When Wild Wild Country came out as a documentary series on Netflix and made a huge splash, I made a little YouTube video about being flown to Rajneeshpuram when they were recruiting me to be a follower:
Hello Hollywood! This got me discovered by Ideapod’s CEO, Justin Brown, who invited me to do the webinar with him that’s below.
(I am a big supporter of Ideapod, a rare site that, like mine, invites participation to come up with what can help this crazed world, and I urge you to become an Ideapod member.)
By now you’ve probably heard of the Wild Wild Country documentary series that premiered on Netflix on March 16th.
It tells the incredible story of the Indian spiritual master, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, aka Osho, who founded a commune, Rajneeshpuram, in rural Oregon in the early 1980s. Remarkably, the commune attracted thousands of people from around the world inspired by the promise of a new kind of society.
The movement also drew controversy and fell apart when significant figures from the commune ending up being charged with terrorism and jailed for immigration fraud and attempted murder.
Pennell and Hasya
The documentary series is entertaining to watch. However, there is very little exploration of Osho’s teaching that caused so many people to come together to create a new way of living. It was a revolutionary project and the residents seemed to sincerely hope their ways of thinking would spread around the world. We therefore decided to talk with two people who knew a lot about that era.The full video is below, along with a transcript (Click here for the transcript that’s in what Ideapod sent…ST.) Our hope is that others will be able to take the discussion further by building upon the ideas discussed here.Wild Wild Country is truly stunning. Yet, while watching the documentary series I couldn’t help but think that it didn’t do justice to the many thousands of people who moved to Oregon to create a new way of living.
I then came across a beautiful short video by Suzanne Taylor from Sue Speaks. She had visited the commune and expressed an opinion about the lack of focus on Osho’s teachings in the documentary series. I reached out to Suzanne to discuss this issue, and she invited Pennell Rock into the discussion. Pennell was a disciple of Osho’s. He visited Oregon often but lived there for only three months. Prior to Osho’s sojourn in the States, Pennell lived intermittently at his Ashram in India and brought his girlfriend there. She became Hasya, who plays a major part in the documentary as she became Osho’s right hand when Sheela, who was running the place, fled from Oregon. Pennell is a scholar in Comparative Religions and Philosophy, so he was the perfect person to join us for this discussion.
Justin Brown interviews Suzanne Taylor and Pennell Rock:
I find it helpful to think about the meaning of life and what I am doing here. The deeper I understand the point of life, the smarter I can be about how to live. One of the things I keep asking myself is what it would take for me to feel content, let alone happy. But, content will do — to create equilibrium to think and to choose my actions intelligently.
I’m with Socrates saying the unexamined life is not worth living. Ever since the human potential movement pushed me beyond where being a wife and mom was the main frame for my life, I’ve thought about what the basics are that I need for my well-being.
I think that’s a good topic to talk about. We get food for thought from one another. And, since engagement is what this site is here to serve, how about telling me what you need to keep you going? Would you do a little introspection and see what you come up with? Maybe we can inspire one another to more profound insights that lead us to more satisfying choices!
A while ago, I settled into being creative and being appreciated as my bottom lines. Lately, I’ve been thinking that has morphed to having a good game to play, which covers both those bases.
There are two quotes that, together, frame that game perspective in a way that gives me guidance:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts… ― William Shakespeare, As You Like It
We’re not here forever. We enter at birth with an allotment of so many years to play out our drama. We get what we get and we have to figure out what to do with it.
I am informed about that by this quote that’s at the start of a book by a lesser-known sage:
Seek, above all, for a game worth playing. Such is the advice of the oracle to modern man. Having found the game, play it with intensity – play as if your life and sanity depended on it. (They do depend on it.) Follow the example of the French existentialists and flourish a banner bearing the word “engagement.” Though nothing means anything and all roads are marked “NO EXIT,” yet move as if your movements had some purpose. If life does not seem to offer a game worth playing, then invent one. For it must be clear, even to the most clouded intelligence, that any game is better than no game. ― Robert S. de Ropp, The Master Game: Pathways to Higher Consciousness
Here’s a bonus from that wonderful de Ropp book:
To emerge from this narrow shell, to regain union with the universal consciousness, to pass from the darkness of the ego-centered illusion into the light of the non-ego, this was the real aim of the Religion Game as defined by the great teachers, Jesus, Gautama, Krishna, Mahavira, Lao-tze and the Platonic Socrates.
And I happened to come across this comment on de Ropp’s book that I agree with:
THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BOOK TO READ WHEN YOU ARE YOUNG. ACTUALLY, THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BOOK TO READ ANYTIME YOUNG OR OLD. AND IT IS CERTAINLY WORTH A RE-READING. ALTHOUGH WRITTEN IN THE 60s IT IS JUST AS RELEVANT NOW AS THEN.
What are your essentials for staying positive? What keeps you moving forward everyday?
