Osho: A Real Old Man Is Ripe and Joyous

It seems happiness, like wine matures with age.
Look what  a research report published in The New York Times says.
"The results, published online  in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were good news for old people, and for those who are getting old. On the global measure, people start out at age 18 feeling pretty good about themselves, and then, apparently, life begins to throw curve balls. They feel worse and worse until they hit 50. At that point, there is a sharp reversal, and people keep getting happier as they age. By the time they are 85, they are even more satisfied with themselves than they were at 18."
And it’s not being driven predominantly by things that happen in life. It is something very deep and quite human that seems to be driving this. Other researchers of psychology wonder why at age 50 does something seem to start to change?

The eastern wisdom has answered this question. The ancient sages have divided life in four stages based on the physical and psychological state of human growth. They have looked at life vertically, not horizontally, namely the evolution of the consciousness.

Osho has talked about a seven-year cycle of change. If we say, life moves in a cycle of seven years, the age 42 is the turning point when a person changes from being materialistic, his need for meditation becomes stronger and if he finds the right doorway he starts growing up instead of growing old.

What Osho has explained in his book The Wisdom of the Sands, Vol 1 # 5 explains the enigma why the old age seems to be happier than the youth.

" Youth cannot have depth, and youth cannot have calm understanding. Youth is feverish, it is a tumultuous time. I'm not saying it is wrong: it creates the possibility to grow. You have to pass through many experiences, sweet and bitter. You have to pass through many stages of feverishness, of ecstasy, of excitement; only then a moment comes when you start understanding. Those experiences prepare you, they cleanse you. You have to pass through the fire of youth to become the pure gold of old age. A really old man is wise, he has some light in him. He has lived his life, he has become ripe. He knows what life is: he knows its joys, its sorrows, its ups and downs, he knows its hells and its heavens. He has seen all. Seeing all, a great understanding has arisen in him, and a compassion and a love."

For mystics like Osho life doesn't end with the old age, it spreads beyond death, it includes death as well.

"When you are becoming old joyously, old age has a beauty of its own, a grandeur of its own, a ripeness, a maturity, a centering. Young people have nothing compared to the experienced, who have lived life and who know it is all just a game.

"The moment a person comes to the point where the whole life is just a game, his old age is so beautiful, so graceful; no young person can be compared to it. His white hair will look like white snow -- just on the highest peak of the mountains. He will die with joy. He has lived his life, now he is entering into a new phase -- death. He will not be reluctant. If he accepted old age joyously, he will accept death also dancingly. He will go with death dancing."

Christianity:The Deadliest Poison and Zen: Antidote to All Poisons

" The Whole World Is Sad Because Of Marriage" : Osho

There is an interesting research on the fidelity of marriage published in The New York Times, ' The most consistent data on infidelity come from the General Social Survey, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and based at the University of Chicago, which has used a national representative sample to track the opinions and social behaviors of Americans since 1972. The survey data show that in any given year, about 10 percent of married people — 12 percent of men and 7 percent of women — say they have had sex outside their marriage.'

The researchers also see big changes in relatively new marriages. About 20 percent of men and 15 percent of women under 35 say they have ever been unfaithful, up from about 15 and 12 percent respectively.

But I think this is a very low percentage compared to the actual cheating game played by husbands and wives. Both the partners go on cheating and want that the other should not know about it. Can't blame them. The way marriage is structured, is stifling and everyone wants to breathe fresh air once in a while. Not a big crime for sure!

Osho hammers the outdated institution of marriage which has an inherent scope for infidelity.

Osho asks a pertinent question in his book The Messiah Vol #8

" What goes wrong between husbands and wives, even after a love marriage? It is not love, and everybody has accepted it as if he knows what love is. It is pure lust. Soon you are fed up with each other. Biology has tricked you for reproduction and soon there is nothing new -- the same face, the same geography, the same topography. How many times have you explored it?

The whole world is sad because of marriage, and the world still remains unaware of the cause.

" When you live together, the husband comes home late; there is no need, no necessity for the wife to inquire where he has been, why he's late. He has his own space, he's a free individual. Two free individuals are living together and nobody encroaches on each others' spaces. If the wife comes late, there is no need to ask "Where have you been?" Who are you? -- she has her own space, her own freedom.

But this is happening every day, in every home. Over small matters they are fighting, but deep down the question is that they are not ready to allow the other to have his own space.

"Likings are different. Your husband may like something, you may not like it. That does not mean that it is the beginning of a fight, that because you are husband and wife, your likings should also be the same. And all these questions... every husband returning home goes on in his mind, "What is she going to ask? How am I going to answer?" And the woman knows what she's going to ask and what he's going to answer, and all those answers are fake, fictitious. He's cheating her.

"What kind of love is this that is always suspicious, always afraid of jealousies? If the wife sees you with some other woman -- just laughing, talking -- that's enough to destroy your whole night. If the husband sees the wife with another man and she seems to be more joyous, more happy, this is enough to create a turmoil.

" People are unaware that they don't know what love is. Love never suspects, love is never jealous. Love never interferes in the other's freedom. Love never imposes on the other. Love gives freedom, and the freedom is possible only if there is space in your togetherness."

And to end this write up on a playful note here is an Osho joke:

Paddy's wife Maureen has had it. She goes to see her attorney, Abraham Babblebrain, and tells him she wants a divorce.

"Very well, Mrs O'Grady," says Babblebrain, "what are your grounds?
You have to have a reason for getting a divorce."

"Reason?" says Maureen. "Really? What sort of reason?"

"Well," says Babblebrain patiently, "for example, one reason would be if your husband does not give you enough money."

"Pah," snorts Maureen, "give me money? I give him money."

"Okay," says Babblebrain, "what about cruelty then? Does he beat you?"

"Pah," snorts Maureen again, "beat me? I beat him."

"Ah," says the lawyer, "so what about infidelity? Is he faithful to you in love?"

"That's it!" cries Maureen. "That's how we get him. I know for a fact that he is not the father of our third child."

From the book : Zen: The Diamond Thunderbolt # 1/courtesy Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com/library

Open Access To OSHO Books On Online Library

             226 books of wisdom and humor at your fingertips.


Did you know? Osho never "wrote" any books. Over a thirty-five year period, hundreds of thousands of people from every walk of life were drawn to Osho. They asked questions, he answered. From the meaning of life and death to the struggles of power and politics, from the challenges of love and creativity to the significance of science and education. They read sutras to him, and he talked about them. The talks were recorded, and later filmed on video; they were transcribed into hundreds of books and translated into dozens of languages.
* Each talk is given extemporaneously, spoken spontaneously, in the moment, without advance preparation. Each talk is presented as a separate chapter in a book, and most often also as a separate audio book. About half of these talks are also available on video. These can be found in the shop at www.osho.com/shop. And each talk was given to a different audience often in different places around the world and are "complete in themselves.”

* The library contains 226 Osho books which you can read or search. These books were mostly spoken originally in English, and there are a further 200 titles which are currently being translated from the original Hindi and will be added as they are ready. At present, there is only an English Library, and a Hindi Library will be added very soon, as will libraries for every language in which Osho has been translated. About 60 languages to date.

* When answering questions, Osho's primary purpose is always to answer the questioner rather than the question. It is the individual and his or her transformation that is important, not just the words.

* It is also important to appreciate that Osho is using words to convey silence. A paradox that lies at the heart of understanding this library.
"My message is not a doctrine, not a philosophy. My message is a certain alchemy, a science of transformation." Osho

Watch this video on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=G2Qd92LBa2I&next=%2Fmy_videos

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Osho International Meditation Resort: A Rejuvenating Green Space

Just five minutes of exercise in a "green space" such as a park can boost mental health, researchers claim. There is growing evidence that combining activities such as walking or cycling with nature boosts well-being.


In the latest analysis, UK researchers looked at evidence from 1,250 people in 10 studies and found fast improvements in mood and self-esteem.
This latest research is published on the online edition of The BBC News.

 

What the researchers have found anew is an age-old secret. It's no wonder, visitors coming to the Osho International Meditation Resort immediately feel relaxed and rejuvenated when they step in the greenery enhanced by running water falls and singing birds.

The lush 28-acre campus is a tropical oasis where nature and the 21st Century blend seamlessly, both within and without. With its white marble pathways, elegant black buildings, abundant foliage and Olympic-sized swimming pool, it is the perfect setting to take time out for yourself.

This emerald paradise is inspired by The Osho insights of creating a natural environment where people experience meditation the moment they come in.
Osho says: " Receptive people, sensitive people, are imaginative people. Those who can see the greenery of the trees, just without any aggression on their part, not even a subtle aggression on their part, who can just drink the greenery of the trees, who can simply absorb it as if they are sponges -- they become very creative, they become very imaginative. These are the poets, the painters, the dancers, the musicians -- they absorb the universe in deep receptivity, and then they pour whatsoever they have absorbed into their imagination."


A Sudden Clash of Thunder # 5

Osho Praises Laziness

Lazy people of the world, rejoice! Now you are not in the black list. Osho is all praise of lazy people for they have not harmed the world. They can't as much as raise their finger to hurt anybody because that  is too much of a work!
 Enjoy this delightful Osho excerpt in praise of lazy people.
Osho says in his book The Osho Upanishad,

"Lazy people have never done any harm to anybody -- they cannot. They will not go through that much trouble. It is the active people who are the real problems.
"So don't be worried about your laziness. It is totally acceptable as far as I am concerned. I want the world to become less active, more enjoying laziness: relaxing on the beaches, taking sunbaths, playing on their guitars... doing everything that is allowable to a lazy person, and not doing anything that only active people have been doing up to now. The active people have created Nadirshah and Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and Mussolini and Ronald Reagan. The world needs to get rid of these active people. And nobody writes about the lazy people, there is no history about them. There must have been lazy people in the world, but nobody writes any history about them. And they are the very salt of the earth."

Harmonious Couples and Enlightened Children

I watched a beautiful Osho video in which he describes the new humanity and shares his insight on how the children can be born out of harmonious and loving couples. Couldn't help sharing with you all.

Osho says:
"The old idea of enlightenment was partial. It was partial in the sense that all the religions of the world have emphasized the fact that the man has to renounce the woman, to renounce the world, renounce all the pleasures of the world. He has to become an ascetic -- in reality he has to become a self-torturer, because to cut man from woman is the beginning of torture.
"Man and woman are part of one whole; they are not opposites, they are complementaries.
"My emphasis is: no more renunciation, no more self-torture, no need to create a painful, miserable life for yourself. The woman is not against the man.
"The new humanity has to create the right atmosphere where men and women are friends, fellow travelers, making each other whole. The journey becomes a joy, the journey becomes a song, the journey becomes a dance.
"And if men and women in total harmony can give birth to children, those children will be the `superman' we have been dreaming about for thousands of years. But the superman can be created only out of the harmonious whole of man's and woman's energy. Then he will be born enlightened.
"In the past, people had to seek enlightenment. But if a child is born out of a couple who are in total harmony, in absolute love, he will be born enlightened. It cannot be otherwise. Enlightenment will be his beginning; he will go beyond enlightenment from the very first step. He will seek new spaces, new skies. "

The Osho Upanishad # 41

Know Your Sexuality

There are so many sex abuse scandals by so called religious men, and sexual adventures by ' celebate' sadhus and swamis that one wonders why they opt for religious dsciplines if they have not fulfilled their sexual desires first. So much hypocrisy! The disciples feel let down and betrayed when  their guru's one scandal after another is exposed.

One remembers the enlightened Osho insight on  understanding sex and transforming it. So simple, so profound. Every word of it is a diamond.
Osho says in his book I Say Unto You,

" Freedom from sex is not repression of sex, it is the understanding of sex. And through understanding one goes beyond it. But that does not mean that you will be angry and against and antagonistic. You will be blissful, you will have a blessing for everybody. And you will bless with the hope that some day they will also go beyond it.

" Real religion has to be rooted in the earth. Yes, real religion also has to rise towards the sun. It is like a lotus flower -- rooted in the mud and rising towards the sun. The lotus has to be freed from the mud, but the mud has not to be condemned at all, because the mud is the nourishment. Your sex energy is the nourishment for your samadhi. It is out of the mud of sex that the lotus of samadhi is going to bloom. Never repress it! Never be against it; rather, go deep into it with great clarity, with great love. Go like an explorer. Search all the nooks and corners of your sexuality, and you will be surprised and enriched and benefitted.

"Knowing your sexuality, one day you will stumble upon your spirituality. Then you become free. Your energy has risen high. Now sex is just like a toy. But you are not angry with other people who are still playing with the toy. You will understand them too, you will have compassion for them. You would like to help them go beyond, but you will not condemn them and you will not want to throw them to hell to be punished. They are not doing anything wrong.

"Sex is not a sin. Nobody is ever punished for sex. Nobody ever goes to hell for sex; otherwise God would be responsible, not you. He has given it to you, you are born with it; you have not created it. It is nothing like your invention, it is not like an atom bomb, it is not like a bayonet, it is not like a sword, it is not like money, it is not like politics -- these are inventions of man, of the ugly human mind. These people will go to hell, certainly.

"But sex is a God-given gift, and it is a great seed. Once it starts sprouting and finds the right soil, it will become a big tree. Millions of flowers will come to it.

"It is not only a child that is born out of sex, it is out of sex that you will be reborn too! Sex is the generating force, sex is the very source of creativity. It is out of sex that new life is born. You will give birth to a child -- this is new life. Just watch it. Sex must be immensely valuable -- God has chosen it to be the passage for life.

"What is more valuable than life? What can be more valuable than life? God has chosen sex as the vehicle for life. Life comes through sex, in sex, out of sex. And those who know, those who have gone beyond say that another life, spiritual life, also comes through it. Not only your child is born through it, you will be reborn through it: you will become twice-born through it, you will resurrect out of it. It is life-giving energy.

"Sex has to be respected. Sex is sacred. Sex is the very temple of God.

"So I cannot say the man who is free from sex has no interest, because sex is life. And sex is potential spirituality. How can he be disinterested in it? Yes, he has no personal interest in it. he has gone beyond it; but he is immensely interested. In fact for a man who is free from sex his interest becomes very very great. Now, he is interested in everything.

"When you are obsessed with sex you are not interested in anything. You are not interested in poetry, you are not interested in music, you are not interested in beauty, you are only interested in sex. And if sometimes you show interest in music, poetry, beauty, art, you show interest only because some sexuality is there. You become interested in poetry if it is sexual. You become interested in a picture, in a painting if it is nude, pornographic. You become interested in the music if it excites you sexually; otherwise you are not interested.

"This is not interest in music -and painting, this is interest in sex. That's why ninety-nine percent of poetry, music, painting and sculpture is sex-based, because ninety-nine per cent of people don't want anything other than sex. Your films, your novels, your books -- even your so-called religious books -- are all full of sexuality. Sometimes it is in the name of condemnation, but they go on talking about the physical, the sexual. Sometimes they are obscene.

:The man who is free of sex, his interest is also free of sex. His interest spreads to the whole of life."

Excerpted from I Say Unto You, Vol 2/ Courtesy Osho International Foundation/www.osho.com