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(Australian Sannyasin Disciples of Swami Satyananda Saraswati and Osho Rajneesh)


Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd
ISBN 8120811186

Size: 8.5″ X 5.4″
Pages: 239

Back of the Book

In 1895 Swami Vivekananda of the Ramakrishna Mission initiated two Europeans, one a woman, into the ancient Indian tradition of sannyasa or world-renunciation. This practice was continued in the first part of the twentieth century by Swami Shivananda of Rishikesh. From the late sixties onwards, with the sudden expansion of European awareness of Indian Spirituality, a vast hord of “foreign religious heads” have spread through India in incomprehensibly large numbers (to quote Gita Mehta in Karma Cola). Many thousands of these have assumed the orange robes, beads and Sanskrit names of the Indian renunciate, for various periods of time and with differing degrees of commitment. Foremost in initiating Western disciples during this time have been Swami Satyananda Saraswati, a wandering (parivrajaka) mendicant, and the late Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (or “Osho” as he was known prior to his death).

Who were these disciples? What were their backgrounds in their own societies? What did sannyasa mean to them? How did they live in their ashrams and residences, in India and abroad? How had they changed when they returned to the West?

This book seeks to answer these questions with reference to the Australian disciples of Satyananda and Osho. It provides a careful study of both Indian concepts and practices of renunciation and of the western “Counter Culture” of the sixties, which formed an integral part of the background of these seekers. The teachings of Satyananda and Rajneesh on renunciation are analyzed in depth. Finally, the major part of the book is devoted to a description of the lives and experiences of the renunciates themselves.

Harry Aveling was born in Sydney, Australia in 1942. He holds postgraduate degrees in Arts (Indonesian and Malay Studies), Education (Multicultural Studies) and Theology (Franciscan Spirituality and Theology). Translator of over fifty volumes of Indonesian and Malay literature, he was awarded the Anugerah Pengembangan Sastra EssoGapena for his contributions to the international recognition of Malay Literature, in 1991. He is currently attached to the Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore.

Preface

This book aims to study the reinterpretation of the ancient Indian tradition of world-renunciation, sannyasa, by two contemporary teachers, Swami Satyananda (b.1923), and Osho (1931-1990) otherwise known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

The major focus of the study is on Australians who were disciples of these teachers during the seventies and eighties. In particular, the work seeks to describe the cultural settings for renunciation both in India and in Australia after 1965; and to explore the motive, understanding and lifestyles of the Australians who became sannyasin disciple of these two teachers. In this Preface I would like to provide an overview of the whole work.

The study is based on a wide range of texts, including classical scriptures, ethnographies, talks in which Satyananda and Rajneesh explained their position on renunciation, and the replies to a ‘Questionnaire on Sannyasa’ provided by sixty-seven respondents: twenty full sannyasin initiates and twenty-two ‘householder sannyasin’ disciples of Rajneesh. Part One serves as an introduction to the volume and deals with the methodology used- an analysis of ‘discourses’, and the problems related to the distribution of the questionnaire to a dispersed, unmodified, self-protective population.

Part Two presents the traditional Indian theory and practice of renunciation. Sannyasa was considered the last of four life-stages. It has been interpreted in various ways in the scriptures: as a continuous state of divine ecstasy outside the conventional society, by the Vedas; as a form of self-control based on knowledge of the Self (atman) and God (Brahman, the Ground of Being), in the Upanishads, as a defined code of practice, with specific external insignia, grades and obligations, in the sannyasa Upanishads; and as a state of inner detachment from the consequences of one’s action (karma), in the Bhagavad-Gita.

Contemporary sociological research suggests that renunciates in India are expected to wear the insignia of their order; to be characterized by the quality of ‘holiness’; to have some knowledge of Sanskrit texts, and skill in ritual or devotional leadership; and to follow a distinctive lifestyle based on asceticism and physical restraint (including sexual celibacy). Most renunciates derive from small joint families of the Brahmin caste, particularly those engaged in farming. Most are also illiterate, and rely on begging for their food and other needs. Although some sannyasins are initiated before the age of thirty, most are initiated after this age and many after the age of sixty. For most, a desire to lead a spiritual life is less important than the opportunity to follow a convenient and respectable existence. Some Europeans have joined orders of mainly Western renunciates, which seek to maintain a lifestyle similar to those of Indian renunciates. Unlike their Indian counterparts, these Western renunciates have been aged in their twenties at the time of first joining, been well-educated (often to tertiary level), were single or divorced, and have expressed a strong need to understand the world in religious terms.

Part three concentrating with the lives and teachings of Satyananda and Osho. By concentrating on the ‘inner essence’ of sannyasa, both have sought to justify the extension of renunciation to non-Indians, non-Hindus, and women. Of the two teachers, Rajneesh was the more radical, in that he sought to use the inner essence of sannyasa as a means of attacking what he considered to be abuses of contemporary renunciate lifestyles in India.

Part Four deals with the experiences of Australian renunciates and forms the major part of the study.

Chapter Six shows the limited position of religion in the Australian society, and the unusual place of Asian-based religions in a Christian, materialist and racist society. Such religions are most likely to appeal to those who are not well-integrated into the mainstream of society and are available to the adoption of new and unusualidentites. The rise of the ‘counter-culture’ in the last 1960s and throughout the seventies created such a situation. Chapter Seven presents the main features of the counter-culture, beginning with the opposition to the war in Vietnam, and moving to more personal issues such as feminism, new arrangements of shared accommodation, new concepts of ‘personal power’, particularly as developed in the ‘growth movement’ which was a part of Humanistic Psychology, the use of drugs, and the rise of movements devoted to ‘eastern mysticism’ including the practice of yoga.

Australians attracted to a commitment to either Swami Satyananda or Osho had backgrounds similar to those of the other Western renunciates described above. They were usually under the age of thirty, well educated, with some religious background in a mainstream Christian denomination, and often single or recently divorced. The demographic details of the respondents are summarized in Chapter Eight. In this chapter it is suggested that three cohorts can be distinguished among each of the group of full sannyasins, householder sannyasins and neo-sannyasins. The first cohort took initiation in the seventies, often in India, and were closest to the values of the counter-culture. The second cohort, who took initiation in the early to mid-eighties, moved into a known and defined situation, and spent less or no time in India. The third cohort have joined after the major collapse of both movements in the later part of the eighties, and exhibit distinctively individual reasons for joining. Members of the second and third cohorts show less attachment to the values of the counter-culture than do members of the first cohort. Nevertheless, all belong to what Mannheim (1952:306) has described as a ‘generational unit’, a group o persons with a common psychological and emotional perception of the world and characteristic way of behaving.

Chapter Nine, Ten and Eleven describe each group in detail by turn. The chapter follow a similar pattern, beginning with the life of a representative member of the group; the experiences of the different cohorts and the changing understandings of discipleship; the lifestyle of the major ashram or place of training and finally a survey of current work patterns, attitudes to celibacy, and spiritual practices.

Chapter Nine shows the structured and disciplined life led by full sannyasin disciples of Swami Satyananda, and their methods of readjusting to the Australian society after lengthy residences in India. Chapter Ten describes householder sannyasins, the most recent of the three groups, who follow an ethic dedicated to the sacralisation of their present work and family patterns. Chapter Eleven is concerned with neo-sannyasins, who, on the other hand, accept an unstructured lifestyle, in which a major emphasis is placed on Rajneesh as an object of emotional focus and on psychological therapeutic techniques as the major means for self-awareness. The Rajneesh community also places little stress on discipline or poverty, preferring spontaneity and beauty. Neo-sannyasins have lower levels of education than Satyananda’s disciples, less commitment to rewarding work, and spend little time practicing meditation. In view of the decision to drop the wearing of the external signs of renunciation in 1987, it must be questioned whether neo-sannyasa now has anything in common with other renunciate movements, either positively or in contradiction to them. Ironically, it is noted that with the increasing loss of interest in the Indian ashram by overseas visitors, the ashram is tending to become a memorial to Rajneesh; the tradition has absorbed his challenge and given him the status of a great teacher.

The Postscript suggests that both movements have been unable to survive the moral shortcomings of their top leadership in the middle of the last decade and are now dying. What promised to be innovative transformations of an ancient spirituality, in accordance with contemporary needs and ways of thought, have come to nothing.

This study is an extension of work done on Canadian renunciates in 1988. The challene to turn my interest to Australian renunciates first came from Swamis Karuna Devi and Bhav-chaitanya, organizers of the 1989 Yoga and Meditation Festival, Melbourne.

The research was conducted during 1989-1990 and presented to the University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, towards the degree of Master of Education in Multicultural Studies in March 1991. Dr. A.K. Eckermann was a patient and gracious supervisor. I am also grateful for the interest, hospitality and insights of Dr. G. Gunther, my associate supervisor.

Encouragement and support was given by many sannyasins. Particular mention must be made of Swamis Ajnananda, Jivan Christopher, Deva Daricha, Devanatha, Karmamurti, Muktananda, Muktibodhananda, Naradananda, Sambodh Roman, Shankardevananda and Tapasmurti and Ma Anand Kalpana, Prem Maneesha, Rajni and Shivam Rachana, who facilitated this work in many ways. Ma Anand Ruchita has suffered the complexities and paradoxed yet to be resolved in the heads of many sixties people and knows how much the seeing eye is part of what is seen.

Mrs. Coleen Clavdivs first typed an earlier version of the chapter on Osho. Mrs. Satwant Kaur typed the entire manuscript with care and good humor. Blessings on her son, Sandip, who was born during this time. Ms. Catherine Welch helped with the proof-reading; to her too I offer my sincere thanks.

The responsibility for this work is my own, as must be the karma associated with it.

by Osho Rajneesh
Hardcover


A Rebel Book
ISBN 389338068X

Size: 8.2″ X 5.8″
Pages: 200 (14 Black & White Illustrations)

Introduction

Of all the stories Osho Rajneesh has shared with His disciples through the years this story is surely one of the al time favorites:

“I have told you a story, a very ancient story, about a lioness giving birth to a cub while she was jumping from one hillock to another hillock. The cub fell into a crowd of sheep and grew up amongst the sheep. There was no way for him to know that he was not a sheep. And the sheep were not afraid, they never thought that he was dangerous.

“One day an old lion saw this phenomenon and could not believe it! He had never seen any lion walking in a crowd of sheep. The moment sheep see a lion they start running-naturally. But this young lion believed he was a sheep.

“The old lion was a man just like Joshu. He got hold of him. He started trembling, and the old lion said, ‘You are trembling and weeping and crying and asking that you should be released because you want to join your group. There is something you don’t know, it seems you are unaware, and I will not leave you unless I make you aware. You come with me!.

“He dragged him to a nearby lake. The lake was silent-no ripples, no wind was there. He took the young lion to the edge of the water and told him, ‘Look in the water. Look at my face and your face.’

“Instantaneously, from the young lion a roar came out. It was not any effort, it was simply the fact of seeing that he is a lion immediately a roar that resounded in faraway mountains.

“The young lion thanked the old lion and said, ‘You have been very kind to me. Otherwise my whole life I would have lived chewing grass with the sheep. You have given me a new birth.”

Somewhere deep within us all, the message is heard clearly: we are not living as full a life as we are meant to be. Discontentedly we live on desires, dreams, wanting love and understanding, never reaching. Wondering why a sheep’s life is so empty, boring, unfulfilling.

But then a master comes with soft words or a sudden leap; to shake us up, wake us from our sleep; to take us to his still and silent pool in which we see our true faces reflecting. This has been the work, the play, of all the masters down the ages: to wake us from our dreams. This is the game that Joshu was playing with his disciples eleven hundred years ago. The same game Osho Rajneesh goes on playing with us, here, today.

In these eight discourses, Osho Rajneesh brings Joshu back to life. Not just by commenting on him or his life, but by being the same kind of man-a master, breathing the essence of Zen. With the ‘whack!’ of a Zen stick, the shock of an outrageous joke, or the offer of a cup of tea, Rajneesh and Joshu together are saying, “Wake up, recognize your being.

From the Jacket

Joshu is one of the most loved masters in the Zen tradition. There have been great masters, but nobody has been loved so much as Joshu-and he deserved it. His working on people, on disciples, was so soft, so delicate, that only a poet can manage it…a great craftsmanship in carving buddhas out of the stones of humanity.

Every man is just a big rock. It needs a craftsman, a great artist, a sculptor, who with loving hands removes all that is unessential and leaves only that which is absolutely essential. That absolutely essential is your Buddha.

About the Author

Osho Rajneesh was born in Kuchwada, Madhya Pradesh, India, on December 11, 1931. From his earliest childhood, his was a rebellious and independent spirit, challenging all accepted religious, social and political traditions and insisting on experiencing the truth for himself rather than acquiring knowledge and beliefs given by others.

At the age of twenty-one, on March 21, 1953, Rajneesh became enlightened. He says about himself, “I am no longer seeking, searching for anything. Existence has opened all its doors to me, I cannot even say that I belong to existence, because I am just a part of it…When a flower blossoms, I blossom with it. When the sun rises, I rise with it. The ego in me, which keeps people separate, is no longer there. My body is part of nature, my body is part of nature, my being is part of the whole. I am not a separate entity.”

He graduated from the University of Sagar with First Class Honors in philosophy. While a student he was All-India Debating Champion and the Gold Medal winner. After a nine-year stint as professor or philosophy at the University of Jabalpur, he left to travel around the country giving talks, challenging orthodox religious leaders in public debate, upsetting traditional beliefs, and shocking the status quo.

In the course of his work, Rajneesh has spoken on virtually every aspect of the development of human consciousness. From Sigmund Freud to Chuang Tzu, from George Gurdjieff to Gautam Buddha, from Jesus Christ to Rabindranath Tagore… He has distilled from each the essence of what is significant to the spiritual quest of contemporary man, based not on intellectual understanding but tested against his own existential experience.

He belongs to no tradition – “I am the beginning of a totally new religious consciousness,” he says. “Please don’t connect me with the past – it is not even worth remembering.”

His talks to disciples and seekers from all over the world have been published in more than six hundred fifty volumes, and translated into over thirty languages. And he says, “My message is not a doctrine, not a philosophy. My message is a certain alchemy, a science of transformation, so only those who are willing to die as they are and be born again into something so new that they can not even imagine it right now…only those few courageous people will be ready to listen, because listening is going to be risky. Listening, you have taken the first step towards being reborn. So it is not a philosophy that you can just make an overcoat of and go bragging about. It is not a doctrine where you can find consolation for harassing questions… No, my message is not some verbal communication. It is far more risky. It is nothing less than death and rebirth.”

Osho Rajneesh is now residing at Rajneeshdham in Poona, India, where thousands of disciples and seekers gather throughout the year to participate in the meditations and other programs offered there.

by OSHO
Hardcover


The Rebel Publishing House
ISBN 3893380825

Size: 7.5” X 4.8”
Pages: 152 Introduction

Imagine a place where the barriers that usually divide people-the barriers of race, of language, of nation, of political and religious ideology- no longer exist. A place where laughter is the most commonly heard sound when a group of people gather. A place devoted to helping each individual discover and express his or her own uniqueness and creativity. A place where washing the floor is an activity just as honored and valued as making a painting, of organizing a staff of a hundred people.

Paradise? No, Poona. Osho Commune International, It’s called, and it is flourishing despite the opposition of governments and organized religions all over the world to what it represents.

Osho, the man at the center of this extraordinary place is an unstoppable hurricane of transforming energy, a one-man rebellion against the whole past, an irresistible call to wake up before it’s so late there won’t be any future.

It is our habit to look at the world through the eyes of our past experience and knowledge. Religion, therefore, is a Sunday affair, or a life of renunciation, or the promise of a paradise after death. It depends on our conditioning.

Osho’s work is to dismantle that conditioning, to turn our attention towards “the mystery and the poetry of the beyond.” It has made Him very unpopular with those who prefer people to be conditioned and therefore obedient, faithful and otherwise supportive of those who have got us in the mess we are in.

Osho is redefining religion, breathing life back into the spirit of man. And as you will see on the pages which follow, he does it as it has never been done before.

It is time to become a flower, He says.

I have come to you as a spring.
Ma Deva Sarito
Poona 1990

by Osho
Hardcover (Edition: 2003)


Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN 8172611358

Size: 8.2″ X 5.6″
Pages: 283

About the Osho

Osho defies categorization, reflecting everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. His books are not written but are transcribed from recordings of extemporaneous talks given over a period of thirty-five years. Osho has been described by the Sunday Times in London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by Sunday Mid-Day in India as one of the ten people – along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha – who have changed the destiny of India.

Osho has a stated aim of helping to create the conditions for the birth of a new kind of human being, characterized as “Zorba the Buddha” – one whose feet are firmly on the ground, yet whose hands can touch the stars. Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology.

He is synonymous with a revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation and an approach to meditation which specifically addresses the accelerated pace of contemporary life. The unique Osho Active Meditations are designed to allow the release of accumulated stress in the body and mind so that it is easier to be still and experience the thought-free state of meditation.

by Osho
Hardcover (Edition: 2003)


Tao Publishing Pvt.Ltd.
ISBN 8172610793

Size: 8.5″ X 5.5″
Pages: 288(B & W Illus: 20)
Introduction

That is this ancient music? Osho says it is the soundless sound, the sound of existence itself and it is surrounding us all the time but we just cannot hear it. He tells us that listening is all that meditation is about – how to listen to that which is already there.

With the help of five really great Zen stories and questions from disciples, Osho goes into careful detail on what meditation is. He helps us examine the mechanism of our mind and how to understand it, because without this understanding we may go on doing things which help the mind to function in its old patterns. And to hear the ancient music, mind has to be put aside.

The first chapter gives an in-depth explanation of the differences in the right and left hemispheres of our brains. This is illustrated with the Zen story of a master thief whose mastership comes from his ability to act through the hemisphere of his right-brain, his intuition.

A chapter on life, death and love gives us the key to living and loving, how to accept the certainty of death, and there is some lovely help with relaxation as Osho talks about the simplicity of enlightenment.

I was working on the production of this book and many times I would look at a page and there would be something absolutely relevant to what was happening that day, as for instance in the chapter where Osho is talking on how we make problems for ourselves. One sentence that struck me like a Zen gong was, “The ego is not an entity – not a thing – it is just a tension.” Aah what a sigh of relief I gave when that sank in. all these years I have been looking for my ego in order to drop it, and I only need to relax it is so simple.

For many days I was fascinated by the sight of a Japanese swami who sat drawing in the garden. This was Swami Prem Vasant and he agreed to create drawings of plants and trees to use in this book. Each drawing is done in such detail and looks so lifelike that you will sometimes think it might be a photograph.

Osho describes creativity as the main quality that makes Zen superior to any other way of life. He talks about how the artist sees each leaf of a tree as different, unique, individual, and how for the poet each word has its own subtle music.

Osho takes us into the world of Zen where we are encouraged, or rather inspired, to grow towards more sensitivity, to be more alive, more silent, so that we may hear it – that music – it is here. Shhh!.

Back of the Book

I can see clouds a thousand miles away, hear ancient music in the pines. You can also hear it. It is your birthright. If you miss it, only you and only you will be responsible for it. Listen in the pines just listen. In this very moment it is there. Someone asked Buddha, “What is the greatest miracle?” He said, “Paravritti, turning in.” Turn in, tune in, and you will be able to see clouds a thousand miles away, and you will be able to hear the ancient music in the pines. Meditation is a state of clarity, not a state of mind. Mind is confusion. Mind is never clear – it cannot be. Thoughts create clouds around you, they are subtle clouds. A mist is created by them and the clarity is lost. When thoughts disappear, when there are no more clouds around you, when you are in your simple beingness, clarity happens. Then you can see far away then, you can see to the very end of existence. Then your gaze becomes penetrating, to the very core of being.

(Zen Master Series)

by Osho Rajneesh
Hardcover


Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN 3893380663

Size: 8.4″ X 5.8″
Pages: 104

From the Jacket:

Basho is one of the greatest poets in the world. His greatness is not in his poetry – there are far greater poets as far as the composition of the poetry is concerned. His greatness is that his poetry is not just verbiage, is not just putting words together according to a certain pattern, his poetry is an experience.

Hyakujo never wrote any poetry. His approach is very prose and direct, and the haikus supplement what is missing in the prose. Basho expressed himself very graphically. His experiences are more paintings than poetry. And his understanding is – and I agree with him – that where prose fails, poetry may succeed. Poetry has a more feminine way, more subtle, more graceful, of entering into the heart. I have put together two great masters. Both are Himalayan peaks, and together they are going to create a tremendous harmony.

(Talks on the Japuji-Saheb of Guru Nanak Dev) by Osho
Paperback (Edition: 2007)


Hind Pocket Books Pvt. Ltd
ISBN 9788121612029

Size: 8.5″ X 5.5″
Pages: 528
Back of the Book

“The Japuji were Nanak’s first proclamations after the union with the beloved. The Japuji are the very first words uttered by him after self-realization. Therefore they hold a very special place in the sayings of Nanak. They are the latest news brought back from the kingdom of heaven”.-Osho

“Osho’s discourses on Nanak’s songs made me aware of many things which previously were not clear to me. I started listening every morning to his discourses in which he has explained the teachings of the Upanishads, Vedas and Sufi mystics. It confirmed my belief that Osho is one of the greatest souls born in this country…. These discourses are not just for Sikhs but are useful for all those who want to move on the path of devotion.”-Khushwant Singh

About the Book

For over 35 years, Osho spoke to international audiences of seekers, addressing their essential questions and concerns. The international press calls him “A 21st Century Prophet” and “an oracle of modern times.” His books and audio lectures are international bestsellers.

Osho himself says that he is neither a prophet nor a philosopher, he is simply sharing his own experience. The Sunday Times of London described him as “one of the 1000 makers of the 20th century” and American author Tom Robbins has called him “the most dangerous man since jesus Christ” – both comments reflecting the profound influence of his revolutionary approach to the science of inner transformation.

Spoken with authority, clarity, sharpness and humor, his insights address both the timeless and timely concerns that tend to escape our notice in the clamor and overload of daily life.

About Osho

Osho defies categorization, reflecting everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. His books are not written but are transcribed from recordings of extemporaneous talks given over a period of thirty-five years. Osho has been described by the Sunday Times in London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by Sunday Mid-Day in India as one of the ten people – along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha – who have changed the destiny of India.

Osho has a stated aim of helping to create the conditions for the birth of a new kind of human being, characterized as “Zorba the Buddha”- one whose feet are firmly on the ground, yet whose hands can touch the stars. Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology.

He is synonymous with a revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation and an approach to meditation which specifically addresses the accelerated pace of contemporary life. The unique Osho Active Meditations TM are designed to allow the release of accumulated stress in the body and mind so that it is easier to be still and experience the thought free state of meditation.

OSHO Discourses on Sosan’s Verses on the Faith-Min

by Osho
Hardcover (Edition: 2004)

Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd.

by OSHO
Hardcover (Edition: 2003)


Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN 8172611870

Size: 7.6” X 5.0”
Pages: 288
From the Jacket

To be ordinary is the most extraordinary thing that can happen to you; but the desire to be extraordinary, to be spiritual, supermen, not of this world by of the other world, is a mania. Only Tao is a natural religion. All other religions are in subtle ways unnatural. Lao Tzu is the future of the whole of humanity and all possibilities of bliss and benediction lie through him, pass through him.
OSHO

Life is illogical and if you become too logical you become closed to life. Then you move in a mental direction, not in an existential direction. Lao Tzu is not logical, he is very, very simple man, not a scholar at all. He does not known anything about arguments: he simply watches life, he is a great watcher of life, a witness, a spectator.
OSHO

We are in Tao, because where else can we do? Just as the fish lives in the ocean and is completely oblivious of the ocean, we are living in Tao and are completely oblivious of Tao. We live in Tao, through Tao, but we are not aware of it. The Tao exists, because without the Tao trees will not grow, and stars will not move, and the blood will not circulate, and the breath will not come in. life will disappear.
OSHO

(Insights into Energy and Consciousness)

by Osho
Hardcover (Edition: 2007)


Rebel Publishing House
ISBN 8172612117

Size: 7.8″ X 5.0″
Pages: 305
Preface

If esoteric work is introduced to you without any foundation, you are not going to work for the foundation, because that is not interesting. The esoteric work is really very interesting, but I don’t want you to make a temple without a foundation. It has happened many times; then the temple fall and destroys those who were building it.

The word esoteric simply means: you cannot put it objectively, scientifically. It is something inner, something subjective, something so mysterious, so miraculous that you can experience it but you can not explain it. You can have it, but still you cannot explain it. It remains beyond explanation. And it is good that there is something in life which you cannot bring down to language, which you cannot bring down to the objective world – something which remains always beyond. You can become one with it.

I have been spontaneous in my work, but these are the mysteries of life, that existence itself has taken care. I have left it to existence, “Whatever you want me to do, I will do.” I am not the doer; I am just a passage for existence to reach people. So I have never planned, but existence functions in a very planned way. So all the phases that have passed were necessary, and now we are ready to enter into the last phase the ultimate ecstasy.

Ecstasy cannot be pragmatic.
Love cannot be pragmatic.
Trust cannot be pragmatic.
All that is valuable is esoteric.

From the Jacket

“The dignity, the beauty and the glory of man is consciousness. But it is a burden also. The glory and the burden come simultaneously the minute you become conscious. Every step is a movement between the two. With man, choice and conscious individuality come into existence. You can evolve, but your evolution will be an individual endeavor. You may evolve to become a buddha or you may not. The choice is yours.”

Osho continues to inspire millions of people worldwide in their search to define a new approach to individual spirituality that is self-directed and responds to the everyday challenges of contemporary life. His unique perspective encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology, and he was named by The Sunday Times of London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century.” The American novelist Tom Robbins has called him “the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ.”

Back of the Back

In this book, Osho explores the world of the esoteric. He gives insight and meaning to the subtlest expressions of human energy including kundalini, tension and relaxation in the seven energy bodies, and the significance of dreaming. He shows how by simply being in the present moment and becoming aware of our vital energy, our ordinary, day-to-day lives can become filled with wonder and mystery.

(144 Techniques to Transform the Quality of your Work and Life)
by Osho
Paperback (Edition: 2006)


Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd
ISBN 817261201X

Size: 11.4″ X 8.1″
Pages: 114 (Illustrated throughout in Black & White)

About the Author

Osho defies categorization, reflecting everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. His books are not written but are transcribed from recordings of extemporaneous talks given over a period of thirty-five years. Osho has been described by The Sunday Times in London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by Sunday Mid-Day in India as one of the ten people – along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha – who have changed the destiny of India.

Osho has a stated aim of helping to create the conditions for the birth of a new kind of human being, characterized as “Zorba the Buddha” – one whose feet are firmly on the ground, yet whose hands can touch the stars. Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology.

He is synonymous with a revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation and an approach to meditation which specifically addresses the accelerated pace of contemporary life. The unique Osho Active Meditations are designed to allow the release of accumulated stress in the body and mind so that it is easier to be still and experience the thought free state of meditation.

Back of the Book

Osho continues to inspire millions of people worldwide in their search to define a new approach to individual spirituality that is self-directed and responds to the everyday challenges of contemporary life. His unique perspective encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology, and he was named by the Sunday Times of London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century”. The American novelist Tom Robbins has called him “the most dangerous man since jesus Christ.”

“To he total in your work is not addiction, it is a kind of meditation. When you are totally in your work, your work has a possibility of perfection, you will have a joy arising out of perfect work.

“If you can be perfect and total in work, you can be total in no-work-just sitting silently, totally silent. You know how to be total. You can close your eyes and you can be totally in. You know the secret of being total. So to be total in work is helpful in meditation”.

Introduction

If work is just a four-letter word to you, be ready for a surprise. With osho’s eye view on the subject, work has been reworked! Awareness transforms the ordinary into the awesome. Joy rules-and apart from the fact that fun is, well, fun, it is also vital food for the creative mind. Look at your own life:When you’re serious or stressed out, you’re contracted, right? Available, flexible, relaxed, present, able to tune into the light side of things, you can more easily access your intelligence and creativity.

Happily, some global changes have converged to bring about a change in many people’s attitude towards their occupation. One of these is the dissolving the authoritarian structure in favor of the team concept.

In addition, with companies now tending to measure the output and effectiveness of the employees work-rather than how many hours they are required to put in- people have begun to ask themselves: “What do I want to do? How do I want to spend my time?” More people are asking themselves what life is about, and what they really want from it.

There is evidence of this trend in recent media converge. For example, Sydsvenska Dagbladet, the third biggest daily paper in Sweden, not long ago ran an article that stated, “the employers who fail to create fun at work will have trouble recruiting the best brains to their organization,” and, “if people really enjoy what they are doing together in an organization it creates a tremendous energy. If the office isn’t so great or the coffee machine doesn’t work, suddenly it doesn’t matter so much.”

When employees at Ericsson- the telecommunications company-were asked what success is, the older managers answered, “Money and position,” while the younger engineers responded, “success is being able to work with something that captures your heart.”

CHEF [it means "Boss"] is the biggest monthly business magazine in Scandinavia, and a few months back featured a cover that read: “50 Ways to improve your mood-Fun at Work.”

Regus Business Centers- it provides “instant officer” that come fully equipped, furnished and staffed- wants its centers to be “destinations that workers find fun and engaging.” Mark Dixon, its English founder and chairman says, “When I talk to customers, I listen for the word enjoy. The office should be fun. If you enjoy yourself, you’ll do your best work.”

Biel, Switzerland, has given birth to the Brainstorm-an “ideas-factory.” Available for both business and individuals, its customers have included the Swiss Cancer Association wanting to know how to promote its sun-protection lotion, and an elderly woman wanting to restart a love life.

“If you’re serious about being creative,” suggests Mettler, one of the founders of the business, “you’ve got to give yourself license to be playful.”

So when they are confronted with a really challenging situation they call in the experts in playfulness- kids! The company wants to “blend the professionalism of experts with the unbridled enthusiasm of kids.” Mettler points our, “We have 17 year olds working on products and campaigns for such companies as Nestle and the Swiss Railway.” The company is looking for “crazy ideas. We use kids to find those ideas because they know how to talk without letting their thinking get in their way.”

But doesn’t being playful mean being irresponsible? Just the reverse: we tend to a avoid responsibility when it’s connected with something like a duty or a burden, something we don’t really care about. When we are having fun, our life-energy is activated; with its being allowed to flow freely, the intelligent person will naturally feel responsible for what he initiates through his creative participation.

Fun is no longer something you do outside your work time; fun is what fuels your work. And clearly it’s great to spend time and money relaxing because that is only going to positively impact your work and chances of success.

South good to you? But, maybe you’re asking, how to make work juicy, rewarding and an extension of my meditation, with the silence and centered that it brings me? How to “walk the talk”?

Being centered and felling peaceful while sitting still with your eyes closed, in an environment created to support meditation, is one thing. Staying cool, calm and connected when you are being bombarded with time, people and performance pressures, when you are trying to balance your working life with family commitments, when there are health or financial issues hanging over you, is quite another.

But if meditation isn’t of any practical, lasting benefit, why would you bother with it in the first place?

If you are currently visiting the International Osho Meditation Resort for a length of time or plan to do so in the future, one way of learning how to keep meditation as the center of your day is through the work as Meditation Program. Find out more about this program through the work as Meditation Office.

This compilation is a selection of techniques to help you keep your cool when the going gets hot, in every aspect of everyday life, especially in your place of employment.

Starting off your day with the active method called OSHO Dynamic Meditation: the perfect way to wake up you’re sleeping energies and throw off any residual tension. Its “sister” method, known as OSHO Kundalini Meditation, is particularly recommended for the end of the day, to shake off the stress we all accumulate through a typical working day.

If your schedule makes it difficult for you to regularly practice one or both of these hour long techniques, you’ll find many shorter methods within these pages- some of them simply small devices or remembrances.

by Osho
Hardcover (Edition: 2004)


Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd
ISBN 8172611846

Size: 8.1″ X 5.6″
Pages: 336

About the Book

Unio mystica. This means “the mystic unity.” It is the integration, the centering of the soul. You remain centered even in a raging cyclone. “Some planetary collective building, along with the tribal, personal, familial, national and neighborhood consciousnesses. They trickle, pour, drip-drop, and thunder down through each other, altering the consistency and intensity of who we are and what we know and feel. Soul is the usual hapless word we throw at the process.

“I contend that Osho will come to be seen as a germane, yeasty presence in our soul fermentation. …The history of soulmakers is our most significant history. They are the moving indices of how we say our truth.”

From the introduction “Stern Mystics and Secret Government Murder” by Coleman Barks.

“Hakim Sanai has been able to catch the very soul of Sufism”. Osho

About the Author

Osho defies categorization, reflecting everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. His books are not written but are transcribed from recordings of extemporaneous talks given over a period of thirty-five years. Osho has been described by the Sunday Times in London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by Sunday Mid-Day in India as one of the ten people-along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha-who have changed the destiny of India.

Osho has a stated aim of helping to create the conditions for the birth of a new kind of human being, characterized as “Zorba the Buddha”- one whose feet are firmly on the ground, yet whose hands can touch the stars. Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology.

He is synonymous with a revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation and an approach to meditation which specifically addresses the accelerated pace of contemporary life. The unique Osho Active Meditations are designed to allow the release of accumulated stress in the body and mind so that it is easier to be still and experience the though-free state of meditation.

Back of the Book

The story of the 12th Century court poet Hakim Sanai begins like a political thriller. He’s moving with the Sultan of Persia and his military forces on an expedition to conquer India. But as they pass a certain walled garden they come across a drunken singer, who is really a great Sufi mystic, an enlightened man named Lai-Kur.

Sanai is transformed, enlightened by this chance meeting. He leaves the king to his meaningless war games and goes off alone to obsorb what has happened to him. From this process comes a book of poems, the Hadiqa, The Walled Garden of Truth.

Osho’s own books are transcribed from his spoken words. This is the first of a two volume series on Sanai’s Hadiqa, about which he observes: “Such books are not written, they are born. These words are saturated with satori.”

Nine centuries later, during the preparation of this second edition, the revered modern-day poet, Coleman Barks, writes the introduction to Osho’s book. In so doing he weaves the political thriller of today involving the same configuration: a poet, a mad government plan and an enlightened man. And he gifts us with a new translation of a startling and beautiful poem by Sanai.

Introduction

Sanais tone is distinct from Rumi’s, tougher. There’s a challenging feel to the poetry. He awakens more by accusation than by gentle guidance. The quality of his teacher, Lai-Kur, comes through. All we know of Lai-Kur is a toast he once proposed, two toasts actually.

Hakim Sanai was attached to the court of the king of Ghazna in the Persian empire of the mid 12th Century. The king was setting out on a pointless military expedition to India. Sanai was along to write the conventional laudatory record. That’s what a court poet did. He wrote poems in praise of his patron, PR for the reigning regime. The expedition was riding by a walled garden from behind which came beautiful music and singing. They looked over the wall. It was Lai-Kur. He stood and proposed a toast, “To the blindness of the Kind!”
“What do you mean?”

“Bahramshah is going on this ridiculous expedition to India when he is needed here at home, and besides, what he is looking for is in himself.”

Lai-Kur then proposed another toast. “To the even greater blindness of Hakim Sanai!”

“Please explain,” said Sanai looking into the luminous eyes of the Sufi master.

“You are unaware of the purpose of your life. You will come into Gods presence with these silly poems commending various political stupidities.”

Sanai immediately felt the truth of Lai-Kur. He left the service of Bahramshah and went on pilgrimage. The king desperately tried to lure him back, offering his daughter’s hand in marriage and half the wealth of the kingdom! But Sanai was unshakeable in his new state. This profoundly disturbed the king, because obviously, he had been given the same darshan from Lai-Kur but was unable to make any change in his life. The invasion of India continued as planned.

Sanai came back from his pilgrimage with the text of the Hadiqa, The Walled Garden of Truth. We can feel in it the lightning which struck and galvanized the court poet into the soul-work of his being.

These two volume of morning talks given by Osho to his community in Pune, India, contain brilliant commentary on various passages from Sanai’s Passges from Sanais’s Hadiqua using David pendlebury’s 1974 English translation. Osho approaches the sufi master from the inside out, that is, he speak of Sanai’s beauty and wisdom from within his own enlightenment. This is not literary explication. It is more like friend speaking of friend. Osho uses Sanais text as a kind of grace, an attunement through which he conveys his own intelligence, his openness of being. A great range of subjects comes up, from the crux of this moment in history, twenty-five centuries after the Buddha’s enlightenment, to whether it is more difficult for a man or a woman to decide to take sannyas (the ultimate commitment to a teacher.)

I did not take sannyas with Osho. When I visited the commune in Poona in October of 1988, I already had a deep connection with a teacher, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. I have told that story in some detail in other places (see p.140 of Rumi: The Book of Love.) One moment though, that I haven’t included yet in any account-I just recently remembered it- is this: Bawa said to me that sometimes one has a mirror to see the front and a mirror behind to see the back. Two reflections are needed to see both sides, implying that I might meet two teachers. Bawa told me to do the Rumi work in 1978 (“It must be done.”) Osho said in 1988, “This is beautiful poetry. It has to be because it is coming from Rumi’s love, but you must watch out for it. Professor Coleman, for you, it can become ecstatic self-hypnosis.” He nailed me with that hit, and I am still trying to assimilate the wisdom. I may be the only person to have had both Bawa Muhaiyaddeen and Osho as teachers. They were very different, but in one matter they were similar. Neither wanted “followers.” That’s not what I was, or am. I just need, and accept, all the help I can get.

The Big Picture

John Keats is right. This is a vale of soulmaking. Some planetary collective awareness is continually building, along with the tribal, personal, familial, national and neighborhood consciousnesses. They trickle, pour, drip-drop, and thunder down through each other, altering the consistency and intensity of who we are and what we know and feel. Soul is the usual hapless word we throw at the process.

In the 1950’s I took college courses in intellectual history. They were very fine, taught by the eccentric James Hall in the History Department at Chapel Hill. But they feel inadequate to the truth of the matter now. All that talks of isms, Marxism, romanticism, Darwinism, and no talk at all of the mystics and the artists. The geniuses of William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Whitman, Melville, Oscar Wilde, Hopkins and Nietzsche surely shaped the 19th Century at it came toward and became us in the 20th and now in the 21st. Only Wilde and Whitman of those were recognized at all in their times as having creative value. I contend that Osho will come to be seen as such a germane, yeasty, presence in our soul fermentation. Freud, Jung, Einstein, Joseph Campbell, Cormac McCarthy, Groucho Marx, the quiet tenderness of James Wright, the bleak cultural surgery of Robert Bly, many elements will come forward as we look back. Osho will be on of them. The history of soul makers is our most significant history. They are the moving indices of how we say our truth. That’s why its important to examine the circumstances leading to Osho’s death in 1990.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

These are times that try men’s souls, says Thomas Paine in one of his firebrand pamphlets that shaped our democracy, such as it is. The times are still wearing down our souls, and it feels more like we have government of multinational corporations, by vested interests, and for the many secret agencies. The People are out in the street, but not much in the picture. The media barely covers the war protests, for example. But I saw a movie recently that gives me some hope, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.” It’s Chuck Barris’ story, and I take it as a thinly disguised documentary, a true account of how the CIA hired him to kill thirty-three people during the Cold War.

What emerges in the film is a new American type that may not yet have a name. Part Melville’s confidence man, part Cormac McCarthy’s judge in Blood Meridian. Serial killer innocent. Carnival barker secret agent. Barris was the goofball genius who thought of The Gong Show, The Dating Game, The Newlyweds, and god knows what else. P.T. Barnum and 007. New Age guru and ungovernable operative. Barris appears as himself at the end of this movie he directed, still alive and looking wise enough to show us this ugly truth.

Truth have been other movies about spook-hitmen, but this one has the raw provocation of Thomas Paine. Our tax dollars paid a game show host to kill thirty-three people for various anti-communist reasons (I guess). How many others are there like Chuck Barris? Twenty? Thousands? Can The History of American Secret Agencies, Vols.I-12, ever be written? It’s hoplessly naïve to even ask for that. Who determines who will be killed next and why? We may never know. This movie opens the issue to let us get a good look.

I say, a democracy must not run permanently secret operations, or it will become something other than a democracy. There must be a way to have secure missions in wartime, during criminal investigation, stings, terrorist surveillance, etc. There are certainly many valid reasons for government not to say all that its doing, but at some point there has got to be a way of knowing exactly what we’ve done, who did what, and how the chain calling these shots, or some appointed underling is authorizing murders by whim.

The Murder of Osho by the U.S. Government

If the U.S. government used tax money to assassinate an enlightened being, I would like to trace the methodology. I have no doubt there are secret whackings for trivial, policy, reasons. But this is different. Osho was assassinated for his worldview. Fundamentalist orthodoxies have ever opposed, and even killed, innovators who break with the past. Hallaj, jesus, Suhrawardi. If this is our orthodoxy, I want to look more closely at it. Tom Robbins assessed the perceived threat of Osho by the Reagan administration like this. “Government authorities intuitively sense something dangerous in his message, something that can set men and women loose from their control. Nothing frightens the state, or its partner in crime, organized religion, so much as the prospect of a population thinking for itself and living free.”

When I began this introduction, I had intended to reveal with specifics how Tom Robbins’ theory played out in this instance. I don’t know who I thought I was. The research needed would take years; require a covert team of counter-espionage experts, moles, a huge budget, silencers, exile, and cunning. None of which I have energy of resources for.

There are several books that will be helpful to anyone wishing to pursue this matter, and someone should. Was [Osho] poisoned by Ronald Reagan’s America? by sue Appleton and Max Brecher’s A Passage to America. I have looked into those two. A lot of careful investigation went into them. There are specific names and places, uncovered while the trail was still hot and memories fresh, that could be followed up on. I sense that Max Brecher is being as factual as he possibly can be, and to go on record, for what its worth, it looks like to me that Osho was poisoned by some faction of the powers that be. I have met his doctor, George Meredith, (Amrito) and I believe him. Amrito supervised the thallium tests. He says that Osho’s health changed radically after that strange interlude he spent alone in an Oklahoma jail in November of 1985. Thallium is an untraceable (after a year) heavy metal, but the symptoms of thallium poisoning are clearly set forth in the medical literature. Osho developed most if not all of them, and he had exhibited none of them prior to November 1985. I am no scholar of the evidence, but I do believe that he was murdered by the U.S. government. Someone else will have to present the full case. We need for whoever put the poison in Osho’s jail food to come forward and tell us who ordered that. Nobody need be punished. Nothing can help now, but we do need to know the truth. Most probably the villain is Reagan, a vegetable and the victim, Osho, is fine ash and spirit.

I am grateful for this chance to say my outrage publicity, even if imbedded in an introduction to observations on an obscure Sufi poet. Hakim Sanai would approve. Another toast, pure springwater: to the true mystrics, Sanai, Osho, Bawa and Lai-Kur, our gardens on the ruins.

by Osho
Hardcover (Edition: 2004)


Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN 8172611856

Size: 8.1″ X 5.6″
Pages: 325

About the Book

Unio mystica. This means “the mystic unity.” It is the integration, the centering of the soul. You remain centered even in a raging cyclone.

About the Author

Osho defies categorization, reflecting everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. His books are not written but are transcribed from recordings of extemporaneous talks given over a period of thirty-five years. Osho has been described by the Sunday Times in London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by Sunday Mid-Day in India as one of the ten people-along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha-who have changed the destiny of India.

Osho has a stated aim of helping to create the conditions for the birth of a new kind of human being, characterized as “Zorba the Buddha”- one whose feet are firmly on the ground, yet whose hands can touch the stars. Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology.

He is synonymous with a revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation and an approach to meditation which specifically addresses the accelerated pace of contemporary life. The unique Osho Active Meditations are designed to allow the release of accumulated stress in the body and mind so that it is easier to be still and experience the though-free state of meditation.

Back of the Book

Osho present his views on war and the political mind. He offers a fresh outlook: a blueprint for cutting the roots of the destructive political mind of man, and creating a human being who wants to celebrate life. “I am trying to create a space for the future to happen.”

The story around Hakim Sanai, the 12th Century intrigue of a pointless military expedition, a poet and a mystic, continues from Unio Mystica I. Reading it today, there is a taste of history repeating itself. This time there is an opportunity to listen to and to welcome the aerial viewpoint of a modern mystic.

Osho holds Sanai in high esteem, saying if he were to save only two books from the world of the mystics, one would be from the world of Zen, the path of awareness, Sosan’s Hsin Hsin Ming and the other would be Hakim Sanai’s Hadiqa because “it is the essential fragrance of the path of love. No other Sufi has been able to reach to such heights of expression and such depths of penetration.”

Preface

A man of peace is not a pacifist. A man of peace is simply a pool of silence. He pulsates a new kind of energy into the world; he sings a new song. He lives in a totally new way, his very way of life is that of grace, that of prayer, that of compassion. In whomsoever he touches, he creates more love energy.

The man of peace is creative. He is not against war, because to be against anything is to be at war. He is not against war, he simply understands why war exists. And out of that understanding he becomes peaceful.

Only when there are many people who are pools of peace, silence, understanding, will war disappear.

by Osho
Hardcover (Edition: 2005)


Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN 8172611617

Size: 8.8″ X 5.8″
Pages: 318 (Black & White Illus: 1)

From the Jacket:

Shankara is a unique person. And it is very easy to misunderstand the unique person because he is beyond your common understanding. It seemed to people that he was also a logician, a great logician. But can a great logician say, “Sing! Dance! Sing the song of the divine”? It is just not possible for the logician to say so. Such words can be spoken only by a lover of the divine from the depths of his heart. – Osho

The path of Shankara’s realization is through the heart and not through the head. That is why, although Shankara has written commentaries on the Brahmasutra, the Upanishads and the Gita, you will find his innermost feelings expressed in these small verses; here he has opened his heart. Here Shankara does not speak like a scholar or a thinker, here he expresses himself like a devotee. – Osho

Osho, the enlightened master for the twenty-first century, has spoken many times of Adi Shankaracharya, the eighth-century Indian enlightened mystic, but here for the first time we have a series of talks given on him and his teachings. In these talks we are introduced to a different Adi Shankaracharya – one who can sing of his ecstasy, and can dance in his joy in life.

“No one is more qualified to introduce the mystics than Osho, a man who stands out even in their exalted company. He speaks from his own experience, bringing his mystic predecessors to life, making them his contemporaries.” – John Lilly, Scientist and author

About Osho:

Osho defies categorization, reflecting everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. His books are not written but are transcribed from recordings of extemporaneous talks give over a period of thirty-five year. Osho has been described by the Sunday Times in London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by Sunday Mid-Day in India as one of the ten people – along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha – who have changed the destiny of India.

Osho has a stated aim of helping to create the conditions for the birth of a new kind of human being, characterized as “Zorba the Buddha” – one whose feet are firmly on the ground, yet whose hands can touch the stars. Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology.

He is synonymous with a revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation and an approach to meditation which specifically addresses the accelerated pace of contemporary life. The unique Osho Active Meditations are designed to allow the release of accumulated stress in the body and mind so that it is easier to be still and experience the thought-free state of meditation.

Introduction:

Osho, the enlightened master for the twenty-first century, has mentioned Adi Sankaracharya, an enlightened mystic of eighth-century India many times, but there for the first time we are given a series of talks on the mystic and his teachings. Here we are introduced to a different Adi Shankaracharya – one who can sing in his ecstasy, one who can create a song and dance of his joy in life with an enlightened perception.

Osho begins the series with “The first and the basic sutra to be understood, is that truth is attained in emptiness and is lost in words…Language is created by man. Truth is not created by man, it is his discovery. It is neither to be created or proved, but only to be unveiled.” Here Osho begins to unveil the secret, “Language is the veil. Thoughts are the only obstacle.” Again we are directed inward into meditation, to bring out the mystery and mastery of our humanness.

Hearing Osho mention this master many times I had formed in my mind a character for Adi Shankaracharya – the great teacher, Shankara – as a dry debater of the scriptures. Adi Shankara went around the country, from one end to the other, arguing, debating and defeating all the renowned scholars, theologians and the so-called traditional religious leaders of that time who had turned the search for one’s self into merely a mental exercise, and academic discussion. In these debates he continually insisted on bringing the search for one’s self, of one’s enlightenment, back to where it should be – the search within.

This popular son, which is in the Sanskrit language, is sung throughout India and is known as “Bhaj Govindam.”

“Oh fool! Sing the son of the divine, sing the song of the divine.” These words introduce the sutras of this song, leading us into Adi Shankara’s perceptions that many will find will cut to the bone. One by one he cuts all delusions away from you, all supports and constructs that your might have used for the way of life you have chosen up to now, allowing a fresh opening, a new beginning. This song contains the truth, the bearuty, the clarity and the power of this enlightened master’s teaching.

At the same time Osho is continually exhorting us, from his own understanding, “Oh fool! Sing the song of the divine, sing the song of the divine.”

Science Of Meditation–An Approach To 112…In The Vigyan Bhairav Tantra (H)

by Rajneesh, Osho

Publisher: Macmillan

by OSHO
Hardcover (Edition: 1997)


The Rebel Publishing House
ISBN 8172610742

Size: 8.5” X 6.7”
Pages: 388
From the Jacket

Meditation creates a distance, it gives you a perspective. You go beyond the problem. The level of consciousness changes. Through psychoanalysis you remain on the same level. The level never changes; you are adjusted on the same level again. Your awareness, your consciousness, your witnessing capacity, doesn’t change. As you move in meditation you go higher and higher. You can look down at your problems. They are now in the valley, and you have come to a hill. From this perspective, this height, all the problems look different. And the more the distance grows the more you become capable of observing them as if they don not belong to you. Psychoanalysis is a temporary relief because psychoanalysis cannot conceive of anything which transcends ego. A problem can be solved only when you can go beyond it. Yoga, Tantra and all meditation techniques, they are based upon a different ground. They say that the problems are there, the problems are around you but you are never the problem. You can transcend them; you can look at them like an observer is looking down from the hill into the valley. This witnessing self can solve the problem. Really, just by witnessing a problem it is half solved already. Because when you can witness a problem, when you can observe it impartially, when you are not involved in it, you can stand by the side and look at it. The very clarity that comes out of this witnessing gives you the clue, gives you the secret key.
OSHO

(Talks on Indian Mysticism) by Osho
Hardcover (Edition: 2006)


Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN 8172610122

Size: 8.6″ X 6.6″
Pages: 430

About Osho

Osho defies categorization, reflecting everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. His books are not written but are transcribed from recordings of extemporaneous talks given over a period of thirty-five years. Osho has been described by the Sunday Times in London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by Sunday Mid-Day in India as one of the ten people – along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha – who have changed the destiny of India.

Osho has a stated aim of helping to create the conditions for the birth of a new kind of human being, characterized as “Zorba the Buddha” – one whose feet are firmly on the ground, yet whose hands can touch the stars. Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology.

He is synonymous with a revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation and an approach to meditation which specifically addresses the accelerated pace of contemporary life. The unique Osho Active Meditations are designed to allow the release of accumulated stress in the body and mind so that it is easier to be still and experience the thought-free state of meditation.

From the Jacket

For over 35 years, Osho ahs spoken to international audiences of seeker, addressing their essential questions and concerns. The international press calls him “A 21st Century Prophet” and “an oracle of modern times.” His books and audio lectures are international bestsellers.

Osho himself says that he is neither a prophet nor a philosopher; he is simply sharing his own experience; he is simply sharing his own experience. The Sunday Times of London described him as “one of the 1000 makers of the 20th century” and American author Tom Robbins has called him “the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ” – both comments reflecting the profound influence of his revolutionary approach to the science of inner transformation.

Spoken with authority, clarity, sharpness and humor, his insights address both the timeless and timely concerns that tend to escape our notice in the clamor and overload of daily life.

by Osho
Paperback


Osho International Foundation

Size: 11.6″ X 8.3″
Pages: 372

From the Book

There are as many paths as there are minds. Each mind requires a particular path and each method is true for a particular person. No method is true as such or false as such. It depends on the person to whom it is to be applied. So yoga is basically individual.

Whenever a society changes, mind changes. I have been developing new methods for the new mind. The old methods wee developed for a particular type of mind that no longer exists in the world.

For example, Buddhist methods were developed for the particular type of mind that Buddha was encountering. Now that mind no longer exists and those methods have become useless. A new mind has come into being. The type of mind that Buddha was facing and working with was basically based on faith. The whole training of the Indian mind was based on faith, doubt was never allowed.

Now, all lover the world, the modern mind is based on doubt. The scientific approach uses doubt, a mind cannot be scientific unless it can take doubt to the very extreme. We have trained our minds for doubt, so those methods that were based on faith have become useless. For the modern mind, they cannot be used.

We have to devise new methods for the modern mind – based on doubt; on experimenting, without faith as a basic condition. In each age, new devises are needed. All devices can be used only for a certain time.

My method is more scientific and less religious. It gives you a religious experience, but the method itself is more scientific than religious, more psychological than spiritual. The modern mind only accepts the body and the mind; the spiritual realm is taken as a romantic fallacy. So you cannot begin anything from the spiritual. At the most, you can start from the psychological. So my method is more psychological than spiritual. It leads ultimately to the spiritual dimension but it starts from psychology.

We have been doing much with the human mind, particularly in the West. The religious tradition – Jewish, Christian Islam and now even Hindu – have all been suppressive. We have layers and layers of suppressions, and unless they are released, thrown out, exhaled, nothing can be done as far as the inner journey is concerned. So my method works with catharsis. The first basic thing is to go through a catharsis. Unless the repressions in your mind are released, you cannot proceed further. They are the blocks.

They were never there before. Particularly in the East they have never before existed. The kind was not so repressed; we accepted things as they are. But now, the whole world lives under a Christian shadow. Everything natural has become condemned. The body, sex – all these things are condemned. We are in an inner conflict.

Reason has become supreme and it suppressed everything that is not rational. Reason is just a tiny part of the whole being of man, just a small fragment, but this small fragment has become supreme, dictatorial. It has suppressed everything else in the personality. These suppressed layers have to be released first. Unless they are released and one comes to a deep harmony within – with one’s own instinct, nature, body-nothing further can be done.

All the old methods start with you as you are. For example, Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation. It starts with you as you are. It gives you a particular technique, a mantra to work with. The mantra will help you to calm down, but it cannot transform you. It can only make you more adjusted to a society that is, itself, ill. It can make you more still, a certain well being will come to you, but no transformation will happen because the repressed layers will remain where they are. They are not even touched by it You by-pass your suppressions and do something with your mind that only gives it a superficial tranquility.

All the old methods – if used directly, without catharsis – will not be of much help. So my method starts with catharsis. Only when your tensions, are released can you jump deep within yourself.

The jump is possible. And I think that for us today, it has become urgent that we move within. But the preparation is bound to be different than it has been in the past, so my method works first as a catharsis. Then, it tries to create a harmony with you body.

We are separated from our bodies. All the old traditions have emphasized that body and mind are two things. That is absolutely wrong. Body and mind are just two poles of one existence. The old traditions have emphasized that you are not the body, but my emphasis is quite the contrary. You are the body, you are more than the body, you go beyond the body, but you are also the body. There is no division as such, no conflict.

We have created the conflict, and that conflict has created a gap. The gap has to be bridged. My method is a means to bridge the gap. Only when it is bridged do you become whole. And then, the jump becomes possible.

You cannot jump if you are fragmented. One part of you cannot jump ahead of another part. You have to take the jump as a whole being. To me, ‘holy’ means whole. This wholeness has to be created. That is what I am trying to do.

If you take it for granted that you are not the body then your body becomes closed: a dead thing hanging over you. Then you are not living in it, just carrying it. So to bring you back to your body is the first thing that must be done. Then you have to be brought back to your mind, you have to become one with the whole mind. Only then can you become one with the spirit. Man must first be rooted in the body and then rooted in his natural mind. Only then can be fall down deep, into his natural depths.

So I am a yea sayer; I am against all conflict. I accept nature in its totality, with no condemnation. Only when there is acceptance can there be transformation. That is why 1 am not very concerned with old traditions of yoga – not concerned at all.

A compilation on Osho Dynamic Meditation

This compilation of excerpts includes all the public comments Osho makes about Osho Dynamic Meditation and is presented in the order in which they were spoken, so you can appreciate the gradual development of this technique over time.

You will notice that in the first references, the instructions for the fourth stage are “to just fall down as if dead, relaxed and to become a witness.” Later the technique was refined to its current format of five stages with a “stop” at the end of the first three stages.

Bold text for some keywords are added to help the reader find the more specific references to the technique.

Back of the Book

Just to be is such a great celebration if you know how to take the conditioning off. This “taking off” you will learn through Dynamic Meditation. It will not be caused; it will come to you uncaused. Meditation will create a situation in which you will come to the unknown; by and by you will be pushed from your habitual, mechanical, robot-like personality. Be courageous: practice Dynamic Meditation vigorously and all else will follow. It will not be your doing, it will be a happening.

by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho)
Paperback


The Rebel Books
ISBN 3893380116

Size: 8.3” X 6.3”
Pages: 453 {16 Illustrations in B/W}
Introduction

When I was asked to help out with the Sanskrit text which appears in this book, I had no idea that I was being invited to set out on a journey…

Perhaps it was the serene, unearthly atmosphere of the Lao Tzu Garden, charged by Bhagwan’s Presence; the Stately, meditative trees, friendly ducks waddling through the walkways, which made these timeless upanishadic times come alive.

As I started listening to the audio cassettes one by one, Ma Yoga Taru’s raw, enchanting voice singing those ageless chants of the Upanishads reversed the time track and once again I was transported into the early seventies, when Bhagwan actually conducted these meditation camps.

These camps were a love affair! All the people who had gathered were Bhagwan’s lovers and beloveds, who did not care much for growth or spirituality. In the Sixties Bhagwan used to travel extensively throughout India, always staying with people who invited him. He would chit-chat with them, listen to their woes, and shower love on their hearts thirsty for love. Every member of the family would feel that Acharya ji as he was called in those days was one of them, their very own. So for all people who attended the camps, it was a case of their very own. So for all the people who attended the camps, it was a case of their beloved turned God! The camps were conducted in a very informal and friendly manner.

Bhagwan would choose to speak on one Upanishad, which is the most precious treasure of ancient Indian wisdom. First he used to speak in Hindi, and later in English for Westerners, who had just started to appear in the meditation camps.

There were three sessions of meditations each day. The morning session would begin by his discourse, followed by dynamic meditation. These discourses happened on the open grounds of one of the hill stations like Mt. Abu or Matheran. These were the first days of his most dangerous and bold dynamic meditation, which he courageously introduced to the repressed, traditional Indian audience. So he would sit through the entire meditation now persuading, now provoking people to shed their age-old conditionings. He was even heard shouting Hoo! Hoo! to encourage the participants. People painfully threw out their unconscious garbage, and the compassionate sky above would absorb all the poison that human civilization had imposed on human beings.

The meditation would end after forty minutes, but the devils let loose out of the Pandora’s box would be active even after that. The hills reverberated with the mad shrieks and Hoos throughout the day!

Akiran meditation was conducted at 3.30 p.m. in the afternoon. This meditation was very popular with the Indians. Bhagwan would again come for this session exactly at 3.30p.m. Dressed in a Spotlessly white lungi and a shawl casually thrown over his shoulder, he would sit on an ordinary cane chair, covered with a bed sheet. And that chair would become a throne! He would sit there majestically, watching the people sing and dance around him with great love. They had never seen God, but they would shower all their bottled-up emotions on one god that was sitting before them. After one hour, he would leave the premises as quietly as he had come.

As the dusk descended on the hills, preparations for the evening sessions would begin. Every session would be preceded by some devotional singing. The organizers would request some one from the audience to sing, and he or she would oblige. It was often out of rhythm, out of tune, but who cared? Their hearts were already tuned with their beloved. The day’s work had a made their hearts sensitive and vulnearable, and as the darkness deepened, Bhagwan’s seductive voice would delve deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Upanishads.

The last night of meditation, called tratak dhyan was absolutely out of this world! Bhagwan would stand on the platform, his arms spread out like wings, looking like an angel just descended from the sky. He would ask people to look at him without blinking their eyes, while jumping and shouting “hoo hoo” at the same time. There was such a magic in the air with Bhagwan standing against the black sky! The two flames burning in his unblinking, magnetic eyes would encourage people to shout and jump more and more vigorously. When the whole thought process stopped, the mass of their energy rose to a crescendo, and then he would invoke the divine energy to come down to meet this peak. And a great uproar used to explode into the electrified atmosphere.

And he would slip away quietly into the night.

He has been doing this for years: bringing new methods of meditation to fit the modern man; creating the thirst of high values of life.

Then, and then only, you turn inwards and set out on a new journey, till you yourself arrive at a point when you dissolve in Him. And you experience what the Upanishads have been saying.
That Art Thou!
Ma Amrit Sadhana

by OSHO
Hardcover (Edition: 2004)


Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN 8172611927

Size: 8.5” X 6.8”
Pages: 418

From the Jacket

There are only three things that happen in your life. One has already happened your birth. You could not do anything about it. Another is death. Again, although it has not happened yet, you cannot do anything about it. So drop these two things completely, they are beyond your grasp. Between these two remain life, love, rejoicing.

Just the simple art of let go will turn every human being into a religious person, because religion is not believing in god, religion is not believing in pope, religion is not believing in any ideological system. Religion is knowing that which is eternal within you satam shivam sundaram that which is the truth of your existence, that which is your divinity, and that which is your beauty, your grace, your splendour. The art of let go is synonymous with experiencing the immaterial, the immeasurable your authentic being.

by Osho
Hardcover (Edition: 1986)


Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd
ISBN 8172611951

Size: 8.7” X 7.0”
Pages: 581

Preface

Until the strings are ready to play
To become some new tune, some new rhythm,
One may pluck those strings ten thousand times
But there will be no resonance.
An enlightened mystic is one whose strings have been awakened by the divine. An enlightened consciousness is one whose veena is no longer lying idle; the hand of the divine has touched it. To be a enlightened mystic means that the song this person was born to sing has burst forth, the fragrance that was hidden in the this flowers has been released to the winds. An enlightened consciousness means that you have become that which you were destined to be. And naturally, in the fulfillment of this destiny, there is supreme bliss.

A seed is unhappy and in anguish as long as it is a seed. The anguish lies in the very fact of being a seed. To be seed means you are meant to become something which you have not yet become. To be a seed means you are meant to blossom but you have not yet blossomed. A seed is meant to grow but it has not yet done so, it has not yet fulfilled its potential. To be a seed means the waiting continues…the path is long, and you have not yet arrived at your destination.

The enlightened mystic is a human being who has become what he was destined to become. He is no longer a seed, now he is a flower: a lotus with its thousand petals blossoming, blissful like a flower. What is the bliss of a flower? Now there is nothing left to become, there is no place left to go. The journey is over, the full stop has come. Now there is the possibility of being at peace – because when there is somewhere to go you are always restless, when there is something to be done, you must plan. As long as you have to become something, success and failure will be following you. Who knows whether you will succeed or not? Doubt and misapprehensions will surround you…a thousand things. The mind will remain wavering, the mind will not be stable. “Which path should I choose? How to avoid a mistake? The path I choose may turn not to be a path at all. Will the path I am choosing be in harmony with my ultimate destiny or not?” So doubt lives and burns inside us, filling us with despair.

And naturally there are the pains of the journey, the obstacles on the path. The biggest obstacle will be that the seed is not confident that it can become a flower. How can it be? It has never been a flower before. How can one have trust in what one has never been? “Other seeds have become flowers, but this does not prove that I will also become one. The other seed were other; they may have been different. This seed that I am be just a pebble, it may just a pebble, it may not have anything inside it.”

There is no way a seed can be confident about its future. Confidence comes only from experience. So a thousand doubts ad misapprehension surround it: Do I have a future? Does the direction in which I am heading exist? Is the idea of what I want to be simply a trick of my mind? Am I just dreaming? Am I creating some new kind of deception, some new illusion? All these things cause pain; they pick us like thorns.

The bliss of the flower is that it doesn’t have to go anywhere; the future has ended for it. And when the future ends, the connection with the past also breaks. When nothing more has to happen, who needs to remember the past? We remember the past because something is about to happen, because our past experience might be useful. We gather from or past experiences for the journey ahead: they might be useful. When there is nowhere to go, when there is nothing left to become, when the future has come to an end, in that same moment we are free from the past. Now there is no need to carry the burden of memory. The test is over. Now there are no more trials.

So there is nothing to remember and no web of imagination to weave. The energy that was scattered into the past and the future is now concentrated into the tiny moment of the present. There is supreme bliss in this intensity and a sharp focus. It is in such a moment that a moment that sat-chit-anand- truth, consciousness and bliss – or what the devotees call love and the wise call truth of liberation, happens.

An enlightened consciousness means the flower of a person’s life has blossomed.

From the Jacket “Just live the moment with intensity and totality. Live ti with as much joy as possible, with as much love as possible, with no fear, no guilt. This existence is your and this moment is a gift – don’t let it go to waste. And don’t be worried about enlightenment, the moon. This moment, living totally is enlightenment.”

“Such trust in existence, such unwavering trust, comes when you start taking responsibilities. As you feel more responsible towards small things around you, existence goes on responding in a thousand-fold way. You are not a loser.”

Back of the Book This people who will go beyond mind will create the new man, the new mind. And the most special thing to be remembered about the new mind is that is will never become a tradition, that it will be constantly renewed. If it becomes a tradition it will be again the same thing. The new mind has to become continuously new, every day new, ready to accept any unexpected experience, any unexpected truth…just available vulnerable. It will be tremendous excitement, a great ecstasy, a great challenge.”