Osho was contradictory on many if not most issues. On the preciousness of marble however he was not. Marble is used in sacred buildings because it can hold the energy of the master. Osho had the marble in his bedroom lifted and given to his people for this very reason. This offering was received and treasured.
If Jayesh is enlightened and therefore gave everyone a spiritual lesson by having the Buddha Hall pagoda scattered in pieces across the ground, then he is an enlightened master that works in different ways to Osho. However, Osho had no spiritual successor.
Some of Osho’s disciples have claimed to be enlightened and have gathered friends around them in many parts of the world. If they are enlightened this is beautiful. However none of these people had the right to claim to be Osho’s sole spiritual heir – and indeed they have not done so.
If Jayesh wants to play master then let him build a spiritual empire around him. However by playing master under the guise of chairperson of the inner-circle he is deceiving sannyassins and betraying what Osho clearly stated about the functioning of the inner-circle: it was to be a managerial/administrative body.
It is often repeated that such things as worshipping a pagoda is the very antithesis of Osho’s vision of a forward looking spiritualism. Who is to say what are the subtleties of the vision of a great master. (This is for example why his words should not be in anyway altered – not a word more nor less). However I ask each and every authentic sannyassin to ask yourself whether or not you think Osho would have had the pagoda smashed into pieces in the middle of the night?
Osho was a buddha with the presence, the energy field, of a great master. His presence, along with his disciples and the qualities of the communal land, built a buddha-field. As Osho has said (and not I believe contradicted himself that) marble and certain structures help contain and confine this sacred energy. The energy is not a projection or a meaningless new-age term. It is this subtle vibrating field that provides a supporting environment that allows and helps us to meditate.
The pagoda was not about empty worship, like a tourist going to fake temple. The pagoda was about going into an energy field and receiving subtle support to lift us in our time of need. It really did not matter whether Osho spoke or not when he sat on the podium with us. What mattered was that we were bathed in his energy. When his energy dispersed, the purest form of that energy was contained in his ashes, his bedroom, his Samadhi, and his pagoda. It is in the marble; it is in the creaking bamboos; and it is in his people.
Seekers come to the pagoda, not to throw their energy out through their eyes as a tourist would, but as people going inwards into meditation. They both receive support from this energy field and leave a subtle taste of their own elevated presence. In this way a sacred place or temple (or whatever) is not a mind projection nor an excuse for hypocritical worship; it is an existential reality that is able to be experienced. It is tangible, it can be nourished, and it can also be destroyed.
I mentioned before about a sacred temple in Tibet that emanated a powerful vibe, and can currently be visited by Westerners. Do you think that the ancient Tibetan masters new anything about meditation and enlightenment? I offer here a hypothetical story.
What about if when the Chinese invaded Tibet they destroyed that temple. The Tibetans then complained and the Chinese Communist Party’s politburo had already known that it would create an uproar so they had in parallel built a nice new temple down the road (with a nice new Chinese flag out the front). “It is in the vision plan passed down by the ancients, and it is for you”, they said to the Tibetan people.
If I were to go and visit the site where the sacred temple once stood, do you think I would be able to experience the energy field that was the essence of the sacred site? Do you think I would receive meditative support by sitting on the pile of rubble? Perhaps I should walk down the road to the new sacred temple. Do you think there would be anything special there? Certainly it would make for a nice photo shoot!
It might be argued that the marauding Chinese had no sensitivity for the subtle. I would agree that the foot soldiers did not. However the Politburo new that there was something about the Dalai Lahma, as with the many the sacred sites: there was a threatening reality that although subtle, had immense power. This power could spread (and indeed was spreading) into greater China and was therefore an existential threat.
In the same way the current Osho inner-circle and the management of the Pune resort are ridding the place (and the planet) of this subtle yet powerful existential threat. They ban the sannyassins that have the rebellious spirit which is uniquely part of the flavour of Osho’s spiritualism. They control, threaten, and condemn the centres and people around the world that flower too much. They condemn the so-called worshippers who come and meditate and keep Osho’s Pune buddha-field alive. And they smash down the structures that contain and confine not just the energy of the land, not just the energy in Osho’s sannyassins, but the actual energy of Osho.
People often say that wished they could have sat in the presence of Osho…to feel what it was like to have your own being uplifted by him…and who knows, maybe to be propelled into the eternal…just for a moment. I say to these people that the actual presence of the master lives on for a time, slowly ebbing away like a vast receding tide. The master’s disciples protect it for as long as possible for it is this sacredness that they were drawn to themselves. It was this presence that was their first taste of the divine in a seemingly turbulent and listless world. It was this presence that drew them from darkness and provided their guiding light.
Yes smash down this and that. Kick out some person and then another. Squash all the autonomous and independent centres that pop up here and there. What does it matter? Everything is to be just witnessed as passing clouds in the empty sky of our eternal being. I say to this that though we all live in our minds, in our own mental projections, there are other people and other beings that do the same. Though there is beauty and good there is also ugliness and evil; though there is truth there is also the ignorant that mask its radiance; though there is suffering there is also the cruel and ignorant that foster it, and the wise that take it away.
The energy of a master is so light that it is only awareness. It contains a shower of compassion and love that drenches and cleanses our beings; it provides a mirror-like grace that accelerates our own awareness; and it shows us not just the fogginess from whence we have come, but the clarity to which we shall always belong…an endless sea of diamonds shimmering here now forever.
An inner-circle should be to support and nourish not to control and destroy. Granted there will be much fear in the Osho sannyassin community that voting in some other sannyassins may just create more problems…perhaps even worse problems. This fear is there in large part because of the tyranny that is currently being forced upon them. The inner-circle should be there to support any individual or any group in the way that they wish to be supported. Obviously there is a line drawn somewhere in the sands that says this or that is not acceptable. Currently the line is drawn in the unworkable land of domination and control. Even worse, the current inner-circle (as with Pune resort management) jump over their own standards at will.
The key difference between democracy and dictatorship is that when it becomes so clear that something is drastically wrong, you can vote the tyrants out of power. Imagine the people of Cambodia in the time of the Khmer Rouge (or any other tyrannical regime for that matter). Do you think that when the majority of the Cambodian population is either being starved to death or being tortured to death they would vote to keep the Khmer Rouge in power? Democracy does offer unknowns, especially if everyone votes for a bunch of nutcases. However in time people would work out that it is not very pleasant having nutcases in charge, and so they will change their vote next time.
So how about let’s see who has the popular support of the Osho sannyassin community? Let’s see what sannyassins think of the pagoda being demolished. Who knows, maybe a new inner-circle will bring a wrecking-ball to the Samadhi. On this question, I personally will be sure to ask or here from candidates before I vote for them.
There are many Osho sannyassins who are fanned out across this globe planting flowers and sharing treasures. If these people are not to you a shepherd tending to their flock, but rather a source of inspiration and joy and freedom, then they are possible candidates for the inner-circle. Would you like to select people such as these to be in the Osho inner-circle?
If an inner-circle position overwhelms someone and they go astray, then they have their own inner journey to refocus on. If, like Sheela, they do not realize this, I only hope that you do.
If Jayesh is enlightened and therefore gave everyone a spiritual lesson by having the Buddha Hall pagoda scattered in pieces across the ground, then he is an enlightened master that works in different ways to Osho. However, Osho had no spiritual successor.
Some of Osho’s disciples have claimed to be enlightened and have gathered friends around them in many parts of the world. If they are enlightened this is beautiful. However none of these people had the right to claim to be Osho’s sole spiritual heir – and indeed they have not done so.
If Jayesh wants to play master then let him build a spiritual empire around him. However by playing master under the guise of chairperson of the inner-circle he is deceiving sannyassins and betraying what Osho clearly stated about the functioning of the inner-circle: it was to be a managerial/administrative body.
It is often repeated that such things as worshipping a pagoda is the very antithesis of Osho’s vision of a forward looking spiritualism. Who is to say what are the subtleties of the vision of a great master. (This is for example why his words should not be in anyway altered – not a word more nor less). However I ask each and every authentic sannyassin to ask yourself whether or not you think Osho would have had the pagoda smashed into pieces in the middle of the night?
Osho was a buddha with the presence, the energy field, of a great master. His presence, along with his disciples and the qualities of the communal land, built a buddha-field. As Osho has said (and not I believe contradicted himself that) marble and certain structures help contain and confine this sacred energy. The energy is not a projection or a meaningless new-age term. It is this subtle vibrating field that provides a supporting environment that allows and helps us to meditate.
The pagoda was not about empty worship, like a tourist going to fake temple. The pagoda was about going into an energy field and receiving subtle support to lift us in our time of need. It really did not matter whether Osho spoke or not when he sat on the podium with us. What mattered was that we were bathed in his energy. When his energy dispersed, the purest form of that energy was contained in his ashes, his bedroom, his Samadhi, and his pagoda. It is in the marble; it is in the creaking bamboos; and it is in his people.
Seekers come to the pagoda, not to throw their energy out through their eyes as a tourist would, but as people going inwards into meditation. They both receive support from this energy field and leave a subtle taste of their own elevated presence. In this way a sacred place or temple (or whatever) is not a mind projection nor an excuse for hypocritical worship; it is an existential reality that is able to be experienced. It is tangible, it can be nourished, and it can also be destroyed.
I mentioned before about a sacred temple in Tibet that emanated a powerful vibe, and can currently be visited by Westerners. Do you think that the ancient Tibetan masters new anything about meditation and enlightenment? I offer here a hypothetical story.
What about if when the Chinese invaded Tibet they destroyed that temple. The Tibetans then complained and the Chinese Communist Party’s politburo had already known that it would create an uproar so they had in parallel built a nice new temple down the road (with a nice new Chinese flag out the front). “It is in the vision plan passed down by the ancients, and it is for you”, they said to the Tibetan people.
If I were to go and visit the site where the sacred temple once stood, do you think I would be able to experience the energy field that was the essence of the sacred site? Do you think I would receive meditative support by sitting on the pile of rubble? Perhaps I should walk down the road to the new sacred temple. Do you think there would be anything special there? Certainly it would make for a nice photo shoot!
It might be argued that the marauding Chinese had no sensitivity for the subtle. I would agree that the foot soldiers did not. However the Politburo new that there was something about the Dalai Lahma, as with the many the sacred sites: there was a threatening reality that although subtle, had immense power. This power could spread (and indeed was spreading) into greater China and was therefore an existential threat.
In the same way the current Osho inner-circle and the management of the Pune resort are ridding the place (and the planet) of this subtle yet powerful existential threat. They ban the sannyassins that have the rebellious spirit which is uniquely part of the flavour of Osho’s spiritualism. They control, threaten, and condemn the centres and people around the world that flower too much. They condemn the so-called worshippers who come and meditate and keep Osho’s Pune buddha-field alive. And they smash down the structures that contain and confine not just the energy of the land, not just the energy in Osho’s sannyassins, but the actual energy of Osho.
People often say that wished they could have sat in the presence of Osho…to feel what it was like to have your own being uplifted by him…and who knows, maybe to be propelled into the eternal…just for a moment. I say to these people that the actual presence of the master lives on for a time, slowly ebbing away like a vast receding tide. The master’s disciples protect it for as long as possible for it is this sacredness that they were drawn to themselves. It was this presence that was their first taste of the divine in a seemingly turbulent and listless world. It was this presence that drew them from darkness and provided their guiding light.
Yes smash down this and that. Kick out some person and then another. Squash all the autonomous and independent centres that pop up here and there. What does it matter? Everything is to be just witnessed as passing clouds in the empty sky of our eternal being. I say to this that though we all live in our minds, in our own mental projections, there are other people and other beings that do the same. Though there is beauty and good there is also ugliness and evil; though there is truth there is also the ignorant that mask its radiance; though there is suffering there is also the cruel and ignorant that foster it, and the wise that take it away.
The energy of a master is so light that it is only awareness. It contains a shower of compassion and love that drenches and cleanses our beings; it provides a mirror-like grace that accelerates our own awareness; and it shows us not just the fogginess from whence we have come, but the clarity to which we shall always belong…an endless sea of diamonds shimmering here now forever.
An inner-circle should be to support and nourish not to control and destroy. Granted there will be much fear in the Osho sannyassin community that voting in some other sannyassins may just create more problems…perhaps even worse problems. This fear is there in large part because of the tyranny that is currently being forced upon them. The inner-circle should be there to support any individual or any group in the way that they wish to be supported. Obviously there is a line drawn somewhere in the sands that says this or that is not acceptable. Currently the line is drawn in the unworkable land of domination and control. Even worse, the current inner-circle (as with Pune resort management) jump over their own standards at will.
The key difference between democracy and dictatorship is that when it becomes so clear that something is drastically wrong, you can vote the tyrants out of power. Imagine the people of Cambodia in the time of the Khmer Rouge (or any other tyrannical regime for that matter). Do you think that when the majority of the Cambodian population is either being starved to death or being tortured to death they would vote to keep the Khmer Rouge in power? Democracy does offer unknowns, especially if everyone votes for a bunch of nutcases. However in time people would work out that it is not very pleasant having nutcases in charge, and so they will change their vote next time.
So how about let’s see who has the popular support of the Osho sannyassin community? Let’s see what sannyassins think of the pagoda being demolished. Who knows, maybe a new inner-circle will bring a wrecking-ball to the Samadhi. On this question, I personally will be sure to ask or here from candidates before I vote for them.
There are many Osho sannyassins who are fanned out across this globe planting flowers and sharing treasures. If these people are not to you a shepherd tending to their flock, but rather a source of inspiration and joy and freedom, then they are possible candidates for the inner-circle. Would you like to select people such as these to be in the Osho inner-circle?
If an inner-circle position overwhelms someone and they go astray, then they have their own inner journey to refocus on. If, like Sheela, they do not realize this, I only hope that you do.
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