Nobody is Perfect

We have lost touch with who we are and how we want to live. It started at birth. From birth we are molded according to the beliefs and ideals of others, and our own potential is ignored. It needs immense courage to go your own way, leaving the crowd behind. The moment you do it you are taking responsibility for your life in your own hands. Osho reminds us that it is a step worth taking.

Being loose and natural will give you a spontaneous awareness, rather than making an effort to reach a certain goal. No effort is going to succeed because the cause of all misery is the doer, the ego, our idea of self. Osho only teaches awareness. Suppression is not the way to buddhahood. Simply relax and be whatsoever you are - and awareness will come by itself.

In this provocative talk, Osho starts with our assumption that we are interested, maybe even passionately interested, in knowing the truth - and he tears it to shreds. He goes back in history with razor sharp clarity to illustrate our long-time avoidance of the truth, and our need to hide out in illusion.

Ordinarily when we read a title or headline “The Nature of Fear”, we don’t move into a space of love – but instead think of moments in our life when we experienced fear. Yet in this talk Osho describes love as the most potent remedy to fear as he takes us on a journey through the multidimensional layers of love, the antidote of antidotes.

Challenging the religious concept of God the creator, Osho invites us to consider that everything in existence is comprised of "something" - call it God or godliness, matter or electricity, ABC or the divine. What is important is being willing to recognize our own inner godliness or divinity. Dangerous? Osho goes on to speak about what it means to live dangerously.

Here Osho deals with the difference between the intellectual, logical mind and the more encompassing realm of spirit or intuition. Mind knows reality through logic while intuition is how the spirit experiences reality. Osho describes the three different levels of the ladder of consciousness: the lowest and the first is instinct; the second, the middle, is intellect; and the third, the highest and most subtle, intuition.

Here Osho reminds us that the world is a cosmos not a chaos. Then why do we experience it as chaotic? Because we experience the world through our mind, and the mind is by its very nature chaotic. The way out of this chaotic mess is through meditation. It is through meditation that you can experience life in all its mystery without the filters if the mind. Through cathartic meditation techniques in particular you can dissolve the chaos and create space for more celebration.

Humans have an inbuilt drive to search for their inner power and potentiality. This search is the search for life itself. We are here, we have life - but we don't know what life really is. We can feel our energy but don't know where this energy comes from and to what goal this energy is going. We are that energy; we have glimpses of its true source and our connection to it, and those glimpses keep us going even when it seems we will never find what we are seeking - but still we do not know what that energy is.

Only once in the history of human consciousness, says Osho, has a thing like Zen come into being. In Zen: Its History and Teachings, the noted mystic explains that Zen has no rituals, no chanting, no mantras, no scriptures - only short, evocative parables and teachings that make it ideal for the modern man. Using his characteristic humorous, encouraging style, Osho guides through the origins and development of this seminal spiritual tradition that is neither religion nor dogma nor creed.

Based in a deep understanding Osho responds to a very personal question related to issues of suicide. "In this neurotic world, if you are sane, sensitive, intelligent, either you have to go mad, or you have to commit suicide – or you have to become a meditator, a seeker." This new audiobook provides a sample of how difficult appearing issues, which usually create a kind of helplessness in people, can be turned around to an incredible opportunity for personal growth.

Osho responds to questions and speaks about psychological concepts as presented by Freud, Jung, Adler and Assagioli and others, comparing their theories with the Eastern practice of meditation. While psychologist and physicians approach the body and the mind separately as illness, Osho exams the wider human condition and the underlying issue which he calls a "spiritual illness". He points out that every individual longs for freedom and is surrounded by restrictive systems that deny this fundamental right.

The Magic of Self-Respect is the second volume in a series titled Authentic Living. So much of the experience of everyday life, says Osho in this insightful guide, is shaped by religious and social conditioning - and we are not even aware of the fact.

Crisis is a very valuable time. When everything is in chaos, nothing is static, nothing is secure. Who knows what is going to happen next? In such a chaotic moment you are free, you can change. You can escape from your inner prison and attain to the innermost core of your being. In times of great crisis enlightenment is more accessible. The time can be used for your individual growth.

The message of Tantra endorses Osho's understanding that only through total acceptance of ourselves can we grow. Osho speaks on Tantra meditation techniques (let go and surrender), and tantric love and spirituality in sex. Here the Tantra message - don't live a repressed life, otherwise you don't live at all - is made accessible and understandable to modern man, who will learn to live a life of expression, creativity, and joy.

With modern media. there is an impression that this world is becoming more chaotic than ever before. However, according to Osho’s understanding, the world has not changed but remains the same: upside down, crazy, insane. The fact that in the last 3,000 years humanity has fought 5,000 wars is evidence enough but what has changed is an awareness that we are crazy, that something is basically wrong with humanity.