Testimonial letter from Shinzen Young
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 Shinzen Young. It is "Exhibit A-1302" 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.
 Community Meditation Center Dear Sirs: I am writing in support of Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh in his efforts to reside in this country as a spiritual teacher. At .the outset I would like to point out that I am not a follower or student of his and have no connection with his organization. But I have been observing him, his followers, and media and government reactions for some time and would like to express some of my own reactions as a native-born American "expert -witness" in the field of Indian religion and meditation. I have taught these subjects for the past 10 years at various universities (see enclosed bio sketch). I believe Rajneesh is a rare and highly qualified teacher. He is a master of a technology of human growth which might be characterized as a "super-psychotheraphy". Although his approach differs from my own, and he encourages some things which I would not, I recognized his exceptional ability as a meditation teacher, and have seen the salutary effect he has on people. Much has been made of his silence. Non-verbal communication as a form of spiritual teaching has a venerable tradition in both Eastern and Western tradition. I myself have had some experience of its power in my relationships with my own teachers. India in particular has a tradition of what is called in Sanskrit mauna, a kind of "noble silence". The issue therefore is not can a person function as a spiritual teacher without speaking. The issue is does Rajneesh so function. By my observation, he does so very well. To deny him a visa on the grounds of silence belies the principle of religious freedom, a cornerstone of the American way I thank you for your consideration and I will be looking forward to your reply. 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.)
