Life consists of small things; they become great if you love.
Zen Buddhists say that after Buddha became enlightened he did not utter a single word, and they also say that he has said five thousand and forty-eight truths. Buddha might have tried hard to express the truth and missed, again and again because the very nature of truth itself is inexpressible. That may be the reason why it is being said that Buddha uttered five thousand and forty-eight separate truths during his lifetime. Zen monks also say that Buddha uttered infinite lies - because whatsoever is uttered becomes a lie. This book is the transcribed version of Osho’s discourses on Zen in the backdrop of five Zen parables.
Zen means dhyan, meditation which, according to Osho,is something that can be found only when there is no ego. Nirvana is freedom and it is the whole performance of life. Osho says: “God, nirvana, Tao, truth all are just meaningless sounds; indicative, pointing towards the infinite, towards the beyond - fingers pointing to the moon.” Osho also says that the world is a nightmare because of desiring, and hence nirvana becomes the last nightmare. The whole teaching of Zen is: “to be ordinary, to be so ordinary that the very desire to be extraordinary disappears.”
Osho tells a number of jokes, parables and anecdotes during the course of his talks. Here is an interesting anecdote:
A man was brooding over his beer at the bar, and said to his friend, “I tell you, Mulligan, I don’t know what I am going to do about my wife.”
“What is it now?”
"The same old thing - money. She is always asking for money. Only last Thursday she wanted ten dollars, yesterday she was around asking for twenty, and this morning, if you please, she demanded fifty dollars!”
“What does she do with all the money, for heaven’s sake?” asked the friend.
“There is no way finding out. I never give her any.”
Osho’s answers to questions from disciples and seekers are included in alternate chapters. His answer to a question - what will happen if the Eastern mind meets with the Western mind - is worth noticing. He says: the Western mind is active and time conscious whereas the Eastern mind is passive, almost lazy and relaxed in eternity. If the Eastern mind and the Western mind meet, that will be the greatest synthesis of the male and the female mind, of the passive and the active mind. It will be simply humanity - whole, total.
Some of Osho’s observations:
If you are happy being a beggar, only then can you be happy being an emperor.
When you know death is coming, go and meet it at the gate. Let death be welcomed.
A dead routine gives the feeling that everything is perfectly right. Underneath, everything is in chaos. They are missing life.
All that you think about yourself is others’ opinions that you have collected.
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