TAO THE GOLDEN GATE - Talks on Ko Hsuan’s The Classics of Purity

If you don’t love yourself you cannot love anybody else in the world.

Tao which means the ultimate principle that binds the whole existence together is another name for God. Buddha’s word for Tao is Dharma. The Golden Gate, the Taoist way of saying God, is an opening into existence. Tao says, “Empty yourself totally, become a nothingness.” and “if you are empty, the door opens within you.” This book is the transcript of Osho’s talks on Ko Hsuan’s ‘The Classics of Purity’ which is one of the smallest treatises ever written and is considered as the first mystic treatise ever written down as a book. Ko Hsuan was preceded by Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu and Lieh Tzu.

By purity Ko Hsuan means innocence. Ko Hsuan’s sutra says, the soul of man loves purity and his mind loves stillness, but his desires draw him into activity. It also says, when the mind is in a thoughtless state one will be able to see the purity of his inner being.

Tao teaches non-ambitiousness, powerlessness and effortless naturalness. It does not believe in effort as Yoga does. All that is essential is natural, and to live your whole life in natural way is the only teaching of Tao. According to Osho, Tao is the most profound insight that has ever been achieved on the earth.

This book contains a total of 10 chapters of which only 3 are set apart for Osho’s commentaries on Ko Hsuan’s sutras. The remaining chapters are solely devoted to Osho’s answers to questions from his disciples. In the backdrop of the queries Osho discusses a number of topics which include discipline and repression; husband - wife relationship; science,religion and spirituality etc.etc.

Some of Osho’s observations:

I declare that God is imperfect because imperfection means evolution, imperfection means life, imperfection means flow, growth.

Similarity is not equality. And if women start becoming like men they will never be equal to men, remember.

Marriage is a plastic rose; love is a real rose. Grow real rose in your life.

I don’t want any followers because I don’t want to be surrounded by fools.

Osho loves telling jokes, stories etc. during his discourse. Here is a joke to illustrate the futility of borrowed knowledge in a real life situation:

A thief and a theologian decided to escape from the prison.
As the thief climbed over the wall, the guard heard some rattling. “Who’s there?”
“Meow”, said the thief, imitating a cat, and passed safely.
Up came the theologian and again the guard heard some noise. “Who’s there?”
“It’s nothing,” answered the theologian. “Just another cat!”

One more joke:
A new transit sign was put in front of the school. It read: “Drive Slowly. Do Not Kill a Student!”
The following day there was another sign under it scribbled in a childish writing: “Wait for the Teacher!”

THE WHITE LOTUS Talks on the Zen Master Bodhidharma

Life is a playful creativity with no goal as such.

In this book Osho comments on Bodhidharma who is considered as the first patriarch of Zen. Osho’s commentaries are based on a disciple’s notes on the dialogue between Bodhidharma and an unknown disciple. Bodhidharma speaks the essence of Buddha through these dialogues . He says,”Drop liking and disliking. Stop choosing, stop projecting, and the world disappears.” To him “God is both light and darkness, life and death - that God is and is not, and He is both together simultaneously.” Bodhidharma also says, “ Let us have a totally different mind, which thinks not, desires not, dreams not. Then you enter the world of the buddhas.”

Bodhidharma has said the ultimate truth:There is nothing to be attained, no goal to be reached, no target to be arrived at. Osho qualifies those answers of Bodhidharma to the disciple to one single phrase: ‘choiceless awareness.’
Here are some of Osho’s observations:

A disciplined life is rigid, frozen, cold, dead. You simply go on doing things mechanically.
Art is concerned with your response: not what is there but what is inside you.

What was right for one person two thousand years ago can’t be right for you today.
Every person in his old age starts thinking that his childhood was very beautiful.

Osho answers diverse questions from audience and seekers, which appear in alternate chapters, on various topics like sanyas and discipline; believing and knowing; fear and love; innocence and seriousness; religion and pornography . Whatever be the topic of discussion he does answer it with utmost clarity and uniqueness. Osho also tells a number of small stories, parables and anecdotes during the course of his talks. Jokes like the following are also his favourites:

A little boy went to school for the first time, and the teacher explained that if he wanted to go to the washroom he should raise two fingers. The boy looking puzzled, asked, “How’s that going to stop it?
***
This happened in the auditorium of a faculty of medicine....
The well-known professor begins his first course with this declaration: “To be a good practitioner, two qualities are required. The first is, you should not be disgusted with anything. The second is, you should be able to observe accurately.
“As an illustration of this, watch. You see this age-old corpse lying on the table? I dip one finger in the anus of the corpse, and then you see, I take it out, put it in my mouth and suck it.”
The whole class is horrified.
The professor goes on, “Now, who of you will be able to do this?”
A very zealous student comes up and, without hesitation, dips his finger into the corpse’s anus and sucks it.
A great silence follows this performance.
The professor congratulates the student, “Very good, young man, you certainly have the first quality required to be a good doctor. That is, not to be disgusted with anything. However, the second quality is missing: you have no sense of observation at all. You see, it was this finger, the index, that I dipped. And it was this finger, the medius, that I put into my mouth!”
***
The white lotus, says Osho, is a beautiful symbol. It contains all colours yet it seems to be colourless ; it lives in the water and yet remains untouched by the water. ‘The White Lotus’ which contains Osho’s commentary on Bodhidharma is undoubtedly a beautiful book.