Osho

I came to Osho long after the party, when a man who was a great mentor of mine lent me a copy of the Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic in April 2005. I fell in love with Osho. I read and listened to everything I could get my hands on on the internet. I visited three Osho centers in Australia, read book after book of Osho's discourses, travelled to Pune, lived in an Osho ashram. Since then, things have changed in my life. Today I still love Osho, no longer as a master who will wake me up, but as an old friend. I love him with immense gratitude.

Favorite Osho Book

osho, darshan diary: the sound of one hand clapping (bhagwan shree rajneesh)

My favorite Osho book was a darshan diary called The Sound of One Hand Clapping. It's the last darshan diary before Osho went into silence in 1981.

I like Osho, should I hang around Osho people?

That's a question many people have on the path. I had it too. I think it's good to hang around sannyasins until you get the message that there's no need to do so.

Many people who love Osho will agree that you don't have to particularly like Osho people in order to like Osho. In a way, sannyasins killed Osho. If you read the story of Oregon, you can't help but say "stupid, stupid, stupid". How can someone who calls himself a disciple of someone who constantly urges him to rebel accept to live under the dictatorship of a megalomaniac woman and her violent gang? I wasn't there, so I don't know. Love can certainly make you blind.

When you're new to Osho, there may be an idea that if you hang around sannyasins perhaps you may get closer to Osho. Or at least there may be a question mark: perhaps you'll catch a flavor, a whiff of something that sannyasins who were around Osho when he was alive have experienced.

Who are sannyasins? No one will be hurt, I think, if I say that a sannyasin is someone who has not woken up. That's part of the definition of sannyasin. So in a way, people who have been sannyasins for a long time are the bad students, the ones who couldn't get the message. When they hang together, you don't get more Osho, you get more bad students. So in a strange way, you might say that Osho is most where sannyasins are not.

Osho often told a story of a lion waking up from an illusion that kept him among sheep, as though he were one too. It is a beloved story, but tell me, when you look at the dynamics of a group of people in maroon robes, are you most reminded of a roaring lion or of a group of sheep?

If you're not sure, you need to see for yourself. Yes, go hang out with sannyasins. You will have many beautiful experiences! And who knows what message you will find there?

Contradictions? Yes please.

If you get into Osho, it doesn't take long until you start noticing contradictions in his discourses. One day he might say there is no such thing as a center, auras, chakras or reincarnation, and that esoteric notions are only devices to pull childish people to the path. The next day he tells someone about her past life or presides over an energy "darshan" (transmission). At first I was too madly in love with Osho to pay much notice to these quirks: I ignored what didn't fit with my world and kept the rest. Osho kept saying that his words were the least important part of his discourse anyhow, that the important part was the silence between the words.

Still, the flip-flopping stayed as a question mark in the back of my mind, until I came across discourses where Osho explains that he doesn't give general answers that will suit everyone. He answers a question for the person who asked it, so you will get different answers depending on where you are on the path. This explains why you can meet Osho lovers with completely different understandings of Osho. My Osho was the ultra-brilliant dude who, before enlightenment, had been India's debating champion; my Osho spoke of supernatural powers as a joke. But I met many people whose Osho is still out there, hanging around, doing things with energy and guiding hands when we pick tarot cards. To me these kinds of contradictions just add to the madness surrounding Osho, a madness that makes him irresistible.

The biggest story in the world

If you'd like a taste of that madness, I recommend My Diamond Days with Osho, the story of a close disciple. Of all the first-hand accounts of the Rajneesh story, I found this one the best-written. And the story is amazing. In some ways, it's the biggest story on this planet, it blows any thriller or science ficion book you might read. Wow, something so mad, so big took place just a few decades ago? That alone made me ache to meet older sannyasins, people who were there in the eye of the hurricane. I used to sit for hours listening to their stories.

The Osho Trademark: Who Won?

Recently I received an email that said "We won! Osho is now freely available to all!" The US Trademark Office had just decided to take away the "Osho" trademark from Osho International.

On one level, I am thrilled for the friend who sent me the email. It must have been anguishing for her to do the work that she loves under the constant threat of a lawsuit. I am thrilled for her that things have opened up.

On another level, I am not sure it is such a victory.

Was it silly that a group of business men had been allowed to trademark the name "Osho"? Of course, it was ridiculous. It's as if you couldn't use "Jesus" or "Buddha" without paying Jesus Inc. and Buddha Inc. This situation was a great joke. For me, the punchline of that joke, on the path, was to see that I had to get out of the whole "Osho business" and rely on myself to get the message of Osho, without brokers. At one stage, I was happy to be cocooned by the Osho business people and the Osho priests and the Osho community. When I got the joke, and most people get it pretty fast, it was clear that there was no need to hang around that. If only it weren't so fun!

The maroon world can be awfully fun and seductive, and that fun and seduction plays a part in bringing some of us to the path. And it can play a part in keeping a seeker ON the path! There's no need for a seeker to stay in the maroon world, unless he is hooked to the lifestyle. If a seeker wants to keep having that maroon lifestyle, it could mean that he wants to stay on the path. And in a sense, wanting to stay ON the path means that one doesn't want to wake up. Yet.

If someone thinks he's won with the court's decision to make the name Osho available to all, he must have won something by winning the name Osho. In the case of my friend, sure, she's won the ability to do business without worrying about getting sued. But what about all the people who never had to worry about getting sued, what have they won? Are they any closer to Osho? Are they further along on the path? Perhaps I have too much imagination, but I imagine there could be someone somewhere (make it a man, call him John) who celebrates the outcome of the lawsuit and clings to that victory and creates identity around this fight that he's won. How will that help John wake up? In a strange way, if John thinks he's won, he's lost.

Trademark or no trademark, Osho was always freely available to all. Osho is not in a name. In fact, for a while, Osho refused to bear a name.

Nowadays you can download all of Osho's words from the internet. You can pay centers and therapists in many countries to experience the meditations. You can get what you need from them and then move away.

Personally I don't see why it matters who owns the name "Osho", unless you want to do business with the word "Osho". I see how for some people this could be a way never to wake up.

In a way, with this court decision, a beautiful joke has been lost, an opportunity. Thankfully, there's no shortage of jokes in this world.

Good luck to everyone on the path,

Andy

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