Showing posts with label osho. Show all posts
Showing posts with label osho. Show all posts
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Heaven and Hell
Heaven and Hell
"Heaven is here -- you just have to know how to live it. And hell too is here, and you know perfectly well how to live it. It is only a question of changing your perspective, your approach towards life. The earth is beautiful. If you start living its beauty, enjoying its joys you are in paradise. If you condemn everything, then the same earth turns into a hell -- only for you. It depends on you where you live, it is a question of your own inner transformation. It is not a change of place, it is a change of inner space. Live joyously, guiltlessly, live totally. And then heaven is no more a metaphysical concept, it is your own experience." Osho
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Mind & Perception Quotes
"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."Dr. Seuss
"As we've noted language is a very strong force binding us to our cultured perceptions of reality, dominating the internal landscape of mind, so much so that it can become an obstacle to the goals of the metaprogrammer. Logic and rationality, it seems, serve more to re-enforce our conditioned beliefs than allow us to bypass them and change their foundations."
LVX23
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
H.P. Lovecraft
"We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds, our planet is the mental institution of the universe."
Friedrich Nietzsche
"Nothing pains some people more than having to think."
Martin Luther King, Jr
"You might call it existencial crisis, I simply call it the bravery of emptyness."Kashmir - Surfing the Warm Industry
"A fanatic is a man who consciously over compensates a secret doubt." (or a fanatic girl, see Saved, I catched a part of it on cable, by accident! ;p)
Aldous Huxley
"People are afraid, very much afraid of those who know themselves. They have a certain power, a certain aura and a certain magnetism, a charisma that can take out alive, young people from the traditional imprisonment. The awakened man cannot be enslaved - that is the difficulty - and he cannot be imprisoned. Every genius who has known something of the inner is bound to be a little difficult to be absorbed; he is going to be an upsetting force. The masses don't want to be disturbed, even though they may be in misery; they are in misery, but they are accustomed to the misery. And anybody who is not miserable looks like a stranger. The awakened man is the greatest stranger in the world; he does not seem to belong to anybody. No organization confines him, no community, no society, no nation."
Osho The Zen Manifesto: Freedom from Oneself Chapter 9
"Given the fact that there are these 20% of highly suggestible people, it becomes quite clear that this is a matter of enormous political importance, for example, any demagogue who is able to get hold of a large number of these 20% of suggestible people and to organize them is really in a position to overthrow any government in any country."
Aldous Huxley. March 20, 1962 Berkeley (haha, 20%, that's rich)
"He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe."Marcus Aurelius
"Whether drugs lead to illumination or degradation depends on the spirit in which one takes them."
George Andrews
"Cut off from the world by our own despair."
Douglas P., Death in June
"Single-mindedness is all very well in cows or baboons; in an animal claiming to belong to the same species as Shakespeare it is simply disgraceful."
Aldous Huxley
"One may say that evil does not exist for Subjective man at all, that there exist only different conceptions of good. Nobody ever does anything deliberately in the interests of evil, for the sake of evil. Everybody acts in the interests of good, as he understands it. But everybody understands it in a different way. Consequently men drown, slay, and kill one another in the interests of good".
G.I. Gurdjieff
Picture sources have been linked, found in random google image searches.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Be. Don't try to Become. Being is Enlightenment, Becoming is Ignorance.
"All the Buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact:
Be - don't try to become. Within these two words, be and becoming, your whole life is contained. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance."
Osho
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Red Ice Interview: Hijacking of Theosophy
Excellent Red Ice Creations interview with Michael Tsarion on the topic of the hijacking of Theosophy, founded by Helena Blavatsky. Thought it was good timing to counter some of the BS the dogmatic Christian-conspiracy-theory reality tunnel (CCT RT - which likes to confuse all occult symbolist deconstruction with an actual "religion" as the deconstruction of their religion is seen as a threat) are putting out there concerning the Zeitgeist and Zeitgeist Addendum documentaries. For some this may be preaching to the choir, but as this blog is visited by people with different reality tunnels some clarification can never hurt.Theosophy is a philosophical system of religious (maybe spiritual is a better word, as I tend to associate the word "religion" not with any "divinity" but dogmatic belief systems) philosophy and metaphysics, it was - originally at least - nothing like a "religion" at all. The Interview talks about how the Theosophical society was hijacked and changed after Blavatsky's death by the likes of Annie Besant, C.W. Leadbeater, Alice Bailey...
Also mentioned on the other side are Rudolf Steiner, Krishnamurti (Christian conspiracy theory reality tunnel seems to love to ignore what's linked here), Osho, Aleister Crowley, Edward S. Lutton, etc. They also talk about the infiltration of other Secret Societies and some of the strategies behind the Bavarian Illuminati. Towards the end they talk about the diversity that one can encounter when researching everything from philosophy to conspiracy. Henrik also poses the question if modern truth movements like the "9/11 truth movement" also is in danger of being infiltrated by agents provocateur, or has that already happened?
I add the discordian saying: "We must stick apart!" No infiltration possible then. I posted this to clear some things up for beginning seekers, not to blindly defend the to me rather abstract Krishnamurti, or the to me unnecessary Theosophy movement (which helped lead to the New Age movement, which is supposed to be a decentralized western social and spiritual movement that seeks Universal Truth and the attainment of the highest individual human potential - though money, easy beliefs and a lack of skepticism; instead of openminded yet skeptical experimenting and knowing - seem to be more associated with it. Either way the point is never to blindly believe in someone else but to investigate and open your own potential) and its founder, though I liked the first volume of the Secret Doctrine as it was the first book to introduce me to deconstructing religious symbolism, but I did find it to be quite chaotic, the second volume didn't interest me very much at the time so I didn't get very far in that. Also see A comparison between H.P. Blavatsky & Alice Bailey: The Pseudo-Occultism of Alice Bailey (as the link to it on original Red Ice page is down).
To clarify: I'm not posting this to defend Theosophy or the New Age, as I'm not a fan of either. I'm posting this to clarify that the religious symbolist deconstruction in the first part of Zeitgeist 1 (Pharmacratic Inquisition excerpt) is not even Theosophy-related - as the CCT RT believes it is - but entirely separate from it. And that Krishnamurti's inclusion in Zeitgeist Addendum is even less Theosophy-related. So no freaking push for a one-world religion in either Zeitgeist. Duh. Captain Obvious, you poor fella, nobody likes you ;p
"I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member."
Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Friday, October 10, 2008
Osho: Why the Serpent Symbolism of Kundalini?
Why has the serpent been chosen as a symbol of kundalini? Please explain all the reasons. In the symbol used by theosophy, a coiled serpent with his tail in the mouth is shown. In the symbol of the ramakrishna mission, the tail of the serpent touches the hood. Please explain the meaning of these?
"The serpent symbol for the kundalini is very apt and meaningful. Perhaps there is no better symbol than this. Therefore, not only the kundalini but also the serpent has undergone a great many travels in the symbol form. Nowhere in the world is there a religion in which the serpent has not been depicted somewhere. This is because the serpent has many qualities that tally with the kundalini.
The very first thing that occurs to the mind at the mention of the serpent is the motion of sliding - crawling. The very first experience of kundalini is that of something moving within. You feel as if something has moved within - just as a serpent moves. Another thing that comes to mind with the very notion of a serpent is that it has no legs, yet it moves. It has no means of movement - it is sheer energy - yet it travels. The third thing that comes to the mind is that when a serpent sits it forms coils. When the kundalini lies asleep within us it too rests in the same manner.
When a long thing has to accommodate itself in a small place it has to coil up; there is no other way for it. A very big power is seated on a very small center so it can only coil itself up. Now when the snake gets up it unwinds the coils one by one; as it rises the coil unwinds. In the same way we feel kundalini unwinding within when the kundalini energy rises within us.
The serpent sometimes in playfulness catches its tail in its mouth. This holding of the tail in the mouth is also a significant symbol. This is a valuable symbol and many recognized it as such. It is valuable because it suggests that when the kundalini is fully awakened it will become circular and begin to form its own circuit within. Its hood will catch hold of its own tail; the serpent will become a circle. Now when a symbol is made to depict male sadhana, male spiritual practice, it will catch the tail by its mouth; it will be aggressive. If the symbol is arrived at by female sadhana, female spiritual practices, the tail will just be touching the hood. This is a surrendering tail -- one that is not held in the mouth. This is the only difference and no more.
The hood of the serpent also became purposeful. The tail is very narrow whereas the hood is very broad. When kundalini awakens fully it reaches up to the sahasrara. It opens and spreads like the hood of the serpent; it expands enormously. It is as if many flowers bloom in it. Then its tail becomes very small.
When the serpent stands up it is a wonderful sight; it stands erect on the tip of its tail. It is almost a miracle. The serpent is an invertebrate, a creature with no bones, and yet it can perform this act. It can only be with the help of the vital energy within it, because there is no other substantial means for it to stand erect. It stands by the strength of its own willpower; it has no material strength to rely on. So it is also when the kundalini awakens: it has no physical support; it is an immaterial energy.
These were the reasons why the serpent was chosen as a symbol. There are many other reasons too. For instance, it is an innocent creature; hence, the Hindu god Shiva -- who is also called "the innocent Shiva" -- carries it on his head. On its own the serpent never troubles anybody, but if it is disturbed it can be very dangerous. The same applies to the kundalini. It is a very innocent power; it does not trouble you on its own. But if you disturb it the wrong way you will find yourself in trouble. It can prove very dangerous. So the symbol of a serpent reminds us that it is dangerous to disturb the kundalini in the wrong way. Keeping all this in mind, there was no other symbol more apt than that of the serpent.
All over the world the snake stands as the symbol of wisdom. Jesus has said, "Be clever and intelligent like a snake and as innocent as a dove." The snake is a very intelligent creature -- very alert, very watchful and very sharp and quick. These are all its qualities. The kundalini is also like this. You reach the ultimate peak of wisdom through it; it is very swift, and also very powerful. In the old days, when this symbol was chosen for the kundalini, perhaps there was nothing better than the serpent. Even now there is nothing better.
Perhaps in the future there may be a new symbol -- like the rocket. Some future concept may grasp the kundalini as being like the rocket. Its journey is the same; it travels from one sky to another, from one planet to another, and there is void in between. It can become a symbol. The age decides the symbol.
This symbol was chosen when man was very close to the animal kingdom. All our symbols of those times have been taken from animals, because that was all that our knowledge consisted of so we tried to find symbols in them. The serpent was thus the most apt symbol to define the kundalini.
In those days we could not say that kundalini is like electricity; when we talk today we can say so. Five thousand years ago kundalini could not be talked about in terms of electricity because there was no notion of electricity. But the snake has the quality of electricity. This is hard for us to believe because many of us have no experience of the snake. We may have no experience of the kundalini whatsoever, but we hardly have any experience of snakes either. The serpent is a myth for us.
Recently a survey was taken in London and it was found that seven hundred thousand children had never seen a cow. Now these children who have not seen a cow cannot possibly have any idea of a snake. So their whole way of thinking and reflecting - and their symbols - will be quite different.
Now the serpent is obsolete: it is no longer an important part of our life. Once upon a time it was very near to us; it was our neighbor and was with us all the twenty-four hours of the day. It was then that man noticed its agility, its intelligence, its movements, and the ease with which it carried itself about. It was then that man realized also how dangerous a creature it could be. There are stories of a serpent guarding an infant, and it is so innocent... There are instances when it has bitten the most fierce person and killed him, so dangerous it can be. So both of these possibilities are in it.
When man was very close to the serpent he must have watched it closely. The subject of kundalini also began at about the same time, and both the serpent and the kundalini were found similar in their qualities. But all symbols are meaningful, and if they have come to us through the ages there is a suitability, a rhythm in them. But now it is bound to break.
The symbol of the serpent will not last long. We shall not be able to call the kundalini serpent power, because now where is the poor serpent? It is no longer our neighbor; we have no connection with it. We do not even see him on the roads. So as we have no connection with it whatsoever, this question arises. It could never arise before when it was the only symbol." Osho
"The serpent symbol for the kundalini is very apt and meaningful. Perhaps there is no better symbol than this. Therefore, not only the kundalini but also the serpent has undergone a great many travels in the symbol form. Nowhere in the world is there a religion in which the serpent has not been depicted somewhere. This is because the serpent has many qualities that tally with the kundalini.
The very first thing that occurs to the mind at the mention of the serpent is the motion of sliding - crawling. The very first experience of kundalini is that of something moving within. You feel as if something has moved within - just as a serpent moves. Another thing that comes to mind with the very notion of a serpent is that it has no legs, yet it moves. It has no means of movement - it is sheer energy - yet it travels. The third thing that comes to the mind is that when a serpent sits it forms coils. When the kundalini lies asleep within us it too rests in the same manner.
When a long thing has to accommodate itself in a small place it has to coil up; there is no other way for it. A very big power is seated on a very small center so it can only coil itself up. Now when the snake gets up it unwinds the coils one by one; as it rises the coil unwinds. In the same way we feel kundalini unwinding within when the kundalini energy rises within us.
The serpent sometimes in playfulness catches its tail in its mouth. This holding of the tail in the mouth is also a significant symbol. This is a valuable symbol and many recognized it as such. It is valuable because it suggests that when the kundalini is fully awakened it will become circular and begin to form its own circuit within. Its hood will catch hold of its own tail; the serpent will become a circle. Now when a symbol is made to depict male sadhana, male spiritual practice, it will catch the tail by its mouth; it will be aggressive. If the symbol is arrived at by female sadhana, female spiritual practices, the tail will just be touching the hood. This is a surrendering tail -- one that is not held in the mouth. This is the only difference and no more.
The hood of the serpent also became purposeful. The tail is very narrow whereas the hood is very broad. When kundalini awakens fully it reaches up to the sahasrara. It opens and spreads like the hood of the serpent; it expands enormously. It is as if many flowers bloom in it. Then its tail becomes very small.
When the serpent stands up it is a wonderful sight; it stands erect on the tip of its tail. It is almost a miracle. The serpent is an invertebrate, a creature with no bones, and yet it can perform this act. It can only be with the help of the vital energy within it, because there is no other substantial means for it to stand erect. It stands by the strength of its own willpower; it has no material strength to rely on. So it is also when the kundalini awakens: it has no physical support; it is an immaterial energy.
These were the reasons why the serpent was chosen as a symbol. There are many other reasons too. For instance, it is an innocent creature; hence, the Hindu god Shiva -- who is also called "the innocent Shiva" -- carries it on his head. On its own the serpent never troubles anybody, but if it is disturbed it can be very dangerous. The same applies to the kundalini. It is a very innocent power; it does not trouble you on its own. But if you disturb it the wrong way you will find yourself in trouble. It can prove very dangerous. So the symbol of a serpent reminds us that it is dangerous to disturb the kundalini in the wrong way. Keeping all this in mind, there was no other symbol more apt than that of the serpent.
All over the world the snake stands as the symbol of wisdom. Jesus has said, "Be clever and intelligent like a snake and as innocent as a dove." The snake is a very intelligent creature -- very alert, very watchful and very sharp and quick. These are all its qualities. The kundalini is also like this. You reach the ultimate peak of wisdom through it; it is very swift, and also very powerful. In the old days, when this symbol was chosen for the kundalini, perhaps there was nothing better than the serpent. Even now there is nothing better.
Perhaps in the future there may be a new symbol -- like the rocket. Some future concept may grasp the kundalini as being like the rocket. Its journey is the same; it travels from one sky to another, from one planet to another, and there is void in between. It can become a symbol. The age decides the symbol.
This symbol was chosen when man was very close to the animal kingdom. All our symbols of those times have been taken from animals, because that was all that our knowledge consisted of so we tried to find symbols in them. The serpent was thus the most apt symbol to define the kundalini.
In those days we could not say that kundalini is like electricity; when we talk today we can say so. Five thousand years ago kundalini could not be talked about in terms of electricity because there was no notion of electricity. But the snake has the quality of electricity. This is hard for us to believe because many of us have no experience of the snake. We may have no experience of the kundalini whatsoever, but we hardly have any experience of snakes either. The serpent is a myth for us.
Recently a survey was taken in London and it was found that seven hundred thousand children had never seen a cow. Now these children who have not seen a cow cannot possibly have any idea of a snake. So their whole way of thinking and reflecting - and their symbols - will be quite different.
Now the serpent is obsolete: it is no longer an important part of our life. Once upon a time it was very near to us; it was our neighbor and was with us all the twenty-four hours of the day. It was then that man noticed its agility, its intelligence, its movements, and the ease with which it carried itself about. It was then that man realized also how dangerous a creature it could be. There are stories of a serpent guarding an infant, and it is so innocent... There are instances when it has bitten the most fierce person and killed him, so dangerous it can be. So both of these possibilities are in it.
When man was very close to the serpent he must have watched it closely. The subject of kundalini also began at about the same time, and both the serpent and the kundalini were found similar in their qualities. But all symbols are meaningful, and if they have come to us through the ages there is a suitability, a rhythm in them. But now it is bound to break.
The symbol of the serpent will not last long. We shall not be able to call the kundalini serpent power, because now where is the poor serpent? It is no longer our neighbor; we have no connection with it. We do not even see him on the roads. So as we have no connection with it whatsoever, this question arises. It could never arise before when it was the only symbol." Osho
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Osho: Truth
Only very few people have ever dared to discover truth. And it is risky, because it may not console you; it has no obligation to console you. It is risky: it may shatter all that you have known before, and you will have to rearrange your whole life. It is dangerous: it may destroy all your illusions, it may shatter all your dreams. It is really going through fire; it is going to burn you as you are, it is going to kill you as you are. And who knows what will happen later on?How can the seed know that by dying in the soil it will become a great tree? It will not be there to witness the happening. How can the seed know that one day, if it dies, there will be great foliage, green leaves, great branches, and flowers and fruits? How can the seed know? The seed will not be there. The seed has to disappear before it can happen. The seed has never met the tree. The seed has to disappear and die.
Only very few people have that much courage. It really needs guts to discover truth. You will die as yourself. You will certainly be born, but how can you be convinced of it? What guarantee is there? There is no guarantee.
Hence, unless you are with a master who has died and is reborn, who has crucified himself and is resurrected -- unless you come across a man like Christ or Buddha or Atisha -- you will not be able to gather enough courage.
Seeing Atisha, something may start stirring in your heart, a chord may be touched, something may be triggered, a synchronicity. The presence of somebody who has arrived may create a great longing in you, may become the birth of an intense passionate search for truth.
Belief cannot give you the truth, it only pretends. It is cheap, it is a plastic flower. You need not take all the trouble of growing a rosebush, you can simply go to the market and purchase plastic flowers -- and they are more lasting too, in fact they are almost eternal. Once in a while you can wash them, and they are fresh again. They will not deceive you, but at least they can deceive the neighbors, and that is the point. You will know all along that they are plastic flowers.
How can you forget it? You have purchased them! The neighbors may be deceived, but how can you be deceived?
And I don't think that even the neighbors are deceived, because they have also purchased plastic flowers. They know they are deceiving you, they know you are deceiving them. Everybody is perfectly aware that everybody else is deceiving. "But this is how life is," people say. Nobody is really deceived. People just pretend to be deceived. You pretend that you have real flowers, others pretend that they are deceived. Just watch, observe, and what I am saying will be experienced by you. It is a simple fact; I am not talking philosophy, just stating facts.
There is this danger in belief: it makes you feel that you know the truth. And because it makes you feel that you know the truth, this becomes the greatest barrier in the search. Believe or disbelieve and you are blocked -- because disbelief is also nothing but belief in a negative form.
The Catholic believes in God, the communist believes in no God: both are believers. Go to Kaaba or go to the Comintern, go to Kailash or to the Kremlin, it is all the same. The believer believes it is so, the nonbeliever believes it is not so. And because both have already settled without taking the trouble to go and discover it, the deeper is their belief, the stronger is their belief, the greater is the barrier. They will never go on a pilgrimage, there is no point. They will live surrounded by their own illusion, self-created, self-sustained; it may be consoling, but it is not liberating. Millions of people are wasting their lives in belief and disbelief.
The inquiry into truth begins only when you drop all believing. You say, "I would like to encounter the truth on my own. I will not believe in Christ and I will not believe in Buddha. I would like to become a christ or a buddha myself, I would like to be a light unto myself."
Why should one be a Christian? It is ugly. Be a christ if you can be, but don't be a Christian. Be a buddha if you have any respect for yourself, but don't be a Buddhist. The Buddhist believes. Buddha knows.
When you can know, when knowing is possible, why settle for believing? But again, the society would like you to believe, because believers are good people, obedient, law-abiding. They follow all formalities and etiquette, they are never trouble-makers. They simply follow the crowd, whichever crowd they happen to be in; they simply go with the crowd. They are not real men, they are sheep. Humanity has not yet arrived.
Somebody once said to George Bernard Shaw, "What do you think about civilization?"
He said, "It is a good idea. Somebody should try it."
It has not yet been tried. Humanity is still arriving; we are still groping between animality and humanity. We are in limbo: man has to be born, man has to be given birth to; we have to prepare the ground for man to appear.
And the most significant thing that will help that man to come will be if we can drop believing -- if we can drop being Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Jainas, Buddhists, communists. If you can drop believing, immediately your energy will take a new turn: it will start inquiring. And to inquire is beautiful. Your life will become a pilgrimage to truth, and in that very pilgrimage you grow.Growth is a by-product of the inquiry into truth. Believers never grow, they remain childish. And remember, to be childlike and to be childish are poles apart, they are not the same thing. It is beautiful to be childlike. The man of trust is childlike and the man of belief is childish. To be childlike is the ultimate in growth; that is the very culmination -- consciousness has come to the ultimate peak. To be childlike means to be a sage, and to be childish means to be just un-grownup.
The average mental age of human beings on the earth today is not more than twelve years. When for the first time this was discovered, it was such a shock. Nobody had ever thought about it; it was just by accident that it became known. In the First World War, for the first time in human history, the people who were candidates, who wanted to enter the army, were examined. Their mental age was inquired into, their IQ was determined. This was a great revelation -- that they were not more than twelve years; the average age was just twelve years.
This is childishness. The body goes on growing, and the mind has stopped at the age of twelve. What kind of humanity have we created on this earth? Why does the mind stop at twelve? Because by the time one is twelve, one has gathered all kinds of beliefs; one is already a believer, one already "knows" what truth is. One is a Christian, another is a communist; one believes in God, one does not believe in God; one believes in The Bible and the other believes in Das Kapital; one believes in the Bhagavad Gita, another believes in the Red Book of Mao Zedong.
We have drilled concepts and ideologies into the innocent minds of poor children. They are already becoming knowers. Do you know -- by the age of seven, a child already knows fifty percent of all that he will ever know. And by the time he is fourteen he has almost arrived; now there is nowhere to go, he has only to vegetate. Now he will exist as a cabbage. If he goes to college then, as they say, he may become a cauliflower. A cabbage with a college education is a cauliflower. But there is not much difference, just labels change. The cabbage becomes an M.A., a Ph.D., this and that, and just to show respect we call it a cauliflower. But the mental age is twelve.
The real man grows to the very end. Even while he is dying, he is growing. Even the last moment of his life will still be an inquiry, a search, a learning. He will still be inquiring -- now inquiring into death. He will be fascinated: death is such an unknown phenomenon, such a mystery, far more mysterious than life itself -- how can an intelligent man be afraid? If in life he has not been afraid to go into the uncharted and the unknown, at the moment of death he will be thrilled, ecstatic. Now the last moment has come: he will be entering into the darkness, the dark tunnel of death. This is the greatest adventure one can ever go on; he will be learning.
A real man never believes; he learns. A real man never becomes knowledgeable; he always remains open, open to truth. And he always remembers that "It is not that truth has to adjust to me, but just vice versa: I have to adjust to truth." The believer tries to adjust truth to himself, the seeker adjusts himself to truth. Remember the difference; the difference is tremendous. One who believes, he says, "Truth should be like this, this is my belief."
Just think of a Christian... If God appears not like Jesus Christ but like Krishna, not on the cross but with a flute and girlfriends dancing around him, the Christian will close his eyes; he will say, "This is not my cup of tea." Girlfriends? Can you think of Jesus with girlfriends? The cross and girlfriends can't go together. Jesus hanging on the cross and girlfriends dancing around? It won't fit, it will be very bizarre. He was waiting for Christ to appear, and instead of Christ this guy, Krishna, appears: he seems to be debauched. And the flute? The world is suffering and people are hungry and they need bread -- and this man is playing on the flute? He seems to be utterly uncompassionate, he seems to be indulgent. The Christian cannot believe in Krishna: if God appears as Krishna, then the Christian will say, "This is not God."
And the same will be the case with the Hindu who was waiting for Krishna: if Christ appears, that will not be his idea of God -- so sad, such a long face, so gloomy, with such suffering on his face.
Christians say Jesus never laughed. I don't think they are right, and I don't think they are representing the real Christ, but that's what they have managed to propagate. The Hindu cannot accept the revelation; he must think this is some kind of nightmare. Jesus will not appeal to him.
The believer cannot even trust his own experience. Even if truth is revealed, he will reject it, unless it fits with him. He is more important than truth itself: truth has an obligation to fit with him. He is the criterion, he is the decisive factor. This kind of man can never know truth; he is already prejudiced, poisoned.
The man who wants to know truth has to be capable of dropping all concepts about truth. Everything about truth has to be dropped. Only then can you know truth. Know well: to know about truth is not to know truth. Whatsoever you know may be utter nonsense; there is every possibility that it is utter nonsense. In fact people can be conditioned to believe any kind of nonsense; they can be convinced.
Osho
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Daily Dedroidify: Osho
Daily Dedroidify: OshoRajneesh Chandra Mohan Jain (December 11, 1931 - January 19, 1990), better known during the 1970s as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and later as Osho was an Indian spiritual teacher. He lived in India and in other countries including, for a period the United States.
The Sanskrit word Bhagwan means "Blessed one" (historically, it is used to refer to a Hindu god, such as Bhagwan Ram or Bhagwan Krishna or to a spiritually awakened being in Mahayana Buddhism). It is also used to denote individuals who possess a great wealth of spiritual knowledge.
'Osho' is an ancient Japanese term that is used to address a spiritual master in certain Zen traditions. The name "Osho" in this context means "The Friend". It fit how Rajneesh wanted to be known by his followers and lovers.
Osho has been described by the Sunday Times of London as one of the "1000 Makers of the 20th Century" and by American novelist Tom Robbins as "the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ." More than a decade after his death in 1990, the influence of his teachings continues to grow, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world.
"Anybody who gives you a belief system is your enemy, because the belief system becomes the barrier for your eyes: you cannot see the truth. The very desire to find the truth disappears. But if all your belief systems are taken away from you, in the beginning certainly, it is bitter. I know the fear, the anxiety, that will surface immediately which you have been suppressing for millenia. But it is there, very alive, no God can destroy it. Only the search for truth and the experience of truth, NOT a belief is capable to heal all your wounds. To make you a whole being, and the whole person is the holy person to me."
"Only when there are many people who are pools of peace, silence, understanding, will war disappear."
"I am here to seduce you into a love of life; to help you to become a little more poetic; to help you die to the mundane and to the ordinary so that the extraordinary explodes in your life."
"When you are no more, only then for the first time will you be."
"Each person comes into this world with a specific destiny - he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally - you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The whole intends to do something through you."
"Mind is very serious, and meditation is absolutely nonserious. When I say this you may be bewildered, because people go on talking about meditation very seriously. But meditation is not a serious thing. It is just like play. Nonserious. Sincere, but nonserious. It is not something like work; it is more like play. Play is not an activity. Even when it is active, it is not an activity. Play is just pleasure. The activity is not going anywhere; it is not motivated. Rather, it is just pure, flowing energy. But it is difficult, because we are so involved in activity. We have always been so active that activity has become a deep-rooted obsession. Even while asleep we are active. Even when we are thinking about relaxing we are active. We even make relaxation an activity; we make an effort to relax. This is absurd! But it happens because of the robotlike habits of the mind.
So what to do? Only nonactivity leads you to your inner center, but the mind cannot conceive of how to be nonactive. So what to do?"
(fair warning: this is a liberating circuit 6 meditation, which includes catharsis - each stage lasts 10 minutes)
(From The New Alchemy: To turn you on)
"Only when there are many people who are pools of peace, silence, understanding, will war disappear."
"I am here to seduce you into a love of life; to help you to become a little more poetic; to help you die to the mundane and to the ordinary so that the extraordinary explodes in your life."
"When you are no more, only then for the first time will you be."
"Each person comes into this world with a specific destiny - he has something to fulfill, some message has to be delivered, some work has to be completed. You are not here accidentally - you are here meaningfully. There is a purpose behind you. The whole intends to do something through you."
"Mind is very serious, and meditation is absolutely nonserious. When I say this you may be bewildered, because people go on talking about meditation very seriously. But meditation is not a serious thing. It is just like play. Nonserious. Sincere, but nonserious. It is not something like work; it is more like play. Play is not an activity. Even when it is active, it is not an activity. Play is just pleasure. The activity is not going anywhere; it is not motivated. Rather, it is just pure, flowing energy. But it is difficult, because we are so involved in activity. We have always been so active that activity has become a deep-rooted obsession. Even while asleep we are active. Even when we are thinking about relaxing we are active. We even make relaxation an activity; we make an effort to relax. This is absurd! But it happens because of the robotlike habits of the mind.
So what to do? Only nonactivity leads you to your inner center, but the mind cannot conceive of how to be nonactive. So what to do?"
(fair warning: this is a liberating circuit 6 meditation, which includes catharsis - each stage lasts 10 minutes)
(From The New Alchemy: To turn you on)
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Osho: Challenge is Life
Go on trying and by and by one becomes more skillful. Just time is needed. And fear is natural, but don't be overpowered by it. It's natural, so accept it. Much will start surfacing in. Everybody carries so much potentiality that they don't even dream about. Their dreams are as their reality... just superficial. You don't know what you are carrying within you. If a little effort is made, more and more of your inner being will be made available to you.Fear is natural because one is moving in darkness. The inner journey is very dark. Light comes but that is only at the end. First one has to pass through the tunnel, hence trust is needed. The world of light, of course artificial light, is no more there and the world of real light has not yet happened. Just in between the two there is a tunnel of darkness. The mind says 'Go back! At least there was some light. Maybe the light was outside you, but still it was. Maybe it was artificial, but at least it was. Go back! Cling to theories and words and philosophies'.
It is just like when you dive deep into water and an urge arises to go back to the surface. This is a greater depth than that. No ocean is so deep as the inner reality. So one trembles, feels afraid, lost, uprooted. One feels unskillful because the new is so new and you have never practised it. But by and by if you go on with courage and you take the challenge of the unknown, that very challenge will create the capacity to encounter it.
Once you accept a challenge, you start becoming capable of encountering it. Nothing else is needed because the capacity is lying there within you fast asleep because you have never used it.
So whenever there is a challenge, never reject it... welcome it. Challenge is life and life-giving. So whenever there is a challenge, immediately take the opportunity and thank God that again the unknown is before you. Again you are afraid, good. Again the security is no more there, good. Again you move in the insecure. Again the adventure starts and you don't know where you are going you don't know where you will reach, or whether you will ever reach.
You don't even know who you are because a man knows himself only by something that he is capable of doing. Somebody says, 'I am a doctor'. He knows himself because he can do certain things. somebody says, 'I am an advocate', because he knows that he can do something. Somebody says, 'I am a carpenter'. We know ourselves by our doing.
When you move into the unknown, you cannot do anything. You don't know where you are going, what is going to happen. Every moment is going to be a surprise, something just out of the blue. Sooner or later you start feeling that you are losing your identity. So the greatest fear is of losing one's identity, the image, the ego, the nameplate. You cannot carry it into the unknown.
Fear is there but don't pay much attention to it. It is there because of the challenge. Pay attention to the challenge. When you look at the challenge you will not feel bad about the fear; you will say that this is natural.
When one has to climb an Everest fear is natural. I don't see anything abnormal in it. In fact if a man is going to climb Everest and he doesn't feel any fear, he is abnormal; something is perverted about him. Maybe he is insensitive, an idiot, stupid, unaware. When a man starts moving, climbing the Himalayas, it is natural that fear will be felt.
But if when you move on the street of your town you are afraid, then it is abnormal. If in the known you fear, it is abnormal. If you feel fear with the unknown, it is indicative, symptomatic, that there is something that you don't know, with which you are unfamiliar, a strange country you are entering, the language of which is not known to you, and you have no map. There is every possibility that you may be lost forever and may not be able to come back. Fear is natural.
But take the challenge, focus on the challenge; then fear is just the shadow of the challenge. Never pay much attention to shadows because if you do, shadows tend to become realities. Always pay attention to the reality. When you are focused on reality you can see what is a shadow and what is real. The unreal has no more influence on you.
If you are really interested in mysticism, become a mystic. You have taken the first step, hence the fear. Accept the challenge, mm?
Osho, "Beloved of my Heart"
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