«WESTERN PSYCHOTHERAPY» AND «EASTERN MEDITATION» IN OSHO’S TEACHING OF MAN’S SPIRITUAL PERFECTION
Authors:   Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg, Russia, Uymina Yu. A. 
Published: April 2023

Abstract. Osho Rajneesh is one of the most controversial neo–Hinduism teachers. Like in a mirror, Osho reflected the main ideas of his time, proclaimed those principles that are desirable and relevant for modern man. Despite Osho’s widespread fame, his significance as a spiritual leader and founder of the original religious and philosophical system, the significance of his teachings and ideas in the focus of spiritual improvement of man, remain underestimated. The issue of systematization of Rajneesh teaching remains unresolved. The aim of Osho’s teaching is human’s spiritual perfection. To achieve this aim, Osho combines diverse ways of spiritual development available to humanity into a single whole. The guru adopts and interprets the key ideas of religious and philosophical theories of the East and the West. The teaching, which includes so many of these peculiar “squeezes”, was not created either before or after Osho. All of the above is the reason for the undying interest in this spiritual leader. This article discusses Osho’s method of man’s spiritual perfection: a combination of “Western psychotherapy” and “Eastern meditation”. The purpose of this article is to analyze the Osho’s method: how “Western psychotherapy” and “Eastern meditation” are combined and interpreted in the guru’s teaching to identify an integral system of Osho’s views on the spiritual perfection of a human. The objectives of the article are: 1. To identify in what key Osho turns to Western philosophical views, 2. to consider the features of Osho’s adoption and interpretation of Western philosophical concepts, 3. to analyze the “Osho’s Method” of man’s spiritual perfection, which includes two stages: “exposing the ego” and “returning to the natural” through “Western psychotherapy” and “Eastern meditation”, 4. To consider the features of Osho’s meditational practices. The research involves religious studies, philosophical-anthropological, and system-structural approaches. This scientific article partially reflects some aspects of the religious analysis of Osho’s anthropological teaching, conducted for the first time. As a result, Osho’s teaching is presented as an integral harmonious structure — the concept of spiritual improvement of a man, which includes two conditional stages: “exposing the ego” and “returning to the natural”. Osho’s meditations are based on two system-forming principles (consciousness and totality), aimed at “sudden enlightenment”, have a syncretic character and can be conditionally divided into cathartic, contemplative and centering, depending on the prevailing method. For the further research of Osho’s teaching it’s necessary to understand its inner logic, distinguish the concepts, considering them relative to Osho’s religious philosophical thought in general. The interest in Osho’s ideas that has not faded over the years, indicates the existence of people’s need for such a search for truth, which was proposed by this Indian mentor.