Sunday, August 30, 2009

Where Birds Fly

Tonight I found some words spoken by Osho that really resonate with me. I am not a follower of Osho or a student of Osho in particular, in fact, the few times I tried to watch videos of him speaking I felt such an angst of impatience just waiting for words to flow out of his mouth; he does speak so slowly. Also I had heard somewhere or read somewhere that he liked to collect Rolls Royces, and I am always a bit turned off from "Teachers" who live such a lifestyle. Well, I'm turned off from the cult of personality in any form. HOWEVER, I couldn't help but pause tonight after reading this:

...Kwatz! It is a sound, found by Zen, that shatters your
mind. At least for a moment you simply remain silent,
amazed. Because it is not language. You have not
expected it. But it shatters you and that is the
whole purpose of a master – to destroy the
disciple so that the disciple himself can rise
as a master of himself. Only pseudo masters
go on forcing disciplehood on people. The
authentic ones initiate you just in order to
destroy you, because unless you are
destroyed you will never be your real self.
You will always remain a persona, a
personality...

--Osho

I once felt such anger toward the one who initiated me because I felt I was being destroyed. It dawned on me a number of months ago just why he once said he wished that he could forget my existence, words which, at the time seemed like a cruel blow. Now I feel only love for him because he opened a door for me. I wish I knew then what I know now; I would have been much more appreciative. I am also more thankful now than ever that he let me go the way he did, even though for a long long time I felt I was being abandoned. It was not that he was abandoning me; he was pushing me out of the nest so that I could fly on my own.

7 comments:

tao1776 said...

I have been fed well by the words of Osho.

Kathy Trejo said...

Hi Sophia,

I'm not a follower of Osho either...but i love his quotes. I never read one of his books...but always wanted to.

Sophia said...

Someone sent me a nice pdf file full of many of his writings. I find that it is easier for me to read him, and so far I like a lot of what he writes.

Kathy, I'm going to send you an email.

Anonymous said...

http://www.oshoworld.com/biography/innercontent.asp?FileName=biography8/08-20-rolls.txt

Sophia said...

Anonymous, thank you for sharing the link. I know there is supposed to be a lesson on understanding here, but it's very hard to understand why someone needs a Rolls Royce for every day of the year. Not even the world's worst back problem calls for such extravagance. Indeed I am being judgmental but I do have the option of choosing who my role models are, and although I am grateful for the words and lessons of Osho I cannot find any good in this. If he wanted to do it to shock "the idiots" there are plenty of shocking things in the world already. I think his money would have been better spent helping those in need.

tao1776 said...

Often when I'm eating a nicely prepared meal I will put little things aside that I deem as being less nutritious; not eating the bread, forgoing the salt and maybe something high in fat or additives. I am often amazed/perplexed by the vehicles (people) used to nourish us with a teaching. I, in some small way keep this in mind within my conception of This Being Human....When we focus on the person delivering the message, their looks, their tastes, etc. etc. we often don't see the forest for the trees. That's just me. When we "look" for the perfect master, the perfect teacher, one without flaw, without passion, we rob ourselves of something.

Adi said...

Ha ha... Osho and his RollsRoyce or whatever cars collection. I just wanted to say, and it may sound a bit weird, but... What is exactly wrong with having these cars? I know this is not what you expect when you talk about somebody who has "let go" of the world, but! The concept that spiritual teachers should be poor is very bad for you. And here is why: you take these people as examples. And in doing so, you associate the ideea that having money and possession is a bad thing. And this goes deeply into your unconscious. And then, you ask yourself in real life, why you have no money. Well, it may come as a surprise, but you actually consider having money as being a negative trait. Which it isn't necessarily. Having or not having money is nor good nor bad. It just is. I bet Osho does not really care about these cars. Sure, he may very well enjoy them once in a while, just like he enjoys, I don't know, having a beautiful garden, but I really doubt this says anything about him being attached to them or to the garden. I'm just saying. And as far as I know, after enlightenment, one thing you do get is ability to choose what you care for. And I doubt Osho's choice was cars. He just has them, and this is not good nor bad. It just is.