Chiyono

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Chiyono, the Ranch's hair and beauty salon, was located in Devateerth Mall, in "downtown" Rajneeshpuram. It was named for the first female Zen master and head of a Zen organization. Who more appropriate for a beauty salon, right? But there is a trick.

She famously became enlightened when gazing at the reflection of the full moon in the old decrepit water bucket she was carrying and the bucket broke, leaving no water, and no moon reflected in it. That "ultimate accident" is celebrated in one of the better-known cards of the Osho Transformation Tarot deck, image right.

And the trick? Osho relates:

She went from one monastery to another to take sannyas, to become a nun; but even great masters refused -- because she was so beautiful she would create trouble. There were so many monks -- and of course monks are repressed people -- and she was so beautiful that they will forget God and everything. And she was really beautiful, so everywhere the door was closed.

The master said, "Your search is okay, but I have to look towards my followers also. There are five hundred sannyasins; they will go mad. They will forget their meditations, their scriptures, everything. You will become the god. So Chiyono, don't disturb these poor people, you go."
So what did Chiyono do? Finding no way, she burned her face, scarred her whole face. And then she went to a master; he couldn't even recognize whether she was a woman or a man. Then she was accepted as a nun.

~ from No Water, No Moon, ch 1

And she shaved her head too, as in the said-to-be extremely lifelike statue made of her near the end of her life. Then there's all the things Osho has said about make-up, for example:

You say to me, "Makeup can be used to spiritually enhance a woman's natural beauty...."

That is sheer nonsense. Spirituality cannot be enhanced by any makeup. Spiritual beauty has nothing to do with anything that can be done from the outside. Spirituality is your original face; it is the discovery of your intrinsic nature. It has not to be tampered with, it has not to be painted, it has not to be arranged. It has no hairs on the legs because there are no legs, no armpits, no lips. Your innermost being is pure consciousness.
It needs no makeup.
But I understand Sobel's standpoint. People are even pretending there. That's what your so-called saints are doing. They are trying to cultivate spirituality. They are trying to condition themselves in a certain pattern of being holier-than-thou. But the really spiritual person is very simple, simple in the sense that he is in a natural flow; he is in a let-go with existence.
I will not allow you, Sobel, to work on any one of my sannyasins -- not at all. It is hard work for me somehow to remove their lipstick, and somehow to make them drop their phoniness, and somehow to help them to discover their original face. I don't want you to do some makeup, and I don't see that you can make any of my sannyasins more beautiful in any way by makeup. The makeup will simply make her somebody else; she will not be herself. She may look like an actress, she may look like a model, but she will not be herself.

~ from Come, Come, Yet Again Come, ch 6

How this all fit with the Ranch work-temple Chiyono is not yet known. Do you have some info or stories to share about Chiyono? Contribute! <== how to


see also
The City of Rajneeshpuram
Rajneeshpuram names