Does Satan Exist?

Sadhana

This question may may sound irrelevant in today's world dominated by science and technology, but belive it or not, there was a panel discussion on the abc news channel of America in their night program Face Off , and the subject was : Does satan exist. The anchor person said that 70% percent of Americans believe that Satan exists!
The panelists were three men and one woman. Deepak Chopra was one of the panelists. The woman was as glamorous as any film star and one wouldn't expect her to be discussing myths like satan and god. But she sincerely believes in both the guys.
Other two were clergymen so it was necessary for them to belive in satan and god. Business, you know. The assorted audience gathered in the studio were deeply involved in the discussion and cheered at the right time.
Deepak Chopra was the only one who spoke against the fictitious existence of satan. He said, "belief s a cover for insecurity. If something is real you don't believe in it, you experience it."
Watching this program I missed Osho a lot.
Now just see what Osho says: "You will be surprised to know that the word "divine" and the word "devil" come from the same Sanskrit root, deva. They are not separate; devil and divine mean the same. But you have been told that they are just polar opposites and that there is a universal fight going on between God and Satan, God and evil. If that is true then it seems God is losing continually.
The devil is winning because everywhere you can see crime increasing, people becoming more and more inhuman. It does not seem that God is winning. God cannot win because he is the other side of the devil. They are together, they are partners in the business.
"If you try to understand the complexity of your misery you will see that all that is good is connected with all that has been condemned as bad. And you have been told to drop the bad and save the good. This is the dilemma you have been put into by your priests, by all your religions, by all do-gooders. They have put you in such a schizophrenic state ....
Once you see that good and bad are together you will be immensely relieved, you will feel such a relief, because the whole conflict was baseless. You were fighting against shadows, you were fighting against yourself. It is as if my left hand is fighting with my right hand. Do you think there is any possibility of coming to a conclusion? There is no possibility. Both are my hands; there is no need for them to fight, they can be together and friendly. They can be helpful to each other, they can be a tremendous support to each other.
And that's the whole difference between me and all the religions of the world. They have been trying to create a conflict in you between good and bad, and I am trying to bring your good and bad closer and closer so that you can start using them in a harmonious unity. "
Excerpted from: From Darkness to Light/courtesy Osho International Foundation

Stay loyal to the earth

Sadhana

Love to share Osho's message for the newly started Earth Hour.

Osho says, " Be loving to the earth. Sow the seeds of love on the earth.The question is not for you to enter into some paradise in the skies. On the contrary, the question is how to transform this earth into paradise. It has all the potential. Just an awakening about the potential of the earth, about the potential of the people on the earth, and there will be no talk about any heaven or any paradise or any God. Man can become complete, fulfilled unto himself.This earth is our home, it is our mother.

"The earth is searching through you for its own meaning. You are the highest evolved part of the earth. Have you ever considered? -- your body is earth, your brain is earth, your heart is earth. You are the highest flowering, a great metamorphosis. There seems to be no connection between the earth and your eyes, but your eyes are nothing but the eyes of the earth. It is an effort of the earth to see. Your ears are an effort of the earth to hear the music."

Courtesy Osho International Fondation/www.osho.com/library

Man is an experiment

Sadhana

Osho views man from the space of no-mind, and therefore you can see the clarity and originality of his statements. Last evening while listening to his talk I was struck by this Osho insight. I want to share it with you. Osho was speaking on Neitzsche's book Thus Spake Zarathustra. You may want to read this talk in Zarathustra: A God that can dance.

Osho says, " Man is an experiment -- an experiment of existence to reach to the heights of consciousness and to reach to the depths of the very sources of life. Man should be understood only in this way. You are not born complete. All other animals are born complete; a dog is born a dog and will die a dog. Man can be born a man and can die as a Gautam Buddha. Between birth and death no other animal evolves, except man.
"Once this is recognized in your heart -- that you are an experiment of existence -- you bestow upon yourself the greatest dignity possible. Then you cannot go on living in a mechanical, robot-like fashion. You have to move -- move towards the stars. You have to progress, and your progress knows no limits."

Courtesy Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com

Fear is not a problem

Sadhana

Fear is one of the basic instincts everybody has. The young ones are innocent enough to show it and the elders try to hide it. That is the only difference. Fear is basically the survival instinct given by nature, there is nothing cowardly or shameful about it. But human civilization condemns cowardice and teaches people to be brave and courageous. Right from the childhood kids are told to suppress their fear and try to be courageous. But courage cannot be cultivated by suppressing fear, you have to go the roots of fear. Look at it, find out the reason-- is it real or just an imagination? More often than not fear is enlarged imagination or blowing up of some idea which then becomes a phobia.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, a phobia is an irrational and excessive fear of an object or situation.
Osho has given some valuable tips on how to be free of fear. His methods are straight and simple but non-traditional ones.

Accept fear
If you have fear, you have fear- why make a problem out of it? You know that you have fear, just as you have two hands. Fear is there: accept it, note it. What will happen? Suddenly you will feel it has disappeared. And this is the inner alchemy -- a problem disappears if you accept it, and a problem grows more and more complex if you create any conflict with it. It is there and nothing can be done about it. And when I say nothing can be done about it, don't think that I am talking about pessimism to you, in fact I am giving you the key to solve it.

It is good to tremble in darkness
If a child is afraid in the dark, we say, "Don't be afraid, be brave." Why? The child is innocent- naturally he feels fear in the dark. You force him: "Be brave." So he also forces, then he becomes tense. Then he endures the darkness but now tense; now, his whole being is ready to tremble and he suppresses it. This suppressed trembling will follow him his whole life. It was good to tremble in the darkness, nothing was wrong. It was good to cry and run, nothing was wrong. The child would have come out of darkness more experienced, more knowing. And he would have realized, if he passed through darkness trembling and crying and weeping, that there was nothing to fear. Suppressed, you never experience the thing in its totality, you never gain anything out of it. Wisdom comes through suffering and wisdom comes through acceptance. Whatsoever the case, be at ease with it.
www.osho.com/library

Language is not the only communication

Evening Meeting

Sadhana

Every evening we meet at the magical Osho Auditorium for The Evening Meeting -- a wonderful meditation created by Osho. Everyone wears a white robe, is freshly showered, celebrating the day. Every evening Osho's video is played. What a feast! We get to hear gems of insights that brings clarity and light. Today I heard one such insight and I was thrilled. Felt like sharing it with all.

Osho said, “Unfortunately man has become too much language-oriented;
he has forgotten other ways of communication.
There are many other ways of communication.
The idea that language is the only way of communication has made humanity very poor, very prosaic.
It has lost the mystery of poetry, it has lost the meaningless, but utterly significant, music of existence. Now dance has become a discipline, outwardly practiced, rehearsed, but not something growing from within you and spreading out.”

The Language of Existence

Work in the world but don't get lost in it

Sadhana

My friend Sundari from Portugal has asked for some words of wisdom from Osho about working in the world. I understand her for she has just been here. When you come to Pune in the Osho Meditation Resort life is so serene and blissful, you wish it stays like this forever. And then you go back and face reality. The dream has disappeared! Here is an Osho insight for all those who want to change the quality of their working life.
Osho says: " It is good to continue the work and to continue working on yourself side by side. Never be an escapist because escape is not going to help. The best arrangement is to work in the world but don't be lost in it. Work for five or six hours and then forget all about it. Give at least two hours for your inner growth, a few hours for your relationship, love, children, friends, society.
Your profession should only be a part of life. It should not overlap into every dimension of your life, as ordinarily it does. A doctor becomes almost a twenty-four-hour doctor. He thinks about it, he talks about it. Even when he is eating he is a doctor. While he is making love to his woman, he is a doctor.
My whole effort is to help you to be in the world and yet to be a meditator. Of course it is more difficult because there will be more challenge and situations. It is easier to be either a doctor or a meditator. It will be difficult to be both because that will give you many contradictory situations. But a person grows when there are contradictory situations. In the turmoil, in that clash of the contradictions, integrity is born. You become more centred.
A wise man has to be so wise that he can allow himself a little foolishness also. That is the greatest wisdom: to use foolish-ness also as a part of life so that you can laugh -- not only at others but at yourself also; so that you can play for no profit, no motive; so that you can simply relate to people for no reason whatsoever. "
Cypress In The Courtyard

OSHO : a protected trademark in more than 40 countries

Amrit Sadhana

For more than 40 years both during his life and afterwards the Osho Foundations have always acted on Osho’s request to protect his name, his copyright and his work and will continue to do so. As part of this work Osho is now a protected trademark in more than 40 other countries around the world.

Recently the Patent and Trademark office in the US decided, in a trademark dispute brought against the Osho Foundation by a group of so called “Friends of Osho,” that the name Osho is generic and cannot be registered as a trademark in the United States.
Generic means that Osho is now in the same category as computers and tissues. This decision is appealable in the American courts. It is interesting to note that the same group, Friends of Osho, that brought the US action, and who today claims victory in the US action, is the same group applying to register “Osho” as a trademark in India for their personal business.

Osho Foundation’s main reason for applying for the Osho trademark is to ensure that Osho’s name would be used as a way of identifying his work. If this decision stands this will no longer be the case.

As the decision now stands anyone in the United States can use the name Osho in any manner they may choose. They may create their own meditations and call them Osho Meditations or even change any of Osho’s meditations as they wish. They may create and sell “Osho paintings” even if they are painted by someone else, or any manner of such things.

It is strange that the Foundation’s success in making Osho’s proposal available, including in the United States, was the source of the board’s view that Osho, in the United States, is considered generic.

This decision has no effect on Osho’s copyright which is protected by international treaties around the world. So, Osho Foundation’s efforts to make Osho available around the world will continue to expand exactly as is currently the case.