WHEN THE SHOE FITS - A BOOK REVIEW

And here I am, doing a book review on a religious (sort of) book, authored by (of all people) Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

Here's the inside poop (the U.S chapter) on Rajneesh - http://www.answers.com/topic/rajneesh?method=22:

"In 1981, Rajneesh was taken to the United States in search of better medical care (he suffered from diabetes and severe back problems) and also, reportedly, to escape tax evasion charges in India. His followers, at his request, bought (for US$6 million) a ranch in Wasco County, Oregon, previously known as "The Big Muddy", but later renamed Rajneeshpuram where they settled for the next several years.

Disagreements over zoning rules and building codes in the beginning continued to escalate between not only his followers and the inhabitants of Wasco County, but eventually with the rest of the state. His followers, known as Rajneeshees, settled en bloc in Antelope, Oregon, and were able to elect a majority of the town council. Comments by his public spokeswoman, Ma Anand Sheela, only increased tensions. Matters were not helped by Rajneesh's vow of silence, or the 93 Rolls-Royces his followers bought him as gifts - they said that he wanted 365cars so that he had a new one for each day of the year (technically, he did not have income or own any property). One of his followers explains this in what is called "Face to Faith Parable of the Rolls Royces." When the Rajneeshees subsequently recruited homeless people from across the United States to settle at Rajneeshpuram, it was widely seen as an attempt to use the ballot box to seize control of Wasco County.

At the same time the commune offered an international refuge for his followers to live Osho's teaching; the ideal of meditating, celebrating, and trusting in love. At its largest, Rajneeshpuram consisted of some 7,000 members on a 100-square-mile ranch in Antelope. It included homes, meditation centers, its own road system, power grid, bus service, schools for children, and even a small airport.

In 1984, a bioterrorist attack involving salmonella typhimurium contamination in the salad bars of the 10 restaurants at The Dalles, Oregon, was traced to the Rajneeshee group. The attack sickened about 750 people; none died. It was the first known bioterrorist attack of the 20th century in the United States. Eventually Sheela and Ma Anand Puja, another of Osho's close advisors, confessed to the salmonella attack and to attempted poisonings on county officials. About this time, Sheela was removed from her post in the Rajneesh's service, and shortly afterwards left for Germany.

While these controversial events brought much negative publicity to the commune, it is worth noting that Osho himself spoke very strongly against these acts, and that it was only a handful of people who were responsible out of the thousands of people who were living in the communce either permanently or temporarily. Osho never apologized to any of the victims of the germ attack, which was orchestrated by his own hand picked disciples. Some of the victims were women and small children.

In May 1985, Sheela called a meeting of Rajneesh's inner circle to plot the assassination of Charles Turner, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon, after the attorney was appointed to head a grand jury investigation into the commune. Catherine Jane Stubbs, known as Ma Shanti Bhadra, volunteered to be the killer. She later bought weapons and scouted Turner's property.

In 1985, Rajneesh was arrested in North Carolina as he was allegedly fleeing the U.S. On October 23, 1985, a federal grand jury in Portland, Oregon had secretly indicted Rajneesh, Sheela, and six others of his followers for alleged immigration crimes. Two days later, a Wasco County grand jury returned indictments against Sheela and two others, charging them with the attempted murder of Swami Devaraj, Bhagwan's personal doctor. Rajneesh on advice of his lawyers entered an "Alford plea," also called a no-contest plea, and was given a suspended sentence on condition that he leave the country."

Now, I am not, nor ever have been, a follower of this fellow. I've owned the book since the early nineties (it was recommended to me by a Tai Chi teacher). The title of the book is When The Shoe Fits - Talks on the stories of Chuang Tzu.

I find it a very...calming read.

It's basically an extended commentary on many of the stories of Chuang Tzu. For those of you unfamiliar with this gentleman, read here:

Chuang-tzu or Chuang-tze (both: jwäng-dzu() , c.369–c.286 B.C., Chinese Taoist writer. Little is known about his life. He was a native of the state of Meng, on the border of present-day Shandong and Henan provinces, and is said to have lived as a hermit. The collection of essays attributed to him, called the Chuang-tzu, is distinguished by its brilliant and original style, with abundant use of satire, paradox, and seemingly nonsensical stories. Chuang-tzu emphasizes the relativity of all ideas and conventions that are the basis of judgments and distinctions; he puts forward as the solution to the problems of the human condition freedom in identification with the universal Tao, or principle of Nature. He is less political in his orientation than the earlier Taoist Lao Tzu. He is also called Chuang Chou.


Now, even though I'm an atheist, I confess a bit of a soft spot for Taoism:

"Philosophical Taoism

The philosophical system stems largely from the Tao-te-ching, a text traditionally ascribed to Lao Tzu but probably written in the mid-3d cent. B.C. The Tao, in the broadest sense, is the way the universe functions, the path [Chin. tao=path] taken by natural events. It is characterized by spontaneous creativity and by regular alternations of phenomena (such as day following night) that proceed without effort. Effortless action may be illustrated by the conduct of water, which unresistingly accepts the lowest level and yet wears away the hardest substance. Human beings, following the Tao, must abjure all striving. The ideal state of being, fully attainable only by mystical contemplation, is simplicity and freedom from desire, comparable to that of an infant or an “uncarved block.”

Truth be told, I favor it mostly because it's so quiet in expression. No Sturm und drang, no kick school mentality, no force enacted on another.

On to the book now: I shall try not to digress (and it's tough, when you get to my age, trust you me).

Rajneesh, I gotta hand this much to the fellow, was a fairly sharp fellow (During the 1960s he served as philosophy professor at the University of Jabalpur while touring India lecturing on his philosophy). Maybe not in judging human nature (it was, if memory serves, his inner circle that screwed up big time: he also got greedy, as shown here in Face to Faith - Parable of the Rolls-Royces), but his writings (this book at least, I've not read anything else by him) are filled with wit and insight. He salts his discussion on Taoism by liberally borrowing from Buddhism, Hinduism, and our all-time favorite, xtianity, not to mention funny anecdotes about some fellow named Mulla Nasrudin (who is his literary straight man, so to speak).

The title comes from this:
So, when the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten:
when the belt fits, the belly is forgotten: and when the heart is right,
'for' and 'against' are forgotten.

Excerpt:

"You must have heard the story of the centipede? A centipede walks with a hundred legs.
A frog, a philosopher, saw the centipede, he looked and watched and he became very troubled;
iti so difficult to walk even with four legs, but this centipede was walking with 100 legs.
This was a miracle! How did the centipede decide which leg to move first
and then which one next and then which one after that? And 100 legs!
So the frog stopped the centipede and asked a question: I am a philosopher and I am puzzled by you.
A problem has arisen which I cannot solve. How do you walk? How do you manage it at all? It seems impossible!
The centipede said: I have been walking all my life, but I have not thought about it. Now that you ask, I will think about it and then I will tell you.

"For the 1st time thought entered the centipede's consciousness. Really, the frog was right - which leg should be moved 1st?
The centipede stood there for a few minutes, couldn't move, wobbled, and fell down. And he said this to the frog:
Please don't ask another centipede this question. I have been walking throughout my life and it was never a problem,
and now you have killed me completely! I cannot move. And a 100 legs to move! How can I manage?

"Life moves in a perfect circle, life moves perfectly, there is no problem.
Chuang Tzu says of Chu'i that he could draw more perfect circles freehand than with a compass.
You need a compass because you are not confident of life; you need moralities, precepts, principles,
Bibles, Korans, Gitas to direct you because you are not confident of the inner force.
That is your life. And these Bibles, Korans, and Gitas,
they have created the same situation for you that the frog created for the centipede."

I don't know about anyone else, but I find that an amusing metaphor of modernity.

Interspersed throughout this book are constant salvos against the fragile construct of the ego: how it is unnatural, a superficial extension of modern man (what really cracks me up is each chapter is headed up by pictures of Rajneesh. Sheesh!).

There are so many bits and pieces that I'd dearly love to quote at you, however, I'm consciously trying to keep the post smaller. This book's not bad, but you'd be much better off reading Chuang Tzu.
The story of the prince and the monkey, the tale of the fighting cock (this is ancient China, you hedonists, so no funky innuendoes, please!).

My favorite (Chuang Tzu here) is this one:

"Chuang Tzu with his bamboo pole was fishing in the Pu river.
The prince of Chu sent two vice-chancellors with a formal document: We hereby appoint you Prime Minister.
Chuang Tzu held his bamboo pole. Still watching Pu river, he said:
'I am told there is a sacred tortoise offered and canonised three thousand years ago, venerated by the prince, wrapped in silk, in a precious shrine on an altar in the Temple.
What do you think? Is it better to give up one's life and leave a sacred shell as an object of cult in a cloud of incense for 3000 years, or better to live as a plan turtle dragging its tail in the mud?'
'For the turtle' said the vice-chancellor, 'better to live and drag its tail in the mud!'
'Go home!' said Chuang Tzu. 'Leave me here to drag my tail in the mud.'"

A good Mulla Nasrudin story:

'It happened that Mulla Nasrudin entered a hospital. The surgeon who was going to operate said to him:
Here we believe in speed, and we don't waste any time. After the operation, on the very first day, you have to walk for 5 minutes in the room; the next day, for 1/2 an hour, outside the hospital; the third day, a long walk of 1 hour. Here we don't waste time. Life is short and time is money. It has to be saved.
Mulla Nasrudin said: Just 1 question---do you mind if I lie down for the operation?"

And one for our xtian friends:

"Duke Hwan of Khi, 1st in his dynasty, sat under his canpopy reading his philosophy. And Phien the wheelwright was out in the yard making a wheel.
Phien laid aside hammer and chisel, climbed the steps, and said to Duke Hwan:
'May I ask you, Lord, what is this you're reading?'
The Duke said: 'The experts, the authorities.' And Phien asked: 'Alive or Dead?' The Duke said: 'Dead a long time.'
'Then,' said the wheelwright, 'you are reading only the dirt they left behind.'
The Duke replied: 'What do you know about it? You are only a wheelwright. You had better give me a good explanation or else you must die.'
The wheelwright said: 'Let us look at the affair from my point of view. When I make wheels, if I go easy they fall apart, and if I am too rough they do not fit.
'But if I am neither too easy nor too violent they come out right. The work is what I want it to be. You cannot put this into words, you just have to know how it is.
'I cannot even tell my own son exactly how it is done, and my own son cannot learn it from me. So here I am, 70 years old, still making wheels!
'The men of old took all they really knew with them to the grave. And so, Lord what you are reading there is only the dirt they left behind them.'


So, in short, an easy read, and if you filter out the more religious references (according to Rajneesh, Tao=God, which I don't think is correct), it's a little bit of all right.