Re: Einfach nur mal so...

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: - Hi Kasha, : you want more? - : An amusing look at the real meaning of the word "cult." (1993) : The Guardian (UK ) : 22. May 1993 by Anand Subhuti : The Parable of the Rolls Royces : : I was once a member of a dangerous cult. The people in the cult were miserable and poor, dragging themselves to work each day, brainwashed into thinking there was no other way of life. Periodically, they would bow their heads to the cult leaders, who were enormously wealthy and were driven around in Rolls-Royces. The followers were fascinated by every aspect of their leaders’ lives, especially their sex lives, even listening to tapes of their private conversations. Am I talking about the followers of Charles Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh? No, I am talking about the people of Britain - Her Majesty’s loyal subjects. If this description seems unkind, perhaps it will give Britons an insight into how they have been judging others. : In 1976 I became a disciple of Osho, the Indian mystic formerly known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and during the past 17 years I have heard very little from the British media in reference to our movement except "cult...cult...cult". Or, just for a change, "sex cult". : The question of who is in a cult and who is free of cults depends very much on one’s standpoint. Before I left England, I was a parliamentary lobby correspondent, getting a bird’s eye view of the way politicians encourage people to believe in dreams. I saw how millions of people eagerly give away their responsibility to these politicians, and are thereafter content to moan about the state of the nation; safe in the knowledge that they themselves can do nothing about it. I also saw the relentless poisoning of people’s natural enthusiasm for life by the Christian Church, whose message of self-hatred still gets through to every growing child. The media assert that cult leaders weaken potential followers by depriving them of their innate sense of self worth. But, as far as I can see, this is exactly what happens to everyone in Britain. : There is an "expert"consensus that people join cults when they are in a state of vulnerability and crisis, or when they see themselves as failures. But when I went to Osho I was utterly bored with success. So, I paid off my credit cards and went in search of something better. My main objective was to find a way of erasing the collectively held beliefs that had been force-fed into my mind. "British is best, Jesus died for our sins, sex is dirty, life is a competition, democracy is the same as freedom..." In Osho I recognized a masterful deprogrammer. : He offered initiation into a counter-program called sannyas. We got rid of our old names and were given new ones. We wore orange clothes and a necklace of wooden beads with a picture of Osho hanging from it. From the outside, we looked like a cult, but we knew it for what it was- a playful game that helped to break our identification with national, religious and cultural programming. In Pune, I was introduced to meditation, which Osho defines as the art of de-programming oneself without acquiring any new programs. In India, Osho’s emphasis on meditation was understood, but when we transferred our international commune to Oregon in 1981, and the Christian fundamentalists backing Ronald Reagan started to use the powers of the US federal government to crush the commune, we began to see the depth of the illusions we had been brought up with. Almost overnight, the American image of the lean, independent freedom loving cowboy disappeared and was replaced by a fat, angry redneck wearing a white sheet and holding a burning cross. The fact that Osho was flaunting a fleet of 93 Rolls-Royces in the face of the world’s greediest consumer society did little to cool temperatures. Americans became unbelievably incensed over this brilliant satire on their cultural values. As the pressure increased, some of the sannyasins managing the commune became paranoid. Two British women have been charged with conspiring to assassinate the Oregon US Attorney. I don’t know whether they conspired or not; to me, they were just part of a bunch of frightened women who had read too many Robert Ludlum novels. : Osho was arrested and jailed in November 1985. The charge was a joke- the whole of American history is built on immigration fraud - but it enabled Reagan officials to keep him in jail long enough to force his disciples to agree to a plea bargain. Osho was deported and went on a world tour, during which 21 countries refused him entry. He returned to Pune in 1987 and a commune of sannyasins swiftly grew around him. I never thought I would stick around after he died, but the meditative energy of the place just keeps increasing, and so I keep coming back. There is no copyright on meditation - nobody needs to become a disciple of Osho in order to learn it - but in my experience it helps to receive guidance, encouragement and an occasional kick from an enlightened being who has already trodden the path, and who knows where the spiritual tripwires are. Most sannyasins live and work in their own countries. Of course, no society is interested in helping its citizens escape from social conditioning. But once an individual understands how to free himself there is really nothing the cult leaders can do. : Anand Subhuti, a former political reporter for the Birmingham Post, lives and writes in California. : : : Als relativer Internetneuling melde ich mich hier. Bin interessiert an Erfahrungs- und Meinungsaustausch über alles, was mit Sannyasin-sein zu tun hat, denn ich lebe in der Sannyas-Diaspora im Ruhrpott. : : Letztens wurde ich wieder mal auf diese Rolls-Royce-Geschichte angesprochen und war total hilflos, habe mich schlecht gefühlt. : : Bin ich da die Einzige, die Probleme damit hat? : : Hoffe auf verständnisvolle Freunde und gute Gespräche, : : love : : Kasha

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