In Focus

• Terrorism is in your unconscious by Ma Anand Bhagwati
• Terrorism: An Ideological Violence by Swami Satya Vedant
• The Great Challenge by Swami Chaitanya Keerti
• Suppression and Repression: Seed of Terrorism by Ma Prem Tao
• The King has no Clothes by Swami Kul Bhushan
• Manipulation of Fear by Ma Anand Sangeet

The other day I mentioned to a friend that I was about to write an article on the subject of ‘Terrorism’. “Yeah, right,” he said. “You write something about terrorism and the next thing you know your name is on a list, and from there to Guantanamo Bay it’s just a short trip; the good news is that you will be wearing an orange jumpsuit!” We both laughed yet in that very moment it hit me: the fear that is being created about terrorism had even entered our sannyas life and I had almost accepted the notion that writing on this subject could be precarious!

Now there’s our Master speaking his entire life on all topics under the sun, including many ‘very dangerous’ matters and did he ever consider repercussions? Of course not. Fear is not a word he adhered to. This is the very trap mankind falls into again and again: some powers create fear in the general population in such cunning ways that nobody dares to speak out. So whatever position somebody might take on terrorism there surely will be someone else who feels wronged, who feels that person needs to be silenced, who defends his or her faith and ultimately god ‘to the last drop of blood’. I don’t see why god needs mortals to sign up to defend him/her but never mind that for now.

Historically, the term terrorism was first coined during the French Revolution (1789–1799), a period of political and social upheaval during which the feudalism of the aristocracy and clergy were radically changed under a great loss of life and suffering. The goal was to introduce quite enlightened principles of nationalism, citizenship and inalienable rights for the general population. The revolution brought about violence, repression and warfare that involved several other major European countries. Far from being peaceful and free, in the following century France experienced the Napoleonic Wars, two attempts to restore the monarchy, a dictatorship and two additional revolutions. Nothing changed in the programming of the people nor did they attain freedom.

“I have looked into the scriptures of all the religions, I have looked into the ideological literature of all the political parties and I am amazed: they go on piling up lies upon lies. And the whole of humanity is asleep – not only does nobody object, but nobody even suspects.”
(Excerpted from: Sermons in Stone, Chapter-12, Question-1)

Terror acts have been committed among humans since the dawn of life, and not only among tribes and nations but often, also psychologically, among families and in relationships. Nowadays the word terrorism is purposefully mainly connected to Muslim extremists. Most infamously it was George W. Bush after 9/11 who declared, “Our war on terror begins with Al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.”

This is a very one-sided and simplistic view of course. The leaders of the very groups he is attacking are saying the same things to their people!

We all have witnessed what has been going on under the cloak of this term, from the unjustified war in Iraq, to slaughter in Afghanistan, the seemingly never ending battles between Palestine and Israel, the conflicts and wars in many African countries to the creation of the Gestapo-like department of Homeland Security. Fear of terrorism has entered the collective unconscious. This is a horrendous intentional manipulation of the masses, and freedom of the individual is nowhere to be seen.

“Now the world war has become almost impossible; otherwise there would have been no terrorism. Enough time has passed since the second world war; the third world war should have happened near about 1960. It has not happened. This has been the routine for the whole of history, and man is programmed for it.

Terrorism is going to become bigger and bigger, because the third world war is almost impossible. And the stupid politicians have no other alternative. Terrorism simply means that what was being done on a social scale now has to be done individually. It will grow. It can only be prevented if we change the very base of human understanding -- which is a Himalayan task; more so because these same people whom you want to change will fight you; they won't allow you to change them easily.”
(Excerpted from: Beyond Psychology, Chapter-18, Question-1)

Even though every being senses deep within the quality of freedom and would like to live in this state, man still sleeps. Even if large groups of well-intended people gather to demonstrate against their government’s actions, even if hundreds of thousands rebel against a war, they still move in a kind of sheep-like way, chanting the slogans given to them. Even though people vote for a president with the hope he will bring about the necessary changes for their freedom, usually the very person they vote for is also fast asleep and acts unconscious.

“You can't be free unless absolutely whatsoever happens spontaneously in you is allowed and accepted. Man has been programmed, you have been given blueprints – what to be, how to be, what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. And those programs have been put so deep down in your being that you have become unconscious of them. It appears as if you are acting out of freedom; you have been tremendously deceived.

Even when you think you are acting out of freedom, even when you think you are acting out of your own conscience, you are not. The society is controlling you in a very subtle way. The moment the child is born, the society starts programming the child. The society treats you like a computer; it goes on feeding and programming you. By the time you become a little alert, you are already programmed – you are already a Christian or a Hindu or a Jain. You are already fixed; you are no more liquid, you are no more flowing. And you will function out of this fixity, out of this obsession, that the society has put inside you. It is like an electrode put inside your brain. You will not know anything about it, but it will control you. That's what conscience is.”
( Excerpted from: Take It Easy, Vol.-2, Chapter-10)

Osho once said that his religion is nothing but the science of deprogramming: “That's why I go on destroying your conditionings. My whole effort is to deprogram you and make you clean –as clean, as pure, as innocent as you were when you were born.

You were not born a Christian, you were not born Jewish; you were born just an innocent potentiality of growth which has been stopped by the vested interests. And those vested interests are still in power. They are doing their best to destroy any possibility for human evolution.

My people have to fight for their own sake and for the sake of humanity. First, become enlightened, and then spread your light to anybody who is interested.

Everybody is interested. Who would not like to become more conscious, more alive, more loving, more compassionate? Just models are needed. People are needed who can create a tremendous urge in others that they can also have the same joy, the same dance, the same song and the same fragrance.

The politicians and the priests are still not on their deathbed. We will have to put them on their deathbed. They will resist, but what to do? Either they have to become part of an evolutionary process or they have to disappear from the earth.”
(Excerpted from: From Bondage to Freedom, Chapter 10, Question 1)

More than 20 years ago, Osho has spoken at length on terrorism while he was staying in Uruguay during the world tour which was sabotaged by every possible means in particular by the government of the U.S.A. because Osho was considered a dangerous man to society. Since then, the global situation of violence and terror has increased and there is only one way out: to wake up!

“...without freedom you cannot rejoice. You live in fear, not in joy. If we can clean the basement of the human mind's unconscious... and that's what my work is. It can be cleaned away. The terrorism is not in the bombs, in your hands; the terrorism is in your unconscious.

Otherwise, this state of affairs is going to grow more bitter. And it seems all kinds of blind people have bombs in their hands and are throwing them at random. The third world war would have relieved people for ten or, fifteen years. But the third world war cannot happen because if it happens it won't relieve people, it will only destroy people.

So individual violence will increase – it is increasing. And all your governments and all your religions will go on perpetuating the old strategies without understanding the new situation.

The new situation is that every human being needs to go through therapies, needs to understand his unconscious intentions, needs to go through meditations so that he can calm down, become cool – and look towards the world with a new perspective, of silence.”
(Excerpted from-Beyond Psychology, Chapter 18, Question- 1)

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Terrorism is not new, though it has come in a new incarnation. Historically, the Huns, Taimur Lane, Nadirshah, Mahmood Gaznavi, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, all are part of a chain of terrorists down to the modern day. Many may perceive the British as terrorists citing the gory incident of Jalianwala Baug. The major difference is now the phenomenon of terrorism is no longer limited to a particular area or a geographical territory. It has become globalized. Now everyone in the world feels threatened and terrorized. It seems, psychologically, people have carried the feeling of terror within, the present day terrorists have only magnified it on a global scale.

Terrorism is the result of entrapment of soul in ideology. Any ideology, whether religious, political, or social, when becomes a closed system turns harmful. Idea is an open invitation to reflect, to search, to experiment. However, when an ideology is woven around it fanaticism and rigidity begin to strangle society. While an idea represents a free expression of thought, ideology is imposed to serve vested interests. In the imposition of an ideology the individual is not the concern, the system, the pattern and the conditioned view is the central force. Ideology when forced brings violence; violence is used to justify the rightness of ideology.

Terrorism is an ideological violence essentially rooted in unconscious human behavior. It shows its heinous form when governed by hypnotic conditioning. Osho points out, “Terrorism is not in the bombs in your hand; terrorism is in your unconscious.” Religion, in most cases, has proven Marx right for functioning as “opium” and has consequently rained terror on men, women and children. Ironically, more often than not religion has taken God for a ride and has sold ideology around it with force, often brutal.

So the question now is, whether mankind can break out of self-reinforcing process of violent aggressiveness or is it resigned to go on passively subjecting itself to it. According to Freud, it is natural to be violent, aggressive. He stops here, but if this is taken to be the final point, then there is no scope for evolution. One just has to live with it or find some temporary solution: alcohol, drug or a shrink. The belief that we are naturally aggressive serves to excuse our aggression rather than take responsibility for it. This robs man away from his potential to grow, to transform.

Marx, on the other hand, said existence is the essence of being, hence, the society, the history, the living conditions are responsible for man’s actions. The man is not to be blamed for his acts. He insisted on changing the society, the outer structure. Here again, man was absolved from his responsibility. So, if we were to follow Freud and Marx, we will end up never realizing our true potential – our present actuality will remain an actuality.

Nevertheless, it is apparent that as a species we have, in our evolutionary process, made our genes work for us. We have shown that regardless of the environment or the social milieu, individuals such as Buddha have overcome the odds and gone beyond the biological and psychological barriers. Studies have also shown how aggressive and antisocial individual behavior is related to family and socio-cultural influences.

The critical factor is how well we are successful in channeling the energy, in transforming the energy of aggression and violence into love and compassion. Osho has shown the way toward materializing this change. His basic insight is :

“What happens with your sex energy depends on how you use it. What it can become does not depend on it alone, but on your understanding and on how you live your life. Have you not observed that it becomes brahmacharya, the state of celibacy when it is transformed? Bramhacharya is not hostile to passion; brahmacharya is the purification, the transcendence, the sublimation of passion. In the same way, the energy that manifests itself in violence becomes peace, serenity and tranquility. It is only a question of transformation. The energy that manifests itself in violence becomes peace, serenity and tranquility. It is only a question of transformation”.
(The Long, the Short and the All, Ch. 6)

Existing nuclear and biological weapons have placed humanity at grave risk. Hence, in the context of our present day-to-day reality, how do we keep the human life free from terrorism? How do we transform the energy used for terrorism into concord and tranquility? The first need obviously is to get out of the trap of dogmatic, closed, blind following of religion. But along with that we will have to be vigilant and pro-active, speak out against the regimented conditioning imposed by the custodians of “religion”. We will need to bring more celebration in our life – more joy, more laughter. A happy person can never become a terrorist. We will have to move from Gun Culture to Fun Culture. Osho’s insight is, life is not a problem to be solved by violent means; it is indeed a gift to be shared by living joyously.

What we need in essence is a commitment to making this world for our future generation a better place to live and enjoy. First, we need to make a conscious commitment to be free of all conditionings, patterns of belief and behavior, trappings of de-humanizing ideologies. Further, we need to help our children remain free from all that breeds hatred, violence, prejudice, aggression.

We need to help them develop the quality of what Osho calls “religiousness” rather than having them follow religion blindly. We need a vision that would raise our consciousness higher so that we may take care of our lower instincts of hate and violence, greed and power. The sages remind us: bhumaiva sukham, naalpe sukhamasti, the true happiness is in growing, in expanding our consciousness; there is no happiness in being narrow and fragmented.

Osho’s observation is that the twenty first century has brought us to a crossroad. We are, of course, moving ahead in leaps and bound as far as our horizontal growth is concerned. But we have also reached to a point where we need to work on our vertical growth as well. Along with material gains, Osho explains, we will have to move vigorously toward enhancing our emotional and spiritual growth. He says, the horizontal seems to be taking us somewhere, but reaches no where – it is just like chasing horizon. The vertical, on the other hand, does not seem to be taking us anywhere, and yet, it leads us towards a point where being human, being an individual, being a spirit takes a new meaning, a new value, a new dimension.

As pointed out by Osho, we need to go back to the basics,: Awareness, Understanding, Meditation (AUM). Under the prevailing conditions, the greatest challenge before us is to heal our mind and body. We are a wounded civilization. So, how do we heal ourselves? Osho’s prescription is : “As you become more and more meditative, your energies become non-aggressive. Your violence disappears; love arises.” This is transformation. And, transformation is the antidote to terrorism.

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So often does one come across gruesome incidents of terrorist violence that one feels utterly helpless about it. The politicians are quick to issue statements that culprits will be brought to book and nobody will be spared. The religionists and the moralists will give their sermons. And still more terrible incidents of terrorism keep happening and make a mockery of statements and claims.

People are becoming cynical about such statements and discourses--and progressively insensitive to respond. The explosions of violence are becoming bigger and bigger and human sensitivity is becoming weaker and weaker. It only shows that something is essentially wrong with human society today. It is unable to reach the roots of violence and eradicate it.

Each explosion of terrorism is linked with what we have been in the past. It is a chain reaction--the chain that is becoming bigger and stronger everyday. Politicians are unable to understand this, and others have no power to do anything about it.

Talking on this subject of terrorist violence Osho shared his insights decades ago. He said, "Everything is deeply related with everything else that happens. The event of terrorism is certainly related with what is happening in the society. The society is falling apart. Its old order, discipline, morality, religion, everything has been found to be wrongly based. It has lost its power over people’s conscience.”

"Terrorism simply symbolizes that to destroy human beings does not matter, that there is nothing in human beings which is indestructible, that it is all matter—and you cannot kill matter, you can only change its form. Once man is taken to be only a combination of matter, and no place is given for a spiritual being inside him, then to kill becomes just play."

Man lives in starvation of not just a piece of bread but love also. And on top of it he lives in unconsciousness. He is sitting on the volcano of unfulfilled desires and needs. He is desperate. And this desperation can be exploited by clever politicians and clergies. They use him--in fact, he is misused by them. These terrorists are poor people: Osho says : "And all those terrorists are coming from these poor countries, with the same weapons that have been sold to their countries. And they have a strange protection: you cannot use nuclear weapons against them, you cannot throw atom bombs at them. They can throw bombs at you and you are suddenly impotent.”

Making a point about their anger Osho says : "Man accumulates so much anger, so much rage, so much violence, that nothing short of a war will give him release. So, war after war, there is a gap of only ten to fifteen years. That gap is a kind of relaxation. But again you start accumulating, because the same psychology is working—the same jealousy, the same violence.”

"Every man is living in a disagreement with himself. So whenever he can find a chance—for a beautiful cause; freedom, democracy, socialism—any beautiful word can become an umbrella to hide his ugly unconscious, which simply wants to destroy and enjoys destruction. Now the world war has become almost impossible; otherwise there would have been no terrorism."

Never before was the search so acute, so intense, because never before was man in such an anguish as he is today. The search always comes out of anguish. Whenever there is great anguish, the anguish becomes a challenge, one has to search for something which is so meaningful that the anguish can be dissolved through it. When the darkness is very very deep, only then does one search for light.

And the darkness is really deep. This is one of the darkest of ages: never before has man been in such a disturbed, confused chaos. Because all the old values have disappeared. Man is no more rooted in the past, there are no more any goals in the future, all utopias have failed. Man is utterly desperate now to know what to do and where to go.

In the past it has happened many times that a certain value became valueless, another value took its place, it was substituted. One religion died, another took its place. When an idealism was found futile, another better vision, more golden, was immediately available. What has happened this time is that all the ideals have failed and there are no more substitutes. It is not that one value has failed and another has come into being; that is not much of a change. This time, value as such has failed and there is utter darkness, nowhere to go. This is the greatest challenge to human awakening.

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Coming from the psychological, inner perspective that I do, I think first, always, of the individual and the story of our lives. I have tended to use my life and all the myriad experiences that I have had since the very beginning, as examples, metaphors, as touchstones to understanding; and through feeling and sensing what is happening in the other to find a context to make some sense of it; a way to bring equanimity and peace to my heart through it all; and to bring positive change in some way, even if so small as to hold the light over individuals in their challenges, over distressed countries and their people in such suffering and pain.

And yes even with the current out-of-all-proportions world situation; all the killing, hurting, bombing, kidnapping, terrorizing and imprisoning; the earthquakes, floods, droughts and hurricanes; the disenfranchisement of millions of individual men, women, children and animals who seem to be so innocently caught in the midst of all these horrendous situations. Whether they are “natural” or man-made, the fact is that it is a distress that everyone feels and a little light although so needed, seems pitifully small.

I see suppression and repression as being behind the terrorism that has broken out like a wildfire in our time. We are reaching an apex where all that has been held down is bursting open and can no longer be contained; in people and also in governments, conglomerates and institutions. All the dirty laundry is now coming out to be aired, to be cleaned. As people are erupting, their good, bad and ugly is coming out and rising to the surface.

Every man is living in a disagreement with himself. So whenever he can find a chance ? for a beautiful cause; freedom, democracy, socialism ? any beautiful word can become an umbrella to hide his ugly unconscious, which simply wants to destroy and enjoys destruction. Now the world war has become almost impossible; otherwise there would have been no terrorism

Everything is deeply related with everything else that happens. The event of terrorism is certainly related with what is happening in the society. The society is falling apart. Its old order, discipline, morality, religion, everything has been found to be wrongly based. It has lost its power over people's conscience.
OSHO

And coincidentally here in Hawaii a new eruption of Kilauea Volcano has just happened, not even two months ago, at Halema’uma’u Crater and has changed the climate where I live, has changed everything in fact. There is a new feeling in the air because of increased vog (volcano fog or cloud) and people’s moods are different because the weather is altered and an over-reactive and inaccurate press story has frightened off some visitors so tourism is down. On top of that, one of our local long-time airlines, Aloha airlines, has gone out of business as well as a mainland airlines that flew directly to the Big Island. And with rising oil and gas prices, food and everything else prices, the local economy is of some concern.

The discussion of the over inflated oil prices could also nicely fit into this category of suppression and terrorism on an economical level. It is this writer’s guess that there are only a few maybe one or two hands on the oil spigot shutting it on and off at will chuckling all the way to their bank and I mean their bank.

But all of this has motivated Big Island businesses to partner with other businesses around the island, ostensibly for survival, but in the process bringing a welcome unifying force here where before there was separateness, division and competition. So I see the new eruption as heralding a rebirth on the Big Island. And I hope that this is what will also be happening on a larger scale in the world.

In the meanwhile it’s as if the world has split itself up into two parts. Well at least two parts. We’ve always had the good guys and the bad guys; the dark horse and the white horse; those with higher values and goals far beyond only themselves and those whose concerns are closer to the surface and shallower surfaces at that. But now the dualities have reached catastrophic proportions and everywhere I look in the world there is some catastrophe taking place.

I notice that the word terrorists (formerly called rebels, criminals, mobs, gangs, revolutionaries) waiting to murder people they have no idea who they are, has become so familiar, like a buzz-word, that it almost no longer strikes terror.

Let me here try to make a distinction between suppression and repression as they are so interchangeable and might be still in this article. I will tend to use suppression to mean something that is kept pushed down, hidden away mostly by ourselves. And repression here is the act of suppressing or forcing suppression upon others, as well as ourselves.

We know about the repression that we go through from the start of life. And Osho has spoken so much and so often, of our conditioning from parents, from society in general, from each country, each religion, each era and of how our conditioning came about and its consequences.

First of all, the child has to learn to curb his/her crying and then his/her laughing. This was certainly so in my case. The parent has to feel it’s appropriate in order for it to be acceptable. How to speak and when to speak and when not to speak. The suppression of one’s truth is learned here, and not so much learned as painfully experienced. And one learns about the two faces. The face at home alone and the face when with company. One learns about no longer touching the body and because of that becoming ashamed of it and afraid of it and all the feelings stored there in the delicious little parts. And so sexual repression and the suppressed feelings stay waiting, and building pressure within. And so it goes on growing, getting bigger in school, in Sunday school perhaps, in church, synagogue or in the temple and into greater society, getting heavier and stronger. And we are further and further away from the delectable kernel of who we are.

Nobody is what he was meant by existence to be. The society, the culture, the religion, the education that have all been conspiring against innocent children. They have all the powers-the child is helpless and dependent, so whatsoever they want to take out of him, they manage to do it. They don’t allow any child to grow to his natural destiny. Their every effort is to make human beings into utilities. Who knows, if a child is left on his own to grow, whether he will be of any use to the vested interests or not? The society is not prepared to take the risk. It grabs the child and starts molding him into something that is needed by the society. In a certain sense, it kills the soul of the child and gives him a false identity so that he never misses his soul, his being. The false identity is a substitute. But that substitute is useful only in the same crowd which has given it to you. The moment you are alone, the false starts falling apart and the repressed real starts expressing itself. Hence the fear of being lonely. Nobody wants to be lonely. Everybody wants to belong to a crowd-not only one crowd, but many crowds. A person belongs to a religious crowd, a political party, a Rotary Club and there are many other small groups to belong to. One wants to be supported twenty-four hours a day because the false, without support, cannot stand. The moment one is alone, one starts feeling a strange craziness. For so many years you believed yourself to be somebody, and then suddenly in a moment of loneliness you start feeling you are not that. It creates fear: then who are you?

And years of suppression…it will take some time for the real to express itself. The gap between the two has been called by the mystics, “the dark night of the soul” - a very appropriate expression. You are no more the false, and you are not yet the real. You are in a limbo, you don’t know who you are.

Particularly in the West, the problem is even more complicated because they have not developed any methodology to discover the real as son as possible, so that the dark night of the soul can be shortened. The West knows nothing as far as meditation is concerned. And meditation is only a name for being alone, silent, waiting for the real to assert itself. It is not an act, it is a silent relaxation-because whatever you “do” will come out of your false personality… all your doing, for so many years, has come out of it. It is an old habit. Habits die hard. So many years of living in a false personality imposed by people whom you loved, whom you respected…and they are not intentionally doing anything bad to you. Their intentions were good, just their awareness was nil. They were not conscious people-your parents, your teachers, your priests, your politicians-they were not conscious people, they were unconscious. And even a good intention in the hands of an unconscious person turns out to be poisonous.
OSHO
The Courage To Be Just Yourself

I can relate all of this to myself and the inner process within me. The right side of my body has been tightening, contracting its movement and flexibility, shutting down bit by bit, hurting and I have been watching this happening. The right wrist, ankle, right hip, the knee, the right side of the neck, the right shoulder, the right eye, canine tooth, and as of 3 days ago, the liver. Now this didn’t just happen all at once and altogether. It has been little by little, so I didn’t connect the dots until recently.

It seems that the dark is taking over. So the only power that the right side of the body has had, has been to stop, contract, refuse to move. And that is what it’s done. With a sore liver I realized that I can’t keep going on as I’ve been. My body had taken on as much as it could for me and my nervous system is overloaded.

I have felt such anger. Surprising as I thought it had been cleared out years ago. Then moments of anxiety, almost panic. It seems to me that this must have been inside and very deep for a very long time. Maybe eons and clearly whatever has been there is now wanting to release so I let it. Never before have I allowed so much. And the taunts come.

Here you are in a life that is finished, your passion and joy gone, and you are still holding onto the old, and the new you don’t take any steps towards. Where is your courage? What has happened to you? Have you lost yourself? Are you mad? Things are happening around you and you do nothing. You are getting left behind.

And together with this, such emptiness has arisen and where there used to be a natural confidence, an ebullient energy, a knowing, nothing seems to be stirring apart from these suffering feelings and corrosive thoughts. I know from the signs I am given in meditation that this has to be and it’s okay, that it has not been fully allowed in the past and I must simply allow now, for it all to release.

If I were someone else, then maybe I would pick up a rifle or a machine gun or a grenade and go and kill someone responsible for my plight or join a worthy cause of someone else’s. What man does to man I can understand because aspects within me represent the tortured and the torturer, the repressor and the repressed.

When I am working, performing a lovely ceremony, all I experience is love and beingness. But as soon as I come back to myself, I am back to my civil war. What I have just gloriously found is that the antidote, and the only one, is to be absolutely present in each moment. Taking the advice I gave to someone a couple of days ago : “Slow down. Be in the moment and don’t get too far ahead of yourself”. When playing music that means I focus on the note I am about to play, not anything behind or ahead. And this is bringing a union within myself, moment by moment. A rebirth.

And this is what I see in the world. People with all these instabilities and huge emotions, fears and insecurities have not been able, or have chosen not to go within, but to find a reason outside themselves for whatever their complaints seem to be and then act them out becoming violent and terrorists.

I think of those poverty-stricken young boys and young men in the third world countries, specifically Afghanistan and that region. They have been taught to not expect too much, that they don’t deserve a lot and will not receive it anyway. And they believe it. They don’t want to believe it, but deep down they are afraid even to dream, for their dreams can never come true. But they are corruptible for those desires, those dreams that they see realized in others, in the wealthy and well-endowed, in the west; they see the ease and elegance that exists for others. How can they possibly achieve that?

So their dreams can be bought and brought to life when told that by fighting for their homeland and their religion, for the Glory of God and the financial betterment of their families, rewards will come. They themselves will be rewarded later after death and then their dreams will come true. All their suffering and sacrifice on earth will bring glory afterwards. And glory at least is something!

To feel useful and powerful, looked up to by those around you even for a very short time, is something after all. It doesn’t happen in everyday life nor is there hope for it in the future. And looking around at the elders, their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, nothing much seems to be acquired at the end, that looks any better than was at the beginning.

“And you cannot condemn the man for killing a stranger... because he is not a thief; he did not take anything from him. He is not an enemy; he did not even see who was the man he was killing. He was simply bored with life and he wanted to do something that made him feel significant, important. He is happy that all the newspapers have his photo. If they had published his photo before, he would not have killed; but they waited ? until he kills they will not publish his photo. And he wanted to be a celebrity... just ordinary human desires. And he was ready to pay with his life to become, at least for one day, known to the whole world, recognized by everybody. Until we change the basic grounds of humanity, terrorism is going to become more and more a normal, everyday affair. It will happen in the airplanes, it will happen in the buses. It will start happening in the cars. It will start happening to strangers. Somebody will suddenly come and shoot you ? not that you have done anything to him, but just, the hunter is back. The hunter was satisfied in the war. Now the war has stopped and perhaps there is no possibility for it. The hunter is back; now we cannot fight collectively. Each individual has to do something to release his own steam.”
OSHO
Beyond Psychology #18

But what is wrong at the root of everything are the divisions within us suppressing our wholeness, joy, hope, happiness and creativity, as well as the divisions between people, classes countries, between religions. We should be one world, one people and everyone with equal opportunity to everything. Otherwise there is always going to be the dualities of fairness and unfairness; have and have not; those controlled and those controlling; the repressors in authority and the repressed who have to obey. And there will always be rage suppressed by all the layers of pain, lack and disappointment, insecurity and inequality and always be conflict in one way or another.

I know this view of being one people is impossible, that it’s also very unrealistic for this world. Sounds a bit naïve I know, but doesn’t it sound wonderful? And I do come from a family background of socialists, so there it is leaking out. I happen to believe that this earth is a university and has to provide every level of experience that is needed for a soul to grow and evolve, from its very first incarnation onwards to graduation, and to a different existence. Earth is the place to learn about all of life, from the gross to the subtle, from hell to heaven and everything in between.

The difference between people relative to terrorism, from an abusive neighbor to the uni-bomber, is that the less evolved soul will take all that is lacking in his life or festering within him and blame it on someone, be it a person, a race, a job, an animal, a child, or a country and use it against them. A soul who has lived long enough, who has experienced and learned from many lifetimes, when faced with repressed feelings and old painful patterns, will look within and find ways to release the inner freedom yearning to come to full life and expression. Not pick up a gun or fight for something that does not resolve or release the old source.

This holds the key to what follows and how we can return to our natural state of joy and spontaneity, be the true essence of who we are, the intelligent, creative, abundant, full expansive beings that we are all capable of being, and living from here bring such grace, gratitude and enlightenment to the world around us. Fill the air with the buzzing of joy and the fragrance of sweetness.

So having said that, it means to me that there will always be, as has historically been, peace and war and peace and war. And the conflicts and difficulties, the challenges, pleasures, achievements and lessons for the individual and the collective that this world has always dealt with, will continue. And it remains that evolution happens on an individual level or with groups of like individuals who are totally committed to their awakening. Business as usual.

Although with each generation, with each millennium, each eon, we see development, advances, progress and quantum shifts previously unimaginable. So the same personal experiences keep on happening in us individually but in more rarified environments and lifestyles, as the level of progress of that time dictates.

I mentioned this theory to a dear friend who is a beautiful and enlightened woman and she just looked at me and then looked away. Said nothing but looked and in such a way that I had the feeling that she was not in agreement. But as nothing was said, I still have my theory intact.

Look at the last 100 years and what has transpired! Unbelievable. I remember as a child the biggest treat I could have would be if, when walking back from school, the milkman would stop and let me get into his milk wagon and hold the horse’s reins. Wow! That was really something special! And that was far less than 100 years ago. Now we have digital everything and instant communication everywhere, super jets, a level of advanced technology, cloning, stem cell medical miracle potentials and more of what not too long ago was sci-fi.

There is so much potential while at the same time our planet is almost all used up. It’s a quixotic irony. I just read in the paper this morning that President Bush has given permission across the board to seven oil companies in Alaska in the Chukchi Sea to “annoy and potentially harm” the polar bears, meaning of course kill them if not by a bullet then by destroying their home and environment. This in pursuit of oil and natural gas.

The terrorism is not in the bombs, in your hands; the terrorism is in your unconscious.
OSHO

“My understanding is that the way he has lived, man needs -- every ten to twelve years -- a war. He accumulates so much anger, so much rage, so much violence, that nothing short of a war will give him release. So, war after war, there is a gap of only ten to fifteen years. That gap is a kind of relaxation. But again you start accumulating because the same psychology is working -- the same jealousy, the same violence. And man is basically a hunter; he is not by nature vegetarian.

First he became a hunter, and for thousands of years he was just a meat-eater, and cannibalism was prevalent everywhere. To eat human beings caught from the opposing tribe you were fighting with was perfectly ethical. All that is carried in the unconscious of humanity. Religions have imposed things on man very superficially; his unconscious is not in agreement. Every man is living in a disagreement with himself. So whenever he can find a chance -- for a beautiful cause; freedom, democracy, socialism -- any beautiful word can become an umbrella to hide his ugly unconscious, which simply wants to destroy and enjoys destruction…… It can only be prevented if we change the very base of human understanding -- which is a Himalayan task because these same people whom you want to change will fight you; they who’d allow you to change them easily. In fact they love bloodshed; they don't have the courage to say so.”
OSHO
Beyond Psychology #18

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The most deadly game in the world toady is terrorism. Killing hundreds without warning, injuring hundreds more, destroying property and spreading horror, panic and fear, terrorists know no boundaries, no religion.

But who is a terrorist? General Dyer of Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar? Or Bhagat Singh, the freedom fighter? Guerrilla leader Fidel Castro or the corrupt and unpopular Batista regime in Cuba? Or President John Kennedy who approved the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba? Kenya’s Mau Mau ‘terrorists’ in the 1950s? Or the colonial Government who hunted and killed hundreds of thousands of them later called ‘freedom fighters’? Those who destroyed a mosque? Or the fanatics who triggered Bombay Blasts? The Government that trained the Tamil Tigers? Or the Tamil Tiger Bomber who assassinated the Prime Minister? The United States that trained the Taliban against the Soviet Union to fight in Afghanistan? Or the Jehadis who attacked New York and Washington on 9/11?

In politics and religion, friends turn into foes and terrorists become freedom fighters. With no holds barred, Osho hits out at the disease of terrorism over two decades ago and he traced its roots in religion before it erupted in politics. Today, religion and politics intertwine in terrorism. It is a lethal and fatal virus against which there seems no cure. But Osho suggests a remedy. Since he suffered at the hands of both the priests and the politicians, only he has the courage to declare, “Governments are to save people from terrorism, are here governments are supplying money and arms and food to terrorists. And then they go on lying...”

When everybody is admiring the King’s robes; like that innocent and pure child, only Osho declares, “The King has no clothes!”

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Terrorism is one of those words we use as a euphemism, that is, we rarely look at what it really is. We use the word to refer to violence by people whom we don’t support and whom we fear— it’s what the others, the bad guys do. Terrorism that we support is called freedom fighting, security, or war. As Osho said when he was accused of being a threat to the public good:

“One has to understand that everything is relative, not ultimate; hence what appears to be good to one person may look evil to another. And there is no contradiction: both may be right.

What is good depends on your preconceived ideas; so does evil.

The British government thinks my entry even for an overnight stay in England, is not conducive to the public good. The same government is ready to allow American bombers, missiles, to use their bases, to destroy a small country like Libya, and to the government this seems to be conducive to public good.

There is no inconsistency. In their eyes their society, their culture, their religion, their country has to be saved at any cost, because they think they stand for good—although the British government has tortured humanity more than any other government in the world. For three hundred years it has been the greatest terrorist possible; it killed millions of people around the world, to create the greatest empire of history. This government is absolutely in tune with the American imperialistic ideology.

Out of necessity it has been compelled to give freedom to the countries of its empire, but not willingly and joyously. Those countries had to fight for almost one century, without any arms. They were butchered, without any consideration of human values.” (Excerpted from: Beyond Psychology, Chapter-10)

The real meaning of terrorism, the nonpolitical meaning, is any use of violence or the threat of violence to control others through fear. When we look at it like that, we see that terrorism is all around us and that terrorism begets terrorism. If some group blows up a building, there will be politicians who rush in and feed on the fear that results. These politicians will say that they must have more power, more control, and most people will be too fearful to complain. Then the politicians will use this new power to start their own terrorist campaign against those they don’t like, against those they fear as a threat to their power.

“Adolf Hitler writes in his autobiography that unless you create hostility amongst your neighbor nations, you can never become strong; keep always people afraid that the enemy is going soon, soon you will be destroyed. That fear will keep them strong and ready to order and surrender and trust and believe anything the leader says.” (Excerpted from: The Last Testament, Vol 3, Chapter #2)

The 9/11 destruction of the two towers in New York, for example, was the best thing that ever happened to George Bush. His popularity was so low at the time that he would not have been elected for his current term. But after the crisis he fed on the fear and promoted the fear to such an extent that people were afraid to change. Now, when the fear has calmed down, he is an unpopular as ever. In the meantime he created Homeland Security, held innocent Islamic people for years without charges or evidence, and authorized torture of political prisoners. He is clearly a terrorist in the true sense of the word. In this way, acts of violence that we call terrorism quickly become oppression and repression by the controlling politicians as long as people can be manipulated through their fear.

George Bush has a particularly terrorist mind. (We can recall the relish and enthusiasm with which he condemned people to die when he was governor of Texas.) But he is not unique. Most politicians chose that profession because they are ambitious for power. Whenever there is widespread fear, anywhere in the world, there will be people to feed on it and use it to control others. There will always be Adolf Hitlers and George Bushs ready to take advantage of fear.

Of course, it is not just the politicians who do this. Religions have been controlling through fear for millennia. There are few religions that don’t have at least one hell where people will be cast for misdeeds. The idea of these hells is almost always promoted by people in hierarchical religious positions who claim that people must obey them (and often support them in style) in order to avoid a sentence to hell. If there isn’t a hell, there will be some other judgment or retribution, like reincarnation as a dung beetle.

These threats of divine or existential retribution keep people repressed and oppressed and keep many religious leaders in power. This fear prevents people from finding their own understanding of what is right and good in each moment. It allows them to be controlled for the benefit of the religion and its leaders. This is not to say that our actions don’t have consequences, but we will never truly understand those consequences until we view them from a perspective of awareness, not of fear.

We are controlled by fear in our everyday lives as well. People work 60 or more hour weeks for fear that they will lose their jobs if they ask to have time to spend with their friends or family or to live a healthy life. Young people in America are now being told that they have to start preparing for retirement in their 20s, for fear they will starve in old age or be sick and have no health care.

The result is that we are so used to being afraid, so conditioned to being controlled through fear, that many of us do not even realize it when we are being manipulated through fear. We don’t see when an act of violence is used to create the suppression and oppression of another form of terrorism, called security.

We need to protect ourselves from violence as best we can, but in doing this we need to remain aware that there will be people trying to use the fear of violence to justify repressions and oppression of what is unpopular. And since the truth is often unpopular, and people like Osho who tell the truth are often unpopular with people who want to control others, this creates a very dangerous situation on many levels.

So what is the answer? How do we deal with terrorism without creating suppression and oppression? The answer is simple: meditation. Osho has made it clear that all our fear is based in our fear of death. That’s why random violence terrifies us and makes us vulnerable to manipulation. Only by confronting our own fear of death, can we release fear from our lives. And once we’ve released fear from our lives, we can never be controlled through fear again. We can look at each situation in the present moment and decide what is best, not from fear, but from awareness.

“In the East particularly, death is respected more than life -- and the East has lived long to come to this conclusion. In the West life is more respected than death; hence so much tension, so much worry and so much anguish, so much madness.

Why? If you respect life more, you will be afraid of death, and then death will look antagonistic, the enemy; and if death is the enemy you will remain tense your whole life, because death can happen any moment. You don't accept it, you reject it—but you cannot destroy it. Death cannot be destroyed. You can reject it; you can deny it; you can be afraid, scared, but it is there, just at the corner, always with you like a shadow. You will be trembling your whole life—and you ARE trembling. And in the fear, in all fears if searched deeply, you will find the fear of death.

Whenever you are afraid, something has given you an indication of death. If your bank goes bankrupt and you are filled with fear and trembling, anxiety—that too is anxiety about death, because your bank balance was nothing but a security against death. Now you are more open, vulnerable. Now who will protect you if death knocks at the door? If you become ill, if you become old, then who is going to take care of you? The guarantee was there in the bank, and the bank has gone bankrupt.

You cling to prestige, power, position, because when you have a position you are so significant that you are more protected by people. When you are not in power, you become so impotent that nobody bothers in any way who you are. When you are in power you have friends, family, followers; when you are not in power, everybody leaves. There was a protection, somebody was there to care; now nobody cares. Whatsoever you are afraid of, if you search deeply you will always find the shadow of death somewhere.

You cling to a husband, you are afraid he may leave; or you cling to a wife, afraid she may leave you. What is the fear? Is it really the fear of a divorce, or is it a fear of death? It is a fear of death... because in divorce you become alone. The other gives a protection, a feeling that you are not alone, somebody else is with you. In moments when somebody else will be needed, you will have somebody to look to. But the wife has left, or the husband has left, and now you are left alone, a stranger. Who will protect you? Who will care for you when you are ill?” (Excerpted from: And The Flowers Showered, Chapter-5)

We can’t rely on the politicians to stop the cycle of terrorism, repression, and oppression. They won’t give up the opportunity for power when they’re presented with it. The only answer is to stop presenting them with that opportunity. If we cannot be manipulated through fear, they won’t succeed in using violence to justify their own violence in the form of suppression and oppression of those unpopular to them, of those they fear. If we are not afraid, they have no power over us.

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