[This and that] #1 Public figure

@Hrissm invited me to take part in a very interesting introspective challenge by #tkappa: "favorite this and that" which requires the participant to describe and post a photo on their favorite things in 7 different themes. Although I enjoy being tagged myself, I am not going to tag anyone this week because I feel like if someone wants to take part, they will. The first topic is Public figure.

Photo: Moalkady
I must admit I selected this photo to be the first one to mislead you. It is a great piece of architecture and a dream to visit it one day. However, I'm not going to write about an architect. The photo above shows the Osho Meditation Center in Pune.

Osho Rajneesh is a public figure that has influenced me a lot, in a positive sense. Above all, he taught be to think for myself and be selective, not be a blind follower, trust my heart. I'm bad at remembering some of the ideas on a daily basis, I fail badly and my ego pulsates too often. But words are very powerful to me - sometimes a good explanation can bring down fear, guilt and regrets. My first contact with Osho was when I got one of his books as a gift. The impression: what a bad translation into Polish. I really do not enjoy books written with this cheap machine-translated quasimotivational language. But I tried looking past it and the more I started focusing on the content, the more my eyes were opening in surprise. I never dug very deep into the story of Rajneesh himself and his life, although after watching some videos I get the idea that he was a controversial figure.

Rajneesh (1931–1990), Osho, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwan, was an Indian guru, creator of a neo-sannyas movement. During his lifetime he wrote/dictated over 600 books. There are also countless videos availables online, where he does not blink while he speaks. ;) Cool dude.

Words are powerful, and Osho was the first person to tell me that all the emotions I'm feeling are fine, and they are not my fault. When you realize how little you really are responsible for and how much you are just the resultant force of other people's expectations and influence, it is easier to let go. Little by little, word by word, Osho began teaching me that it is not about suppressing my emotions or projecting them on other people. He offered me a new, formerly unknown tool of observation and understanding. He taught me that love is not an emotion but a component of being, a part of me, and an inherent particle of love is the highest form of freedom. He taught me that death is not the end but the completion of life, which helped me understand loss. I'm going to quickly describe a couple of other thoughts that were quite revolutionary for me. Warning! If you are a logic freak, probably even in this short description you will notice how often Osho contradicts himself. This way he is trying to reject becoming a philosophical or religious leader, or just trying to defend himself: >"To contradict myself is my way. To never allow you to settle anywhere is my way. To go on goading you on and on, is my way. > Listen in deep tranquility. Don't be bothered about whether I am contradicting something that I have said before. Listen to me this moment; don't bring the past in. If you don't bring the past in there is no contradiction. If you bring the past in then there is contradiction."

And it makes me think that words are both powerful and really not enough to express the diversity and depth of human experience, emotions and thoughts, because if you really read it in the moment, it all seems right. But it's not mathematics.

Letting go of your ego

Ego is a big thing in Osho's teachings. I will not even attempt to try to outline his ideas, but I will write a memory of my own. My ego hit me most and screamed its name when I first attended an Osho dynamic meditation. The first meditation already threw me off. We were supposed to do what seemed to me completely insane: free moves with closed eyes, no repetitive, learnt dance moves, no acting, only whatever comes from deep inside you. It made me realize we are capable of anything if we act it out, but to do what we really feel and let yourself release your hidden emotions is really difficult. There were seven people in the room, including two of my unaware friends, who never read Osho before. All of us kept opening our eyes and suppressed our movements awkwardly. Two women were meditating to the point of jhana, what seemed to be a spiritually induced orgasm, while we weren't able to dance to gong music as our hearts desired, because we were so used to being judged. That feeling went away very fast and brought me a better sense of consciousness of self, especially after many conversations with other people who were coming to the meetings - they were people of different trades, sportsmen, students, women in their 50s, couples, a professor of law. They were all seeking the outlet of their builtup feelings, stress, looking to be grounded. We are all designed exactly the same, but we differ in our level of consciousness of how we are designed and how to use this structure to our advantage.
Letting go of your ego is a big thing if you're a jealous person. Understanding that I have no ownership of others helped me a lot to manage my insecurities. Because I have no right to impose my hierarchy of values on others, I cannot enforce it. It was a lifechanging twist in my thought process: a big boost of respect that I showed the other person and a big boost of my self-respect. I have no power over you, you have full freedom of choice, and so do I. I choose you. If our beliefs don't meet, I will leave. Because as opposed to Osho, I am naturally monogamous. ;)

Photo: Artem Bali

God is not dead as Nietzsche states

According to Osho God has never been born. Religion is man-made fiction. Although raised catholic, I always imagined Deity as a form of pure existence, basis of all being - the innate stem of all of us, which years later I found out to be ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas. What Osho teaches to reach out to the deity in each and every one of us meets my ideas in the points where we become whole in love and everyday meditation practice. As opposed to the contemporary saying that you are your own god, often meaning you can have anything you want and lead your life the way you want, Osho helps us to want less and be more sensitive and caring by at the same time being fulfilled and happy.

Sex is important

Osho teaches on the importance of sex as well as the non-sexual touch. It came as a big shock to me when one of my first meditations revolved around learning gentle, non-sexual, caring touch. We were paired with an unknown person of the opposite gender and were asked to hold our hands first at their heart/chest, one hand in 3" distance from their chest
and the other, 3" from their back at the same height, and for half an hour, gradually, very slowly, move it towards their skin. The touch never becomes a full skin-on-skin contact, but you feel all the warmth and trembling of the other person's hands, you imagine your electrons bumping into each other. ;) The next part was concentrated around the "hara center", the source of our balance, located two fingers below our belly buttons. This experience made me realize how tied up we are now as a society, unable to be caring for each other, to show pure understanding of being made of the same clay - with touch as it may be seen as inappropriate. Any kind of physical contact has become sexual. Even massage becomes sexualized. We only realize how we've been formed by all sorts of inhibitions when we dodge somebody's hand, as we associate touch with something unwanted or violent, which is so common. It's not our fault: this is a common experience of our closest generations so we all need to live with the inhibitions, the abuse and the lack of security and trust.
On the opposite end - Osho states the old obvious: "I was surprised to learn that ascetics, who are always preaching against sex, seem to be captivated by it. They are curious about it and disturbed by it; they have this mental complex about it, yet they sermonize about religion and about the animal instincts in man. And sex is so natural." Sexuality is a sacred zone, it is not to be suppressed. Osho often repeats the example of soldiers who were refused to see their loved ones so that they were more violent during war.

Sex is an animal instinct that through the human mind, becomes meditation and prayer to the idea of God and love that is within you. Sex is meant to be an expression of love. Osho himself has been a very controversial figure for having sex with his disciples in his meditation resort and allegedly having committed various kinds of sexual crime. Although nothing was ever proven (correct me if I'm wrong), it is sure that he made a lot of money on his philosophy, which may have earnt him enemies.

Only a true egoist can be giving

Osho makes it a point: only when you have enough for yourself, and maybe even in excess, you can truly be an altruist. Only then can it be out of your own will and not to get something back, such as applause. He calls himself the rich man's guru and strongly associates people's dislike towards money with religious upbringing. To experience the full variety of life, money is necessary: to be exposed to fine art, literature, music. He says that money is there not to be kept but to be spent for the sake of broadening our horizons and our enjoyment.

Insanity

I would recommend to take Osho's teachings with a grain of salt. Keeping some of his freedom for yourself will undoubtedly make you a better version of yourself. Being selective and keeping the inhibitions that feel good and build the structure within you is always up to you.

It got quite late as I was writing this freely. I hope it makes any sense at all, because I have a slight impression of weirdness of it all. It was fun. One last word on the topic of Rajneesh, I think he was nowhere close to perfect but a weak lost human himself, just like any of his disciples or any of us. However, he had a great charisma and ability to bring down the house, which allowed him to convey various messages of wisdom which were picked up by some and ditched by others. Interesting persona that made me think a lot.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajneesh
http://www.osho.com/
Memories of:
Osho, Sex is important
Osho, The Book of Ego
Osho, The Book of Women
Osho, Love, Freedom, Aloneness

The Rules

Choose one of the themes each day and explain us why it's your favorite. Post a picture of it. Do this for 7 days in a row if you accept the challenge. Nominate up to three people each day. Tag it with #favouritethisandthat and include the themes that one can pick from.

The Themes You Can Choose From

Decade - Game - Movie Character - TV Series - Website - Public Figure - Monument