According to Osho, the Mystery School around Pythagoras served as a living bridge: he gathered fragments of experiential truth from Egypt’s Alexandrian library and the lost Atlantean civilization, then carried them into Greece, opposing mere sophistry. Through his rare integrity and intelligence, the school synthesized East and West, preserving and transmitting a science of consciousness otherwise destroyed or forgotten.
Pythagoras’ school took real wisdom he found in older cultures and brought it to Greece so truth wouldn’t be lost in clever talk.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, the other night you spoke of the mystery school. At that moment I thought of pythagoras. Since you started speaking again, I've wanted to ask questions about him -- his name comes to me often. The main part of his teachings I love are the three p's: preparation, purification, perfection. Would you speak on them again?
Preparation does not mean preparing for a verbal examination or a written examination. Preparation means preparing for an existential examination; it means going deeper into meditation. Unless you were meditative you could not enter those universities. And they had big campuses: Takshila had ten thousand scholars in it, Nalanda had twelve thousand scholars in it. Even today the greatest universities don't have more than that number, but their quality is very ordinary; students have simply passed the school examinations and they are ready to enter. No existential preparation is needed. Preparation means that you drop all your conditionings, you drop your prejudices, you drop what you think you know and you do not know: you get as innocent as possible. Your innocence will be the preparation -- that will allow you to enter into the university campus. Then purification... In preparation you drop the conditionings which were given by the…
Render to the immortal gods the consecrated cult; guard then thy faith: ... Revere the memory of the illustrious heroes, of spirits, demi-gods....
BE A GOOD SON, JUST BROTHER; SPOUSE TENDER; AND GOOD FATHER. CHOOSE FOR THY FRIEND, THE FRIEND OF VIRTUE; YIELD TO HIS GENTLE COUNSELS, PROFIT BY HIS LIFE; AND FOR A TRIFLING GRIEVANCE NEVER LEAVE HIM; IF THOU CANST AT LEAST: FOR A MOST RIGID LAW BINDS POWER TO NECESSITY. For example: a person speaks out of necessity because he cannot resist the temptation to speak. Buddhas also speak, but with no necessity: it is out of power, out of abundant power They are silent; there is no temptation, no obsession to speak. They can remain silent for ever. But still they speak. If they speak. they speak out of power. You love out of necessity. Buddhas also love -- they love out of... so much energy is there that it has to be shared. So much power is happening, it has to be given. You live out of necessity,…
Beloved Osho, could you please explain exactly what the work of the mystery school is?
This is something to be understood. There is a knowledge: you can have as much as you want. yet you will remain ignorant. And there is an ignorance which is really innocence: you do not know anything, but still you have come to the place where everything is known. So there is a knowledge which is ignorant, and an ignorance which is wisdom. The student is interested in knowledge. But sometimes it happens: you may come to a master as a student, just out of curiosity, and you may be caught in his charisma, you may be caught by his eyes, you may be caught by his heartbeat. You had come as a student but you are turning to the second stage -- you are becoming a disciple. The student unnecessarily goes from one place to another place, from one scripture to another scripture. He collects much, but it is…
Twenty-five centuries ago in greece there were many mystery schools. Are you a mystic? Please tell us about your mystery school.
You do not understand the word `mystery' or the word `mystic' or the phenomenon of a mystic or a mystery school. If anything can be said about them, they are no longer mystic. A mystic is one who knows but cannot say it. He can live it; you can look into his eyes, you can look into his gestures, you can feel it in his presence, but there is no way to say it. It does not mean that the mystic remains silent. Many mystics have remained silent for the simple reason that everything you say falls short; the essential thing that you wanted to say is not contained in the words. When you hear your own words you know that which you wanted to convey is not conveyed. So many mystics have remained silent. A few mystics have chosen to speak because it is possible not to say it…
Osho, as well as being someone like you, pythagoras was also a great mathematician. How is this possible?
Buddha is not a poet either in the ordinary sense -- he never composed poetry. But he is a poet! The way he walks is poetry, the way he looks at life is poetry. The way he showers his compassion is poetry. He may not be a poet in the ordinary, literal sense, but he is sheer poetry. His very existence is poetic. The tremendous grace that surrounds him, the infinite beauty that he lives, and the splendour that he has brought to the earth -- the earth has never been the same again. It was something else before Buddha, it is totally something else after Buddha. What difference has Buddha made to the world? He walked on the earth, and he belonged to the beyond. He was embodied just like you and me, but he had come from the ultimate source. He lived here and now, but AS the…