Testimonial letter from Sw Advaita Eizi
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 Sw Advaita Eizi (Dr. Eizi Yamaguchi). It is "Exhibit A-2062" 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.
 July 24th, 1983 To Whom it May Concern, I am a Psychiatrist, living in Kohchi-shi Japan. My professional experience as a clinical Psychiatrist exceeds ten years. In Japan today, clinical treatment in Psychiatry is mainly through the administration of drugs. This can obtain what appears to be good results, however it must be said that the effect of the drugs is mostly to suppress a tempory excitment of the patients nervous system. The drugs induce an artificail state of relaxation and sleep so it appears as if the patients symptoms have receded. This clinical approach and treatment in psychiatry judges a patients condition negatively and tries to repress the symptoms with drugs. This repression tends to isolate the patient and acts as a statment of criticism. This repression of the patients symptoms does not allow the cause of the symptoms to be revealed. The direction of this clinical approach has created a new problem which is termed " Intragenic Disease ", which simply commands the patient pass into a chronic state, it forces the symptoms to become more pronouced and fixed in the patients behavior. In summury it makes the patients inhuman. The methods proposed by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh incourage the expression of repressed feeling through meditation. The meditator becomes an observer, watching his feelings of aggressiveness, anxiety, fear and sadness or laughter and joy leaving their repressed state. Through this process of expression and watchfulnes a person can come out of his schizophrenia. Catharsis is possible and one can become free from his entanglement with his own feelings, and find his center of being. I began to read the literature of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh such as " Dance Your Way to God " and " My Way: The Way of the White Clouds " in March 1982. Since then I have read seven editions of His books that have been translated into Japanese. I was very impressed with His teachings and felt intuitively that He had written the truth. Three months later in June 1982 I visited Rajneeshpuram in Oregon U.S.A. for the First Anual World Celebration. On the 7th of July I took sannyas and became His disciple recieving my new name, Swami Advaita Eiji. Since that time I have participated in many of His meditations. During these meditations I felt that my aggressivenes, anger, sadnes, laughter and joy were all coming out naturally, from the deeper realm of my existance. These feelings had all been repressed in my being. Since the have been released I find myself surrounded with deep emotion. I have become very tender to myself and others. Simply by breathing my heart rejoices and my body feels renewed. I have become very tender to myself as well as others. Simply by breathing my heart rejoices and my body feels renewed. I participatec in one of His therapy groups called "Zen Encounter" and felt the joy, happiness and stillness that is deep inside of me. Sometimes I slip back to my former state but this difference of being is always present. After my return to Japan from America the physical state of my body had also changed. In the mornings I wake up with a clear mind and clean feeling, my appetite improved along with my sleeping and normal bodily functions. It can be discribed as returning to heaven from hell. During this one year of meditation, I have been able to see my body/mind condition more deeply. Occasionally I experience pain and misery in both my body and mind, but simply by observing these feelings things become clear and a joyful and happy state returns. By remaining watchful and being patience these negative feelings turn positive. To illustrate this, just imagine that there is anger inside of us, if we let this anger go to our heads there is a rush of blood to our brain. We lose ourselves in this anger and devise tricks to cover it up. Consider if we are able to feel this anger directly at our stomachs or heart, not by mental thoughts or excuses, but by feeling with our heart. Sooner or later the anger becomes humorous and laughter will happen on it’s own accord. This I experience not only in meditation, but also in daily life. This summer I once again paryicipated in the Annual World Celebration and the therapy group "Body Awakening". In this group while sitting in "eye contact" with my partner, I felt some natural anger coming up from deep inside my being. I shouted and felt like assulting my partner. This feeling only lasted for about ten seconds until it was replaced with laughter. Afterwards I felt an intimate and love like relation towards my partner. When the therapy group was finnished I met my partner a few times accidentally during the celebration and everytime we laughed together. It was like a communion. Through His books that are written with the truth, my intuitive understanding of them and through His meditations I have experienced what is said by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. It is a great joy for me seeing a chance of growth for humanity, through His vision and teachings. I cannot help but to be thankful to Him. I hope all the people in this world can become acquainted with His truth. Then the whole world will over flow with love and joy. I sincerely pray for his religious activities to bloom and then bloom all the more. Yours 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.)
