Testimonial letter from Sw Deva Asanga

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 Deva Asanga (Dominique Klein). It is "Exhibit A-1828" 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.

20 July 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Since 1960 I have worked internationally as a dance accompanist, traveling to Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, Berlin, Copenhagen and New York. Currently I am employed by the University of California at Santa Barbara and the Valerie Huston School of Ballet. I have played for the following well known teachers: Betty Jones, Fritz Ludin, Ruth Currier, Clay Taliaferro, Aaron Osborne, Lucas Hoving, Jeff Slayton, Susana Hartman - Chaffey, Anne Sahl, and Albert Reid. In the Winter of 1980 I read a book authored by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. After reading this work I was encouraged to meet and join others who agree with his approach to living. Subsequently, I became a disciple myself, and began to experience a more complete enjoyment and satisfaction in my life. This had a profound influence on my artistic work. Although I have never spoken with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh personally, the strength of his energy and love has allowed me to play six or seven hours everyday with a joy that was not possible before I knew him. In my work, music, the actual sounds are as important as the silence that surrounds them. It is the same for the work of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. After spending many years teaching through the spoken word, he now spends that engergy teaching through silence.. I hope that the immigration office will understand his actual work and give him the authorization to remain in the United States. It is a great gift for the United States to have him. [signed] (Dominique Klein) [some stuff that was truncated by photocopying]

(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.)