Testimonial letter from G. B. Weibgen

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This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.

This letter is from G. B. Weibgen. It is "Exhibit A-1162" in the Noles collection.

The text version below has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription. Most apparent "errors" are correct transcriptions of typos already in the original. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file of the original letter, it has 2 pages.

172 Windsor Street,
Paddington,
N.S.W. 2021,
AUSTRALIA.

Dear Sirs,

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I am a Computer Consultant with I.P. Sharp & Associates, an International time-sharing network.

I graduated from Melbourne University in 1966 with the degree of Bachelor of Science and a Diploma of Education.

After military service, I became a Lecturer in Mathematics and Computer Programming at the Footscray Institute of Technology.

I joined I.P. Sharp as an APL consultant in 1982.

I first came across the teaching of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in 1976 and was immediately impressed by the intelligence and depth of his teachings. The following year, I visited his ashram in India and found the impression of peace in his presence so profound that I felt impelled to become a disciple.

Though I cannot remember him directly teaching about computing, his teachings have helped immeasurably in my day to day career as a computer consultant. The computer language I program in is APL. It is a complex high level language which involves considerable mental gymnastics to program in. Before I met Bhagwan, such involved intellectual effort had been at great personal cost in anxiety, headaches, sleeplessness and tension in inter-personal relationships.

I have practiced the meditations devised by Bhagwan and these have been instrumental in giving me a more peaceful self. But most important has been the applied application of Bhagwan's philosophy of doing through non-doing. It may seem strange that such a philosophy should have effectiveness in planning an accounting system for a merchant bank. But this is so. Inherent in Bhagwan's teachings is the theme that to treat life as a battle is futile, that with trust and acceptance, life will show itself not to be an enemy but a friend, that 'existence takes care of you'. The practical end of this approach is that given a problem, the solution is inherently part of it and ready, with trust and persistence, to show itself. And this approach I actually use daily in computer programming. Countless times I have been in insoluble situations to find the solution appear almost like magic.

No matter how complex the situation, the solution eventually shows itself. So I now program in a relaxed manner. Because I am less tense, I make less mistakes. Because I am more open, I can hear my customers' needs more clearly. And by consequence, my personal life is more relaxed and free of tension.

And this I owe to the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
G.B. Weibgen


(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)