Impressie van Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries

Socrates Poisoned Again After 25 Centuries
As the bishop of Crete′s Greek Orthodox Church urges the local citizenry to forcibly drive him out of the villa where he is staying, Osho revives the spirit of Zorba in a series of lively talks to his disciples and to visiting journalists. Eventually Osho, like Socrates, was accused of “corrupting the youth”. –and his heavy-handed deportation is documented in an eight-page color section at the end of this volume. But in the meantime the “corruption” had been recorded in print.

A great variety of Topics

A banquet of timely topics, from politics and religion to teenagers and sex, it sparkles like the Mediterranean setting in which it happened.”I have loved Socrates much more than anyone else – for his humbleness, for his scientific enquiry, for not creating a religion, not creating a theology, not creating a following, not becoming a prophet… which he was capable of, far more capable than Jesus or Moses or Mohammed. These people were all illiterate.
“Socrates was far more sophisticated, as cultured as you can imagine. The temptation must have been there to proclaim himself a god, and by that proclamation he may have been worshiped and not poisoned. The same people who killed him would have worshiped him; they would have made churches, and they would have still been worshiping him.

Socrates Poisoned again after 25 centuries: Nederlands

Het boek bevat een indringende serie van Osho’s toespraken tijdens een turbulente tijd. Griekenland maakte deel uit van Osho’s World Tour. Hij werd daar niet vriendelijk ontvangen door de Grieks orthodoxe kerk en de autoriteiten volgden braaf. Er werden zelfs gewelddadige dreigingen geuit om hem het land uit te krijgen.
De bisschop van de Grieks-orthodoxe kerk van Kreta spoorde de lokale burgers aan om Osho met geweld uit de villa waar hij verbleef, te verdrijven. Ondertussen bracht Osho de geest van Zorba opnieuw tot leven in een serie levendige toespraken voor zijn discipelen en voor journalisten die hem bezochten. 

Uiteindelijk werd Osho, net als Socrates, beschuldigd van “corruptie van de jeugd”. En zijn hardhandige deportatie is gedocumenteerd in een acht pagina’s tellende kleursectie aan het einde van dit deel. Maar ondertussen was deze “corruptie” dus al in druk vastgelegd.

Inhoud van het boek

Een banket van actuele onderwerpen, variërend van politiek en religie tot tieners en seks; het is een stralend geheel, net zoals de mediterrane omgeving waarin het gebeurde. “Ik heb Socrates veel meer liefgehad dan wie ook – om zijn nederigheid, om zijn wetenschappelijk onderzoek, om het niet creëren van een religie, geen theologie te scheppen, geen volgelingen in het leven te roepen, geen profeet te worden … waartoe hij wel in staat was, veel capabeler dan Jezus of Mozes of Mohammed. Want deze mensen waren allemaal analfabeet.

Socrates lijkt gevaarlijk

“Mensen zoals Socrates lijken erg gevaarlijk te zijn omdat ze je troost blijven aanvallen: ze nemen al je conditioneringen weg, ze stellen je bloot aan je realiteit. Hun werk is chirurgisch. Het doet pijn, het is pijnlijk, maar dat is de manier waarop een nieuwe mens kan geboren worden.

“Wat Socrates vijfentwintig eeuwen geleden deed, doe ik nu.
“Vijfentwintig eeuwen zijn voorbijgegaan zonder enige verandering voor de mensheid. Drie keer hebben ze geprobeerd me te vermoorden … drie pogingen in mijn leven. Op alle mogelijke manieren zijn dezelfde mensen die ik probeer vrij te maken, bij wie ik probeer hun ketenen weg te halen, bereid om me te vermoorden. De mensheid is niet veranderd. Die zal nog steeds hetzelfde doen.

Osho’s positie is beter

Als verschil tussen Socrates en hemzelf geeft Osho het volgende aan:
‘Ik behoor tot de hele wereld. Op een kleine plek zul je misschien geen moedige mensen treffen, maar over de hele wereld gezien, kun je niet anders dan duizenden mensen tegenkomen die het vermogen van Socrates hebben. Dus ik verkeer in een betere positie.’

Het boek ‘Socrates Poisoned again after 25 centuries’ is regelmatig tweedehands verkrijgbaar via internet. En het is als audiobook te bestellen.

Socrates chose to remain human

“It needs immense courage when you have such consciousness, such clarity, to remain humble and just human – knowing perfectly well that this is the way to death. Sooner or later these same people are going to kill you, these people whom you are trying to make free from all fetters. Still Socrates chose to remain human. That’s why you don′t see any religion after Socrates, no church, no theology, no holy scripture.

“But the man did a great service: he made it clear that your prophets and your messiahs are pretenders. And you are such that you get into the traps of pretenders very easily, because they strengthen your conditioning; they help you to remain in your prison. And they call your prison by good names, so you are happy.

People are lazy; people want not to change. People simply want consolations.

“With a man like Socrates you are not happy because he says exactly what the situation is – that you are a prisoner, and you have to come out of it. People are lazy; people want not to change. People simply want consolations.

“Somebody should come as if he is from somewhere higher, coming from God himself to tell them, 

“You are perfectly right – just go on believing in God. Go on praying to God every night for two minutes, and everything is perfectly okay with you.

“This you enjoy, because it saves you all the trouble of change.

Socrates was hitting hard on consolations

“People like Socrates seem to be very dangerous because they go on hitting hard on your consolations: they take away all your conditionings, they expose you to your reality. Their work is surgical. It hurts, it is painful, but that is the way a new man can be born.

“What Socrates was doing twenty-five centuries ago, I am doing now.
“Twenty-five centuries have gone by without any change as far as humanity is concerned. Three times they have tried to kill me… three attempts on my life. In every possible way the same people whom I am trying to make free, trying to take their chains away, are ready to kill me. Humanity has not changed. It will still do the same.

“But what Socrates was not capable of doing, I am capable of doing. He remained in the very small area of Athens, not even the whole of Greece. Athens was a city-state, and he remained an Athenian for his whole life.

I Belong to the Whole World…So I am in a better position

“I belong to the whole world. In a small place you may not get people of courage, but in the whole world you are bound to come across thousands of people who have the capacity to become a Socrates. So I am in a better position.”
“And you are the evidence for it. All around the world now we have three to four million people whose hearts are with me. This is a great revolution. And their number is going to increase as I will be coming to every nook and corner of the world.”

We have to Create a World Force

“We have to create a world force against the ignorant masses, so there are no more poisonings of Socrates, so they cannot dare to do it. Otherwise you will go on moving in the same vicious circle: every time a Socrates is there, you kill him.” Osho