I find blogging about Osho always a difficult affair. His vastness as a notion and the rigorousness of the subjects he so famously spoke of never leave any decent space for indulgence for a mortal speaker/ writer like me. One couldn’t go beyond a few sentences without ever feeling they had been lying in whatever they had just spoken about, the subjects Osho would normally deal with. “Ego”, my tonight’s area of discussion, also falls in the same category as a rocky terrain. Mankind has debated it since time immortal. We all  love to be egoists, but never allow the others to get easily away with it.

So when I decided to speak about ego tonight, I also quickly googled for whatever Osho Rajneesh might have stated in this regard. And as usual Osho came out speaking a hell lot of sense and proving amazingly helpful in deciphering how human mind works. A gem to go through at peace once, and helps in deciphering ego and ego-less states from each other. It can be a great way for the beginners, who might be looking to know about Osho Rajneesh for the first time. This will let them understand how beautifully he could read human idioms. Have a good time reading it and an ego-less state of mind!

Excerpts

What is the ego? Are we always functioning through the ego or are there moments when we are free of it?…..Man has no center separate from the center of the whole. There is only one center in existence; the ancients used to call it Tao, dhamma, god. Those words have become old now; you can call it truth. There is only one center of existence. There are not many centers, otherwise the universe would not be really a universe, it would become a multiverse. It is a unity, hence it is called the “universe”; it has only one center.

To survive, and to struggle for survival in the fight of life, everybody needs a certain idea of who they are. And nobody has any idea. In fact nobody can ever have any idea, because at the deepest core you are a mystery. You can’t have any idea of it. At the deepest core you are not individual, you are universal.

That’s why if you ask the Buddha, “Who are you?” he remains silent, he does not answer it. He cannot, because now he is no more separate. He is the whole. But in ordinary life even Buddha has to use the word ‘I’. If he feels thirsty he has to say, “I am thirsty. Ananda, bring me a little water, I am thirsty.

For example, you have a name. That is a fiction. You came without a name, you did not bring a name with you, the name was given to you. Then by constant repetition you start becoming identified with it. You know your name is Rama or Rahim or Krishna. It goes so deep that if all you three thousand sannyasins fall asleep here and somebody comes and calls, “Rama, where are you?” nobody will hear except Rama. Rama will say, “Who has come to disturb my sleep?” Even in sleep he knows his name; it has reached to the unconscious, it has seeped through and through. But it is a fiction.

But when I say it is a fiction I don’t mean it is unnecessary. It is necessary fiction, it is useful; otherwise how are you going to address people? It will be difficult if nobody has a name. Although nobody has a name in reality, still, it is a beautiful fiction, helpful. Names are needed for others to call you, ‘I’ is needed for you to call yourself, but it is just a fiction. If you go deep into yourself you will find the name has disappeared, the idea of ‘I’ has disappeared; there is left only a pure am-ness, is-ness, existence, being.

And that being is not separate, it is not yours and mine; that being is the being of all. Rocks, rivers, mountains, trees, all are included. It is all-inclusive, it excludes nothing. The whole past, the whole future, this immense universe, everything is included in it. The deeper you go into yourself, the more and more you will find that persons don’t exist, that individuals don’t exist. Then what exists is a pure universalness. On the circumference we have names, egos, identities. When we jump from the circumference towards the center, all those identities disappear.

The ego is just a useful fiction.

Use it, but don’t be deceived by it.

Source:  Osho Speaks On Ego

Image courtesy of Osho.be.

Spoken words can be made to impart calm. Sound can be made to instil peace in your life. Peace that might have eluded you since you began knowing the world you live in. But to do that, you must try being aware of the unspoken sense of whatever you might listen to; try connecting with the silences within – and not the spoken part itself. You must be able to heed awaiting calm on your way to this journey towards peace forward. Which also means breaking away from one’s own mind barriers and walking down paths never heard of before. Osho Rajneesh was not only a marvelous orator, but also someone who knew what went sinde human minds more than anybody else in this world. And he could do it, since he had mastered the art of portraying silences through words. This is what I’ve been able to decipher from Osho’s discourses and meditation both. The following quote from Osho.com might help you understand it more:

“I am using words just to create silent gaps. The words are not important so I can say anything contradictory, anything absurd, anything unrelated, because my purpose is just to create gaps. The words are secondary; the silences between those words are primary. This is simply a device to give you a glimpse of meditation. And once you know that it is possible for you, you have traveled far in the direction of your own being.

Most of the people in the world don’t think that it is possible for mind to be silent. Because they don’t think it is possible, they don’t try. How to give people a taste of meditation was my basic reason to speak, so I can go on speaking eternally; it does not matter what I am saying. All that matters is that I give you a few chances to be silent, which you find difficult on your own in the beginning.

I cannot force you to be silent, but I can create a device in which spontaneously you are bound to be silent. I am speaking, and in the middle of a sentence, when you were expecting another word to follow, nothing follows but a silent gap. Your mind was looking to listen, and waiting for something to follow, and does not want to miss it – naturally it becomes silent. What can the poor mind do? If it was well known at what points I will be silent, if it was declared to you that on such and such points I will be silent, then you could manage to think; you would not be silent. Then you know: ‘This is the point where he is going to be silent; now I can have a little chit-chat with myself.’ But because it comes absolutely suddenly…. I don´t know myself why at certain points I stop.”

Read the entire text here>> Meditation: The Art of Listening

I’ll republish some of my own posts hereafter, which were made at another Osho-forum to keep this blog running.

Today’s Stolen Entry

First of all, it would be much appreciated, if the participants taking part in this debate revealed some kind of their web identity. That will help in developing a notion, they were serious about this whole issue.

As regards this book itself, the first few pages sounded very interesting, that is where I stopped due to a time crunch. It would be inappropriate to make any judgments, until I had a complete look at it.

I’d like to make a couple of general observations (or rather questions), though, based on my initial reactions.

Is there anything like White Westerns vs Indians also working behind this whole “controversy” saga? There can be no denying, it is always a major cultural shock for anybody visiting India for the very first time from the West. I have spoken with several of them until now, who spent months living in my town, so I know it first hand. Many of the Indians would not defend their own state of affairs either. I deeply enjoy, as an Indian, whatever this country presents to my whole self, but I also hate, at the same time, watching people taking out processions – drumming, shouting and bursting firecrackers – whenever they felt the need of doing it, performing Pujaas (prayers) in the very middle of roads, expecting the whole world to bear with their nonsense if they felt they should protest or celebrate about anything….and I have not yet spoken about the 70% of India. This all just about the middle and very rich class. The rest of 70% poor and sub-human India will require another several paragraphs.

But how much ever I might hate it, there can be no alternative for the space India enjoys in my life. That is how I was raised up, and it sunk deep inside each molecule formulating me. The same can be spoken about the rest of my fellow countrymen and women as well. Even those who might have immigrated from India to the lavish West, can be seen rushing back to the same dusty and noisy backyards of theirs own even at the slightest of any chance.

Arguably, one can speak the same about the White West as well. They might have fallen in love with Osho, but could never acclimatise with the eastern background he belonged to. The West had its own set of values, and the world can see it guarding them hard with each passing day. I can clearly visualize this while reading the anti-Osho outbursts by Calder and his fellow observers. They keep harping about ethics, and this was to be their own, the Western one. First of all, it’s simply impossible to define any absolute way of living and behaving in this world. All those trying to do so will make a fool out of themselves, after some effort.

The question that can be raised at this point is, did the white Oshoite try to transform Osho into a Whites Only Phenomenon when deciding to move over to Oregon? Osho’s Indian secretary at Oregon can be left aside in this conversation, since she was merely one in many other mainly white Oshoites, who had obviously gone overboard, with or without the tacit support of their master.

Then again, did Osho also try to behave like a White’s Only Guru by accepting to or formulating the idea of Oregon? He must have failed miserably, if he did so, since his eastern self was bound to contradict sooner or later. The ensuing contradiction did give rise to the cult like situation at Oregon in the form of Sheela et all, as the events told later, and Osho perhaps also became a silent player in the whole affair (by that time he must have lost the whole plot). The move to accept traveling to Oregon was foolish in the end, one can say now. But, that is how things came to be, and we (Osho-believers) must try to live with that fact – taking it as one of his own Mulla Nasruddin gimmicks.

I’ll read the rest of this book soon (it provides a good first hand, second opinion, about this whole saga), though I suspect it might soon get heavily infested with the same rhetoric about ethics etc, and that will end my appetite too.

PS – Kindly take my whites vs non-whites reference in the right context. It has been made for those only who were directly involved with Osho in the past, and who might be carrying a very critical opinion about him now, as we know many others, including the whites and Indians both, might think I was doing a great disservice by introducing a racial dimension of this story now.

I have started to believe of late, that one should try to keep away from the Osho communes and his followers. The master was so impressive that you start expecting his followers to match his virtuosity too, at least in some degree, which is too much of an expectation unfortunately. A majority of them can be found making stupid arguments and fighting amongst themselves if you ever visited the places frequented by the usual Oshoites. You may be amazed to see the number of times they might utter the phrases like spirituality, consciousness and love…yet providing no hint of any experience if they ever had about these words! You should expect a mass of dry and barren souls to come your way, if you ever decided to visit the ordinary Oshoites. At the same time, those knowing Osho better might hardly open up their mouths ever, since they too are tired of mingling with these meaningless heads.

I have also noticed, how the old timers are increasingly complaining about the changes being infused into the Pune commune and the movement’s overall mood. The problem lies again in what I stated earlier. Osho was so omnipresent during his heydays, that nothing could diminish his aura. However, the commune started fading away somewhat as soon as his physical existence ceased to exist. This is why perhaps, the Pune Ashram has now been given the facelift of a meditation resort, since they know it is simply not possible to embody what Osho stood for. Nobody can, to be frank. The original was so vast and fulfilling that none of his substitutes, including the communes, can ever think of imitating his presence in any manner. (There is one so-called Rajneesh incarnation as well who is selling his books free online…lolz)

Obviously, it was only after Osho’s demise that the anti-Osho forces began to sniff their first ever chance, something the past and disgruntled Oshoites like Christopher Calder have flourished upon in the recent years. In my opinion, it is the rot of Sanyasins more than Osho’s so-called misconduct, is what we have been witnessing through Calder’s outburst recently. No doubt, the guru must have donned the role of Mulla Nasruddin (read shrewdness) he often spoke of to make this circus he presided manageable, but the more I see the variety of Oshoites I mentioned above, the more I appreciate him for his impeccable performance. These Sanyasins are no ordinary souls for sure. They must have vigorously fought for sex, trance and drugs in those days and later diverted all the frustrations on master.

Even though, the present Osho movement lacks in courage to face up to the challenge posed by Calder, it is the movement’s own incapacities that might see its downfall (if it was to happen ever) more than any of Calder’s arguments in my opinion. The whole opposition to Osho survives on his presence around. They are playing out his shadow, nothing more, and so would always keep following into his footsteps. The shadows (or negatives) make out Osho more insightful, interesting, colorful and rational sounding than what (the two-dimensional portrayals) his core followers might seem to portray about him.

Osho’s healing discourses and words are more significant for a majority of his well-wishers, and it is this treasure, which needs being preserved for the future generations. Let Osho’s communes and his stagnant followers dilute into the air…who cares. But, the guru’s discourses must be digitalized and made available to each and all of those that might need his healing prowess. Remember, whatever the wounded Calder might say, we know how magical and healing Osho was and would always be. And this means more than anything else  - which includes ongoing fights, claims and counterclaims by his supporters and detractors both – for a person like me.

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To the regular Oshoites: Please don’t taken my criticism too seriously. Hope you keep on flourishing.

One Osho sympathizer, Anthony Thompson, has been refuting most of the anti-Osho propaganda being circulated around. Click here to look at it (also shared in my previous post on this issue).

Check out more by Mr Thompson on this issue here.

I was recently reading these excerpts about Osho Rajneesh, which supposedly have taken a wide range of opinions into their account. Although none of the controversies, Osho is spoken about, has been listed there, the Indian born guru was a controversial figure indeed in the eyes of many. As a keen listener and reader of Osho’s discourses, I would say though, the controversies only made his persona sound more colorful and easier and better to comprehend.

Wasn’t Osho Himself The Face Behind Mulla Nasruddin?!

There is one gentleman called Christopher Calder, who claims of having witnessed – to what he terms as – Osho’s fall from grace. Those visiting his site should remember, he is among the strongest of Osho’s critics. If you were to know Osho at length for the first time, please be warned not to rush to any quick and macro udgments. The best way to know about Osho Rajneesh would be to listen him and follow up with some Dhyan (meditation) efforts. Once you began inhaling inner peace, be eager to know what Calder said and you might pick up some of Osho’s missing links.

It is but obvious that Osho’s followers were not among the next door usual human beings. They couldn’t have, anyway. Why would any happily living human being decide to visit Osho’s communes? Only those who had major issues to be tackled in life might think of consulting him. I say this based on my own experience – the circumstances in which I myself started experimenting with Osho, as well as the general observation I made over the years about Osho’s Sanyasins.

So, what do you expect Osho to be like to run this circus? He couldn’t afford being a simpleton contrary to what many of us might think of him. Amazingly good and enlightened he must have been on one hand, and highly dubious and controversial on the other. While Calder and hardcore Oshoites might  choose to describe Osho in two totally different shades, many like this author do not see it improper in accepting both of them together, thus allowing a more colorful and rational Osho to emerge up.

And if you ever wondered whose fallacies did Osho expose through his Mulla tales, then be assured, it was no one but Osho himself. A more actual depiction of Osho’s persona can be seen emerging the moment we decide to merge him with Mulla tales. It is much easier to comprehend and be connected with.

Btw, I had had a brief conversation with Calder in the recent past, and the image I developed of him during that course was that of a bitter ex-Oshoite. He said, “call me by whichever name, but there is no better way to describe about Osho honestly.” Calder can be seen arguing with other Oshoites here just for record. In the end, the anti-Osho voice hasn’t succeeded in doing anything new by debating the master. They too spend time brainstorming about Osho like his other disciples!

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UPDATE

Check out my latest post on Osho Rajneesh here:

Continuing With The Debate On Osho’s Controversies