Post: #1

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh aka Osho

Osho really changed my life, taught me a lot and even helped me take my game to a whole new level. So this thread is my way of thanking him and passing along some of his awesome wisdom.


Introductory Video:

To get a small taste of Osho, it's best to just see and hear him for yourself.






Who Is Osho?

Osho was an Indian spiritual teacher who lived from 1931 to 1990. He gave hundreds of talks over the years, many of which have been recorded on video and are available to watch.

Osho's talks are characterized by a dramatic speaking style, humor, storytelling, anecdotes, jokes and a Q&A format. He spoke almost entirely ad lib, no rehearsal or preparation.

(As it happens, he was also a masterful troll, particularly as seen in the interviews he gave with members of the press where he fucked with them to no end.)

Osho on The Mind

Osho, like many mystics for thousands of years, considered the mind to be the basic obstacle between man and the happiness which is his birthright.

And a big component of spiritualism is the transcendence of the mind. I think a lot of guys in the game can empathize with the situation of being "in your head".

Being in your head is opposite and antithetical to being present, aware and in the moment. And strangely, it's exactly when you're present, aware and in the moment that your intelligence is free to function with fluidity and quickness. So this tells us that mind and intelligence are two separate phenomena.

This has been observed in the East for millennia.

Learning to transcend the mind while making the most of our intelligence is essentially the whole role that "inner game" plays. The crucial difference here is this:

In the West, we're considered healthy so long as our minds stay within a certain acceptable norm. Our modalities to treat mental illness and existential discontentment are thus mind-focused. And we can see how well they work....





In the East, however, the mind itself is considered to be sick. So the question isn't of straining it into an acceptable norm but rather of transcending it, witnessing it, and ultimately harnessing it but not being its slave.

More info:





Osho on Philosophy

Osho said "I have no philosophy of life…I have life itself."

The main idea here, which he expounded upon in many of his talks, is that a philosophy of life undermines the actual living of life, itself.

By adopting a rigid idea of how life is, how it should be, how it MUST be lived, our expectations are bound to be let down over and over again by a universe indifferent to our constructs. This leads many people to a state of perpetual disappointment and discontment.

Osho said if you want to live life fully, act as if you are the first man on Earth; an Adam or an Eve. We've been given by this existence all the means to discover life and live it fully. But society begins pumping garbage into our soft heads before we've even had a chance to think through anything for ourselves.

This really parallels the red pill / blue pill metaphor. Because some guys live an oblivious, blue pill existence. And then one fateful day they meet a Neo and discover an RVF. This leads them to do some thinking and to arrive at the painful realization that they've been lied to their whole lives. So they take the red pill and things change forever. Taking the red pill is about clarity; seeing things as they truly are and not as we wish them to be.






How It Applies To Game

Game can get pretty divisive.

Direct vs indirect, daygame vs nightgame, Tyler Durden method vs Mystery Method vs Roosh method blah blah blah. It's tempting to take one of these systems and commit yourself to them religiously.

Some people have the predisposition for ideological fanaticism and get on board with one position while shouting from the hilltops that every other way to do it is WRONG and STUPID and bah-ad. If religion is the opiate of the people, game is the opiate of too many nerds-cum-rakes who need some kind of religion to cling to.

Osho distinguished between religion and religiousness. Religion is going to church, praying to the scrolling clouds, taking lies and hypocrisy as truth, listening to some well-meaning idiot on a pulpit, and deluding ourselves that we'll be rewarded for our adherence a thousandfold in heaven ("what about here, now, on Earth?" Osho might ask.)

Religiousness, on the other hand, is that spontaneous feeling that you get sometimes when you're fucking a gorgeous girl, or swimming in the ocean, or jamming on your guitar or smoking some doob. That sudden feeling that wells up inside of you and sends a warm shudder throughout your entire body… and you think "fuck…the world is so beautiful." And all of a sudden, from out of nowhere, you're overflowing with gratitude to existence...

This parallels game.

We absorb these gargantuan, complex game theories from reading an eBook or browsing RSD Douchebag's blog. We go out there and talk to girls trying to look for something that may or may not actually exist. We impose the superstructure of game theory onto our interactions and they never quite fit the reality. Religion is out in the world --- not in a church.

Likewise, game is in the field, not on the internet. Not that reading has no value; it has! But that it's merely a supplement, some extra education. The real learning takes place by going out there and seeing things with your own eyes, making your own conclusions and observations and letting the game itself teach you game.


Awareness, Buddhahood, Enlightenment





Osho talked about awareness and enlightenment a LOT, especially in his earlier talks. What it is, how to cultivate it, techniques to enhance it. Osho believed that all of us have the capability to "awaken" at any moment.

Just as he didn't have a philosophy of life, he didn't hold to any specific morality. He was by definition, amoral.

In fact, he defined virtue and sin in a very interesting way. Osho said that "whatsoever rises with your awareness is virtue. Whatsoever disappears with your awareness is sin." This perspective has spared me a lot of self-flagellation.

He used the following example. If you go to war and you're faced with your enemy, and in that moment you become fully aware of what it is that you're doing, killing another man who's done nothing to you personally, the chances are you won't go through with it. And hesitation in battle costs lives.

That's why war depends on soldiers who are trained and habituated to follow orders reflexively. Full awareness of themselves and of their actions, outside of the combat context, would be disastrous for the cause of war. Or to any cultural programming for that matter.

(I'm promoting neither pacifism nor war; it's simply an illlustrative example.)

On a more day to day level, it's just about watching our thoughts and actions and being honest about where they originate. If certain patterns and habits hamper our growth, the first step in changing them is becoming aware of them. And even just that awareness by itself can be transformative.

How It Applies To Game

Is it beta to quote myself? Ah, fuck it. I wrote in my very first book something that I uncovered through trial and error "awareness is sexy." Women dig aware men. And it makes sense on evolutionary grounds that the more aware the man, the more capable he is to protect and secure resources, etc.

If you brought me a total loser and said "you can teach Feldman here just ONE thing to take him from where he is now…a pathetic virgin...through the rest of his adult dating life. He'll never learn another thing 'from outside' ever again. So choose wisely…"

Then without hesitation I would teach him to expand his awareness, to cultivate it in all situations (even unpleasant ones; especially unpleasant ones!), and let his actions flow from a deep awareness of self and other.

So many times when you're interacting with women you're confronted with a new situation, or a new twist on an old situation. There's no DVD course that accounts for every permutation life throws at you. So how do you deal effectively? By staying aware, conscious, awake, present.

Osho likened psychological sleep to a dark room and awareness to a candle. If you bring even a small candle into a dark room, the candle dispels the darkness. And in fact, there is no darkness; only the absence of light. It's the same with 'unpleasant' emotions. Many years ago, I used to think that getting nervous and anxious were BAD(™). And before I could approach a girl or take any action I had to get rid of the bad emotions. (I had to get in state, bro! lol)

But you can't do anything against those emotions directly any more than you can get rid of darkness directly. The only way to get rid of darkness is to introduce light. Awareness is that light.

Post: #2

Meditation





What is meditation...?

We've all had meditative moments when we lose sense of self and we seem to be looking at ourselves as if from the outside. Osho compared this meditative state, this witnessing, to a watcher on the hill. He sees the city (his thoughts) bustling below him but he stays observing them, aloof.

Modern psychology has actually arrived at a scientific term for this phenomenon: observing ego. And many of the best players I know have this deeply meditative quality to them. They can observe their thoughts and actions and stay detached from them. I've seen high performers from all walks of life get into this 'zone': fighters, businessmen, bartenders, etc. In meditation, you are not the doer, you are the watcher. The doing happens on its own level.

This is significant to inner game because meditation can help you realize --- not theoretically, but actually, viscerally --- that thoughts come and go. Another significant spiritual teacher, George Gurdjeff had said that the only sin is identification; being too identified with one's thoughts. If you can learn to watch thoughts without doing anything with them or to them --- just watch them --- then you will gain a superior calm and spontaneity in your interactions. Things won't affect you quite so much. And you won't be prone to think that they always mean something of significance about you, when really, they simply are what they are.

Osho insisted that meditation isn't something you do (it can't be, since it's defined as the absence of any doing); but it's something you can understand. You can't do IT but rather it happens spontaneously when you employ a certain technique (or, perhaps, for no special reason whatever).






How It Applies To Game

Everybody in the seduction community talks about not giving a fuck, being indifferent, holding your frame, etc.

This is a key issue with me that I've talked about before. I submit that the best way to arrive at this kind of ideal mental state is to observe your thoughts; to watch them. Not do anything with them, but just watch them. Eventually you come to realize that all of the seemingly important shit popping up in your mind is just chatter.

You can have the most negative thoughts and feelings and you watch them pass like a cloud, only to be followed by the very opposite a moment later. Rather than engage with them and try to fight with them, Osho suggested witnessing them.

This concept was so revolutionary to me that I tattooed the words "show up" on my inner forearm, to remind myself that no matter what I'm feeling in life, I need to SHOW UP and stand before the situation with all my strength and courage.



The actual verbiage of the tattoo was inspired by this talk, which I've watched at least a dozen times:





You can extend this into watching your body like a witness and the outside world as well. Meditation creates space between stimulus and response. So instead of reacting in habitual, programmed ways, you get a little distance between what's happening, how you feel about it and you can act from a place of awareness and choice. By the way, this is astoundingly similar to the methodology used by Behavioral Cognitive Therapy (CBT) to treat many psychological disorders. Except that Eastern traditions have been experimenting with these practices for millenia.


Sexuality





According to Osho, sex is natural and beautiful and should be explored fully. One interesting observation he made is that boys and girls today are discouraged from engaging in any kind of innocent sexual play. They're pulled apart instead of being allowed to experiment without do-gooder parental interference.

This constant policing of natural human behavior stultifies us and robs us of early experience with the opposite sex. Instead of being seen as the normal exploration of our human/animal natures, it's made a taboo. This, in turn, gives rise to endless sexual perversions among the human species, as perversion is often a manifestation of repressed impulses.

Osho was also a big proponent of having many partners (and by all accounts he had a shit ton) so you can find out what you really like. Dudes on this forum who have fucked 100+ girls have a much better idea of what they really like in women than dudes who have fucked 10. Sometimes I'll hear a guy with a small notch count say something like "I like X, Y and Z in girls", and I always find those kinds of comments amusing. From a statistical perspective, that's a bunch of caca. To make conclusions about ANYTHING, you need to have a lot of data. The more data, the more likely you'll discover what a bunch of B.S. your original 'preferences' were. I certainly did.


Osho on Love

Osho's talks on love really struck a chord with me. I've been in love exactly once and it was the most amazing, craziest fucking thing I've ever experienced short of near-death.

One idea in particular that hit home was the fact that in order for love to flower, we have to be receptive to it. That means being open, vulnerable, available.

To me being in love is totally terrifying. For a woman to have that much control over your state is a loss of control that I don't think I could ever allow again. But who knows...

Post: #3

Selfishness/Happiness





"To be selfish simply means to be your self." - Osho

Osho was profoundly pro-selfishness. His ideas paralleled the philosophical school of rational self-interest a la Ayn Rand and others. To wit, one of Osho's central complaints against religions (and he was profoundly ANTI religion) was that religions and shitty ideologies like socialism constantly preach self-denial, self-abasement and self-sacrifice for 'others'. In other words, love everybody, care about everybody take care of everybody. That is, everybody but yourself. You don't matter. Only those others. And if you think of yourself, you're a selfish, dastardly prick.

Aside from the economic implications of living for others (and the absurd embedded supposition that they, in turn, would live for you and take care of you), Osho felt that this idea was society's way of keeping you from knowing yourself. He said "to know anything, you have to start with yourself." If a society can distract you from your own nature, it can manipulate you into serving its machinery. Rather, into BEING its machinery.

Check out this vid, edited into a cool little montage.





Here's the original from which the above was made.






Humor



(starts at 2:45)

Some of Osho's talks are entertaining and simply hilarious. His timing and delivery were on a par with the most skillful of comedians. In his own way, he was one of the great showman of all time.

Post: #4

Conclusion

Osho called himself a "spiritual playboy", and in his talks he alluded to ample experience with the ladies. By all accounts, he was a playboy proper, as well. From the stories I've heard about his commune, that seems very likely. In fact, earlier this year, I had a run-in with one of his former sannyasins (sannyasin = a devotee) who lived in his commune in Pune, India in the 80s. It was a rare, extraordinary meeting during which she regaled me with crazy stories of life at the commune.

Osho spent many years speaking to large crowds on various topics ranging from sexuality to religion, from politics to raising children, and everything in between. He did this day in and day out for YEARS. As a result, there are literally hundreds upon hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of audio and video of him speaking freely available online.

My major disagreements with Osho have been primarily over his dismissal of several of the more animal aspects of human nature. Especially in regards to things like war (to which we seem irrevocably predisposed), jealousy, ambition, competition, social striving, the desire for power, money, status, etc. This is strange considering how acutely aware he was of many elements of humanity which most people would rather not talk about. For example:





There's a lot more I could say about Osho as I've consumed a huge volume of his oeuvre. But I've got a life outside of posting on RVF! I swear... ;-)

If he were around today, I could see old Oshizzle dropping knowledge right here on RVF. Either that, or he would be the the ultimate IRT.

Perhaps....there's a little Osho in all of us...

Post: #5

After watching Kumare




I have difficult time taking these guru's seriously, however, I don't discount the fact that men who spend their whole lives thinking about how the world works and helping others may have some valuable insights and ideas.

Post: #6

(02-16-2014 04:00 PM)VincentVinturi Wrote:  Osho was an Indian spiritual teacher who lived from 1931 to 1990. He gave hundreds of talks over the years, many of which have been recorded on video and are available to watch.

Osho was a fraud. He also took the name Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Have a read about the "spirtual" commune he founded in Oregon where he owned up to 85 Rolls Royce cars :

http://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/index...an_we.html

Quote: In a nearly unbelievable chapter of Oregon history, a guru from India gathered 2,000 followers to live on a remote eastern Oregon ranch. The dream collapsed 25 years ago amid attempted murders, criminal charges and deportations.

But the whole story was never made public. With first-ever access to government files, and some participants willing to talk for the first time, it's clear things were far worse than we realized.

Quote: In India, he worked as a small-town philosophy professor until he found enlightenment paid better. He built a thriving enterprise attracting Westerners to his lectures and group therapies. They sought meaning in their lives, escaping the remains of the Vietnam War and a crashing world economy. And Rajneesh mixed in plenty of sexual freedom, ensuring publicity to build his brand.

Quote: Hand-picked teams of Rajneeshees had executed the largest biological terrorism attack in U.S. history, poisoning at least 700 people. They ran the largest illegal wiretapping operation ever uncovered. And their immigration fraud to harbor foreigners remains unrivaled in scope. The revelations brought criminal charges, defections, global manhunts and prison time.

Post: #7

^ The largest wiretaping scandal to be uncovered? I thin think that honor belongs to the United States government dawwwg.

Post: #8

I don´t think awareness is always good. Who wants to be aware when he is being tortured?Psychological problems happen often because of awareness in the wrong time. That´s why we have drugs against pain.

Shure awareness to some extent is quite functional but only to some extent.

Osho was imho the third greatest (criminal?)troll after Buddha and Ghandi.

But what do I know I am not a Guru only an Epicurean.

Post: #9

HUGE, HUGE, HUGE fan of Osho's Dynamic Meditation.