Testimonial letter from Kou Sugawara

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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 Kou Sugawara. It is "Exhibit A-94" 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.

Mr Kou Sugawara
Headpriest of Goseiji Temple
Iwadeyama-cho Shinzan,
Tamatsukuri-gun
Miyagi-ken 989-65
Japan

July 18th, 1983

To Whom it May Concern,

In 1977, I was a student of Komazawa University, Tokyo, Japan after I finished a three-year practice at the Head Temple of Sohtoh Sect of Zen, Eiheiji Temple. While in Tokyo, I was staying at Kohganji Temple, but for me, who had experienced life in a temple for the first time at the age of 24, found it discourageous.

One day, I came across a book of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh entitle "Tantra - The Supreme Understanding" at a secondhand bookstore near the house of Prof. Michizoh Noguchi. I bought that book immediately and felt great impression. After this, I left the university and went back to my hometown, Sendai, a city in Northern Japan, and entered the school of acupuncture. At this period, I learned from my friend with whom I had been learning Sotai-ho (a kind of body rebalancing technique) that there would be a group therapy of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Since then, I have been committed to Svagat Rajneesh Meditation Center in Sendai.

I participated in a few group therapies and was deeply moved by a wonder of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. In Buddhism, we emphasize "relation" and I became to understand this in the meetings of these groups.

In this world of chaos, the importance of His work increases more and more. There is a small periodical "Friends of Zen" which has been published by the Sohtoh Sectof Zen. And a article which praises Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh appeared in it. This article was written by a poet, Mr Shinmin Sakamura who contributes his poems to the magazine every month. Mr Sakamura exerts a great influence on the Sohtoh Sect of Zen. Thus, though it has not appeared on the surface, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is working on the Japanese religious leaders without using any words. Hereafter, we cannot ignore Him.

America is a symbolic country. It is a country which sings the Apocalypse of Hell. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh represents an era. There is a saying in Zen, "Highers to the higher, lowers to the lower". It means putting things where they should be put, otherwise chaos will happen.

My personal introduction:

I am an acupuncturist, masseur, finger-pressurist, a director of the Japan Sohtohshyu Relief Committee for South East Asia Refugees (JSRC) and the headpriest of Goseiji Temple Foundation.

1971 For one year, I studied gymnastics devised by Prof. Michizoh Noguchi of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and became interested in the physical body.

1978 I studied the Sotai-ho devised by Mr Keizoh Hashimoto. This interchange with Mr Hashimoto still continues.

1980 As a member of JSRC, I participated in educational support activities in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand, and came to see the cruelty and barreness of the authority caused by political revolution.

JSRC is a group that undertake the works of libraries and culture-education under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Mr Kou Sugawara
[signed]


(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.)