O S H O

The Quest

Your search for life

Jan-Feb 2005

LIFE & DEATH OF

O S H O

Contents 3

This Month

Vol 2, Issue 1

PUBLISHER & EDITOR

COVER FEATURES

4 7 8 9 10

Jan-Feb 2005

KUMAR RAJESH SHRESTHA

Life & Death Of Osho

FEATURE WRITERS

Osho On Himself Osho In The World's Words

J M MINGS

The World In Osho's Words

PIETER LANGEDIJK

Laugh With Osho

SUPPORT TEAM DINESH SHRESTHA - SHREE DEVI SHRESTHA

REGULAR FEATURES

SOJEN PRADHAN

11 Healing With Foods

ADVERTISEMENTS & CONTACT

Diabetes

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Now for something exotic!

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12 Environment Watch

POST BOX 10046, KATHMANDU

Global problems: Loss of biodiversity

OFFICE HOURS

13 Coping With Life

10 AM - 2 PM (SUNDAY - FRIDAY)

The physiology of meditation

PRINTED AT

14 The Silk Quest 15 Conan The Grammarian 16 Experience and Expression

COMMONER PRESS, KATHMANDU CDO REGISTERED NO. 63/060/061 - KATHMANDU

The magical garden

18 Students Ask The Zen Corner

"Meditation must not be made into a business." Acharya Rajneesh 1971

Meditation

19 The Last Page FOR YOUR INFORMATION

The magic of enchantment Can a god match a mortal?

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The Quest Jan-Feb 2004

Page 2

Awareness Monthly

A section of the Great Wall, China

Photo by Umberto Novarino

THIS MONTH

READ

TO THE READER

EVENTS THIS MONTH

The period in between Osho's birth on December 11, 1931 and his death on January 19, 1990 was marked with wisdom, rebelliousness and vision. All his life he was a rebel. The moment he died, the rebel was no more. All that he left for us to share is only his wisdom and his vision. This issue of The Quest celebrates his death anniversary.

EVERY SATURDAY 2PM-6PM

From this month onwards, The Quest comes to you in a new format and with four more interesting pages. Meanwhile, due to the repeated increase in the newsprint and other costs, we have been compelled to revise the price of The Quest. We hope our esteemed readers will understand us and continue to support our future efforts. We, in the mean time, pledge to bring to you the best for the mind, body and spirit.

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Awareness Monthly

LIFE & DEATH

1931 - 1953 Early Years December 11,1931: Osho is born in Kuchwada, a small village in the state of Madhya Pradesh, central India. He is the eldest of eleven children of a Jaina READ cloth merchant. Stories of his early years describe him as independent and rebellious as a child, questioning all social, religious and philosophical beliefs. As a youth he experiments with meditation techniques. March 21, 1953: Osho becomes enlightened at the age of twenty-one, while majoring in philosophy at D N Jain college in Jabalpur. 1953 - 1956 Education 1956: Osho receives his MA from the University of Sagar with First Class Honours in Philosophy. He is the All-India Debating Champion and Gold Medal winner in his graduating class. 1957-1966 University Professor and Public Speaker 1957: Osho is appointed as a professor at the Sanskrit College in Raipur. 1958: He is appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Jabalpur, where he taught until 1966. A powerful and passionate debater, he also travels widely in India, speaking to large audiences The Quest Jan-Feb 2004

OF

O S H O

and challenging orthodox religious leaders in public debates. 1966: After nine years of teaching, he leaves the university to devote himself entirely to the raising of human consciousness. On a regular basis, he begins to address gatherings 20,000 to 50,000 in the open-air grounds of India’s major cities. Four times a year he conducts intense tenday meditation camps. In 1970, the 14th of April, he introduces his revolutionary meditation technique, Dynamic Meditation, which begins with a period of uninhibited movement and catharsis, followed by a period of silence and stillness. Since then this meditation technique has been used by psychotherapists, medical doctors, teachers and other professionals around the world. 1969 - 1974 Mumbai Years Late 1960’s: His Hindi talks become available in English translations. 1970: In July 1970, he moves to Mumbai, where he lives until 1974. 1970: Osho – at this time called Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh – begins to initiate seekers into Neo-Sannyas or discipleship, a path of commitment to self-exploration and meditation which does not involve renouncing the world or anything else. Osho’s understanding of ‘Sannyas’ is a radical departure from the traditional Eastern viewpoint. For

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Awareness Monthly

him it is not the material world that needs to be renounced but our past and the conditionings and belief systems that each generation imposes on the next. He continues to conduct meditation camps at Mount Abu in Rajasthan but stops accepting invitations to speak throughout the country. He devotes his energies entirely to the rapidly expanding group of sannyasins around him. At this time, the first Westerners begin to arrive and to be initiated into Neo-Sannyas. Among them are leading psychotherapists from the human potential movement in Europe and America, seeking the next step in their own inner growth. With Osho they experience new, original meditation techniques for contemporary man, synthesising the wisdom of the East with the science of the West. 1974 - 1981 Poona Ashram During these seven years he gives a 90 minutes discourse nearly every morning, alternating every month between Hindi and English. His discourses offer insights into all the major spiritual paths, including Yoga, Zen, Taoism, Tantra and Sufism. He also speaks on Gautam Buddha, Jesus, READ Lao Tzu, and other mystics. These discourses have been collected into over 600 volumes and translated into 50 languages. In the evenings, during these years, he answers questions on personal matters such as love, jealousy, meditation. These ‘darshans’ are compiled in 64 darshan diaries of which 40 are published. The commune that arose around Osho at this time offers a wide variety of therapy groups which combine Eastern meditation techniques with Western psychotherapy. Therapists from all over the world are attracted and by 1980 the international community gained a reputation as ‘the world’s finest growth and therapy centre.’ One hundred thousand people pass through its gates each year. 1981: He develops a degenerative back condition. In March 1981, after giving daily discourses for nearly 15 years, Osho begins a three-year period of self-imposed public silence. In view of the possible need for emergency surgery, and on the recommendation of his personal doctors, he travels to the US. This same year, his American disciples purchase a 64,000-acre ranch in Oregon and invite him to visit. He eventually agrees to stay The Quest Jan-Feb 2004

in the US and allows an application for permanent residence to be filed on his behalf. 1981 - 1985 Rajneeshpuram A model agricultural commune rises from the ruins of the central Oregonian high desert. Thousands of overgrazed and economically unviable acres are reclaimed. The city of Rajneeshpuram is incorporated and eventually provides services to 5,000 residents. Annual summer festivals are held which draw 15,000 visitors from all over the world. Very quickly, Rajneeshpuram becomes the largest spiritual community ever pioneered in America. Opposition to the commune and new city keeps pace with its success. Responding to the anti-cult fervour which pervades all levels of American society during the Reagan years, local, state and federal politicians make inflammatory speeches against the Rajneeshees. The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the Treasury Department, and the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agency (ATF) are only a few of the agencies spending millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money while harassing the commune with unwarranted and fruitless investigations. Similar costly campaigns are conducted in Oregon. October 1984: Osho ends three and one half years of self-imposed silence. July 1985: He resumes his public discourses each morning to thousands of seekers gathered in a two-acre meditation hall. Sept. - Oct. 1985: The Oregon Commune is destroyed. September 14: Osho’s personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and several members of the commune’s management suddenly leave, and a whole pattern of illegal acts they have committed – including poisoning, arson, wiretapping, and

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Awareness Monthly

1985 - 1986 World Tour

attempted murder - are exposed. Osho invites law enforcement officials to investigate Sheela’s crimes. The authorities, however, see the investigation as a golden opportunity to destroy the commune entirely. October 23: A US federal grand jury in Portland secretly indicts Osho and seven others on READ relatively minor charges of immigration fraud. October 28: Without warrants, federal and local officials arrest at gun point Osho and others in Charlotte, North Carolina. While the others are released, he is held without bail for twelve days. A five-hour return plane trip to Oregon takes four days. En route, Osho is held incommunicado and forced to register under the pseudonym, David Washington, in the Oklahoma County jail. Subsequent events indicate that it is probable that he was poisoned with the heavy metal thallium while in that jail and the El Reno Federal Penitentiary. November: Emotions and publicity swell around Osho’s immigration case. Fearing for his life and the well being of sannyasins in volatile Oregon, attorneys agree to an Alford Plea on two out of 35 of the original charges against him. According to the rules of the plea, the defendant maintains innocence while saying that the prosecution could have convicted him. Osho and his attorneys maintain his innocence in the court. He is fined $400,000 and is deported from America. Among others, US Attorney in Portland publicly concedes that the government was intent on destroying Rajneeshpuram.


January-February: He travels to Kathmandu, Nepal and speaks twice daily for the next two months. In February, the Nepalese government refuses visas for his visitors and closest attendants. He leaves Nepal and embarks on a world tour. February-March: At his first stop, Greece, he is granted a 30-day tourist visa. But after only 18 days, on March 5, Greek police forcibly break into the house where he is staying, arrest him at gunpoint, and deport him. Greek media reports indicate government and church pressure provoked the police intervention. During the following two weeks he visits or asks permission to visit 17 countries in Europe and the Americas. All of these countries either refuse to grant him a visitor’s visa or revoke his visa upon his arrival, and force him to leave. Some refuse even landing permission for his plane. March-June: On March 19 he travels to Uruguay. On May 14th the government has scheduled a press conference to announce that he will be granted permanent residence in Uruguay. Uruguay’s President Sanguinetti later admits that he received a telephone call from Washington, D.C. the night before the press conference. He is told that if Osho is allowed to stay in Uruguay, the six billion dollar debt Uruguay owes to the US will be due immediately and no further loans will be granted. Osho is ordered to leave Uruguay on June 18th. June-July: During the next month he is deported from both Jamaica and Portugal. In all, 21 countries had denied him entry or deported him after arrival. On July 29,1986, he returns to Mumbai, India. 1987 - 1989 Osho Commune International January 1987: He returns to the ashram in Pune, India, which is renamed Rajneeshdham. July 1988: Osho begins, for the first time in 14 years, to personally lead the meditation at the end of each evening’s discourse. He also introduces a revolutionary new meditation technique called The Mystic Rose. January-February 1989: He stops using the name “Bhagwan,” retaining only the name

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Awareness Monthly

Rajneesh. However, his disciples ask to call him ‘Osho’ and he accepts this form of address. Osho explains that his name is derived from William James’ word ‘oceanic’ which means dissolving into the ocean. Oceanic describes the experience, he says, but what about the experiencer? For that we use the word ‘Osho.’ At the same time, he came to find out that ‘Osho’ has also been used historically in the Far East, meaning “The Blessed One, on Whom the Sky Showers Flowers.” March-June 1989: Osho is resting to recover from the effects of the poisoning, which by now are strongly influencing his health. July 1989: His health is getting better and he makes two appearances for silent darshans during the Festival, now renamed Osho Full Moon Celebration. August 1989: Osho begins to make daily appearances in Gautama the Buddha Auditorium for evening darshan. He inaugurates a special group of white-robed sannyasins called the “Osho White Robe Brotherhood.” All sannyasins and nonsannyasins attending the evening darshans are asked to wear white robes. September 1989: Osho drops the name READ “Rajneesh,” signifying his complete discontinuity from the past. He is known simply as “Osho,” and the ashram is renamed “Osho Commune International.” 1990 Osho leaves his body January 1990: During the second week in January, Osho’s body becomes noticeably weaker. On January 18, he is so physically weak that he is unable to come to Gautama the Buddha Auditorium. On January 19, his pulse becomes irregular. When his doctor inquires whether they should prepare for cardiac resuscitation, Osho says, “No, just let me go. Existence decides its timing.” he leaves his body at 5 p.m. At 7 p.m. his body is brought to Gautama the Buddha Auditorium for a celebration, and is then carried to the burning ghats for cremation. Two days later, his ashes are brought to Osho Commune International in Pune, India and placed in his samadhi in Chuang Tzu Auditorium. ☯

OSHO I do not ordinarily make prophecies, but about this I am absolutely prophetic: the coming hundred years are going to be more and more irrational, and more and more mystical. The second thing: After a hundred years people will be perfectly able to understand why I was misunderstood – because I am the beginning of the mystical, the irrational. I am a discontinuity with the past. The past cannot understand me; only the future will understand. The past can only condemn me. It cannot understand me, it cannot answer me, it cannot argue with me; it can only condemn me. Only the future… as man becomes more and more available to the mysterious, to the meaningless yet significant… After a hundred years they will understand. Because the more man becomes aware of the mysterious side of life, the less he is political; the less he is a Hindu, a Mohammedan, a Christian; the less is the possibility for his being a fanatic. A man in tune with the mysterious is humble, loving, caring, accepting the uniqueness of everybody. He is rejoicing in the freedom of each individual, because only with freedom can this garden of humanity be a rich place. Each individual should have his own song. But right now it is the crowd, the mob that decides everything. And it is the mob that is condemning me because I am asserting the rights of the individual – and I am alone in asserting the rights of the individual. ☯

Courtesy: Osho World


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Awareness Monthly

OSHO in the

“One of the thousand men who have made our twentieth century.” The Sunday Times – Panorama “Osho Rajneesh continues to inspire millions of human beings… [he] does not have a physical form but his spirit is firm and strong, and lives in his words. The Tribune “Osho is an enlightened master who is working with all possibilities to help humanity overcome a difficult phase in developing consciousness.” The Dalai Lama

READ

“Osho is a man blessed with a great sense of humour and wisdom.” Yehudi Menuhin, musician “Osho is the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ… He’s obviously a very effective man, otherwise he wouldn’t be such a threat. He’s saying the same things that nobody else has the courage to say… He was the greatest spiritual teacher of the 20th century… He understood us better than we understand ourselves.” Tom Robbins, author “He does not discuss thesises, does not compare theories, does not debate. He guides, shows the way, makes one reason, pushes one to understand, urges one on. He is therefore a Spiritual Teacher…” Francesco Alberoni, sociologist “A Teacher of extraordinary wisdom.” Marco Pannella, politician “Osho’s incredible taped discourse lectures and books have inspired me and millions of others on the path of self-evolution… He is like a great bell tolling, Awaken, Awaken, Awaken!” James Coburn, actor “Osho is one of the great mystics whom India has given birth to… I see him as one of the greatest thinkers and one of the guides of this Dark Age: a real Teacher of Reality.” Kabir Bedi, actor ☯


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Awareness Monthly

The World in

Conflict and joy People are talking continuously about their miseries, about their troubles, about their conflicts. Have you ever heard anybody talking about his joyous moments? About his dances and songs? About his silences and blissfulness? No, nobody talks about these things. Freedom People ask for freedom, but deep down, unconsciously, they ask for irresponsibility. Freedom is possible only when you are so integrated that you can take the responsibility of being free.

READ Life Life in itself has no meaning… It’s an opportunity to create meaning. It is a poetry to be composed, a song to be sung, a dance to be danced. Materialism Renounce money-mindedness, but there is no need to renounce money… But money-minded people cling to money; they destroy its whole purpose. Its purpose is to go on moving from one hand to another hand. The more it moves the better, the richer the society becomes. Marriage I am not against marriage. [The common] marriage is a trap: you will be trapped by the woman and the woman will be trapped by you. It is a mutual trap. Then legally you are allowed to torture each other forever. Sexual obsession West or East. Both are obsessed with sex - of course, in different ways. The West is indulgent, the East is repressive, but the obsession is the same… The mind of man moves like a pendulum, from the right to the left, from the left to the right. When a society is repressive it is gaining momentum to become indulgent, and when a society is indulgent it is gaining momentum again to become repressive. ☯ The Quest Jan-Feb 2004

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Awareness Monthly

Laugh with

OSHO ☺ The shy young bride is really upset when she learns that her husband has been married twice before. Through her tears, she asks him what has become of his two previous wives. “I just as well tell you,” says her husband. “My first wife died from eating poisonous mushrooms.” “And your second wife?” she cries. “She died of a fractured skull,” the man answers. “It was her own fault, she wouldn’t eat the mushrooms.”

READ

☺ A young man went to a very wise old man, and the young man said, “I am love sick, Sir, can you help me?” The wise man thought, and he said, “There is only one cure for love, and that is marriage. And if marriage cannot cure it, nothing can cure it. If you get married, you will be cured. Never again will you think about love!” ☺ A young boy came home from school and told his mother, “I had a big fight with Sidney. He called me a sissy.” “What did you do?” the mother asked. “I hit him with my purse!” ☺ A man sitting in a bar is complaining to the bartender: “After one year and three thousand dollars with that psychiatrist, he tells me I’m cured. Some cure! A year ago, I was Nancy Reagan – now I’m nobody.” ☺ A priest went to a ranch in order to buy a horse, and saw a beautiful one that he liked and asked if he could try it. “Sure,” said the rancher, “but I have to tell you something. That horse used to be


owned by the bishop, and if you want the horse to move, you have to say, `Good Lord,’ and if you want him to stop, you have to say, `Amen.’“ “That’s okay,” said the priest and jumped up and said, “Good Lord.” The horse promptly moved off and then was seen galloping in the mountains. The priest was yelling, “Good Lord, good Lord.” and the horse was really moving. But suddenly they were coming to the edge of the cliff and, in panic, stricken with fear, he yelled, “Stop, stop!” That did not work and then he remembered and shouted, “Amen.” The horse stopped right on the edge of the cliff and, wiping his brow with his relief, the priest said, “Good Lord!” ☺ The male patient complained to the dentist that he was in terrible pain, but he insisted on saving the tooth. The dentist put on his white coat, adjusted the light on his forehead, started his drill, and said, “Okay, now open your mouth and we’ll see what we can do.” Just then the patient grabbed him below the belt. “What the hell are you doing?” the dentist screamed. “Now,” the man said quietly, not letting go, “we’re not going to hurt each other, are we?” ☺ They were married for twenty-five years and had their biggest argument on the day of their silver anniversary. She never hit harder or lower: “If it weren’t for my money, that TV set wouldn’t be here. If it weren’t for my money, the very chair you’re sitting on wouldn’t be here!” “Are you kidding?” he interrupted. “If it weren’t for your money – I wouldn’t be here!” ☺ The local political leader was invited to speak to the inmates of a mental asylum. The politician had begun his talk and had been going for about ten minutes when a fellow in the back stood up and yelled, “Oh, you don’t know what you are talking about! Besides, you are talking too much. Why don’t you shut up and sit down!” “I will wait a minute until you put that man out,” the politician said to the superintendent. “Put him out?” the superintendent asked. “Certainly not! That poor man has been here for eight years and that is the first time he has ever said anything that made any sense, sir.” ☯

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Awareness Monthly

HEALING WITH FOODS

Caution: The information given in this page should not be used as a substitute for the medical advice of a physician.

Diabetes

NOW

FOR SOMETHING EXOTIC!

Daniel P Reid

THE

Diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to produce sufficient insulin in order to metabolise sugars, owing to long-term excess consumption of refined sugars and starches, or by the inflammation of pancreas due to excess demand for pancreatic enzymes in the stomach. String beans (bulk or juice): rich in potassium, helps restore deficient pancreas exhausted by excess demand for insulin and other enzymes; alkalise the pancreas; as bulk, steam lightly; as juice, extract raw, 600 ml daily; may be mixed with carrot juice for flavour. Molasses: Use unsulphured molasses only; all cases of diabetes and pancreatitis are associated with iron deficiency; molasses is one of nature’s richest sources of organic iron and copper, which work together; take 2 tbsp molasses in large cup of warm water, 1-2 times daily; absolute abstention from refined starch and sugar required; this regimen READ has corrected diabetes, pancreatitis and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in 1-2 months; flavour molasses with ½ tsp vanilla or almond extract, if desired. Other beneficial foods: Active yeast dissolved in warm water (one small packet of powder per cup); raw tomatoes; cucumbers; raw spinach; asparagus. Foods to avoid: All refined starch and sugar; overcooked meat; cooked potatoes; bananas, figs, dates, raisins; salt, pepper, mustard. ☯

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The individual is the first step in making our habitat places worth living for decent human beings.

GLOBAL

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS:

LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is Nature’s wealth in varieties of living organisms. About 1.75 million species of all kinds are known and classified. However, there are many more. Each species consists of many individuals; all genetically different from one another. Species READ specialise in their own ways of life in certain typical

sets of environmental conditions (e.g. tropical rainforests containing many of the species on Earth). The total genetic variation among plants and animals makes it possible for life on Earth to adapt to environmental and climate changes. Problem The last few decades have seen human activities expanding all over the planet. In many cases this disturbs ecosystems to the extent that biodiversity is now being reduced. It is frightening that one species after the other is actually disappearing never to return. Today the rate at which species are being extinguished is estimated to be 50-100times higher than it used to be before human activities started to substantially modify the environment. Cause #

Intensified agriculture and forestry

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Urbanisation and pollution

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Heavy exploitation of tropical rainforests for short-term profit

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Population growth is putting increased pressure on the land particularly in developing countries.

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Exploitation of coastal areas and wetlands

All these factors cause damage and/or destruction to important biotopes and eco-systems.


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COPING WITH LIFE Is the meditative state that is achieved by yogis and other Far Eastern mystics accompanied by distinct physiological changes. A study of volunteer subjects in the U.S. indicates that it is.

The physiology of meditation Robert Keith Wallace & Herben Benson

READ

How capable is the human organism of adjusting to psychologically disturbing changes in the environment? Our technological age is probably testing this capacity more severely than it was ever tested in the past. The impact of the rapid changesunprecedented in scale, complexity and novelty that technology is bringing about in our world seems to be having a deteriorating effect on the mental and physical health of modern man. Some of the common disorders of our age, notably nervousness, stomach troubles and high blood pressure may well be attributable in part to uncertainties that are burgeoning in our environment and daily lives. Since the environment is not likely to grow less complex or more predictable, it seems only prudent to devote some investigative attention to the human body's resources for coping with the vicissitudes of the environment. There are in fact several ways in which an individual can control his physiological reactions to psychological events. Among the claims for such The Quest Jan-Feb 2004

control the most notable have come from practitioners of meditation systems of the east: yoga and Zen Buddhism. This article will review and discuss recent studies of the effects of meditation that have been made by ourselves and by other investigators. Yogis in India have long been reputed to perform phenomenal feats (?) such as voluntarily stopping the heartbeat or surviving for extended periods in an airtight pit or in extreme cold without food or in a distorted physical posture. One of the first investigators to look into these claims in an objective way was a French cardiologist, Thérèse Brosse, who went to India in 1935 equipped with a portable electrocardiograph so that she could monitor the activity of the heart. Brosse concluded from her tests that one of her subjects actually was able to stop his heart. In 1957 two American physiologists" M A Wenger of the University of California at Los Angeles and B K Bagchi of the University of Michigan medical School, conducted a more extensive investigation in collaboration with B K Anand of' the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. None of the yogis they studied, with more elaborate equipment than Brosse had used, showed a capability for stopping the heart. Wenger and Bagchi; concluded that the disappearance of the signal of heart activity in Brosse' electrocardiogram was probably an artifact, since the heart impulse is sometimes obscured by the electrical signals from contracting muscles of the thorax. In attempting to stop the heart, the yogis usually performed what is called the Valsalva maneuver, which increases the pressure within the chest; it can be done by holding one's breath and straining downward. Wenger, Bagchi and Anand did find, however, that some of the yogis could slow both heartbeat and respiration rate.

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To be concluded Awareness Monthly

CONTRIBUTIONS

THE SILK QUEST This is not a novel. Nor is it a story. This is a piece of history. It begins with a man who travels across the world, and ends with a lake that just remains there, in a windy day. The man’s name is Hervé Joncour. That of the lake, one doesn’t know… Italian writer Alessandro Baricco’s fairy tale of East and West, of a single man’s adventurous quest for silk and the passions that it brings. Each chapter has the pulse and the finality of a heartbeat.

READ

Hervé Joncour was thirty-two. He bought and sold. Silkworms. [2]

To be precise Hervé Joncour bought and sold the silkworms when their being worms consisted in being ting eggs, yellow or grey in colour, motionless and apparently dead. The palm of one hand could hold thousands of them. “You could talk of holding a fortune in your hands.” At the beginning of May the eggs hatched, setting free a larva which, after frantically eating its way through mulberry leaves, saw to incarcerating itself afresh in a cocoon, only to escape from it for good two weeks later, leaving behind it a fortune in silk to the tune of a thousand metres of raw thread and in cash as a handsome sum in French francs: that is assuming that everything went according to plan and as in the case of Hervé Joncour, you were somewhere in southern France. Laviilledieu was the name of the town inhabited by Hervé Joncour. Helene was that of his wife. They had no children. [3]

In [1]

Although his father had pictured for him a brilliant future in the army, Hervé Joncour had ended up earning his crust in an unusual career which by a singular piece of irony was not unconnected with a charming side that bestowed on it a vaguely feminine intonation. Hervé Joncour bought and sold silkworms for a living. The year was 1861. Flaubert was writing Salammbô, electric light remained hypothetical, and Abraham Lincoln, beyond the Ocean, was fighting a war of which he was not to see the finish. The Quest Jan-Feb 2004

order to avoid the epidemics which were increasingly ravaging the European hatcheries, Hervé Joncour went further afield to acquire the eggs beyond the Mediterranean, in Syria and Egypt. Herein lay the most perfectly adventurous part of his work. He would set out each year early in January. He would travel 1600 miles by sea and 800 miles overland. He would choose the eggs, negotiate the price make his purchase. Then he would turn round, travel 800 miles overland and 1600 miles by sea and return to Lavilledieu, usually the first Sunday in April, usually in time for High Mass. He would work for two weeks to prepare the eggs and sell them. For the rest of the year, he rested.

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ENGLISH USAGE Here beginneth the lesson on writing and life – meaning, style, grammar, punctuation, and the lightness of being. By the world's foremost authority on the English: language, Conan the Grammarian.

Prof John M Mings

Dear Conan, Would you write about the difference between an analogy and a metaphor? It seems that most people are like two ships passing in a foggy night when it comes to this subject. Thanks, Like A Hammer Louie

READ Dear Louie, Would I write or will I write? That’s another column, Louie, but I’ll give you a hint: I will write about analogies and metaphors. Listen carefully as I reveal still more hidden mysteries of our language, this time not so much about grammar, the toolkit we use to build what we say, but about the raw materials we can use to build a palace, not the familiar double-wide down the road. Ready? First, a little philosophy. This is for your own good, Louie, and it hurts me more than it hurts you to do it, but here goes. We cannot imagine anything we have not experienced. For example, if I were to ask you to describe to me what a Martian looks like, you would reach into your own experience to come up with a description: cabbage eyes, perhaps, with an artichoke body, celery antennae, and so on. (I am assuming you have never seen a Martian. If you regularly pal around with Martians, stop reading here, return to the contents page, and choose another write-up.) The point is that you do know what cabbages, artichokes, and celery are; you’ve seen them at


Giant Eagle lots of times. So, when you are asked to describe something you haven’t seen, you take things you have seen and put them together in a new and incongruous way. Another example, the simple algebraic equation, 3X=12. Although X is an unknown, if we put it in the context of knowns and understand how they relate to one another, we see that, in this equation at least, X=4. So, if you tell me that our tax system is fair, I could respond in several ways. I could simply refute you by saying, No, it’s not fair. Or, I could use a figure of speech, a metaphor, to respond in terms of things I am certain you know as well I as I know them. For example, I swallow and you swallow food and drink. All humans do. Chances are good you’ve even choked a time or two in your life on a piece of steak or had a chocolate malt go down the wrong way. And you certainly know what yukky medicine tastes like, and you hate to have to swallow it. Instead of the plain, No, it’s not fair, then, I could respond to your statement about our tax system by saying, Our tax system is hard to swallow! That’s a metaphor. I could go a step further, and emphasize my disagreement by analogy, and say, Our tax system is as hard to swallow as a Vaseline sandwich! My statement is more powerful and memorable than yours, I think. Look at them side by side and judge for yourself: You say our tax system is fair, but I say we are choking on its unfairness and it’s as hard to swallow as a Vaseline sandwich. Figures of speech, then, can turbocharge the power and effectiveness of language we use in speech and in writing. Go for them. I see and remember really good ones all the time, the latest in PC Week. There, they are talking about the Oxford English Dictionary. I can’t afford the OED on CDROM, but I certainly want it, not least because of a terrific ad. That publication endorsed the OED, saying that it is "A monumental reference work boasting the combination of massiveness and

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precision you’d find in a steamroller built by Rolls Royce." Talk about your figure of speech! Don’t worry about putting the proper label on any figure of speech, or worry about the "differences" between an analogy and a metaphor. Although you asked the question, Louie, I cannot imagine that your social life is so dreary that you would crouch in waiting at the next cocktail party you go to to corner some doe-eyed Mountaineerette and drop the line, "I was just discussing the difference between an analogy and a metaphor the other day when...." Won’t do you much good, Louie, ‘cause I tried it myself back in ‘87. I encourage you to read, Louie, read: the New Yorker, Mark Twain, the Bible, Potok,

EXPERIENCE &

De Vries, Thoreau, Shakespeare, Milton, Vonnegut. Wallow in the power and majesty of English, and maybe some will rub off on you. Think big, and think colorfully, Louie. After all, Man’s speech must exceed his grasp, else what’s a metaphor? Finally, work on your own stuff. The observation you made in your letter to Conan, "It seems that most people are like two ships passing in a foggy night when it comes to this subject," is a pretty lame figure of speech. I’m not sure I even understand what you’re saying. You are, it seems to me, for the most part, pissing in the wind. Now that’s a metaphor! Conan

EXPRESSION

The following article is a poetic rendering of the mystery and wonder that is involved in caring for and living in close contact with nature. The ecological principle of acting locally and thinking globally is clearly reflected in the dual concerns of plant conservation and global awareness: humanity and nature are one indivisible movement.

READ

The magical garden Suprabha Seshan Sometimes it all feels like powerful magic. Weird stuff. Bordering on wizardry and witchcraft. There are for sure strange beings and strange forces at work here. Things we cannot quite explain. Elves and leprechauns perhaps. Tiny midnight helpers. The garden is never ever the same. It changes constantly. We walk around in dumb disbelief at the sheer wonder of it all. How does life work, who is making it happen, how come? And why? At times we sense a terrific conspiracy going on down there, deep in the belly of the garden – whisperings and rustlings, shimmerings and tremblings, whooshings and rumblings – things happening around us, through us, and, mostly, in spite of us. Gardening, we muse, is some kind of an ancient magical art, a science of transformation, an alchemy of sorts, where the hidden life force is corralled and shaped into a new power. It uses knowledge skillfully but is vitally nourished by the unknown. It relies on acute sense perception and The Quest Jan-Feb 2004

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Painting by Sarupa Shrestha

combines the love of beauty and life with rigorous questioning and research. At the same time it is hugely supported by things we cannot see and hear, cannot touch or directly perceive, things outside of our common range of experience. Outside our ken. It recognizes the danger of knowledge too – and it has its own version of the dark arts and the dark lords – they who misuse their powers. For, knowledge is power. Walk into the labyrinth below the fig tree and lose yourself in pathways that have riddles and READ visions around every corner. Feel the tug at your mouth, an irrepressible smile, when you meet some plants looking like they are out to have fun. Plants definitely have a sense of humour! Stand on the Tower on a windy evening and watch the forest quiver as if some huge sentient force were surging through it. Feel the unitive being that it is. Well, it’s all a matter of interpretation. We could be talking science too. Use a different set of terms for the same thing – species, diversity, forest ecology, emergent properties of complex systems, plant-pollinator dynamics… it doesn’t really seem to matter in the end! Between us here at the Sanctuary, in those quiet reflective communing moments between chores and responsibilities, we try now and then to explore our lives and work and concerns in different ways, using different metaphors. A complete explanation for what we do and why we do what we do defies us but there is always that hunch, that sixth sense, that intuited connection that lays the ground for every course of action. Usually it works! Magic is how we experience it. Science is the tool we use. And this tiny garden is our crucible. Magic or science – the source of The Quest Jan-Feb 2004

destructiveness seems to be the same. It lies within each of our human minds. And it is inextricably tied to the forces at work in society at large. We all know it well and it’s got different names – ego, selfaggrandisement, greed, domination, exploitation, and rampant, inexcusable stupidity coupled with blind action. Maybe, in a roundabout way, what we are trying to say is that unless we are alert to the many influences at work from within and without, unless we awaken our self-awareness, over and above our cognitive, aesthetic, political and practical abilities, we risk our lives (and those of others) to entrapment and sorrow. A life without magic. Without meaning and joy. In the light of recent world events, in America, Afghanistan, Argentina, India and Pakistan, our every action and thought and feeling, our own particular condition is fully exposed. We have no respite. No place to hide. Not even in this beautiful garden way out in the remote tropical woods. There is no one to call to task other than ourselves. We are the world, in all its glory and misery. We cannot pretend or believe or hope otherwise. ☯

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“What is the quality of energy that will change man, if it is not knowledge…?

WELCOME TO K STUDY CENTER LOCATED IN A PEACEFUL SETTING JUST ABOVE ANANDAKUTI VIHARA ON THE SWOYAMBHU HILL, THIS STUDY CENTER OFFERS THE INDIVIDUAL THE UNIQUE ENVIRONMENT TO DISCUSS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS

PERTAINING

TO

HUMAN

PROBLEMS, TO STUDY BOOKS AND TO MEDITATE ON THESE ASPECTS.

THE

CENTER ALSO PROVIDES FREE

LENDING OF BOOKS AND AUDIOTAPES OF DISCOURSES BY J

KRISHNAMURTI.

OPENING TIME EVERY SATURDAY 2 PM - 6 PM Awareness Monthly

STUDENTS ASK

THE ZEN CORNER

& the candle lantern

What is the difference between respect & love? J Krishnamurti: You can look up ‘respect’ and ‘love in a dictionary and find the answer. Is that what you want to know? Do you want to know the superficial meaning of those words, or the significance behind them? When a prominent man comes around, a minister or a governor, have you noticed how everybody salutes him? You call that respect, don’t you? But such respect is phony, because behind it there is fear, greed. You want something out of the poor devil, so you put a garland around his neck. That is not respect, it is merely the coin with which you buy and sell in the market. You don’t feel respect for your servant or the villager, but only for those from whom you hope to get something. That kind of respect is really fear; it is not respect at all, it has no meaning. But if you really have love in your heart, then to you the governor, the teacher, your READ servant and the villager are all the same; then you have respect, a feeling for them all, because love does not ask anything in return. ☯

In early times in Japan, bamboo-and-paper lanterns were used with candles inside. A blind man, visiting a friend one night, was offered a lantern to carry home with him. “I do not need a lantern,” he said. “Darkness or light is all the same to me.” “I know you do not need a lantern to find your way,” his friend replied, “but if you don’t have one, someone else may run into you. So you must take it.” The blind man started off with the lantern and before he had walked very far someone ran squarely into him. “Look out where you are going!” he exclaimed to the stranger. “Can’t you see this lantern?” “Your candle has burned out, brother,” replied the stranger. ☯

MEDITATION In meditation, you are not important, you have no place in it; the beauty of it is not you, but in itself. And to this, you can add nothing.


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THE LAST PAGE

Can a god match a mortal?

THE MAGIC OF ENCHANTMENT

READ

Enchantment is a spell that comes over us, an aura of fantasy and emotion that can settle on the heart and either disturb it or send it into rapture and reverie: One day you fall, in love, and a person who yesterday was like anyone else has suddenly become translucent with grace and infused with otherworldly value. You stumble across a roaring, resplendent waterfall, as I once did, in the middle of a quiet forest, and you become profoundly entranced. The stunning vision fixes itself in memory, and you wish you could have other moments of similar transporting charm An enchanted life has many moments when the heart is overwhelmed by beauty and the imagination is electrified by some haunting quality in the world or by a spirit or voice speaking from deep within a thing, a place, or a person. Enchantment may be a state of rapture and ecstasy in which the soul comes to the foreground, and the literal concerns of survival and daily preoccupation at least momentarily fade into the background. The soul has an absolute, unforgiving need for regular excursions into enchantment. It requires them like the body needs food and the mind needs thought. Yet our culture often takes pride in disproving and exploding the sources of enchantment, explaining away one mystery after another and overturning precious shrines, dissolving the family farm that has housed spirits of civility for eons, or desecrating for material profit a mountain or stream sacred to native residents. We have yet to learn that we can’t survive without enchantment and that the loss of it is killing us. A culture dedicated to enchantment recognises our need to live in a world of both facts and holy imagination. It doesn’t that wisdom and deep intelligence require an honest appreciation of mystery. It seeks our experiences that quiet our mental ambitions and open a pathway toward some kind of transcendent vision, experiences that swell the heart and stretch the limits of belief and understanding. Enchantment is both a dulling of the mind and a sharpening of perception. Enchantment is not always positive; we can be seized by fear, paranoia, jealousy, envy, depression, rage, and disillusionment. Sometimes intense, difficult emotions take hold of us in a “seizure,” to use an old word, a spell that falls over us like a bubble, clouds our understanding, and seems to impede our freedom. In our disenchantment,


A very handsome man and his friend Peter went to the best nightclub in Paris. They sat at the best table and drank the finest imported wine. When the cabaret had finished, the handsome young man asked Peter to invite the most beautiful dancing girl to join them at their table. The girl approached them excitedly, her eyes sparkling and sat down. “Peter,” said the Apollo-like man, “Invite her to my suite!” They left the nightclub, got into the Rolls Royce, and Peter drove them to the most expensive hotel in town. Peter left them in the suite and went away. The next morning when the girl was leaving the room, she met Peter in the hall and he asked, “How did you like it? Did you have a good night?” “Oh, Peter,” sighed the girl, “It was the most beautiful night of my life! Your friend is a god!” Peter left her in a hurry and went inside the room. “Let’s go back, Jesus,” he said agitatedly. ”I think she has discovered who we are!”

WHAT IT

IS

THE QUEST?

IS A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEALING WITH VARIOUS

ASPECTS OF AWARENESS AND WELL BEING:

#

SECRETS OF A HEALTHY MIND, BODY AND SOUL

#

RIGHT LIVING AND COPING WITH LIFE

#

HUMAN NATURE AND PSYCHOLOGY

#

ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS

#

LOCAL CONCERN AND GLOBAL AWARENESS

#

ENGLISH USAGE

#

CREATIVE EXPRESSION

LET AWARENESS BE THE LEADING LIGHT IN YOUR SEARCH FOR PERSONAL FULFILLMENT. we often seek psychological explanations and chemical tonics for these troubling emotions and states, and yet even disturbing spells and episodes have their necessity. (Thomas Moore in The Re-enchantment of everyday life)

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