Revlon executives say their products cannot conceal the horrors inside of you.

Asserting that makeup can do little beyond creating a fleeting illusion of youth and beauty, cosmetics giant Revlon launched a new series of ads this week aimed at reminding its customers they will never be able to change what they are.

The company’s “You Are What You Are” campaign, which debuted with dark and haunting multi-page spreads in several major fashion magazines, cautions consumers that, at best, makeup is a sad disguise people hide behind in a futile attempt to avoid uncomfortable facts about their true nature.

“With our new ad campaign, we want to emphasize that you can buy all the lotions, powders, and fragrances you want, but you can’t escape who you really are: a fragile, flawed, and ultimately insignificant being who is tormented by fear and insecurity,” Revlon vice president Vivian Falk said in a press release introducing the advertisements. “It’s fine to use our products if they make you feel a little more attractive, but just remember it’s only a temporary distraction from the terrifying reality of your barren, unfulfilling life.”

“Your existence is a dismal and feeble one, and no amount of mascara is ever going to change that,” Falk added.

According to Revlon officials, the new campaign will include a mix of ruthlessly honest television spots, glossy print ads, and in-store promotions that encourage women to resign themselves to the bleak nature of their own humanity. In addition, billboards in major cities across America will reportedly feature images of a woman applying lipstick alongside the Revlon logo and a bold-faced slogan that simply reads, “You are living a lie.”

Company representatives further revealed that a new 60-second TV commercial would star a visibly distressed actress who scrutinizes her sallow and tear-streaked reflection in disgust before screaming and smashing the mirror with her fist, a sequence intended to highlight the unglamorous and excruciating character of all existence. An emotionless, monotone voice-over conveys the devastating psychological toll of coming to terms with one’s identity, saying, “Look at yourself: weak, afraid, all alone in this world. Everyone sees through you. Only death awaits. Revlon.”

“If you’re disappointed by what you see on the outside, just imagine how horrifying you must be on the inside – that’s the message we’re trying to convey to our customers,” said Revlon president Lorenzo Delpani, stressing that all of us are born into a terrible nightmare of tortured consciousness, a condition that he told reporters is unfortunately as immutable as it is meaningless. “You can try to obscure it all beneath lip liner and eye shadow and bronzer, but at the end of the day, you’re going to have to wash it off, and then what’s left? It’s just you, staring back at a grotesque, aging nothing consumed by doubt and regret who has made no meaningful contributions to the world.”

Delpani added, “You can conceal crow’s feet, but you can never conceal the appalling reality that is yourself.”

Though emphasizing that the campaign’s primary purpose is to disabuse women of the notion they can hide from themselves anywhere in this harsh world – let alone behind endless applications of skin and hair care products – Revlon executives said they hope the ads also spur young women to think critically about the potential for true self-discovery.

“Even if you could strip away all the duplicity and the self-deception, you might discover the person you imagined was there doesn’t even exist,” longtime Revlon chairman Ronald Perelman told reporters. “That’s what happens when you spend your life cowering in fear under a layer of foundation you thought could mask your insecurities forever. When you peel away the lies and expose the real you underneath, you’re going to be sickened by what you find.”

“And it’s too late to do anything about it,” he added. “Far too late.”

An Indo-Anglian writer, Kushwant Singh was famous for his trenchant secularism, his humor, and an abiding love of poetry. His comparisons of social and behavioral characteristics of Westerners and Indians are laced with acid wit. He served as the editor of several literary and news magazines, as well as two newspapers, through the 1970s and 1980s. He was one of the premium historians and novelists, an up-front political commentator, and columnist. Among a flurry of awards, he was also the recipient of Padma Vibhushan, the second-highest civilian award in India.

Photo: New Indian Express

Kul Bhushan, in his article published in Osho World Newsletter in April 2014, declared him Zorba the Singh.

He said, Khushwant lived, loved and laughed. Just like Osho advised everyone. Khushwant was a journalist, author, naturalist, humourist and above all, a vibrant and an endearing man. He made no bones about his love of whisky and beautiful women. His crowning achievement was his simple, direct style of writing speaking straight to the heart in very human terms. This is the secret of his popularity in his columns which he wrote right up to his last days and his novels and books which are bestsellers and will remain so.

Despite his clear and strong belief that he did not believe in God, he4 had a deep fascination for Osho whom he clearly admired as is amply proved by his writing and numerous tributes to the enlightened master.

In Khushwant Singh, we have lost a true Zorba!

Related article Life’s Mysteries: An Introduction to the Teachings of Osho

…if we become more conscious about our money it can have a two-fold effect:
it can help us bring who we are in our deeper nature more into the world -
it can also help us on our journey of becoming deeper to ourselves…

Watch on YouTube

Read more at Logos of Money

Related article Money•Spirituality•Consciousness

Kendall and Kylie Jenner are arguably two of Hollywood’s most genetically-gifted teens today. This gift comes at a price however in that they may also be the most controversial based on the consistent scrutiny of their entire Kardashian-Jenner clan which has resulted in a distinct lack of privacy. The constant chronicling of the Kardashian-Jenner clan drama is one thing, but there is another issue that is also intriguing. Speculation and circumstantial evidence may point to the possibility that Kylie Jenner could be running with a cult.

In recent months, other celebrity teens have been criticized in the media for running with what has been described by some in society to be a ‘dangerous cult’ along the West Coast. Osho, which is also known as the Rajneesh Movement, has been catching the eyes of young Hollywood stars. Those stars are not afraid to show their involvement with the movement. Found on social media sources like Instagram and Facebook, are pictures of the teens clearly indicating that they have their attention on the cult. The images include the Osho books, quotes, and even its symbol of the pyramid. The ‘fabulous’ Jenner sisters are not the only stars rumored to be following Osho, but also child stars like Willow and Jaden Smith, the children of Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith, and ex-Hannah Montana star, Moises Arias who appear to be slowly becoming pro-Osho.

Those who visit the Osho website can research and determine for themselves what the “cult” is all about. The website emphasizes meditation and other Eastern traditions like Zen, Tao and Buddhism, so the question is why are these teens being criticized for self-expression in what appears to be just another philosophical peace and meditation group?

In past decades, Osho has garnered a violent, yet perhaps misleading reputation. Recent findings have shown that those who sided with Osho have been in great amounts of trouble with the law due to rebellion. This cult was led by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who many people today connect with the names “sex guru,” “drug lord,” and even “bioterror attack leader.”

How bad could this cult potentially be if they are able to pull in children from Hollywood and it has been years since Osho was reported for anything dangerous? Most child stars rebel and do what interests them. They can be as impressionable as any other teenager and have the same motivations to find themselves beyond what their Hollywood reputation has defined them as. They also have unique, personal interests that may or may not fit with the reputation assigned to them and that some might describe as outrageous.

More…

Tricia Manalansan, guardianlv.com
Sources: Hollywood News Daily

Swiss Government dissolves Osho International Foundation after complaints of misappropriation of funds by its board members.

The Osho International Meditation Resort in Koregaon Park, Pune

Trouble has been brewing within the walls of the Osho International Meditation Resort in the city since last year, after it was was rocked by allegations of intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement — but that matter is yet to see the light of the day.

On the flipside, it took just 12 days for the Swiss Federal Supervisory Board and Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs to get their act together to provisionally suspend board members of Zurich-based Osho International Foundation (OIF), revoking their signatory authority and freezing their bank accounts.

The order was issued on June 2, following a complaint filed by Robert Doetsch alias Swami Ramteertha on May 20, against Zurich-based OIF president Michael O’Byrne, vice president John Andrew, and board members D’Arcy O’Byrne, Kaus Steeg and Rudolf Kocher, asking that they be removed from their posts for misappropriation of funds.

Last June, Pune-based Osho Friends Foundation filed a similar complaint in Bombay HC, demanding a probe in the illegal transfer of IPR to Zurich-based OIF. According to allegations against OIF trustees, a foundation by the same name had been created in Switzerland with a view to mislead people to believe it is an extension of the Pune-based headquarters.

Having a keen interest in preserving and protecting archives of Osho, Doetsch, a former board member of OIF, raised doubts on the infringements of OIF’s objectives and misappropriation of financial assets, and had sought the dismissal of board members from their positions.

While issuing the order, the Swiss Supervisory Board pointed out potential conflicts of interest of OIF board members. The order stated that Michael O’Byrne and his brother D’Arcy O’Byrne are presumably financial beneficiaries of companies that directly profit from the marketing of the IPR of Osho’s works.

The Bryne brothers also hold executive positions in all organisations involved in the marketing of Osho’s works, including more than 650 book titles that have been translated in more than 65 languages globally, more than 9,000 hours of audio recordings of Osho talks, and more than 1,800 hours of videos and paintings by Osho.

Swami Premgeet alias Yogesh Thakkar, who had filed a petition in HC last year pointing out that parallel OIFs in Switzerland and UK possess no authority to store, sale and retain the proceeds out of Osho’s IP works, told Mirror, “Switzerland has taken the appropriate step in protecting their interests.

When will the office of Charity Commissioner and HC take action to protect Osho’s IPR, which is illegally transferred to Switzerland? The Indian government is losing millions of dollars in terms of royalties every year. For the first time, justice has been done in favour of the Osho community in the world at large.”

Asked if the Zurich-based OIF would appeal against the order, Ma Amrit Sadhana, spokesperson of OIF headquarters based in Pune, said, “We are seeking legal advice from our lawyers for the future course of action.” Swiss Federal Supervisory Board has decided to appoint attorney lic. Iur. Andreas G Keller to carry forward the trust’s work.

NO DECISION ON 2013 IPR SCAM

The writ petition filed by Yogesh Thakkar and Kishor Raval in June last year questioned the parallel OIFs in in London and Zurich, which mislead disciples of Osho Rajneesh in believing that it is an extension of the Pune-based OIF headquarters.

Zurich-based OIF has claimed that Osho’s work was transferred to them in 1980, but Thakkar and Raval suspect that only one trustee member had undersigned this transfer of IPR to Zurich.

After losing battle to retain trademark at United States Patent and Trademark office, the board members of OIF had produced a Osho Rajneesh’s will which was later withdrawn from the court after three experts challenged its veracity.

As the said Osho’s will was allegedly signed in Pune, Koregaon Park Police station had registered an offence against six members of OIF last December 8, but nothing has been done in this regard.

www.punemirror.in

Related articles in the press:
DNA – Swiss ruling suspends Osho International Foundation board in Zurich
Pune Mirror – Swiss govt order reaffirms Osho disciples’ faith
DNA – Why isn’t India acting, ask Osho followers

PIECE DE RESISTANCE: The lagoon-shaped swimming pool, shaded by lush green trees.

The man in the maroon robe is talking to himself. Not that anyone’s taking much notice.

Maybe they’re all too busy watching the girl in the maroon robe whirling around underneath that tree, face tilted to the sky, laughing hysterically.

Or maybe, after a few days spent in the Osho International Meditation Resort, this kind of behaviour just becomes normal for the 200,000 “beloveds” that visit each year.

Having just arrived, it doesn’t seem normal to me. Nor does the HIV test I’m required to undertake, the two robes (maroon for day, white for night) I must buy from the boutique to help add to the retreat’s “collective meditative energy”, the list of rules (no coughing or sneezing in the auditorium, no cream scarves to be worn with white robes), or the prices: at $55 for a room, $27 a day for resort entry and $22 a day for food, it’s 10 times more expensive than a regular Indian ashram.

Then again Osho, perhaps better known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and as famous for advocating sex as a means of attaining enlightenment as he was for his collection of 93 Rolls-Royces and scores of gem-studded Rolexes, wasn’t a normal guy.

Once I’m allowed full access to the retreat, however, I realise it’s almost worth the rigmarole for a glimpse of the gorgeous grounds alone.

Spread across a massive 16 hectares, it’s how you might imagine a New Age version of heaven to be – all stone Buddha statues, bamboo groves, pristine white marble walkways, water features and an enormous black pyramid structure housing the main auditorium.

The piece de resistance is the lagoon-shaped swimming pool, shaded by lush green trees and surrounded by maroon cozzie-clad retreaters (cozzies are also regulation and must be purchased on arrival. Ker-ching!)

The on-site Osho Guesthouse is equally spotless, calm and elegant. Our room isn’t what you’d call luxurious – it’s quite small and there are no fancy teles or stereos – but for an ashram it’s ridiculously posh. There are even Egyptian cotton sheets on the bed.

But Osho didn’t believe in slumming it. Why, he argued, should his paradise on earth be shabby and grotty when it could be clean and beautiful? On one level I agree but on another I start to think all this lavishness might make the experience slightly … inauthentic. I decide not to judge until I’ve actually done what I came here to do.

There are 10 styles of “active meditations” on offer, each involving various physical activities from running, to dancing, to whirling.

Osho believed that moving released tensions, which block the natural flow of energies in our bodies, allows us to become more peaceful and relaxed. Having spent years struggling with traditional seated meditation, it sounds like a great idea. Until the shaking starts.

I’ve picked Kundalini Meditation to start, and for the first 15 minutes of the one-hour session I, along with about 100 other visitors, am directed to shake my entire body to xylophone music as though I’m having a fit.

It’s uncomfortable and embarrassing, and only slightly less awkward than the 15 minutes of free dancing that follows.

The upside is that by the time we get to the actual sitting down and meditating part, it seems like a treat and is definitely less painful than usual.

The No Dimensions Meditation is up next, which involves spinning around in a circle for half an hour, followed by gentle tai chi-like movements and straight meditation. Despite being hideously dizzy for most of the first bit, I leave the session feeling decidedly more relaxed and centred.

I cannot say the same for the effects of the evening meeting. The ashram goes into lockdown each night for this 2½-hour session, which starts with 20 minutes of free dancing, this time interspersed with shouts of “OSHO!”

This is followed by 10 minutes of seated meditation, then a few minutes of something called “gibberish and let go”, where we’re directed to shout out everything we’ve ever wanted to say in a language we’ve never spoken.

A gong sounds and the room is filled with nonsensical gobbledegook that sounds like radio static. For a few moments I’m so spun out by the whole experience I just stare at everyone else, before finally managing to blurt out a few Asian-sounding phrases.

Just as I’m getting the hang of it, another gong sounds and we have to “fall down like a bag of rice”.

It’s only then that we get to meet Osho himself, the man who is variously described as a fraud, a trickster, a genius, a guru and a god.

Well not the physical man of course – he died in 1990 – but a video of him talking directly to the camera starts to play on the auditorium’s high-tech movie screen.

He’s just as strange as I’d imagined he would be, with a long, grey, pointy beard, batwing-sleeved robe with wing-tipped shoulders, thick beanie and remarkable pair of triangular eyebrows.

In between spouting wisdom from a variety of religions, he talks, in his strangely elongated, hypnotic way, about how he was poisoned by US government agents when in custody for alleged immigration violations in 1985.

At that point I switch off. And I’m not sure, for the remaining 24 hours of my stay, that I ever really switch back on. I do spend an inordinate amount of time by the pool, and in the three very good vegetarian restaurants.

And on my second night there, while playing hooky from the evening meeting at a restaurant down the road, I do find something close to enlightenment at the bottom of my third G&T. Which, I decide, is just my kind of normal.

Trip Notes

Getting there: Singapore Airlines flies to Mumbai via Singapore. See singaporeair.com. From Mumbai, it is a three-hour car ride to Pune (the swiftest and most direct way to get there), which costs about $40.

Staying there The Osho Meditation Resort offers rooms in their guesthouse from about $55 a night, single occupancy.

More Information osho.com/visit

- FFX Aus

www.stuff.co.nz

Some questions may sound simple, yet can be complicated or rather intriguing to answer. For example, when you ask people about the centre of the body, the answer will vary from person to person. Some may say it’s the heart and some may argue that ‘no, actually, it is the mind’. You will never get a similar response and there will always be scope for swinging from one side to the other.

But enlightened masters would say that as far as the existential centre of the human body is concerned, it is actually the ‘navel’. When you go beyond the mind, then your navel is centred, and everything else becomes irrelevant. And, this can be described both ways — when you are centred, you are beyond the mind. Similarly, when you immerse yourself in whatever you are doing and the moment takes you beyond the mind, then you are centred at the navel.

The Navel String
Centring is very important, as can be understood from the fact that even a child is connected to its mother for months through an umbilical cord or navel string in the womb. The child receives oxygen and nutrients from the mother’s bloodstream through the navel string and that remains the only connection between the two for months. And, that is the reason behind the prominence of the navel in our ancient scriptures that suggest that arguments over the point of centring are irrelevant, because any process whether emanating from the heart or the mind will ultimately fall down to the navel.

Whenever you feel there is some imbalance in your life
and circumstances trigger uneasiness,
you must understand it is actually a longing for centring.
It means that your mind is pulling you away
from completely melting into whatever you are doing or creating.

Now, the question is whether you need some technique or meditative methods to centre yourself. The answer is ‘no’. Centring is possible while you are writing a poem, painting or making pottery. As Krishna says in the Bhagwad Gita, “Ananyachetah satatam yo maa smarti nitashah — a state where nothing except Krishna exists in the mind.”

The painting, Becoming Centred, shows a potter becoming centred while making pottery. This could appear to be a menial job to some, but it has immense potential of launching the potter on a beautiful journey. When the potter puts clay on a wheel, his mind is there; it is over-functional — not just arranging the clay, but also maintaining the required speed of the spinning wheel. Subsequently, his fingers get busy giving the clay shape — the design that will be his final product.

Becoming centered, Mixed media on canvas

While witnessing the wheel’s whirl, the potter loses himself. Though his fingers are still shaping the clay, the potter is gone. That very moment, he is not touching the clay, but something more precious, something that takes him beyond the mind. What is left that very moment along with the wheel is just a physical structure. His navel is totally centred. He has gone into a state of silence.

It happened to Kabir and to Ravidas. Kabir touched God while weaving cloth and sang: “Karni-dharni, rehni, gehini, ye sab jehan herani — the awareness of doing, not doing, holding, leaving — everything is lost.” Ravidas, who lost himself completely while making shoes, used to say, “You are me, and I am you — what is the difference between us?” He was centred.

Satyakam’s Cows
There is a beautiful story of Satyakam, son of Jabali. Satyakam asked his Master to suggest a way to discover the ultimate Truth, which lies beyond the written scriptures. He was young, restless and a proud seeker. The Master asked Satyakam to take a few dozen cows deep into the jungle where no human being could be found and come back only after he had raised a thousand cows. Satyakam immediately left for the jungle but other disciples were shocked. They argued back and forth that it would take several decades to rear so many cows and that Satyakam may never return.

Oblivious to all these calculations, Satyakam went into the deep jungles where besides the mountains and cows, no human contact was available. It was difficult for the first few days as there was no one to talk to. But, slowly days turned into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. Satyakam played the flute, danced, and slept with the cows. He kept a tally of their numbers in the first year, but subsequently dropped it. He became silent. Language disappeared, words disappeared, and the longing for conversation disappeared. Satyakam even forgot to count when there were a thousand cows.

The cows wanted to go home but Satyakam had lost himself in those mountains. When the cows confronted Satyakam and told him that it was time to go home, he smiled and said he was grateful to be reminded because he had completely forgotten the Master’s directive. He returned to the Master who was now very old. The Master asked his disciples to count the cows. The disciples confirmed the fact that there were now a thousand cows. The Master said, “No, actually there are a thousand and one cows — you forgot Satyakam. He has completely lost himself in the cows. For years, he has remained silent and in the process has flowered and no one can distinguish him from the cows.”

Whenever you feel there is some imbalance in your life and circumstances trigger uneasiness, you must understand it is actually a longing for centring. It means that your mind is pulling you away from completely melting into whatever you are doing or creating. The peripheral travel will keep reminding you to count and you will always remember the language. To lose them is to travel beyond the mind; to become centred, the potter needs to immerse himself in what he is creating. As Kabir said in one of his mystic songs, Tera Sahib hai ghat mahi, bahar naina kyon khole, indicating that God is inside, so why seek him in the outer world?

www.speakingtree.in
www.pratikshaart.com

Meanwhile Viha Connection explains the case and proceedings:

On June 2, 2014 the Federal Supervisory Board for Foundations (ESA), an office of the Swiss Federal Department of Internal Affairs, decided to remove all current members of the board of OIF, Zurich, to freeze all bank accounts, and to forbid the former board members from interfering in any way with the operations of the foundation or the archives related to Osho’s work. The board members removed were Jayesh (Michael O’Byrne), Amrito (John Andrews), Yogendra (D’Arcy O’Byrne), Pramod (Klaus Steeg), and Rudolf Kocher [aka Premyogi].

Readers will remember that Osho International Foundation (OIF) in Zurich has claimed to own Osho’s copyrights and trademarks for His name. It operates the website www.osho.com and has a large Facebook page as well as a publishing operation in Europe. It has claimed to license copyrights to Osho’s work and trademarks for His name throughout the world. This Zurich-based foundation has no direct control over the operations in Pune, which is run by a completely unrelated Indian trust of the same name.

The ESA took this action because of strong evidence that: the board members

a) have been misappropriating funds from the foundation,
b) have conflicts of interest resulting from their positions in companies doing business with the foundation, and
c) have been operating the foundation in a fiscally irresponsible way for many years.

The ESA made this decision ex parte, meaning without a prior hearing, because it believed the board members would remove assets from the foundation. Half the liquid assets of the foundation were removed in 2013. The ESA also noted that OIF’s earlier production of an alleged Osho will, which three experts found to be forged, indicated a willingness to act illegally.

This decision means that the operations of the foundation are under the control of a government-appointed trustee until a new board is appointed. It also means that former agents of the foundation can no longer represent it unless authorized by the trustee. These include Niren (Philip Toelkes), an alleged legal representative; Vatayana (Ursula Hoess) and others who have claimed to represent the Zurich foundation through the Global Connections office in Pune; and Anunada (Ronald Tanner), who has acted as OIF’s accountant.

This action is not a criminal prosecution, but marks the beginning of an in-depth examination of OIF’s activities. Any evidence of criminal misconduct will be sent to prosecutors. The board members have 30 days to appeal to the Federal Administrative Court to seek reinstatement, but given the evidence presented by the ESA, it is believed unlikely the court would interfere with the its investigation.

For the full text of the decision go to www.facebook.com/osho.viha (11 June 2014)

Related article in Osho News:
OIF: Swiss Ruling
Ramateertha appointment RFI Europe [OIF]
Full Original Document in German as PDF: Verfuegung – Abberufung des Stiftungsrats
English translation of above: Order – Recall of the Foundation Board
Osho’s Will – a rare (sic) document
Osho’s Signature On Alleged ‘Will’ Is a Forgery

Swami Anand Arun has had his first taste of the blessings of British journalism, showered with ‘compliments’ by The Daily Mail after giving a recent talk on mindfulness to a BBC ‘Faith Forum’ group of about 50 staff members at the BBC’s headquarters in London.

The Daily Mail,
along with many other
British newspapers,
will never allow its readers
to think for themselves,
let alone introduce them
to a deeper vision of life.

Arun can take comfort from the fact that he is in good company. Earlier this year, JK Rowling, author and creator of the Harry Potter books, sued The Daily Mail for damaging remarks made on its website about her hardship years as a single mother. The article about Rowling was hastily removed soon after she filed the libel lawsuit.

A year earlier, the popular cut-price airline Ryanair sued The Daily Mail for implying that its aircraft were unsafe and that its CEO, Michael O’Leary, was not complying with European safety regulations.

The newspaper had to back down and settle out of court when it was revealed that the Irish Independent Aviation Authority had given Ryanair the same rating as the safest airlines in Europe.

Predictably, The Daily Mail’s latest attack wasn’t aimed so much at Arun, who seems to have made a good impression at the Faith Forum, but at his association with Osho.

The Daily Mail must have relied heavily on Google for its information about India’s ‘divisive mystic’ because it dredged up all the usual misinformation: Osho was anti-Semitic, against homosexuals, drove Rolls-Royces and created ashrams best known for promoting free sex and accumulating large sums of money. Ho-hum. Haven’t we heard this before?

It was interesting to see how The Daily Mail particularly emphasised Osho’s alleged anti-Semitism, quoting him as saying that Adolf Hitler’s gassing of the Jews was a more peaceful method of killing people than the way Indians were mistreated under British colonial rule….

It seems that today’s editors of The Daily Mail have forgotten the newspaper’s own notorious history: Lord Rothermere, who owned and guided the paper from 1922 until 1940, was a personal friend of both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, both vehemently anti-Semitic.

In the 1930s, Lord Rothermere’s newspapers were the only ones among the British press to advocate an alliance with Nazi Germany and to support the British ‘Black Shirts’ Nazi Party.

In 1938, Rothermere sent Hitler a telegram supporting his invasion of the Sudetenland and expressing the hope that “Adolf the Great” would become a popular figure in Britain.

He did the same thing again when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939 and went on to describe Hitler’s work as “great and superhuman”.

The only reason he stopped his public support of Hitler – who by this time was murdering millions of Jews – was because Britain’s Jewish businessmen threatened to withdraw all advertising from his newspapers.

With this kind of dirty laundry in its cupboard, it’s a wonder The Daily Mail has the nerve to accuse anyone else of anti-Semitism.

There is a lot more one could say about The Daily Mail, such as its refusal in the 1980s to support the international sporting boycott against pro-apartheid white South Africa, not to mention a string of successful libel actions against its chief gossip columnist, Nigel Dempster.

But why bother? Suffice it to say that The Daily Mail, along with many other British newspapers, will never allow its readers to think for themselves, let alone introduce them to a deeper vision of life beyond the sensationalism they are served every morning with their breakfast, as soon as the newspaper pops in through the letterbox.

Related quote Osho: Osho on Hitler and Anti-semitism

Article in the Daily Mail: BBC invites ‘mystic’ [...] to teach employees MEDITATION

Spiritually speaking, July is a very special month. It is the month of transition and transformation. After coping with lots of heat, we are blessed with coolness and abundance of rain to make us feel happy. We can sing and dance and celebrate.

The full moon night of this month of Ashadh is called Guru Purnima. This purnima is significant for all those who have been initiated by the enlightened masters, to enter into a new dimension of life. It can be spiritual or related with any art, as all arts have their roots in meditation. The disciples are always grateful to their masters individually, but they have chosen the full moon day in July to express their gratitude collectively. This day is dedicated to our masters collectively.

Guru Purnima is the day of all the Buddhas, all those who have become aware. Guru is a master who liberates us and with whom we are in deep love, faith and reverence. A Guru is a presence. Through him one gets the first glimpse of divinity. A Guru creates, transforms and gives new birth to a seeker so that with complete trust one can follow the Guru while travelling through many unknown paths, and opening many unknown locks.

Speaking on the significance of a Guru, Osho says that a Guru’s blessing is a vital phenomenon. Through a Guru one can look into his own future and can be aware of his own destiny.

“Guru means one who has gravitation, around whom you suddenly feel as if you are being pulled. The Guru is a tremendous magnet, with only one difference. There is a man who has charisma — you are pulled, but you are pulled towards him. He may become a great leader, a great politician. Adolf Hitler has that charisma; millions of people are pulled towards him. Then what is the difference between a charismatic leader and a Guru? The difference is tremendous. The difference is: when you are pulled towards a Guru you suddenly feel that you are being pulled inwards, not outwards.

“When you are pulled towards Kabir, Guru Nanak, Buddha, you have a strange feeling. The feeling is that you are being pulled towards them and at the same time you are being pulled inwards — a very strange paradoxical phenomenon. The closer you come to your Guru, the closer you come to yourself… The more you surrender to the Guru, the more free you feel.”

Surrender to a Guru is not to be a slave — it is a growth process. If you are pulled towards a man and that pull creates slavery, that man is not a Guru. That man may have charisma, may have magnetic power — maybe his great intelligence, his physical beauty, or his sheer vitality pulls you — but you will be going away from yourself. It will be an infatuation. You will be obsessed with this man, and you will be off your centre. A Guru functions as a catalytic agent. Being in his presence is the process of inner transformation which gives a glimpse of the divine.

Quote by Osho from Ecstasy: The Forgotten Language, Ch 7

www.asianage.com

Swami Chaitanya Keerti, editor of Osho World, is the author of ‘Osho Fragrance’.

Illustration by Osho News – Full Moon over Mt. Abu

Indian culture places ‘Gurus’ who impart knowledge, on par with the Gods. Acquiring that knowledge of the ultimate truth forms the basis for the future of man. Paying gratitude to a guru is like paying gratitude to truth, knowledge and invaluable experiences.

The day of full moon, Purnima, in the month of Ashadh is traditionally celebrated as Guru Purnima. Osho beautifully brought out the essence of guru purnima celebrations of the full moon night in the month of Ashadh. Osho says that a guru is like the moon who does not have any light of its own but draws the energy and light from the supreme soul. Unlike other full moon nights the moon in the month of Ashadh is surrounded by clouds as is a guru is surrounded by His disciples.

Also known as Vyas Purnima, the day is celebrated in remembrance and veneration to sage Ved Vyas. He is the Adi (original) Guru of the Hindu Dharma, who classified the Vedas, wrote the eighteen Puranas and the Mahabharat. The celebration or the observance of Guru Purnima was first done by the disciples of Vyas. The observance expanded beyond the constraints of Vyas and became known as Guru Purnima. Guru Purnima is the day when one expresses his gratitude to his Guru.

A guru is a personified phenomenon of total bliss. He is the one who liberates us and with whom we are in deep love, faith and reverence. Osho says a guru is a presence. Through him one will have the first glimpse of divinity. A guru creates, transforms and gives a new birth to a seeker so that with complete trust one can follow his guru while traveling through many unknown paths and doors and opening many unknown locks. Speaking on the significance of a guru, Osho says that a guru’s blessings is a vital phenomenon. Through a guru one can look into his own future and can be aware of his own destiny. Through him one starts coming up like a seed trying to sprout towards the sky.

Osho says: “The word ‘guru’ is untranslatable. Neither does the word ‘teacher’ nor the word ‘Master’ have that beauty. In fact, the phenomenon of the guru is so deeply Indian that no other language of any country is capable of translating it. It is something intrinsically Eastern. The word ‘guru’ is made of two words, ‘gu’ and ‘ru’. ‘Gu’ means darkness, ‘ru’ means one who dispels it. Guru literally means ‘the light’. And you have the light within you, yes! If you come across a Buddha or a Jesus or a Krishna or a Mahavir, it will be of tremendous help to you in finding your inner guru, because seeing Buddha, suddenly a great enthusiasm and hope will arise in you: “If it can happen to Buddha”- who is just like you, the same body, the same blood, bone, marrow – “if it can happen to this man, why not to me?” The hope is the beginning. Meeting with the Master on the outside is the beginning of a great hope, a great aspiration.” [1]

The world has become richer place by the very presence of the enlightened masters of the past. A guru gives the seeker a glimpse of the real, not a teaching, but an awakening. The guru is not a teacher, the guru is an awakener. And also there is a huge difference in the pull that one experiences towards a guru and towards a charismatic leader. A Guru means one who has gravitation, he is a tremendous magnet and so does a charismatic leader has the power to pull. But there is a tremendous difference between a charismatic leader and a guru. The difference is: when one is pulled towards a guru he suddenly feels that he is being pulled inwards, not outwards.

Osho shares, “When you are pulled towards Kabir, Nanak, Buddha, you have a strange feeling. The feeling is that you are being pulled towards them and at the same time you are being pulled inwards – a very strange paradoxical phenomenon. The more you become attracted towards the guru, the more you become independent. The more you become surrendered to the guru, the more you feel that you have freedom you never had before. If you are pulled towards a man and that pull creates a slavery, that man is not the guru. That man may have charisma, may have magnetic power – maybe his great intelligence, his physical beauty, or his sheer vitality pulls you – but you will be going away from yourself. It will be an infatuation. You will be obsessed with this man, and you will be off your center.” [2]

A guru is like a wind who cannot be seen but only experienced. One can only experience him and feel his touch but one cannot bind him because from whom one seeks liberation or beatitude cannot himself be taken captive. Connection with the guru is the relationship of the soul and the greatest of all the relationships. The guru is the end of this world and the beginning of the next. He is the gate. The relationship between a guru and a disciple is one of the greatest mysteries of existence. The guru is a presence and that presence is immensely nourishing.

Osho says, “Between a master and disciple the greatest mystery is lived, the deepest is lived, the highest flows. It is a relationship between the known and the unknown, between the finite and infinite, between time and eternity, between the seed and the flower, between the actual and the potential, between past and future. A disciple is only the past; the master is only the future. And here, this moment, in their deep love and waiting, they meet. The disciple is time, the master is eternity. The disciple is mind and the master is no-mind. The disciple is all that he knows, and a master is all that cannot be known. When the bridge happens between a master and a disciple, it is a miracle. To bridge the known with the unknown, and time with eternity, is a miracle.” [3]

True disciplehood is dissolving into the love and the presence of the guru and becoming one with his heartbeats. It is the opening up to receive the grace of the master, becoming vulnerable to his presence, dropping resistance, all defense measures, all armor, trusting that even if the Master kills, one is ready. Guru Purnima has a true spiritual meaning and relevance for a disciple. It is the day of expressing one’s love and devotion for his guru.

“This Guru Purnima Day is the day of all the Buddhas, all those who have become aware. In their remembrance, become aware.”

Bowing at the lotus feet of the master Osho on Guru Purnima.

Ma Prem Naina born in Jorhat, Assam, was initiated into Sannyas in 2003 at Oshodham, New Delhi. She is an MBA and also holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication. Deeply inspired by the love and dedication of the founder of the Osho World Foundation in Delhi, Swami Om Prakash Saraswati, she left her career as a producer/journalist to join in Osho’s caravanserai. She presently heads the publications and media relations at Osho World Foundation, New Delhi. www.oshoworld.com

www.assamtimes.org

Discourse excerpts:
[1] The Guest, Ch 10
[2] Ecstasy: The Forgotten Language, Ch 7
[3] The Grass Grows by Itself, Ch 2

British-born Vimukta (aka Martin Mellish) has been joyfully living in Chengdu, China, for several years. Friends will remember him from Rajneeshpuram and also Pune 1 days where he was a guard. He is well-known in the Tai Chi community and is the author of A Tai Chi Imagery Workbook: Spirit, Intent, and Motion.

He has won five medals in Chinese Tai Chi competitions (two of them gold) and regularly appears on local and national Chinese TV programs: “Subjects on which I am supposed to be an ‘expert’ include Tai Chi, Western perspectives on China, and (with his Chinese wife) the joys and sorrows of being in a relationship with someone from a different culture.”

On June 25, 2012 an article about him was published in China.org.cn that made him unexpectedly a minor celebrity:

Foreigner helps get ambulance out of traffic

US expat Martin Mellish directs traffic to get ambulance through

Martin Mellish, 61, unexpectedly became a celebrity recently.

Walking in the street, dining in a restaurant or visiting a scenic spot, he would find himself being recognized by strangers who would greet him with a friendly “hello”.

They would say ‘You are the laowai (foreigner) who helped an ambulance,’” said Martin, a US citizen teaching mathematics at a high school attached to Sichuan University in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. Cycling on his way to Chengdu No 12 High School, where he was scheduled to give a free English lecture on June 12, Martin happened to see an ambulance with its siren on trapped in a crowd of cars under an overpass near downtown Chengdu’s Jiangxi Street.

All of the cars were following the ambulance closely, and none of the drivers in them seemed willing to make way for the emergency vehicle.

“There might have been a patient onboard or the ambulance might have been fetching a patient,” Martin said. “If the patient was suffering from a heart attack, one minute meant survival. I thought I would feel bad if I did not help.”

Tossing aside his bicycle, Martin ran to the ambulance and began shouting loudly in Chinese toward a taxi beside it. The cab driver paid him no heed, so Martin used hand gestures to show that he wanted the car to back up. He next ran over to a black car that was moving to pass the ambulance and again used both Chinese and gestures to tell its driver to go back.

About five minutes later, the ambulance broke out of the heavy traffic. Martin rode away from the scene on his bicycle, leaving many drivers to think that he had only provided help because his car had been trapped.

Martin did not tell anyone about the incident and his wife, Zhou Shanbi, did not learn of it until a video capturing his unselfish actions was shown on local TV that night. The video, made by a passer-by, was uploaded on the Internet and quickly became popular. Martin said he did not expect so trivial of a matter to attract so much attention.

Martin was born in Britain, obtained a master’s degree in mathematics from Cambridge University and later emigrated to the United States. At the age of 27, he worked as a door guard at a temple in India. His boss, Swami Krishna, a monk in the temple, told him that he was responsible for ensuring safety of the temple and the people in it while he was on duty and that, during his off hours, he should try to help people on the outside who were in need. “I have remembered what he said ever since,” said Martin, a Buddhist who visits a temple in Chengdu every week.

Martin also enjoys shadowboxing. He said he has visited China three times, coming either as a student of that exercise, on which he has written a book, or as a tourist. He made his first trip to the country in 1996. More than 10 years later he decided to settle down in Chengdu.

“I love Chinese culture,” he said. “The day before I was due to leave in September 2010, I hated going back to the United States and surfed the Internet to find a teaching job in Chengdu.”

Every week, Martin, who learned Chinese by his own, delivers 20 mathematics lectures in English for high school students who eventually want to attend school in the United States or Britain. “Like a legendary ancient Chinese scholar, Martin is always in a peaceful state of mind and never loses his temper,” said Zou Hong, one of his students. “He does his best to motivate students and find poor students’ strong points.”

Martin met his wife in February 2011. She was then working on embroidery in a shop near the school where he teaches. Martin was impressed with her work and started sending her flowers on holidays. When she was in Laos during Spring Festival this year, Martin took a train for 13 hours from Thailand to see her. Moved by his sincerity, Zhou, a divorcee with a 1-year-old grandson, married him in May this year.

“I do not speak English but get along very well with Martin, who is considerate and never fails to keep his word,” she said. Zhou has her own home near her shop and Martin lives near People’s Park in Chengdu, where he practices shadowboxing.

“We start to miss each other if we haven’t met for three days,” Zhou said. “We feel as if we were meant to be together.”

Social media activist Glenn Marsalim has a lot on his hands. A freelance advertising copywriter by day, Glenn founded @pulkam, which gives information regarding routes for the Idul Fitri exodus, and @JalanKaki to promote walking habits among Jakartans.

Courtesy of Glenn Marsalim

He also founded Freelance & Co, a community of freelancing creative people that includes an art director, copywriter, graphic designer, web designer/developer, photographer, illustrator, studio artist, translator, film director and computer programmer.

His latest venture is selling nasi ayam (chicken rice) online and introducing his Indonesian fusion food via his Instagram account.

For inspiration, he said, the 41-year-old often visited book stores and bought books as a reference for his work.

“I read during the night if I’m not too tired, but I usually speed-read books,” he said.

Other than books on haiku and cooking recipes by Nigella Lawson, Glenn is on the hunt for Indonesian books published between the 1940s and 1960s.

“I found Demokrasi Kita [Our Democracy] at a market in Yogyakarta. It was actually a newspaper article written by founding father Mohammad Hatta. It’s interesting to read what happened in the country at that time and the historical facts that have been hidden from the public.”

Creativity: Unleashing the Forces Within
by Osho

You could say this book is my bible.
It keeps me going in everything I do.

Rendang Traveler
by Reno Andam Suri

The book is about Minang traditions and the rich ingredients needed to make rendang [beef simmered in coconut milk]. It opened my eyes about the meaning of food and convinced me that Indonesian food is the world’s best. Now I’m also reading any books about food, the history of food and the like.

The works of graphic novelist Satrapi

I’ve collected most of her work, including Persepolis, Chicken with Plums, Embroideries and The Sigh. They are life-changers that can help us look into ourselves.

JP/Tertiani Simanjuntak – www.thejakartapost.com

We humans are emotional beings. Superficially, we may appear to be very rational, but if we observe our way of living thoroughly, we behave irrationally most of the time. Emotions play a very dominant role in our life and most of the time our vision is clouded by our emotions — in the form of anger, jealousy, hatred, greed and attachment (what we call love).

All these emotions, if we observe carefully, are rooted in our past. We become possessed by them and it takes a while for us to cool down. In the meanwhile, our present moment is ruined or poisoned. Such frequent storms in our daily life, affect our mental and physical health and these two sides of health are inter-connected. What affects the mind affects our body also. One can see all the sadness and gloominess on the face, as one can see happiness and joy.

This dominance of emotions is not a very healthy affair. We become victims of our enemies within us. We consult psychologists, psychotherapists, etc. The treatment takes a long time. But one thing that is missing from our life, and what can really help is meditation. Meditation is one of the many interventions now being increasingly recommended by physicians. The medical profession is now acknowledging the need for meditation for providing an effective alternative treatment. For thousand of years, the seekers have known this method as something similar Vipassana or Anapanasati yoga. It is not yoga. It is pure meditation of being watchful of the breath in passive alertness, with total acceptance of what is happening within and outside you.

Osho reminds us that meditation is a way to see and accept what is happening in the present moment. He has also given a very simple technique for one to be in the moment. To be in the moment is meditation — to be here and now. Neither one thinks of the past in this moment nor of the future. While being in this meditation, time stops… the world stops. The taste of meditation is in the cessation of time and the inner workings of our mind.

For people who can afford to spend more time in meditation, it is recommended to sit silently at least for one hour everyday. Don’t do anything; with closed eyes just sit silently with a waiting and open heart. Just wait patiently, ready to welcome whatever may happen. Even if nothing happens just sitting silently for one hour is in itself very relaxing — it helps us unite with our roots.

Or, you may sit under a tree. Simply feel the breeze, the air surrounding you and touching your body; listening to the ruffling sound of leaves. But don’t just let the breeze touch you; with closed eyes feel as if you are also a tree and the air is passing through you just as it passes through trees. Be open, receptive and sensitive to experience the breeze not simply passing by you, but rather passing through you.

The more we care for our wellbeing, the easier it will be for us to live even within the dysfunctional environments. Once we involve ourselves in the process of staying healthy, we recognise the fact that whatever is happening in any moment is what we need to address it there and then — sensitively, intelligently and with meditative awareness.

www.asianage.com

Swami Chaitanya Keerti, editor of Osho World, is the author of ‘Osho Fragrance’.

Illustration by Osho News

Title: New Dimensions of Yoga
Author: Osho
Publisher: Penguin Ananda
Pages: 200
Price: Rs.299

Title: Nowhere To Go But In
Author: Osho
Publisher: Penguin Ananda
Pages: 429
Price: Rs.499

As he travelled across India in the 1960s speaking against politicians and institutionalised religion, Chandra Mohan Jain (born 1931) came to be known as Acharya Rajneesh and, later, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. He was one of the most controversial among Indian mystics and spiritual teachers. He accepted divinity but rejected god, angering many. (He called the Vedas and the Bible paper boats!)

The sprawling ashram Rajneesh set up in 1974 in Pune attracted hordes of foreigners as well as Indians but soon became notorious for its permissive climate, leading many to dub him a “sex guru”. With tensions mounting vis-à-vis Pune residents and the Indian government, Rajneesh left for the U.S. where he set up a commune at Oregon in 1981.

But conflicts developed there too, both with the locals and the American authorities. The commune collapsed in 1985, Rajneesh was arrested after he admitted to crimes committed by his followers, and was deported. With no country ready to admit him, he returned to Pune, where he died in 1990.

Notwithstanding his notoriety, Rajneesh’s teachings – he wrote hundreds of books and delivered hours of lectures – have commanded a huge following, their popularity seemingly soaring after his death. It is not clear if the two books under review are from unpublished question and answer sessions he had with his followers or have been published earlier.

Osho, as he became known, was a great votary of yoga and meditation and proud of their Indian roots. He himself believed strongly in Zen and meditative therapy. Underlining that yoga is a science and not a belief, Osho called the ancient Indian teaching “a systematic methodology of scientific experimentation in the search for the truth of life”. He preached: “Meditation is a lifestyle, not an activity.”

For all the criticism he faced, Osho was extremely well read and could talk on any subject with authority. His knowledge base was vast. In the volumes here, he dwells at length on body and mind, disease, death (a favourite subject for him), duality, sharing, family life, the Hindu mind, the Quran, mantras, godliness, sex and celibacy, and more.

One may not agree with everything Rajneesh says. That of course goes for any spiritual guru. Nevertheless, both books make for great reading, more so for those interested in spirituality or Osho.

M.R. Narayan Swamy is Executive Editor at IANS. He can be reached on narayan.swamy@ians.in. The views expressed are personal.

www.business-standard.com

Books are available from Penguin India

The seekers of truth often go to ashrams and monasteries where they can learn meditation and self-realisation. They spend years with the enlightened masters to become rooted in the process. They go through all kinds of tests before the true master declares that they have realised themselves and can be on their own.

Sometimes, the disciples have to go through certain examination which may not make any sense to them, as these tests are not superficial.

There is one such story: A Zen master sent his chief disciple to a caravanserai for his last examination. The disciple said, “What kind of examination is this? What am I to do in that caravanserai?”

He said, “You just go and watch whatever is happening there, and bring the news to me. That is going to decide whether you are going to be my successor or not.”

The disciple went to the caravanserai, he watched everything. It was a question of tremendous importance, and what he brought made him the successor.

His reply was: “I saw that the owner of the caravanserai cleans the mirror in the evening — each evening — and again in the morning he cleans the mirror. So I asked him, ‘You cleaned it just a few hours ago, why are you cleaning it again?’ The owner said, ‘The dust goes on gathering every moment, so clean the mirror whenever you have time. You will always find some dust which has gathered.’”

“And Master, I have come to the conclusion that you were right in sending me to the caravanserai. This is actually the case with the mind — clean it every moment, because every moment, just by its nature, dust goes on gathering.”

If you can avoid defilement, there is no need of any cultivation; you will realise the ultimate truth.

To see things as they really are, you have to be absolutely empty — only a mirror. Your mirror should be clean, without any dust, without any thought, without any prejudice, without any religion. Just a pure reflective mirror, and you can see things as they are.

Osho concludes: “We will be able to see God on the day on which our heart becomes like a mirror. Then all the world enters into us, and the whole world becomes a mirror for us also. Then we are able to see ourself every moment, everywhere. But the whole world cannot be turned into a mirror; only our own self can be turned into a mirror. That is why the seeker after truth begins by making a mirror of himself. To know the alchemy and art of making ourselves a mirror, three points are to be understood.”

“First, perhaps it is not correct to talk of making a mirror of the self, because we are all mirrors already, but covered with dust. Our work is to clean and polish our mirror and make it bright and clear.

“A mirror is not a mirror if dust is allowed to settle on it; then it does not reflect anything. Its capacity to reflect is destroyed when it is covered with dust. We are such mirrors — the dust has accumulated on us. Just as dust collects on a mirror carried along a busy road, so it collects as we pass through countless lives. It is gathered in many ways from our desires, our innumerable actions, and from our becoming constantly the doer. No one knows what a heap of dust is collected — the dust of actions, of becoming doers of actions, of ego, of thoughts, of desires and feelings. So there is a very deep layer of dust on us.”

Meditation is a process of deep cleaning to come to self-realisation in its absolute purity.

Swami Chaitanya Keerti, editor of Osho World, is the author of ‘Osho Fragrance’.

The Zen story as told by Osho from Ma Tzu: The Empty Mirror, Ch 9
Excerpt by Osho from The Heartbeat of the Absolute, Ch 7 (translated from Hindi)

Illustration by Osho News

Churches have done some elaborate things to attract new worshippers – and one Pennsylvania congregation is taking a leap of faith with its sexy new billboard.

Restored Church of Wilkes-Barre, PA paid for a billboard along Route 309 that reads “‘I love sex.’ -God” and promotes the church’s new sermon series that will focus on the biblical Song of Solomon.

“What we want to do is let people know that the Bible is relevant to everyday life. When it comes to sexuality… God is the inventor, author and creator of it,” Restored Church’s Pastor Dan Nichols told HuffPost.

The Song of Solomon is indeed full of some of the sexiest passages in the Bible. The first lines read:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
for your love is more delightful than wine.
Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;
your name is like perfume poured out.
No wonder the young women love you!
Take me away with you—let us hurry!
Let the king bring me into his chambers.

The series will kick off on September 7 with a sermon by Dr. Mark McGinniss of Baptist Bible Seminary who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Song of Solomon. Pastor Nichols and other Restored Church pastors will lead the subsequent worship services, ending the series with a Q&A panel on the final Sunday.

“If the culture can be so bold, I think the church can be so bold and speak directly on the subject and be up front about it,” Nichols told WNEP 16.

Nichols, who is 26 and married, said he hopes the billboard will attract millennials from local colleges to the church. Although he said the church’s overarching message emphasizes sex between a husband and wife, one of the sermons will address sex in single life which might be more pertinent to a younger audience. Overall, Nichols told HuffPost he believes the topic will resonate with all.

“We want to reach college kids, but the message is multi-generational,” Nichols said.

Restored Church opened its doors on September 8, 2013 and has a congregation of roughly 100, Nichols told HuffPost. The church’s first billboard was erected for its grand opening with a message that read “No perfect people allowed”, with the intention, Nichols said, of highlighting Jesus’ own perfection.

The strategy worked at the time, but the feedback over the recent billboard has been mixed, Nichols said, with particularly harsh criticism coming from other Christians.

“Evangelicals can be pretty divisive amongst themselves,” Nichols told HuffPost. “We’ve gotten a lot of flack from other Christians.”

www.huffingtonpost.com

Cash-strapped commune was planning to sell late sannyasin’s apartment in KP, meant to be used as a library as per his will.

Osho may have thought of money as a distraction against happiness, but the message clearly hasn’t trickled down to the Osho International Foundation (OIF), whose bank accounts in Switzerland were frozen by a Swiss court in June for misappropriation of funds.

An apartment owned by a late Osho sannyasin, meant to be used as a library as per his will, was instead in the process of being sold off and the proceeds handed over to OIF, when the property agreement landed in the hands of sannyasins associated with the Friends of Osho group.

The deal received a major setback after one of the group, whose legal opinion was sought, realised that the apartment, put up for Rs 32,50,000, could not be sold to a third party. Shockingly, the agreement has no mention of Manju Agrawal, daughter of Swami Govindanand, who owned the flat before his death.

The library was initiated by Swami Govindanand as the Osho Swageet library at Flat #8, building B-14 in Meeranagar, Koregaon Park, to carry forward Osho’s work. Swami Govindanand passed away on December 3, 2003. In his will, he bequeathed his property and one fixed deposit in Cosmos Bank, to Osho Swageet under the guidance of seven trustees, namely, Manju Agrawal, Jagdish Vasani, Jagdish Gupta, Sanjay Bagmar, Swami Anand Prem, Swami Prem Chaitanya and Radheshyam Saraswati.

Swami Anadi alias Kishor Raval, who realised that the property could not be sold to a third party, said, “We recently found out that Swami Dhyanesh (Dhanesh Joshi) of OIF called all the trustees of Osho Swageet Library and asked them to sell the property. The sale agreement had been drafted and they asked the trustees to sell the property to ‘any third party’ and give them the proceeds earned through the sale.” Having been exposed, it appears that the trustees and OIF are now ready to scrap the deal.

Sanjay Bagmar, one of the trustees, told Mirror, “We have scrapped the deal, the property will be handed over to OIF as was Swami Govindanand’s wish. OIF had asked six executors to sell the property to a third party and hand over the proceeds.” He added, “We do not know why they were not ready to accept the property as it is. We consulted legal advisors who told us the property cannot be sold to a third party, so we have scrapped the deal.”

When asked why the sannyasin’s last wishes were not respected, he said, “Swami Govind had a collection of books and audio cassettes to be used for the library, but there are no takers for cassettes these days, and with the commune located nearby, no one really wants to read books.” Vistar Michael English alias Duriya Electricwala who is currently living at the flat on rent and hoping to buy it, said, “I know nothing about this. We have been paying rent for the last five months and now suddenly have been asked to vacate the flat immediately. We made a full payment for purchasing the flat and now we will lose Rs 10,000 paid for the demand draft.”

Swami Dhyanesh alias Dhanesh Joshi who was dealing with the trustees and the occupants of the flat chose not to respond to the emails sent by Mirror.

Swami Govindanand’s daughter, Manju, told Mirror, “My father collected books and audio tapes of Osho Rajneesh and his entire flat was filled with them. He was so passionate about his work that he wanted his property to be used as a library even after his death. If OIF is unable to respect his last wish, they should return the property to his wife and children.”

www.punemirror.in
epaperbeta.timesofindia.com

Illustration Osho News

Motorist Practices Meditation On His Bike; Reminds Us That Peace Can Happen Anywhere

Traffic can induce stress and frustration in even the most peaceful people.

But there’s a way to be mindful even on the road. Photographer Wally Santana captured what appears to be just such an example in the midst of a thousands-strong crowd of motorists stopped at a traffic light in Taipei, Taiwan.

While most of the other motorists look idly around, one man has his hands raised and his eyes with a meditative gaze.

© Wally Santana

It’s not clear what form of meditation the fellow was practicing but the beads around his wrist may be an indication of the Buddhist tradition.

The moment offers proof that meditation really can take place anywhere, in almost any circumstance. In the wise words of Buddhist meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg:

“Meditation is the ultimate mobile device; you can use it anywhere anytime unobtrusively.”

www.huffingtonpost.com

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama gestures to devotees before he starts teaching on the fifth day of Kalachakra near Leh, India, Monday, July 7, 2014. Buddhist devotees from across the globe have arrived in this Himalayan region of Ladakh to attend the ‘Kalachakra’ or Wheel of Time initiations by the Dalai Lama that began Thursday. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

The Dalai Lama told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag in a recent interview that he sees no need for a successor to follow him. The Tibetan leader told the paper:

We had a Dalai Lama for almost five centuries.
The 14th Dalai Lama now is very popular.
Let us then finish with a popular Dalai Lama.

The institution of the Dalai Lama as the head monk in Tibetan Buddhism is fairly recent in the scope of the religion, as the current Dalai Lama is only the 14th in history with the first Dalai Lama born in 1391.

Perhaps none has held the position with as much popularity and esteem as the current Dalai Lama does, which is another reason he noted for discontinuing the tradition.

“If a weak Dalai Lama comes along, then it will just disgrace the Dalai Lama,” he said.

In addition to his position as the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama plays a major role as the political voice of the Tibetan people, who have suffered decades of conflict with the Chinese government. Ganden Thurman, Executive Director of Tibet House US, told The Huffington Post that by denying the need for a successor, the Dalai Lama may also be charting a course for a more democratic Tibet moving forward.

“His Holiness is looking for the resolution to the China issue and for [the Tibetan people's] own governance,” Thurman said. “Both of those issues are looking for what’s best for the Tibetan people.”

Thurman went on to explain how the Tibetan government had, in the past, looked to the Dalai Lama to make most political decisions. But Thurman feels that if Tibet is to flourish beyond the life of its prominent leader, a more democratic system may be needed.

“I have understood that the Tibetan government in exile has, lead by the Dalai Lama, taken pains to democratize and have a representational form of government,” Thurman told HuffPost.

Although the search for a new Dalai Lama typically begins immediately after the death of the previous one, Tibetan Buddhism is characterized by a substantial network of lamas and monks who nurture spiritual education in the community, as the Dalai Lama pointed out.

Tibetan Buddhism is not dependent on one individual.
We have a very good organizational structure with highly trained monks and scholars.

Thurman echoed that, for many Tibetan Buddhists, the relationship that holds most daily significance is the one between practitioner and teacher. With his extensive travel schedule and political duties, the Dalai Lama has difficulty maintaining close teacher-student relationships.

The Dalai Lama, who said he hopes to live to be 113 years old, was born in 1935 and identified as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama at the age of two. Thus his entire life has been spent in the spiritual discipline of the role, with the last half century characterized by his exile from and political discord with China.

At 79, the Dalai Lama told the newspaper he hopes to reincarnate into the world after dying in order to continue his work serving humanity.

I hope and pray that I may return to this world
as long as sentient beings’ suffering remains.
I mean not in the same body,
but with the same spirit and the same soul.

If he is succeeded by a 15th Dalai Lama, after all, the Dalai Lama said in 2013 that he would not be opposed to a woman successor – and even thought it could be the better option for Tibet.

“I think it would be good,” the Dalai Lama told an interviewer with the U.K.’s Channel 4 News. “Now we are in the 21st century… Females have more potential regarding the promotion of human compassion.”

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