WALKING IN ZEN SITTING IN ZEN

                               

Religion is not a desire for God, it is an experience of godliness.

Zen is another name for meditation; it is the meeting of Buddha’s and Lao Tzu’s experiences. According to Osho “ Zen is neither Taoist nor Buddhist; it is both and neither.” Osho’s responses to questions from his disciples are transcribed in this book. He often quotes Yoka, a great Zen master, while responding to questions and his answers are mostly centered around Zen and Yoka. The title of this book itself is derived from a Yoka quote, “A man of Zen walks in Zen and sits in Zen.”

Zen says: “This is all. There is no other life, there is no other existence.” It says that there is nothing; no God, no soul, no paradise. Not even nothingness is there; so one has to get rid of nothingness too.

The man of zen ,Yoka says, is absolutely conscious - no greed, no anger, no jealousy, no ambition. He goes alone; he walks consciously, sits consciously: walking in Zen, sitting in Zen.

Osho responds to a number of questions on diverse topics with great insight and clarity. “Life,” Osho says, “is not a problem to be solved and it cannot be reduced to questions; it is a mystery, unanswerable, insoluble.”

Jokes, parables and anecdotes are an integral part of Osho’s talks. Shared here are two of his jokes: 

Skolnik, the Scardale skinflint, awoke one morning to find that during the night his wife had died. After one glance at the stark form lying there beside him, he leaped out of bed and ran into the hall. 

“Daisy,” he called down to the maid in the kitchen. “Come to the foot of the stairs, quick!”

“Yes,” she cried. “What is it?”

“Only one egg for breakfast this morning!”                                                                             

                                                     *                                                

Last one night, Manuel, staggering home drunk, passed through a cemetery, stumbled and fell on the ground.

Just in front of his nose he saw a hand sticking out of a grave and a voice cried, “Help me!” Help me! Let me out - I’m alive!”

The portugese shakily covering the hand with earth, replied, “No, you’re not alive - just badly buried.”

Some of Osho’s observations:

 Knowledge destroys wonder, destroys the capacity to feel awe.

 There is only one freedom: the freedom from all goals.

 A non-ambitious man never feels frustrated.

 If soldiers are allowed to be intelligent, wars will disappear from the earth. 

You get married from lack of judgment; get divorced from lack of patience; you remarry for lack of memory.

 Tail piece:

“I had a funny dream last night, Mum.” 

“Did you?”

“I dreamed I was awake, but when I woke up I found I was asleep!”