According to Osho, Switzerland is a 'little piece of the Himalayas'—smaller peaks with the same luminous quality—home to clean, beautiful people and communes, and a nation that has avoided war for roughly 140 years, showing psychological health. He calls it an earthly paradise that could become complete if its people also discover the inner paradise of meditation and awareness, making them among the happiest on earth.
To Osho, Switzerland is a peaceful, beautiful mountain land with very clean, kind people that could be truly happy by also looking within.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
What do you know about switzerland?
I have never been there. Only one thing I know: I have many Swiss sannyasins -- thousands -- and beautiful communes in Switzerland. I have seen my sannyasins from Switzerland: they are the cleanest...! Switzerland is a little piece of the Himalayas -- smaller mountains, but still the same quality and the same scenery. It must be a beautiful country; I have seen the beauty of its people. And I respect Switzerland: for one hundred and forty years they have not fought a single war. That shows they are not psychologically sick. They are living in an earthly paradise; if they can also learn how to live in the inner paradise, they will be the most happy people in the whole world. And I am going to go there. Every government is worried. Cabinet meetings for an entry visa? -- nobody has ever heard of it. And parliaments deciding whether…
Switzerland is a rich and beautiful country, but there are so many people suffering for many reasons, and they even enjoy this. Why can't they use their freedom and prosperity to be happy?
Humanity can be divided into two parts: the first is sadist, the second is masochist. The sadist enjoys torturing others; the masochist enjoys torturing himself. This is a very ugly situation, but for centuries we have been cultivating this split. The people who are masochists have become great saints. Their only quality, their only genius, was that they tortured themselves. It was thought and propagated by the religions of the world that to torture oneself is the way to God. There is no logic in it because why, if there is any God, would he like his children to torture themselves? -- unless he himself is a sadist and enjoys people being tortured by others or by themselves. These philosophies of masochism have been predominant. The people who had no other talents, no other creative possibilities, easily chose to torture themselves -- fast, beat yourself, find out new ways of…
[NOTE: This is a typed tape transcript and has not been edited or published, as of August 1992. It is for reference use only. The interviewer's remarks have been omitted where not relevant to Osho's words] INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIAN SIDEL, SONNTAGSBLICK, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND Q:* I WANT TO ASK SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT SWITZERLAND. YOU LOVE THE SWISS PEOPLE? A:* I hate all divisions in humanity -- Swiss, Italian, German, Indian. Mankind is one. The whole earth is one. The people are all lovable, everywhere. There is no need to discriminate. Of course I love people who live in Switzerland, but I will not call them Swiss people. Q:* THE SWISS PEOPLE THERE ARE FAMOUS BECAUSE OF THE CLEAN COUNTRY AND THEY ARE CALLING THEMSELVES A COMMUNE TOO. DO YOU THINK THERE IS A SIMILARITY BETWEEN YOUR COMMUNE AND SWITZERLAND, BECAUSE YOU ARE PREPARING YOUR COMMUNE VERY CLEAN TOO?
The America has moved to the other extreme. Materialism has become the religion. To have more and more material things seems to be the goal of life. They have completely forgotten that there is something inside them too. They are looking only on the outside. Certainly there are millions of things outside. You can get lost in those things, and you can forget yourself. America has forgotten herself. It is spiritually poor, and India is materially poor, because it forgot completely that the spirit cannot live without bread, that the body cannot exist without certain support of matter. My whole philosophy is that materialism and spiritualism are not opposed. They are working in synchronicity everywhere. In your body they are working, in the trees they are working, in the whole existence matter and life are working hand in hand together. Why separate them?
Switzerland is beautiful but nothing compared to the Himalayas. It is convenient to be in Switzerland with all its modern facilities. It is very inconvenient in the Himalayas. It is still without any technology at all -- no roads, no electricity, no airplanes, no railroads, nothing at all. But then comes the innocence. One is transported to another time, to another being, to another space. I wanted to die there; and this morning, standing and looking at the sunrise, I felt relieved, knowing that if I die here, particularly on a day as beautiful as this, it is okay. And I will choose to die on a day when I feel I am part of the Himalayas. Death for me is not just an end, a full stop. No, death for me is a celebration.