Be Still and Know

Osho, one of the best-known and most provocative spiritual teachers of our time, presents The Sutra of 42 Chapters - a scripture compiled in the first century C.E by a Chinese emperor. Two thousand-five-hundred years have passed since Buddha delivered the sutras on which this series is based. Using modern idiom, Osho extracts the kernel of Buddha's profound insight and understanding and presents his everlasting message to the contemporary listener in a manner that is lucid, straightforward and humorous.

This series of talks is on one of the most esoteric treatises in the world. It will show you the way to become more than the body and the way to bloom - how not to remain a seed but to become a golden flower. What, in India, they call the one thousand-petalled lotus, in China they call the golden flower. It is a symbol that represents perfection, totality. Moreover, the flower represents the actualization of the potential - the beauty, the grandeur, the splendor of being.

We have lost touch with who we are and how we want to live. It started at birth. From birth we are molded according to the beliefs and ideals of others, and our own potential is ignored. It needs immense courage to go your own way, leaving the crowd behind. The moment you do it you are taking responsibility for your life in your own hands. Osho reminds us that it is a step worth taking.

Humans have an inbuilt drive to search for their inner power and potentiality. This search is the search for life itself. We are here, we have life - but we don't know what life really is. We can feel our energy but don't know where this energy comes from and to what goal this energy is going. We are that energy; we have glimpses of its true source and our connection to it, and those glimpses keep us going even when it seems we will never find what we are seeking - but still we do not know what that energy is.

Osho is known around the world for his pioneering contribution to meditation - the science of inner transformation - with the unique approach of his "Osho Active Meditations" acknowledging the accelerated pace of the contemporary world and bringing meditation into modern life. Based on the Seven Points of Mind Training by the 11th-century Buddhist mystic Atisha, The Book of Wisdom removes the dust of tradition that has gathered around meditation, conveying the essential science and methodology of the practice with a freshness and spontaneity that is rarely found in contemporary spiritual works.

In the past, science and meditation were considered poles apart, if not adversarial. In this talk, Osho shows science and meditation as complimentary, one the science of the outer, the other the science of the inner. For example he explains the esoteric science of rebirth using analogies of general science opening our minds to the possibilities of what is and what can be. Einstein meets Buddha in a love fest!

There is a famous Zen story about a disciple, Riko, who once asked his master, Nansen, to explain to him the old Zen koan of the goose in the bottle. Namely, if a man puts a gosling into a bottle and feeds the gosling through the bottle's neck until it grows and becomes a goose - and then there is simply no more room inside the bottle - how can the man get it out without killing the goose or breaking the bottle? In response, Nansen shouts, "Riko!" and gives a great clap with his hands.

In his book Kundalini - An Untold Story, Himalayan ascetic Om Swami unveils the enigmatic story of kundalini, the formless aspect of the Goddess, or your primordial energy. With workable steps for awakening this energy source, the author explains the esoteric and practical meaning of kundalini and the seven chakras in his usual insightful and humorous style. These riveting anecdotes are based on his personal experience gained from years of intense meditation.

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.

The Dhammapada is a collection of sayings of the Gautama the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. This is volume one of a 12-volume series of Osho Talks, where Osho brings Buddha's Dhammapada into the 21st century, opening them for a new understanding for contemporary mankind.