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Obviously, Oregonians were very furious, particularly the attorney general of Oregon, David Frohnmeyer. And the governor, and the all the politicians were absolutely angry that I had called the whole of Oregon "retarded."
But the University of Oregon took the case in hand. They surveyed a cross section of Oregon society, and they surveyed my commune. And their results silenced the governor, the attorney general and all the politicians. The results were that the average mental age of Oregonians is seven years -- that is the age of retarded persons. And the age of the commune people was fourteen -- double that of the Oregonians.
But the idiots destroyed the most intelligent commune in the world. It had great surgeons, doctors, professors; almost everybody was a postgraduate in some subject, hundreds were Ph.Ds, hundreds were D.Litts. It was absolutely an utterly intelligent group of people.
Zen has remained a small, thin line, but immensely rich. It deals in symbols. If you don't understand the symbols, the story is meaningless.
What is the symbolism of what the monk said? -- "It was not that bad, Osho. Don't think that I was hungry because I never went into the kitchen. There was always a man who would hold a spoon for me. That was Nansen, who was my nourishment. Seeing that I would not enter the dining hall, he was always -- and he was the master! -- always bringing food for me. Not only physical food, he was also my nourishment spiritually."
"Holding a spoon for me" means nourishment. "There was someone who took care of me: my master, Nansen. I simply waited outside the dining room just to see whether the master takes care of everybody, whether he will look out of the window and see one monk standing outside, not coming in.
"So it was not so bad that I was hungry and starving; Nansen was always holding out nourishment for me, through the window. And it was not only nourishment for my body; his attention, his care for me was also nourishment. I am nobody, and he took so much care. Every day he remembered me, that I would be standing outside.
"Leaving his dining table, he would come and give me food, and he
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