Testimonial letter from Sw Prembuddha

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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 Sw Prembuddha (Robert P. Kosak). It is "Exhibit A-272" 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.

Robert P. Kosak
(aka Swami Prembuddha)
130 Beach 133rd Street
Belle Harbor, NY 11694
July 6, 1983

To Whom It May Concern:

I am an American citizen, aged 42. I graduated from St. Francis College, Magna Cum Laude, in 1972. In 1975 I graduated from Hofstra University with a B.S. in Special Education. I have also earned 30 credits beyond my Masters degree. I am licensed by New York State to teach regular elementary school (kindergarten through 8th grade) as well as all special education including CRMD, brain injured, emotionally handicapped, and physically handicapped. I am also licensed by New York City to teach regular elementary school (kindegarten through 6th grade) as well as brain injured and emotionally handicapped. I have been teaching emotionally handicapped children since 1972.

In 1977, as a result of an intensive search/study of western and eastern philosophies and religion, I came to know of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. After reading some of his books, listening to a few discourse tapes, and experimenting with a few of his meditations, I became convinced that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was indeed an exceptional person. His unique insights into areas such as psychology, religion, and education, to name a few, are remarkable to say the least. For me, Bhagwan was able to make many issues clear which in turn helped put a lot of clarity into my own life and profession.

As a teacher of emotionally disturbed children, it is important to have and maintain a certain quality of being -allowing yet firm, loving and understanding yet with a capacity to be open, creative, and of high energy. From my experiences in doing daily meditations developed by Bhagwan, I am able to let go, relax and even approach a current phenomena in education called "burn out". Also, from the books and taped discourses I have developed- more understanding and insight which has helped me be clear in my goals and perfomance as a professional educator. Bhagwan's classical ideas in regard to education are exceptional and the education program set up at Rajneeshpuram is an exceptional example of a meaningful and developmental program going beyond "Summerhill" and acts as an excellent example for educators and will be of benefit to the educational field.

Respectfully,
[signed]
Robert P. Kosak


(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.)