Testimonial letter from Mitsuo Aoki

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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 Mitsuo Aoki. It is "Exhibit A-5" 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 x pages.

University of Hawaii at Manoa
Department of Religion
Sakamaki Hall • Room A311
2530 Dole Street • Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
Telephone: (808) 948-8299 • Cable Address: UNIHAW
July 12, 1983

Rinzai Department
Rajneesh Hotel
1115 Southwest 11th Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97205

Dear Friend,

I am Professor Mitsuo Aoki, a member for the past 27 years of the Department of Religion, University of Hawaii. A graduate of The Chicago Theological Seminary and beyond that of Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary in New York, I have travelled extensively in India and Japan as I conducted my research in the field of Comparative Religions.

I am very familiar with the writings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, having read most of his books and pamphlets, and having assigned many of his writings to my students. I have had many hours of conversation and serious discourse with his disciples here in the islands. And on many occasion, I have attended tteir meetings and have experienced their form of meditation and chants.

What is most attractive about Rajneesh is his ability to articulate the thoughts of many different religious leaders and systems so clearly and often­times with humor. His analysis of Christianity and Buddhism is often marked with wisdom and charity. There are not many outstanding religous leaders and teachers today who possess such a vast knowledge of so many different religious systems and who is able to help so many persons understand their own religious thoughts with insight and power. Hence, Rajneesh fulfills a very important role in assisting an international audience to better understand other points of view and become more ecumenical in their practice of faith.

I have been told that Rajneesh is practing the art of silence—a practice that puzzles many Western minds. I have only to add that "the noble silence" is a mark of great distinction within Buddhism. And among the great mystics of all religions, there comes a moment of time, when silence is the most appropriate form of worship and celebration of faith.

In discussing the role and significance of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in America today, we must forever be sensitive to our basic American freedom: that of religious liberty based on our Christian belief that we have one God who made of one blood all the children of the world, all citizens of one kingdom.

Aloha
[signed]
Mitsuo Aoki


(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.)