OSHO
OSHO International Foundation presents
Osho: I Wonder If This Could Be Love?
Excerpts from an Interview with Mike Wolfe KBND Radio, Bend, Oregon
My name is Mike Wolfe.
A little bit of my background:
I've been in the radio and television business,
in Washington D.C., Denver, Colorado --
so I've traveled a bit;
and got tired of the big cities
and came to Central Oregon.
What I see is, very simply,
that you have some things to say
that a lot of people at this point don't buy,
which you may not care about.
Why don't you care about it?
Why should I care?
But why shouldn't you care?...and we can play monopoly
with this all the way through.
No.
You state that your interest is in the individual.
Is that only the individual who is here?
No. The individual is everywhere,
whether he is here or not,
because only the individual exists. Societies are just names,
collectivities are all names.
In reality there is only the individual.
And I am trying my best,
sitting in my room.
That's why you can see --
in all the papers, on the radio,
on the television --
a man who does not go out of this small valley.
And I will go on hammering all over the world from here.
What is the point of traveling?
Well, let me ask you this:
You do not go out of the valley, but
is it not correct that you spent three nights in Bend, at the Riverhouse Motel,
a couple of weeks ago?
No.
Then someone is paying you the highest
compliment because they are impersonating you.
Hmm!
I wonder if it's possible
for what you are saying --
getting back to it somewhat seriously --
to be projected to those people who just don't understand.
First, the non-serious part.
Don't try to get a bigger laugh than I did.
I was not
in the hotel, but I can be.
Well, you probably could buy the hotel if you wanted to.
In fact, I have...
and I have everything that any hotel in America can have.
You just have to see my bathroom;
perhaps it is the best in the whole world.
Your bathroom?
My bathroom.
Is that an invitation?
Yes.
I've never been invited to the bathroom before.
I've been told I belonged in the bathroom
before, but never invited to one.
I am a rare and unique person in every way:
I invite you to my bathroom!
That is unique.
But where do we go from there?
There is nowhere to go.
Enjoy the jacuzzi there,
enjoy the shower there,
enjoy
the hot shower,
enjoy the ice-cold shower.
And then get out... I understand!
I need to know this for my own edification:
Have you ever invited a member of the Press to your bathroom before?
No...
Thank you. I think that's important.
...because I've never liked any man
the way I like you.
I wonder if this could be love?
This is!
Inivited to the bathroom....
Well, I'm sure the listeners of this program are thinking
you and I are going to start a nightclub act.
What is the potential -- since you were talking about this a moment ago --
of uniting the Western philosophy, which is somewhat materialistic,
and the Eastern philosophy, which traditionally is not materialistic
but is more an inner --
what would you call it -- an inner recognition of oneself?
Now you have done a magnificient job in many respects --
that diamond wristwatch of course is certainly not
an Eastern philosophy --
and yet the rest of your presentation is somewhat Eastern.
Is it possible for those two cultures to unite?
That's what I have been doing.
And that's why
both sides of the culture
are angry with me.
The Easterners are angry with me
because they think I am a materialist.
And are they right?
No.
You're not materialistic?
No, not in their sense.
And the Western people --
particularly the materialist, the communist --
they are angry with me
because I am bringing spiritualism.
My approach is that man is both together.
This existence is not split into matter and spirit.
This existence is one organic unity,
just as your soul and your body are an organic unity.
Your soul cannot exist without your body
and your body cannot be alive without the soul.
I am destroying the whole idea of the separation,
of a split between matter and mind,
body and soul,
materialism and spiritualism.
I call myself Zorba the Buddha.
My restaurants, my
discos are all named after me: Zorba the Buddha.
Now Buddhists are angry.
The ambassador of Sri Lanka in America wrote me a letter
saying,
"In my country people will be angry about it.
Please don't use Buddha's name with Zorba."
I replied to him, "We don't mean your Buddha;
your Buddha's name was Gautam Siddhartha.
Buddha is not anybody's name,
it is a quality. It means the Awakened One.
It can be used for anybody who is awakened.
So don't get upset about it."
My effort is that Zorba and Buddha have to be bridged.
Zorba represents the materialist's life
in all its luxury --
hence this diamond wristwatch,
hence all my Rolls Royces.
I live the most luxurious life that any man has ever lived,
with no worry.
People have much more money -- I don't have a single cent --
but they cannot live such a luxurious life as I am living,
with no worry,
no bank account, no income tax...
and having everything that anybody can have!
What is your secret?
I really think you're in the wrong business.
I mean...
because of what you've just documented,
you must be one of the world's great con men, it would seem.
I am!
And it takes a great man to admit that.
Certainly!
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Source: The Last Testament, Vol.1 #18 Copyright © Osho International Foundation, Switzerland. OSHO ® is a registered ™.