Testimonial letter from Ma Shanti Ruby
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 Shanti Ruby. It is "Exhibit A-1518" 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 one page.
 July 27, 1983 To Whom It May Concern: I am a 1970 graduate of Scripps College in Claremont, California, with a B.A. in philosophy. I have done secretarial work in Seattle, Washington, for ten years, including four years as a legal secretary. I have spent a lot of my spare time reading widely in the fields of philosophy, religion, and psychology. Early in 1981, a friend who is a professional psychotherapist gave me a book by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh - Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy - which she used in her work with her clients. I was immediately drawn by the clarity of his writing and the profundity of his mind. In the summer of 1981 I discovered the Rajneesh Meditation Center in Seattle and realized that this beautifully written book was not written but spontaneously spoken by a living man, and that his spoken words fill at least a hundred volumes and have been fully recorded on audio and video tapes. As I became more and more closely acquainted with Bhagwan's work, I was increasingly fascinated and moved by the creative outpour of this man. At the same time, I felt more and more at home with his disciples and myself became a disciple in July, 1981. To me it is obvious from Bhagwan’s words alone that he has an extraordinarily broad and penetrating understanding of all the religious and philosophical traditions of this planet - and that he has such a grasp of them that he is able to go beyond them and bring a clear and healing vision to an increasingly distressed and disoriented world. It is my personal experience, after being in contact with Bhagwan’s vision for the past two years, that I am more at peace with myself, more productive in my work, and in general, finding increasing enjoyment in my day to day life. And it is obvious from the large number of his disciples worldwide that many people are experiencing the benefits of his vision. I feel strongly that the presence of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh anywhere in the world is a healing and beneficial presence, and can only be an asset to the United States. 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.)
