The Vatican and Osho: A Study in Hypocrisy

by Ma Prem Sangeet

The recent resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has inspired many claims about the relationship between the Vatican and Osho, many of them unsupported. Osho apparently thought that John Paul II had met with Reagan in 1985, shortly before Osho was arrested, but this was an error. According to online records Reagan met with John Paul II in 1982 and 1987.

Reagan, a fundamentalist Christian, would ordinarily have been the natural enemy of the pope in the politics of American Christianity, but the two men shared a common passion: a hatred of communism. Carl Bernstein reported in the June 24, 2001 issue of Time that the two men met for 50 minutes in 1982, supposedly to discuss Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. In fact, they spent most of their time talking about two other topics dear to their hearts. The first was the recent suppression of the Solidarity labor movement in Poland, and the second was the assassination attempts they had both experienced in 1981. They agreed they had both been divinely spared for missions from God.

The Reagan administration believed Poland was key to the downfall of the Soviet Union and that John Paul II, as a highly influential Pole, could be tremendously useful. Bernstein revealed that the US provided clandestine aid to Solidarity, supplied the pope with top-secret information on a regular basis, and William Casey, head of the CIA and a conservative Catholic, made regular secret visits to the Vatican. The Nation reported on April 17, 1989 that in his turn John Paul II ordered all priests to resign posts in the Sandinista government in Nicaragua, which the Regan administration opposed.

This was definitely a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” relationship. They were willing to do each other favors to get to their shared goal. John Paul II seems to have been obsessed with the idea of freeing Poland from communism and is reported to have talked of little else with US officials, even when they had a different purpose, like discussing disarmament. He had appointed someone else to deal with “religious threats,” while he focused on the political. His “enforcer of the faith” was German Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict XVI.

Joseph Ratzinger was the Archbishop of Munich and Freiling from 1977 to 1982, during a time when Stern and Der Spiegel were publishing articles with lots of pictures of naked people in groups in Pune and when centers in Munich, Cologne, and other areas of Germany were booming. Ratzinger was apparently worried that the appeal of Eastern mysticism would lure people away from the Church.

Ratzinger was appointed head of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Catholic Church’s modern version of the Inquisition, in 1981. He soon became the second most powerful man in the Vatican and was elevated to cardinal in 1993. In Rome he focused much of his efforts on stopping what he called pluralism, or the seeking of truth and grace in religions other than Christianity. He claimed pluralism or “relativism” was a threat to true faith from the Third World. In a 1997 interview published in the March 21 issue of the French L’Express, Ratzinger called Buddhism an “auto-erotic spirituality” and said: “In the 1950s someone said that the undoing of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century wouldn’t come from Marxism, but from Buddhism. They were right.” Ratzinger spoke of the ”seductions” of Buddhism and other Eastern traditions. According to John L. Allen, Jr., author of Cardinal Ratzinger: The Vatican’s Enforcer of the Faith,¹ Ratzinger’s statements were so offensive that a group of American priests issued an apology to Buddhists.

***Footnote: ¹This and some other references are quoted in the new, revised version of Max Brecher’s A Passage to America, soon to be available as an ebook on his website, www.maxbrechersbookstobuy.com.

Ratzinger used his inquisition to censure Catholics who supported pluralism; Allen reports that Ratzinger went so far as to excommunicate a priest in Sri Lanka. In 2000 Ratzinger’s office created a statement of doctrine later signed by John Paul II called Dominus Iesus.² It held that non-Catholic Christian traditions were “defective,” but non-Christian were “gravely deficient” in terms of salvation.

***Footnote: ²vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000806_dominus-iesus_en.html

So, what was Ratzinger’s relationship with Osho and sannyasins? Though he was often suspected of working behind the scenes in things like German legal disputes and Italian visa applications, nothing could be proved. The October 11, 1985 National Catholic Reporter stated: “The cardinal, who ‘daily receives top secret information from every continent,’ does his best to take daily top-secret action on the basis of this information.”

The only assertion of a direct connection came from Ashok Row Kavi, former columnist for the Bombay Sunday Mail. On December 24, 1989 he reported that someone “very close” to Ratzinger had revealed that Ratzinger “is known to have operated behind the scenes in the expulsion of Rajneesh from America.” In early February 1990, Kavi reported in a column that Ratzinger had said in 1981: “All sorts of Satanic cults by oriental godmen are out to seduce the faithful away from Christ.” Kavi claimed that Osho was the “object of these controversial statements.”

Considering the quid-pro-quo relationship between the Reagan administration and the Vatican, the belief that Ratzinger was instrumental in having Osho thrown out of the US is plausible, but given the Reagan administration’s longstanding opposition to Osho, it’s unclear if they needed any encouragement. At the very least, there is evidence that Ratzinger felt justified in lobbying to have Osho removed from the US.

After becoming Benedict XVI in 2005, Ratzinger soon met with enormous scandal. Ongoing investigations of sexual abuse of children revealed Church cover-ups that led to Ratzinger’s door in the Vatican. As head of the Congregation he was directly responsible for investigating such misbehavior, and in 2000 he had ordered his office to take oversight control of all investigations. Yet virtually nothing was done to stop the abuse. Several Catholic dioceses, including the one in Portland, Oregon, have had to file bankruptcy to avoid millions of dollars of damages for abuse and cover-up. Ratzinger’s supporters have claimed that this inaction was the fault of John Paul II, but in the eight years of Ratzinger’s tenure as pope, he apologized profusely for the child abuse, while doing little to stop it. Two cardinals from the US and Ireland have been implicated in widespread abuse cover-ups, but the cardinals are still in office and joined the conclave to vote for Benedict’s successor.

Meanwhile, back in Rome, Benedict’s butler was among Vatican watchers who were appalled by the allegations of misbehavior against Benedict’s own second in command, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. The butler stole stacks of correspondence documenting sexual misbehavior and financial corruption in the Vatican and blew the whistle, allowing much of the correspondence to be published. Benedict had no choice but to order an investigation. The report of the investigation came in less than two months before Benedict announced his resignation.

The Italian press published information about the report, with screaming headlines about gay factions in the Vatican, which is hardly groundbreaking news, and downplayed the other issue mentioned: misuse of funds and a financial scandal that may involve the Vatican Bank. This brings to mind the story of John Paul I, who died suddenly after 33 days in office, when he, among other things, indicated a willingness to allow an investigation of a Vatican Bank scandal. Since Vatican protocol does not allow autopsies of popes, the dispute over the cause of his death continues. The case was written up in the book In God’s Name, which Osho spoke about (One Seed Makes the Whole Earth Green, Chapter 3; The Rebel, Chapter 13).

Benedict and/or his conservative supporters recognized that he lacked the courage, vitality, and credibility to deal with the latest Vatican corruption scandal, so he’s off to a quiet retirement, while the attempt to save face and save the necks of many influential people in Europe falls on his successor, Pope Francis. Francis, another conservative, was reportedly the second runner up in the last conclave. He was elected in a conclave where well over half of the members had been selected by Benedict.

The irony of Benedict’s belief that the very flawed institution of the Catholic Church (child abuse, sexual perversion, blackmail, theft, and possibly murder) is the only agency of God on Earth and that Benedict has been justified in his self-righteous attacks on “deficient” non-Christian traditions that threaten its supremacy – like Osho, Buddhism, Hinduism – is hard to miss. But Joseph Ratzinger has apparently missed it completely. The insight and integrity of Pope Francis remain to be seen.

Sourced from Viha Connection magazine

July/August Viha Connection magazine

Our July/August Viha Connection is now available online, with a bit of a delay. We are very happy with this new issue. 
The Mailbag section contains very moving letters from prisoners who have found Osho. Here is an excerpt from one of those letters:

Thank you very much for the Viha Connection magazine and for the Osho books. Both were filled with sublime teachings that I have been sharing with everyone. In fact, after I’ve finished sharing them with the people in my block I donate them to the chaplain for others to enjoy. This is a very big step for me because my whole life I’ve been extremely possessive, both materialistically and in my relationships.

I have learned so much from Osho’s teachings about life, love, joy, and compassion that I’m like a little kid experiencing life for the first time.

Thank you again for helping me become a caring and loving person for the first time in my 52 years on this Earth...

To read the rest of the letters and the entire issue, please click on http://www.oshoviha.org/magazine.php?login

Meetings with the Master

Here is an excerpt from the new column "Meetings with the Master" in our July/August Viha Connection magazine:

Everything Is Going Perfectly

by Anand Soma

I took sannyas in March 1976 and spent six months in Pune. At that time sannyasins could ask for darshan every month or so, so I booked darshan, and a good friend recommended that I smoke pot before the darshan in order to be really open to Osho. I had never smoked pot before, but I really wanted to be open to Him. Normally, when you sat in front of Him, He would look at you and ask, “Anything to say?” You would say one line or two, and He would answer you. Well, when it was my turn I had a lot to say. Actually I told Him my whole life story; I was 21 at the time.

I don’t remember how long it took; it seemed quite long to me. Osho looked at me very kindly and said, “You know, Soma, your English is not so very good. Would you please repeat everything you just said in German to Haridas (His German guard); and Haridas, would you just repeat everything back to me in English so I can understand?”

I was stunned and embarrassed as I told the story in German to Haridas and heard Haridas translate for Osho, while Osho listened attentively. Writing this now – what can I say, I was 21 years old – but then I remember being so utterly bored with my “so important” story. Osho was very kind, smiling. He recommended that I do the Soma group and asked me to remember, “It’s only a dream.”

Sourced from Viha Connection magazine

Darshan Diaries

Osho arrived in the ashram in Pune in 1974 and left in 1981.

During these “Pune One days,” Osho would talk intimately to individuals and small groups of disciples in “darshan” – the evening meetings. During these meetings Osho would initiate seekers into sannyas, giving them the mala (wooden necklace with the locket) and a new name and explaining this new name to the seeker.

During these darshans sannyasins could also ask Osho all kinds of questions: about their relationships and love lives, their meditation, their participations in therapy groups, going back to the West, etc.

If you ever wanted to get an up-close and personal look at how a modern Zen Master works with his disciples, these darshan diaries present a beautiful opportunity.

They are a wealth of wisdom and a mystic’s clear-sightedness, colored with compassion and lit up with an unstoppable sense of the humorous.

Sourced from Viha Connection magazine.

Writers wanted for two new columns in the Viha Connection!

The Viha Connection would like to preserve stories about people’s personal experiences with Osho. As more and more of the people attracted to Osho and His work are people who never met Him in life, these stories become ever more precious.

We aren’t getting any younger, as the cliché goes, so we’d like to gather these while many of us who knew Him or sat with Him are still in the body.

We invite anyone with a good story to tell to send us articles of around 1,200 words or less in length. We will keep these to run in an ongoing column on the history of Osho and the community. We will be glad to get any fun and interesting stories. Some ideas are stories about:

· Meeting Osho when He was younger, when He was a teacher or traveling around the country

· People who had Osho stay at their houses or at their parents’ houses

· People who had tea with Him and corresponded with Him

· The meditation camps held around India in the early 1970s

· The big gatherings where Osho spoke in the early days

· Meeting Osho at Woodlands apartments in Mumbai

· The Kailash community Osho had a few people set up in the 1970s

· Setting up the early ashram in Pune in 1974

· Darshans and energy darshans

· Meeting Osho as a child in the community

· Other meetings with Osho during His life

If you know of anyone who might have a good story, particularly a story of the earliest days of Osho’s work, please pass this invitation along.

If you have photos from the time period you write about, please include them. Again, electronically is best; we need high resolution (300 dpi).

We are also looking for a new kind of article for its Skillful Means column. In the past we’ve run articles about practitioners and the modalities they use. Now we would like to invite people to write short articles (around 500 words) that provide our readers with information on specific techniques the readers can use.

These can be physical techniques, meditation techniques, healing techniques, and so on. We, of course, don’t give medical advice to people, but if you have useful techniques readers can use we would like to facilitate that sharing.

If you have a wonderful meditation technique you picked up from a Tibetan lama in the Himalayas or a great exercise to reduce back pain or the perfect solution to insomnia or the recipe for a heavenly homemade massage oil that you are willing to share, we would like to hear from you.

Writers of these skillful means articles don’t need to purchase advertisements in the magazine, as writers of more promotional articles need to do. If you have a service or product people in the community might be interested in, we encourage you to advertise anyway and support the Viha Connection.

For both kinds of articles we ask for electronic submissions in Microsoft Word. Please send them to oshoviha (at) oshoviha.org

Love from the Editorial Board of the Viha Connection

New books by an Osho sannyasin

A Spellbinding Journey of the Heart

The Ashoka Chronicles by Premesh Alan Bassett

Reviewed by Swami Budhuram

I knew Premesh in Pune in the 1980s and was intrigued when I recently saw his photo on Facebook connected with an advertisement for “esoteric novels.” His books had received some great reviews on Amazon from sannyasins, so I got curious and ordered the first book in the series, The Buddha Conspiracy.

I was hooked from the first page until I finished the second book, The Last Turn of the Wheel. I had to wait a month before The Great Debacle, the third and final book of the series, came out in print. Milarepa had read it when it was still in manuscript form, and he described it as “sensational.” When I completed the book, I had to agree. I won’t give away the thrilling conclusion about whether the Buddha Conspirators save a self-destructive humanity from annihilation in the holocaust, but I will say that the final chapters blew away all of my ideas about how the story would end and surpassed my wildest imagination and greatest expectations.

This is the only series of novels I have seen that is based on the theme of the transformation of human consciousness, both individual and collective, and that integrates a variety of meditations and Masters into the story line. As another reviewer described it, “It is an epic adventure of the human soul, a tale of international intrigue worthy of the best James Bond thriller, set against the backdrop of the world's great religions and man's quest for spiritual freedom.”

The adventure takes the reader on a rollicking world tour from London and Paris to Srinagar and Mumbai, from Seattle to Luang Prabang, from Varanasi and Bodhgaya to Lhasa and Goa, from Thailand to Bhutan, not to mention a side trip to the Heart of the World and to some of the world’s oldest Buddhist temples at Angkor Wat and Anuradhapura. Oh, there is more: a magical, unforgettable, and harrowing journey along the Silk Road that transports the reader to the ancient cities of Samarkand and Kashgar and leads up the dizzying heights of the Karakorum Mountains as the hero makes his way to Kashmir. As Devananda, one of the main characters, advises, “Get ready for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.”

The main characters are portrayed with depth and sensitivity as they face their worst fears and greatest challenges along the path to the unknown, and yet they exhibit lightness and humor in the midst of the dark political and religious conflicts in which they get embroiled. The author provides a rich historical background for the plot that often propelled me into a dream world where it was difficult to separate fact from fiction. As such, he has created a worthy allegory of the perilous predicaments facing our contemporary world. I had the mysterious feeling I was taking the whole journey with Osho sitting by my side.

The Ashoka Chronicles are available from Viha

Sourced from Viha Connection magazine

Swami Anand Ashubodha

We are sharing with you the special edition of Rama Prem’s newsletter, August 2011.

Swami Anand Ashubodha
December 31, 1950 – August 23, 2011 6:05 PM

How is it that I know the time of Ashubodha’s death?
Well, there’s a story there.

Many years ago, Ashu asked my opinion about something. He wanted to move into one of two new areas: fast cars or fast women. Since–at the time–the only car that I had ever owned was a Volkswagen Beetle, I wasn’t terribly helpful in the car department. But fast women? I had been into them for many years, and I could highly recommend them.

Ashu, however–as was his wont–chose the path less-traveled. On the night of September 20, 2000, he and his fast car had an accident on an autobahn (no speed limit) outside Munich–where he had been living and working for some years. There were no other cars involved; Ashu’s car spun out on a slick portion of road, and crashed. The speed was great enough to crumple his car; he had to be cut out by the fire brigade.

He spent days in surgery, and in a coma. He spent nine months in the hospital. He came out paralyzed from the chest down, and confined to a wheelchair. It was how he was to live for his remaining years. And he made the most and best of them. He was able to maintain a very pleasant apartment on the outskirts of Munich. He required 24-hour-a-day care, and it was his job–and his alone–to manage/schedule that care. It was very difficult to do this; he needed someone with him at all times–not being able to do anything for himself. He had to find someone for every hour of every day; he had to manage days off, vacations (every care-giver wanted a summer vacation), illness… And this he did for ten years.

When Sneh and I visited with him two years ago, he told us that he would never go into a “home” or other institution. His experience of them, after the accident, left no doubt in his mind about what he wanted–and what he didn’t want. He recounted to us, in detail, the way people were treated in such institutions. If only some of what he told us was true, it was a horror story. He made it clear that–should the time come when he could no longer schedule full-time care-givers–he would choose suicide.

We got a telephone call from Ashu a couple of months ago. It began with, “I’ve made a decision.” He was doing the enormous amount of paperwork needed to be a client of an “assisted-suicide” facility in Switzerland. It is legal there, but its very legality makes jumping hurdles and through hoops necessary. On top of that, he was an American, living in Germany.

For almost all of the time since that conversation, this has been a closely guarded secret; Germany, to say the least, frowns upon suicide–assisted or otherwise. It was very important that people in the health professions not know of this. Had they found out, he would have been confined to an institution, drugged, and lived out his life under those conditions. That represented all that he wished to avoid–no matter what.

And his condition had worsened. He now had “bed-sores”, and was in constant pain. It was time “to be freed of this ailing body. It’s time to hang up my coat and return it to the physical world.” With his inability to schedule care-givers for the entire month of August, the date of his suicide was set for August 23rd. Sneh and I traveled to Munich ten days earlier, and spent two days with him. We had a wonderful time. He was really alive (again). If he had had a step, there would have been a spring back in it. We laughed, joked, spoke of “serious” and important matters; none of it mattered. He had made a decision–the right decision–and was enjoying it and his last days.

His BIG passion was pottery. In Pune Two, he started the pottery studio; he was its Mom. He loved it; he did beautiful work. Graceful pieces that put a smile on a bookshelf or dining room table. Two-piece works that had a lid that fit perfectly on the base.
A few days before our visit (yes, only days before his departure!), he had arranged that the last of his work from before his accident get glazed (his own unique glazes) and fired. They arrived while we were with him.

He was fully alive, present; living in the moment. He had his care-giver make lunch for us, which included noodles without any sauce–which I left on my plate, uneaten. He apologized profusely, and I, of course, said, “Hey man, not to worry.” (In my mind, I’m going, “Jesus, Ashu, you’ll be dead in a few days; don’t sweat the small stuff . It’s only noodles, for Christ’s sake. In the grand/cosmic scheme of things, it won’t amount to a hill of beans.”)

But he was fully alive, present; living in the moment. And noodles were happening in the moment. I suspect that being Jewish had something to do with it, but–hey–what do I know? It was a bit difficult to leave, and we all knew it. We stood at the door, trying to leave, while Ashu told jokes in order to keep us there.
We knew that the next time that we would see him would be the last: August 23rd, outside Zurich, Switzerland.

On the Ranch, Ashu had the job of garbage-truck driver. Being Jewish, his parents never felt that this was the chosen profession for their boy. A doctor, a lawyer? Yes. But a garbage-truck driver?

Ashu:
My mother visited me once and asked while I was picking up some trash if there was anything that I was learning that was preparing me to make a living outside the commune, as I guess mothers will. I answered that I’d become able to enjoy any work I was doing, no matter what it was, and that’s the truth.

From a message sent not long ago to high school friends:
Through meditation, I’ve found a space within myself where my happiness, for lack of a better word, or “feeling of well-being” doesn’t depend on what happens on the outside… (The hospitalization) was the most difficult time of my life, and I easily could’ve gone insane–lost in completely–if I hadn’t been able to relax, breathe and stay centered and enjoy the moment.

A message sent to friends on August 19th:
beloveds, this is going to be much shorter than i had planned it to be, because time is running short. as you must know I had a car accident almost eleven years ago that left me paralyzed from the chest down and in a wheelchair. I’ve been keeping things going here successfully all these years at great effort, and now my health has taken a turn for the worse. there is so much pain and I’ve become so weak, that I’ve decided to be freed of this ailing body on tuesday, august 23rd. I’ll make the transition at the dignitas apartment in switzerland at 4 pm local time. it’s time to hang up my coat and return it to the physical world. i’ve been dancing so close to the edge these past months, risking being placed in a hospital, where I’d probably end up drugged and on life support until I expire. living wills (patientenverfügungen) are not respected here. I’d rather go in a relaxed and joyous way, as osho says.

from the moment I got everything arranged with the loving, beautiful people at dignitas, so much light has entered my life. I’ve found a way out, and as my lovers around me know, my humor and lovingness have broken through the surface again as nothing stands in the way from me jumping out of the frying pan and into the holy fire. what a relief. the lightness has returned, and I can enjoy life again.

carina, my partner, sneh and ramaprem, miten, garimo and swiss ma viramano will all be there to give me a good send-off . (the lengths I have to go to to get my friends all together in one place!) I don’t feel as though i’m really going anywhere, that nothing dies, and I feel we’ll continue to be together, you and i. I’ve been so blessed to have spent so many years in osho’s physical presence, and to have learned to still be feeling his presence.

this will not change. you too, remain in my heart and that will continue to be. I go in love and gratefulness.

i’m joyfully jumping into the holy fire, and choosing to do so among some who have a healthy attitude towards death and dying.

nothing more to say.

love

swami anand ashubodha

August 23rd:
It was very much an A-list group that was present: Carina (his partner); Garimo; Viramano; Miten; Sneh and I. Ashu wanted it small, intimate.

We arrived hours “in advance”, in order to spend some quality time with Ashu.
Well, there wasn’t much that we didn’t do: we took care of some last-minute business (he distributed Osho marble to each of us; I got his computer’s hard disk that I was lusting after…); we laughed a lot; we cried; we sang a lot of songs; we played children’s games; we played adult games; we had rehearsals for the Big Moment; we had Big Moments for rehearsals.

And, we impressed the hell out of the people at the facility. They told us that they never had a departure like ours. Tell me about it!

Ashu finally tired, and it was…time.
We took him from his wheelchair, and placed him in bed. We made him comfortable, and exchanged some last words. With us sitting around him, we listened to a question-and-answer from The Razor’s Edge.

At the conclusion of the discourse, Ashubodha called for the medicine that would quickly put him to sleep and eventually stop his heart. He looked joyful, years younger, and at peace. With total trust, in serenity, with dignity, with bravery that made me weep – he took the drug.

As he lay there, watching his breath, we sang softly songs that have carried us high and higher for many years. Perhaps “Fly High” was the last he heard.
His being took on a lightness; he was finally free.

And the seasons, they go ’round and ’round,
And the painted ponies go up and down.
We’re captive on the carousel of time.
We can’t return, we can only look behind from where we came,
And go ‘round and ‘round and ‘round in the circle game.

Perhaps Ashubodha is no longer a captive of the circle game.
I hope so.

Where you have come from and where you are going is the same place. – Osho

(There are, perhaps, events in my account that did not actually happen. No matter.
They should have.)

You can contact Rama Prem at ramaprem.rp (at) gmail.com and visit him at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ramaprem.rp