Osho. Biography of Osho. Osho cult "Population must be reduced"

"There were also false prophets among the people,
and you will have false teachers who
bring in pernicious heresies, and rejecting
the Lord who redeemed them, they will bring
on themselves a speedy death"
2 Peter 2:1

1. "Love yourself and do what you want"

The story of Rajneesh (Osho) and his cult is the story of the rise and fall of one of the adventurers of our time. Rajneesh deeply despised humanity and did not consider it necessary to hide his aspirations; perhaps even more than in the stories of other sects, here with undisguised cynicism, the reasons that moved the newly-minted guru are exposed to the surface - greed, lust, vanity and a thirst for power. It is worth adding that the cult of Rajneesh can hardly be attributed even to pseudo-Hindu neoplasms - this is an absolutely "author's work" operating in the area of ​​the "New Age" movement.

Rajneesh Chandra Mohan (1931-1990) Born in Kushwad (Central India, modern Madhya Pradesh) in a Jain family. Jainism arose around the end of the 6th - beginning of the 5th century. BC This religion recognizes the existence of an individual soul - jiva, but denies the existence of a higher God. Like adherents of other Indian religions, Jains see salvation in the liberation of the jiva from the chain of rebirth.

The one who has achieved liberation becomes, as it were, a living god and an object of worship. This Jain idea had a significant influence on Rajneesh, although in general his teaching is extremely eclectic.

Rajneesh was the eldest of his five sisters and seven brothers. Until the age of seven, Rajneesh lived with his grandparents. Rajneesh recalled that questions of spiritual liberation occupied him from a very early age. In his youth, he began to experience various meditation techniques; at the same time, he tried not to follow any traditions and did not look for teachers, always relying only on himself. One of the main childhood experiences of Rajneesh was the experience of death. In a 1979 diary, he writes that in his childhood he followed funeral processions, just as other guys ran after a traveling circus. In 1953, when Rajneesh studied philosophy at Jabalpur College, he said he experienced "enlightenment" - his last experience of death, after which he seemed to be born again. As a student, Rajneesh led a life far from conforming to the strict ascetic norms of Jainism. But they entered his soul so deeply as a child that, for example, he vomited all night when he ate with his friends after sunset (food at night is strictly forbidden for Jains - you can swallow it without noticing some some small insect, into which, say, the soul of great-grandfather reincarnated). Jainism does not know repentance, and Rajneesh was able to resolve the internal conflict only by rebelling against the "superstitions" of the religion of the fathers and all other religions. The theoretical justification for this Rajneesh was the "philosophy of life" (Nietzsche and others), which he met at the university.

In 1957, Rajneesh graduated from Saugar University with a gold medal in the All India Debating Competition and a Master of Philosophy degree, then taught philosophy at Jabalpur University for nine years. At this time, he travels around India, meeting and holding disputes with various religious and public figures. Speaking to audiences of many thousands, he gradually gains fame as a polemist and rebel. In 1966, Rajneesh left the university and began to preach his own teaching, which was a paradoxical mixture of bits of Jainism, Tantrism, Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Hasidism, Nietzscheism, psychoanalysis, popular "psycho-spiritual" therapies and the teachings of Krishnamurti and Gurdjieff. Having no initiation into any of the mystical traditions, he reinterpreted everything in his own way, adapting to his own needs.

At this time, Rajneesh called himself Acharya ("teacher"). He wandered on foot and rode a donkey across India, calling for inner transformation in order to survive in the coming nuclear catastrophe and preaching some new non-conformist religiosity, opposition to traditional religions, which Rajneesh sharply attacked at every opportunity: "We are making a revolution ... I burn old scriptures, breaking traditions..." ; "I am the founder of the only religion, other religions are deceit. Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha simply seduced people..."; "Faith is a pure poison" and so on in the same vein. More than once he said that he did not believe in any prophets, nor in the Messiah, and that they were all selfish people. Rajneesh saw the main mistake of traditional religious doctrines and meditative techniques in that they call on a person to abandon a "full-blooded" physiological life, offering "spiritual enlightenment" in return.

A truly enlightened new person, combining a rich life of the flesh and meditation, materialism and spirituality, Western activity and Eastern non-action, Rajneesh called Zorba-Buddha (the Greek Zorba is an energetic lover of life, the hero of the novel of the same name by the Greek writer Nikos Kazanzakis. In Zorba-Buddha he saw "a man of the future, totally cut off from the past" .

The main postulate of the "only religion" of Rajneesh can be expressed by paraphrasing the well-known patristic saying: "Love God and do what you want." In relation to the teachings of Rajneesh, it will turn out: "Love yourself and do what you want." According to Rajneesh, there is no god but man, and this is a hedonistic god: "Everyone can potentially become God ... God is a state of consciousness ... it is a way to enjoy life right here and now"; “The first thing to understand,” Rajneesh taught, “is that you are perfect. If someone tells you that you need to become even more perfect, then this person is your enemy, beware of him”; "You can be Christ, so why should you become a Christian?"

If you follow Buddha you will be in trouble -- millions have already been in trouble. If you follow Christ, you too will get into trouble. Look at any followers - they inevitably get into trouble, because life changes every minute, and they stick to dead principles. Remember the only golden rule: "There are no golden rules!"

To achieve a spiritually and bodily life "here and now", you need to "be spontaneous", because "life is spontaneous". Rajneesh saw the main obstacle preventing a person from being a god and enjoying every moment of life in the division of the mind into two warring principles: the conscious and the unconscious. A person identifies himself only with his conscious mind, and this does not allow him to achieve inner integrity. Only when the potential, the unconscious is allowed to blossom, can one feel the "bliss of being." Passions and unconscious impulses must not be suppressed or overcome, but intensely and exhaustively lived. Following your passions and lusts is, according to Rajneesh, the path to achieving divine freedom.

Immersion in the unconscious, turning off the reflective mind and removing all moral restrictions subsequently led some of Rajneesh's students, especially if they were neurotics, psychopaths, drug addicts or alcoholics, to serious mental illness. Rajneesh himself, however, believed that true madness is the splitting of consciousness into two unequal and mutually hostile halves, consciousness and the unconscious:

You are crazy and something needs to be done about it. Old traditions say: - Suppress your madness. Don't let it come out, otherwise your actions will become insane," but I say, "Let your insanity come out. Be aware of it. This is the only way to health." Release it! Inside it will become poisonous. Throw it out, completely empty your system of it. But this catharsis has to be approached systematically, methodically, because it means to go crazy with the method, to become consciously crazy.

Schizophrenia goes away after deep awareness. Don't fight yourself. Always remember that the winner is wrong. When conflict arises, follow nature.

The nature that Rajneesh proposes to follow is fallen: "If a conflict arose between love and celibacy, follow love and surrender to it entirely"; "...if it happens that you choose anger, give yourself completely to it" and the like.

Traditional teachings cannot heal a person from the conflict in his mind, because they themselves are the culprits of this division. "Religions gave rise to schizophrenia" by linking the unconscious with their law and commandments. But the insufficiency of the law Rajneesh opposes not the freedom of grace-filled transformation, which he had never heard of, but the permissiveness of lawlessness:

There are no sinners. Even if you have reached the very bottom in this life, you are divine as before, you cannot lose this divinity. I tell you: salvation is not needed, it is in yourself.

Rajneesh considers it vital for the diseased rationalism of humanity to free the infernal unconscious:

A revolution in human consciousness is no longer a luxury, but an absolute necessity, because there are only two possibilities: suicide or a qualitative leap in consciousness to the level that Nietzsche called the Superman.

2. "Meditation is a state of no-mind"

Rajneesh's preaching had little success in India until he settled in Bombay in 1968, where he soon had his first disciples from the West. They were mostly Americans and British, most of them having gone through various new religious movements, the "narco-spirituality" craze, the hippie movement, occult psychotherapeutic groups, etc. In this audience, Rajneesh's illogical and immoral "non-teaching" about man-godism found a warm response. . Rajneesh adds to his name instead of Dcharya the epithet Bhagwan Shri - "God is the Lord." Since the beginning of the 70s, he began to regularly hold so-called meditation camps, predominantly in mountainous areas.

Rajneesh contrasted the purposeful and utilitarian activity of the conscious mind with "celebration" or "play", that is, activity for the sake of enjoying the activity itself, and not its end result. Such an activity, in his opinion, can rightfully be called meditation.

Meditation is a state of no-mind. Meditation is a state of pure consciousness with no content... You can find meditation only by putting the mind aside, becoming cold, indifferent, not identified with the mind, seeing the mind pass by but not identifying with it, not thinking that " I am he."

Rajneesh's meditation is similar in description to the dhyana of classical yoga, but great ascetic efforts were required to achieve samadhi, and Rajneesh's methods were even simpler and more effective than Sri Aurobindo's "integral yoga"; they fully corresponded to the superficiality and relaxation of his audience, offering an easy way to "enlightenment" as to some kind of sharp "spiritual" pleasure. At the same time, Rajneesh did not cease to speculate on the fears of his flock, generated by the Cold War and the emerging environmental crisis, presenting meditation as the only way to solve these problems.

In April 1970, at a meditation camp near Bombay, Rajneesh demonstrated for the first time the "dynamic" (or "chaotic") meditation he invented. Here is her technology:

Stage 1: 10 minutes of deep, fast breathing through the nose. Let your body be as relaxed as possible... If the body wants to move during this breath, let it... 2nd stage: 10 minutes of catharsis, totally facilitating whatever energy the breath has created... Don't suppress anything. If you want to cry - cry, if you want to dance - dance. Laugh, shout, yell, jump, twitch: whatever you feel like doing, do it! Stage 3: 10 minutes of yelling "Hoo-hoo-hoo." Raise your arms above your head and bounce up and down while continuing to yell "Hoo-hoo-hoo." When jumping, land firmly on the soles of your feet so that the sound penetrates deep into the sexual center. Exhaust yourself completely. Stage 4: 10 minutes of full stop, frozen in the position in which you are. By breathing the energy was awakened, purified by catharsis and lifted by the Sufi mantra "Hu". And now let it work deep within you. Energy means movement. If you no longer throw it outside, it starts working inside. Stage 5: 10 to 15 minutes of dancing, celebrating, giving thanks for the deep bliss you have experienced.

Deep breathing to the beat of the drum in the first stage of "dynamic meditation" leads to hyperventilation of the lungs, as a result of which a person becomes drunk from excess oxygen. Then he "breaks away" as best he can, to the point of exhaustion. Having exhausted all reserves of activity, a person, according to Rajneesh, can no longer control the conscious mind, and it turns off. In a state of "switching off", when the head is empty and the body is completely relaxed, the unconscious comes into its own. This cheap psycho-physiological trance Rajneesh passed off as enlightenment.

One of the components of the Rajneesh vinaigrette is the occult tantric teaching about the chakras. True, Rajneesh added on his own behalf that the chakras are palpable only when they are polluted; if the chakras are clear, then the kundalini energy flows through them unhindered.

The main task of the "Hu" mantra is to open the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine and release the kundalini, which in everyday life is spent on a person's sex life. This is its natural use; however, enlightenment requires that it move in the opposite direction, up the "energy channel", opening all other chakras along the way. Rajneesh did not hide the fact that this method is very dangerous for the physical body and that many prominent yogis who practiced this method died before reaching old age from severe and painful diseases. However, at the same time, he believed that the use of kundalini was the most effective method of opening the chakras, and that further assistance from the guru could reduce its negative effects. The main benefit that the ascending movement of the kundalini brings, in his opinion, is that it allows the "cosmic energy" to descend into a person and circulate in all his bodies, including the physical. The last two stages of chaotic meditation make it possible to feel and enjoy this circulation.

In addition to "dynamic meditation", Rajneesh also introduced the "kundalini meditation" developed by him, during which the sectarians shook violently in order to "disperse the clamps of the body" and danced "to manifest their newly found flowing vitality." In order for meditation to be most effective, Rajneesh recommended doing it for 21 days in a row, combining it with yogic breathing exercises, in complete isolation and silence, or blindfolded.

3. Commune in Pune

At the beginning of the 70s, Rajneesh began to initiate everyone into "sannyasins", who, however, did not have to leave the "world"; only the most fanatical of them later began to settle in the ashrams of Rajneesh. And, of course, these "sannyasins" did not take any vows and did not lead an ascetic life, on the contrary, Rajneesh urged them to discard all "conditions". The only thing that was required of them was to completely “open up” to Rajneesh and surrender to him in everything. Sannyasins received new Sanskrit names "as a symbol of commitment to meditation and a break with the past." Women received the obligatory prefix "Ma" (mother), and men - the prefix "Swami". They had to wear bright orange robes and a wooden rosary with a portrait of Rajneesh around their necks, as well as constantly carry a nut with a "piece of the body" of their guru (usually, trimmings of his hair or nails).

In 1974, Rajneesh moved to Pune (India), where he opened his first commune ashram in Koregaon Park. The ashram could receive up to 2 thousand people at the same time, and up to 50 thousand people passed through it in a year. Within seven years, hundreds of thousands of "spiritual seekers" from the West visited the center in Pune. By the end of the 70s, about 10 thousand worshipers of Bhagavan lived in the ashram, and about 6 thousand more pilgrims, whom the ashram no longer accommodated, settled in Pune. Every day, Rajneesh delivered sermons in broken English, richly seasoned with all sorts of stories, jokes, ridicule and blasphemy. These sermon-lectures were recorded on a tape recorder and published in the form of separate books (the guru himself did not write anything except diaries), the number of which currently exceeds six and a half hundred. In addition to books translated into more than 30 languages, Rajneesh's followers distribute audio and video recordings of his speeches. To organize the production and sale of these products, the beloved student and personal secretary of Rajneesh, an Indian adventurer with an American passport, Ma Ananda Sheela (Shila Silverman), created the Rajneesh Foundation Limited company in New Jersey, the turnover of which soon amounted to millions of dollars. According to one of the Rajneeshists, "the organization has long understood the power of money" .

Pilgrims returning from Pune, initiated into neosannyas, began to open subsidiary ashrams and become their leaders. By the beginning of the 1980s, 500 such centers had already been established - in other places in India, as well as in 22 other countries, including the USA, England, France, Canada and Japan.

At the ashram in Pune, there were "therapy groups" in which professional psychotherapists worked. Sannyasins-Rajneeshists generally lived only in groups, obeying the leader. Mind control in such communes was especially effective. For example, when Rajneesh hinted that a woman burdened with children could not achieve enlightenment, right there in the cult center in Laguna Beach, many female sannyasins were surgically sterilized.

Naturally, a well-designed cult could not do without apocalypticism. Rajneesh predicted the imminent approach of a worldwide catastrophe:

This crisis will begin in 1984 and end in 1999. All kinds of destruction will reign on earth at this time - from natural disasters to suicide by scientific achievements. In other words, floods not seen since the time of Noah, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and everything possible nature will give us ... There will be wars that put humanity on the brink of nuclear war, but Noah's ark will not save it. Rajneeshism is the Noah's ark of consciousness, a corner of calm in the center of a typhoon... Tokyo, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Bombay - all these cities will perish in a global catastrophe that will not be limited to local destruction. It will be global and inevitable. It will be possible to hide from it only in my teaching.

In early 1984, Rajneesh expanded on his prediction of a coming catastrophe, declaring that some prophecy of Nostradamus would be fulfilled and AIDS would kill two-thirds of the world's population. When asked if the Rajneeshists would survive the coming nuclear catastrophe, Bhagavan replied:

Monkeys made a breakthrough and became people, but not all. Some of them are still monkeys to this day ... I will not say that the Rajneeshists will survive the catastrophe, but I can say with absolute certainty that those who survive will be Rajneeshists, and the rest will be monkeys or commit suicide. In the end, the rest don't matter.

Rajneesh preached the freedom of fornication and perversion, while calling the family and children an unnecessary burden. He said:

There is nothing wrong with pure simple sex... No obligation, no duty, no obligation in this. Sex should be full of play and prayer.

Develop your sexuality, don't suppress yourself!.. I don't inspire orgies, but I don't forbid them either.

Visitors to the commune in Pune returned with stories of such sexual orgies, as well as perversions, drug addiction and drug trafficking, and suicides among the Ashramites. It happened that meditation sessions in the Rajneesh ashrams ended in fights and stabbings. Many have lost their health after experiencing the "Rajneesh therapy". Here is an excerpt from the memories of visiting the ashram in Pune around the year 80:

Murders, rapes, mysterious disappearances of people, threats, arson, explosions, abandoned children of "Ashramovites" begging on the streets of Pune, drugs - all this [here] is in the order of things ... Christians working in the Pune psychiatric hospital will confirm everything that has been said , not forgetting to mention the high level of mental disorders, due [in particular] to the fact that the ashram took political power into its own hands and there is no one to complain about it.

The scandals associated with Rajneesh and his shocking statements attracted Western journalists. In addition, shaven-headed, bearded, wearing a "Sufi" hat and loose-fitting "spiritual" vestments, Rajneesh was photogenic. He first appeared in the American press in early 1978, when Time magazine published an article about him under the heading "God from the East." The magazine reported that this gifted guru had risen to the fore among the early apostles of the various New Age "human potential" movements. In the future, Rajneesh remained in the center of attention of the Western press and in the first half of the 80s he became the most fashionable guru in the West, eclipsing the Maharishi.

4. "I am the guru of the rich"

In 1980 and early 1981, Hindu traditionalists made two unsuccessful assassination attempts on Rajneesh. Then, in 1981, an investigation was launched, which showed that "Rajneesh Foundation Limited" was up to its neck in tax evasion, misappropriation of donations for charitable purposes, theft and criminal cases against members of the sect. In the same year, the government of Indira Gandhi stripped the Rajneesh Ashram of the status of a religious organization, and he had to pay huge taxes. Rajneesh, without waiting for the end of the investigation, from May 1, 1981, stopped giving lectures and generally speaking in public. Since that time, Rajneesh's "right hand" Shila Silverman has become Rajneesh's intermediary in communicating with the world. Having sold the property of the ashram in the early summer of 1981, withdrawing money from his Indian accounts and taking 17 of his most devoted students with him, Rajneesh went to the United States on a tourist visa ostensibly for treatment, and some Rajneesh sources indicate that he was going to be treated for a disease of the spine, and others - that of diabetes and asthma.

With the money of the American students of Rajneesh and mainly the second American husband Ananda Sheela in the desert part of Central Oregon, in the territory of Vasco County, the huge Big Magdi Ranch was purchased. Here, on dry, barren lands, an agricultural commune of the Rajneeshists first settled, and later a city of five thousand called Rajneeshpuram arose, which had an airfield, a comfortable hotel with a casino, shopping streets, restaurants, parks, gardens, greenhouses, roads and regular buses. All this was created by about 2000 adherents of Rajneesh. They worked for free, seven days a week, under the scorching sun for 12 hours a day, slept in the barracks and listened all the time through the loudspeakers of Rajneesh's sermons, in which they were inspired that exhausting work is a holiday, meditation, so to speak, a feast of the spirit.

Tens of thousands of other Rajneeshists came to Rajneeshpuram from time to time (in the summer, for example, up to 20 thousand people gathered). They were able to give significant amounts of money to the guru, since most of them belonged to the well-to-do middle class. More than 300 Rajneesh meditation centers were opened around the world, also bringing in considerable income; say, in British centers, the basic annual course of "Rajneesh therapy" cost 3,500 pounds. In addition, the centers also offered a number of paid New Age courses: bioenergetics, body control, dehypnotherapy, intuitive massage, neotantric yoga, rebirthing and many others. They tried to send those who graduated from the courses to Rajneeshpuram. For such a trip it was necessary to lay out several thousand more dollars. . Rajneesh believed that "spirituality is a luxury and a privilege of the rich". About himself, he said: "I am the guru of the rich. There are enough religions that deal with the poor, but leave me to deal with the rich."

He dealt with them quite successfully for his own pocket. By the end of 1982, he was worth $200 million tax-free. He owned 4 aircraft, a combat helicopter and 91 Rolls Roys. In fact, he expected to have 365 of these most expensive cars in the world, a new car for every day of the year. In the Rolls-Royce, Rajneesh made his daily tour of the flock. The Guru himself drove the car, moving slowly and solemnly, accompanied by submachine gunners, along the living orange wall of his adepts, who stood on the edges of the so-called "road of nirvana" and threw rose petals under the wheels of the car. It was a rare opportunity for them to see their idol.

As Rajneeshpuram grew, in all major Western countries, “holy cities” built by the Rajneeshists on its model began to appear - communes trying to lead an autonomous existence and supposed to become an alternative to the “unfree society”. Under the talk of freedom, the Rajneesh sect gradually turned into a "totalitarian organization with a strict control system." Even such a pro-sectarian researcher of new religious movements as Professor Eileen Barker described the commune in Rajneeshpuram with such words.

In Oregon, the Rajneeshists occupied the nearby provincial town of Enteloup, won a majority of the seats on the city council, and renamed it Rajneesh. Most of the original inhabitants of Enteloope, mostly elderly, were under constant surveillance by the police force of sannyasins, were taxed in favor of the sect and were forced to contemplate a nudist beach established by the city council in a local park. They chose to give up and leave the city. The city grew as the followers of Rajneesh bought up existing houses and built new ones.

In the meantime, the deadline for elections to the legislative assembly of the county approached and the Rajneeshists decided to achieve a majority in it as well. Under local law, it was enough to live in the state for 22 days to get the right to vote in local elections. Therefore, it was decided to increase the number of voters who would vote for Rajneesh candidates. In the autumn of 1984, the operation "Share a dwelling with your neighbor" was carried out: from New York, San Francisco and other large cities of the United States, sectarians brought about three and a half thousand alcoholics, vagrants and drug addicts to the ashram. Frightened by this, local legislatures hastily passed a law increasing the period of residence required to participate in elections. The vagabonds who accumulated in Rajneeshpuram thus did not bring any benefit to the sect. On the contrary, semi-criminal homeless people behaved arrogantly and defiantly, did not want to work for the gurus and, on top of everything else, worsened the already not brilliant relations between the communards and the local residents. In Rajneeshpuram, Sheela put together an armed detachment of a hundred militants, but even he failed to disperse the annoying "neighbors", and soon their corpses began to be found in the vicinity of the "holy city", only not in Rajneeshpuram itself. The police determined that they had all been killed by an unknown poison and understandably suspected Rajneesh and company.

At the same time, the sect's political ambitions continued to grow. Since the trick with the homeless did not work, now, in order to win the elections, the Rajneeshists decided to ensure that those who do not support their candidates could not take part in the vote. Continuing to be the "tongue" of the silent guru, Sheela Silverman figured out what to do: agents assigned to her sprayed salmonella bacteria on the salad bars of most restaurants in the county, causing many of their patrons to get sick. True, this did not help the Rajneeshists achieve the desired power in the county.

In October 1984, Rajneesh suddenly spoke up. He again accused priests and politicians of corrupting human souls, again claimed that Rajneeshism is "the only defense against nuclear weapons", and again preached the renunciation of the "old world", showing an example of "spiritual revolutionism": "I raise my hand against the past of everything humanity."

In his speeches there were more and more anti-Christian attacks:

Messiahs are, as a rule, insane. He [Jesus] was absolutely sure that the crucifixion would prove him right, and that is why I see in his actions just a suicide attempt in disguise. If anyone was to blame for his crucifixion, it was only he himself. He asked for it himself. And no source - Jewish or historical - confirms that he was resurrected. New Testament only. Fiction. There was no resurrection.

Rajneesh himself wanted to be his worshipers instead of Christ: "Let me be your death and resurrection." . And they sang to him with adoration: "I place my heart in your hands."

The spirit that spoke through the serpent to Eve in Paradise now spoke through the mouth of Rajneesh:

The devil seduced Eve with the argument that God wants her to remain ignorant. .. He is envious. And this seems to be true, for the God of the Jews is very envious. He does not want people to become equal to him. He is not a loving father... Knowledge is not a sin... I advise you to eat from the tree of knowledge..." .

By 1984, the number of followers of Rajneesh exceeded 350 thousand, and their average age was 34 years. Despite the failure in the Wasco elections, the Rajneeshists in the same 1984, in connection with the elections to the legislature of Oregon, gave reason to fear that the sect was striving for political power already at the state level. Sheela added fuel to the fire, declaring that, if necessary, the people of Rajneesh would turn the whole of Oregon into Rajneeshpuram. The surrounding farmers, driven by the immoral behavior of the Rajneeshists to the point that they were ready to call them to order by force, Sheela threatened to kill fifteen people for each follower of Rajneesh. . Under the influence of public opinion, the police, and then the FBI, finally opened a criminal case against the Rajneesh sect. About four dozen FBI investigators were investigating directly in Rajneeshpuram. They discovered weapons caches, laboratories for the production of drugs that were regularly added to food for sectarians, a carefully camouflaged underground passage for the escape of the guru in case of emergency.

On September 14, 1985, Sheela Silverman, with her bodyguards and another husband, as well as several other members of the commune's board, fled to Western Europe. Rajneesh accused Sheela of trying to poison his personal doctor, making an attempt on the life of the guru himself, killing vagrants whose bodies the police found in the vicinity of Rajneeshpuram, and wanted to turn the ashram into a fascist organization. Meanwhile, Sheela withdrew $55 million from the ashram's Swiss bank account and tried to escape, but was arrested in Stuttgart by Interpol. She, in turn, stated that "Bhagwan is a spoiled child who cannot breathe without a monthly 250 thousand dollars in pocket money. He is a genius at using people's gullibility, a drug addict who cannot live without Valium. His life story is a complete scam. And I was an accomplice in this scam. He and I, we made a great pair of swindlers ".

Rajneesh also managed to escape, but on October 29, 1985, he was arrested at the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Bhagwan's own plane landed to refuel. Rajneesh and eight of his associates allegedly flew to rest in Bermuda.

The trial of Rajneesh, held in Portland, Oregon, ended on November 14, 1985. The state authorities, already suffering enormous losses due to the activities of Rajneesh, feared that they simply would not be able to pull out an extremely costly, months-long lawsuit. In addition, according to state attorney general Charles Turner, they did not want to make a martyr out of Rajneesh. As a result of difficult negotiations with Rajneesh's lawyers, a compromise was reached - Bhagwan pleaded guilty to only 2 of the 34 charges against him. Thus, he received a symbolic punishment for violating immigration laws and related criminal provisions: ten years of probation in prison plus a $400,000 fine. In addition, Rajneesh was ordered to leave the United States forever within five days. Shila was found guilty of illegally using listening devices, arson, beatings and intimidation, attempted murder and infecting 750 people with batulism, for which she was sentenced to prison and a heavy fine. After spending only 29 months in prison, she left for Switzerland at the end of 1988 and remarried - to the Swiss Urs Birnstiel, who died in 1992 from AIDS. Sheela reconciled with Rajneesh, but she was never his follower and accomplice. Now 52-year-old Shila Birnstil owns two homes for the disabled and the elderly near Basel. The contingent of its establishments are people with mental disorders, mainly those with Alzheimer's syndrome, that is, a memory disorder. In the United States, Schiela is again charged in the old cases, this time with conspiracy to kill Oregon Attorney General Charles Turner, but her status as a Swiss citizen protects her from extradition. Of the $469,000 Sheela owed to the State of Oregon and Vasco County, an anonymous person recently paid $200,000 (we can assume that this was one of her not quite adequate patients).

Rajneesh dissolved the Oregon ashram, burned five thousand copies of his pamphlets and publicly declared that he was not a god. After being deported from the United States, Rajneesh tried to stay in any country where he had followers, but 21 countries either denied him entry or expelled him without any special explanation (such as Greece). From that time on, the Rajneeshist movement began to lose its mass character more and more. Crowded communes are falling apart, the degree of influence of the cult on followers is falling.

Most of those who deal with the problems of new religious movements speak of the inadmissibility of using repressive measures against extremist totalitarian sects, justifying this by saying that the banned sect will go underground and become even more dangerous. But the well-executed police operation to liquidate the community in Rajneeshpuram suggests otherwise. It turns out that in exchange for guarantees of personal safety, the leader of the cult, who values ​​his own person most of all, is ready to dissolve the sect. But just a few months before the events described, even a competent cult researcher, Christian apologist, holder of four doctoral degrees, Walter Martin, who, moreover, was sharply negative towards the Rajneesh sect, wrote: “Rajneesh and his followers attach great importance to the experiment with Rajneeshpuram, which led would be tragic if the government intervened and destroyed their dream."

5. "The population needs to be reduced"

In July 1986, Rajneesh was finally able to return to India (back in December 1985 he was expelled from there too). He settled in Bombay, where the few remaining disciples began to gather around him. In the last days of 1986, Rajneesh delivered two speeches, later published under the general heading "The Rights of the New Man." In these keynote speeches, Rajneesh vents his resentment at being kicked out of all Western countries, expressing both general indignation against all priests, rich people and white politicians, as well as surprisingly petty claims. In particular, he inherited the Declaration of the Rights of Man. The old Declaration should be replaced by the Declaration of the Rights of the New Man, whose "only fundamental right" is "to become a god."

Revealing in detail the ten points of his Declaration, Rajneesh paints a picture of the world in which his "new people" will live. The right to life in this world will mean the right to a good life, in which there will be no suffering, but only joys and pleasures. It is clear that as the human population increases, there will not be enough resources for a good life for everyone. Therefore, Rajneesh says that "the population must be reduced if a person wants to live with dignity, joyfully, and not drag out a miserable existence." To do this, Rajneesh proposes to limit the birth rate by any means, using not only contraceptives and abortions for this, but also the destruction of children with birth defects. In addition, it is necessary to introduce and promote euthanasia in every possible way and recognize the rights of homosexuals.

In the future world "there should be neither nations nor state borders. There should be no religions". Rajneesh hopes that religions will "dissolve themselves. The best of the various religions will be preserved in Rajneesh's 'only religion'. In a world of absolute freedom, the main cause of slavery, which, according to Rajneesh, is faith-based Christian anthropology, must be eliminated. that God created man in His own image and likeness.Marriage in the society of the "new people" must disappear, since it is a "fake for love."The "new people" will freely converge and diverge, and it is better if the partners belong to different nations, and even better - to different races.Children should be torn from their parents and brought up by communities.And not even brought up, because Rajneesh considers any education, especially religious, a violation of children's freedom.

In a one world, there will, of course, be a one world government. What will be the form of his government? Rajneesh hates the monarchy. Democracy is also not good, because it is a cover for the manipulations of the powerful. In addition, the "ignorant masses" when voting are guided by random criteria: one of the candidates looks better, someone speaks better. In the new world, elections will be carried out by professional corporations: for example, "only educators should elect the minister of education." Only those who have received higher education will have the right to vote. The world government will be functional, but will not have power.

When a person eliminates the division in himself with the help of Rajneesh methods, the divisions in the world will also disappear. The new world will be different from the current one, like heaven from hell.

Now there is no need to even describe what hell is. It is enough to look around: here it is... But we can change everything. This earth can be turned into a paradise. And then there will be no need for a paradise in heaven, where it will be empty. If we recall Rajneeshpuram, it will become clear what will be done with those who do not want to live in this paradise of radical hedonistic godless humanism.

6. Osho died, apparently from AIDS

In January 1987, Rajneesh again moved to Pune. Here he comes up with a new meaningful name for himself - "Osho", that is, "ocean", which, apparently, should be associated with vastness, depth, randomness, abyss.

For his followers, Osho abolishes the obligatory wearing of orange robes and sandalwood rosaries with their own portrait on them. True, during meditation and in the presence of Osho, sannyasins were ordered to wear white clothes. In addition, maroon robes must be worn in the meditation camps, which are held for three days each month.

Psychotherapeutic programs are being renewed and expanded, new meditative techniques are being created. One of them, the "Mystic Rose", Osho modestly considered "the greatest breakthrough in meditation 2500 years after the meditation of Gautama Buddha". This meditation lasts 21 days; one week the participants laugh for 3 hours a day, the second week they cry for 3 hours a day, the third week for 3 hours a day "silently observe" and "testify" how they felt better.

Following the example of his long-time competitor in the neo-guru market - Maharishi, whom Rajneesh had previously criticized in every possible way, Osho is now trying to prove the beneficialness of his meditation therapy through "scientific studies".

Various therapeutic groups in the Osho International Commune were united in the "Osho Multiversity", which in the first half of the 90s included the following non-diploma "colleges": School of Centering, School of Creative Arts, International Health Academy, Academy of Meditation. The Transformation Center, the Institute of Tibetan Pulsations and others are quite a typical New Age set.

By the end of the 1980s, Osho's health had deteriorated significantly. In the last months before his death, if his health allowed, Osho went out to his students for "meditations of music and silence", and then they watched videos of his previous conversations. Osho died in 1990, apparently from AIDS. When he passed away, he did not leave a full-fledged organization, believing that there was no need for it, and did not appoint an heir. Moreover, he made it clear that if anyone declared himself his successor, he should be avoided. As a result, after the death of the guru, several independent currents formed within the movement. Among them are Paul Lowe's "International Academy of Meditation", "Humauniversity", headed by the Dutch sannyasin Verish, and others.

Now there are about 200 Osho meditation centers in the world. The center of the cult is still Pune. A group of 21 sannyasins led by Amrito, Osho's former personal physician, formed the leadership of the ashram after the latter's death. They have turned the commune in Pune into a commercial enterprise - an exotic "esoteric" recreation park, designed for wealthy Western tourists aged 35-40.

On the territory of the former Soviet Union, there are Osho centers in St. Petersburg, Voronezh (operating in 1996 under the name "Tantra Yoga"), Odessa, Krasnodar, Minsk, Tbilisi, Riga and Moscow, where, in addition to the Osho Rajneesh center, there is also the center "Eastern House", created by a young Russian Igor. In the early 1990s, he took a course in Pune and returned as a sannyasin, Swami Anand Toshan. In addition to meditation trainings, sending "to study" in Pune and other programs, "Eastern House" holds Sunday "Osho-Disco" where "everything is allowed."

OshoTime International is a bi-monthly magazine that is distributed worldwide and published in nine languages. Sites of fans of Osho from different countries are abundantly represented on the Internet. But the popularity of Rajneesh is not commensurate with the presence of organizations associated with his name - elements of Rajneesh's ideology are an integral part of the New Age movement. Osho's books are sold in all New Age stores and are abundantly presented at any collapse of the occult literature.

179. Joachim Keden and others. Sects, spirits, miracle healers. Germany, 1999. -p. 28.

180. Amrit Swami Prem. Decree. op. -p.14.

Photo - Osho (Bhagawan Shri Rajneesh); cover of one of Osho's books; dynamic meditation; Russia - Belly dance lessons with Erasmia - enlightened dancer Osho - www.oshoforum.ru &www.orientdance.ru

They say that as many names a person has, so many lives. According to Hindu traditions, a person can mark any significant stage in his life by changing his name. Today we will talk about the man best known as Osho. But he bore this name only in the last year of his earthly existence.

Many names and two mystical lives

One of the most controversial Gurus of our time in different years of his life called himself by such names:

• Chandra Mohan Jain is the official name given at birth;
• Raja - this name was given to the boy by his grandfather;
• Rajneesh Chandra Mohan - this was the name of Osho from the moment he entered school until the age of 21;
• Acharya Rajneesh - so called Osho by students when he was a professor of philosophy at Jabalpur University;
• Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh - this is how Osho called himself from the age of 21 until the last year of his life;
• Osho is the name that the Master bore only a year before his death.

Osho's biography consistently reveals the path of a person who came to his enlightenment through awareness. Osho was born in Central India, and spent all his early childhood with his grandparents, who adored and pampered him. Parents took the boy to themselves only after their death.

It was his grandfather who began to call him Raja, which meant "king", and spoiled him in every possible way. The boy was literally bathed in love. Raja's grandmother was also a very interesting person, Osho often used her quotes and sayings during his lectures to students. For example, this wonderful woman did not forbid anything to Osho. During his speeches, he often cited such quotes from her: “Smoking is good”, “Gambling and bodily love is a way to know the limits of your capabilities”, etc.

Oddly enough, such an upbringing bore fruit: having tried a lot of things in his life, Osho remained free from any addictions, although he always spoke about love with interest.

The boy from childhood was different from his peers. So, according to his recollections, he received his first experience of meditation at the age of three, often secluded in the forest. Before entering school, Osho was an introverted child, keenly interested in various ways of spiritual development. Raja always liked to read books, and loneliness never bothered him. Osho subsequently never looked for teachers for himself, but through his spiritual search he considered constant experiments on his body and its capabilities.

Even at school, little Osho often baffled teachers with his statements and actions: he constantly questioned the aphorisms and quotes of famous people about love, argued with teachers. Despite the fact that Osho had a lively mind, hardly anyone would dare to call him a diligent student. Rajneesh always preferred solitude and independent study through books and quotes to studies. His alphabet is not the words of teachers, but his own experience and guessing about probabilities.

Although the little Raja from childhood was distinguished by eccentricity and extraordinary thoughts and actions, the main points of his mystical biography are associated with the names of Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh and Osho. It is these two lives of the Enlightened Master that are of the greatest interest to his followers.

Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh

After leaving school, going against the aspirations of the family, Rajneesh, instead of any prestigious profession, became interested in philosophy. Osho's student years were quite stormy: he was known as an ardent atheist, who is alien to any religion, as well as a great lover to argue. During this period of his life, only freedom of speech was a value for him.

At the age of 21, according to Osho, while meditating in the park during the full moon, he suddenly “died”, after which enlightenment descended on him. Osho woke up already a different person, absolutely free from any complexes and prejudices. It was a completely different person: if up to that moment Osho was engaged in his own spiritual development, then after March 21, 53, a new Guru and Teacher appeared in the world.

Osho graduated from Saugar University, with a gold medal and a diploma, for which he did not even deign to come. The vice-chancellor of the university quoted Osho on this occasion as follows: “I don’t need a diploma, sooner or later I will burn it”, “What should I do with a diploma? Carry with him all my life?

Two years later, Osho begins teaching philosophy at Jabalpur University. In total, he will work as a teacher for 9 years, all this time traveling with lectures throughout India and not embarrassing to express his views even in front of an audience of one hundred thousand. Students adored the eccentric professor for his humor, unique quotes and parables, as well as a special look at traditional things such as love, family, freedom, marriage, loneliness, death and happiness. A photo of this period of life gives an idea of ​​Osho as a very attractive man with a developed ego, in whose eyes a sharp mind shines. To listen to an amazing teacher, students even ran away from other lectures.

The winds of change cannot leave Rajneesh alone. After Osho left the pulpit, he devoted himself entirely to spreading his personal philosophy and perfecting the art of meditation. Dynamic meditation according to Osho is music, chakra breathing, dance and spontaneous movements. It was first introduced to Osho in April 1970, and since then every day it has been practiced by a huge number of fans of Osho's teachings.

The transformation and balance of energy through such meditations occurs due to the awakening of activity and the calm observation following the peak of activity. Dynamic meditation incorporates elements of yoga, Tibetan traditions and Sufism. Such meditation can not only be lived, but simply listened to.

In 1974 Master opens his first ashram. Here he conducts meditations, has leisurely conversations with his followers and, of course, creates books. Books and conversations of this period of Osho's life can be called universal: in them he deals with issues of almost all existing religions and the fundamental concepts and secrets of mankind. But still, such concepts as freedom, love and loneliness run through all the books written by Osho.

Thousands of admirers of Osho's teachings found here the truth for themselves, found their destiny, joined the universal love. And some of them even became neosannyasins. According to Osho, neosannyas is awareness. It does not require a withdrawal from the world, it is only a withdrawal from the madness of the surrounding world. Adepts of Osho go about their usual business, without ceasing to engage in their personal growth and spiritual development. Many of Osho's quotes show how he saw the new man. Here is one of them: "The new man is free from the madness of the modern world, he is the only hope ..."

In the spring of 1981, Osho's health deteriorated, and he left for treatment in the United States. But even here it is not complete without the experiments of this amazing person. On an American ranch, he establishes the transnational spiritual commune Rajneeshpuram, where complete freedom reigns. Some people consider Osho a Zen Master, others call him the Sex Guru, alluding to the way of life of the commune members. And for others, he is a real Messiah, making amazingly accurate predictions.

All three years spent there, Osho keeps complete silence. He will speak only a year before the commune is dispersed at the behest of the American government. He will talk about love, family, loneliness, real feelings, men and women ...

His wisdom is immeasurable, statements about love are full of hidden meaning, understandable to few. But his ideas become too dangerous, they undermine the very foundations of modern society. His freedom and loneliness, as well as the love that he does not hesitate to show people, make him an outcast in more than 20 countries.

In 1987, Osho returned to the city of Pune. In the International Commune, founded by his adherents, his voice resounds again, telling about universal love and about what intuition, reason, consciousness are. He also talks a lot about emotions such as anger, resentment and fear. It is they who, according to Osho, are the cause of many of the ills of mankind. Even seriously ill, Osho continues to create his amazing books.

A year after his arrival in Pune, the guru lays down with a serious illness. But after three weeks, he appears in public and gives an interview in which he claims that the Buddha visited his body. Therefore, he renounces his name Bhagwan Shri which means "God". Osho quotes of that time are known, here is one of them: “I do not teach Buddhism. I teach how to become a Buddha."

Confused sannyasins come up with a new name for him - Osho, which is still interpreted in different ways. The teacher himself claimed that this is not a name at all, but a healing sound.

Soon Osho creates the "Zen Manifesto" - his last cycle of discourses. 9 months before his death, Osho declares that he will no longer conduct talks, because the energy in him has changed and he needs to prepare for death. Since then, he has only been silently present at the meditations conducted by his students, soon quietly departing into another world.

Osho teachings

Osho's teaching is a synthesis of almost all religions and philosophies of the world. His conversations about love are often supplemented by dynamic meditations and general discussions about the fate of mankind. But the main theme that has occupied Osho throughout the years remains the freedom and loneliness of a person on his path of self-knowledge.

According to Osho, a new person must learn to enjoy everything around, to know love in all its manifestations, including sexual, learn to meditate and periodically plunge into silence.

Acquaintance with the teachings of Osho through books

Unfortunately, we can no longer listen to the Master's voice live, but after him there were quotes, parables and books. Osho did not write all his books, but dictated them. This explains the huge number of works left after the Teacher (more than 600 books). Anyone who wants to know the opinion of the guru about what love, freedom, loneliness is, get his correspondence advice, we can recommend the following books:

Do not rush to draw conclusions about this amazing person and the modern Zen Master only from his biography and reviews of his contemporaries. Read his books, study quotes, listen to dynamic meditations - if true love for people and the world lives in your heart, if you are not afraid of change and are ready to move along the path of personal growth, then Osho's ideas will surely resonate in your soul with ringing and melodic bells.

December 11, 1931 - January 19, 1990

Osho was born on December 11, 1931 in Kushwad (Central India). The family loved him very much, especially his grandfather, who gave him the name “Raja”, which means “king”. He spent all his childhood at his grandfather's house. His father and mother took him in only after the death of his grandfather and grandmother. Before school, the boy was given a new name: Rajneesh Chandra Mohan.

His biographer writes: “The birth of Rajneesh was not an ordinary event. It was the birth of a man who had come to Earth in search of truth before. He traveled in countless ways, passed through many schools and systems. His last birth was 700 years ago in the mountains, where his mystical school was located, which attracted many students of different traditions and beliefs from various countries. Then the Master lived 106 years. Before his death, he began a 21-day fast, which was supposed to lead him to enlightenment. But he had a choice - he could take another birth before finally disappearing into eternity. He looked at his family of disciples: among them there were many who had stopped on their way and needed help. He also saw the great potential that was to emerge from the synthesis of East and West, body and soul, materialism and spirituality. He saw the possibility of creating a new man - a man of the future, totally cut off from the past. He, who had come so close to the ultimate attainment for which he had worked hard for many lifetimes, decided to incarnate again in a human body. Out of his pure love and compassion, he promised his disciples to return and share his truth with them, to help them bring their consciousness to a state of awakening.”

This promise defined his whole life. From early childhood, he was interested in spiritual development, studied his body and its capabilities, constantly experimented with various methods of meditation. He did not follow any traditions and did not look for teachers. The basis of his spiritual search was an experiment. He looked very closely at life, especially at its critical, extreme points. He did not believe in any theories and rules and always rebelliously opposed the prejudices and vices of society. “Courage and fearlessness were remarkable qualities of Rajneesh,” said a childhood friend. He was very fond of the river and often stayed on it at night, swimming in the most dangerous places and diving into whirlpools. He later said: “If you fall into a whirlpool, you will be captured, you will be pulled to the bottom, and the deeper you go, the stronger the whirlpool will become. The natural tendency of the ego is to fight it, because the whirlpool looks like death, the ego tries to fight the whirlpool, and if you fight it in a rising river or near a waterfall, where there are many such whirlpools, you will inevitably disappear, because the whirlpool is very strong. You cannot overcome it.

But the whirlpool has one phenomenon: on the surface it is large, but the deeper you go, the narrower and narrower the whirlpool becomes - stronger, but narrower. And almost at the bottom of the funnel is so small that you can very easily get out of it without any struggle. In fact, near the bottom, the funnel itself will throw you out. But you wait for the bottom. If you fight on the surface, if you do anything for it, you cannot survive. I have tried with many whirlpools: this experience is wonderful.”

The experiences in the whirlpools were like the experience of death. Little Rajneesh faced death early. When he was five years old, his younger sister died, at the age of seven he experienced the death of his beloved grandfather. Astrologers predicted that he would face death every seven years: at seven, fourteen, and twenty-one. And although he did not physically die, his experiences of death during these years were the deepest for him. Here is what he experienced after the death of his grandfather: “When he died, I felt that it would be a betrayal to eat. Now I didn't want to live. It was childhood, but through it something very profound happened. For three days I lay and did not move. I couldn't get out of bed. I said: “If he died, I don't want to live. I survived, but those three days were a death experience. I died then, and I came to understand (now I can talk about it, although at that time it was only a vague experience), I came to the feeling that death is impossible...”

At the age of 14, knowing about the prediction of the astrologer, Rajneesh came to a small hidden temple and lay down there in anticipation of his death. He did not want her, but he wanted to meet his death consciously, if she did come. Rajneesh asked the priest not to disturb him and to bring some food and drink once a day. For seven days this extraordinary experience took place. The actual death did not come, but Rajneesh did his best to "become as dead". He went through several terrible and unusual sensations. From this experience, he learned that once death is accepted as a reality, then its acceptance immediately creates a distance, a point from which a person can observe the flow of events in life as a spectator. This lifts him above the pain, sorrow, anguish and despair that usually accompany this event. “If you accept death, then there is no fear. If you cling to life, fear will be with you.” Having gone through the experiences of the deceased being intensely and meditatively, he says: “I died along the way, but I came to understand that there is still something immortal here. One day you will accept death totally and you will become conscious of it.”

The third time it happened on March 21, 1953, when Rajneesh was 21 years old. On that day, enlightenment happened to him. It was like an explosion. “That night I died and was reborn. But the person who is reborn has nothing to do with the one who died. It is not a continuous thing... The person who has died has died totally; there was nothing left of him... not even a shadow. The ego died totally, completely... On that day, March 21st, a person who had lived many, many lives, millennia, simply died. Another being, absolutely new, not at all connected with the old, began to exist ... I became free from the past, I was torn out of my history, I lost my autobiography.

At this point, the story of Rajneesh actually ends. The man, whose name was Rajneesh Chandra Mohan, died at the age of 21, and at the same time a miracle happened: a new enlightened person was reborn, completely free of ego. (It should be noted that enlightenment is not a concept that can be explained in certain logical terms. Rather, it is an experience that surpasses any verbal description. The Buddha, the most famous Enlightened person on earth, called it “nirvana.”)

After this event, the outer life of Rajneesh did not change. He continued his studies at Jabalpur College in the Department of Philosophy. In 1957 he graduated from the University of Saugara with honors, a gold medal and a master's degree in philosophy. Two years later he became a lecturer in philosophy at Jabalpur University. He was very loved by students for his humor, sincerity and uncompromising desire for freedom and truth. During his 9 year university career, Osho traveled all over India, often traveling 15 days a month. A passionate and skillful debater, he constantly challenged orthodox religious figures. Addressing an audience of 100,000, Osho spoke with the authority that comes from his enlightenment, he destroyed blind faith to create true religiosity.

In 1966, Osho left the university chair and devoted himself entirely to spreading the art of meditation and his vision of a new person - Zorba-Buddha, a person who synthesizes the best features of East and West, a person who is able to enjoy a full-blooded physical life and is able to simultaneously sit silently in meditation, achieving heights of consciousness.

1968 Osho settled in Bombay and soon the first Western seekers of spiritual truth began to come to him. There were many therapists among them, representatives of the humanist movements, who wanted to take the next step in their growth. The next step, as Osho said, was meditation.

Osho experienced his first glimpses of meditation as a child, when he jumped from a high bridge into a river, or walked along a narrow path over an abyss. There were a few moments when the mind stopped. This caused an unusually clear perception of everything around, one's being in it and complete clarity and separateness of consciousness. These experiences, experienced repeatedly, aroused Osho's interest in meditation and prompted him to look for more accessible ways. In the future, he not only experienced all the meditations known from antiquity, but also came up with new, revolutionary techniques specifically designed for modern man. These meditations are called "dynamic meditations" and are based on the use of music and movement. Osho brought together elements of yoga, Sufism and Tibetan traditions, which made it possible to use the principle of energy transformation through the awakening of activity and subsequent calm observation.

Osho first showed his morning dynamic meditation in April 1970 at a meditation camp near Bombay. On that day, everyone was dumbfounded and fascinated at the same time. Indian journalists were amazed to see the participants yelling, screaming and tearing off their clothes - the whole scene was fatal and very intense. But how strong was the tension in the first, intense stage, just as deep was the relaxation in the second part, leading to complete peace, not achievable in ordinary life.

Osho explained: “For 10 years I have been continuously working with the methods of Lao Tzu, that is, I have continuously studied direct relaxation. It was very easy for me and so I figured it would be easy for anyone. Then, time after time, I began to realize that this was impossible... Of course, I said “relax” to those whom I taught. They understood the meaning of the word, but could not relax. Then I decided to come up with new methods of meditation that first create tension - even more tension. They create such tension that you become crazy. And then I say "relax".

What is "meditation"? Osho talked a lot about meditation. Based on his conversations, many books have been compiled, in which all aspects of meditation are considered in great detail, from the technique of execution to explanations of the subtlest internal nuances. Here is a short excerpt from the Orange Book.

“The first thing to know is what meditation is. Everything else will follow. I cannot tell you that you should practice meditation, I can only explain to you what it is. If you understand me, you will be in meditation and there is no "must". If you don't understand me, you won't be in meditation.

Meditation is a state of no-mind. Meditation is a state of pure consciousness without content. Usually your mind is too full of nonsense, just like a mirror covered with dust. The mind is a constant crowd - thoughts move, desires move, memories move, ambitions move - this is a constant crowd. Day comes, day goes. Even when you are asleep the mind is functioning, it is dreaming. It is still thinking, still unrest and sadness. He prepares for the next day, continues his underground preparations.

This is the state of non-meditation. Just the opposite is meditation. When there is no crowding and thinking has stopped, not a single thought moves, not a single desire is held back, you are completely silent... such silence is meditation. And in this silence the truth is known, never again.

Meditation is a state of no-mind. And you will not be able to find meditation with the help of the mind, because the mind itself will move. You can find meditation only by putting the mind aside, becoming cold, indifferent, unidentified with the mind, seeing the mind pass by but not identifying with it, not thinking "I am it."

Meditation is the realization that "I am not the mind." As this awareness goes deeper and deeper, little by little there are moments-moments of silence, moments of pure space, moments of transparency, moments when nothing is held in you and everything is permanent. In these moments you will know who you are, you will know the secret of being.

There comes a day, a day of great bliss, when meditation becomes your natural state.”

Elsewhere Osho says: “Only meditation can make humanity civilized, because meditation will release your creativity and take away your destructive tendencies.”

Being an enlightened person, Osho was more clearly aware of the fragility of the current existence of humanity on Earth. Constant wars, wild treatment of nature, when more than a thousand species of plants and animals die out every year, entire forests are cut down and the seas are drained, the presence of nuclear weapons of enormous destructive power - all this puts a person on the line beyond which complete disappearance.

“Life has brought us to a point where the choice is extremely simple: only two paths, two possibilities. Humanity will either commit suicide or decide to meditate, to be at peace, peace, humanity, love.

Live naturally, live peacefully, turn inward. Take some time for yourself, being alone and silent, watching the inner workings of your mind.

In this inner silence you will experience a new dimension of life. In this dimension, there is no greed, no anger, no violence. Love will appear, and in such abundance that you will not be able to contain it, it will begin to pour out of you in all directions. And this state gives a person meditation.

In 1974, Osho moved to Pune, where, together with his sannyasin students, he opened an ashram in the beautiful Koregaon Park. Hundreds of thousands of seekers from all over the world come there over the next 7 years to experience Osho's new meditations and listen to his talks. In his conversations, Osho touches on all aspects of human consciousness, shows the innermost essence of all existing religions and systems of spiritual development. Buddha and Buddhist teachers, Sufi masters, Jewish mystics, Indian classical philosophy, Christianity, yoga, tantra, zen... Here are some of his books: “Mustard Seed. Conversations on the Sayings of Jesus”, “Wisdom of the Sands. Conversations on Sufism”, “Buddha: Emptiness of the Heart”, “Zen Proverbs”, “Tantra: Higher Understanding”, “True Sage. About Hasidic Parables”, “Esoteric Psychology”, “Book of Secrets”, “Priests and Politicians (Mafia of the Soul)”, “The New Man is the Only Hope for the Future”, “Meditation is the First and Last Freedom”, “Meditation: the Art of Inner Ecstasy ".

About his books, Osho says: “My message is not a doctrine, not a philosophy. My message is a certain alchemy, the science of transformation, so only those who have the will to die as they are now and be reborn into something so new that you can't even imagine it now...just a few such courageous people will be ready to hear, because what they hear will lead to risk, you will have to take the first step towards revival. This is not a philosophy that you can put on yourself and start showing off about it. This is not a doctrine by which you can find answers to your concerns... No, my message is not a verbal contact. It's much more risky. It is nothing more, nothing less than death and rebirth...”

Many people from all over the Earth felt this and found the strength and courage to touch this source and begin their own transformation. Those who are finally established in this decision take sannyas. The sannyas given by Osho is different from the traditional one. This is neo-sannyas.

Former sannyasins - people who completely devoted themselves to spiritual practice, went to monasteries or secluded places and practiced with their Master, minimizing contact with the outside world. Neo-sannyas Osho does not require this. Neo-sannyas is not a renunciation of the world, but rather a renunciation of the madness of the modern mind that breeds division between nations and races, depletes the Earth's resources into weapons and wars, destroys the environment for profit, and teaches its children to fight and dominate others. Modern sannyasins, students of Osho, are in the thick of life, doing the most ordinary things, but at the same time they regularly engage in spiritual practice and, first of all, meditation, combining material life with spiritual life, synthesizing in themselves the love of life of the Greek Zorba and the height of spiritual consciousness Buddha. This is how a new man is formed - Zorba the Buddha, a man who will be free from the madness of the modern mind. In Osho's words, "the new man is the only hope for the future."

The one who becomes a sannyasin receives a new name, as a symbol of commitment to meditation and a break with the past. The name, usually derived from Sanskrit or Indian words, contains indications of a person's potential or a certain path. Women receive the prefix "Ma" - an indication of the highest qualities of female nature to cherish and take care of themselves and others. Men receive the prefix "Swami", which Osho translates as "self-mastery".

Osho met with his students every day, except for periods when he was unwell. His conversations went very well. Here is how Swami Chaitanya Kabir describes his meeting with the Master:

“We sit quietly listening; He enters, arms folded in greeting. The lecture begins with some simple stunning statement. And the morning pours into us. Energy flows around words, Ideas, stories, jokes, questions, Weaving them into a grand symphony, The receptacle of everything. Mocking, great, blasphemous, holy...- And always in contact with our consciousness, Leading us straight to the center at the right moment. Themes develop on their own, Taking an unexpected turn, Reflecting in clarity into something opposite And returning back. He speaks until we can no longer hear his words In deafening growing silence. The surf is roaring everywhere. "Enough for today!" He comes out smiling, Folded hands send greetings to everyone, We are sitting.

1981 For many years Osho suffered from diabetes and asthma. In the spring his condition worsened and he sank into a period of silence. On the recommendation of doctors in June of this year, he was taken to the United States for treatment.

Osho's American disciples bought a 64,000-acre ranch in Central Oregon and established Rajneeshpuram there. In August, Osho arrived there. In the 4 years that Osho lived there, Rajneeshpuram became the most audacious experiment in creating a transnational spiritual commune. Every summer, the festival held there attracted 15,000 people from Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. As a result, the commune became a prosperous city with a population of 5,000 people.

1984 Just as suddenly as he stopped speaking, Osho spoke again in October. He talked about love, meditation, and human bondage in a crazy, heavily conditioned world. He accused priests and politicians of corrupting human souls, of destroying human freedom.

“I raise my hand against the past of all mankind. It was not civilized, it was not humane. It did not in any way contribute to the flourishing of people. It wasn't spring. It was a real disaster, a crime committed on such a huge scale that we renounce our past, we begin to live according to our own being and create our own future. ...People gathered around me are learning how to be happier, more meditative, how to laugh more joyfully, live more actively, love more deeply and bring love and laughter to the whole world. This is the only defense against nuclear weapons. We are not building armies here to conquer the world. We are creating a commune of individuals who have their own spirituality, because I want these individuals to be free, responsible, vigilant and conscious people who do not allow anyone to dictate to them, but they themselves do not impose anything on anyone.

From the very beginning of the experiment to create a commune, federal and local authorities tried to destroy it in any way. Documents subsequently confirmed that the White House was involved in these attempts.

In October 1985, the American government accused Osho of violating immigration laws and took him into custody without any warning. He was kept in handcuffs and shackles for 12 days in custody, with no bail. In prison, he suffered physical damage. According to a subsequent medical examination, in Oklahoma he was exposed to a life-threatening dose of radiation and was also poisoned by thalium. When a bomb was found in Osho's Portland prison, he was the only one who was not evacuated.

Worried about Osho's life, his lawyers agreed to admit a violation of the immigration law, and Osho left America on November 14th. The commune broke up.

The US government was not content with violating its own constitution. When Osho, at the invitation of his students, went to other countries, the United States, using its influence in the world, tried to influence other states so that Osho's work would be disrupted wherever he went. As a result of this policy, 21 countries banned Osho and his companions from entering their borders. And these countries consider themselves free and democratic!

In July 1986, Osho returned to Bombay and his disciples again began to gather around him. In January 1987, as the number of people coming to him grew rapidly, he returned to Pune, where the Osho International Commune had by then formed. Once again, beautiful daily discourses, meditation weekends, holidays began. Osho creates several new meditations. One of them, the "Mystic Rose", he called "the greatest breakthrough in meditation 2500 years after the Vipassana meditation of Gautama Buddha." Thousands of people took part in the Mystic Rose meditation not only in the commune in Pune, but also in Osho meditation centers around the world. “I have created many meditations, but this one will probably be the most essential and fundamental. It can cover the whole world.”

Meditation lasts 21 days as follows: one week the participants laugh for 3 hours a day, the second week they cry for 3 hours a day, the third week they silently observe and testify for 3 hours a day. During the first two stages, participants simply laugh and cry for no reason, going through layers of stiffness, depression, and pain. This clears the space in which silent witnessing will happen later. After cleansing with laughter and tears, it is easier not to identify or get lost in everything that happens: in thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations.

Osho explains: “The whole of humanity has gone a little crazy for the simple reason that no one laughs heartily, completely. And you have suppressed so much sadness, so much despair and anxiety, so many tears - they all remain, closing, enveloping you and destroying your beauty, your grace, your joy. All you have to do is go through these two layers. Then, while witnessing, just open the clear sky.”

This meditation, like many others, is therapeutic in nature. Scientific research done during and after the Mystic Rose group meditation has shown that participants experience profound and permanent changes in many areas of their lives. They consist in a deep inner relaxation, a decrease in psychosomatic diseases and an increasing ability to feel and express one's emotions in everyday life and at the same time be detached from these emotions - to become a witness to one's experiences.

There are now many other therapeutic groups in the Osho International Commune. All of them are united in the Osho Multiversity. As part of the Multiversity: School of Centering, School of Creative Arts. International Health Academy, Meditation Academy, Transformation Center, Tibetan Pulsations Institute, etc. Each school offers its own program aimed at developing the spiritual qualities of a person. School leaders are people from different countries who share and support Osho's views on man and his place in this world.

The Osho Times International magazine is published twice a month, which is distributed throughout the world and is published in nine languages ​​(except Russian). There is an international Osho connection - a computer network between meditation centers and Osho ashrams in different countries.

Osho left his body on January 19, 1990. He was often asked the question, what will happen when he dies? Here is Osho's response to Italian television, transmitted through his personal secretary:

“Osho relies and trusts existence. He never thinks about the next moment. If at this moment everything is good, then the next moment follows from this and will be even richer.

It doesn't want to become a prison like other religions do. He even dropped the word "Bhagwan" just because one of the meanings of the word is "God". The moment somebody is God, then of course you are a slave, a created being. You can be destroyed without asking. Even the stars disappear, and what about human life?

He does not want all this to be in any way reminiscent of religion. His work is centered on the individual and his freedom, and in the end, it is one world, without any restrictions in skin color, race and nationality.

You ask what will happen when Osho dies. He is not God and he does not believe in any prophets, prophecies, or a messiah. They were all selfish people. Therefore, whatever he can do at this moment, he does. What happens after he leaves, he leaves to the will of existence. His trust in existence is absolute. If there is any truth in what he says, it will survive. That is why he calls his sannyasins not followers, but companions on the journey.

He said clearly, “Don't cling to the past. Keep searching. You can find the right person because you already got the taste.” And this question is strange. No one asked what would happen when Einstein died. Existence is so limitless and so inexhaustible that people grow as naturally as trees, unless they are crippled by society. If they are not destroyed by people for their own purposes, then they will bloom on their own, Osho does not offer any program. On the contrary, he wants everyone to be deprogrammed. Christianity is a program. His job is to deprogram people and make their minds clear so they can grow on their own. Support is welcome, but not required.

Absurd questions are always asked by people who think they run the world, Osho is just part of the Universe. And everything will continue fine without him. It's not a problem. And he will be happy that there is no religion, and no one will proclaim himself the successor when he leaves. If anyone claims to be his successor, he should be avoided. Such people have destroyed Buddha, Christ, Krishna.

Everything he can do, he does. There is no definite plan to be implanted in your mind. This creates fanatics. Each individual is unique, so no program can make humanity happy, because then they wear other people's clothes and shoes that don't fit them. All humanity is like clowns.

The people who remain interested in his work will simply carry the torch. But they will not impose anything on anyone, neither by bread nor by sword. He will remain a source of inspiration. for us. And this is what most sannyasins will feel. He wants us to grow on our own... Qualities like love, around which no church can be built, like awareness - a quality that no one can monopolize, such as celebration, joy, a fresh, childish look. He wants people to know themselves, regardless of anyone else's opinion. And the path leads inward. There is no need for an external organization or church.

Osho for freedom, individuality, creativity, for our Earth to be even more beautiful, for living in this moment, and not waiting for paradise. Don't be afraid of hell and don't be greedy for heaven. Just be here in silence and enjoy while you are. The whole philosophy of Osho is that he seeks in any way to destroy everything that later becomes slavery: authorities, groups, leaders - all these are diseases that must be completely avoided.

Osho did not write books. All published books are records of his conversations with his students. The energy of the listeners, their readiness and interest determined the direction of the conversation. These conversations reflect the relationship of the Master with the disciples, their mutual penetration.

“These words are alive. They are the beating of my heart. This is not a teaching. My words are a knock on your door so you can get home. Accept my gift."

Discovered by the personal experience of Christopher Calder

"Meditation cannot be turned into a business"Acharya Rajneesh, 1971

When I first met Acharya Rajneesh in his Bombay apartment in December 1970, he was only 39 years old. He had a long beard and large dark eyes. And he looked like a living portrait of Lao Tzu. Before meeting Rajneesh, I knew several Eastern gurus but was not satisfied with their teachings. I was looking for an enlightened guide who could bridge the gap between East and West and bring to life the real esoteric secrets, without which I considered myself just a chest stuffed with Indian, Tibetan and Japanese culture. Rajneesh was the answer to my search for these deep meanings. He described to me in vivid detail everything I wanted to know about the inner worlds, and he had the power of vast existence to back up his words. I was 21 years old, I had very naive ideas about the life and nature of man, and I believed that everything he said must be true.

Rajneesh spoke at a high level of intelligence. His spiritual presence poured out from his body like a soft light that healed all wounds. As I sat next to him during our small gatherings, Rajneesh took me on a quick vertical inner journey that almost seemed to push me out of my physical body. His presence inspired everyone without any effort. The days I spent in his Bombay apartment were like days spent in heaven. He had everything, and he gave everything for free.

Rajneesh had amazing telepathic abilities and astral projection, which he nobly used to bring comfort and inspiration to his students. Many false gurus have claimed to have the same mystical powers. But Rajneesh really possessed them. The Acharya never boasted about his abilities. Those who became close to him soon learned about them through direct contact with miracles. One or two amazing occult journeys were all it took to turn doubtful Western skepticism into reverent worship and devotion.

A year earlier, I met another enlightened teacher known to the world as Jiddu Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti could hardly give a coherent lecture, but he was constantly scolding his audience, bending the small base minds of listeners in every way. I liked his frankness. His words were correct. But his subtle, grumpy nature was more of a hindrance in passing on knowledge to others.

Listening to Krishnamurti was like eating a sandwich made of bread and sand. I got great satisfaction from these lectures if I could completely ignore the words, only silently absorbing his presence. This technique enabled me to become so expansive after the lecture that I could hardly speak even hours later. Krishnamurti, being fully enlightened and uniquely attractive, has been noted in history as a teacher with very poor verbal communication abilities. And, in contrast to the highly endowed oratorical Rajneesh, Krishnamurti never committed any crime. Never did he claim to be more than what he was, and never did he use other sentient beings for his purposes.

Life is complex, it has many layers, and my naive illusions about the phenomenon of perfect enlightenment have dissipated over the years. It became clear to me that enlightened people are just as error-prone as the rest, ordinary people. They are expanded human beings, yet imperfect. And they live and breathe with the same mistakes and weaknesses that we, ordinary people, must analyze and eliminate.

Skeptics ask how I can say that Rajneesh was enlightened, given all his scandals and terrible public image. I can only say that the spiritual presence of Rajneesh was as strong as the spiritual presence of Krishnamurti, who was recognized as enlightened by the high Tibetan lamas, being the Hindu saga of today come to life. I sympathize with the skeptics, because if I did not know Rajneesh personally, then I would never have believed it either.

Rajneesh promoted the enlightenment package in both positive and negative directions. He was the best of the best and the worst of the worst at the same time. He was a high teacher in his early years, mastering unusual, innovative meditation techniques that worked with great power. Rajneesh has raised thousands of seekers to a higher level of consciousness. He detailed Eastern religions and meditation techniques with radiant clarity.

When former university professor Acharya Rajneesh suddenly changed his name to Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh, I was terrified. The famous enlightened sage Ramana Maharshi received the name Bhagwan from his disciples in a spontaneous outburst of love. Rajneesh simply announced that everyone should henceforth call him Bhagwan - a title that can mean anything from the divine to God. Rajneesh got annoyed when I politely corrected his incorrect pronunciation of English words after lectures. So I felt I couldn't tell him what I thought of this new name, that it was inappropriate and dishonest. This name change marked a watershed in Rajneesh's level of honesty and was the first of many lies that followed.

"One wrong move, one big mistake."

Rajneesh lived like in an ivory tower, leaving his room only to give a lecture. His life experience rested on admiring admirers. Like most human beings who are treated like kings, Rajneesh has lost contact with the world of the common man. In his artificial and isolated existence, Rajneesh made one fundamental error in judgment that would later destroy his teachings.

"You told them the truth, but what I tell them (these useful lies) is better for them." Bhagawan Shri Rajneesh 1975.

Rajneesh considered that the majority of the population of the Earth is at such a low level of awareness that they can neither understand nor bear the real truth. And then he developed a policy of spreading useful lies in order to inspire his students, and, from time to time, shock them with unique situations specially created for their personal growth. This was his way down and the first reason why he will be called by many historians another false guru. Which, no doubt, he was not.

Acharya, Bhagwan Shri, Osho... all these powerful names adopted by Rajneesh could not hide the fact that he was still a human being. He had ambitions and desires, sexual and material, just like anyone else. All living enlightened people have desires, all enlightened people have public lives that we know about, but they also had private lives that were kept secret. But the vast majority of enlightened people do only good to the world. And only Rajneesh, as far as I know, became a criminal both in the legal and ethical sense of the word.

Rajneesh never lost the last ultimate truth of Existence or being. He only lost the usual concept of truth, which any normal adult could easily understand. He even rationalized his constant lying as "the tantra of the left hand". And it was also dishonest. Rajneesh lied to save face, to avoid taking personal responsibility for his own mistakes, to gain as much personal power as possible. This lie had nothing to do with tantra or other unselfish acts of kindness. In this world, fact is reality. And Rajneesh distorted the facts daily. Rajneesh was not an ordinary crook, like many others. Rajneesh knew everything the Buddha knew, and he was everything the Buddha was. It was only his loss of respect for ordinary truth. This is what destroyed his teaching.

Rajneesh's health began to deteriorate as soon as he was in his thirties. Even before he reached middle age, Rajneesh had occasional bouts of weakness. During his early years in college, when he was supposed to be at the peak of his physical strength, Rajneesh often had to sleep 12-14 hours a day due to his unexplained illnesses. Rajneesh suffered from what Europeans call myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and Americans call chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The classic symptoms of this disease are apparent fatigue, bizarre allergies, recurring low temperature rises, photophobia, orthostatic intolerance (inability to stand for a normal period of time), and hypersensitivity to smells and chemicals. Doctors now call it "multiple chemical sensitivity." People with post-traumatic stress syndrome and other neurological diseases suffer from similar intolerance to smells.

Rajneesh's known chemical sensitivity was so strong that he instructed the guards to sniff people for bad odors before they were allowed to visit his headquarters. Rajneesh's poor health and strange symptoms were the product of real neurological damage, not some esoteric super-sensitivity caused by enlightenment. Rajneesh also had diabetes, asthma and severe back pain.

Rajneesh was constantly sick and weak from the time I first met him in 1970 until his death in 1990. He was unable to stand for long periods of time, suffering from dizziness due to damage to his autonomic nervous system that controlled blood pressure. The low stress threshold associated with neuralgia and low blood pressure caused chronic fatigue, brain hypoxia, and could lower IQ due to lack of oxygen supplied to the brain. He found himself with a cold or something almost weekly. In fact, he suffered from only one chronic illness with cold symptoms that lasted for decades.

In recent years, Rajneesh has been using strictly prescription drugs. Basically, it was Valium (diazepam), used both as an analgesic and as a means of combating dysfunctional disorders of the autonomic nervous system. He took the maximum recommended dose: 60 milligrams per day. He also inhaled nitroxide (N 2 O) mixed with pure oxygen (O 2 ), which helped with his asthma and brain hypoxia, but was useless in changing the quality of his judgments. Naively expecting a super-miracle from taking Western drugs and overly trusting his own ability to combat potentially negative effects, Rajneesh succumbed to addiction. His downfall and humiliation soon followed.

Rajneesh was a physically ill man who also became mentally corrupt. His addiction to drugs was a problem he created for himself, not the result of a government conspiracy. Rajneesh died in 1990 and the official cause of death was heart failure. It is possible that Rajneesh's physical decline, which worsened during his incarceration in American prisons, was due to a combination of side effects from taking Valium and an increase in his chronic fatigue syndrome when exposed to a large number of allergens.

There have been speculations in the American media about the fact that Osho allegedly committed suicide by taking a large amount of medicine. Since no one admitted to injecting Osho with a lethal dose intramuscularly, there was no hard evidence to support this suicide theory. However, here's a scenario that could be absolutely irresistible: a suicide provoked by Rajneesh's constant illness and his grief at the loss of Vivek, his greatest love. Vivek took a lethal dose of sleeping pills in a Bombay hotel a month before Osho left. Notable is the fact that Vivek decided to kill herself right before Osho's birthday. Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh himself tried to commit suicide in the Oregon commune several times: thus, keeping his students in constant tension, he demanded obedience from them and the fulfillment of all his desires. On his last day on Earth, Osho is said to have said, “Let me go. My body has become hell for me."

The rumor that Osho was poisoned with thallium by US government operatives is a fiction, contrary to facts that cannot be denied. One of the obvious symptoms of thallium poisoning is severe hair loss for up to seven days after poisoning. Osho died with a huge beard, with no particular signs of baldness inconsistent with his age. Those symptoms that Dr. Osho began to suspect as a result of thallium poisoning were actually characteristic of chronic fatigue syndrome. These symptoms include ataxia (uncoordinated movements), numbness, tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) while standing, paresthesia, tingling sensations, dizziness, irritable bowel syndrome, which manifests itself in alternating diarrhea and constipation.

True, there were other proven facts of poisoning associated with Osho. But they were carried out by his sannyasins. A sannyasin is an initiated disciple, one who has taken sannyas. The victims were completely innocent people in an Oregon restaurant: two commissioners from Wasco County, members of Rajneesh's staff, who were poisoned by Ma Anand Sheela, Rajneesh's personal secretary. Sheela had a habit of poisoning people who either knew too much or were simply out of favor with her. Sheela spent two and a half years in federal prison for her crimes. While Rajneesh pleaded guilty only for violating immigration laws and, having received 10 years probation, as well as a fine of 400 thousand dollars, was deported from the United States.

Rajneesh decided that ethics was not needed for his teaching, since meditation automatically led to "good behavior." But the deeds of Rajneesh and his disciples prove that this theory is wrong. Osho taught: you can do whatever you like, because life is a dream and a joke. This attitude has led to a resurgence of classic fascist beliefs in a superman who can rise so high and become so strong that he no longer needs such old-fashioned values ​​as honesty and morality.

People not familiar with the history of Rajneesh can read Bhagwan: The Fallen God written by Hugo Milne (Shivamurthy), a close disciple of Bhagwan in Pune and Oregon. It was published by the San Martin Press and reprints of this book can be found through Amazon.Com and Amazon.Com.UK. I can confirm many of the facts that Mr. Milne mentions about Rajneesh's life in Bombay and Pune. And, although I have no first-hand facts about the tragic events in the Oregon commune, but, communicating with sannyasins, I tend to conclude that Mr. Milne is citing absolutely reliable facts. Hugo Milne deserves a lot of credit for a well written and interesting book containing genuine factual material. Not in all cases, however, my opinion is the same as Mr. Milne's. First, Rajneesh did not suffer from hypocardia, as Mr. Milne suggested. Rajneesh had a real neurological illness, possibly inherited, which he mistaken for frequent infections. Rajneesh was unusually afraid of bacteria only because he did not have comprehensive information. I fully agree with Mr. Milne that Rajneesh suffered from megalomania, however, I would add that Rajneesh had a simply Napoleonic obsessive and obligatory personality type.

Mr. Milne also suggests that Rajneesh used hypnosis to manipulate the students. Rajneesh had a remarkably melodic, naturally melodic and hypnotic voice that any public speaker would need. However, in my personal opinion, the power of Rajneesh came from his vast energy field of universal cosmic awareness, for which he was a channel, a kind of lens. The Hindu call this the universal energy phenomenon of the Atman. As a Westerner, I prefer scientific terms and describe the Atman as a highly manifested manifestation of time, energy and space, or TES (TES Hypothesis).

“Enlightenment is not something you own. It's what you channel as a channel."

In whatever terms you try to describe the phenomenon of enlightenment, it is a scientifically accurate, scientifically proven fact that a human being has no power of his own. Even the chemical energy of our metabolism is occupied by the Sun, which sheds light on the Earth, and the light converted by plants through photosynthesis is the food we eat. You can buy your bread at the supermarket, but the caloric energy it contains comes from thermomolecular actions taking place deep in the center of the nearest star. Our physical bodies use the energy of the stars. Any spiritual energy that we conduct comes to us from far away, from all sides of the Universe, from the oceans of galaxies that go to infinity. No human being owns the Atman, and no one can speak on behalf of time, energy, space.

The void has no ambition and no personality. Therefore Bhagwan Rajneesh can only speak from his own animal consciousness. Animal consciousness may want recognition in the whole world, but the void itself does not care, because it is not motivated. The phenomenon we called Rajneesh, Bhagwan and Osho was only a temporary lens of cosmic energy, not the cosmos itself.

Rajneesh, like George Gurdjieff, often used the power of the Atman for apparently personal purposes. Both men could use their cosmic consciousness to suppress or seduce a woman. Which, in my opinion, was unworthy. Gurdjieff was ashamed of his weakness, repeatedly trying to stop this practice, which was a combination of ordinary male potency, but backed up by the power of oceanic spiritual energy. Rajneesh went even further, using cosmic energy to manipulate the masses and to acquire a quasi-political status that takes him beyond the boundaries of honesty and responsibility to his students. In Oregon, he even told the media, "My religion is the only religion." Diplomacy and modesty were not his spiritual priorities.

Gurdjieff, as far as I know, never went to the extremes of Rajneesh's self-forgiveness. Gurdjieff wanted his students to be free and independent, with the combined ability of clear mental reasoning and meditation. Rajneesh, on the other hand, seemed to believe that only his thoughts and ideas were of value, since only he was enlightened. It was a great error of judgment, and it opened a basic crack in his character.

Rajneesh honestly earned his abilities by doing intense inner work. Unfortunately, when he attained the ability to fully conduct the emptiness of the Atman, he could not apply the necessary wisdom of self-restraint to himself. His human mind rebelled against Asian asceticism, which, as he said, had already been mastered by him for many lifetimes - and this mistake led Rajneesh to the fact that he could not use the power he took up only for the good of other people.

"Power is the ultimate voluptuousness." Henry Kissinger.

After leaving India, Rajneesh created a commune in Oregon from his own overbearing mind. He made himself the last dictator. His portrait was placed everywhere, as if in a bad dream inspired by Orwell. The atmosphere of totalitarianism was only one of many reasons why I did not stay in the Oregon commune. I was interested in meditation, not in a huge concentration camp where human beings were treated like insects with no mind. Rajneesh always emphasized that his students should follow his orders without question, and they did just that, even when Ma Anand Sheela, Rajneesh's personal secretary, ordered crimes that Rajneesh himself would never personally approve of.

If you deprive a human being of reason, then you will create a situation that is very dangerous and destructive for the human spirit. You cannot save people from their egos by demanding total surrender from them. The anti-democratic technique of blind obedience did not work well in the practice of Hitler and Stalin, and in the case of Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh. Germany, Russia and the Oregon commune of Rajneesh have all been destroyed by authoritarian rule. Differences of opinion are always healthier, acting as an effective counterbalance to the blind ignorance of aspirants to the title of chief. Bhagwan never understood this historical truth and called it with contempt - "mobcracy". Rajneesh was an imperialist aristocrat. He was never an open, open-minded Democrat, and his disrespect for democratic processes was very clear in Oregon.

In an attempt to disrupt the local elections in Wasco, Rajneesh brought in buses of his sannyasins and about 2,000 homeless people from major American cities in order to artificially change the voting process in his favor. Some of these new voters were mentally handicapped and given drug-laced beer to keep them in line. Reliable sources claim that at least one, and perhaps more of these brought street people, died due to an overdose of a mixture of beer and drugs. As far as I know, these allegations have not been fully proven. Rajneesh's voter fraud attempt failed, homeless people returned to the streets. They were just used. If the sannyasins of Rajneesh had the truth above all else, then no crimes would have been committed and, perhaps, the commune would not have disintegrated.

Rajneesh used people, behaved ambiguously, betraying the trust of his own students. Only betrayal caused the suicide of Vivek, his longtime girlfriend and companion, and Rajneesh even lied about her death, slandering his greatest love with the explanation that she allegedly had chronic depression due to internal emotional instability. Vivek was never depressed in the years I knew her, she was the most radiant woman of all. Vivec was like a flower filled with light. Her only method of meditation was to be close to Bhagwan, absorbing his vast spiritual presence. When her only method and only true love fell into madness, she, being in great sorrow, took her life. Rajneesh drove her to suicide because she could neither understand nor accept his mental decay and collapse. Rajneesh lied about her death in order to avoid responsibility for his own strange behavior, which was the hidden cause of Vivek's frustration and despair. The same student who gave the nitroxide to Osho also spread negative rumors about Vivek, stating that she was not as meditative as he was. The same person said that Vivek committed suicide not because she was depressed, but because of a hormonal imbalance associated with her fortieth birthday. The same sannyasin assured me that he did not give Rajneesh an irresponsible level of nitroxide, but he later admitted to others that he had given Rajneesh one or two hours of nitroxide doses every day for five months. This level is a dangerous case of overdose.

The young Acharya Rajneesh, who accused false gurus, ended his life as one of the most cunning guru cheaters the world has ever known. It was difficult to understand that he was enlightened both when he fought like a puritan against other gurus, and when he, having become a guru, was mired in self-justifications. This difficult to understand contradiction is the real reason why I am writing. I like to conquer unexplored territories where others are afraid to go. We know that morality recedes from a person who is imprisoned in the tower of his egoism. If you combine an unhealthy atmosphere of self-deification with a progressively debilitating disease that lowers the level of the mental quotient, add to this an overdose of drugs, you get a cliff from which even an enlightened person can fall. Just one wrong step, wrong movement - and the fall is inevitable. Bhagwan's wrong choice is a rejection of the truth in favor of what he considered to be a useful lie. Just once you make a wrong move that leads away from direct adherence to the truth, and you will lose your way. And one fact that you have given up is that it knocks the ground out from under your feet, and you find yourself in an ocean of lies. Little lies grow into big lies, and hidden truths become your enemy, not your friend. Rajneesh overestimated himself and underestimated his students. Those who were in the true quest for knowledge could easily handle the truth. They were already motivated and did not need propaganda. But Rajneesh was a high guru for a very long time: not only in this life, but in previous lives too, so he saw his portrait in grandiose frames. And he really was a historical figure, but an imperfect superman, for whose role he claimed. Nobody is perfect. His students deserved honesty, but he fed them fairy tales to give them faith.

Jiddu Krishnamurti was more honest than Rajneesh, constantly repeating that there is no authority due to the very nature of the Cosmos. The ardent disciples of Rajneesh did not heed Krishnamurti's warnings and blindly believed in a man who claimed to be all-seeing, knowing all the answers and even proclaiming once that he had never, not once in his entire life made a single mistake. But it is clear that Rajneesh made as many mistakes as any other human being. Clearly, his basic enlightenment was no guarantee of functional pragmatic wisdom.

Rajneesh was both a great philosopher and a child lost in the world of science. He was so worried about worldwide overpopulation that he persuaded some of his students to undergo sterilization. Unfortunately, he did not take into account the demographics of population growth. Population growth is a feature of poor Third World countries and is not a problem in the US, Canada, or Europe. North America and Europe now have an increase in population only due to legal and illegal immigration from third world countries. The fact that his European and North American students limited their reproductive abilities only added to the imbalance, and many of them now regret their act.

Rajneesh said that the AIDS epidemic would soon kill three-quarters of the world's population and that a major nuclear war was just around the corner. He thought he could avoid the nuclear nightmare by building underground shelters and reduce the spread of AIDS by having his students wash their hands and rub alcohol on them before eating. A more reasonable indication was that he told his students to always use condoms. Rubber gloves and instructions for their use also appeared in everyday life of sexual life. Rajneesh encouraged his sannyasins to spy and spy, demanding the names of those who did not follow his orders.

Rajneesh called himself the only great mind of the universe, and this misfortune was intensified by his lack of normal life logic. And this happened even before he started taking large doses of Valium. Rajneesh did not understand or appreciate the methods of science. If he thought that something was true in his head, then it became true.

Rajneesh could create huge philosophical utopias and feed his students with invented worlds of spiritual travel. But these dreams could not stand the practical test of truth. In the world of science, you need to prove your case based on experimental data. In the world of philosophy and religion, you can say whatever you want without worrying about evidence. If the masses like your words, then those words will be sold, whether they are fact or fiction.

Rajneesh ruled his Oregon desert empire like a true commander, with his own army and puppet government. His vision and ideas, both right and wrong, were accepted without question as the words of the Lord God himself. Osho's disciples were judged on their ability to surrender to his will, and any other views were dismissed as negative and unspiritual. His followers had to either obey commands, sometimes very strange ones, or be expelled from the mini-nation that Rajneesh created in the Oregon desert.

Rajneesh's inability to reason became even more pronounced during and after the scandal in the Oregon commune. After being imprisoned and then deported from the United States, Rajneesh vehemently declared that Americans are "subhuman". He ignored the fact that he was a Hindu, so he was found guilty of violating immigration laws, that Sheela was also a Hindu by nationality, that she ordered the most serious crimes that brought his empire to ruins. Even when he was in his fifties, Rajneesh still lied to get his way, to be in the spotlight. And by 1988, suffering from drugs and diseases that caused dementia, he was pouting like a child, grieving for the loss of an expensive collection of cars and watches encrusted with diamonds.

Rajneesh's students thought they were following a reliable and authoritative enlightened master. In reality, they were being led in the wrong direction by an enlightened animal man who often made mistakes and who, inside, in his heart, was still a little boy.

Rajneesh not only misrepresented himself, but he misrepresented the very phenomenon of enlightenment. The idealized fantasy of perfect enlightenment cannot and never has existed in the real world. The universe is too big and too complicated for everyone, for anyone who would like to become its master. We are all subjects, we are not masters. And those who claim to be perfect masters end up looking even bigger fools at the end.

“Nature does not use anything as a model. She is only interested in improving and improving individual individuals. She is trying to create perfect individuals, not perfect beings,” says Krishnamurti.

The famous and illustrious masters of the past seem perfect to us now only because they have become more than life myths. The amount of time that had passed since their deaths allowed the disciples to effectively cover up the mistakes of their gurus. And this is what we are seeing now, when the students of Rajneesh are rewriting and censoring history, hiding his greatest mistakes.

Rajneesh has never been more perfect than any other human being. What we call enlightenment is not a cure for the mistakes and weaknesses that human animals have even after reaching the highest possible level of awareness. This is perhaps the most realistic vision of the phenomenon of enlightenment. The ultimate truth of existence is silent, beyond all words. Rajneesh embodied this truth until his death. And, coming to his ashram in Pune, those visitors who are open to meditation, they will definitely feel this gigantic wave of awareness. This wave was associated with the human body, which we call Rajneesh. The body turned to dust, but the wave - you can still feel it. In the same way, Krishnamurti's presence can still be felt in Arya Vihara, in his former home in Ohio, California.

“What you tell them is true, but what I tell them is a useful lie. It's good for them." Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh, 1975

A contradiction between corruption and enlightenment can arise because the brain is never enlightened, and enlightenment never says or does anything. And it can even be said that no one can actually become enlightened. Enlightenment happens exactly where you stand, but you cannot own it. All the words of the so-called enlightened person come from the human mind and body, which both translate and interpret the phenomenon of enlightenment. Words do not come from enlightenment itself. By definition, enlightenment cannot speak. It is absolutely silent and requires no words. And our beings are multi-layered. Some traditions describe these layers as seven bodies. The first is the physical body, and the seventh is the nirvanic body, the one from which everything is born. It doesn't matter what you think of them. They exist, and the purely mental layer is always there if you have a physical body. And this layer can be affected by diseases and chemical influences.

Osho died suffering from a Valium addiction, experiencing all the negative symptoms of drug addiction that manifested itself in incoherent speech, paranoia, bad decision making and a decrease in overall intelligence. At some point, his paranoia and inaccuracy of judgment were so great that they led him to the conclusion that a group of German occultists was casting a malevolent spell on him! Physical debility plus drug abuse, it was more than his mortal brain could bear. His greatest mistake: disrespect for the most ordinary truth of life - it was the last fall of Osho, and for this he must bear full responsibility.

Bhagwan was lying when he said that he had enlightened disciples. He lied when he said he never made mistakes. Later, he was nevertheless forced to admit the possibility of errors, as the list of miscalculations increased to a huge size. He lied when he said that the therapy groups his students run were not there to make money. Rajneesh violated immigration laws and denied it in court. He lied, saying that he was allegedly adopted, all in order to obtain permanent resident status. Bhagwan Rajneesh was not a murderer or a bank robber, but he was indeed a big liar. The funny thing is that all this lies were unnecessary and unproductive. Honesty is the best policy of reality.

One of the biggest lies of Rajneesh was that an enlightened person allegedly does not receive anything from his students. Rajneesh wanted people to believe that everything he did was a free gift of pure compassion, and he personally did not receive anything from the disciple-guru relationship. The fact that Rajneesh received a lot from his students is absolutely proven: money, power, sex and titles of constant adoration. Being a guru was his business. His only business. Without this income, at least on a material level, he would have been just a short, bald Indian who simply could not work. Rajneesh's real enlightenment could not pay his bills or give him the material benefits he desired, so he began to use his spiritual energy in order to gain power and money from his students.

And just as rock stars receive energy from their fans at their concerts, so Rajneesh received emotional energy and support from his students. Energy transfer occurred in both directions. It wasn't a free gift just one way. When Rajneesh was imprisoned, the American television network showed an internal surveillance tape of the cell where he was. Rajneesh looked bored and visibly annoyed, just like anyone in a similar situation. He didn't look haunted or enlightened, not at all. In my opinion, this video exposes the hard truth about the phenomenon we call enlightenment.

The realization of emptiness is not sufficient for anyone. All sentient animals, enlightened or not, need the interaction and comfort of the material world in order to be happy and content.

The mind needs entertainment to survive, and Rajneesh used the students as toys for his amusement. The Rajneesh had no power of his own. He could only achieve material power by manipulating others. The equation was simple: the more students he attracted, the more power and prosperity he received.

Rajneesh in many ways was just an ordinary person. And sexually, he was even more than ordinary. Claiming to be a great tantrist in his youth, and even later, he gave ridiculously bad sexual advice to his students, being himself a man of little experience. During the Bombay period, Rajneesh often grabbed the breasts of his young students. There was a time when he asked a married couple to have sex in front of him. They wisely refused this request. Rajneesh often asked young women to undress, supposedly so that he could feel their chakras. And only after Rajneesh began to have sex regularly, this "spiritual need" to feel the chakras of his students mysteriously disappeared. I know that Rajneesh touched the breasts of two women I know and asked to undress another one. I soon began to realize that he, like many other Indian gurus, cuddlers who occasionally wrote about in the newspapers, on a human level, he was just an ordinary, not very sexually developed Indian man. My friend who underwent chakra palpation was so upset that she never returned to the ashram to see him again. He told her: "Do not be afraid, you are mine now." That grasping statement chilled her as much as the sexual exploitation. The young woman studied Indian music, where she was also sexually exploited by a famous Indian musician. She knew firsthand what Indian men were like. And Rajneesh was just as disappointingly predictable.

But Rajneesh had so many treasures within - the ones that I craved - light, energy and an expanded state of existence! But he also contained a lot of things that I did not want and did not respect.

"When it comes to gurus, take the best and leave the rest"- Ramamurthy Mishra.

Unfortunately, Rajneesh also lied when he stated that he was not responsible for the horrors in the Oregon commune, shifting it to Ma Anand Sheela and her people who committed most of the crimes: murder, poisoning, assault, robbery, arson, interception of telephone messages. But the fact that Rajneesh did not personally order or did not know in advance about the most serious crimes does not mean that he is not ethically responsible for them. If a teacher picks a drunken sailor and puts him behind the wheel of a school bus, which ends in disaster, then the teacher is responsible. Rajneesh knew what kind of person Sheela was. And he chose her precisely because she was corrupt and arrogant, and not in spite of it. In a cowardly attempt to avoid admitting his own mistakes, he changed his name from Bhagwan to Osho, as if changing his name could wash away his sins. Some may be horrified that an enlightened soul is capable of being a person condemned for crimes. But this fact did not stop me from searching for the last truth of Existence.

The life of Rajneesh is a lesson for all of us. It is necessary to practice what we pray for, and not take it as a mere idea. Bhagwan gave excellent advice. But he could not follow his wise words himself. His life is a reminder that words often lie, especially when taken too seriously. It is better to observe how people live and pay less attention to what they say. Talk is cheap. Things are worth more. And more is reported.

Does an enlightened person have an ego? When I was a young idealist, I would say no. Rajneesh, Gurdjieff and even Krishnamurti prove to me that they have egos. I am now convinced that Rajneesh has an ego when I saw him on TV being transported in chains from prison to an Oregon courthouse. In response to a reporter's question, he looked into the TV camera and said to his students, "Don't worry, I'll be back." What matters is not what he said, but what was in his eyes. It became proof for me. I was able to see his ego in action, calculating and manipulating. When you see this clearly, no amount of rational reasoning can hide the underlying truth.

Rajneesh was both infinitely enlightened and deeply selfish. For the average person, the ego is the center of awareness, and emptiness is only attainable on the periphery. People look at a picture taken with a space telescope and see that the void is an external object, and not some kind of personal entity. When you become enlightened: temporarily, if it is satori, or permanently, like a Buddha, then the situation unfolds exactly the opposite. Now you have emptiness at the center of awareness, and ego at the periphery. The ego doesn't die, it's just not in the center of your attention anymore.

Enlightenment is a functional disembodiment of that identity that is rooted in the development of the subtle body and in the functions of the physical brain. The human brain is a biologically engineered, thinking machine that evolves for both personal self-preservation and human survival. The ego is the selfish motivating force needed to protect the body's living cell colony. If you didn't have an ego, you couldn't think, talk, find food, shelter, and clothes. The functions of the ego are so vital to survival that the human brain has developed two potential ego mechanisms. One is the centralized ego and the other is the larger, diffuse, supportive system that uses the periphery of the brain. If the body and brain become physically ill from the heat and the focus of the centralized ego is destroyed, then the ego-support mechanism can temporarily take over the functions of others. It is the substitution of the ego without enlightenment. This additional self-supporting system keeps lunatics from danger and helps the enlightened animal nature of a person to find food and everything necessary for life. So they don't physically die as a result of their own deep meditation.

Enlightened people do not feel their diffuse ego and therefore they feel free like the cosmos, like emptiness itself. In reality, the ego is still present and works just like our autonomic nervous system, whether we are aware of its functioning or not. You don't have to constantly remind your heart to beat 70 times a minute. It beats regardless of your awareness. The function of the brain that controls the heart rate is automatic, autonomous, and does not require consciousness.

Nature has also provided human animals with a strong, almost irresistible sexual urge to ensure reproduction. Because of the great importance and power of sex, most of the gurus had an active sex life, a fact that is often kept secret for purely political reasons. In his younger years, Rajneesh lied about his intense sexuality. But, to be honest, it can be understood in the context of the fiercely anti-sexual, critical Indian culture. It wasn't until his position as guru had solidified that Rajneesh publicly bragged about his sex with hundreds of women.

The sexual life of Rajneesh did not interest me, and I do not see any fault in the fact that he had the same sexual desires as any man. I, however, find fault in the fact that he was dishonest and cruelly selfish. When Rajneesh was living in Bombay, a young woman became pregnant after he aggressively and uninvitedly seduced her. The woman was very upset, circumstances forced her to have an abortion. Rajneesh, defending his image as a great guru, claimed that she invented the whole story. Furious, the young woman contacted the American embassy. This incident was the beginning of Rajneesh's future problems with the US government. Most of the close disciples of Rajneesh for some reason believed the young woman, and not the enlightened guru in years. Similarly, many years later, many will believe a young White House intern, not a president with a gray head. President or enlightened: both high positions are not a guarantee of morality.

All human beings are animals, namely mammals. Human DNA is known to be at least 98% identical to chimpanzee DNA. The history of Asian mythology, politics and the world of male gurus - everything will manifest much more hidden meaning if you remember this scientific fact. Our most primal, subconscious, motivating forces come from the animal world, of which we are still a part.

Some enlightened animal people have been deceived by the phenomenon of ego shifting. They thought they no longer had any selfish motives that could cause problems. Meher Baba spent most of his life bragging about how great he was, and at the same time, in his center, he felt as if he was completely devoid of ego. In fact, he was very selfish and should have understood that even enlightenment does not excuse boasting. The same fundamental mistake was made by Acharya Rajneesh. He was deceived into thinking that he was over boasting, but in reality this was not the case.

Even enlightened people should watch their manners and understand that the Atman is that amazing phenomenon that they should promote, but not their own temporary personality. Ramana Maharshi had the right approach in this matter, and that is why he is still loved. Ramana Maharshi promoted Atman, the universal cosmic consciousness, but never promoted his own mortal body or mind.

Everyone who has experienced the ocean energy of Acharya Rajneesh continues to love him, including myself. And just because I value the truth above all else, that's why I write, believing in the need for criticism. If we cannot honestly analyze our mistakes, then our suffering is a waste of time. The fact that the official students of Osho continue to hide the truth prevents us from learning a lesson from the tragedy.

I miss Acharya Rajneesh, but not Osho, because he was the best of the best until the moment he decided to surround himself with a manipulative political organization. When Acharya Rajneesh was just a man in his apartment, the owner of an old Chevrolet and not a dozen Rolls-Royces, then he was more honest and truthful. When he became part of his political establishment, everything went wrong, as happens with people who wield great power.

And the ocean can become a drop if there is an ego in the drop. I believe that the ego is an integral part of the structure of the human brain. It's not easy to imagine psychologically, but anatomically it looks like it's wired into our neural pathways. The self-protective mechanism, which we have simply called the ego, cannot be destroyed before the death of the body.

Huston Smith, a well-known author, professor of religion, believes that no person, tied to his perishable shell, can achieve the final transparency before his death. And only at the moment when the last shell breaks, you are completely free. I believe that the ego steps aside and becomes less of a problem for most enlightened people, but it is never completely destroyed as long as the physical body is present.

The scandal with Rajneesh exposed the unconscious bondage of Bhakti Yoga and the hidden deceit, the corruption of questionable tantra. We need an honest road built on self-observation, trust in the truth and self-reliance. The days of the guru who knows everything are over. The time has come to realize the source of all things directly.

It would be wonderful to believe that an enlightened person is perfect in every way. It would make life easier and sweeter. But that would be fiction, not fact. And yet, Bhagwan's tragedy gave me more hope. If you had to become a perfect person first, and only then enlightened, then who would be able to achieve the goal? If we realize that enlightenment is the gradual development of consciousness, then the goal becomes achievable. It only takes time. If we work for hundreds of years, associating our birth and death solely with this goal, getting closer to it every day, then I believe that the seeker of enlightenment will reach it in time. All the enlightened ones I have known or read about have all talked about it, each in their own way. And I know that this fact can be trusted.

An afterword on the feedback I received in response to the publication of this work.

You can well imagine all the variety of letters that I received. Approximately half of the letters came from former students of Rajneesh, who generally agree with my comments, expressing their gratitude for the fact that I set this going. Those who agree tell me that I did everything right.

There are other letters from his students, many of whom have never met Osho in their lives. These letters contain threats of violent death from several German sannyasins, as well as anonymous and illiterate warnings of impending troubles. It is interesting to trace the similarity of most cults in this example: if you are against, if you do not profess the central line of the cult, then you are, at best, an ignoramus. But here's what's really important: Meditation has nothing to do with cult organizations, politics, or business, but for many, meditation is a secondary issue. For them, the main thing is heroism and blind adherence to the memory of the deceased guru. Why not go to the source of all gurus and all religions through your own meditation? There is an old Zen saying - one should not be attached to anything that can be lost during a shipwreck. Of course, this also applies to gurus.

Several Rajneesh sannyasins have written to me saying they are enlightened. I have heard such statements before. One wrote that he was the new Osho and invited him to visit. On the page of this new Osho on the Internet, his heroic photo was posted, as in a correspondence for pleasant acquaintances. Another man, who had never met Osho personally, reported that reading Osho's books helped him get rid of all mental illnesses and achieve enlightenment himself. He also gave me obsessive instructions on how to rewrite my essays to make them less critical. And he suggested that Osho's hypocrisy was only a means to convey enlightenment to others. No doubt he managed to convey his hypocrisy to others. One young woman who grew up in a Rajneesh commune in Oregon asked me how she could make money teaching Osho's meditation techniques. I replied that she should go to an employment agency and get an honest job. Meditation and business should not be confused. There are too many money-hungry gurus out there now.

I got a shock when I discovered that many of Osho's students don't care about the crimes that have been committed and don't care about the lies and bigotry of their own movement. They don't seem to realize that as a result of the bacteriological attack carried out by the Rajneesh sannyasins in the Oregon restaurant, the meditation groups got a very bad reputation all over the world. The unrelated but equally famous Aum Senrikyo (Japanese cult), with her nerve gas attack on a Tokyo subway station, made the situation even worse. It seems that the attitude of many Osh sannyasins is such that as long as they themselves are not physically kicked, it does not matter to them who was hurt, and how unethical and ugly their behavior is. According to them, everyone in the world is responsible for the situation in Oregon, except for themselves. As a result of their nonchalant attitude, many Americans have the impression that if a meditation group opened their ashram next to them, then it's time to buy a gun and a gas mask.

The amount of historical revisionism and propaganda I heard from some of Rajneesh's students reminded me of the efforts of the Maoists during the sixties. If you start believing in a perfect man, the god of the universe, then anyone who dares to criticize him, you will call a devil. And all the subtleties of his teaching become lost to such students, who, as one, declare that in my works they see only hatred and rage. And, of course, they do not notice this hatred in themselves, directed at everyone who does not share their own narrow beliefs.

I remember how one of the students of Rajneesh spoke out with anger about the fact that the Dalai Lama visited Rajneesh at the ashram only once, without taking advantage of a second invitation. For her, now the Dalai Lama is an ignoramus, and only because his free will and free choice have shown themselves so. The level of opposition to a different opinion as a result of ordinary narrow-mindedness among the followers of the Rajneesh cult is so great that I cannot understand how many outwardly intelligent and reasonable people can live in such a small mental space, barricading themselves against everyone who thinks otherwise.

The last time I visited the Rajneesh Ashram in Pune in India was in 1988. I saw in reality the congress of the German Brownshirts. Osho was still very popular in Germany, thanks in part to his commentary in Stern magazine, where he was largely seen as a pro-Hitler. I personally do not believe that Osho was a serious supporter of Adolf Hitler. I think he was just playing with people's minds. But his position was quite clearly stated. And enough sympathy was given to the case with Axis, so that many Germans were even afraid of his words. Those who lost their loved ones during World War II were greatly shocked.

Even in Bombay, at the beginning of his teaching, Rajneesh made nonchalant statements that could be interpreted as pro-Hitler and pro-fascist. In recent years, due to drug abuse and mental decay, Rajneesh declared: “I fell in love with this man - Adolf Hitler. He was crazy, but I'm even crazier." I don't believe Rajneesh really meant it. I believe he was joking. But he had a loss of common sense, because you can not joke about loving a man who has killed millions of people. Mel Brooks - he can get away with it, because he is Jewish and his relatives were killed by the Nazis. But this is unforgivable for a spiritual person who has hung his portrait everywhere for worship. Such a speech confirms the fact that the drugs have destroyed the quality of his judgment.

During my last visit to the ashram in Pune, Osho was silent, angry with his students. He wanted them to stage demonstrations against some Indian officials who spoke negatively about him. Wise enough was the decision not to create a new confrontation. This display of intelligence in his flock annoyed Osho, and as punishment he stopped speaking in public. Therefore, I could only see him on videotape, where Osho emotionally pompously and factually incorrectly told how the US police stole his collection of women's watches encrusted with diamonds. He said that they would never be able to wear them in public because his sanshins would see the watch on their wrists and start shouting loudly, "You stole Bhagwan's watch!" His words and mannerisms were so childishly irrational that it reminded me of Jim Jones. This Osho was a far cry from the serenely divine and magnificent speaker I had met a few years earlier.

Why were Osho ninety Rolls-Royces? Why does Saddam Hussein need dozens of palaces? These desires are the product of the basic animal mind of two men who grew up in poverty. Enlightenment does not care about symbols of power and potency. There is no point in looking for hidden esoteric explanations for compulsive behavior. Is there some occult reason why Elton John spends about $400,000 a month on flowers? Is there any secret spiritual reason why Osho owned dozens of expensive women's watches? Universal cosmic consciousness is completely neutral and does not need to own anything, impress anyone, or dominate anyone. Consciousness does not drive a car and does not answer what time the clock shows.

Shivamurti's book "Bhagwan: The Fallen God" can easily be titled like this: "The Man Who Became His Opposite" or "The Man Who Betrayed Himself". I often tell people that if they could go back and kidnap Acharya Rajneesh in the 70s and then transport him through the years by arranging for him to meet Osho in the late 80s, the outcome would be that these two people would start war against each other. The Acharya would hate Osho's pompous self-forgiveness, and Osho would not tolerate the Acharya's belligerent criticism. The Acharya spoke about freedom and compassion. And Osho once said that he wished Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev would have been killed for leading the Soviet Union to Western capitalism instead of leading it to a fictional spiritual communism. The change in his teaching was noticeable, I must say.

I would like to think that the early Acharya Rajneesh would have approved of my writing. But who can say for sure? To those who suggest that I am not loyal to Osho, I will say that I honestly try to be loyal to Acharya Rajneesh, from whom I took sannyas, but not to Osho. The Acharya was a man whom I deeply love and respect. But Acharya Rajneesh died long before Osho was born, and these two people are as different as day and night.

You can express your rage or gratitude - it won't affect me. I can only sigh and ask myself, "How did Acharya Rajneesh, who started out as an anti-guru, end up the way he ended up with his huge bunch of students?" Perhaps this is proof that power corrupts and that the means rarely justify the ends.

After all, where is the meditation in all this? I see Colored Acupuncture, Tantric Tarot Readings, encounter groups and other nonsense in every book. Osho's students are peddling all this for decent money. So what about meditation? And my thoughts go back to the day when the Acharya, who was only forty years old, wisely advised a Japanese woman that meditation cannot become a business. But in reality, the corrupt means have gone so far and so out of hand that the original pursuit of good ends, the proud vision of Acharya Rajneesh, has been forgotten by many, but not by me.

Dynamic Meditation: (warning). This addictive meditation method was Bhagwan's trademark and remains a remarkably effective means of naturally expanding awareness. Bhagwan never did this technique himself because he himself was meditation. He developed this method simply by observing his students who randomly fell into spontaneous bodily movements during his early meditation camps. When his ability to judge began to deteriorate, he unfortunately changed the 3rd and 4th stages of meditation to mindless torture. A correct and more effective meditation technique has four stages, each of 10 minutes.

Stage #1. Begin standing with your eyes closed and breathe deeply and quickly through your nostrils for 10 minutes. Let your body move freely. Jump, lean sideways, or use any physical movement that helps get more oxygen into your lungs.

Stage #2. The second ten-minute stage is cathartic. Let everything be total and spontaneous. You can dance or roll on the ground. Once in a lifetime, screaming is allowed and encouraged. You must act in such a way that all the rage that is hidden in your inner safe comes out along with the blows to the ground that you make with your hands. All repressed emotions from your subconscious need to be released.

Stage #3. At this stage, you are jumping up and down shouting "Hoo!-Hoo!-Hoo!" without stopping for 10 minutes. It sounds very silly and it's pretty funny, but the loud vibrations of your voice travel inward to the centers where your energy is stored and push that energy up. During this stage, it is important that the hands are free while in a natural position. Do not hold your arms above your head, this can be medically dangerous.

Stage #4. The last 10 minute stage is complete relaxation and silence. Lie on your back, get comfortable - and let things happen. Be dead. Surrender completely to space. Enjoy the tremendous energy you have released during the first three stages. Become a silent witness of the ocean that flows into a drop, become this ocean.

Bhagwan changed the 3rd stage of this method, and his students began to hold their hands above their heads while shouting “Hoo!”. Even worse, he canceled the 4th stage rest, and his students were now standing still like statues, with their hands up in the air. This method is not only inconvenient, being a kind of torture, but it can be dangerous for medical reasons. When you stand with your arms raised above your head, you increase your orthostatic stress levels. This means that your heart has to work even harder to push blood through the vessels. It can easily happen that you die in this position or have a heart attack if you suffer from coronary insufficiency.

Freezing in place in a stationary posture makes deep relaxation impossible because your mind is in complete control of the movement functions. This keeps your consciousness on the surface, and thus conflicts with the purpose of the exercise. And the purpose of the technique is to have three stages of intense activity, followed by a stage of deep relaxation and total allowance to occur. Bhagwan himself would never have been able to practice the freezing method, even in his youth, and asking his students to do so showed that he had lost his last contact with physical reality.

I advise practitioners to use only the pleasant early version from dynamic meditation, and not the mindlessly difficult freezing method. This wonderful technique was designed to grow and change together. After a few years of such practice, the first three stages of meditation should disappear, become unnecessary. And then, as soon as you enter the meditation hall and take a few deep breaths, you immediately fall into the ecstatic state of the 4th stage.

Bhagwan wanted it to be a flowing technique, to give health and joy. Those new students who want to experiment with Rajneesh's dynamic meditations should read the Cathartic Dance Meditation section of the Meditation Handbook. There are detailed caveats and details that you need to read before you start experimenting with this wonderful technique.

Christopher Calder

P.S. a small note criticizing this article by Calder.

SECTANT OSHO. CAUTION - DANGER!

This is probably why, for a start, you generally need to say who Osho is, because not everyone can know this.

Osho. short biography

Chandra Mohan Jain(December 11, 1931 - January 19, 1990) since the beginning of the seventies, better known as Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh (that blessed one who is god) and later as Osho (oceanic, dissolved in the ocean) - a famous neo-Hindu guru and mystic, inspirer of the neo-orientalist Rajneesh movement, preacher " philosophy of "total liberation", calling it the Sanskrit term "sannyas".

Criticism of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi and traditional religions made Osho a controversial figure during his lifetime. In addition, he defended the freedom of sexual relations, in some cases arranged sexual meditation practices, for which he earned the nickname "sex guru".

Osho is the founder of the system of ashrams (religious communities) in many countries. The ashram, according to the descriptions of the disciples, was at the same time "an amusement park and a lunatic asylum, a pleasure house and a temple."
During his stay in the United States, he founded the international settlement of Rajneeshpuram, several residents of which, until September 1985, committed serious crimes, including a bioterrorist act (infected more than 750 people with salmonella).

During the four years that Osho lived there, the popularity of Rajneeshpuram grew.
So, about 3,000 people came to the festival in 1983, and in 1987 - about 7,000 people from Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.
A school, post office, fire and police departments, a transport system of 85 buses were opened in the city.
Between 1981 and 1986, the Rajneesh movement amassed about $120 million through various meditation workshops, lectures, and conferences with attendance fees ranging from $50 to $7,500.
By "the end of 1982, Osho's net worth reached $200 million tax-free."
Osho also owned 4 aircraft and 1 combat helicopter. In addition, Osho owned "nearly a hundred (numbers vary) Rolls-Royces."
Reportedly, his followers wanted to increase the number of Rolls-Royces to 365, one for each day of the year.
In 1984, the Federal Bureau of Investigation "brought a criminal case against the Rajnesh sect" because in Anteloope "arms depots, drug laboratories were discovered on the territory of the center of Rajnesh."

On October 23, 1985, Rajnesh was arrested.
“The call for complete freedom, coupled with very liberal views on marriage and sexual relations, has caused public outrage throughout the world.
Osho disbanded his ashram in Oregon and publicly stated that he was not a religious teacher and stated that the "Rajneesh Bible" was published without his knowledge.
Also, his students burned 5,000 copies of the book "Rajneeshism", which was a 78-page compilation of the teachings of Bhagwan, who defined "Rajneeshism" as "a non-religious religion."
After being deported from America, Rajneesh was denied entry by 21 countries or declared him "persona non grata".

In a number of countries, Osho's organization was classified as a destructive sect and cult and was, including in the USSR, banned.

Teaching.
Osho's teachings are extremely eclectic (largely borrowed from other philosophical systems).
It is a chaotic mosaic composed of elements of Buddhism, Yoga, Taoism, Sikhism, the Greek philosophy of Sufism, European psychology, Tibetan traditions, Christianity, Hasidism, Zen, Tantrism and other spiritual movements, as well as their own views.

He himself spoke about it like this: “I don’t have a system. Systems can only be dead. I am an unsystematic, anarchic stream, I am not even a person, but just a certain process. I don't know what I told you yesterday"
Many of Osho's lectures contain contradictions and paradoxes, which Osho commented as follows:
“My friends are surprised: Yesterday you said one thing, and today another. What are we to listen to? I can understand their bewilderment. They just grabbed the words. Conversations are of no value to me, only the spaces between the words I speak are what is valuable. Yesterday I opened the doors to my emptiness with some words, today I open them with other words.

“The ultimate goal of the religious practice of Rajnesh is to achieve a state of enlightenment and total liberation. The ways to achieve this state are the rejection of stereotypes of culture, upbringing, traditions, the rejection of everything that society imposes. At the same time, "the destruction of 'social barriers and stereotypes' should occur during communication with the 'teacher', and the acquisition of inner freedom through the practice of 'dynamic meditation' and sexual orgies presented under the guise of Tantrism."

Despite hundreds of dictated books, Rajneesh did not create a systematic theology. During the period of the Oregon commune (1981-1985), a book called "The Rajneesh Bible" was published, but after the dispersal of this commune, Rajneesh stated that the book was published without his knowledge and consent, and urged his followers to get rid of "old attachments", to to which he attributed religious beliefs.

Osho also used a wide range of Western concepts. His views on the unity of opposites are reminiscent of Heraclitus, while his description of man as a mechanism condemned to uncontrolled impulsive actions stemming from unconscious neurotic patterns has much in common with Freud and Gurdjieff.
His vision of the "new man" transcending the limits of tradition is reminiscent of Nietzsche's ideas in Beyond Good and Evil.
Osho's views on the liberation of sexuality are comparable to those of Lawrence, and his dynamic meditations are indebted to Reich.

Osho calls for doing what comes from feeling, flows from the heart: "Never follow the mind ... do not be guided by principles, etiquette, norms of behavior."
He denied the asceticism and self-restraint of the classical yoga of Patanjali and stated that "the craving for violence, sex, money-grubbing, hypocrisy is a property of consciousness", also pointing out that in "inner silence" there is "neither greed, nor anger, nor violence", but is love.

He encouraged followers to throw out their base desires in any form, which found its expression "in convulsive shudders, hysterical behavior."
It is considered likely that for this reason, the Rajneesh ashrams became the object of criticism for anti-social activities: promiscuity (promiscuous, unrestricted sexual intercourse with many partners), accusations of delinquency, etc.
Osho promoted free love and often criticized the institution of marriage, calling it the "coffin of love" in early conversations, although he sometimes encouraged marriage for the opportunity for "deep spiritual fellowship."

“I am the founder of a single religion,” Rajneesh declared, “other religions are a hoax.
Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha just corrupted people...
My teaching is based on knowledge, on experience.
People don't have to believe me. I explain my experience to them. If they find it right, they accept it. If not, then they have no reason to believe in him.”
Osho's talks, recorded between 1969 and 1989, have been collected and published by followers in the form of several hundred (more than 600) books.

Sexual Practices and Tantra
Osho became famous as a sex guru in the 1970s because of his tantric teachings (an Indian radical teaching about sex; one of the mystical tantric practices, the main content of which is the intimacy of partners) about the "integration of sexuality and spirituality", as well as from - for the work of some therapeutic groups and the encouragement of sexual practices among sannyasins.
Osho believed that tantra influenced his teachings to the greatest extent, along with Western sexology, based on the writings of Wilhelm Reich. Osho tried to combine traditional Indian tantra and Reich-based psychotherapy and form a new approach:
"All of our efforts up to now have failed because we have not made friends with sex, but have declared war on it; we have used repression and lack of understanding as ways to solve sexual problems... And the results of repression are never fruitful, never pleasant, never healthy."
Tantra was not the goal, but the method by which Osho freed the followers from sex:

"The so-called religions say that sex is a sin, and tantra says that sex is only a sacred thing... After you have cured your disease, you don't continue to carry the prescription and vial and medicine. You drop it."
Osho believed that only through intense "experiencing sexual emotions" is it possible to "understand their nature" and liberation from sexual "passion-weakness".

According to eyewitnesses, there was a problem of emotional violence in the Osho movement, it was especially pronounced during the functioning of Rajneeshpuram.
Some people were severely injured.
They returned with tales of "sexual perversion, drug dealing, suicide", as well as tales of physical and mental damage from Poona's programs.
But even among the people who were injured, many were positive about their experience, including those who had already left the movement. In general, most of the sannyasins assessed their experience as positive and defended it with arguments.

New person
Osho neo-sannyasins reject the past and the future, living here and now, but do not reject sex and material wealth.
Desires were to be accepted and transcended, not denied. Once the "inner flowering" has taken place, the drives, such as the drive for sex, will be left behind.
Rajneesh called himself a "guru for the rich" and said that poverty is not a true spiritual value.

Rajneesh sought to create a "new man" that combined the spirituality of Gautama Buddha with an interest in the life of Zorba, embodied in the novel Zorba the Greek by Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis. By Zorba, Osho meant a person who “is not afraid of hell, does not aspire to heaven, lives fully, enjoying the little things of life ... food, drink, women. After a hard day's work, he picks up a musical instrument and dances for hours on the beach."

The new man, according to Osho, will no longer be trapped in institutions such as family, marriage, political ideologies and religions...
(Wikipedia)
In full: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki....8%F8%29

For example, quotes about love, but when you look at the source, some kind of strange love turns out.

He says "enjoy, live here and now," and even though the grass does not grow there.
The result is promiscuous group sex, elevated to the rank of "meditation" in the ashrams and outside the ashrams.
And since children come from "pleasure", he offers sterilization, which is actively, and, as they say, under pressure from the leadership, was practiced in ashrams.
And it was called "freedom". And where does love, it is not clear at all.

And where is the illumination? Really blinding. But by the way, no one was forced into Osho's disciples and into these ashrams. People came to him voluntarily. And even most people rated their experience as positive and defended it. Probably to each his own. For me, this is a sect, in which there is no smell of freedom.

As Osho teaches - one must do, but not be a "doer". There is movement. Perpetual motion. But this is a movement from one stage to another, from one milestone to another milestone. There is action. And action means a result. There is no result - the action loses its meaning.

All this is trite. Indeed a mosaic of many teachings.

No comments.

"Here is an excerpt from the memoirs of visiting the ashram in Pune around the year 80:
"Murders, rapes, mysterious disappearances of people, threats, arson, explosions, abandoned children of the Ashramites begging for alms on the streets of Pune, drugs - all this [here] is in the order of things ...
Christians working in the Pune psychiatric hospital will confirm everything that has been said, not forgetting to mention the high level of mental disorders due [in particular] to the fact that the ashram has taken political power into its own hands and there is no one to complain about it"
(Martin W. op. cit. p. 288).
But this is the outside.

And here is the internal, that is, the teaching:
"Rajneesh preached the freedom of fornication and perversion, while calling the family and children an unnecessary burden. He said:

"There is nothing wrong with pure simple sex..."
Who is arguing with this? This is true. Intimate relationships are not sin or immorality.
But promiscuous sex (or fornication according to the church), as a source of contagious diseases and many human misfortunes, is certainly condemned by both society and religions.

And further:
"No obligation, no duty, no obligation in this. Sex should be full of play and prayer" (Osho. Sex. Quotes from conversations. M., 1993).
In this regard, "when Rajneesh hinted that a woman burdened with children could not achieve enlightenment, right at the cult center in Laguna Beach, many female sannyasins were surgically sterilized" ...

“Develop your sexuality, don’t suppress yourself!.. I don’t inspire orgies, but I don’t forbid them either” (“Parismatch”, 11/08/1985. Quoted from: Privalov K. B. S. 35).

Then:
"Visitors to the commune in Pune returned with stories of such sexual orgies, as well as perversions, drug addiction and drug trafficking! "Rajneesh. (Barker A. op. cit. p. 244).

He promised "a tit in the hand", and even a cranein the form of freedom, enlightenment without any labor, without any restrictions, on the contrary, through the cultivation of the basest passions and vices that only exist in a person.
There is no God, there is no morality, there are no prohibitions, obligations ... but everything that brings pleasure and wealth is allowed. Those who had a need for any of the above went to his ashrams, because his ideology allowed them to justify themselves, primarily in their own eyes, and not feel like moral outcasts or freaks in their environment or society.
Also, I think he had hypnotic powers. The internet is full of videos of his performances.
Complete demagoguery, but the people are spellbound. You don't have to be a great specialist to look at their faces and determine that the audience is, some more, some less "influenced".

"Love yourself.
Don't judge yourself. You have been condemned so much, and you have accepted all this condemnation. Now you keep hurting yourself..."

What an attractive ideology for many, a kind of "sweet candy" for morning tea.
No matter what offense you commit (after all, they don’t condemn for good), no matter what harm you cause, no matter how scum you are, “do not condemn yourself ...”, but “be yourself and enjoy ... "

Conscience, repentance are counterbalances and stoppers to non-commitment, including repeated, of something subject to condemnation (and this is always evil done to someone / something and someone’s pain), they, therefore, sideways, forget about them and do whatever you want, at least walk over the corpses, if only you feel good at the same time and the main thing is "do not condemn yourself", so as not to interfere with yourself "enjoy", but "be yourself".

And who would doubt that with such a formulation of the question, the ashrams will burst with those who wish.
But what about enlightenment? It does not fit into this scheme.

Zombies based on meditation techniques and breathing exercises

The Only Religion of Osho Shri Rajneesh

It originated in India, in 1970, based on the philosophy of Zen Buddhism.

Not without spiritual trepidation, I begin the story about the teachings of the great teacher Osho Shri Rajneesh, which I followed for several years.

Like most religious teachers of the East, Osho expounded his teaching, referring not to any earlier schools and philosophies, but to his own spiritual development experience. At the end of the sixties, the Master came to the conclusion that all beliefs existing on Earth are false, and it is time for people to open their eyes to the one and only true religion.

Thanks to the great prophetic gift, Osho was able to gain a large number of followers and in 1971 founded his first ashram in Pune. Until 1981, up to fifty thousand people a year passed through this school, which once again testifies to the high spiritual saturation of the new teaching.

In 1981, the government of Indira Gandhi banned the sect under the pretext that drugs were used in the ashram of Osho Shri Rajneesh to achieve nirvana, and during meditation there were fights and stabbings. The teacher was forced to move to the United States, where he was elected mayor of Enteloope, Oregon. There he founded a new ashram. Soon, rumors began to circulate in the district about strange deaths among the homeless beggars and vagrants of the town, as well as rampant sexual orgies within the walls of the sect. Under the pressure of "public opinion of free America" ​​Osho was arrested, and he, in order to avoid the escalation of the conflict, publicly announced the dissolution of the sect. To heighten the effect, five thousand brochures specially printed for such an occasion were burned in front of journalists and television cameras.

On November 14, 1985, in Portland, Oregon, after a high-profile trial by Osho, Shri Rajneesh was sentenced to ten years in prison ... probation, and quietly released on all four sides.

On his grave in Pune, India, there is a white marble slab with a laconic inscription: "Never born and never died, just visited this land from 1931 to 1990", and the teaching continues to live and develop in almost the entire civilized world and traditionally Buddhist countries.

The basis of this scandalous religion is Zen (Chan) Buddhism, and when giving recommendations for self-improvement, Osho often directly refers to well-known representatives of various Zen movements, as well as Confucian philosophers. The main differences from traditional schools are the use of motor meditation techniques and the theory of “reasonable egoism” created by the teacher.

It was the stay in the sect of Osho Shri Rajneesh that showed me the whole abyss that separates those who convince people to abandon sectarianism and those who are in sects. So, about the teachings of Osho on the part of popularizers it is said at the following level:

“He preached liberation from one's own “I”, from conscience. One must live without thinking about anything, without burdening oneself with thoughts of either the past or the future, or the family, or daily bread. And the way to this is in meditation, chants, ritual dances, similar to the dances of the first hippies, only you need to hang the image of a guru on a wooden chain around your neck ... But, as Rajneesh taught, one cannot do without love in this world. “Develop your sexuality, don't repress it! he called. “Love is the beginning of everything. If you missed the beginning, you will not have an end ... "And he added:" I do not inspire orgies, but I do not forbid them either. Everyone decides for himself"

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