Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Maitri
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 Ma Prem Maitri (Erin Robbins M Ed). It is "Exhibit A-849" 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 4 pages.
 July 24, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I first heard of Bhagwan Rajneesh eight years ago at a conference for Humanistic Psychology in Santa Barbara, California. One year later through contact with a fellow therapist, I came to meet Bhagwan's work directly. Wendy Wyatt, now Ma Prem Karuna, a prominent leader in the field of Transpersonal Psychology in New England, had been to India to explore his revolutionary techniques. She had discovered through his work a viable way to assist her clients and students in therapy. My own background specialized in the creative arts as therapy. I come from a strong basis in both religious practice and study, and art (Bachelor of Arts, University of California Santa Cruz, Honors awarded 1976 in Art, minor Psychology; Master of Education in Expressive Arts Therapies, Lesley College Graduate School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, awarded 1978). My own work is directed in therapy and education through the creative process. My work experience spreads from children and adolescents to geriatrics, from hospitalized patients in traditional mental facilities to alchoholic rehabilitation treatment, to private counceling and therapy for the 'normal' but unhappy or dissatisfied client from the successful strata of our society. Preparatory training included 10 years association with Brandeis Institute [Judaic education and cultural center in Simi Valley, California), 2 years association with the American Repertory Theatre Company (American school based in Switzerland, performing on tour through Greece, France, Italy and Switzerland), Dance Therapy training with Anna Halprin and Gabrelle Roth, Marin, California, extensive internship and apprenticeship with Janie Rhyne, founder of Gestalt Art Therapy. Graduate studies were specialized in all art forms as technique and in the psychotherapeutic process. A masters thesis, "As a Closed Bud Flowers", on the theme of creativity and therapy focusing on the work of Bhagwan Rajneesh was accepted in Spring, 1978. After four years leading inner-growth and meditation programs at the Rajneesh Ashram in India, I spent one year teaching and leading programs at Geetam Rajneesh Sannyas Ashram, Lucerne Valley, California, and am presently on the staff at Rajneesh International Meditation University, Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. I traveled first to study with Bhagwan Rajneesh in India in 1977. The reputation of the center in Poona as the greatest personal growth facility in the world had come to me from many valued sources. I had been experimenting already with his techniques for both myself and my clients, and had found astounding results. The experience proved to be the most intense and focused investigation in my professional career. The change was from treating the symptoms of dis-ease, temporary and misleading, to uncovering and enlightening the source, and healing from the center. It became unquestionably clear that he was not only a master of psychology and human behavior, but he offered techniques that could transform the quality of my work in the most positive sense. To say that Bhagwan has been my greatest teacher is a vast understatement. He has shown me the way through the greatest and most significant stumbling blocks that every psychotherapist in the world faces. He has indicated the way beyond the limitations of one struggling ego attempting to help another. If the direction and insight I had received in his hundreds of books and thousands of discourses was not enough, if association with those who had been involved with the techniques devised and developed by Bhagwan was also not enough, my fortune came in the close contact with Bhagwan, I had during the years of 1977 through 1981. In the first few years through both personal conversations in darshan and in written correspondence, answered through his secretaries, he assisted me in clarifying and understanding my own difficulties in my work, and in giving specific direction and suggestions for furthering. "....Never do anything from your conscious mind, that’s all. If it is not coming, say that it is not coming; that sincereity has to be remembered. That’h what happens to many mediums, and they lose track. Some day it is flowing, some day it is not flowing, or sometimes it is flowing for a few minutes and then it is not flowing. Then the ego gets involved. It says, 'Now I have to complete it, otherwise it looks embarrassing.' You complete it and whatsoever you do then is going to be dangerous. When you come in, it is dangerous; then it can be harmful. If you don't come in there is no problem at all. You are just a passage....and you can become a beautiful passage of unconscious forces. They are there! .....A medium has to be very sincere, absolutely sincere; not a single word should be added by you...... You have that intuitive quality, you have the hang of it; it just needs a little help. Not from the conscious mind....help in the sense that the conscious mind has not to be used--that awareness." I attended darshan regularly and had the opportunity to absorb his advise to dozens of therapists regarding a number of situations and people that arose in our work. His advice and counsel has been invaluable. I have no where in the world found the wealth and purity of his love and guidance. Its nature is absolute and essential. Bhagwan Rajneesh is indeed a great leader in the field of human psychology. He is companioned only by few others of his calibre, others who although gone for thousands of years, still remain deeply influential upon millions of lives today. He rises to the same pinnacle as Gautam the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Kabir and Chuang Tzu, Bodhidharma and others who have led the world’s great religions. He is not only a leader in the field of psychology and psychotherapies, he is probably the greatest religious leader alive today. From my own perspective, one richly grounded in the arts, psychology and religion, I find he is a man who sees the whole map of human consciousness, and offers direct and specific, workable and usable techniques and guidelines for the flowering of this consciousness. I would also like to say something about the specific nature of his present teaching, as it may be so easily misunderstood. His influence may not be so physically visable, his silent communication to his disciples not directly obvious. Rather, the intensity and import of his inspiration in this community is to be found in the hearts and beings of those who have gathered around him. I was born and raised in an extremely successful family, given immense liberties as a youth and lived a life rich in culture and travels. I was exposed to the world of business and success, my father being the founder of Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Company, I had the opportunity to experience much of what was available in the highly developed arenas of our society. This experience directly led me to religion. It was my immediate and terribly sobering experience to find that all which was available in the outer world did not fulfill me. I was left searching for something of real value, for the real gold, the REAL gold. Today, at Rajneeshpuram, a silent communion is flowing between us like the air I breathe in and out, I feel his presence and I rejoice. Without this silent communion I could never manage to work twelve hours each day in such love and joy. It is delight --there is no burden, only this love which inspires me. This city would never blossom in the speed, efficiency and beauty in which it does without the invisible, direct connection we share. An incredible thing is taking place here in this Buddhafield -- a miraculous, fantastic happening which the whole world, if daring enough to really see, would cherish and celebrate. Sincerely, |
(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.)
