasin asks: And incense? Use the incense like music – as a background?] Yes, just as a background. It will become a background. Fragrance always becomes a background. Nobody attentively smells; it is a very unconscious phenomenon. Maybe for the first time when you enter a room, you smell, but after two, three minutes it becomes a background; one settles with it. The nose is not so nosey, and the mind does not function much from the nose. In fact because the mind cannot function much from the nose, the nose has become almost dull, because the mind doesn’t need it; the mind can go on without it very well. So people don’t have noses. And don’t be deceived by appearances – the nose exists there physically, but the smell capacity is completely lost. So smell, fragrance, music – everything in the background. Just close your eyes and go into it.... You can do it anytime. You can do it during the day, in the night. It’s no problem. Source: " God Is Not For Sale , Chapter 15" - Osho __________________ The belief that society exists has sabotaged every effort to change mankind. It is the reason why revolutions have failed. It is about a totally different revolution: the revolution in the heart of the individual.

26-05-2012, 07:41 PM	#1631
heartbeatsalute Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 10,193	I don't have addictions mainly, no drugs, only social drinks once in a while, but I guess if you don't feel the need of having them, you don't have the vice. I don't smoke, mainly because my parents never let me start with that, and did me a favor. I suppose we are bombarded or we get hooked on either drugs, tobacco, or alcohol, and in this way we are controlled. If this doesn't happen, then there are beliefs, as opposed to experience. And if someone finds the truth, in time they are killed in one way or another , as all spiritual Maters, who have people following their footsteps, because they have become a danger to TPTB, of all ages, who control society. So I suppose that Lao Tzu is right when it says we should not show all that we are,all that we know, or we will be destroyed. when he says: Don't try to prove your worth and reduce yourself to a commodity. Remember, the greatest experience of life comes not through what you do, but through love, through meditation. Lao Tzu and his disciples, went through a forest where all the trees had been cut exceptt one. Lao Tzu asked his disciples to go and inquire why this tree had not been cut. The woodcutters said: "this tree is absolutely useless. You cannot make anything of it because every branch has so many knots in it---nothing is straight, You cannot use it as fuel because the smoke is dangerous to the eyes. This tree is absolutely useless, that's why we haven't cut it." Lao tzu laughed and said: "Be like this tree, If you are useful you will be cut and you will become furniture in someone's house. If you are beautiful you will be sold in the market, you will become a commodity. Be like this tree ,absolutely useless, and then you will grow vast,and thousands of people will find shade under you." Lao Tzu has a logic altogether different from yours. He says: Be the last. Move in the world as if you are not. Don't be competitive, don't try to prove your worth--- there is no need. Remain useless and enjoy." TAO Osho Neo tarot card: WORTH "There is use for your uselessness too. I will make you a tree with a big foliage, and those people who make useful things, will sometimes need to rest in your shade." TAO THE THREE TREASURES, OSHO __________________ The belief that society exists has sabotaged every effort to change mankind. It is the reason why revolutions have failed. It is about a totally different revolution: the revolution in the heart of the individual. Last edited by heartbeatsalute; 26-05-2012 at 08:37 PM.

26-05-2012, 06:14 PM	#1630
lonestar Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 2,031	drinking is my last vice. and i tried them all.... all i drink anymore is piss tasting light beer and i dont know or even care if i will ever quit that. you mentioned fear. i admit to still having a lil fear. but its nothing compared to all the fear i sense in people around me. beer helps me take the edge off sensing that in the people around me. i swear fear is like a virus. im not judging them. it is what it is. but its so obvious to me now watching them hate things to hide their fear. they hate politicians, bankers, friends and family rich people or poor people and any kind of adults who get paid to throw or kick a ball. lol they hate iranians, jews, and i could go on and on and on and on...sometimes it all just starts looking like mirrors and reflections everywhere to me and i need a fucking beer after realizing that. ps i still smoke weed and drink coffee but i dont consider those vices

26-05-2012, 08:27 PM	#1632
heartbeatsalute Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 10,193	http://ashwita.com/zen/peace.php?q=Sex+and+Meditation Delightful Cooking Sex and Meditation The last day of my recent trip to Tiruvannamalai, Jacqueline discussed tantra, sex and spirituality. I must mention before I begin that I'm mostly just quoting what I understood from the satsang that day, but I felt the need to share the information, so here it is. Tantra is always thought of in relation with sex, and often looked down upon by most other 'spiritual' people. Ofcourse, anyone who knows anything about Tantra knows that sex is merely a small fraction of it, and it encompasses so much more. But looking at it from the aspect of physical desires, tantra isn't about encouraging the 'evils' at all - far from it! The sanskrit word for desires based on greed or other vices would be 'vasana'. Tantra isn't about vasanas at all, it is about transcending them, so that the actions associated with those vasanas become meditation, not a fulfilment of the cravings of the mind. So in this regard, Tantra is really about taking the 'sex' out of sex! When I first heard that Osho said there are hundreds of meditations, it confused me. As I know it, there is really only one meditation - witnessing. But I now realise how all these meditations - the dancing meditations, the walking meditations, make sense. Meditation isn't a 'doing', its not something you sit down to do, and get done with, in 15-20 minutes to then get on with the rest of your day. Meditation is a state of being, remaining in awareness all the time, throughout all activities. So if remaining in meditation is really your goal, you want to be doing it all the time. What better way than to practice it in small bits, like walking, or dancing, for example? You gently get used to it, and then go on to do it all the time in 'real' life. While it is not too tough to remain in meditation in calm and serene moments, I've observed that my awareness goes straight out the window when I find myself in an intense situation, either a happy or a difficult one. So any extremely happy or sad situation is really just a test of your meditation - could you meditate through this event? For most people, sex is one of the most intense things they experience. Can you maintain your awareness throughout it, and not get carried away? She read out a piece by Osho, in which he said that the temples of Khajuraho were not an education or encouragement for perverted activities, but a way of transcending them. Ofcourse there is no way I can verify this information, but it just feels right when I hear it. He talks of how a student wasn't allowed to enter the temple initially. One had to meditate - yes, meditate - on the sculptures outside the temple, one sculpture at a time, until all they saw in the sculpture was art, and nothing else. There was no excitement, no sexuality left in that sculpture anymore, just art, just meditation. It took a student about 6 months to go around the temple and when he or she finished, he was finally allowed inside, into an empty space - because once you transcend the most intense excitements of life, nothing else is left, just bliss. Now I can see why Osho's teachings were taken out of context, because people could easily interpret this as oh well, then we just do what we want until it stops exciting us. That is not how it works, not in my understanding. This is the FINAL test! Tantra is no tantra without meditation and one has to be very proficient in meditation before one attempts a tantrik relationship. As I understand it, a tantrik relationship also involves deep commitment and plenty of meditations together, using the combined energies to heal and lift both people up together. __________________ The belief that society exists has sabotaged every effort to change mankind. It is the reason why revolutions have failed. It is about a totally different revolution: the revolution in the heart of the individual. Last edited by heartbeatsalute; 26-05-2012 at 08:42 PM.

26-05-2012, 08:49 PM	#1634
heartbeatsalute Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 10,193	How To Stop my Thoughts ? – Osho talks You cannot stop that which you have not started. Don’t try it, otherwise you will simply be wasting time, energy, life. You cannot stop the mind because you have not started it. You can simply watch, and in watching it stops. Not that you stop it: in watching. it stops. The stopping is a function of watching, it is a consequence of watching. It is not that you stop it; there is no way to stop the mind. If you try to stop it, it will go faster; if you try to stop it, it will fight with you and create a thousand and one troubles for you. Never try to stop it. This is the truth: you have not started it, so who are you to stop it? It has come through your unawareness; it will go through your awareness. You have to do nothing to stop it except become more and more alert. Even the idea that one wants to stop the mind will be the barrier because you say, “Okay, now I will try to be aware so that I can stop it.” Then you miss the point. Then even your awareness will not be of much help because again the same idea is there — how to stop it. Then after a few days of futile effort — futile because the idea is there, so it will not happen — you will come to me and you will say, “I have been trying to be aware, but the mind doesn’t stop.” It cannot be stopped; no method exists to stop it. But it stops! Not that you stop it; it stops by itself. You simply watch. In watching, you withdraw the energy that helps it to run. In watching, the energy goes into watching, and thinking automatically becomes feebler and feebler and feebler. Thoughts are there, but they become impotent because the energy is not available. They will move around you, half dead, but by and by more energy will be coming to the awareness. One day suddenly energy is no longer moving into thoughts. They have disappeared. They cannot exist without your energy. So please forget about stopping them. That is none of your business. And the second thing, you ask: “How is it possible that the mind can go on producing thoughts constantly?” It is just a natural process. Just like your heart goes on beating constantly, your mind goes on thinking constantly; just like your body goes on breathing constantly, your mind goes on thinking constantly; just like your blood goes on circulating constantly and your stomach goes on digesting continuously, the mind goes on thinking constantly. There is no problem in it; it is simple. But you are not identified with the blood circulation; you don’t think that YOU are circulating. In fact you are not even conscious that the blood circulates; it goes on circulating, you have nothing to do with it. The heart goes on beating; you don’t think that YOU are beating. With the mind the problem has arisen because you think that you are thinking; the mind has become a focus of identity. The identity just has to be broken. It is not that when the mind has stopped, then it will not think forever, no. It will think only when it is needed; it will not think when it is not needed. Thinking will be there, but now it will be natural: a response, a spontaneous activity, not an obsession. For example, you eat when you are hungry. But you can get obsessed and can go on eating the whole day. Then you will go mad; then you will commit suicide. You walk when you want to walk. When you want to go somewhere, then you move your legs. But if you go on moving your legs when you are sitting on the chair, people will think you are mad and that something has to be done to stop you. If you ask how to stop your legs from moving and if somebody says, “Stop them by holding them with your hands. Force them!” then you will be in even more trouble. The legs are moving and now the hands are also engaged, and your whole effort is how to stop them. Now your energy is fighting with itself. You have become identified with the mind, that’s all. It is natural because the mind is so close to you and you have to use the mind so much. One is constantly in the mind. It is as if a driver has been driving a car for years and has never been out of the car. He has forgotten that he can go out, that he is a driver. He has forgotten completely; he thinks that he himself is a car. He cannot go out because who is there to go out? He has forgotten how to open the door, or the door is completely blocked by not having been used for years. It has gathered rust, it cannot open easily. The driver has been in the car so much that he has become the car, that’s all. A misunderstanding has arisen. Now he cannot stop the car, because how is he to stop it? Who is going to stop it? You are just the driver of the mind. It is a mechanism around you, your consciousness goes on using it. But you have never been out of your head. That’s why I insist: drop a little out of the head, go to the heart. From the heart you will have a better perspective that the car is separate from you. Or, try to go out of the body. That too is possible. Out of the body you will be absolutely out of the car. You will be able to see that neither the body nor the heart nor the mind is you; you are separate. Right now, continue to remember only one thing: that you are separate. From everything that surrounds you, you are separate. The knower is not the known. Go on feeling it more and more so that it becomes a substantial crystallization in you that the knower is not the known. You KNOW the thought, you SEE the thought — how can you be the thought? You KNOW the mind, how can you be the mind? Just drop away; a little distance is needed. One day, when you are really distant, thinking stops. When the driver is out, the car stops because there is nobody to drive it now. Then you will have a good laugh, seeing that it has just been a misunderstanding. Now, whenever you need it, think. You ask a question to me: I respond. The mind functions. I have to talk to you through the mind; there is no other way to talk. But when I am alone, the mind doesn’t function. The mind has not lost the capacity to function. In fact, it has gained more capacity to function and to function rightly. Because it is not functioning constantly, it gathers energy; it becomes more clear. So ‘when the mind stops’ does not mean that you will not be able to think again. In fact, only after that will you be able to think for the first time. Just to be engaged in relevantly irrelevant thoughts is not thinking. It is a mad sort of thing. To be clear, clean, innocent, is to be on the right path for thinking. Then when a problem arises you are not confused; you don’t look at the problem through prejudices. You look directly at it, and in that direct look the problem starts melting. If the problem is a problem, it will melt and disappear. If the problem is not a problem but a mystery, it will melt and deepen. Then you will be able to see what is a problem. A problem is that which can be solved by the mind; a mystery is that which cannot be solved by the mind. A mystery has to be lived; a problem has to be solved. But when you are too much in your thoughts, you cannot know what is a mystery and what is a problem. Sometimes you take a mystery as a problem. Then your whole life you struggle and it is never solved. And sometimes you think of a problem as a mystery and you foolishly wait: it could have been solved. A clarity, a perspective, is needed. When thinking — this constant inner chattering and inner talk — stops, and you have become alert and aware, you are capable of seeing things as they are, you are capable of finding solutions — and you are also capable of knowing what is a mystery. And when you come to feel that something is a mystery, you feel reverence, you feel awe. That is the religious quality of being. To feel reverence is to be religious; to feel awe is to be religious. To be so deeply in wonder that you have again become a child is to enter into the kingdom of God. Source – Osho Book “Come Follow To You, Vol 1 __________________ The belief that society exists has sabotaged every effort to change mankind. It is the reason why revolutions have failed. It is about a totally different revolution: the revolution in the heart of the individual. Last edited by heartbeatsalute; 27-05-2012 at 01:20 AM.

27-05-2012, 12:21 AM	#1636
heartbeatsalute Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 10,193	Osho speaks about his "OSHO Talks", the way he is talking and why. "...I don't think anybody has spoken really spontaneously the way I am speaking. And I was not aware that my spontaneity would have such a tremendous effect on people. I am not an orator; I have never been trained for oratory. I am just talking the way I talk when you see me personally; I don t see any difference. But one man who was the first to introduce me to the West, Aubrey Menen.... He is an Anglo-lndian journalist, but he lives in England -- a very famous journalist, one of the topmost. He was the first man to introduce me to the West. He wrote the first book which mentioned me. The book's name is The New Mystics. Not only did he mention me, he has my picture on the cover. I could not believe what he had written about me. He wrote that he has heard the greatest orators of this century -- Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Jawaharlal Nehru, President Kennedy -- he has listened to all these people, sitting very closely, in the front row, because he was a top journalist. And he says that he was never influenced by anybody the way he was influenced by me. He not only compares me with these people -- Adolf Hitler, President Kennedy, Winston Churchill, and Jawaharlal Nehru -- but he believes me to be the best orator that he has come across. It was a surprise because I am not an orator at all. I could not believe my eyes. I said, "What is this man talking about? Adolf Hitler was a great orator, Kennedy was a great orator, Jawaharlal was a great orator, Winston Churchill was a great orator; and he is comparing me, who is not an orator at all, with them? What has impressed him?" He says, "What has impressed me is that I could see simply that this man is absolutely unprepared. He does not know what he is going to say next, but somehow even, thing falls in line. His sentences are small, conversational, as if he is talking man to man, not to a crowd." When you are talking to a crowd, you are talking to the walls: you are not human in your talk. Winston Churchill said that when he started talking and became an orator, he was very nervous. Later he said, truthfully, he was still nervous when he stood on the podium; he still felt the same first nervousness he had felt sixty years before. But the same trick always helped. And what was his trick? This must be the trick of many great orators. He says, "the first thing that I repeat in my mind is that all these people are idiots; you need not be afraid of them. And once I settle it in my mind that these are all idiots, then I start speaking. Who is afraid of idiots? And then one word leads to another and then gathers momentum; then one is just going like a computer." All your great orators are just repeating speeches already written by their secretaries. Jawaharlal's secretary, told me that all his speeches were written by him. Not only has he told me, he has written in his memoirs that all those great speeches that Jawaharlal was famous for were written by him. And before going, Jawaharlal would have a look at the speech, and figure out how he was going to manage it. But with me it is a totally different matter. You are not idiots. I am speaking to people who are potentially enlightened beings; I am speaking with immense respect and love. And I have never felt any kind of nervousness because I am not an orator, I am just conversing with you. Hence, many times it is bound to happen: I will tell only half a story, and then, wherever the wind blows, my cloud starts moving. I have never made any effort that things should be otherwise. I want to remain absolutely spontaneous. And I want you also to hear me spontaneously. In the same way I don't know what I am going to say, you should also be in that emptiness where you don't know what you are going to hear. Then there is a possibility of a transmission of something which is not in the words but follows the words like a shadow or an aroma. Then the word will be there; you will hear the word, but the fragrance, the shadow, will enter your being and will stir your heart. My whole effort is not to convince your intellect: It is to have a little love affair with your heart. These are heart-to-heart talks, not oratory: Not great lectures, but just simple, human talks. So forgive me, I am going to remain the same way but you can always remind me that I have left something out in the middle. I can always complete it. I would love to complete it but what can I do? There is so much to say -- and nothing to say. You can understand my problem: so much to say that even if I go on for lives it will still be there -- and nothing to say, because that which I want to give to you is not something which can be said. I am living in this dilemma but trying for some middle way; and I have the feeling I have found the middle way." Source: From Personality to Individuality #25 __________________ The belief that society exists has sabotaged every effort to change mankind. It is the reason why revolutions have failed. It is about a totally different revolution: the revolution in the heart of the individual.

27-05-2012, 01:06 AM	#1639
heartbeatsalute Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 10,193	The Talent of Creating Wealth Discourses — 31 August 2011 Osho, Can you talk about money? What are all these feelings which are around money? What makes it so powerful that people sacrifice their lives for it? Beloved Osho, Can you talk about money? What are all these feelings which are around money? What makes it so powerful that people sacrifice their lives for it? Osho namaste This is a very significant question. All the religions have been against wealth because wealth can give you all that can be purchased in life. And almost everything can be purchased except those spiritual values – love, compassion, enlightenment, freedom. But these few things are exceptions, and exceptions always prove the rule. Everything else you can purchase with money. Because all the religions have been against life, they were bound to be against money. That is a natural corollary. Life needs money because life needs comforts, life needs good food, life needs good clothes, good houses. Life needs beautiful literature, music, art, poetry. Life is vast! And a man who cannot understand classical music is poor. He is deaf. He may hear – his eyes, his ears, his nose, all his senses will be perfectly right medically – but metaphysically…. Can you see the beauty of great literature, like The Book of Mirdad? If you cannot see it, you are blind. I have come across people who have not even heard the name of The Book of Mirdad. If I am to make a list of the great books, that will be the first. But to see the beauty of it you will need a tremendous discipline. To understand classical music is possible only if you learn – and it is a long learning. It is not like jazz music, for which no learning is needed. Even monkeys can understand jazz – in fact, only monkeys understand it. It is not music, just a few crackpots making all kinds of noises, and you think it is music. You will find better music in a waterfall, or when the wind blows through the pine trees, or simply when you walk in the forest in autumn on dry leaves, and sounds are created. But to understand that, you will need to be free from hunger, free from poverty, free from all kinds of prejudices. For example, Mohammedans have prohibited music; now they have deprived man of a tremendous experience. It happened in New Delhi… one of the most powerful Mohammedan emperors, Aurangzeb, was on the throne. And he was not only powerful, he was really terrible. Up to his time Mohammedan emperors were saying only that music was against Islam, but that was all; Delhi was full of musicians. But Aurangzeb was not a gentleman, he was really a Mohammedan. He declared that if any music was heard in Delhi, the musician would be immediately beheaded. And Delhi was the center, naturally, because it was the capital for thousands of years. So it was the place where all kinds of geniuses were living. When this declaration was made, all the musicians gathered together, and they said, “Something has to be done, this is too much! They used to say it is against Islam – that was okay. But this man is dangerous, he will start killing.” So as a protest, all the musicians – of which there were thousands – went to Aurangzeb’s palace. He came on the balcony and asked the people, “Who has died?” – because what they had done… they were carrying a corpse the way it is carried in India. There was no corpse inside, just pillows, but they had managed to make it look like a corpse. Aurangzeb asked, “Who has died?” And they answered, “Music. And you are the murderer of it.” Aurangzeb said, “Good that it has died. Now please be kind enough to me – dig as deep a grave as possible, so that it can never come out from the grave again.” Those thousands of musicians and their tears had no effect on Aurangzeb: he was doing something `sacred’. Music is denied by Mohammedans. Why? – because music was basically played in the East by beautiful women. In the East and in the West the meaning of the word ‘prostitute’ differs. In the West the prostitute is selling her body. In the East, in the past, the prostitute was not selling her body; she was selling her genius, her dance, her music, her art. You will be surprised that every Indian king used to send his sons who were going to become his successors to live with great prostitutes for a few years, to learn etiquette, to learn gentleness, to learn music, to learn the delicacies of dance – because a king should be really rich about everything. He should understand beauty, he should understand logic, he should understand manners. That has been the old Indian tradition. Mohammedans disrupted it. Music was against their religion. Why? – because to learn music you had to enter a prostitute’s house. Mohammedans are very much against any rejoicing, and the house of the prostitute was full of laughter, songs, music, dance. They simply prohibited it: no Mohammedan can enter a place of music; to hear music is a sin. And the same has been done by different religions – for different reasons, but they have all been cutting man’s richness. And the most basic teaching is that you should renounce money. You can see the logic. If you don’t have money, you can’t have anything else. Rather than cutting branches, they were cutting the very roots. A man without money is hungry, is a beggar, has no clothes. You cannot expect him to understand Dostoevsky, Nijinsky, Bertrand Russell, Albert Einstein, no; that is impossible. All the religions together have made man as poor as possible. They have condemned money so much, and praised poverty so much that as far as I am concerned, they are the greatest criminals the world has known. Look what Jesus says: A camel can pass through the eye of a needle, but a rich man cannot pass through the gates of heaven. Do you think this man is sane? He is ready to allow a camel to pass through the eye of a needle – which is absolutely impossible, but even that impossibility he accepts may be made possible. But a rich man entering into paradise? That is a far bigger impossibility; there is no way to make it possible. Wealth is condemned. Richness is condemned. Money is condemned. The world is left in two camps. Ninety-eight percent of the people live in poverty, but with a great consolation, that where rich people will not be able to enter, they will be received with angels playing on their harps, “Alleluia… Welcome!” And the two percent who are rich are living with tremendous guilt that they are rich. They cannot enjoy their richness because of the guilt. And they are deep down afraid: perhaps they may not be allowed to enter into paradise. So they are in a dilemma. Riches are creating guilt in them – they will not be consoled because they are not mourning: they will not be allowed in paradise because they are having so many things on the earth. They will be thrown into hell. Because of this situation, the rich man lives in a very fearful state. Even if he enjoys, or tries to enjoy things, his guilt poisons it. He may be making love to a beautiful woman, but it is only the body that is making love. He is thinking of paradise where camels are entering, and he is standing outside and there is no way to go in. Now can this man make love? He may be eating the best food possible, but he cannot enjoy it. He knows this life is short, and after that is just darkness and hellfire. He lives in a paranoia. The poor man is already living in hell, but he lives with a consolation. You will be surprised to know that in poor countries people are more contented than in rich countries. I have seen the poorest people in India with no dissatisfaction at all. And Americans are going around the world to find some spiritual guidance – naturally, because they don’t want to be defeated by camels; they want to enter into the gates of heaven. They want to find some way, some yoga, some exercises, as a compensation. This whole world has been turned against itself. Perhaps I am the first person who is respectful of money, of wealth, because it can make you multi-dimensionally rich. A poor man cannot understand Mozart. A hungry man cannot understand Michelangelo. A beggar will not even look at the paintings of Vincent van Gogh. And these people who are suffering from hunger don’t have enough energy to make them intelligent. Intelligence comes only when you have superfluous energy in you. They are exhausted just in earning bread and butter. They don’t have intelligence. They cannot understand The Brothers Karamazov, they can only listen to some stupid priest in a church. Neither the priest understands what he is talking about, nor the audience. Most of them are fast asleep, tired after six days of work. And the priest finds it more comfortable that everybody is asleep, so he need not prepare a new sermon. He can go on using the old sermon. Everybody is asleep, nobody will figure out that he is just cheating them. Wealth is as significant as beautiful music, as great literature, as masterpieces of art. There are people who have a born capacity to be a musician. Mozart started playing beautiful music at the age of eight. When he was eight, other great masters of music were not anywhere near him. Now, this man is born with that creativity. Vincent van Gogh was born of a poor father who worked in a coal mine. He never got educated, he never knew any art school, but he became one of the greatest painters of the world. But in his whole life he could not sell a single painting. Now each painting… There are only two hundred of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings available; he painted thousands but he gave them away just for a packet of cigarettes, or a meal, or a cup of tea. Now each of his paintings is worth a million dollars or more. What happened? Why couldn’t people understand his paintings? His paintings need tremendous intelligence to be understood. Just a few days ago I saw a picture of one of his paintings. For that painting he was laughed at by all painters, what to say about others? – because he had painted stars in a way nobody had seen stars: like nebulae, every star in movement, like a wheel turning continuously. Who had seen stars like that? Even other painters said, “You are going mad – these are not stars!” And moreover, the trees that he painted underneath the stars are going higher than the stars. Stars are left far behind, trees have reached far ahead. Now who has seen such trees? This is just madness! But a few days ago I saw a picture of this type. Physicists have now discovered that van Gogh is right: stars are not as they look, they are exactly the way van Gogh has painted them. Poor van Gogh! What eyes that man must have had, to see what physicists took one hundred years to find out, with all their big labs and big technology. And Vincent van Gogh, strangely enough, just with bare eyes figured out the exact shape of the stars. They are whirling, they are whirling dervishes; they are not static the way you see them. And when he was asked about his trees, that “Where have you found these trees which go above the stars?” he said, “These are the trees I have found, sitting by their side listening to their ambitions. I have heard the trees say to me that they are the ambitions of the earth to reach to the stars.” Perhaps a few more centuries may be needed for scientists to discover that certainly the trees are the ambitions of the earth. One thing is certain, that trees are moving against gravitation. The earth is allowing them to move against gravitation – supporting, helping them. Perhaps the earth wants some communication with the stars. The earth is alive, and life always wants to go higher and higher and higher. There is no limit to its aspirations. How are the poor people going to understand? They don’t have the intelligence. Just as there are born poets, born painters, I would like you to remember there are born wealth-creators. They have never been appreciated. Everybody is not a Henry Ford, and cannot be. Henry Ford was born poor, and became the richest man in the world. He must have had some talent, some genius for creating money, for creating wealth. And that is far more difficult than to create a painting, or music, or poetry. To create wealth is not an easy job. Henry Ford should be praised just as any master musician, novelist, poet. In fact, he should be praised more, because with his money all the poetry and all the music and all the sculptures of the world can be purchased. I respect money. Money is one of the greatest inventions of man. It is just a means. Only idiots have been condemning it; perhaps they were jealous that others have money and they don’t. Their jealousy became their condemnation. Money is nothing but a scientific way of exchanging things. Before there was money, people were in real difficulty. All over the world there was a barter system. You have a cow and you want to purchase a horse. Now it is going to be your whole lifelong task…. You have to find a man who wants to sell a horse and wants to purchase a cow. It is so difficult a job! You may find people who have horses but they are not interested in buying cows. You may find people who are interested in buying cows but they don’t have horses. That was the situation before money came into existence. Naturally, people were bound to be poor: they could not sell things, they could not buy things. It was such a difficult job. Money made it so simple. The man who wants to sell the cow need not search for the man who wants to sell his horse. He can simply sell the cow, take the money and find the man who wants to sell the horse, but is not interested in a cow. Money became the medium of exchange; the barter system disappeared from the world. Money did a great service to humanity. And because people became capable of purchasing, selling, naturally they became more and more rich. This has to be understood. The more money moves, the more money you have. For example, if I have one dollar with me…. It is just for example, I don’t have one; I don’t have even a cent with me. I don’t even have pockets! Sometimes I get worried that if I get a dollar, where am I going to keep it? For example, if I have a dollar and I go on keeping it to myself, then in this mandir there is only one dollar. But if I purchase something and the dollar moves to somebody else, I get the worth of the dollar – which I will enjoy. You cannot eat the dollar. How can you enjoy it just by keeping it? You can enjoy it only by spending it. I enjoy; the dollar reaches to somebody else, Now if he keeps it, then there are only two dollars – one I have enjoyed already, and one is with that miser who is keeping it. But if nobody is a clinger, and everybody is moving the dollar as fast as possible – if there are three thousand people, three thousand dollars have been used, enjoyed. That is one single round. Just give more rounds and there will be more dollars. Nothing is coming in; there is, in fact, only one dollar, but by movement it goes on multiplying itself. That’s why money is called currency. It should be a current. That’s my meaning. I don’t know about others’ meanings. One should not keep it. The moment you get it, spend it. Don’t waste time, because that much time you are preventing the dollar from growing, from becoming more and more. Money is a tremendous invention. It makes people richer, it makes people capable of having things that they don’t have. But all the religions have been against it. They don’t want humanity to be rich, and they don’t want humanity to be intelligent, because if people are intelligent, who is going to read the Bible? Just the other day, I received the information that one atheist group in America has published a Bible with pictures. That Bible will be condemned by all the Christians, by the government, because it is pornographic. It is more pornographic than anything else, because in the Bible there is so much pornography…. Just by reading it you are not aware. Now, when I was talking to you about Sodom… in this new Bible they have made pictures of men making love to animals, women making love to animals. There is adultery, there is homosexuality, there is sodomy, there is rape. You name it and it is in the Bible! I have said that we should immediately order it. My people should start reading the real Bible! And order it immediately, because there is every possibility it will be prohibited. Never in the world has any book been so pornographic as this Bible. And they are not doing anything which is not in the Bible – they are just making pictures of it. You can understand pictures better. Just reading the word `rape’ is nothing, but when you see a series of rapes pictured, then you become suddenly aware – this is a holy Bible. Religions never wanted man to be intelligent, never wanted man to be rich, never wanted man to rejoice, because people who are in suffering, poor, unintelligent – they are the clients of churches, synagogues, temples, mosques. I have never gone to any religious place. Why should I go? If the religious place wants to have some taste of religion it should come to me. I am not going to Mecca, Mecca has to come to me! Otherwise I don’t care. I am not going to Jerusalem, I am not mad – just a little bit crazy, but not mad. And when we can create a place of joy and laughter and love here, what is there in Israel? We have created the new Israel. Drop all ideas that have been imposed upon you about money. Be respectful to it. Create wealth, because only after creating wealth do many other dimensions open for you. For the poor man all doors are closed. I want my sannyasins to be as rich as possible, as comfortable as possible. This is the first commune in the whole history of man where every house is centrally air-conditioned. Never before has any commune happened with air-conditioning. This is the only commune where, while I am talking to you, you can laugh, you can enjoy, you can dance, you can do anything – because your laughter connects you to me more than your sitting there sad, with a long face. You cannot laugh in a church the way you are doing here. Just looking at Jesus Christ hanging on the cross all laughter will die. In fact, for the first time we are giving religion its true color, its music, its dance, its love, its laughter. Osho, From Death to Deathlessness, Ch 22, Q 3 __________________ The belief that society exists has sabotaged every effort to change mankind. It is the reason why revolutions have failed. It is about a totally different revolution: the revolution in the heart of the individual. Last edited by heartbeatsalute; 27-05-2012 at 01:07 AM.