Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Samadhi

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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 Ma Prem Samadhi (Samadhi Matthews Selecki). It is "Exhibit A-20" 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.

SAMADHI MATTHEWS M. Div., S.T.M.
Counsel on International Religious Studies

Rajneeshpuram
PO Box 10
Oregon 97741
7/20/83

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Throughout my years as Chaplain and Christian minister, I have been primarily engaged in the communication of the message of Christianity to a wide variety of congregations, as you can see from my attached vitae.

Furthermore, I have been a scholar in pursuit of the origins of Christianity and of the major world religious traditions; have studied in Jerusalem, Europe and America. My doctoral research required that I become acquainted with various spiritual expressions of worthip, ergo, I have sat in sesshin with zen roshis in order to understand the message of Buddha; meditated with Sufi Pirs to understand the state of fana(final absorption into God); prayed with hassidic rabbis; contemplated with hesychast priests of the Greek and Russian Orthodox Christian tradition; practised the martial arts, etc.

In 1972, the International World Symposium for Spirituality drew the largest gathering of world religious leaders to date. We assembled in an ecumenical congress to seek a common ground - a koinoneia - for all the traditions, so that the serious schism brewing in the world religious councils could be averted. A common credo was sought; yet no synthesis could be arrived at nor agreed upon.

Shortly thereafter I had the privelege of meeting personally with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Even after I had met with virtually every religious leader and teacher in the world, I had no preparation for this meeting with Bhagwan, a living Master. Since my relationship with dead masters such as Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu etc., had been through prayer and scholarship, I had been a disciple only on a spiritual level through contemplation. I had been a devoted minister and theologian with all my heart and soul; however, I was limited in the progress of my spiritual life. I had always felt that I could move beyond these limitations, but I did not know how. Where does one go after having done all the spiritual and psychotherapeutic practices known to man today? Who does one speak to after having spoken to all the spiritual teachers alive, as well as all the therapists, as well as having prayed to God under all the existing forms of history?

One comes, as I did in 1975, to a living Master.

From 1975 to the present I have met Bhagwan, spoken with Him, read His words, watched Him (as a dutiful religious scholar would) to see where the inconsistencies indicated His limitation. Not only have I found no limitation; I have seen in Him the source: He is who Jesus was, when Jesus was alive; He is who Buddha was when Buddha was alive.

He is a living Master. Whenever I would give my sermons I often would wish that I had been alive during the time when Jesus was alive so that I could have experienced Him, the way Peter and John and James and the other disciples did. I do not wish any longer, because I am in the presence of such a One. Not only this, but Bhagwan’s words are so clear, that the long sought after synthesis attempted by our ecumenical councils, is right here. Every tradition now has the grounds of a meeting. This is no watered-down simplistic summary; rather, Bhagwan's synthesis burns the facades, so that the crystalline nucleus is fainally apparent. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is, without doubt, the greatest religious thinker in the history of the earth: far surpassing both Jesus and Buddha. I can say this with absolute authority because of my background. I am in a position to estimate the value of this Man to the Judeo-Christian world, and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has contributed more to scriptural revelation and spiritual growth than any other single figure in history.

[signed]
(Mrs.) Samadhi Matthews Selecki, M.Div., S.T.M.
Jonathan Daniels Fellow
Christian Ethics and Sacred Theology


(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.)