The Book of Understanding

Creating Your Own Path to Freedom
by Osho | Harmony Books © 2006 · 278 pages

Osho's a fascinating guy and in this Note we'll take a look at the power of Zorba the Buddha, the importance of self-discipline, the fact that we've got to have a firm hold on our ego before we have any hope of letting it go (big point a lot of peeps tend to miss!), and a lot of other Big Ideas on making our potential a reality.

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Big Ideas

“I don’t teach the middle way, I teach the total way. Then a balance comes of its own accord, and then that balance has tremendous beauty and grace. You have not forced it, it has simply come. By moving gracefully to the left, to the right, in the middle, slowly a balance comes to you because you remain so unidentified. When sadness comes, you know it will pass, and when happiness comes you know that will pass, too. Nothing remains; everything passes by. The only thing that always abides is your witnessing. That witnessing brings balance. That witnessing is balance.”

~ Osho from The Book of Understanding

Osho. Powerful dood.

Attempting to capture his essence in a 6-page PDF is almost laughable, but, that’s why you pay me the big bucks, so… :)

If you haven’t read any Osho yet, his Book of Understanding is a great place to start. My copy is basically one long underline with flurries of asterisks and dog eared pages. I trust you’ll dig the gems I’ve mined in this Note!

Zorba the Buddha

“My concept of a new human being is one that will be Zorba the Greek and will also be Guatam the Buddha: the new human being will be ‘Zorba the Buddha’—sensuous and spiritual. Physical, utterly physical—in the body, in the senses, enjoying the body and all that the body makes possible—and still a great consciousness, a great witnessing will be there. Zorba the Buddha—it has never happened before… That’s what I’m talking about when I talk about the meeting of the East and the West, the meeting of materialism and spirituality. That’s my idea of Zorba the Buddha: heaven and earth are united.”

Zorba the Buddha. The ultimate “Yes, and…”

Quick context: Zorba the Greek was a fictional character fully engaged in living an all-out sensual life while, of course, the Buddha reached a state of enlightened consciousness. “Zorba is blind—he cannot see, but he can dance, he can sing, he can rejoice. The Buddha can see, but he can only see. He is pure eyes, just clarity and perception—but he cannot dance. He is crippled, he cannot sing, he cannot rejoice.”

As Osho says: “It is the synthesis of matter and soul. It is a declaration that there is no conflict between matter and consciousness, that we can be rich on both sides. We have everything that the world can provide, everything that science and technology can produce, and we can still have everything that a Buddha, a Kabir, a Nanak finds in his inner being—the flowers of ecstasy, the fragrance of godliness, the wings of ultimate freedom.”

How about you? You have a big ol’ split between your spiritual side and your materialist side? Me, too, at times. (But I’m a Gemini so I at least have an excuse! Hehe. :)

Seriously, though. “This ‘Either/or” stuff is the greatest threat to our well-being and Osho *goes off* on how religions have deliberately created the split and thereby destroyed our essence. We’ll save that for another conversation. :)

Check out my Notes on Ken Wilber for some more mojo on the whole “Yes, and” and “transcend and include” business. And check in to your own life: How are you split? Do you have the story that you can either be spiritual OR wealthy? Into serving the world OR making money? Sensual OR spiritual? We’ve gotta pay attention to the either/or’s…

Maslow (see Notes) talks about the fact that in the healthiest among us, this apparent dichotomy dissolves. He says this about his “self-actualizers”: “Our subjects are simultaneously both very spiritual and very pagan and sensual even to the point where sexuality becomes a path to the spiritual and ‘religious.’” … “Duty cannot be contrasted with pleasure nor work with play when duty is pleasure, when work is play, and people doing their duty are simultaneously seeking pleasure and being happy.” And he concludes with: “If the most socially identified people are themselves the most individualistic people, of what use is it to retain the polarity? If the most mature are also the most childlike? And if the most ethical and moral people are also the lustiest and most animal?”

So, get your Zorba the Buddha on, will ya? :)

(And, if you ever make it out to Osho’s “Meditation Resort” in Pune, India, you’ll get a chance to dine at the “Zorba the Buddha” pool-side restaurant while you watch all the maroon bathing suit-clad peeps cruising around. :)

If we want to change the society, we have to change the individual.
Osho
When the potential becomes the actual, only then is man fulfilled.
Osho
And there is nowhere to stop. In life there is no full stop, not even a semicolon —just small commas. Just for a while you can rest, but the rest is just to gather energy to go forward, to go upward.
Osho
When you are total, it is good; and when you are divided, it is evil. Divided you suffer; united, you dance, you sing, you celebrate.
Osho

How Much Intensity Can You Muster?

“Do things with your whole heart, with as much intensity as you are capable of.”

The Buddha says pretty much the same thing in The Dhammapada (see Notes): “If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart.”

Osho continues: “It is not a question of which part you follow, it is a question of whether you go totally into it or not. To be total in your action brings joy. Even an ordinary, trivial action done with total intensity brings a glow to your being, a fulfillment, a fullness, a deep contentment. And anything done halfheartedly, however good the thing may be, is going to bring misery.”

Are you split? Timidly going half-way?

Well… DO THINGS WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART!!!

How are you holding back in your life? How can you turn that intensity up a notch or ten?

Life Is a Tension Between The Opposites

“To be in the middle is not a static state, it is a dynamic phenomenon. Balance is not a noun, it is a verb; it is balancing. The tightrope-walker continuously moves from the left to the right, from the right to the left. When he feels now he has moved too much to one side and there is danger of falling, he immediately balances himself by moving to the opposite side. In passing from the left to the right, yes, there is a moment when the tightrope-walker is in the middle. And again, when he has moved too much to the right and there is a fear of falling, he is losing balance, he starts moving to the left and again passes through the middle for a moment.”

Wow. More: “Why do we want to be in the middle in the first place? We are afraid of the dark side of life; we don’t want to be sad, we don’t want to be in a state of agony. But that is possible only if you are also ready to drop the possibility of being in ecstasy. There are a few people who have chosen it—that is the way of the monk. For centuries that has been the way of the monk, ready to sacrifice all possibilities of ecstasy just to avoid the agony. He is ready to destroy all the roses just to avoid the thorns. But then his life is just flat… a long, long boredom, stale, stagnant. He does not really live. He is afraid to live.”

How are you showing up? Are you willing to embrace the life of the tightrope-walker, realizing that your perfect balance is always dynamic? Or, are you so afraid of falling/touching a thorn that you’ve stepped off the rope/thrown away all the roses?!?

We’ve gotta embrace all of life. As Campbell says: “There is an important idea in Nietzsche, of Amor fati, the ‘love of your fate,’ which is in fact your life. As he says, if you say no to a single factor in your life, you have unraveled the whole thing. Furthermore, the more challenging or threatening the situation or context to be assimilated and affirmed, the greater the stature of the person who can achieve it. The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.”

So, say “YES!” to life, hop up on that tightrope, quit looking for “balance” and have fun balancing as you get your dynamic equanimity on, will ya?!? :)

“Live life in all possible ways; don’t choose one thing against the other, and don’t try to be in the middle. Don’t try to balance yourself—balance is not something that can be cultivated. Balance is something that comes out of experiencing all the dimensions of life. Balance is something that happens; it is not something that can be brought about through your efforts. If you bring it through your effort it will be false, forced.”

Don’t avoid the extremes, and don’t choose any one extreme.
Osho
Your effort to be in the middle, and to be in the middle forever and always, is creating unnecessary anxiety for you. In fact, a desire to be in the middle forever is another extreme—the worst kind of extreme, b/c it is the impossible kind. It cannot be fulfilled. Just think of an old-fashioned clock: If you hold the pendulum exactly in the middle, the clock will stop. The clock works only b/c the pendulum goes on moving from the left to the right, from the right to the left. Yes, each time it passes thru the middle, and there is a moment of that middle-ness, but only a moment.
Osho

Witness, Witness, Witness

“You have to face your fear. And do the same with anger, do the same with jealousy, do the same with hatred. And a significant point to remember is: if you witness anything—fear, anger, hate—if you simply watch them as they arise, without any judgment or condemnation, they will disappear, leaving a tremendous amount of energy that you can use for creativity. You will have to use it; the leaks have disappeared and you will be overflowing with energy. But if you witness your love, compassion, kindness, humbleness, they will not disappear. They also have tremendous energy, but the more you witness them the stronger they will become in you; they will overwhelm you.”

Hard to say anything about that except: “What he said.” :)

Seriously, though. Do you practice “witnessing”?! It’s one of THE most powerful ways to dissolve our negative habits and remove the resistance that keeps us separated from our Highest Selves. All the great teachers profess the power of being able to OBSERVE our behaviors/thoughts/feelings (particularly the destructive ones) rather than think we *are* our behaviors/thoughts/feelings.

Something magical happens when you can simply observe/witness/see your self in action. Next time you’re feeling funky, see if you can “see” yourself.. and then see if your ability to curiously watch yourself dissolves some of the intensity of your pain…

Embrace the Ego Then Drop It

“Each individual has to be taught the ego before he will be able to drop it. Each individual has to come to a very crystallized ego; only then is the dropping of any help, otherwise not.”

Osho talks about Nietzsche’s three stages of evolution: the camel, the lion and the child.

The camel is unconscious. It carries the load of society’s thou shalts and thou shalt nots. The lion destroys the past and its laws to create a new future. It takes courage and self-love to move from the camel to the lion and become an individual. From there, you become the child—perfectly present in this moment, beyond the “yes” of the camel and the “no” of the lion. In the present moment… beyond the past of the camel and the future of the lion.

The point here is that you *can’t* drop what you never had. If you never fully destroyed the conditioning and created a powerful personal ego, you can’t move past both to the innocent child. So, if you’re still a camel, let out a little roar, will ya? And, if you’re the bohemian lion, open into the mystery and wonder of the whole, eh? :)

Peace has to dance and silence has to sing. And unless your innermost realization becomes a laughter, something is still lacking. Something still has to be done.
Osho
Unless you taste totally, you cannot say. And when you taste totally you still cannot say because what you know is such that no words are adequate.
Osho

True Discipline Is Self-Discipline

“I am not against rules, but the rules should arise out of your understanding. They should not be imposed from the outside. I am not against discipline! but discipline should not be slavery. All true discipline is self-discipline. And self-discipline is never against freedom—in fact, it is the ladder to freedom. Only disciplined people become free, but their discipline is not obedience to others: their discipline is obedience to their own voice. And they are ready to risk anything for it.”

Genius. Lao-tzu and Nietzsche come to mind here.

Lao-tzu: “He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.” And “Don’t think you can attain total awareness and whole enlightenment without proper discipline and practice. This is egomania. Appropriate rituals channel your emotions and life energy toward the light. Without the discipline to practice them, you will tumble constantly backward into darkness.”

Nietzsche: “He who cannot command himself should obey. And many can command themselves, but much is still lacking before they can obey themselves.”

So, we NEED discipline.

The question is: who’s rules are we following? Our own or society’s?

As Osho says: “Let your own awareness decided your lifestyle, life pattern. Don’t allow anybody else to decide it. That is a sin, to allow anybody else to decide it. Why is it a sin? Because you will never be in your life. It will remain superficial, it will be hypocrisy.”

Don’t be uptight. Don’t live life according to principles. Live life in its totality, drink life in its totality!
Osho

Imitation Is Crime

“Each person is born with a unique individuality, and each person has a destiny of his or her own. Imitation is crime, it is criminal. If you try to become a Buddha, you may look like Buddha, you may walk like him, you may talk like him, but you will miss. You will miss all that life was ready to deliver to you. Buddha happens only once. It is not in the nature of things to repeat. Existence is so creative that it never repeats anything. You cannot find another human being in the present, in the past, or in the future who is going to resemble you exactly. It has never happened. The human being is not a mechanism like Ford cars on an assembly line. Never imitate anybody…”

Ah, I love that: “Imitation is crime, it is criminal.”

Those are strong words, deliberately chosen. Take them literally. Emerson says the same thing, and goes a step further. He says: “Envy is ignorance. Imitation is suicide.”

Envy is ignorance. Why?

Because the ONLY way you could EVER envy anyone is if you *totally* missed your own unique expression of the Divine. And to imitate is suicide. Why? Because in trying to be someone else you just killed the best within you.

Nature didn’t create you so you can try to be a second-rate version of someone else. You have a unique constellation of gifts and experiences that give you a beautiful destiny all your own. So, quit comparing yourself to anyone else and go deep within your soul to discover who you are and how you can radiate that joy to the world!!! (Pretty, please. :)

There is no need to develop a conscience at all. What is needed is consciousness, not conscience. Conscience is a pseudo-thing. Conscience is created in you by the society, and it is a subtle form of slavery.
Osho
It does not matter what you do. What matters is how you do it--of your own accord, with your own vision, with your own love. Then whatever you touch becomes gold.
Osho

Our Work Will be our Soul

“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 simple 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 in the act. That’s my image of the new humanity. We will work, but our work will be our life, our very soul. Whatever we do, it won’t matter.”

Wow. That’s *beautiful.*

Imagine a world where we simply create joyfully—expressing ourselves fully and sharing our gifts (way) beyond the fear of competition. Get that picture nice and clear in your mind’s eye and then realize that we can only create it if each of *us* is LIVING from that reality.

I’ve had an allergy to the whole idea of “competition” for quite awhile now. It’s so much more fun (and easier) to just get really clear on what my gifts are and audaciously give them to the world, KNOWING that as I do so, I’ll be just fine.

So, how are you showing up these days? Are you fearlessly and simply doing your best? Or, are you fearfully worrying about your supposed “competition” and how you’re stacking up?

How can you give your very soul to the world through your work a little more today?

Zarathustra is beautiful, Buddha is beautiful, Lao Tzu is beautiful, Jesus is beautiful--but they are no longer applicable. They lived their lives, they flowered beautifully. Learn through them but don’t be a stupid follower.
Osho
Being is so significant that it is irreplaceable. You are just yourself. Do something that comes out of you—not to assert, but to express! Sing your song, dance your dance, rejoice in being whatever nature has chosen you to be.
Osho

Express Yourself Without fear

“Express yourself in as many ways as possible without fear. There is nothing to fear, there is nobody who is going to punish or reward you. If you express your being in its truest form, in its natural flow, you will be rewarded immediately—not tomorrow but today, here and now… You are punished only when you go against your nature. But the punishment is a help, it is simply an indication that you have moved away from nature, that you have gone a little astray, off the road—come back. Punishment is not revenge, no. Punishment is only an effort to wake you up: ‘What are you doing?’ Something is wrong, something is going against yourself. That’s why there is pain, there is anxiety, there is anguish.”

How we feel is simply an indicator of how connected we are to God/the Divine/insert-favorite-descriptor-here.

Feeling joyful? Sweet. God’s in the house. Literally. (In fact, the Greeks called it entheos, describing the fact that “God is within.” Today we call it enthusiasm.)

Feeling not so hot? Awesome. That’s God’s little reminder you’re disconnected. Don’t fret. Just plug back in. How? Most importantly, authentically express yourself without fear. Be you. Quit arguing with reality. Fill up with Source energy in all the ways you know work for you: from proper rest and meditation to exercise, proper nutrition, taking a bath, journaling, whatever.

In any case, just look at your funkiness as an alarm clock waking you up!

If you are clean inside, having no wounds of inferiority, then who cares what people expect of you? You have never fulfilled anybody’s expectations. You have been simply living your life according to your own insight, intuition, intelligence.
Osho
Drop all comparison. Drop all these stupid ideas of being superior and inferior. You are neither superior nor inferior. You are simply yourself! There exists no one like you, no one with whom you can be compared. Then, suddenly, you are at home.
Osho

Responsibility Osho-style

“The word ‘responsibility’ has been used the wrong way. It gives a feeling of burden. You have to do it, it is a duty; if you don’t do it you will feel guilty. I want to remind you that the word ‘responsibility’ has none of those connotations. Break the word in two—response-ability—and you enter a totally different meaning of the word, a different direction…Response-ability simply means spontaneous response. Whatever situation arises, joyously respond to it, with your totality, with your intensity. And the response will not only change the situation, it will change you.”

ALL the greats point this one out.

Do you have “response-ability”? The ability to choose your response?

Today’s practice: Pay attention to when you might start slipping into stimulus-response knee-jerk reactions and consciously CHOOSE your response!

Live dangerously, and when I say ‘Live dangerously,’ I mean live according to your own self, whatever the cost. Whatever is at stake, live according to your own consciousness, according to your own heart and feeling.
Osho

The Potential Becoming The Actual

“Man is not born perfect. He is born incomplete, he is born as a process. He is born on the way, as a pilgrim. That is his agony and his ecstasy, too; agony because he cannot rest, he has to go ahead, he has always to go ahead. He has to seek and search and explore. He has to become, because his being arises only through becoming. Becoming is his being. He can only be if he is on the move.

Evolution is intrinsic to man’s nature, evolution is his very soul. And those who take themselves for granted remain unfulfilled. Those who think they are born complete remain unevolved. Then the seed remains the seed. It never becomes a tree and never knows the joys of spring and the sunshine and the rain, and the ecstasy of bursting into millions of flowers.

That explosion is the fulfilment, that explosion is what existence is all about—exploding into millions of flowers. When the potential becomes the actual, only then is man fulfilled.”

Space is tight so I’ll just suggest a re-read. :)

Plus, I will note that Abraham Maslow says the same thing in his genius declaration: “What one can be, one must be.”

About the author

Authors

Osho

an Indian guru
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