Buddha: One of the virgin souls on earth

An exquisite marble statue of Buddha at the entrance of Meera area at the Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune

Today is Buddha's enlightenment day. Osho has spoken beautifully about Gautama Buddha's life and has commented on his inimitable work: The Dhammapada. When Osho speaks on Buddha it feels as if Buddha himself is reborn and is elaborating on his words in the light of the contemporary world. Here is one excerpt from Osho's talks.

"Gautama Buddha is one of the most virgin souls, one of the very rare phenomena on this earth. The rarity is that Buddha is the scientist of the inner world -- scientist of religion. That is a rare combination. To be religious is simple, to be a scientist is simple -- but to combine, synthesize these two polarities is incredible. It is unbelievable, but it has happened.
Buddha is the richest human being who has ever lived; rich in the sense that all the dimensions of life are fulfilled in him. He is not one-dimensional.
There are three approaches towards truth. One is the approach of power, another the approach of beauty, and the third the approach of grandeur.
The scientific approach is the search for power . Science has made man very powerful, so much so that man can destroy the whole planet earth. For the first time in the history of consciousness man is capable of committing a global suicide, a collective suicide. Science has released tremendous power. Science is continuously searching for more and more power. This too is an approach towards truth, but a partial approach.
Then there are poets, mystics, people with the aesthetic sense. They look at truth as beauty -- Jalaludin Rumi and Rabindranath Tagore and others, who think that beauty is truth. They create much art, they create new sources of beauty in the world. The painter, the poet, the dancer, the musician, they are also approaching truth from a totally different dimension than power.
A poet is not like the scientist. The scientist works with analysis, reason, observation. The poet functions through the heart -- irrational... trust, love. He has nothing to do with mind and reason.
The greater part of religious people belong to the second dimension. The Sufis, the Bauls -- they all belong to the aesthetic approach. Hence so many beautiful mosques, churches, cathedrals, temples -- Ajanta and Ellora -- they were created by religious people. Whenever religious activity predominates, art is created, music is created, great painting is created; the world becomes a little more beautiful. It doesn't become more powerful, but it becomes more beautiful, more lovely, worth living.
The third approach is that of grandeur. The old Bible prophets -- Moses, Abraham; Islam's prophet Mohammed; Krishna and Ram -- their approach is through the dimension of grandeur... the awe that one feels looking at this vastness of the universe. The Upanishads, the Vedas, they all approach the world, the world of truth, through grandeur. They are full of wonder. It is unbelievably there, with such grandeur, that you can simply bow down before it -- nothing else is possible.
These are the three dimensions ordinarily available to approach towards truth. The first dimension creates the scientist; the second, the artist; the third, the prophets. The rarity of Buddha consists of this -- that his approach is a synthesis of all the three, and not only a synthesis but it goes beyond the three.
He is a rationalist. Any scientist will be immediately convinced of his truth. His approach is purely logical, he convinces the mind. You cannot find a loophole in him.
You need not be a religious person to be convinced by Buddha, that's his rarity. You need not believe at all. You need not believe in god, you need not believe in the soul, you need not believe in anything -- still you can be with Buddha, and by and by you will come to know about the soul and about the god also. But those are not hypotheses.
No belief is required to travel with Buddha. You can come with all scepticism possible. First he convinces your mind, and once your mind is convinced and you start travelling with him, by and by you start feeling that he has a message which is beyond mind, he has a message which no reason can confine. But first he convinces your reason.
Because of this rational approach he never brings any concept which cannot be proved. He never talks about god. H. G. Wells has said about Buddha, 'He is the most godly and the most godless man in the whole history of man.'
Because he has never talked about god, many think that he is an atheist -- he is not. He has not talked about god because there is no way to talk about god. "
Excerpted from Dhammapada The Way of the Buddha

Poetry of the Opposites

Sadhana
The common misconception is that you have to renounce the world to be able to meditate. This is why people go on postponing meditation but Osho has brought a very new insight. He says if you are silent in the jungle you are enjoying a reflected glory. The silence belongs to the jungle, not to you. His message is very practical. He doesn't let you escape.

Osho says: “Live in the market-place and create a Himalaya in the heart. Become silent in the noise. Remain a householder and yet be a sannyasin. That's why I emphasize so much that I don't want my sannyasins to renounce. Nothing has to be renounced. The way of renunciation is the way of the escapist, and the way of renunciation will make you attached to a polar phenomenon. That will not give you freedom. Freedom is in transcendence, and transcendence comes only when you live in the polar opposites simultaneously, together. So be in the world, but don't let the world be in you.
Love, and yet don't be lost in it. Relate, and yet be alone, utterly alone. Know perfectly well that all relationship is a game. Play the game and play it as beautifully as possible and as skilfully as possible. A game is after all a game and has to be played beautifully. And follow all the rules of the game, because a game cannot exist without rules. But remember always that it is just a game. Don't become attached to it. Don't become serious in it. Always allow the sense of humour to remain alive in you. Remain sincere but non-serious. And then, slowly slowly, you will see that the polarities are disappearing. Who is worldly, and who is other-worldly? You are both or neither.
The Secret of Secrets, Vol 1

Message for the young

Sadhana
Whenever I travel in India I find more and more young people coming to Osho meditations. It is so refreshing to see them- bright, intelligent, healthy, no religious air. What they want is joy and freedom. Osho meditations suit them perfectly. No committment, no gurudom, simply scientific and experiential. We all have a blast together.
Osho's message is certainly for the young. But who is young?
Osho says, " My message for the young is to always remain young. Never become old. Your body will become old, but your mind has no necessity to become old. If your mind remains young and fresh, ready to learn, ready to explore new dimensions of life, you are alive. The moment your mind stops exploring, expanding, you are no more alive. You may vegetate, you may drag your body around for twenty, thirty more years. My experience is that people die near about thirty but live to near about seventy-five. Those forty-five years they are just hanging around like cabbages, and when there are so many vegetables all around you, there's no room for young people to live.
Others want to prescribe everything in your life. You can remain young only if you never accept any conditioning from anybody else. Youngness is something like sharpening your sword; you should inquire into everything on your own. Don't believe in the holy scriptures, because there is nothing holy in them, they are not even first-rate literature.
Your starting point should not be belief, but a healthy doubt. And remember, doubt does not mean disbelief, doubt simply means, "I don't know and I want to inquire. I have not come to a conclusion to say yes or no."
Doubt is youth, belief is old age. The person is tired of inquiry; he has started believing in somebody else. It is better to die as a seeker; at least you will have the contentment that you did everything that was possible, and you will have an originality.
And this is my experience: to wear your original face is the greatest joy in the world, but everybody is wearing a mask. Somebody is Hindu, that is a mask; somebody is a Mohammedan, that is a mask. A young man has to fight against all masks; he has to declare to the universe, "I am going to remain individual, I am going to remain just myself, I am not going to imitate anybody. And I will do everything that is possible to find the truth."
And whenever anybody has made this decision, has had this determination, he has always found. Existence is very compassionate.
The Last Testament Vol. 4

Laughter Meditation

Sadhana

When did you laugh last? In case you have forgotten, let me remind you that only human beings can laugh, no other species is endowed with this amazing capacity. What a great honor!
Many laughter clubs have sprouted around the world and doctors advise it as a therapy, too. But laughter cannot cleanse emotions if it does not dig deeper into the giggle points which is also the source of tears. If tears do not follow laughter, it remains superficial. Also, after laughing totally if you don't sit silently and meditate, laughter will be nothing but catharsis.
Laughter can be a great medicine and it can cure many tensions, anxieties, worries if it is total and unconditional, says Osho.
Laughing 'at' somebody is sick, laughing for a reason is intellectual, and laughing without a reason is spiritual. For it is an expression of one's hidden sources of energy.
Osho is so creative that he has even devised a meditation out of laughter. Very easy and delightful to do.
So on your marks get set and go!
First stage: 30 minutes
Laugh for no reason at all – go in and find your own laughter inside. Allow the laugher to bubble up from the inside.
Create a giggle in the very guts of your being, as if your whole body is giggling, laughing. Start swaying with that laughter; let it spread from the belly to the whole of your body: hands laughing, feet laughing. Go crazily into it. For thirty minutes do the laughing. If it comes uproariously, loudly, allow it. If it comes silently, then sometimes silently, sometimes loudly, but simply laugh for thirty minutes.
Second stage: 15 minutes
Lie down on the belly, silent and still Lie down on the floor; spread yourself on the floor, facing the floor. Make contact with the earth, the whole body lying down there on the earth, and just feel that the earth is the mother and you are the child. Get lost in that feeling. Breathe with the earth, feel one with the earth. We come from the earth and one day we will be going back to it.
Third stage: 15 minutes
Dance to the tune of energizing music.


Courtesy Osho International Foundation

Find Your Voice Find Your Song

Participants who found their voices and their songs

Sadhana


Everyone of us would love to do it, wouldn't we? But our voices are suppressed so much that many people carry a block in their throat, which is more emotional than physical. Osho Multiversity offers many courses that help people remove their blocks and help the energy flow freely.

One such course is Finding Your Voice Finding Your Song. Recently people from 8 different countries and four different continents participated in a fun-packed intensive at OSHO International Meditation Resort this last weekend culminating in a heart-warming performance on Monday night. This 4-day course is an invitation for everyone to reconnect with their unique instruments (themselves) and their potential for sound and singing. “In a place like this where the focus is on meditation and celebration, music is a wonderful tool to explore and express ecstasy and silence,” says Satyam the course facilitator.

In these four days participants start “making friends” with their voices through playful singing games and interactions. “Many people arrive feeling inhibited – they only sing in the shower or alone in the car, or maybe not at all. In this course by creating a trusting and light-hearted environment people soon open up and soon find themselves performing uninhibitedly with a microphone and then creating their own song inspired by some beautiful words of Osho,” says Abhijat, who has assisted in the course many times.

Watching these people sing joyously one thinks why can't everyone sing like a bird?
Osho says, "If we can destroy the inferiority complex... which is very simple: the teachers and the parents just have to be aware not to impose themselves on the helpless children. And just within two decades the new generation will be free of the inferiority complex. People will express their creativity. There will be musicians, there will be dancers, there will be painters, carpenters. There will be all sorts of creativity around the world. But nobody is competing with anybody else; he is simply doing his best. It is his joy. The joy is not in competing, the joy is not in coming first; the joy is in doing it. It is not outside the act, it is intrinsic to the act."

From Bondage to Freedom

Reclaim the Glory of Tibet

Sadhana

Osho says, " This is the greatest calamity of the twentieth century that Tibet has fallen into the hands of materialists who don't believe that you have anything inside you. They believe that you are only matter and your consciousness is only a by-product of matter. "

The latest turmoil in Tibet only proves that in today's world you can't enslave human beings for long. It is no wonder that more than 100 Buddhist monks who believe in non- violence and peace have kicked off the protests against the cruel regime of China, which quickly attracted hundreds of other Tibetans and saw one of the biggest markets in Lhasa ablaze. It was a "Free Tibet Campaign."
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said the protests were a result of the long simmering public resentment of the "brute force" employed by China to maintain control of the region for more than 50 years. He also urged his fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.

Osho has expressed great concern over the untoward incidents in Tibet:
" The only country in the world which has devoted all its genius to the inner exploration is Tibet. Its findings are of tremendous value. But unfortunately, Tibet has fallen into a darkness. Its monasteries have been closed, its seekers of truth have been forced to work in labor camps. The only country in the world which was working -- a one-pointed genius, all its intelligence in the search for one's own interiority and its treasures -- has been stopped by the communist invasion of Tibet.
"It was such a beautiful experiment, and Tibet had no weapons to fight with, they had no army to fight; they had never thought about it. Their whole thing was an introverted pilgrimage.
"Nowhere has such concentrated effort been made to discover man's being. Every family in Tibet used to give their eldest son to some monastery where he was to meditate and grow closer to awakening. It was a joy to every family that at least one of them was wholeheartedly working on the inner being.
"These monasteries had no comparison in the whole world. These monasteries were concerned with only one thing: to make you aware of yourself.
Thousands of devices have been created down the centuries so that your lotus can blossom and you can find your ultimate treasure. The destruction of Tibet should be known in history, particularly when man becomes a little more aware and humanity a little more humane..."
Excerpted from Om Mani Padme Hum

Abolish Exams

Sadhana

"Unlike in the US, it's not a faulty gun law that's killing kids in India. Here, we have another way to kill our children. It's called exams. At least six students ended their lives across the country, in metros and in villages, on March 13 alone. And all the suicides were attributed to exams. " Reports TheTimes of India on March 17, 2008.
In 2006, almost 6000 students — or 16 a day — comitted suicide across India due to exam stress. And these are just the official figures. Shimla superintendent of police (crime), Punita Bhardwaj, said incidents of children committing suicide because of examination stress often did not get reported as traumatized parents wanted to keep the issue under wraps.
This year the number is mutiplied. So much so that The Parliament of India discussed this issue on March 17th so as to find the solution to this growing problem.
Osho has declared that the current system of education is wrong and he wants examinations to be abolished as they have proved to be killers, and are no criterian to judge somebody's intelligence.
"The education that has prevailed in the past is very insufficient, incomplete, superficial. It only creates people who can earn their livelihood but it does not give any insight into living itself. It is not only incomplete, it is harmful too -- because it is based on competition.
Any type of competition is violent deep down, and creates people who are unloving. Their whole effort is to be the achievers -- of name, of fame, of all kinds of ambitions. Obviously they have to struggle and be in conflict for them. That destroys their joys and that destroys their friendliness. It seems everybody is fighting against the whole world.
Education up to now has been goal-oriented: what you are learning is not important; what is important is the examination that will come a year or two years later. It makes the future important -- more important than the present. It sacrifices the present for the future. And that becomes your very style of life; you are always sacrificing the moment for something which is not present. It creates a tremendous emptiness in life.there should not be any kind of examination as part of education, but every day, every hour observation by the teachers; their remarks throughout the year will decide whether you move further or you remain a little longer in the same class. Nobody fails, nobody passes -- it is just that a few people are speedy and a few people are a little bit lazy -- because the idea of failure creates a deep wound of inferiority, and the idea of being successful also creates a different kind of disease, that of superiority.
Nobody is inferior, and nobody is superior.
One is just oneself, incomparable.
So, examinations will not have any place. That will change the whole perspective from the future to the present. What you are doing right this moment will be decisive, not five questions at the end of two years. Of thousands of things you will pass through during these two years, each will be decisive. "
The Golden Future # 23