Meditation: The First and Last Freedom ( A Practical Guide to Osho Meditations )

No-mind is absolutely a pure sky without any clouds.


The text in this book, apart from the descriptive text written by the editors, is selected from various discourses by Osho given to live audience over a period of more than thirty years .It is a practical guide to Osho meditations. Everything about meditations, especially about Osho meditations is available in this book. Suggestions for beginners, different methods/ techniques in meditation, obstacles to meditation etc. are detailed in this book. Detailed descriptions are also there in the book about Osho active meditations, such as Dynamic meditation, kundalani meditation. Nataraja meditation and Nadabrhama meditation.

Osho says to Drop the old ideas of meditation - that just sitting underneath a tree in a yoga posture is meditation. That is only one of the ways, and it may be suitable for a few people but it is not suitable for all.. In Osho’s words ‘Meditation is a quality, it can be brought to anything . It is not a specific act.So if you can keep alert, any activity is meditation.Walking, walk slowly, watchfully. Looking, look watchfully, and you will see trees are greener than they have ever been. Listen, listen attentively. When you are talking, talk attentively. Let your whole waking activity become deautomatized.’ Whatsoever you do with awareness is meditation. Meditation helps you to grow your own intuitive faculty.Meditation is witnessing. To meditate means to become a witness.

Osho also says that techniques / methods are just to bridge the gap. Methods are dangerous only if one is unaware, otherwise they can be used beautifully.

Buddha used to tell a story again and again: Five idiots passed through a village carrying a boat on their heads. They said ‘We cannot leave this boat. This is the boat that helped us to come from the other shore to this shore. We will carry it on our heads in sheer gratitude’.It is just a raft to be used and discarded, used and abandoned, used and never looked back at again; there is no need, no point Methods and techniques are just like this raft which one should be aware enough to abandon, on reaching the other shore.

Osho’s responses to questions about meditation are included in the last part of the book. A few of his observations:

Tears will take out all the agony that is hidden inside you and laughter will take all that is preventing your ecstasy.

Whereever sinners go, they create hell and whereever saints go, they create heaven.

If someone else can make you happy and unhappy, you are not a master. You are just a slave.

This book will definitely serve as a useful guide for all those who are interested in meditation.

The Diamond Sutra : The Buddha Also Said.....

Right meditation brings you to emptiness and aloneness.


The ‘Diamond Sutra’ is one of the greatest sermons of Buddha. After Buddha’s death, these sutras have been remembered by Buddha’s great disciple Ananda, who was the only disciple who had lived continuously for 45 years with Buddha. . ‘The Diamond Sutra’ which starts with the very minute details about Buddha - how he walks, how he sits, how he looks, what he does and the like. is in the form of a dialogue between Buddha and Subhuti. While delivering what has happened between Buddha and Subhuti, Ananda . never says that ‘Buddha said this’; he simply says, ‘Thus have I heard. That this is what I have heard. What Buddha said, only he knows, what he meant, only he knows.

But Buddha has not said anything, neither has Subhuti heard anything. In that non-talking and non-hearing, something has happened - something which is beyond words. Ananda has tried to capture that in words,that great silence, that communion between two emptiness. This whole diamond Sutra points towards silence. According to Osho, .’it contains no philosophy, no system, no theory., no words, it is an empty book.’

Buddha’s whole message is condensed in this one word - Right meditation.The word prayer has not been heard in Buddhism and Jainism. They only know of meditation. The word ‘suchness’ is as important in Buddhism as ‘God’ is in other religions. Buddha says: a tathagata is synonymous with suchness. He speaks in accordance with reality. Whatsoever is spoken by a tathagata is truth.

‘Tathagata’ is called
one who has not gone anywhere, nor
come from anywhere. Therefore is he
called ‘the tathagata’, the arhat, the
fully enlightened one.

Osho says that he would like to interpret the word ‘tathagata’ as’ thus came, thus gone... Like the wind. The wind comes for no reason of its own, for no motivation of its own. Buddha is like that wind. Thus came, thus gone. No clinging. His coming and going is mysterious.’

Buddha says,Things happen on their own, they are very mysterious.There is no person, no self, no individuality, no soul. . Nothingness is the taste of Buddha’s message. When all is absent there is great presence.

The Diamond sutra will appear to most of us as absurd, as mad. It appears as irrational. They are strange because the way they are put, the way they are expressed, is not logical. It does not make any sense, not at least on the surface. Zen monks say Buddha never uttered a single word, and Buddha spoke for 45 years continuously.
.
The ‘Diamond Sutra’ starts with Buddha’s body - how he walks, how he sits, how he looks, what he does and now it ends on this strange sentence:
Whosoever says that rhe Tathagata
goes or comes, stands, sits or lies
down, he does not understand the
meaning of my teaching.


Osho’s commentary on ‘The Diamond Sutra” gives us a great understanding of Buddha’s life and his teachings. Osho answers a number of questions raised by the audience and his disciples. All his responses as well as the jokes, parables and anecdotes used during the course of his discourse are interesting, inspiring and thought provoking. Here is an anecdote:

A man was doing the traditional shradth ceremony to honour his just departed father. During the ceremony the family dog wandered into the prayer room. Afraid of defiling the occasion the man hastily got up and tied his dog to a post outside on the varandah.
Years later, when he died, his son performed the shraddh ceremony in his turn. Anxious to follow it in every detail he had to catch hold of a dog from the neighborhood, because he remembered that it must be very important. By this time it happened that the family had no dog so he had to run in the neighborhood to find a stray dog. He caught hold of one, tied it carefully to a post on the varandah, then finished the ceremony with a satisfied conscience. In that family, down the centuries, the rule is still followed. In fact, the sacred dog ritual has become the most important item in the ceremony.

‘The Diamond Sutra’ sheds light on the life and teachings of Buddha on which . Osho's commentary is unparallel and beautiful.

Zen: Dang Dang Doko Dang

Life is wild, no path exists; you walk and you create your own path.

This book is a transcript of Osho’s talks on Zen and Zen masters. In his discourse he goes through a number of Zen stories. Zen means sitting. In Japanese they have the full word zazen, which means sitting silently, doing nothing. Zen simply says, sit and don’t do anything. Zen originated in India with Gautam Buddha.

When Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment, the state of no-mind, the world came to know the path of meditation, the path that needed no God. Buddhism is an effort to drop the mind totally.For Buddhists, God and Devil, heaven and hell , good and bad are all of the mind and hence they say, drop the whole mind.

Zen is an absolutely individual path. It is not a religion in the sense of Christianity or in the sense of any other organization. In Osho’s words”If you have a feeling for God - then Zen is not for you. But if the world has no meaning for you, if it has really died for you, if God is really dead for you, then Zen is for you.”.

Zen says that there is no need to talk about God; all talk about God is useless. ; they don’t talk about heaven and hell; they don’t talk about truth, they don’t talk about reality either.

Osho’s commentaries on Zen as well as his responses to questions from seekers and disciples are highly interesting. Stories, jokes and parables are galore in this book.

Here is a Zen story included in this book.:
Long ago in Japan a blind man, visiting a friend one night, was offered a paper-and-bamboo lantern to carry home with him. ‘I do not need a lantern,’ he said. ‘Darkness or light is all the same to me.’ I know you do not need a lantern to find your way,’ his friend replied, ‘but you must take it because if you don’t have one, someone else may run into you.’
The blind man started off with the lantern, and before he had walked very far, someone ran squarely into him. ‘Look out where you are going!’ he exclaimed to the stranger. ‘can’t you see this lantern?’
‘Your candle has burnt out, Brother,’ replied the stranger.

‘Dang, dang doko dang’ is what a zen master like Ho-shan will say mimicking as if beating a drum, when someone asks a foolish or stupid question. Only zen masters are courageous enough to answer like that. It implies that such question can only be answered in an absurd way. To all such questions a Ho-shan like master’s answer will always be the same: Dang, dang, doko dang, doko dang.’As the question is absurd, the answer cannot be anything else than that.

Osho’s observations are always unique and a few are given below:

Churches are the tombs of God where God has died.

Knowledge, if it is yours, is a light on the path. Knowledge if it is learned from others, is a burden.

.All our formalities are nothing but helping each others ego. They are all lies.

Even if a freedom is forced on you, it is a slavery, and if you accept a slavery on your own, it is freedom.

The ideas contained in this book are rebellious and inspiring, which can even transform the mind-set of the reader.

The Art of Dying : Exploring the Mysteries of Life and Death

Your treasure is in your own being - don’t look for it somewhere else.

The art of dying is the art of living. It is the fear of death that makes a man incapable of living The moment one loses the fear of death he becomes capable of living. Also if one doesn’t want to possess anything he becomes fearless. Then even death is a beautiful experience to pass through. If a person has a well lived and well loved life , death comes to him as a silence, as a profound bliss. This book is the transcribed version of Osho’s talks on Hasidism, based on a few Hasidic stories.

Hasidism is a mystical Jewish religious movement founded in the 18th century by Baal shem. It teaches life in community. To live in a community is to live in love and commitment, caring for others Hasidism says that if a man starts living a natural life, one day, suddenly, the love of existence arises as naturally as love for the woman or love for the man arises; as naturally as breathing arises after birth.Hasidism is not a path of meditation. It is a path of prayerfulness. It simply says:’ trust life, trust existence, and whatsoever has been given to you, enjoy it’. The Hasidim were a joyous community when Baal shem, its founder was there.According to Osho, When Baal Shem walked on the earth, the Hasidim were one of the most beautiful communities on the earth.

Osho comments on 5 selected Hasidic stories in this book which include the story of one Rabbi Eisik, son of Rabbi Yekel in Cracow.. Rabbi Bunam used to tell this story to young men who came to him for the first time
After many years of great poverty, which had never shaken his faith in God, he dreamed that someone bade him look for treasure under the bridge which leads to the king’s palace in Prague. When the dream recurred the third time he set out for Prague. But the bridge was guarded day and night and he did not dare start digging.

Nevertheless he went to the bridge every morning and kept walking around it until evening. Finally, the captain of the guards, who had been watching him, asked in a kindly way either he was looking for something or waiting for someone.

Rabbi Eisik told him of the dream which had brought him from a faraway country. The captain laughed, “And not to please your dream you wore out your shoes to come here! You poor fellow. And as far as having faith in dreams, if I had had it I should have had to go to Cracow and dig for treasure under the stove in the room of a jew - Eisik, son of Yekel! That’s what the dream told me. And imagine what it would have been like; one half of the jews over there are called Eisik, and the other half Yekel!” and he laughed again.

Rabbi Eisik bowed, traveled home, dug up the treasure from under his stove and built the house of prayer which is called Reb Eisik’s Shul. Rabbi Bunam used to add, “take this story to heart and make what it says your own. There is something you cannot find anywhere in the world, not even at the zaddik’s, and there is, nevertheless, a place where you can find it.”

Osho’s commentaries on Hasidism as well as his responses to questions from audience and disciples are unique and inspiring. It gives us an insight into the mysteries of life and death.Osho often tells stories, anecdotes and parables during the course of his talks. To say a thing in a very indirect way he always uses a parable and here is one such parable.

The woman lion tamer had her beasts under perfect control. At her summons, the fiercest lion came meekly to her and took a piece of sugar out of her mouth. The circus crowd marveled - all except one man, Mulla Nasuruddin.
“anybody could do that,” he yelled from the audience.
“would you dare to do it?” the ringmaster yelled back scornfully.
“Certainly,” replied Nasruddin, “I can do it just as well as the lion can.”

Listen to the meaning and never listen to the words. Is the moral of the story.

Osho observes:
Knowledge makes people stupid, it dulls their sensitivity.

If you allow yourself to be dominated by others you will miss your life.

It is not a question of truth whether God is there or not, it is a question of a psychological need.

If you are not bored with your life, it simply shows that you live in a very low state of consciousness.


The selected Hasidic stories included in this book are extremely beautiful. Equally beautiful are the commentaries on these stories by Osho.

Ancient Music in the Pines: In Zen, Mind Suddenly Stops The Way of Effortless Effort

It is through silence that one comes to hear the ancient music in the pines.

The Zen way of life, the way of the spontaneous, effortless effort, the way of intuition is pictured in this book. To the question what the zen way of life is like; lies the answer in the story of Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma, the first Zen patriarch, took Zen from India to China in the sixth century. He came with one shoe on his foot and one shoe on his head. He planted the seed of Zen in China. He is considered as the father of Zen in China. For nine years while he was in China, Bodhidharma sat facing a wall, gazing at a wall. .After nine years he came back to India.

.it is said that his legs withered away sitting and just looking at the wall. People would come and they would try to persuade him, “Look at us. Why are you looking at the wall? And he would say, “Because you are also like a wall. When somebody comes who is really not like a wall, I will look.”
Then one day his successor came. And the successor cut off his hand and gave it to Bodhidharma and said,”Look this way, otherwise I am going to cut off my head.”
He turned, immediately about turned and said, “wait! So you have come. I have been waiting for nine years for you.”

Zen people talk through stories. They have to talk through stories because they cannot create theories and doctrines, they can only tell stories. This book ‘Ancient Music in the Pines’ is the transcript of a series of Osho’s talks to a live audience based on 5 selected Zen stories .Osho also discusses various topics such as : Trust and belief; Boredom and restlessness; Consciousness and concentration; Maturity and immaturity; Scientific truth and religious truth during the course of his talks. Parables, anecdotes, stories and jokes are aplenty in this book. Osho always chooses the right one at the right moment.

Osho always is against the majority. He teaches us a new way of thinking. Given below are some of his views:

Belief is not trust, and the more strongly you say that you believe totally the more you are afraid of the doubt within you.

If you are still fighting with your wife or your husband, your boyfriend or girlfriend, that simply shows that life is still running in it.

If you sit in this world silently, if you live silently, as an alive nothingness, the world will become a paradise.

The ancient music one hears in this book is the eternal music. the soundless sound, the Omkar , the sound of the one hand clapping.

The Secret of Secrets: On the Secret of the Golden Flower (Taoist Teachings on Life and Existence)

The Golden Flower blooms in you when you are utterly empty.

In this book Osho comments on selected excerpts from The Secret of the Golden Flower ( A Chinese Book of life) , which. is considered as one of the most esoteric treatises in the world. It is the Taoist teachings on life and existence. What we call the One-Thousand Petaled Lotus in India, they call the Golden Flower.in China.

The Golden Flower is the light. ‘The Secret of the Golden Flower’ says: Light is the basic constituent of this whole existence. This whole existence is a light-flower. Without light, life is going to remain unintelligent and dark.

“This light, this flower of light , these petals of light fill all the spaces outside and also inside.”

Love is the movement of the light out of your being. Awareness is the reverse movement: the backward movement of the light to the source again, returning to the source. The Secret of the golden Flower is based on this backward movement of light energy.

The book ‘The Secret of the Golden Flower’ says: energy going outwards becomes dual- yin and yang, darkness and light, life and death.,but if you bring it backwards it becomes again one - it loses duality, it becomes non-dual. It also says that everything is so deeply connected with everything else and nothing can exist apart. Your two eyes make all things dual and polar, and because of these two eyes you cannot see the oneness of existence.

Tao believes that everything happens when it is needed. Tao means the way with no goal..So become a river and nothing is needed. All that is needed is to drop the idea that you are the doer, drop the idea that you have to attain to some goal, drop the idea that you have to reach somewhere, you be just a dry leaf in the wind - and then all is good, and then life is blissful. You will live eternally in purposelessness. That’s what The Secret of the golden flower says. When a Zen Master was asked, “How do you live? What is the secret of your constant joy?”
He said, “Not much of a secret, a simple phenomenon: when I feel hungry I eat and when I feel tired I sleep.” This is living purposelessly:. This is living moment-to-moment - with no plan. When hungry one eats, when tired one sleeps. He takes things as they come.

The most important things in the great Tao are the words: ‘action through non-action’.
Lu-Tsu says,
One has to learn action through non-action.
But when no idea arises,the right ideas come..
When no ideas arise then whatsoever you do is the right thing.

By commenting on ‘The Secret of the Golden Flower’ ,Osho is not bringing a new truth in the world, but only expressing the truth in a different way.. There are 31 chapters in this book spreading over 672 pages , of which 16 chapters are set apart for Osho’s responses to questions from audience and disciples During the question answer session, Osho discusses various topics which include Joy, misery and bliss; Love, life and sannyas; Sex and rape; Aloneness and loneliness; Politics and politicians; Philosophy; Neurosis, Celebration etc. Osho also uses stories, parables and jokes to say something in an indirect way. Given below are some of Osho’s observations ::

Contentment is natural to the woman, discontent is natural to the man

When you have everything else, only then do you start looking for God.

There are not good and bad habits: all habits are bad. Remain without habits, live without habits.

God has been waiting at your door for long, knocking, but you don’t listen.

My life is more precious than your temple, because it is the alive temple of God.

Osho beautifully presents in this book the secret of the Golden Flower bloom in China.