Showing results by narrator "OSHO" in All Categories

Here Osho responds to questions about whether enjoyment of music, women, sensory perceptions, and all kinds of "worldly things" can interfere with meditation. Religious conditioning certainly urges people to avoid the pleasures of the flesh, but what does Osho have to say about it?

What is love? Everyone will have a different notion of what love is. In this talk Osho says that love has become the rarest of rare and speaks of learning how to grow love, how to create a climate of love, of gratitude and thankfulness. Learn how to grow love, to overflow with love, to give love rather than living in need masquerading as love. Instead, prepare the ground for love as a natural functioning.

In the ordinary course, being “out of your mind” is not a positive statement being associated with a person who is out of control and not able to take care of himself, perhaps even harmful to others.

In Osho’s understanding Zen is the approach to religion that has not put fetters on mankind. These four talks pay homage to Zen’s reverence for life and its celebration of the everyday. He sees in Zen a seed, pregnant with infinite potential. Interspersed with his comments on anecdotes about the Zen masters Rinzai and Fuketsu, Osho addresses current issues. With characteristic forthrightness he shows how society diverges from what it preaches and how it lives. This beautifully designed volume of talks also features commentaries on haikus, and a great selection of jokes!

In this provocative talk, Osho starts with our assumption that we are interested, maybe even passionately interested, in knowing the truth - and he tears it to shreds. He goes back in history with razor sharp clarity to illustrate our long-time avoidance of the truth, and our need to hide out in illusion.

Political revolutions have never resulted in the changes they promised. Real change can according to Osho only come from a personal rebellion, a rebellion based on "yes" - yes to existence, yes to nature, yes to yourself. Humanity has been guided by traditions which are all life-negative - the results of endless wars, a planet in danger and a humanity losing direction are obvious results of these traditions.

The story of Mojud which Osho introduces here is one of the greatest stories. It has that special flavor that only a Sufi story can have. It is incomparable. It is not just a story; Sufi stories are not just stories. They are not to entertain, but they are teaching devices. 

While nonviolence is a philosophy to Mahatma Gandhi; it is not a philosophy to Osho, but an experience. Osho talks about his understanding of reverence for life, he does not use the word non-violence. 

In Tao, Osho takes listeners on an adventure into the world of Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu, Ko Hsuan - the world of Taoism, one of the four major traditions of China. The 3000-year-old Taoist message of self-realization becomes alive as Osho recounts the stories of these Chinese mystics. Contrary to the laissez-faire going-with-the-flow perception of Taoism, Osho describes Tao in terms of freedom, anarchy, and chaos.

Many decades ago, Osho addressed the unfolding environmental catastrophe. Today the bad stewardship of planet Earth by humanity is obvious. Osho analyses this catastrophe with an additional level of understanding, pointing to organized religions as major contributors to our predatory and careless handling of the environment. Priests & Politicians–hand in hand destroying the planet.

What drives people like Napoleon Bonaparte, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Silvio Berlusconi and everybody else for that matter? What do we have in common? Why this hankering for power over others?—Once again Osho has some astoundingly simple insights on the issue.

At this time, the beginning of the 21st century, times seem desperate and many call for revolution, even if nobody has a clear idea of the outcome?

Every child has been conditioned not to love himself but to love others. That is impossible. Only a very deeply selfish person can be unselfish. Being self-centered is basic. A self-centered person seeks to maximize his happiness. The happier you become, the more you will seek to share that happiness with others. That is the only way to be happy.

In this talk, Osho answers questions about caring, compassion and service to the community. He also speaks about self-acceptance and awareness as transformative tools.

Here Osho exposes the belief in God as a mere projection of the mind, a game we play with ourselves in order to avoid responsibility. We do according to god rather than being according to our self. So long as god is we are not. So long as god decides we don’t. Only by seeing the trap of our belief in god are we free from god and free to be ourselves.

“You are miserable because you have decided to be miserable” – hard words and difficult so see let alone to admit, that our misery is self-created, a strategy, something that we unconsciously cultivate because it works for us; it all allows us to avoid responsibility. And if we are willing to face it and to take responsibility for our misery we are freed from it. As simple as that.

The qualities of a seeker of truth are the subject question of this talk by Osho. "Every child is born with an innate search for truth. It is not something learned or adopted later on in life. Truth simply means, 'I am, but I do not know who I am.' And the question is natural - 'I must know the reality of my being. It is not a curiosity.'" 

By now most people understand or are beginning to understand that this earth, this humanity is facing an enormous crisis. Stress created by a pandemic in addition to ongoing political issues, economic issues, and climate change issues are taking a toll on the minds and well-being of many people. Such times are dangerous for those who have no courage to explore new dimensions of life. But times of crisis are of tremendous significance for those daring souls who have never bothered about what others think about them but have in a certain way always been rebellious, individualistic.  

Every morning when you wake up, you become aware and your dreams disappear. You can do the same thing with the endless dreaming of your mind - the dreams that nourish your ego. This capacity to be aware, to witness, is already yours. It is nourished by celebration. Celebration helps you become more sensitive and more alert to life. Don't invest in misery, invest in celebration.

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.