Osho Therapy

Osho Therapy

21 well known therapists describe how their work has been inspired by an enlightened mystic

Compiled by Svagito

copyright Svagito R. Liebermeister 2014

www.family-constellation.net

The right of Svagito R. Liebermeister to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with national and international copyright laws.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Consultant Editor: Anand Subhuti

Proof Editor: Anand Chetna

eBook Design by Angela Spink

Cover Design by Hamido Kardell

Cover painting by Meera Hashimoto (www.meera.de)

Dedicated to Osho

CONTENTS

Introduction

Svagito

This book is about therapy that is connected to meditation, inspired by the enlightened mystic Osho and his vision of life. For this reason, it is referred to as Osho Therapy. In this context, therapy is not just a method to solve personal problems, but also prepares and leads a person towards meditation.

Therapy can be defined as a way to create a state of well-being within the body and mind, while meditation leads to a state that is beyond the mind. Peace, harmony and personal fulfilment are never fully possible within the dimension of mind, because mind by its nature is a problem-creating mechanism. If you solve one problem, it will inevitably create another. If you find the answer to one question, many more questions arise.

This is why some mystics have likened the mind to a tree that is being pruned or trimmed: you cut off one branch and in response the tree grows many branches in its place.

The real solution is to step outside the dimension of mind and enter the dimension of No Mind in which silence, peace and bliss are experienced naturally. Meditation techniques are ways to arrive at such a state.

This book presents a way of working in the field of self-development, healing and therapy that has this understanding as its base. So, while different therapeutic methods and styles are being introduced, the core aspect is the same: the fundamental importance of meditation.

The art of living consciously, connected to the present moment, is considered as the best way to live a real, authentic and fulfilled life.

Birth of a New Vision

Therapists and group leaders who present their work in this book have all been profoundly influenced and guided by the enlightened mystic Osho and his vision of bringing eastern methods of meditation together with Western therapy techniques. They use Oshos meditation techniques in their work and regard therapy as a stepping stone towards higher states of consciousness.

In Oshos own words:

My therapists are not only therapists, they are meditators, too. And therapy is a superficial thing. It can help to clean the ground, but just to have a clean ground is not to have a garden. You will need something more.

East and West Shake Hands

In the late 1970s, therapists trained in Western methods of psychotherapy gathered around this controversial mystic and explored eastern methods of meditation. This gave birth to a unique experiment.

Maybe for the first time in history, Western psychotherapy and eastern mysticism shook hands. With Oshos guidance, therapists using a wide spectrum of growth methods developed new ways of working with people, looking at the human psyche from a broader viewpoint.

Deeper insights became possible for everyone involved, including the therapists themselves, as well as for those participating in their workshops, seminars and trainings.

Therapists with different skills learned from each other and experimented with new forms of working with people, without needing to stay within the restrictive guidelines of each specific therapeutic discipline.

Of primary importance in this process was the eastern understanding of putting aside the personal ego and allowing a higher energy to manifest beyond a therapists own personal knowledge and skills.

There is a profound difference here that needs to be emphasized: Western culture cultivates the individual ego, so that skilled and gifted people in all professions politics, business, medicine, therapy have a tendency to acquire a sense of self-importance that accompanies success.

Eastern culture, on the other hand, regards the absence of ego as an achievement far superior to self-aggrandisement. As a result, in the community created around Osho in Pune, India, there was less identification with professional status, not least because roles and jobs were flexible and tended to change quickly an individual working as a therapist in one moment might be a cook or a cleaner in the next.

When Osho added Western therapies to his work he personally monitored what was happening in these workshops. After each course, he met with the groups participants and its facilitator, inviting everyone to share their experiences and ask questions.

Therapists learned to ply their craft in a totally different way. In a specific workshop say, for example, Primal Therapy a therapist would act as the guide and be in a position of authority; but, in the wider context of the community, both therapist and participant would be learning and experiencing meditation together. There was a sense of oneness, with little distinction. This has continued to be the case, long after Oshos death.

Fundamental to this understanding is that meditation is a mysterious process that cannot be quantified, measured, or even understood by the rational mind since it is, after all, a state of No Mind. So, even though a therapist has a valuable skill that can be of help to others, he has no greater status or maturity in a spiritual sense.

This revolutionary approach was supported by the fact that no therapist was paid for the work he did. Their work was given out of love and a wish to contribute to the community, supporting the greater priority of meditation.

The reader may wonder about the strange Indian names of the therapists who have contributed to this book. Some background will help: in the 70s, when people started gathering around Osho, he began to initiate them into sannyas. Traditionally, in India, a sannyasin is one who renounces the world and dedicates his life to meditation, changing his name and style of dress.

Oshos revolutionary approach to sannyas was to remain in the world exploring relationships, business, careers and on so while learning through meditation to be free from attachments. He taught his new sannyasins to live life fully and joyfully, while at the same time seeking their own innermost Buddha Nature. He called his approach Neo-Sannyas and asked his sannyasins to dress in the traditional orange colour and wear a necklace of wooden beads called a mala with a locket containing his portrait.

A person, who took sannyas in this way made a commitment with himself to meditate, declaring to the world that he was now ready to enter a new stream of consciousness, where the art of living life joyously and exploring meditation went hand-in-hand. It was not about withdrawing from the world, or being part of any religious group, or becoming a follower of any kind, but about learning to stand alone and unburdening oneself of past knowledge, traditions, religions

In the late 80s, Osho declared it was no more important to have any outer symbol of this inner spiritual commitment, so the distinctive clothing, colour and mala were dropped. Now it is everyones choice to take a new name or keep the old one, but the commitment to meditation and self-inquiry is the same as ever.