People in Osho's Talks--R.H. Blyth

oshobob The Living Workshop

People in Osho's Talks

Blyth, R.H.
1898-1964 66 years

English writer, translator, Zen student, traveler...

born in England
father: railway clerk

conscientious objector in WW1

married, traveled to India, divorced 1st wife

traveled to Korea, Japan, studied languages and
religion, married Japanese woman, 2 children

interest in Zen, wrote Zen and Zen Classics, and
other books related to Eastern spirituality, also
was one of the main early translators of Japanese
haiku into English.

taught English as job at various times, tutored
current Emperor of Japan, Akihito.

died in Japan of pneumonia and brain tumor and
interred at a temple next to his friend D.T. Suzuki.

That's what I said yesterday to you about Yoka:
that R.H. Blyth is wrong if he says that Yoka has
nothing much to say and still he goes on saying.
He misunderstood the whole thing. The basic
weakness of the Western approach towards life...
And it is not that he is against Yoka, he loves him;
he has translated Yoka's words with great care,
with great love, but still the argument is there. And
it is not a question of more or less – 'Why does
Yoka go on speaking when he has nothing more to
say?' – it is not even a question of more or less.
Yoka has nothing to say, but what can he do? God
goes on overflowing, God goes on singing a song,
he cannot prevent it. only this objection can be
raised against him: that why is he not preventing
it? But how can he prevent it? He is no more, he
has become dissolved in the whole...

--Osho
The Sun Rises in the Evening, ch. 2