Philosophia Ultima

by Osho, Osho

Examines the religious and philosophical teachings of the sacred Hindu writings, the Upanishads, and provides advice on living a spiritual life

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

349 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain, 11 December 1931 – 19 January 1990) and latter rebranded as Osho was leader of the Rajneesh movement. During his lifetime he was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader and mystic.

In the 1960s he traveled throughout India as a public speaker and was a vocal critic of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi, and Hindu religious orthodoxy.

Rajneesh emphasized the importance of meditation, mindfulness, love, celebration, courage, creativity and humor—qualities that he viewed as being suppressed by adherence to static belief systems, religious tradition and socialization.

In advocating a more open attitude to human sexuality he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s and became known as "the sex guru".

In 1970, Rajneesh spent time in Mumbai initiating followers known as "neo-sannyasins". During this period he expanded his spiritual teachings and commented extensively in discourses on the writings of religious traditions, mystics, and philosophers from around the world. In 1974 Rajneesh relocated to Pune, where an ashram was established and a variety of therapies, incorporating methods first developed by the Human Potential Movement, were offered to a growing Western following. By the late 1970s, the tension between the ruling Janata Party government of Morarji Desai and the movement led to a curbing of the ashram's development and a back taxes claim estimated at $5 million.

In 1981, the Rajneesh movement's efforts refocused on activities in the United States and Rajneesh relocated to a facility known as Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County, Oregon. Almost immediately the movement ran into conflict with county residents and the state government, and a succession of legal battles concerning the ashram's construction and continued development curtailed its success.

In 1985, in the wake of a series of serious crimes by his followers, including a mass food poisoning attack with Salmonella bacteria and an aborted assassination plot to murder U.S. Attorney Charles H. Turner, Rajneesh alleged that his personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and her close supporters had been responsible. He was later deported from the United States in accordance with an Alford plea bargain.[

After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry. He ultimately returned to India and a revived Pune ashram, where he died in 1990. Rajneesh's ashram, now known as OSHO International Meditation Resort and all associated intellectual property, is managed by the Zurich registered Osho International Foundation (formerly Rajneesh International Foundation). Rajneesh's teachings have had a notable impact on Western New Age thought, and their popularity has increased markedly since his death.

Reviews

[Bella · Rating 4 out of 5]

only a master can correctly interpret another master. a great read.

[Aleksandar · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the 3rd book I've ever rated 1 star, besides Klaus Schwab's book and Aleister Crowley's drug fueled hallucination "Book of the Law".

First of all - the book has nothing to do with Mandukya Upanishad.

I have to say, that prior to reading this particular book, I considered Osho an enlightened man, who was an enigma of some sorts and considered that maybe I'm simply ignorant or too traditional to understand him fully. I've agreed with many things he wrote, some of which were considered controversial.

This is his first book I've read from start to finish and my opinion has changed greatly, mostly because time has passed and my practice has evolved greatly, so did my level of being and understanding. I've mostly read "Alpha and Omega", which is a good book, at least the first 200 pages.

My current opinion of Osho that he ended up as an evil man, unknowingly so, who did achieve some sort of enlightenment, but I think that he regressed after that and lost whatever he gained. The attention he's gotten, along with his drug use and being surrounded by faux religious yes men, hippies and mentally ill has inflated his ego where he truly though he was the only relevant Messiah and that he's the only one worth listening to. I have plenty of reason for this conclusion, but I'll list some of them here:

- He uses inaccurate quotes from various religious scriptures to prove his point, for example, he said that Jesus said "blessed are the poor" to drive his point that all the religions wanted people to stay poor. Anyone who studies the Holy Scripture understands that this is a lie, because the quote is "blessed are the poor in spirit", which is an incredibly deep and complex statement that won't be analyzed here. He also invents situations and conversations that never happened and presents them as factual.

- He says himself, that whatever he spoke in the past doesn't count, that only the things he says today are relevant. This is said when a student asks him about his conflicting statements about motherhood, which before his corruption and fall from grace he considered "the highest creative deed". This automatically discredits him, since there are objective, unchanging truths, especially in spirituality. His ego doesn't allow him the possibility of admitting he's wrong, so he invents these lies which his cultists accept.

- He said that he actively lied to get more "sanyasins", that he would attribute his own quotes to Jesus, Buddha, Mahavir, Laozi etc. Because that was the only way to "re-educate" these people who are a part of this religions and get them to join his cult. This is simply evil.

- He constantly talks about aquiring material fortune as the most positive act, values material development as much as inner, spiritual work and says that both need to be developed fully in order to be "balanced". He said that his "sanyasins" will all be rich, but what happened is that most of them remained poor after donating all their resources so he can have 20+ Rolls Royces and 50+ Rolex watches. He literally ruined the lives of his cult members with his lies and didn't leave a single enlightened student. I've watched the interviews with some of the poor children left peniless by their parents who were part of his communes and their struggles to live their life afterwards.

- He considers "incomplete" all of the greatest Enlightened souls, who tower over him and shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as him, such as Jesus, Buddha, Mahavir, Laozi, because they didn't consider this material world that important and taught people to focus on their inner development. For his contemporaries, he's even harsher - he called Srila Prabhupada an imbecile, said that Vivekandanda was wrong when describing the three paths to Enlightenment (Dhyana, Bhakti and Karma Yoga), after twisting his words, of course and claiming that "Zen is the only path". He seems to lack the understanding that all three paths, practiced sincerely and with full investment will lead to "Zen" and same achievement. Zen Buddhism is path of Dhyana as well.

- He has intense hatred for morality present in every single religion in human history. He's an anti-natalist, constantly talking about "overpopulation". He stresses that many people need to be sterilized, forced to use contraception etc. He says that a child shouldn't have a father, that the whole communties should raise the children, that parent - child love is an "unnatural concept" and that it's forced. He asks his followers not to have any children and boasts that "out of 5000 students present, there are only 300 children, and that's because they had them before they became students". He also says that he'd never have children, because they are unruly at night (seriously) and would disturb him during the day. He really is a pathetic man.

I do agree with him that certain areas and countries are overpopulated, but there's no "global overpopulation". Europe is not overpopulated, neither is North America, Scandinavia, Russia. I agree that no aid should be provided to many African countries, India and other extremely overpopulated countries, since it only keeps making the issue worse. Once left without help from the rest of the world (mostly White countries) they will understand themselves that there's no point of having so many children, when they are unable to provide for them. This way their infantile, animalistic behavior is rewarded and encouraged. It seems harsh, but there's no other way to stop this, so he did have many valid points about this, but failed to make a discernment that only certain countries and races are problematic in this regard.

- He said that sexuality is only spiritual when "animalistic" that only "sex for fun" is valid and that the expression "making love" means nothing. He completely discounts a claim made by one of his students that the creation of life trough sex is a divine act. What a poor man, he doesn't understand that an act of love consumed trough sexual intercourse makes the lovers into one being united in the Absolute. He was a loveless man and died like one, he never loved anyone, despite being loved by many.

- He is a Luciferian, his philosophy is the same as WEFs, WHOs and other globalist institutions. In the book he actually praises Rockafellers, Morgans and Cargnegie (not as bad) by name and cites them as examples. These men who in their entire lives focused entirely on achieving power and financial domination, by any means necessary are the examples to follow for a spiritual man? Evil praises evil. He's a man that advocates luxury, hedonism, sexual freedom, extreme feminism ("it's time for women to relinquish the opression from motherhood, so they can be fully creative and surpass men"), anti-natalism and forcefull population control, children having no parents. The only difference is that he was extremely against homosexualism, but not because of natural morality and it being a mental illness, mostly induced by sexual trauma, but because he might have been a closeted homosexual and hated that part of his personality, that he never rose above.

- He was drugged in almost every talk he gave, he called himself "rubber hose Buddha" because he was abusing nitrous oxide (laughing gas), he also constantly asked his female followers for oral sex, which they obliged.

- In his cult's "ashrams" he knew about drug trade, prostitution, abuse and neglect of children and turned a blind eye to it, to say the least. Many young children were sexually abused by the "elders" he personally chose. He basically attracted people in crises, who were looking for something to grasp for, used his high intellect, spiritual achievement and cunning to entrap them to be his slave army, so he can live a lavish life of pleasure. Here's a horrific account of a "sanyasin" who was also a mother: https://www.insider.com/i-left-oshos-.... Many people don't know he was kicked out of a Tantric tradition in 1974. in Calcutta at Chaunsath Yogini celebration and cursed by the tradition's Guru. His life proved to be tragic and he commited the most feared sin - falling from Grace.

I'll stop here.

I have to say that Osho is the most dangerous type of man, a deceiver that strays people of the true path. Not because, as he and his cultists claim, he is relentless in truth or "uncovers what is known by all, but supressed", but because he was blessed with a spiritual achievement that is rarely achieved (even the lower levels of enlighenment will not be reached by almost anyone) and supreme intelligence and rhetoric, but he strayed off the path, became corrupted and ruined many lives. In many traditions, this is considered the most devastating action and results in incredibly bad Karmic consequences. We know how his life played out, what happened with his commune, how many lives were permanently damaged by his lunacy and evil (they had 14 year old girls sterilized in his Ashrams).

To finish and repeat - I used to consider Osho a great man, even sent some of his talks to some of my friends. This is because he did say many, many profound things, but in this book he says that he can finally stop sugarcoating things because he's talking to "his own followers" and shows that he strayed from the path into evil and degeneracy. Most of the talks that are on his Youtube channel and most heavily promoted books have his "sugarcoated" opinions on these topics, which fooled me as well and I'm not a particularly naive man.

I have to recommend here to everyone interested in genuine freedom from Maya, illusion of material world - study and practice Patanjali's Yoga (as outlined in Yoga Sutras, ignore everything else, but EVERY of the 8 limbs is very important), Buddhism especially Theravada and Zen, (Mahayana schools are advanced and are a slippery slope if not properly understood) and I put Christianity in the end, because genuine Christianity has such richness and depth, that no other teaching has, but requires a certain state of being to be able to properly understand. My personal path into Real Christianity was trough Yoga, only then was I able to understand Christ's words properly and take up my Cross.

Avoid fallen men like Osho and focus on the real Saints, there's some in every single religion and philosophy.

God bless every sincere seeker.

[Sara Falck · Rating 1 out of 5]

Odd ramblings of a pretentious man very full of himself.

[Elisa de Clippele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questo libro, cari appasionati di lingua e grande impiegati cerebrali, non è solo composto da follie assurde ma anche da un ironia sottile che vi farà ridere ad alta voce, fino a farvi venire il male di pancia che solo un paio di volte avrete il piacere di sperimentare nella vostra vita.

Concetti strani, parole speciale e idee sia occidentali che orientali, spesso messo in contrapposizione mi permettono di usare per questo libro il termine 'capolavoro'.

[ChancelerTrust · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 80's came and massive cracks started forming in rajneesh's foundation, the jokes become excessive and dirty, and he becomes disrespectful and spiteful. Skip all chapters that aren't commenting on the Mandukya Upanishad, the chapters where he is answering his followers are garbage and spiritually damaging, Osho speaks way too much bullshit (he's a fierce anti-natalist for example). Nevertheless the commentary itself was quite good, but as always with Osho you have to cut some things out.

・"There is no hierarchy in the Upanishadic vision of life. Nothing is lower, nothing is higher, nothing is mundane and nothing is sacred – all is one. This vision remained the vision of a few mystics. It never became part of human consciousness, that’s why there is so much misery in the world, so much ugliness, insensitivity. People are not flowering; their hidden splendor, their imprisoned splendor is not freed. People are living imprisoned lives, chained. They contain infinity in them but they are not even aware of it."

・"Only the music hidden in our souls is not invented; it is part of God. God is the musician and we are his music. He is the dancer and we are his dance. He is the poet and we are his poetry. He is the singer and we are his song. This is the meaning of AUM."

・Man is also exactly as AUM; man is a miniature universe. If we can decipher man we will be able to decipher the whole of existence. If we can know a single dewdrop in its totality we will have known all the oceans, because we will have dissected a single drop which contains the secret of all the oceans.

・"You are a dewdrop of God, of the whole, of this organic infinity, of this eternity. The best way to
understand the universe, the truth, the existence, is to understand yourself. Socrates is right when
he says, ”Know thyself,” because, knowing that, you will be able to know all."

・"Your so-called waking state is full of mechanical habits; you simply go on repeating them – and each generation goes on giving its mechanical habits to the new generation. That’s why progress seems to be so impossible, because parents go on imprinting their children with THEIR programming, and that programming has been coming for centuries, maybe thousands-of-years-old programming. Their parents programmed them and their parents and their parents, and it has been going on since Adam and Eve, perhaps even before that, because God programmed Adam and Eve. "Not to eat from this tree” is a program, is a conditioning. "You should do this, you should not do this....” He behaved just like any other stupid father, NO difference at all, and he punished like any father – he threw Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden."

・"When your silence is pregnant with bliss and your bliss is full of silence – is there wholeness, totality. Then all duality and all schizophrenia disappear. "