Question 1:
Osho,
It feels very dangerous to me, the way your therapists are working at the moment: claiming to be on the same level as you are, and doing the same work. what they say they have to offer -- flying schools and "freedom" -- sounds very appealing to the ego, but doesn't seem to have any connection with your work.
I'm concerned that innocent people, wanting to be closer to you and wanting spiritual guidance, will put their trust in these people who have authority as your chosen therapists.
We saw with sheela what happens with the misuse of worldly power. the misuse of spiritual power seems a far greater menace as it works with peoples' very beings.
You have always said that this is what happens when a master leaves his body. is there any advice you can give now so that history will not repeat itself this time?
The unconscious human mind is the cause of the whole trouble.
There have been people around me who were doing all kinds of things -- there were doctors, there were dentists, there were plumbers, there were carpenters -- but none of them got such an ego as the people who were working as therapists.
Therapy basically has nothing to do with spirituality. I was using it just to clean the rubbish that the mind has gathered down the ages. The work of the therapist with me was exactly that of cleaners, nothing superior to them in any way. But in the West therapy has connotations of spirituality because there is nothing in the name of spirituality. There is a vacuum, and therapists seem to fill it.
It is only apparently so. They don't fill the gap, they cannot; they themselves have no spiritual experience. All that they know are certain techniques through which your mind can be cleaned. But even that cleaning of the mind makes you feel fresh only for a few days, because it does not change the base, the foundation of your being; it simply cleans the surface. You remain the same person. You will again collect the same garbage, so therapy will be needed again and again and again.
The same is true about every other kind of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, analytical psychology -- they are just different names. There is not a single person in the whole world that psychologists can claim is purified -- now there is no need for him to go through analysis, therapy, or any kind of processing.
Even the psychotherapists, psychoanalysts have to go through therapy, analysis, be under some psychotherapist once in a while, because they are also collecting garbage. In fact they are collecting more because so many people are unloading themselves in their therapy sessions, and it is bound to affect the therapist. People will become a little lighter, but the therapist will become a little heavier -- he will need therapy himself. This is a vicious circle.
My effort was to bring the West closer to the East. The East has developed spiritual techniques, but when those techniques were developed, man was not so loaded with knowledge, degrees, and all kinds of meaningless garbage. Those techniques were developed for innocent people.
Now the situation is different: if you give those techniques directly to the people, the people are so loaded that in their garbage your techniques will be lost.
My understanding was, and still is, that therapy can be a good beginning, but it is not the end, it is not the answer. It can clean the mind only for a short period, but in that short period a spiritual technique can be introduced to you before the mind gets loaded again.
If the spiritual technique is introduced to you, then that garbage is not going to disturb you; it cannot create confusion, and you do not need any therapy anymore. You are on the way -- now this ordinary garbage cannot prevent you.
But if you are loaded already, then to introduce you to a spiritual technique is futile; it is throwing seed onto stones. The seed is not going to live, to become a plant, to become a tree, to blossom.
So I was using these therapies just for the moment to clean the ground and let me put in the seed. Then we are not worried about the garbage that you will be collecting. The seed has enough force; once it has found its soil, there is no problem. It will bring its branches and foliage, its fruits and its flowers, in spite of all the garbage around -- that doesn't matter.
But I was aware of the danger -- that these therapists themselves have no spirituality, and they will start feeling as if they are guides, spiritual guides; as if they are helping so many people on the path. It is so easy to blow your ego up bigger and bigger.
These therapists came from the West to me because in the West therapy was going out of fashion. People were tired, because what is the point? -- for a few days you feel great and then come the dumps. You feel worse than before. Then to go again to the therapist becomes a kind of addiction.
And there is no end to it. People go on moving from one therapy to another therapy their whole life, always feeling, "This is going to work." And it seems to work for a while, but it does not change anything basic, just superficial touches, so you are again back to zero.
All these therapists had failed in the West; nobody was coming to them. When they came to me they had no need to search for clients: thousands of sannyasins were coming, and I wanted a certain synthesis between Western methods of therapy and spiritual growth, so I allotted them the work.
But these therapists forgot completely that the people had not come for their therapies. In fact people were very unwilling to do their therapies; I had to persuade them. But slowly people started understanding the fact that just a little cleaning helps to take a long jump into meditation. So the people who passed through therapies went deeper into meditation than the therapists. The therapists were going deeper into their egos.
The therapists were not meditating. They were not asking questions, because to ask a question means that you are ignorant, you do not know the answer to it; they were not even humble enough to ask a question. And they were happy, tremendously happy that now there was no burden on them of finding people. People were coming by themselves, and I was sending them to their therapies.
I made them great therapists. I tried to refine their methods to make them the best possible therapists. I used to meet every therapy group and ask the people who had participated how they were feeling, what had happened. And indirectly -- and the therapist was present -- I was suggesting what more could be done, what should have been done. I was also asking the therapist what difficulties he was finding, what problems were arising with people -- in an indirect way, because I don't want to hurt anybody, even by giving advice.
Through the years I had worked on these therapists and their therapies, and they started feeling that they had become kinds of gurus, masters. And deep down there was great competition amongst them: Somendra left because of his competition with Teertha about who was a better therapist -- just fights of egos.
Deep down, unconsciously, they must be thinking that sooner or later I will have to die.
Teertha had taken it for granted, without anybody saying it to him, that he was going to be my successor. Perhaps he was spreading the idea that he was going to be my successor.
The day I announced in the commune that nobody is going to be my successor, only two persons were unhappy -- and I looked at both the persons: one was Sheela and the other was Teertha. Everybody was happy, rejoicing, but these two people were sad. That was their aim -- perhaps not consciously, but unconsciously. That was the beginning of Sheela trying to destroy the commune in different ways.
And when the American government... Now all the governments of the world are together in a conspiracy against a single man; they have made me so important, so powerful. They are just behaving so idiotically. They have all the powers; I have no power, and they are all conspiring against me. Their whole effort is to stop me, my work, not to let me settle anywhere, not to allow another commune to come into existence.
Our therapists are immensely happy, seeing the opportunity that now I don't have a commune, and every government is against me; perhaps I will not find a place anywhere in the world. This is a great chance for them.
And all the sannyasins are in a state of vacuum, so these therapists are trying to exploit that vacuum. Now they are telling people that they will teach them freedom, they will teach them spirituality, they will teach them this and that; their whole effort is not to miss this opportunity.
The people are in a need because suddenly... they were working, growing, and the work has stopped. I am being prevented from every direction, so that I cannot work. And the therapists are immensely happy: they have suddenly become spiritual masters. They know nothing about spirituality, not even the ABC.
But there is nothing to be worried about. They can only talk about freedom, and that too will be just a repetition of what they have heard me say to you. They don't have anything original to say, anything coming out of their own experience, so they can only talk. Let them talk -- the talk is not going to change to people. And soon people will feel that these therapists are just exploiting the situation.
Meanwhile, somewhere we are going to create the mystery school. Existence cannot be so uncompassionate towards a man who has been working simply for truth, simply for existence.
My trust is absolute.
These governments and churches don't matter at all. They may try their best, but the mystery school will be established, although it may take a little time, a little trouble. And this time things will be done in a totally different way so nobody gets this idea of gurudom.
History will not be repeated, because I am still here. I know all those therapists, and I know their problems. I know they are in the same boat as their clients; they are not in any way of superior consciousness. They can give consultations, they can help people to some clarity, but that is from their knowledge. In the same situation they don't have that clarity.
To everybody else they can show the way of clarity: it is very easy when you are not in trouble. You can simply advise anybody, "It is simple. Do it this way." The real thing is, when you are in the same trouble, whether you have the clarity, whether you are capable of following your own advice -- and those therapists are not capable of that. So there is no harm. Let them enjoy a few days of glory.
They are not even mentioning my name. That is enough proof that they know that whatever they are saying and doing is related to me, and if they mention my name they will become immediately secondary. And for the first time they have got the chance to be on the top. With me, it was impossible.
So I don't see that there is any problem. It is good -- let them enjoy for a few days. Their enjoyment is not going to last long. Soon they will lose the people.
Once the mystery school starts functioning nobody is going to bother about them. Even they themselves will have to come to the mystery school, and this time not as therapists but simply as disciples. There is not going to be any therapy. Now the school will function in a totally different way.
- Osho, "Beyond Psychology, #37, Q1"