OSHO: The Buddha for the Future

Book excerpt: Osho: The Buddha For the Future, serendipitously arrives in the wake of the explosive release of the Netflix documentary series, ‘Wild Wild Country.’ Author Maneesha James witnessed first hand, and kept a meticulous record of the creation of Osho’s communes and the evolution of his work as they unfolded. This, the first volume of a trilogy, opens at the ashram in Pune, India, in the early ‘70’s. The reader follows this phase through Osho’s public discourses on many of the ancient masters, the early experimentations with meditation techniques in which the author was personally involved, Osho’s unique partnering of meditation with therapy, the introduction of ‘Zorba the Buddha’ and ‘The Psychology of the Buddhas,’ his energy work, and much more. Along with her own observations and experiences, Maneesha’s interviews with numerous key players cast a whole new understanding on the remarkable years of Rajneeshpuram in Oregon. Her account fills in the gaping omissions in the Netflix docuseries – providing an, intimate, in-depth understanding of what it was like to be a modern-day seeker in a contemporary mystery school designed to help realize a daring new vision for humanity, espoused by an iconoclastic spiritual master. In addition, for those willing and able to look below the hype, the inside story behind the political machinations – both on the part of the commune administrator and the US government – makes for a riveting read. Osho: The Buddha For the Future provides a valuable testimony to a spiritual master far ahead of his time, and is a remarkable record of the efforts of the most powerful government in the world to silence him.