Price : USD 15.99

About Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic

Ten years have passed since, in the words of his attending physician, Osho prepared for his departure from the body that had served him for 59 years “as calmly as though he were packing for a weekend in the country.” This volume is a recognition that the time has come to provide a historical and biographical context for understanding Osho and his work. Who was this man, known as the sex guru, the “self-appointed Bhagwan”, the Rolls Royce Guru, the Rich Man’s Guru and simply the Master?

Drawn from nearly 5000 hours of Osho’s recorded talks, we hear the story of his youth and education, his life as a professor of philosophy and years of travel teaching the importance of meditation, and the true legacy he sought to leave behind: a religionless religion centered on the act of meditation and the teaching of “Zorba the Buddha”, a celebration of the whole human being.

OSHO is one of the most provocative spiritual teachers of our time. In the 1970’s he captured the attention of young people from the West who wanted to experience meditation and transformation; A decade after his death, the influence of his teachings continues to expand, reaching seekers around the world.

Reviews

All reviews are of the hardcover edition

*Booklist
“Osho’s posthumous autobiography affords a delightful glimpse into the life of one of the most outrageous twentieth-century spiritual leaders. Consisting of anecdotes that Osho told during his many lectures and classes, the book has a conversational tone that well conveys the sometimes infamous guru’s dynamic personality as it offers a sampling of his thoughts on meditation, enlightenment, sex, money, education, and the evolution of consciousness.

“Osho was not afraid to tackle the world’s major religions, pointing out inconsistencies and hypocrisy where he found them and simultaneously drawing together their best aspects into a synthesis grounded in meditation. Osho also answers some of the criticisms leveled at him for his seemingly outrageous behavior and his iconoclastic tendencies. He proves a fascinating man: a prolific writer and lecturer, highly educated, and deeply passionate about his own search for truth. Whether or not one is interested in Osho’s teachings or in the controversies surrounding his movement, his autobiography is entertaining, insightful and for some, perhaps, even enlightening.”

*The New York Times calls Booklist “an acquisitions bible for public and school librarians nationwide.” It is the review journal of the American Library Association, and recommends works of fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, reference books, and media to 30,000 institutional and personal subscribers.

Amazon.com
Although he was criticized for being too enamored with the ways of the West, India’s spiritual leader Osho managed to garner global notoriety as the founder of “Dynamic Meditation.” During his controversial lifetime (which ended–at least on this planet–in 1990) Osho was asked numerous times if he would write an autobiography. “He would always dismiss the question with the wave of his hand,” writes Sarito Carol Neiman in her foreword. “[He] would say his biography is to be found in the sum of his work–in his hundreds of volumes of published talks, and in the transformed lives of the people he touched.” In fact this “autobiography” is just that–a collection of interviews (including excerpts from appearances on Good Morning America and 60 Minutes), personal essays, and quotes. Disjointed as this material may sound, the editors behind the project were able to piece together a smooth autobiography that does not shy from self-criticism or the fundamental question of whether Osho was a “Cult Leader,” “Joker,” “Master,” or “Zorba the Guru.” (The answer, of course, is all of the above.) Followers and seekers will find this a profound and playful collection of stories and teachings. -Gail Hudson

“I enjoyed reading this book… While it presented the history of Osho and of what he calls “his people”, it also presents a look at our society and at ourselves, and presents a new way of living and being that brings a more balanced perspective to our life. Osho suggests that we need to make the changes within and then live the change so that we become an example to follow, rather than someone who tries to change others and convert them to our point of view.” – from InnerSelf Magazine

Awareness

Awareness (The Key to Living in Balance) One of the most important things to be understood about man is that man is asleep.

List Price: USD 14.99
About Awareness

190 Pages
Most of us move through our lives like sleepwalkers. Never really present in what we are doing, never fully alert to our environment, and not even aware of what motivates us to do and say the things we do.
At work we are always “multi-tasking” – planning our tomorrows before we have even begun our todays, reading e-mail while talking on the phone, worrying about what is left undone on the to-do list as we take notes in a meeting that produces more to-do’s.
And in our personal relationships, we have all experienced moments when we have lashed out in anger, or found ourselves suddenly in a tangle of misunderstandings without quite knowing how we got there – “I did it in spite of myself,” or “I don’t know what came over me.” So unaware of our own inner processes that the path between inner feeling and outer expression is shrouded in darkness not only to others but also to ourselves.
At the same time, all of us have experienced moments of awareness – or awakening, to use another term – in extraordinary circumstances. On the road, in a sudden and unexpected accident, time seems to stop and one is suddenly aware of every movement, every sound, every thought. Or in moments that touch us deeply – welcoming a new baby into the world for the first time, or being with someone at the moment of death.
Awareness, says Osho, is the key to being self-directed, centered and free – at work or at play, alone or in relationship, in the marketplace or on the mountaintop, in every aspect of our lives.

Chapter Titles

Foreword
PART I: The Understanding
Chapter 1: Of Men and Rats
Chapter 2: The Roots of Suffering
Chapter 3: Private Worlds
Chapter 4: Awareness and Centering
PART 2: Many Illnesses, One Prescription
Chapter 5: The Analyst and the Witness
Chapter 6: Tension and Relaxation
Chapter 7: Mind and Meditation
Chapter 8: The Rut and the Wheel
PART 3: Awareness in Action
Chapter 9: Start From the Center
Chapter 10: Be Spontaneous
Chapter 11: Be Decisive
Chapter 12: Complete Each Moment
Chapter 13: Stop Trying to Be Good
PART 4: Experiments in Watching
Chapter 14: Time Yourself into Timelessness
Chapter 15: The Invisible Touch
Chapter 16: Vipassana
Chapter 17: The Night Shift
Afterword: Hanging by a Thread

Excerpt from Awareness

from the Foreword
One of the most important things to be understood about man is that man is asleep. Even while he thinks he is awake, he is not. His wakefulness is very fragile; his wakefulness is so tiny it doesn’t matter at all. His wakefulness is only a beautiful name but utterly empty.

You sleep in the night, you sleep in the day – from birth to death you go on changing your patterns of sleep, but you never really awaken. Just by opening the eyes don’t befool yourself that you are awake. Unless the inner eyes open – unless your inside becomes full of light, unless you can see yourself, who you are – don’t think that you are awake. That is the greatest illusion man lives in. And once you accept that you are already awake, then there is no question of making any effort to be awake.

The first thing to sink deep in your heart is that you are asleep, utterly asleep. You are dreaming, day in, day out. You are dreaming sometimes with open eyes and sometimes with closed eyes, but you are dreaming – you are a dream. You are not yet a reality.

Of course in a dream whatsoever you do is meaningless. Whatsoever you think is pointless, whatsoever you project remains part of your dreams and never allows you to see that which is. Hence all the buddhas have insisted on only one thing: Awaken! Continuously, for centuries, their whole teaching can be contained in a single phrase: Be awake. And they have been devising methods, strategies; they have been creating contexts and spaces and energy fields in which you can be shocked into awareness.

Yes, unless you are shocked, shaken to your very foundations, you will not awaken. The sleep has been so long that it has reached to the very core of your being; you are soaked in it. Each cell of your body and each fiber of your mind have become full of sleep. It is not a small phenomenon. Hence great effort is needed to be alert, to be attentive, to be watchful, to become a witness. If all the buddhas of the world agree on any one single theme, this is it – that man as he is, is asleep, and man as he should be, should be awake. Wakefulness is the goal and wakefulness is the taste of all their teachings. Zarathustra, Lao Tzu, Jesus, Buddha, Bahauddin, Kabir, Nanak – all the awakened ones have been teaching one single theme… in different languages, in different metaphors, but their song is the same. Just as the sea tastes of salt – whether the sea is tasted from the north or from the east or from the west, the sea always tastes of salt – the taste of buddhahood is wakefulness.

But you will not make any effort if you go on believing that you are already awake. Then there is no question of making any effort – why bother?

And you have created religions, gods, prayers, rituals, out of your dreams – your gods are as much part of your dreams as anything else. Your politics is part of your dreams, your religions are part of your dreams, your poetry, your painting, your art – whatsoever you do, because you are asleep, you do things according to your own state of mind.

Your gods cannot be different from you. Who will create them? Who will give them shape and color and form? You create them, you sculpt them; they have eyes like you, noses like you – and minds like you! The Old Testament God says, “I am a very jealous God!” Now who has created this God who is jealous? God cannot be jealous, and if God is jealous then what is wrong in being jealous? If even God is jealous, why should you be thought to be doing something wrong when you are jealous? Jealousy is divine!

The Old Testament God says, “I am a very angry God! If you don’t follow my commandments, I will destroy you. You will be thrown into hellfire for eternity. And because I am very jealous,” God says, “don’t worship anybody else. I cannot tolerate it.” Who created such a God? It must be out of our own jealousy, out of our own anger, that you have created this image. It is your projection, it is your shadow. It echoes you and nobody else. And the same is the case with all gods of all religions.

It is because of this that Buddha never talked about God. He said, “What is the point of talking about God to people who are asleep? They will listen in their sleep. They will dream about whatsoever is said to them, and they will create their own gods – which will be utterly false, utterly impotent, utterly meaningless. It is better not to have such gods.”

That’s why Buddha is not interested in talking about gods. His whole interest is in waking you up.

It is said about a Buddhist enlightened master who was sitting by the side of the river one evening, enjoying the sound of the water, the sound of the wind passing through the trees…. A man came and asked him, “Can you tell me in a single word the essence of your religion?”

The master remained silent, utterly silent, as if he had not heard the question. The questioner said, “Are you deaf or something?”

The master said, “I have heard your question, and I have answered it too! Silence is the answer. I remained silent – that pause, that interval, was my answer.”

The man said, “I cannot understand such a mysterious answer. Can’t you be a little more clear?”

So the master wrote on the sand “meditation,” in small letters with his finger. The man said, “I can read now. It is a little better than at first. At least I have got a word to ponder over. But can’t you make it a little more clear?” The master wrote again, “MEDITATION.” Of course this time he wrote in bigger letters. The man was feeling a little embarrassed, puzzled, offended, angry. He said, “Again you write meditation? Can’t you be a little clear for me?”

And the master wrote in very big letters, capital letters, “M E D I T A T I O N.”

The man said, “You seem to be mad!”

The master said, “I have already come down very much. The first answer was the right answer, the second was not so right, the third even more wrong, the fourth has gone very wrong” – because when you write “MEDITATION” with capital letters you have made a god out of it.

That’s why the word God is written with capital ’G’. Whenever you want to make something supreme, ultimate, you write it with a capital letter. The master said, “I have already committed a sin.” He erased all those words he had written and he said, “Please listen to my first answer – only then I am true.”

Silence is the space in which one awakens, and the noisy mind is the space in which one remains asleep. If your mind continues chattering, you are asleep. Sitting silently, if the mind disappears and you can hear the chattering birds and no mind inside, a silence…this whistle of the bird, the chirping, and no mind functioning in your head, utter silence…then awareness wells up in you. It does not come from the outside, it arises in you, it grows in you. Otherwise remember: you are asleep.

Autobiography of a Jnani

Price @ $9.95

A new eBook is available for download. It is the complete edited dialogues between Ed Muzika and Rajiv Kapur regarding the various states Rajiv experienced during meditation on the “I Am” sense. It is a complete introduction to the most effective means to attaining awakening through meditation on the “I Am”.

This book has explained the simple Advaita meditation of finding and abiding in the I as this text sets forth, along with the dialogues which talk about Rajiv’s meditation and waking-state experiences on the way to awakening. This books sets forth a complete map, including pointing out pitfalls to be avoided. In this book, the experience of Turiya is clearly described, also known as the waking sleep.

eBook is also avaible for download @ $2.99

The Dhammapada:The Way of the Buddha

The Dhammapada:The Way of the Buddha
Publisher: Rebel Publishing House, India
ISBN: 3893380914(v.1)
Hardbound
Boxed set of 12 volumes

Previous Title: The Book of the Books

Consciousness means living with a witness; unconsciousness means living without a witness. When you are walking on the road, you can walk consciously — that’s what Buddha says one should do — you are alert, deep down you are aware that you are walking; you are conscious of each movement. You are conscious of the birds singing in the trees, the early morning sun coming through the trees, the rays touching you, the warmth, the fresh air, the fragrance of newly opening flowers. A dog starts barking, a train passes by, you are breathing… you are watching everything.

You are not excluding anything out of your alertness; you are taking everything in. The breath goes in, the breath goes out…you are watching everything that is happening. It is not concentration, because in concentration you focus on one thing and you forget everything else. When you are concentrating you will not listen to the humming of the bees or to the singing of the birds; you will only see what you are concentrating upon.

Concentration is narrowing down your consciousness to a point. It is good in archery: you have a target and you have to see only the target and you have to forget everything else. In Mahabharata, one of the ancient scriptures of this country, this story occurs:

Drona, a great archer, is teaching his disciples archery. Arjuna wins finally, for the simple reason that his concentration is the most acute. A bird is sitting on a tree, and Drona tells all his disciples to take their bows and arrows, focus on the bird, and get ready to shoot it. Then he comes close to each disciple and whispers a question in his ear, “What are you seeing? “One disciple says, “I see many trees and the bird and the eyes of the bird.” Drona moves to another disciple. He says, “I see only one tree and the bird sitting on it and his eyes. “He moves to the third. He says, “I see only the bird. “He moves to the fourth. He says, “I see only the two eyes of the bird.” And Drona had said that the right eye has to be penetrated; that is the target.Then he comes finally to Arjuna and he asks him. Arjuna says, “I see only the right eye of the bird and nothing else.”

In a sense Arjuna is the most concentrated, but he has become unconscious of the whole — just a pinpoint of consciousness. When I talk about consciousness it is not the consciousness that is needed in archery. I am talking about a totally different phenomenon: a diffused consciousness, not concentrated, because concentration is tiring, tense, and sooner or later you will fall into unconsciousness. Anything tiring cannot be carried for long.

Consciousness has to be relaxed; it has to be equivalent to opening. You are simply open to all that is happening. I am talking to you, and the train is passing by, and the distant call of a cuckoo…and you are aware of it all. You are open to all the dimensions of your being. You are simply open and vulnerable, alert, not asleep.

This is consciousness, and its opposite is unconsciousness. You are not open at all, you are closed. You are in a kind of sleep — a metaphysical sleep. All the buddhas down the ages have been fighting the metaphysical sleep.

George got drunk in a bar one night, and as he staggered home he tried to figure how he could hide his not very sober condition from his wife. He decided he would go home and read, since whoever heard of a drunken man being able to read a book? And he laughed at his own cleverness. He thought it would be good to read the Bible! He made it home and went into the den. A few minutes later his wife called out to him, “What are you doing in there at this hour?” “Oh, just reading, darling — reading the Bible,” he nonchalantly replied. Knowing reading was not one of his late evening pursuits — and certainly nobody had ever thought that he would read the Bible — she got up and peeked in. “You idiot!” she cried. “Close that suitcase and get to bed!”

When you are drunk, whatsoever you do is going to be like that.
I have heard:

Mulla Nasruddin got so drunk that there was a fight with another drunkard, and he had wounds and scratches all over his face. He came home in the middle of the night, looked into the mirror and thought, “Now, tomorrow morning is going to be difficult!” How is he going to hide these wounds and these scratches? His wife is bound to know and she will say, “You got drunk again and you have been fighting again!” How to hide it?

A great idea occurred to him. He searched in the medicine chest, found some ointment. He put it on his wounds and scratches, was very happy, pleased with himself that by morning things would not be so bad…and went to sleep.

Early in the morning when he was still in bed, his wife shouted from the bathroom, “Who has put ointment on the mirror?” Of course a drunken man, a drunkard, looking into the mirror thinks that that is his face. It is natural; if you are unconscious, whatsoever you do is bound to be wrong.

And there is a great metaphysical drunkenness. From many many lives it has become a great weight on you. You have lived unconsciously for so long that the effort to live consciously even for a few minutes seems to be too much. You love, it is unconscious, and it becomes jealousy, possessiveness. It is no longer love, because love cannot be unconscious. You make friends only to create enemies. You earn money to be happy, but by the time you have earned enough money you are only deeply tense, anxiety-ridden, and there is no joy in it. You run after power, fame, and one day, if you make hard efforts, you certainly succeed. You become famous, but then you realize the fact that by becoming famous nothing has been achieved. Everybody knows you, that’s all. Everybody knows your name, but how is that going to make you happy? You have power, but what are you going to do with the power? In the hands of an unconscious man everything turns sour, bitter, poisonous, everything turns stupid. Give him some intelligent advice and it is bound to fall into wrong hands.

The young lady who was about to get married talked with her mother about the birds and the bees. In this conversation her mother told her that she did not have to take off everything when she went to bed on her honeymoon. When they returned, the groom asked his mother-in-law, “Is there any insanity in this family?” “No, why?
“Well, your daughter slept in her hat all during our honeymoon!”

People are bound to do something stupid. And that’s what they have done to the statements of all the buddhas. They write commentaries, great scholarship, but what comes out is stupid. Libraries are full of it, universities are full of it. All rubbish! But people are sacrificing their whole lives for that, and they are not doing the first necessary thing.

You cannot be wise unless you become conscious, unless you break this old habit of functioning in an unconscious way. You have to de-automatize yourself.

Simple things can do the trick. For example, you always walk in a hurry. Start walking slowly. You will have to be alert; the moment you lose alertness you will start again in a hurried way. These are small devices: walk slowly — because to walk slowly you will have to remain conscious. Once you lose consciousness, immediately the old habit will grab you and you will be in a hurry.

If you smoke cigarettes, make it a very slow process, so slow that it becomes de-automatized. Otherwise, people are not smoking cigarettes — cigarettes are smoking people! They are not conscious of what they are doing. In a very unconscious way they put their hands into their pockets, take out the packet, the cigarette and the matchbox. They are going through all these motions but they are not alert. They may be thinking a thousand and one things. In fact, when they are more unconscious they tend to smoke more. When they are more in anxiety, tension… worried, they tend to smoke more; that helps them to keep a face as if they are relaxed.

Once you lose consciousness, immediately the old habit will grab you and you will be in a hurry. If you smoke cigarettes, make it a very slow process, so slow that it becomes de-automatized. Otherwise, people are not smoking cigarettes — cigarettes are smoking people! They are not conscious of what they are doing. In a very unconscious way they put their hands into their pockets, take out the packet, the cigarette and the matchbox. They are going through all these motions but they are not alert. They may be thinking a thousand and one things. In fact, when they are more unconscious they tend to smoke more. When they are more in anxiety, tension…worried, they tend to smoke more; that helps them to keep a face as if they are relaxed.

Make it a slow process. Take the cigarette packet out of your pocket as slowly as possible, as consciously as possible. Slowing down the processes is very helpful. Then hold the packet in your hand, look at it, smell it, feel its texture. Then open it very slowly, as if you have all the time in the world. Then take a cigarette out, look at the cigarette from all sides.
Then put it in your mouth…wait! Then take the matchbox — again go through those same slow movements. Then start smoking so slowly…take the smoke in very slowly, let it out very slowly.
And you will be surprised: if you were smoking twenty-four cigarettes per day you will be smoking only six at the most; it will be reduced to one-fourth. And slowly slowly, only two, one, and one day suddenly you will find the whole thing so stupid! Still you can go on carrying the cigarette packet in your pocket for a few days, just in case — but it is finished, de-automatized.

This is one of Buddha’s great contributions to the psychology of man: the process of de-automatization, slowing down everything. Buddha used to say to his disciples, “Walk as slowly as possible, eat as slowly as possible. Chew each bite forty times and go on counting inside: one, two, three, four, five — forty times. When the food is no longer solid, it is almost liquid….” He used to say, “Don’t eat, but drink.” That means make it so liquid that you don’t eat it, you have to drink it. And he helped thousands of people to become conscious. You are unconscious, although you believe you are conscious….That is like seeing a dream in which you think you are walking in the marketplace. You are awake in your dream, but your awakenness in a dream is only part of the dream — you are unconscious.

It hurts to accept that “I am unconscious,” but the first act of being conscious is to accept that “I am unconscious.” The very acceptance triggers a process in you.

The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Volume 5, Chapter 10

Source :  osho

Excerpt from Walk without Feet, Fly without Wings and Think without Mind

Chapter 3

“The moment you think, either you think of the past or you think of the future. It may be the immediate past, but it is still past – it is never the present, it cannot be the present.

“Thought needs space. And the present moment has no space in it. Thought creates the past and the future to live in. The bigger the past, the more easily thought can move; the bigger the future, again, the more easily thought can move. The present is not capable of giving that space for thought to move.

“The present moment is a moment of no-mind. Whenever you are in the present you don’t function as a mind. Your body is in the present but your mind is never. Your body is always in the present – that’s why the body is so beautiful and mind is so ugly. And, down the ages, you have been taught to be with the mind and against the body. That has been the greatest calamity humanity has suffered up to now. If a new humanity is to be, we will have to put things right – you have to be with the body and not with the mind.

“Use the mind, but never get identified with it. The mind is a good slave, but a very bad master. The body is wiser.”

I too am a farmer and I sowed some seeds. They sprouted and now flowers have come to them. My whole life is filled with the fragrance of these flowers and because of this fragrance now I am in a different world. This fragrance has given me a new birth, and now I am no longer that which is seen by ordinary eyes.

Seeds of Wisdom

The unseen and the unknown have flung open their closed doors, and I am seeing a world which is not seen through the eyes, and I am hearing music which ears are not capable of hearing. Whatsoever I have found and known is eager to flow just as the mountain waterfalls and springs flow and rush towards the ocean.

Remember, when the clouds are full of water they have to shower. And when the flowers are filled with fragrance they have to give off their fragrance freely to the winds. And when a lamp is lit, the light is bound to radiate from it.

Something like this has happened and the winds are carrying away some seeds of revolution from me. I have no idea in what fields they will land and who will tend them. I only know that it is from seeds like these that I have attained the flowers of life, immortality, and the divine. And in whatever field they land, the very soil there will turn into the flowers of immortality.

Read more about ‘Seeds of Wisdom” OSHO

A collection of 120 letters written by Osho to a beloved disciple, Ma Anandmayee. In a meditation camp in Mt. Abu, Rajasthan, India, Osho announced that she had been his mother in a previous incarnation. The selections in this book are actually more like small stories and parables than letters. Using incidents in his daily life as a starting point, or recalling ancient teaching stories, Osho reflects on the nature of truth and the spiritual search, while at the same time giving the reader an intimate glimpse into his own life and search.

The Heart of Tibetan Buddhism

List Price USD 19.95
Paperback
432 pages

Any religion or philosophy you pick – if you are looking for a real insight from a fresh point of view – you can find it from Osho. Tibetan Buddhism is no exception. The age of a tradition does not automatically result in wisdom – only awareness and an eternally young mind can give meaning to a reader today. Osho’s The Book of Wisdom is not a book of esoteric philosophy; don’t read this as an academic introduction to Buddhism – you might be disappointed.

Based on the ‘Seven Points of Mind Training’ by the 11th century Buddhist mystic Atisha, The Book of Wisdom conveys the essential science and methodology of meditation with a freshness and spontaneity that is rarely found in contemporary spiritual works. Osho removes the dust of tradition which has gathered around meditation. The book is a guide for inner discipline and transformation and some light and often humorous question and answer sessions between Osho and his audience make the practical connection from the spiritual theory to meditation as a lifestyle.

Source: Osho

Above All, Don’t Wobble

Publisher: OSHO Media International ISBN: 978-81-7261-202-3 Hardcover 318 pages Individual Meetings with a Contemporary Mystic An extraordinary chronicle of intimate meetings between Osho and people of all ages and all walks of life from around the world. At these meetings people living and working around Osho, or just visiting, have an opportunity to ask personal questions on any and every aspect of their lives or to share experiences. In these humorous, unpredictable, one-off dialogues, Osho responds very personally to each individual with unique insights and support.

Chapter Titles

The Mustard Seed

The Revolutionary Teachings of Jesus
About The Mustard Seed
This timely book explores the wisdom of the Gnostic Jesus, who challenges our preconceptions about the world and ourselves. Based on the Gospel of Thomas, the book recounts the missing years in Jesus’ life and his time in Egypt and India, learning from Egyptian secret societies, then Buddhist schools, then Hindu Vedanta. Each of Jesus’ original sayings is the “seed” for a chapter of the book; each examines one aspect of life — birth, death, love, fear, anger, and more — counterpointed by Osho’s penetrating comments and responses to questions from his audience.