I just came across this I Ching commentary from the perspective of Buddhist spiritual journey, and drawing on Osho’s ideas. The first seven hexagrams are covered so far, and they offer some interesting reading. I like this, for Hexagram 5:
“All we can do is become deserving and the moment we are deserving the rain comes, it cannot happen before, we have to be ready for it so that it can come.
When you are ready neither flight nor fight exists, just a prayerful patience and waiting. There is not even an impatience about it… because impatience creates tension. You are not even impatient, just patiently waiting, passively waiting with a prayerful mood. Your patience has to have a value of not demanding anything, your patience should not be expecting anything, instead your patience should be enjoying this here and now – not to achieve anything, not to be anything but to be in this pure isness.”
This is one of the major teachings of the I Ching. To be in the here and now. Anxiety leads to fear and fear creates the circumstances that we fear. If we are anxious, we show that we are attached to a particular outcome, and the universe disdains our attachments. We may pray for a certain outcome, but at the end of the prayer, it is, “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.
Gene
Thank you, Gene. I think divination teaches us to be here just by the nature of the act. The answer happens now; interpreting means communing with your own heart, now. You can’t really do divination work – not in depth – without coming back from anxiety and speculation and rediscovering your whole self.
Osho as I recall, was not a Buddhist but a kundalini yoga. He established an ashram in Oregon and was soon riding about in his myriad expensive limos waving to followers who were, some say, urged to follow free love practices. He had a strange coterie around him that attempted to engaged in biological warfare against the local town, the idea being to get everyone sick with intestinal illness during the local elections so they could take over the town. There is really no evidence that Osho knew of this. I remember some suggestion of more serious germs being cultivated such as anthrax. His lieutenants arrested, his ashram broken up (many were said to pressured with cult tactics) he was declared personae non grata and deported to India (his homeland) where he died a few years later. I have a sangha friend who studied at the ashram and had many good things to say about him.
Well, I don’t know anything about Osho… I don’t usually find guru figures very interesting. But when something he wrote prompts some good thought about the I Ching, I’m happy.
Mary
I am pretty sure that was not Osho. I do not remember the name of the Guru, but I believe you were referring to the situation in the town of Antelope OR. Unless someone changed the name, it was not Osho. The person you are referring to was exported from this country back to I believe India.
Gene
FYI regarding OSHO–very controversial in his time, and proud of it:
“…In mid-1981, Osho went to the United States in search of better medical care (he suffered from asthma, diabetes and severe back problems). After a brief spell in Montclair, New Jersey,[32] his followers bought (for US$6 million) a 64,000 acre (260 km²) ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, previously known as “The Big Muddy”, where they settled for the next four years and legally incorporated a city named Rajneeshpuram.
Osho stayed in Rajneeshpuram as the commune’s guest, living in a modest home with an indoor swimming pool. Over the coming years, he acquired fame for the large number of Rolls-Royces[33] his followers bought for his use.
Osho ended his period of silence in October 1984. In July 1985, he resumed his daily public discourses in the commune’s purpose-built, two-acre meditation hall. According to statements he made to the press, he did so against the wishes of Ma Anand Sheela, his secretary and the commune’s top manager.[34]
Increasing conflicts with neighbours and the state of Oregon,[35] as well as serious and criminal misconduct by the commune’s management (including conspiracy to murder public officials, wiretapping within the commune, the attempted murder of Osho’s personal physician, and a bioterrorism attack on the citizens of The Dalles, Oregon, using salmonella),[36] made the position of the Oregon commune untenable. When the commune’s management team who were guilty of these crimes left the U.S. in September 1985, fleeing for Europe, Osho convened a press conference and called on the authorities to undertake an investigation.[35] This eventually led to the conviction of Sheela and several of her lieutenants.[37] Although Osho himself was not implicated in these crimes,[37] his reputation suffered tremendously, especially in the West.[38]
In late October 1985, Osho was arrested in North Carolina as he was allegedly fleeing the U.S. Accused of minor immigration violations, Osho, on advice of his lawyers, entered an “Alford plea” – through which a suspect does not admit guilt, but does concede there is enough evidence to convict him – and was given a suspended sentence on condition that he leave the country.[37]
Osho then began a world tour, speaking in Nepal, Greece and Uruguay, among others. Being refused entry visas by more than twenty different countries, he returned to India in July 1986, and in January 1987, to his old Ashram in Pune, India. He resumed discoursing there.
In late December 1988, he said he no longer wished to be referred to as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and shortly afterwards took the name Osho.
On January 19, 1990, four years after his arrest, Osho died, aged 58, with heart failure being the publicly reported cause. Prior to his death, Osho had expressed his belief that his rapid health decline was caused by some form of poison administered to him by the U.S. authorities during the twelve days he was held without bail in various U.S. prisons. In a public discourse on 6 November 1987, he said that a number of doctors that were consulted had variously suspected thallium, radioactive exposure, and other poisons to account for his failing health:
“ It does not matter which poison has been given to me, but it is certain that I have been poisoned by Ronald Reagan’s American government.[39] â€
His ashes were placed in his newly built bedroom in one of the main buildings (LaoTsu House) at his last place of residence, his Ashram in Pune, India. The epitaph reads, “OSHO. Never Born, Never Died. Only Visited this Planet Earth between Dec 11 1931 – Jan 19 1990.”…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osho
Those who find Osho’s words compelling, try his list “Osho Flowering”
It is always a problem when we find anyone, whether guru or artist, who seems not to “walk the talk”. We like consistency between the work and the man (or woman). This is rarely the case (notable exception: Hilary Barrett). Literary history is full of artists whose works represent towering achievements – Racine, the classical French playwright, and Jean Jacques Rousseau, the champion of the freedom of man, both come to mind. Yet their personal lives were a disaster, the former being an utter scoundrel and the latter abandoning his wife and child to utter penury.
Osho seemed in his life to give rise to the worst of manipulation by his followers, yet I find that his writings based on his discourses are inspiring. The meditative, philosophical writings based on his discourses on Zen stories :”No Water, No Moon”; on the Adhyama Upanishad : “Finger Pointing To The Moon”; and on the sayings of Chuang Tzu : “The Empty Boat”, are a direct reminder of, and explication of, the original more abstruse works, for which I am grateful. So give thanks for the work, the man has passed away.
I ordered a copy of this book recently and have just received it. I look forward to reading it soon.