Ecstasy: The Forgotten Language invites us to rediscover our natural state of ecstasy. We have lost touch with our intrinsic nature, says Osho, because we no longer live existential lives; we put our whole focus on our private lives. We have lost contact with the real and live almost entirely in our minds, in our imaginations. This makes us dull and unhappy and unavailable for what life is really offering us. Society and civilizations originally evolved to support and protect us, but now the situation has reversed and instead we find ourselves existing to sustain them.

Zen is not a theology, it is a unique phenomenon. Not easy to understand for a Western mind. Most religions exist around the concept of God. For Zen, the individual human is the goal - an end unto himself. So there is no concept of God in Zen. Certainly those who have been brought up as Christians, Muslims, Hindus, or Jews, cannot conceive of what sort of religion Zen is. If there is no God, then it becomes atheism. It is not; it is theism to the very core - but without God. This is the first fundamental to be understood. Let it sink deep within you, then things will become clear.

Using the Upanishadic vision, Osho contrasts the teachings of Buddha, J. Krishnamurti, and the Vedas, and explains how these different teachings have relevance to the way we live today.

The organized religions have exploited humanity’s insecurity in the face of life’s mysteries by providing readymade sets of beliefs. But in an increasingly sophisticated, globalized society, the consolation of belief has been losing its appeal. And a purely materialistic science that denies consciousness, or that makes it merely a byproduct of matter, has nothing to offer as an alternative. 

 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.

Written more than 25 centuries ago, the Diamond Sutra is the first text to record the Buddha's own teachings, and it remains one of the most popular. Osho comments in a series of talks on these sutras and brings Buddha's teachings into the 21st century. One day, after the Buddha finishes his daily walk to collect alms, a senior monk steps forth to ask how he can best help humanity. Buddha responds, and thus begins a dialogue regarding the nature of perception.

These discourses contain what Osho describes as the most significant statements ever made, which point to the whole secret of the mystic approach toward life. And the sutra that begins this series of discourses, he says, contains the very essence of the entire Upanishadic vision - that the universe is an indivisible totality, an organic whole. Osho illuminates these ancient texts with such clarity that their significance seems stunningly obvious.

The Heart Sutra, originally a very short set of verses, was given in privacy as a message to one of Buddha's close disciples, Sariputra, specifically addressed to him. Over time the Heart Sutra became one of Buddhism's core teachings. In these 10 talks, Osho presents the powerful message of these ancient words and brings them to a modern audience - one with different minds and needs than the original audiences of Buddha more than 2,500 years ago.

Today, humanity is caught up in the mad complexity of the mind and there is an urgent need to rediscover simplicity and innocence. Here, the contemporary mystic Osho brings to life the inherent and timeless wisdom of traditional Zen stories, showing that Zen is a way of dissolving philosophical problems, not of solving them - a way of getting rid of philosophy, because philosophy is a sort of neurosis.

Osho illuminates the Chinese Zen master Hyakujo’s concept of sudden enlightenment, showing that everyone is already a buddha. No master, he says, can give you anything; he can only take your false beliefs away.  

 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.

Nirvana has become an idealized word associated with the juxtaposition of a cult rock celebrity who died before his time and a vague new age version of Eastern religion. An altered state to be hoped for but likely unattainable, reinforcing that all too familiar uneasiness associated with never being able to have what we truly desire in life.

Not believing, but only experiencing, says Osho in this inspiring series of talks, is a way of finding truth and meaning. While Nietzsche's declaration that "God is dead, therefore man is free" was an incredible step in understanding, he argues, it is in itself a negative solution and does not bring freedom. Simply removing God is not enough. Osho is no atheist by far and not in favor of any "anti-believe" system either. "It is meditation that fulfills your inner being and takes away the vacuum that used to be filled by a great lie, God."

Sufism, also called “Islamic Mysticism” is a belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. Osho has spoken in a number of series on this beautiful tradition - which he compares with other spiritual and religious traditions - elaborating the underlying essence to an international audience. Osho brings the listener in contact with Sufism through his experiential sharing.