Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetans are blessed with compassion, intelligence and

playfulness. They are very beautiful people. Throughout

the past millennium Tibet has produced many buddhas.

Part of the key to their success is playfulness. They are

naturally innocent and childlike, plus they understand

tantra and respect the goddess.

Tibetans are largely free from the spiritual diseases of

piety and hypocrisy that plague most religions. And they

have developed a system of growth that works.

The whole country is involved in spiritual life. The monks

and nuns are respected and supported by everyone in

the community.

Lay people participate in rituals and worship. Novices

learn compassion and respect for all life. Initiates are

trained in the ultimate method of liberation – Dzogchen

meditation – the art of resting in contentless awareness.

The Chinese invasion and destruction of this sacred land

is one of the greatest crimes of the last millennium.

The positive effect has been to bring the wisdom of Tibet

to the West.

Tibetan Buddhism has become an important influence

on many spiritual people all over the world; it is flexible

and adaptable and has evolved in a tantric direction.

This is the key to its survival.

Osho was an awakened bodhisattva in the first stage of

enlightenment for his last 14 lives. His training with

Milarepa and other great Tibetan masters gave him the

understanding that flowered into his teaching of Zorba the Buddha.

His people wore the same maroon colour as Tibetan monks.

The flaw of Tibetan Buddhism is its monastic base. This

breeds repression, and dulls intelligence and creativity.

Monasteries tend to produce repressed, dull people. The

time of the monastery has passed.

Now it is time for a change.

The way of the future is the commune. The commune is

not repressive; it celebrates all the positive aspects of

life. The goddess and sensuality are consciously enjoyed

and valued. This creates the healthy foundation for the

mature spirituality whose time has finally arrived.

Tibetan Buddhism will flourish in the third millennium.

It will absorb the influences of Zorba the Buddha and

become a central pillar of Unity.

The religion of Unity is for everyone.

Unity’s central understanding is conscious merger with

the flow of life. Many Tibetans live this already.

Tibetan Buddhist training in compassion and respect for

all life is a sound basis for the new spiritual morality: Do

what you feel, without harming any creature.

Rajneeshpuram

The tragedy of Rajneeshpuram needs to be exposed and

healed. Osho’s dream was his new commune in America.

The reason it turned into a nightmare was that Source

wanted that to happen.

This is the conclusion that flows from understanding

that God is the one and only power. Yet the reasons why

are more complex, as every human event occurs for a

variety of interconnected reasons.

When we moved to the Big Muddy Ranch in central

Oregon we were a bunch of flower children from India.

We traded our sandals and robes for boots and pick-up

trucks. We were in the middle of John Wayne country,

redneck USA.

Soon the city grew and we all got high on creativity and

work. Meditation was something of the past from India.

Workwas paramount on the ranch; it was called worship,

and Sheela was the boss. She was also a megalomaniac,

a disturbed person who destroyed the commune.

Nearly everything that could go wrong did, mostly

through Sheela’s madness. She attacked and alienated

the neighbours. She collected one thousand homeless

people from the streets of America in a transparent

attempt to fix the local elections. She created a climate

of fear that led to her arming hundreds of meditators

with automatic weapons. She had Osho’s room and half

the commune bugged. She abused surrender so much

that Osho hardly ever used the word again. She ordered

murder to be attempted and much more.

Yet she is not to blame. Source bears full responsibility

for all tragedies, including Rajneeshpuram. Thousands of

beautiful people were hurt and lost everything when the

ranch closed. Rajneeshpuram was a great experiment in

creating a model commune, yet it failed to survive for

even five years.

Osho was arrested while trying to flee the country, and

four years’ hard work and a beautiful commune of 5,000

seekers evaporated overnight. Almost everything you

can think of that could go wrong did. And sadly it was all

necessary to balance the success of future communes.

The commune is the only practical way for seekers to be

total. It gives an integrated experience of meditation,

work and conscious living that is not otherwise possible.

Everyone works for creative expression and to balance

their practical needs with their energetic contribution.

All practical needs are taken care of by the commune.

Everyone is free to be total in their growth. Everyone is

respected equally, whatever their practical contribution.

Everyone is free to choose their own work and follow

their intuition about everything that affects only them.

Everyone is free to come and go as they please. Freedom

is one’s birthright, is the basic shared understanding.

The mistakes of Rajneeshpuram and all the other failed

communes will not be repeated.