Resort

 

 

The Western monastery is a copy of the ashrama that exists in the East now. It had been brought to the West by Western travelers, Western philosophers. Jesus himself went to Buddhist universities, Tibetan lamaseries, Ladakh monasteries; Pythagoras traveled deeply into the East -- and these people brought all these ideas to the West. The Western monastery is, in a way, nothing but a carbon copy of the Eastern ashrama. It has nothing unique to contribute.

 

My commune is a totally different phenomenon.

 

It is neither an ashrama, modern or ancient, nor a monastery, Christian or Mohammedan.

 

My commune is, in the first place, non-ascetic.

 

It basically tries to destroy all psychological sicknesses in you -- in which sado-masochist ideas are included. It teaches you to be healthy and not to feel guilty for being healthy. It teaches you to be human, because my experience is that people who have been trying to be divine have not become divine, but have fallen far lower than humans. They were trying to go up beyond humanity -- yes, they have gone beyond humanity, but below it.

 

In the monasteries, people are almost animals, because the more you torture yourself, the more you start losing your intelligence; intelligence needs comfort.

 

Intelligence is a very delicate flower.

 

Don't try to grow roses in the desert.

 

Intelligence is a very delicate flower.

 

It grows in luxury. It needs a luxurious ground, fertile, creative, full of juice; only then can it blossom.

 

And without intelligence, what are you?

 

My effort is first to help your intelligence become a flame, and to help that flame to consume all that is not your authentic self. You become a fire and you burn everything that is rubbish, thrown by others onto you.

 

So first intelligence, and second meditation.

 

Meditation comes out of intelligence -- burning all crap from your being. Then you are pure, alone, just the way existence wants you to be.

 

The commune is just a place where people who are interested in this journey, in this odyssey inwards, live together -- helping everybody to be himself allowing everybody enough space, not interfering in any way, not imposing in any way. If they can support you, good: if support also becomes a hindrance then they will not even support you, they will withdraw themselves. They respect your integrity, your individuality, your freedom.

 

The word commune I have chosen because it is a communion:

 

A communion of rebellious spirits.

 

It is not another society, it is not a monastery, an ashram. It is individuals remaining individuals, Still being together; being alone and still interacting, responding; leaving the other also alone.

 

Aloneness, to me, is the greatest religious quality.

 

So we are together but not in any kind of bondage, very loose.

 

No relationship is binding in my commune.

 

No relationship is really a relationship, it is only a relating, a process. As long as it goes, good, and when paths divert, change their course, that too is perfectly good because that's how, perhaps, your being is going to grow. One never knows.

 

We may walk together for a few feet, a few miles, and then depart in gratitude -- that it was a joy to be together.

 

Now let us celebrate separation.

 

You helped me, I helped you.

 

Now let us help each other to move in the directions that our beings want us to take.

 

The commune is a totally new phenomenon.

 

It has nothing to do with anything that has preceded it. The old, ancient ashramas were beautiful but they were part of the society. They propagated the same structure of the society: the four-caste system. The untouchable was untouchable. The untouchable could not enter the ancient Hindu ashram. Only the brahmin could be the seer. That is strange, that only the brahmin could have eyes. That was a brahmin strategy to remain in power, and they were powerful. But they were good people, although not revolutionaries... nice, but not rebels.

 

The rebel is both.

 

He is a sword and also a song. It depends on the situation. He can become a song or he can become a sword.

 

This is a communion of rebels.

 

We are not supporting any society, any politics, any nation, any race, any religion. We have left all that far behind.

 

We have come alone, to be with those who have also come for the same reason -- to be alone.

 

So remember it, that aloneness is something sacred.

 

You should not trespass on anybody's aloneness, freedom, individuality.

 

Commune, love, be together, rejoice, but remember always you are alone.

 

You are born alone, you will die alone, you have to live alone.

 

And all those who are here, they are all individuals, alone. They are not following any doctrine, any dogma, they are simply following their own inner voice. Try to hear it and follow it.

 

Yes, it is a very still small voice, but once heard, you cannot do anything else but what it says for you to do.

 

-Osho, “From Personality to Individuality, #5”