This is the first of what will probably be a number of posts
about Owen Orient, the main character of a series of occult novels written by Frank
Lauria, starting in 1970’s Doctor Orient.
Over the course of eight books (or at least the 5 ½ that I’ve read so
far) Orient struggles against a variety of supernatural evils, various
gangsters, and the Central Intelligence Agency, aka Computer Integrated Assassins. The tools at his disposal are wide and varied-
the ability to invoke angels; telepathy; and both kundalini and tantric yoga. It’s that last part that first caught my
interest, because there aren’t a lot of books with leads who use yoga to fight
evil.
Like The Shadow, The Green Lama, Doctor Strange, and Batman,
Owen Orient spent a number of years in Tibet learning esoteric arts under the tutelage
of a wise master in the mountains. This
is certainly where he learned his yoga, and perhaps telepathy as well. This teacher was Ku, leader of the Nine
Unknown Men who are the secret masters of the League of Serene Thought. We don’t get a lot of information about Ku,
other than when he sent his student Owen back into the world he left him with a
gift- a cigarette lighter with a mandala to help Owen focus. Turns out Himalayan mystics like to smoke
(more on that later).
 |
| Orient's 1920 Rolls Royce; not everyone gets the Batmobile |
At first glance Owen Orient is a model of yogic abstemiousness. He eats a strict vegetarian diet, practices
asana and meditation daily. In his own
way Orient has committed to bhakti
yoga, the yoga of service, by working to bring universal harmony to the world
by spreading the art of telepathy. On
the other hand, Orient pokes around the edges of this puritanical lifestyle in
a way that is distinctly tantric. He may
refrain from meat, but he does occasionally drink. Orient smokes hand rolled cigarettes that are
usually tobacco, but sometimes have a certain green herb scent to them. He’s uncommonly attached to his restored 1920
Rolls Royce Ghost limousine. Orient
follows the tantric version of brahmacharya,
following a path of subtle restraint in sexual relationships rather than
chastity; that is, unless he has lost his senses inside a tantric dakini (books #3 & #4) or is snorting
back rails of cocaine while locked naked in a bedroom with his boss’s wife for
a weekend (book #5). In one encounter
Orient mentally weighs his commitment to ahimsa
against the consequences of inaction, just before smashing someone’s trachea
with a rusty pipe (book #6). If tantra
means straying from the classical path and embracing a non-dualistic worldview,
then Owen Orient is quite the tantric yogi.
 |
| The two worlds of Doctor Orient- sometimes you meditate, sometimes you do cocaine off a semi-naked woman |
Being a tantric yogi myself, I’m fascinated by what this outlook
and lifestyle in the hero of an occult detective action series. What really
catches me about Orient’s outlook is how closely it is informed by the same yoga
as me in some ways, yet how widely it strays from my own in others. People ask all the time what I get out of
yoga- flexibility, nice ass, a better golf game, killer moves in the sack. Sure, I have all of those, but that’s not the
main lesson I’ve taken away from the last six years of yoga practice. What I have learned from tantra yoga is santosha, or radical acceptance, and
non-attachment to goals. For me that means
accepting I cannot on my own make the world a better place. To think that is hubris. What I can do is through my own practice help
the best parts of me emerge, and hope that version of me will be reflected in
the people I encounter every day- at least until it’s time for me to go full Vanaprastha and retire to a cabin in the
forest.
Owen Orient, on the other hand, has never fully grasped this
message. He sincerely believes that
being able to share his practices of telepathy and esoteric yoga will make the
world a better place. In pursuing this
goal Orient loses friends, loses fortunes, sleeps with the wrong women, is
nearly killed numerous times, has his heart broken and his house burned down,
and ultimately becomes hunted by the CIA.
Attachment to goals is Orient every day, and he suffers for it
continuously.
More on Doctor Orient in the future.
