Monthly Archives: March 2013

The Art of Living and Dying, by Osho

Contents
Introduction

Part 1
Taking on the Last Taboo
In Search of the Deathless
Caveat: The Problem of Belief
The Many Faces of Death
East and West, Death and Sex
Unfinished Business
Responses to Questions

Part 2
Unknown Journey: Understanding and Facing Our Fears
In Search of Immortality
Not an Enemy but a Friend
The Courage to Live
Responses to Questions

Part 3
Milestones on the Path
Drowned in Emptiness
Using Pain as a Meditation
Responses to Questions
Techniques for dealing with pain
Accepting Pain in Suchness
Entering the Pain
Become the Pain
Taking Note Twice
Stop the Senses
Keys for acceptance and transformation
Humming (Nadabrahma)
Completing Things
Ah-Ahh!
Disappearing Om Meditation
Life/Death
Experience of the Self Beyond the Body
Blue Light Meditation
Float, Dissolve, Be in Suchness
Feel as if Dying
The Immortal One
Exhalation Meditation
The Body Burning
The World Burning

Part 4
Time to Say Goodbye: Insights for Caretakers
and the Bereaved
The Great Revelation
Being There
Responses to Questions
Afterword
A Snowflake Dissolving in Pure Air
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OSHO: Born with a Question Mark in Your Heart

‘Born with a Question Mark in Your Heart’ continues the AUTHENTIC LIVING series by Osho with talks by the contemporary mystic during his stay in the United States of America. Paperback: Amazon, Barnes&Noble, BAM, IndieBound, Others. eBook: Kindle, Nook, iBook, Kobo, … Continue reading

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Authentic Living – OSHO Talks in America

After three and a half years in silence, Osho starts speaking in America. This series AUTHENTIC LIVING gives you a glimpse why Osho freaked out the establishments and vested interest around the globe. Paperback from:  Amazon; Barnes & Noble; BAM; Indie Bound; Others.  eBook: Kindle, Nook, iBook, Kobo. Danger: Truth at Work   The … Continue reading

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OSHO: Moral, Immoral, Amoral: What Is Right and What Is Wrong?

From Action to Awareness

Your actions are not my concern; your consciousness is.
If your consciousness allows you to do something, it is right—do it. Don’t be worried by any holy scriptures, by any prophets. And if your consciousness does not allow you to do something, then don’t do it. Even if God says to you, “Do it!” there is no way—you cannot do it.
Please talk about morality.
The question of morality is immensely significant, because morality is not that which has been told to you for centuries. All the religions have exploited the idea of morality. They have been teaching in different ways, but the basic foundation is the same: unless you become moral, ethical, you cannot become religious.
By “morality” they mean that you have to be truthful, you have to be honest, you have to be charitable, you have to be compassionate, you have to be nonviolent. In one word, all these great values have first to be present in you, only then can you move toward being religious. This whole concept is upside down. According to me, unless you are religious you cannot be moral. Religiousness comes first, morality is only a by-product. If you make the by-product into the goal of human character, you will create such a troubled, miserable humanity—and for such a good cause. You are bringing the cart before the bullocks. Neither the bullocks can move, nor the cart can move; both are stuck.
How can a person be truthful if he does not know what truth is? How can a person be honest if he does not know even who he is? How can you be compassionate if you do not know the source of love within yourself? From where will you get the compassion? All that you can do in the name of morality is to become a hypocrite, a pretender. And there is nothing more ugly than to be a hypocrite. One can pretend, can try hard, but everything will remain superficial and skin-deep. Just scratch the person a little bit and you will find all the animal instincts fully alive, ready to take revenge whenever they can get the opportunity.
Putting morality before religiousness is one of the greatest crimes that religions have committed against humanity. The very idea brings a repressed human being. And a repressed human being is sick, psychologically split, constantly in a fight with himself, trying to do things he does not want to do.
Morality should be very relaxed and easy, just like your shadow—you don’t have to drag it with you, it simply comes on its own. But this has not happened; what has happened is a psychologically sick humanity. Everybody is tense, because whatever you are doing there is a conflict about whether it is right or wrong. Your nature goes in one direction, your conditioning goes just in the opposite direction. And a house divided cannot stand for long. So everybody is somehow pulling himself together; otherwise the danger is always there, just by your side, of having a nervous breakdown.
I do not teach morality at all. Morality should come of its own accord. I teach you directly the experience of your own being. As you become more and more silent, serene, calm, and quiet, as you start understanding your own consciousness, as your inner being becomes more and more centered, your actions will reflect morality. It will not be something that you decide to do, it will be something as natural as roses on a rosebush. It is not that the rosebush is doing great austerities, and fasting, and praying to God, and disciplining itself according to the Ten Commandments; the rosebush is doing nothing. The rosebush has just to be healthy, nourished, and the flowers will come in their own time, with great beauty, effortlessly.
A morality that comes with effort is immoral. A morality that comes without effort is the only morality there is.
That’s why I don’t talk about morality at all, because it is morality that has created so many problems for humanity—about everything. They have given you ready-made ideas about what is right, what is wrong. In life, ready-made ideas don’t work, because life goes on changing, just like a river—taking new turns, moving into new territories … from the mountains to the valleys, from the valleys to the plains, from the plains to the ocean.
Heraclitus is right when he says, “You cannot step in the same river twice,” because it is always flowing. The second time you step in, it is different water. I agree with Heraclitus so much that I say unto you, you cannot step in the same river even once, because when your feet are touching its surface the water underneath is flowing; as your feet are going deeper, the water on the surface is flowing; and by the time you have touched the bottom, so much water has gone … it is not the same water. Your step can not be said to be entering into the same river.
Life is just like the river, a flux. And you are all carrying fixed dogmas. You always find yourself unfit, because if you follow your dogmas, you have to go against life; if you follow life, you have to go against your dogmas. Hence my whole effort is to make your morality spontaneous. You should be conscious and alert, and respond to every situation with absolute consciousness. Then whatever you do is right. It is not a question of actions being right or wrong. It is a question of consciousness, of whether you are doing it consciously or unconsciously like a robot.
My whole philosophy is based on growing your consciousness higher, deeper, to the point when there is no unconsciousness inside you; you have become a pillar of light. In this light, in this clarity, to do anything wrong becomes impossible. It is not that you have to avoid doing it; even if you want to do it, you cannot. And in this consciousness, whatsoever you do becomes a blessing.
Your action out of consciousness is moral, out of unconsciousness is immoral … it may be the same action.
I am reminded of an old story: a king was getting old, and he told his only son, who was going to succeed him, “Before I die you have to learn the art of morality, because a king has to be a model for everyone else in the kingdom; nothing should go wrong in your actions. So I am sending you today to my old master. I am old, he is even older than me, so don’t waste time. Learn everything intensely, totally, without wasting a single moment.”
The prince went to the master and he was surprised—surprised by the fact that the master was a master of swordsmanship: “What has swordsmanship to do with morality? Has my father gone senile?” But he had come to the mountains, so he thought, “It is better to see the old man at least once.”
He went in. The old man was immensely beautiful and graceful, surrounded by an aura of silence and peace. The prince had been thinking he was going to meet a warrior, a swordsman, but here was a sage. He was getting even more puzzled. He asked the old man, “Are you the master swordsman?” He said, “You are right.”
The prince said, “I have been sent by my father, the king, who is your disciple, to learn morality from you. I cannot see any connection at all between morality and swordsmanship.” The old man laughed and he said, “Soon you will see.”
The prince said, “I am in a hurry. My father is old, and before he dies I want to fulfill his desire.” The master said, “Then get lost, because these things cannot be learned in a hurry. Patience, infinite patience is the very foundation of learning any art, whether it is swordsmanship or it is morality.”
Looking at the old man’s eyes, the prince decided to remain. He said, “When are my lessons going to start?” The old man said, “Just now they have started. Patience is your first lesson. And about the second lesson I should make you aware. The second lesson is that you will be cleaning the floors, cleaning in the garden, collecting the old leaves, throwing them out. Be very careful, because I may hit you with a wooden sword at any moment. Although it is wooden, it hits really hard. It has given many people fractures.”
The prince said, “But I have come here to learn morality, not to get fractures!” The old man said, “That will come in its own time, this is only the beginning.” Puzzled, confused … but he knew his father, that if he went back empty-handed the old man would be really enraged. He had to learn. On both sides two mad, old people.… “And this man is trying to teach me morality by hitting me! But let us see what happens.”
And the master started hitting him! He would be washing the floor, and suddenly a hit would come. He would be cleaning the path in the garden, and suddenly a hit would come. But he was surprised to see that within a week, a certain intuition was arising in him. Even before the old man had approached him, he would jump out of his way. Whatever he was doing, some part of his consciousness was continuously alert to the old man, where he was. The old man walked so silently that it was almost impossible to be aware of him, but the young prince started being conscious because getting so many hits, his whole body was hurting!
It continued for one month. But in one month he became so capable that the old man was no longer able to hit him. The old man said, “You are really the son of your father. He was also very keen, intense, and total in learning; it won’t take much time. Your first lesson is finished today, because for twenty-four hours I have been trying to hit you, but you have been always alert and saved yourself.
“From tomorrow morning you will have to be more alert, because the wooden sword will be replaced by a real sword. The wooden sword at the most could have given you a fracture, but the real sword may even cut off your head. So more awareness will be needed.”
But this one month had been of such great learning R… Continue reading

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OSHO: Living on Your Own Terms: What Is Real Rebellion?

“Rebellion is individual, nonviolent, peaceful. It is out of love. Rebellion is not against something, but for something. Revolution is against something, but not for something. Revolution is so much engaged in being against, it forgets for what all this fuss is being made. It is anger. But anger cannot create a better society. Rebellion is not oriented against the society, but is oriented toward a new man, a new humanity. Revolution is fighting with the past. Rebellion is meditating with the future. I have said rebellion is out of love, silence, understanding, compassion–all the qualities that make a person divine….Rebellion is a spiritual phenomenon. It is not against society as such; it is simply the intelligence that shows that this society is dead, that this society is incapable of giving birth to a new human being, that it is spent, that it is almost on the verge of global suicide. It needs compassion; it does not need anger….The rebel has no enemy. He simply has a vision that the old is finished. It need not be fought against; it is dying itself. Fighting with it is to give it life. Just ignore it. It is already on its deathbed; it will die of its own accord. Don’t give it energy by fighting. The rebel can do only one thing: He can transform himself into the new man, he can become his own vision. That is the only proof that his vision is not a dream. The rebel starts transforming his vision into a reality. I want you all to be rebellious.” (pp. 7-10) Continue reading

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