Testimonial letter from Ronald H D'Angelo

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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 Ronald H D'Angelo. It is "Exhibit A-24" 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.

St Anthony's Rectory
615 Eighth Street
Union City, N. J. 07087
867-3818-19
July 26, 1983

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
IT IS CLEAR TO ME THAT BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH IS A SPIRITUAL LEADER. MY INITIAL EXPERIENCE OF BHAGWAN CAME THROUGH READING A BOOK,"THE MUSTARD SEED” WHICH WAS FOUND AMONG THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS IN A BOOKSTORE. THE TITLE CAUGHT MY ATTENTION AND A QUICK PERUSAL OF THE PAGES GAVE ME THE IMPRESSION THAT BHAGWAN HAD A LOT TO SAY.

NEEDLESS TO SAY; I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED. 'BHAGWAN GAVE ME INSIGHTS INTO THE WORDS AND THOUGHTS OF JESUS WITH A DEPTH OF UNDERSTANDING WHICH I HAD NEVER EXPERIENCED BEFORE. SINCE THEN, I HAVE READ SEVERAL OF HIS BOOKS AND HAVE BEEN NOURISHED SPIRITUALLY THROUGH HIS WORDS. I HAVE FOCUSED ON HIS BOOKS PERTAINING TO THE WORDS OF JESUS. HOWEVER, I HAVE BEEN ENRICHED SPIRITUALLY THROUGH HIS WORDS FROM THE FRAME WORK OF OTHER RELIGIONS. SEVERAL OF BHAGWAN'S BOOKS HAVE BEEN SOLD FOR THE SPIRITUAL BENEFIT OF MEMBERS OF THIS PARISH. I HAVE RECOMMENDED HIS BOOKS BOTH IN MY ROLE AS A PARISH PRIEST AND AS A PASTORAL PSYCHOANALYST. HIS WORDS HAVE BEEN A TREMENDOUS SPIRITUAL BENEFIT TO THE EDUCATED AND THE UNEDUCATED. THIS REPRESENTS THE SIMPLICITY AND THE DEPTH OF BHAGWAN’S SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING.

BHAGWAN’S BASIC MESSAGE IS THAT OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR ONESELF. THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF ANY HEALING MESSAGE. IT APPEARED IN A NON-SPIRITUAL BOOK WHICH IS TITLED, "I’M O.K.,YOU’RE O.K.". THIS UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE OF ONESELF ENABLES THE MUSTARD SEED OF DIVINE LIFE WITHIN US TO UNFOLD NATURALLY. SELF-REJECTION TO ANY DEGREE HINDERS THE UNFOLDMENT PROCESS.

I FIND THAT BHAGWAN'S MESSAGE IS VERY COMPATIBLE WITH THE MESSAGE OF ERIC BUTTERWORTH WHO IS A IS A LEADER OF THE UNITY MOVEMENT IN THE NEW YORK CITY AREA. BUTTERWORTH WOULD FOCUS ON THE PRESENCE OF GOD WITHIN.

IT IS DIFFICULT FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND HOW ANYONE WHO HAS READ ANY OF THE BOOKS CONTAINING BHAGWAN’S TALKS COULD COME TO ANY OTHER CONCLUSION THAT BHAGWAN IS A HIGHLY ENLIGHTENED SPIRITUAL LEADER.

FOR THOSE WHO D0 N0T UNDERSTAND HIS WORDS IN DEPTH MIGHT BECOME FRIGHTENED. BHAGWAN'S WORDS CAN BE VERY DISTURBING BUT THE TRUTH HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS A TWO-EDGED SWORD PIERCING TO THE VERY DEPTHS OF OUR SOUL. ONE WOULD NEED A HUNGER FOR TRUTH TO RECEIVE HIS MESSAGE WITHOUT DISTURBANCE.

SINCERELY,
[SIGNED]
(REV) RONALD H. D’ANGELO

P.S. I AM AN ORDAINED ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST WHO IS ACTIVE IN BOTH PARISH MINISTRY AND PASTORAL COUNSELING. I WAS ORDAINED IN 1966 AND WAS CERTIFIED AS A PSYCHOANALYST IN 1980.


(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.)