“You are both and neither, and that is transcendence.”
The ultimate destination on a spiritual journey is enlightenment. But there’s a reason why countless people embark on this journey yet only a handful reach the destination.
Enlightenment is as much about the journey as it is about achieving the goal at the end. It is understanding and accepting different truths—some easy and some nearly impossible to handle. It is about singular focus and accepting the bigger picture at the same time. In other words, it is anything but straightforward.
However, if there’s anyone who can explain a difficult concept in the most straightforward manner, it is Osho and in What is Enlightenment?, he does exactly that. Read on.
When a person truly becomes a disciple, trust without any judgements is the only trait they must possess. The unknown—the knowledge a master possesses—can only be learned, not taught. And the only person who knows whether the disciple is ready is the master.
This is why, truly knowing your master is as important as becoming a true disciple. But how does one get to know their master, let alone get chosen by one?
Read on as Osho throws light on a subject that is rarely talked about in this short but eye-opening guide, How the Master Chooses a Disciple.
“When you don’t search for happiness, happiness searches for you.”
The biggest irony of life is that we end up spending a lifetime searching for our true purpose without actually living. Learning to value the life we have been given is a rare skill and sadly, one that very few possess.
There is plenty of literature out there that claim to help one achieve wealth and success and not nearly enough literature that tells you to cherish the more important things in life, like love and happiness.
In The Gift of Life, Osho analyses a short but intriguing Sufi story to talk about the real gift we have all been given: life. Read on.
“The husband of an ugly woman is best blind”
This opening to an intriguing Sufi story is the foundation to understanding ignorance and all that we forego because of it.
We live our lives according to an ambiguous ‘moral compass’ that’s justified by our conscience, not realising that every person’s moral compass aligns with a different north and they all believe, just like us, that they’re right.
There are countless opportunities to gain self-knowledge and yet, we as a species choose to remain ignorant. Do we realise what we lose when we choose ignorance over knowledge? What is stopping us from taking that leap into the unknown?
Read on as Osho throws light on these questions and many more like them in Going Beyond Ignorance.
“All knowledge is personal. No knowledge is impersonal.”
Everything that we know about the world around us, all our knowledge, is tainted by how our mind perceives it upon observation. In other words, it is entirely possible that one person’s reality is completely different from other’s.
It isn’t easy to grapple with this truth, but just as beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, you can’t fault another person for their opinions and their own reality. But that being said, does it negate the existence of an ‘absolute truth’?
Read on as Osho throws light on this strange paradox through the lens of another Sufi story in The Mind and its Perceptions.
“Existence is not a problem to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived.”
Countless scientists and men of faith have tried to solve the mystery of existence ever since we realized that there is a possibility that we may not be alone in the universe. There have, of course, been theories about the same but we have yet to come upon concrete conclusions.
In this bargain of trying to understand the purpose of humanity’s existence, we often forget to listen to what our mind, soul and heart truly want out of life. Perhaps, it’s time to look inwards once again and realize that the answers have been within us all along.
In Listening to Your Heart, Osho examines a clever Sufi story to talk about the importance of trusting your own self to truly achieve happiness in one’s life. Read on.
“You take care of the beginning and the end will take care of itself.”
It is believed that man is a collection of contradictions. He is made of various truths and sometimes, while believing just one of them, he ends up losing his way to spiritual freedom.
In order to truly focus one’s self towards a spiritual goal, it is important that a person becomes free from all their dualities. After all, in the absence of dualities, there is oneness. But can one really exist without dualities?
While explaining the significance of a popular Sufi story about true contradictions in How to Attain Singular Consciousness, Osho talks about the simple, straightforward logic of understanding a journey before embarking on it. Read on.
“The search depends on the seeker.”
We live in an age where it isn’t difficult to find a master to guide you along your spiritual journey. In fact, spirituality in itself has become a fad. However, for someone who is looking for real inner growth, simply finding a master or a guru doesn’t help.
Even after a person has made the transition from being a follower to a disciple, how far they go on their journey depends on the master. To identify what kind of master can serve one best, one needs to understand key differences between various seemingly straightforward concepts.
In The Real Master, Osho revisits a popular Sufi story about Bahauddin El-Shah to talk about what it means to be a master to a disciple. Read on.
“Truth cannot be taught but it can be learned.”
When it comes to spirituality, there is a difference between a teacher and a master. In Osho’s words, a teacher is someone who teaches but a master is someone who is. And a disciple with the right inclination can learn everything that the master has to offer by emulating them.
Just as there is a difference between being a teacher and a master, a student and a disciple aren’t the same either. And if one truly wants to embark on a spiritual journey, it is imperative that one must become a disciple. But what does it take to become a disciple?
Read on to see what Osho has to say about it all by revisiting a popular Sufi story in How to Become a Disciple.
“Real freedom is freedom from yourself.”
Reincarnation is one of the most important concepts of Hindu philosophy. A soul goes through endless birth cycles until it learns all the lessons it must before achieving moksha and leaving the material world for good.
One of the most important lessons one has to learn in order to navigate their lives is to get rid of the idea of the ‘self’—one that feeds only desires and ego. But in order to rid yourself of it, how do you identify what constitutes this sense of self?
In The Idea of No-Self, Osho addresses this exact question in the simplest, most strightforward manner. Read on.
