Arrival is departure, Love is Hate , Happiness is unhappiness.
This book is the transcribed version of Osho's talks on Sosan's verses ' Hsin Hsin Ming'. Sosan about whom nothing much is known was a wandering zen monk , a zen mystic .He was an enlightened one but lived the life of a beggar . These verses of Sosan are called in Chinese 'The Book of True Faith'. Osho comments on these verses and unlocks what is hidden within it. Sosan through 'Hsin Hsin Ming' tells us of the zen way of understanding , the zen way of no- mind and no-thinking. According to Sosan the duality in life occurs due to the disease of the mind. Life and death , good and evil, right and wrong, day and night, God and Devil appear as opposites because of the divided mind. Life is one. God, and Devil are one. Ram and Ravan are one . Even this one has no significance , if there exists no two . "Although all dualities come from the one, / do not be attached even to this one." Hence go beyond mind and be in a state of no-mind. In Osho's words " No- thinking is the door. No - word is the gate. No - mind is the way."
Sosan is saying in another sutra that a wheel moves on an unmoving centre. We see only the moving part and the stationary part is hidden. Just like that whenever you love, the stationary part , hate ,is hidden somewhere there.. "Consider movement stationary / and the stationary in motion / and both the state of movement and the state of rest disappear."/ In Osho's words : " You cannot find anything more absurd than life, than existence. You meet to depart. You like a person only to dislike. You are happy only to sow the seeds for unhappiness. Love a person and hate will come. Make a friend and an enemy is born. Be happy and somewhere, from the backdoor unhappiness is entering. Enjoy the moment and immediately you will weep and cry. Laugh and just behind the laughter are tears, waiting to pop up."
Mystics have always said that "Only the present is." but Sosan goes a step ahead and he says : "no yesterday/ no tomorrow / no today "/ Not even the present is. If there is no past and no future , then how can the present exist? Because the present exists only between the past and future.It is a bridge between past and future. And if both the banks are not, how can the bridge exist? Sosan says : neither past , nor future, nor present. He is saying there is no time. And the whole language depends on time, past, future,present. Language is a creation of the mind , time is also a creation of the mind. When you drop language, time disappears. When you drop thinking , there is no past, no present, no future . You go beyond time, there is no time. The whole message of Hsin Hsin Ming is how to drop out of mind, language and time
Osho's commentary on Sosan's verses is unique. Simple jokes, parables and small stories including that of Mulla's included in this book are interesting as well as thought provoking. An innocent joke:-
A man visited a great museum. A guide was guiding him. The man looked at one head and asked "whose is this?" The guide really didn't know , so he said " it is the head of Napoleon". Then a small head, and again the man asked and the guide got messed up inside and he said "this is also Napoleon's head." So he said "what do you mean? Two heads?" Then the guide was in difficulty, and some answer he had to be given . So he said " Yes, this is the childhood head and that is his old-age head."
There are altogether 10 chapters in this book spreading over 275 pages . Each chapter adorns a few lines of the English translation of Sosan's Verses 'Hsin Hsin Ming' and its commentaries by Osho.: A fascinating and interesting book to read. In Osho's words " If I were to save only two books from the whole world of the mystics, one would be Sosan's 'Hsin Hsin Ming' and the other would be Hakim Sanai's ' Hadiqua' . "
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