Oh, sho me!
The first time I heard of him was in 1996, while I was living in a community house in Venice Beach, California. It was called "The YESSS Center". This multi-cultured, symphony of chaos was orchestrated by a six-foot something, wild-haired, Osho prodigy named "Arhata". Forty to sixty of us, from all walks of life, were nestled into two skinny houses, a couple doors down from Dennis Hopper.
Every Thursday, we had what was referred to as a "Let Go!" What I recall best about those sessions, besides the exotic fruit platters or guacamole dips afterward, were the dynamic meditations. Arhata was a big fan of Osho. Osho had taught that the most effective way he had found to enter deep meditation was to push physical activity to the limit. Therefore, at each of these sessions we would jump, dance and convulse with complete abandonment and freedom. This became a sacred, open space, where any pent up energies and psychological residue gathered throughout the week could be released. Finally, when you found yourself at the brink of ecstatic exhaustion, you would make your way to the floor and relax totally, as if in a very conscious, deep sleep. It is likened to relieving oneself after holding it in for quite a long time.
My next encounter with Osho was a few years later. In 1999, I was attending quite a few Rainbow Gatherings. These are hippie happenings in the forest. For weeks on end, mini-communities are set up with sterile kitchens, a daycare, trading circles, entertainment and much more. Everyone eats together, as family, when sunset arrives. All natural, of course. I had been into the tarot for a few years, and had made a new friend, Adrienne, at one of these gatherings. She was a thin, black woman in her late-thirties with an open mind. When I first took a look at her Osho deck of cards, I fell in love with them, immediately! Each card cut to the very center of whatever archetype it represents. I highly suggest these cards to anyone, from beginner to expert. Those, and the Universal-Waite deck, are my favorites.
After discovering these cards, I began to read Osho with a passion. His writings contained a penetrating wisdom that left me swimming in epiphanies, time after time. Osho refused to mince words. He casually laughed in the face of all forms of structure applied toward the art of awakening to the fact that one is already awakened. He touched many hot buttons. Sex is holy, and meant to be enjoyed to its fullest height of pleasure and bliss. Abundance is your birthright! These two truths became his downfall.
During his last years, he became known for his extravagant indulgence and rumors of exploitation. Many people, mostly the Christian right, joined in efforts to discredit him. He was gaining in popularity, and they were afraid he would infiltrate Western culture with his message of freedom.
I cannot attest to whether Osho was living an extremely lavish lifestyle as a way to teach that it’s okay to enjoy the abundance life has to offer, or if he had become another pious victim of the self-destructive, “spiritual ego syndrome”. Maybe, both. What I do know, is that his meditative practices, the tarot deck based upon his teachings, and his teachings themselves, are without a doubt, some of the greatest works on freedom I have ever read.
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