Instead of a fraudulent cult leader like Bagwan Shree Rajneesh, if you're truly interested in Zen Buddhism, perhaps you might prefer to hear and read the teachings of Sunryu Suzuki roshi (and his Dharma heirs), an ordained Soto Zen Buddhist priest and founder of the San Francisco Zen Center. Suzuki Roshi Dharma Talks | A blog of the teachings given by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.
Without going into who he was - what he was not was a Zen Master guy. He was not a Buddhist, Hindu, Tantrika (besides NeoTantra) or anything else, he did his own thing and all interpretations of other things were from that POV. In the same way that Christians interpret Buddhism from their POV or Hindus interpret Buddhism from theirs. It is Osho, it is not Zen as seen and practiced by Zen Buddhists. More in general what happens with Zen in the west is the same that happens with Yoga or, say, Sufism. Everyone gushes over Rumi and often reinterprets him as some sort of proto-newage universalist and completely ignore that he was by all accounts a conservative Hanafi Islamic scholar with a lot of opinions that would be more easily uttered by a Taliban than a yoga-panted cacao ceremony facilitator. In the same way Zen has been reduced to what a specific wester audience at a specific time needs and extrapolated from the source. Yeah, Zen has an iconoclast element. But Zen is still a monastic Buddhist tradition (besides in Japan that lost Vinaya in almost all of Buddhism), monks still have to learn scripture, today in most orders a degree in Buddhist studies would be a minimal requirement for ordination, a lot of monks in zen orders specialise in ritual performance, a lot on philosophy etc. The fantasy of iconoclast "hit you on the head" enlightenments coming from extrapolating a couple of (historically sometimes questionable) stories about a couple of guys in a very narrow period and location from hundreds of years of development in several countries is just that - a self serving fantasy. In short - you will not learn anything about Zen from Osho.
When I watched the Wild Wild doc, I could not help wonder if it was a fabrication on behalf of his then, Number 2, that the Doctor was drugging Osho and had prepared/hidden the necessary substances for any assisted suicide. It could have been an excuse to get someone gullible enough to try and murder him. The motive would be that his wife left the commune after he was murdered, seen as she was likely to be given the secretary job soon. (Hollywood person, so called). Very strange story. I do wonder if the exact tape was found by FBI that had the assisted suicide conversation.
In the videos of Osho I watched, I never even thought he was espousing Buddhist beliefs. Like you say he was doing his own thing which appealed to many westerners who were looking to do their "thing", which was a combination of Eastern mysticism distilled and put into a supposed yogic lifestyle which included all sorts of sex. Yeah, Rajneesh may have paraphrased the Masters, but his own lifestyle was like that of the Rich and Famous, and not necessarily a good example for people to follow. Many Indian gurus seem to be a dime a dozen, most looking after their own desires while fleecing gullible westerners and Indians too. I believe knowledge should be freely shared, unconditionally. That's enlightened love. These guys are cool...just chillum out...
I suppose if one needs to be told how to view life or how to act, there are always those around that have the "right " gobbledegook to follow. Do unto others as you would have them do unto to you is a pretty good one to follow. Ahhh----but what do I know?
Everyone needs it, just should be much earlier in development, but what when parents did not do their job? One can only hope that mommy and daddy issues don’t ruin our lives :/
Good point if I take your meaning correctly. It is known that our coming president did not have exemplary parents and in fact the family has operated outside the law for generations.
Let me get this straight, if you follow your leader's instructions correctly you either get 93 Rolls Royces or 72 Virgins to fuck all you want? But wait, what's behind door #3? Can Christians top the sweepstakes? What good is eternal life without an unlimited supply of Virgins, all personally curated by Jeffrey Epstein, and 93 Rolls Royces that are too heavy to drive in a cloudscape.
I cannot work out Osho - Bagwhan either. Notwithstanding the Wild wild country video and now sex with minors allegations by up to around 300 Sannyassins implicated, mainly men. His followers mostly genuinely seemed to get something from the commune. They do all have a bright eyed almost vacant look at times. I cannot understand if this is a degree of free joy or they were a certain type of person who was in need of a role model to follow. I do think people wanted to build a Utopia and much of it looked amazing, who in this world looks that happy ? Could it be it gave financially independent people (some wealthy) something they were missing, i.e. had money but were isolated and empty feeling, connection with others ? I think it is complicated and not quite black and white. I don't think all were rich who were involved, far from it. I also don;t think you had to give over your bank account to joiin. They all look immensely and truly happy in videos. This was before Oregon Rajneeshpuram. You can see the series here for free if you wish to, link not complete add what is below https://gomovies-mu.123cdn.pm/watch-series Add this text directly to the to the end of that link above /watch-wild-wild-country-season-1-full-episodes-online-free/gomovies-4nro834-pj4yv78jw?watching=1 I think we did not see all that went on. All rather enigmatic despite the series and scandals. I got the impression he just repeated a lot of what other philosophers, Buddhists and enlightened people said. Took a bit from multiple sources, though he was a professor of philosophy, so well educated in such matters. The blatent open riches thing was of course at odds with the typical austere sage. Maybe it was a type of freedom and he was not attached to them. Maybe there was some kind of assets advantage related to the ownership of diamond encrusted watches and Rolls Royces. Where was the compassion in this organization ? I saw none of it. That is problematic. The homeless people situation was a cynical ploy even if they were initially treated well, then dumped back on the streets. I always wonder why the so called enlightened do not become nurses or palliative care workers if their compassion is so deep, the true heroes of our society. Sheela his number 2 in charge said 'intellectual giant' as opposed to enlightened. (interestingly Sheela did open a care home for people with end of life diseases, but we cannot know if this was to try and clear her guilt from being involved in what she was implicated in or otherwise.). Every person is a unique individual so it would be wrong to tar all with the same brush. That is really not fair and I bet there were some very nice people there and it looked like a lot of fun and hard work for some. However, individualism seems to be significantly diluted in such a situation. Is that not part of the very teaching eastern philosophy is meant to do, erode the ego and the individual, the separate from the other, from all ? It could be argued you replace it with a larger self comprising of a close, like minded group and that is not freedom though. Free love, safe and secluded feeling, very sociable, and a lot of fun with some spirituality added. Fascinating, has its light and also now its dark. I will just add that Sheela may be right Osho was drugged and planned to be euthanized by her physician as it does seem there was potential for assisted suicide implicated at his death. A coroner thought it might be by overdose of an undisclosed substance. She could not be categorically sure he was to be euthanized on Masters day. What a story.
Part of a simple business plan then. It explains the complete lack of compassion, which is absent at every level.
Just a typical cult leader. Of course he will make up a pseudo philosophical excuse, they all always do. Pretty much after Vivekananda who was OK every single one that came to the west after realising there is a market there was a conman, besides Prabbhupada who was just an old dumb fanatic. And every big jet set guru in India that westerners tend to flock to is usually a criminal asshole too. Over the last few decades the scene shifted though and now it is not even primarily westerners any more but the new derooted Indian urban middle class with disposable income, kind off made an U turn and started reselling this light neohindu cult shit with a few localised tweaks to them too. It took me more than 10 years, with many of them in India itself, and some local friends that to my surprise have seen many of those jerks my young self overidealised basically on the same level as unscrupulous businessmen at best and mafia dons at worst, to start seeing behind the facade. It is all a big business. 90% of them are scam artists, 9% are idiots and fanatics and maybe 1% somewhat decent. Ramana was also among the few decent ones between those popular in the West, and of those that were alive in my time and that I was around for Swami Chidananda of the DLS was a good person. But the majority of other direct disciples of Sivananda were mega bullshiters too, and I would not necessarily vouch for Sivananda himself either, not enough data and no personal experience though. The wast, wast majority are just narcissists (and occasionally psychos with more serious criminal allegations) that found a nice legal way to scam people. Why risk prison with outright financial scams and rapes when you can start a cult and do all of that legally. Imho every antisocial scam artist that does not start a cult is just an idiot choosing a more difficult route. Many are not idiots though, so religious leader circles end up being overstuffed by such personality profiles. Unless an Indian expat with own separate religious institutions in the west that you seldom see another pale face at, I would still feel safe enough recommending only the old Vivekananda’s organisation if someone is really needing a Hindu- adjacent group to belong to. Every single other that I have ever seen, and I have seen more than most people heard about, is up to their throats in unethical and even antisocial shit. Osho was just flamboyant enough and open enough to stand out, not really any worse than most. There are many more wearing their orange renunciate’s sannyasin robes and keeping the local Indians cultural pretences of spirituality while equally scamming, amassing money and fucking whomever that can grab behind closed doors. But no matter how much of it comes out over time, the human need for surrogate parent figures in gurus, surrogate families in cults, a fantasy world of spiritual self worth and importance that was not realised in regular life and for someone to just make some sense of the chaos of life will always guarantee there is enough fish fodder for everyone in that shark tank. I have seen so many times such incredible levels of dirt come out that everyone was certain that shit must be over for that cult leader, but it never is. They lose some followers, but some remain, rebrand a bit, start getting new disciples, scandals fade away, ex disciples move on and become tired of talking and warning about it, in the meantime 2 new cult leaders start their own careers and the business goes on like usual and like it has done for thousands of years. Can’t really help people with a fervent desire to be scammed anyway.
I respect the selfless teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, whose self-realization fellowship, seems to be a relatively safe cult. I've been to his house and he wasn't scamming people as he lived pretty frugally, afaik. Vivekananda, who started the Vedanta Society, I also respect as attempting to unite the main religions by focusing on their common beliefs. I've also been to their ashram. They had a cool dome or pyramid for meditation. I wrote a paper about their philosophy and how they live together in the ashram for a class on utopias.
I would myself not be so sure about Yogananda There were some ethically questionable rumours about him too if memory serves me, and for sure with direct disciples, power struggles and power grabs in the SRF and some runaway branches (Kriyananda’s organisation being probably even more present in Europe than SRF itself, and he is an obvious scammer). And the Autobiography is as fake as it gets too. I mean, it is a very typical part of personality cult creation in that sphere, not necessarily standing out in that sense. They often try to develop a personal “creation myth” to make them special and chosen from childhood, and also often try to relate to other popular religious figures of the time or other popular figures even outside religion (like Chinmoy basically photobombed anyone of note he managed to physically approach). But the level of embellishment he put into it is something I almost have to respect. That level of over the top bullshit is usually reserved for post mortem hagiographies. It was in the early modern era though so the flow of information is limited, and if it was a different, non religious field I would give it 50:50 on whether he was a scammer or not. But it is religion, so he probably was. Not as bad as the later jet set era star gurus probably.
I think that there is a very simple reason Vivekananda seemed not a scammer, and Ramakrishna Math (i know them better then their affiliated Vedanta society in the west, similar but not entirely the same) has a reputation in India of being a no-nonsense organisation mostly devoid of scandals. He was simply the first and no one expected him to find such a receptive audience. It was a surprise for everyone essentially it seems, himself included. No one in India was probably aware that such a big market has opened (there were some gurus before, but the timing was not right or whatever the reason was for influence to be much more limited). Once the religious upstarts with any level of western education and exposure realised the potential post Vivekananda, it became a shitshow. And especially after the 60ies that launched that shitshow into the orbit.
Pardon my crass observation, but cult leaders always seem to need money, pussy and people to wait on them hand and foot. What a life , as there are obviously a huge number of people around to happily fulfill those " needs ".
