Taoweblog

It happened
once that a so-called saint was visiting Osho. Osho took him into the garden --
there were so many beautiful dahlias, and he showed him those beautiful flowers
in the morning sun. He looked very strangely at Osho, a little annoyed,
irritated, and he could not resist the temptation to condemn Osho, saying,
"I thought you were a religious person... and you are still enjoying the
beauty of the flowers?" Osho said,
"On this point you are right, but on the second point you are wrong. Who
ever told you that I am a religious person? I am not yet dead! -- to be
religious the basic requirement is to be dead. If you are alive you can only be
a hypocrite, you cannot be really religious." When you will see a
bird on the wing, it is impossible not to rejoice in its freedom. And when you
will see the sunset with all the colors spread on the horizon -- even if you
close your eyes, your very effort of closing the eyes will show your interest. You
have been overwhelmed by the beauty of it. Life is another name of
love. And love is nothing but being sensitive to beauty. Osho said to that so-called saint, "I can renounce religion but I cannot renounce
life, because life has been given to me by existence itself, and religion is
just man-made, manufactured by the priests and the politicians; manufactured to
deprive man of his joy, to deprive man of his dignity, to deprive man of his
humanity itself. I am not a religious person in your sense. I
have a totally different definition of being religious. To me the religious
person is one who is totally alive, intensely alive, aflame with love, aware of
tremendous beauty all around; has the courage to rejoice each moment of life
and death together. Only a man who is so capable of rejoicing in life and death
-- his song continues. It does not matter whether life is happening or death is
happening, his song is not disturbed, his dance does not waver."

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5903364917903242836&ei=qmlFSvDLH4fG2wKB_5XeBg&q=

 

There is an
unlikely tradition of religious pluralism amongst prime ministers. Famously
there was Benjamin Disraeli, a Jew. Less well known there was John Stuart, the
third Earl of Bute. Stuart was born in 1713 and became an Earl in 1723 on the
death of his father (the Isle of Bute was the family estate). Educated at Eton,
Bute obtained a law degree and had a life-long
interest in botany. In 1736 he became a member of the House of Lords. A Tory Bute
has the unenviable reputation of having been one of Britain’s most unpopular prime
ministers ever having gained the post through royal favour in 1762 and serving
in the post until the following year. He was in fact Britain's first Scottish Prime
Minister. Bute was also a Satanist, or at least he was
as much a Satanist as Churchill was a Druid, belonging to an avowedly satanic
group though probably for social and fraternal reasons more than theological
conviction. The group in question was the Order of St. Francis the most
notorious of the so called Hell Fire Clubs of eighteenth century Britain. The
Order of St. Francis was founded by Francis Dashwood (hence its name) sometime
around 1745. At its core was an inner circle of founding members known as the Unholy
Twelve, of which Bute was one. Though several
were there for social (and as we shall see sexual reasons) some members were
avowedly Satanists. Aside from Dashwood, both Thomas Potter and George Selwyn
have been cited in this context. Meetings of the Order of St. Francis were, from 1750, held at Medmenham Abbey
(a former Cistercian abbey) and began with a black mass but this was only the
prelude for a drinking binge and sexual orgy facilitated by prostitutes
(usually dressed as nuns) hired (or coerced) for the evening, the real
attraction for members like Bute. According to Daniel Mannix, Bute
was a dedicated member, never missing a meeting.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3544158022854089204&ei=kkoTSrv8DKPQ2wKAovWUAQ&q=