Showing results by narrator "Osho" in All Categories

What is the cause of your misery? In this short response to a question, Osho creates an understanding to move from blaming others to a declaration of self-respect, freedom, and responsibility.

Osho speaks in response to a question about the right way to help children to grow without interfering in their natural potentiality.

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.

One of the most fascinating talks by Osho on meditation. We gain a deeper understanding and an actual experience about meditation by listening to this talk which brings us into a space of meditation. "Meditation is the very center of my whole effort. It is the very womb out of which you are going to be re-born. But it is very difficult to verbalize it. To say something about meditation is a contradiction in terms. It is something which you can have, which you can be, but by its very nature you cannot say what it is."

At one time or another everybody feels misunderstood and or misunderstands another. The idiosyncrasies inherent in language is one of the reasons why there is so much misunderstanding in the world. Osho has a unique proposal – communication through silence. He points out that there is no misunderstanding between animals and or trees or birds, because language does not exist in those realms. So instead of language why not communicate in love, in silence.

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.

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.

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

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.

Every child is born ecstatic - with a high level of happiness. Ecstasy is natural. It is something that everybody brings naturally into the world; everybody comes with it. It is part of being alive. Life is ecstasy. Every child brings it into the world, but then society jumps on the child, starts destroying every possibility of ecstasy, starts making the child miserable, starts conditioning the child, and the child comes to know that to be miserable is right, to be happy is wrong. That becomes the deep association.

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"....

Humanity is divided in three types of persons: Believers, atheists and agnostics. For Osho, this last type, the agnostic is far above the first two and it is something intrinsic to the true seeker. Nevertheless, there is a fourth type of person, one that does not fit in any of these categories: The Gnostic, the one who knows. Listening to his direct and simple style, we rediscover the courage to doubt while we move into the unknown.

In this talk Osho takes his audience into the world of Zen. "There are a few essential things which make Zen absolutely different from any kind of teaching. The most important of these essentials is that Zen is a revolution. All other religions are servants to the vested interests. The rich people and the powerful people, the politicians, have dominated all the religions. The priests have been nothing but servants to these criminals. It is such a worldwide conspiracy that no one recognizes it."

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 this series of 9 talks, Osho reveals the wisdom from ancient Sufi stories and also responds to questions from his contemporary audiences.

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.

Responsibility is a scary subject for many. It is often perceived to be a burden. "Problems are there, but problems come from within you and then they are projected on other people." Osho lays out a different way of understanding and behavior which will result in a totally different kind of life.

Osho speaks about George Gurdjieff, one of the most significant masters of this age. He used to say, "You are in prison." If you wish to get out of prison - the first thing you must do is realize that you are in prison...or you are the prison. Osho emphasizes this as something to be always remembered as one of the first principles for any seeker of truth.

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.

Zen says that if you want to find truth, you have to seek. Zen also says don’t seek, because then you won’t find. This is why Zen is called “the path of paradox.” Zen: The Path of Paradox explores this paradoxical world, this distinctive approach to life. Through his commentaries, Osho illustrates how the Zen anecdotes are not just ancient stories, but that their message is intensely relevant to our own concerns: corruption in politics, truth and lies, mindfulness, dying gracefully without fear.