Showing results by narrator "OSHO" in All Categories

According to Osho, laughter is "the very essence of Zen". And while the theme of these talks is that meditation - watching, remaining alert and aware - is the path to self-realization, Osho encourages us first to "be happy, and meditation will follow".

Osho sees Zen not as a historical spiritual tradition but as the future spirituality of a humanity that has matured to the point that people no longer need religions controlled by priesthoods and based on fearful superstitions that cripple people's innate intelligence and divide them from one another. This series of talks offers a deeper understanding of the underlying differences between Eastern and Western approaches to religion and the nature of consciousness.

Gautama the Buddha raised the most important question. The most important question of all questions is: What is true happiness? "People are living just to impress. They must be really very poor inside, because only people suffering from an inferiority complex want to impress others. A really superior person never compares himself with anybody else. He knows he is incomparable; not only that, he knows others are also as incomparable as he is. He is neither superior nor inferior."

With an entire genre of self-help books available in the market, this series of talks by the enlightened mystic Osho stands apart. Through his commentary on the tiny but exquisite Song of Meditation by Hakuin, “one of the greatest of Zen masters”, Osho speaks on how contemporary man goes through life with the idea that he must be different from how he is and so trying to change. Whether the search is for self-improvement or self-realization, Osho simply states that “trying” is what is in the way.

In these talks, Osho introduces his audience to Zen, with its emphasis on being alert and attentive to the simplest acts of ordinary life as a way to experience meditation. Zen stories serve as starting points for several talks in the series, illuminating the nature of that rare human capacity to transcend the limits of the rational mind.

Patanjali the founder of ancient yoga has laid out a fascinating understanding of body and mind. Osho brings this ancient system into a contemporary understanding, creating a holistic approach to health and meditation.

Three best friends are going to solve their relationship woes once and for all. Forty-something Jemima’s life is on track - well, sort of. Twenty-something Meagan is in the midst of her five-phase plan and is nearly ready for phase three - a relationship. While 30-something Simi has had more it’s not yous than any I dos. It’s time to play the dating game by their own rules. The catch? They’re playing matchmaker and can only ask out potential dates for each other because the most important rule is that no woman gets left behind.

The Sutra of 42 Chapters is a scripture complied in the first century CE. Each saying comes from Buddha, but the whole work was a new anthology created especially for introducing Buddhism in a new country. That’s why it makes such a good, basic introduction to the world view of Gautam Buddha.

The Sutra of 42 Chapters is a scripture complied in the first century CE. Each saying comes from Buddha, but the whole work was a new anthology created especially for introducing Buddhism in a new country. That’s why it makes such a good, basic introduction to the world view of Gautam Buddha.

All of the Osho audiobooks are created from his extemporaneous talks, and in this volume reflect the intimate setting in which they were given, with small audiences of those gathered in the Oregon commune around him. Everything is on the table - belief in God, the meaning of compassion, what happens when we die.

Happiness, pleasure, joy, bliss are addressed here by Osho and we learn the different levels of development: "Let us start from the lowest because that will be easier to understand, that’s where man biologically is born. Pleasure is physical"....

When the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche talks about "will to power", it has nothing to do with the will to dominate. To understand a man like Nietzsche, you have to have at least the same standard of consciousness, if not higher.

Do you see the meditativeness of the trees surrounding you? Such stillness! Just as you are listening to me, they are listening to me, not even a leaf moving. The birds are singing.

I love the statement that the "man of Zen walks in Zen and sits in Zen" for the simple reason that meditation cannot be just a part of your life. You cannot make a fragment of your life meditative.

Commenting on the haunting songs of Kabir, Osho takes the listener to the very core of the human dilemma, to the simple cause of man's misery - that he thinks that he is separate from existence: his inability to comprehend why the fish in the sea is not thirsty. Osho also answers questions, speaking on emotions and being detached from them, aloneness and love, imitation, children and religion, rebellion, living in a balanced way, sex, the generation gap, and much more.

Why am I always running so fast? Is there something that I don’t want to see? Listen to this amazing response from Osho and how he unfolds a deeper understanding for the questioner and us. "...it is not only you; almost everybody is running as fast as he can from himself. And the problem is, you cannot run away from yourself. Wherever you go you will be yourself. The fear is of knowing oneself. It is the greatest fear in the world."

More than 2,500 years ago, Gautama the Buddha walked the earth, teaching to all who would listen. Buddhist lore has it that shortly after he passed away, his disciples met to recall all that they were able of the truths that Buddha had spoken. These sayings were compiled into The Dhammapada, an anthology of 423 verses containing the essence of his principles.

Osho responds here to a question relating to meditation, a space of "no-mind": "...meditation covers a very long pilgrimage. When I say 'meditation is witnessing', it is the beginning of meditation. And when I say 'meditation is no-mind', it is the completion of the pilgrimage. Witnessing is the beginning, and no-mind is the fulfillment. Witnessing is the method to reach the no-mind. Naturally you will feel witnessing is easier. It is close to you. But witnessing is only like seeds, and then is the long waiting period."

On finding the “original man” within yourself, says Osho, you will find everything worth discovering. In these talks, Osho traces Zen from its early days with Bodhidharma in China through a succession of masters and poets. He tells anecdotes about the Zen masters, showing how their seemingly absurd statements and actions are actually devices to jolt people out of their spiritual sleep. And he asks you not to take his word for it, but to experience it for yourself - these talks are not about Zen, they are Zen.

In Zen, Zest, Zip, Zap and Zing, Osho responds to questions on love, freedom, morality, women’s role in society, nostalgia, a child’s right to privacy, the purpose of life, and more. Again and again he nudges the listener back to the essential: Zen – awareness, being here and now. While responding to the concerns of the questioners, Osho also illustrates how nonessential their preoccupations are.