2020/08/30

Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic eBook: Osho: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store



Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic eBook: Osho: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store











Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic Kindle Edition

by Osho (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 out of 5 stars 88 ratings

Understand the life and teachings of Osho, one of the twentieth century’s most unusual gurus and philosophers, in Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic.





In 1990, Osho prepared for his departure from the body that had served him for fifty-nine years—in the words of his attending physician—“as calmly as though he were packing for a weekend in the country.” Who was this man, known as the Sex Guru, the “self-appointed bhagwan” (Rajneesh), the Rolls-Royce Guru, the Rich Man’s Guru, and simply the Master?


Drawn from nearly five thousand hours of Osho’s recorded talks, this is the story of his youth and education, his life as a professor of philosophy and years of travel teaching the importance of meditation, and the true legacy he sought to leave behind: a religion-less religion centered on individual awareness and responsibility and the teaching of “Zorba the Buddha,” a celebration of the whole human being.


Osho challenges readers to examine and break free of the conditioned belief systems and prejudices that limit their capacity to enjoy life in all its richness. He has been described by the Sunday Times of London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by Sunday Mid-Day (India) as one of the ten people—along with Gandhi, Nehru, and Buddha—who have changed the destiny of India. Since his death in 1990, the influence of his teachings continues to expand, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world.

Length: 340 pages Word Wise: Enabled Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Page Flip: Enabled Language: English










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Review

A delightful glimpse into the life of one of the most outrageous twentieth-century spiritual leaders...entertaining, insightful, and for some, perhaps, even enlightening. "BOOKLIST"




Followers and seekers will find this a profound and playful collection of stories and teachings. "Amazon.com""







"A delightful glimpse into the life of one of the most outrageous twentieth-century spiritual leaders...entertaining, insightful, and for some, perhaps, even enlightening." --BOOKLIST




"Followers and seekers will find this a profound and playful collection of stories and teachings." --Amazon.com




--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Author

Osho was one of the most provocative spiritual teachers of our time. In the 1970s he captured the attention of young people who wanted to experience meditation and transformation. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

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File Size : 1187 KB

Print Length : 340 pages

Word Wise : Enabled

Language: : English

Text-to-Speech : Enabled

Enhanced Typesetting : Enabled




4.6 out of 5 stars 183




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4.6 out of 5 stars

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IshaRa

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVED this book

Reviewed in Australia on 15 May 2015

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I LOVED this book...there were no boring bits, and it was fascinating to hear Osho describe what it was like to go through enlightenment in his own words. OK so the actual book wasn't written by Osho himself, but compiled from the HUGE mountain of recordings and transcriptions Osho left on his death, but whoever put it together did a masterful job of choosing the juicy parts and keeping the story going. I had MANY "aha moments" reading this, and could feel blocked energies opening in my body just from reading the book. I could also feel Osho reading over my shoulder and laughing a lot!! If you enjoy Osho's words and his unique perspectives on life and living, I definitely recommend this book.




Top international reviews

James

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 October 2018

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I came at this with low expectations but he writes in a very engaging way and it is a good read. Clearly he is a bit of a fantasist but he does know a thing or two about spirituality as well. Don't think of him as a guru but as an entertaining man with some interesting ideas and a good portion of Buddhist knowledge.

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MANJUNATH HIRENNAVAR

5.0 out of 5 stars GREATEST MASTER EVER BORN ON THIS EARTH

Reviewed in India on 23 February 2016

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"LOVE YOU OSHO. PLEASE COME BACK"

OSHO IS REALLY MASTER OF MASTER. I REALLY WEPT FOR HOW OUR SOCIETY TREATED THE GREATEST MASTER & IN THE END HOW UNITED STATES BEHAVES WITH HIM. I FEEL SHAME ON FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. THATS NOT AT ALL THE WAY TO TREAT A GREATEST BUDDHA WHO LOVES HUMANITY LIKE THAT, AND WHO WANTED TO LIBERATE HUMANITY FROM RELIGIOUS SLAVERY. AS FAR ME OSHO IS THE MASTER WITH GREAT COMPASSION TO HUMAN BEING, THATS WHY HE WAS ABLE TO DO ALL THAT IS POSSIBLE BY HIM TO LIBERATE HUMAN BEINGS. HE COULD HAVE PLAYED SAFE AND GOT GREAT HONOR OF ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD EASILY BUT HE DID NOT. ENLIGHTENING AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE WAS HIS ONLY MOTTO AND HE TOOK GREATEST RISKS FOR THAT. I REALLY FEEL GREAT GRATTITUDE TO HIM AND I THANK EXISTANCE FOR GIVING GREAT MASTER LIKE HIM TO THIS PLANET EARTH...

35 people found this helpful




5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating reading especially for a seeker

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 May 2015

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Totally refutes the idea that Osho was a cult leader. Full of ideas on rebelling against everything that limits the joy of life, finding your truth your own way and doubting all things except your own existence.

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Paul

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 September 2011

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Excellent book detailing the life of the controversial author, cult leader and all round showman. The autobiography fits in with other writings of Osho, interweaving spirituality, details of his own life and a plethora of eastern philosophies.

Anand Gupta

5.0 out of 5 stars Soulful and worldly!

Reviewed in India on 19 July 2016

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This will be the closest one can get to an autobiography of Osho, though he didn't actually write or dictate it for the purpose. In some sense, I think his final evolution was beyond cause-effect one can derive from a biography and yet, there were open clues to make out the person he was in public life. Perhaps, these life events were an excuse, a sequence that sort of helped in uncovering the inner being, the true soul, as he motivates everyone to realize.

Evidently, he was a rebel from the very beginning, but not because he wanted to be one. He lived as a free spirit and ferociously defended any attempts by others to contain it. He was often controversial, not always because he wanted to create sensation; rather it was to jolt people from their perennial slumber and to think afresh! The book is a good compilation of his own narrations of this life and account of other events unfolding around him. A nice read for anyone who feels fallible as a human and strives to rise beyond the depths we often encounter in life.

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Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic


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Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic


by Osho


4.28 · Rating details · 1,005 ratings · 73 reviews


An indispensable work for understanding the life and teachings of one of the most unusual mystics and philosophers of our time.






Ten years have past since, in the words of his attending physician, Osho prepared for his departure from the body that had served him for fifty-nine years "as calmly as though he were packing for a weekend in the country." This volume is recognition that the time has come to provide a historical and biographical context for understanding Osho and his work. Who was this man, known as the Sex Guru, the "self-appointed bhagwan" (Rajneesh), the Rolls-Royce Guru, the Rich Man's Guru, and simply the Master?






Drawn from nearly five thousand hours of Osho's recorded talks, this is the story of his youth and education, his life as a professor of philosophy and years of travel teaching the importance of meditation, and the true legacy he sought to leave behind: a religionless religion centered on individual awareness and responsibility and the teaching of "Zorba the Buddha," a celebration of the whole human being. (less)


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Paperback, 336 pages


Published June 9th 2001 by St. Martin's Griffin (first published November 27th 2000)


Original TitleAutobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic


ISBN0312280718 (ISBN13: 9780312280710)


Edition LanguageEnglish


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Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic


Osho: Autobiografia De Un Mistico Espiritualmente Incorrecto


Autobiografia de Um Místico Espiritualmente Incorreto


Autobiography Of A Spiritually Incorrect Mystic


AUTOBIOGRAFÍA DE UN MÍSTICO ESPIRITUALMENTE INCORRECTO


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Average rating4.28 · Rating details · 1,005 ratings · 73 reviews






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Melanie


Sep 18, 2007Melanie rated it liked it


Recommends it for: people looking for a guru


Well, I had heard a bit about Osho as I am in the whole New Age thing, but I have to say, this guy is so full of himself, it's hard to see past it.


Osho was the guru who built a huge ashram in Oregon in the late 80s and was arrested for dipping his hands in the cookie jar more than once. He was known to live a lavish lifestyle and make no apologies about it. The book is his story, and the whole time, he just keeps reminding readers about how great he is.


To be fair, some of the things he has to say are important: "You are being taught from the very childhood not to be yourself, but the way it is said is very clever, cunning. They say, 'You have to become like Krishna, like Buddha,' and they pain Buddha and Krishna in such a way that a great desire arises in you to be a Buddha, to be a Jesus, to be a Krishna. This desire is the root cause of your misery...Try to understand the point. If it is against your will, even in paradise you will be in hell. But following your natural course of being, even in hell you will be in paradise. Paradise is where your real being flowers. Hell is where you are crushed and something else is imposed on you"






Here here!


So a mixed bag. Good for reading in small doses while in the potty.


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flag10 likes · Like · comment · see review


Priya


Oct 11, 2015Priya rated it really liked it


"When a dewdrop slips from a lotus leaf into the ocean, it does not find that it is part of the ocean, it finds it is the ocean."






I picked this book out of curiosity to know what goes into the making of an enlightened master and I got my answer. It was a delightful read. It made me question a lot of things I took for granted and has left a lasting impact.


flag6 likes · Like · comment · see review


Claudius Odermatt


May 23, 2013Claudius Odermatt rated it it was amazing


Recommends it for: Those Seeking Truth, spiritual and religious individuals or those wanting a good laugh


I personally have immensely enjoyed this book, packed with great insight on life and 'god' were at times you may question yourself but then a couple pages later you burst into sheer laughter at the madness (especially when he goes on talking about his 93 RR's). Osho has strived for his whole life to get the 'truth' out to those who truly seek in such a way that he will help you realize the golden gems hidden within you as he understands humanity.






Having Osho share with us his experience you will get a glimpse into his life's story (Amusing and interesting, especially during his University years) and allows you to develop a better understand of his teachings and his very nature through his own words, not the medias or what you have heard online.


His overall vision was to have one religion for the world, science. Now the very definition of science is 'knowing' however the world only focuses one end of science, the external and not its polar opposite, internal. The science of looking within. Both are needed. Along with LOVE. <3


Alll in all i would much rather not say too much about this book as it will take away its authenticity with my words, read it for yourself, one i would consider re-reading.


Thankful to have stumbled upon Osho and his books, especially this one.


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flag4 likes · Like · comment · see review


Michael Sinai


May 25, 2012Michael Sinai rated it it was amazing


Autobiographies from enlightened beings make for some of the most interesting and inspirational reading. This one is right up there at the top of the list.


flag3 likes · Like · comment · see review


Kavya


Oct 23, 2012Kavya rated it really liked it


This is one autobiography one wants to read if she wants to know more about the person himself than the trivias surrounding his life. This book doesn't have any great details all the people who came in his life (for those who see a mention, sometimes even the basic like his/her name is skipped) to my utter relief !!. In order to build enough context, most of the biographies go in depth talking about the inane details starting form the person's schooling to what not. But this book doesn't has any of it. The context is set by speaking in the language of spirituality;






This book revolves around the life of a man. This book is a small effort in presenting the man himself as it raises more doubts in my mind about him than it clears. His journey pre,during and post enlightenment , re-affirms certain notions to me; I see a sync in his experience and some others narrators (authors whom I have read in the past) who quote about their journey of spiritual enlightenment.






Osho being osho is still remains a mystic to me. (less)


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Hlyan


May 29, 2017Hlyan rated it it was amazing


In this autobiography, Osho gets very personal. His recount of his childhood, his life as a college student and professor are so amusing, funny and also emboldening. Then his life as a spiritual master becomes rather exciting. When he went to America, it feels like I was reading a suspense or a crime novel. I already knew what was going to happen to the commune but I wanted to know his recount of the events, how he perceived them, what he learned and how he responded - and they were really heartening.






You will get not only glimpses of this spiritually incorrect mystic but also a taste of his philosophy, his teachings, and his bold and daring visions. (less)


flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review


Narendra Singh


Dec 19, 2008Narendra Singh rated it it was amazing


Recommends it for: Anyone who is seeker, or want to know about Osho


Recommended to Narendra by: I just got it in book store


This is a very good book. I like the book very much becasuse it tell much about religion, about osho and about being yourself. The line in this book which is like the most is "Be in the world, but don't be of it. Live in the world, but don't allow the world to live in you"


flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review


Tejvinderbrar


Jun 23, 2014Tejvinderbrar added it


Osho is spitually correct and always was he was an enlighyened master. In fact a master of masters. He had expeirnced enlightenment to its hightest level possible by man. he never was and never will be "spitually incorrect"


flag2 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review


Justin


Sep 19, 2008Justin rated it did not like it


Shelves: spirituality, nonfiction, personal-faith-journeys-etc


Osho apparently experienced genuinely high spiritual states at one point, but he came under the influence of negative forces later in his life. He is best left alone.


flag2 likes · Like · 1 comment · see review


Swarna Pawar


Feb 02, 2016Swarna Pawar rated it it was amazing


It's a masterpiece about a master who took on the rotten belief systems. He lives on & his teaching will inspire people forever (less)


flag2 likes · Like · comment · see review


Nick


Jul 21, 2013Nick rated it really liked it


"consciousness continues. The pilgrimmage of consciousness is endless. So what is happening in the consciousness, inside the body, will go on happening outside the body. That is a simple understanding." (xvii)






"But to me, spirituality has a totally different connotation. It needs an honest individuality. It does not allow any kind of dependence.


It creates a freedom for itself, whatever the cost. It is never in the crowd, but alone, because the crowd has never found any truth.The truth has been found only in people's aloneness." (3)






"Spiritual, to me, simply means finding one's self. I never allowed anybody to do this work on my behalf--because nobody can do this work on your behalf;


you have to do it yourself." (3)






"In the past there were children married before they were ten. Sometimes children were even married when they were still in their mother's womb. Just two friends would


decide: 'Our wives are pregnant, so if one gives birth to a boy and the other gives birth to a girl, then the marriage is promised.' The question of asking the boy and girl does not arise at all; they are not even born yet! But if one is a boy and another is a girl, the marriage is settled. And people kept their word.


My own mother was married when she was seven years old. My father was not more than ten years old, and he had no understanding of what was happening. I used to ask him,


'What was the most significant thing that you enjoyed in your wedding?' He said, 'Riding on the horse.' Naturally! For the first time he was dressed like a king, with a knife hanging by his side, and he was sitting on the horse and everybody was walking around him. He enjoyed it tremendously. That was the thing he enjoyed most about his wedding. A honeymoon was out of the question. Where will you send a ten-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl for a honeymoon? So in India the honeymoon never used to exist, and in the past, nowhere else in the world either." (5)






"Silence has its vibe; it is infectious." (7)






"The moment you see someone dependent on you in any way, you start indoctrinating." (10)






"in fact, if you believe in any religion, you cannot meditate. Religion is an interference with your meditation. Meditation needs no God, no heaven, no hell, no fear of punishment, and no allurement of pleasure. Meditation has nothing to do with the mind; meditation is beyond it, whereas religion is only mind, it is within mind." (10)






"as far as religion is concerned, everybody is lying. Christians, Jews, Jainas, Mohammedans--everybody is lying. They all talk of God, heaven and hell, angels and all kinds of nonsense,


without knowing anything at all." (13)






"Nobody should lie--to a child, at least, it is unforgiveable. Children have been exploited for centuries just because they are willing to trust. You can lie to them very easily, and they will trust you. If you are a father, a mother, they will think you are bound to be true. That's how the whole of humanity lives in corruption, in a very slippery, thick mud of lies told to children for centuries. If we can do just one thing, a simple thing--not lie to children and to confess to them our ignorance--then we will be religious and we will put them on the path of religion." (13)






"It is a scientific fact that people who eat less live longer." (14)


http://www.pbs.org/safarchive/4_class...


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles...


http://www.askmen.com/sports/news/21_...






"Unless one is a born troublemaker one cannot become a buddha."(18)






"It is never too late to change. If you see what you have chosen is not right, change it. In fact, be quick, because you are getting old. Don't say 'I am old, so I cannot change.' A young man can affort not to change but not an old man--and you are old enough." (19)






"Stop all this nonsense! Nobody ever changes unless one changes right now. Don't say 'I will, I will.' Either change or don't change, but be clear." (19)






"Unless one is rebellious, one is not religious. Rebellion is the very foundation of religion." (20)






"Separation has its own poetry, one just has to learn its language, and one has to live in its depth. Then out of sadness itself comes a new kind of joy...which looks almost impossible, but it happens." (20)






"Death can only be encountered in the death of a loved one. When love plus death surrounds you, there is a transformation, an immense mutation, as if a new being is born. You are never the same again. But people do not love, and because they do not love they can't experience death the way I experienced it. Without love, death does not give you the keys to existence. With love, it hands over to you the keys to all that is." (25)






"Love with freedom--if you have it, you are a king or a queen. That is the real kingdom of God--love with freedom. Love gives you the roots into the earth, and freedom gives you the wings." (25)






"I want to be an educated vagabond,not a vagabond out of weakness. I don't want to do anything in my life out of weakness--because I could not be anything else, that's why I'm a vagabond--that is not my way. First I want to prove to the world that I can be anything that I want to be,still I choose to be a vagabond-- out of strength. Then there is a respectability even if you are a vagabond, because respectability has nothing to do with your vocation, your profession; respectability has something to do with acting out of strength, clarity, and intelligence." (28)






"I take direct action. I don't believe in unnecessary talk." (31)






"I never missed a single opportunity to sharpen my intelligence. I turned every possible opportunity toward sharpening my intelligence, individuality. You can understand now, looking at the whole picture, but in fragments...The people who came into contact with me of course were unable to understand what kind of man I am--crazy, nuts--but I was going about it very methodically." (32)






"Only once in a while a man becomes a wild human being. I am now; Buddha was, Zarathustra was, Jesus was--" (33)






"Whenever you are in love with flowing things, moving things, you have a different vision of life. Modern man lives with asphalt roads, cement and concrete buildings. These are nouns, remember, these are not verbs. The skyscrapers don't go on growing; the road remains the same whether it is night or day, whether it is a full-moon night or a night absolutely dark. It doesn't matter to the asphalt road, it does not matter to the cement and concrete buildings.






Man has created a world of nouns and he has become encaged in his own world. He has forgotten the world of the trees, the world of the rivers, the world of the mountain and the stars. They don't know of any nouns, they have not heard about nouns; they only know verbs. Everything is a process. God is not a thing but a process." (39)






"Although Jesus says, 'man cannot live by bread alone,' man cannot live without bread either. He needs the bread. It may not be enough, he needs many more things, but many more things come only later on; first comes the bread. Man certainly can live by bread alone. He will not be much of a man -- but who is much of a man? But nobody can live without bread, not even Jesus." (40)






"I was going into the mosque, and they allowed me. Christians, Mohammedans--these are converting religions; they want people from other folds to come into their fold. They were very happy seeing me there--but the same question: 'Would you like to become like Hazrat Muhammad?' I was surprised to know that nobody was interested in my just being myself, helping me to be myself.






Everybody was interested in somebody else, the ideal, their ideal, and I have only to be a carbon copy? God has not given me any original face? I have to live with a borrowed face, with a mask, knowing that I don't have any face at all? Then how can life be a joy? Even your face is not yours.






If you are not yourself, how can you be happy?" (41)






"You are taught from the very childhood not to be yourself, but the way it is said is very clever, cunning. They say, 'You have to become like Krishna, like Buddha,' and they paint Buddha and Krishna in such a way that a great desire arises in you to be a Buddha, to be a Jesus, to be a Krishna. This desire is the root cause of your misery.






I was also told the same things that you have been told, but from my very childhood I made it a point that whatsoever the consequence I was not going to be deviated from myself. Right or wrong I am going to remain myself. Even if I end up in hell I will at least have the satisfaction that I followed my own course of life. If it leads to hell, then it leads to hell. Following others advice


and ideals and disciplines, even if I end up in paradise I will not be happy there, because I have been forced against my will.






Try to understand the point. If it is against your will, even in paradise you will be in hell. But following your natural course of being, even in hell you will be in paradise. Paradise is where your real being flowers. Hell is where you are crushed and something else is imposed upon you." (41)






'it is very difficult for the old traditionalists, the orthodox people, to accept laughter. You cannot laugh in a church." (44)






"It is good to fall a few times, get hurt, stand up again--to go astray a few times. There is no harm. The moment you find you have gone astray, come back. Life has to be learned through trial and error." (46)






"Life is the basis of all worries. When you are going to die anyway one day, why worry?


...If you accept death, there is no fear. If you cling to life, then every fear is there...


If you accept death, a distance is created. Life moves far away with all its worries, irritations, everything. I died, in a way, but I came to know that something deathless is there.


Once you accept death totally, you become aware of it." (57)






"When nobody expects anything from you, you fall into a silence. The world has accepted you; now there is no expectation from you." (61)






"That one year of tremendous pull drew me farther and farther away from people, so much so that I would not recognize my own mother, I might not recognize my own father; there were times I forgot my own name. I tried hard, but there was no way to find what my name used to be. Naturally, to everybody else during that one year I was mad. But to me that madness became meditation, and the peak of that madness opened the door." (63)






"When you first enter the world of no-mind it looks like madness--the "dark night of the soul," the mad night of the soul. All the religions have noted the fact; hence all the religions insist on finding a master before you start entering into the world of no-mind--because he will be there to help you, to support you. You will be falling apart but he will be there to encourage you, to give you hope. He will be there to interpret the new to you. That is the meaning of a master: to interpret that which cannot be interpreted, to indicate that which cannot be said, to show that which is inexpressible. He will be there, he will devise methods and ways for you to continue on the path--otherwise you might start escaping from it. And remember, there is no escape. If you start escaping you will simply go berserk. Sufis call such people the mastas. In India they are known as mad paramhansas. You cannot go back because it is no longer there, and you cannot go ahead because it is all dark. You are stuck. That's why Buddha says 'Fortunate is the man who has found a master.'" (64)






"I was working alone on myself with no friends, no fellow travelers, no commune. To work alone, one is bound to get into many troubles, because there are moments that can only be called dark nights of he soul. So dark and dangerous, it seems as if you have come to the last breath of your life, this is death, nothing else. That experience is a nervous breakdown. Facing death, with nobody to support and encourage you...nobody to say not to be worried, that this will pass away. Or, 'This is only a nightmare, and the morning is very close. The darker the night, the closer is the sunrise. Don't be worried.' Nobody around whom you trust, who trusts you--that was the reason for the nervous breakdown.






But it was not harmful. It looked harmful at the moment, but soon the dark night was gone and the sunrise was there, the breakdown had become the breakthrough. To each individual it will happen differently. And the same is true after enlightenment: the expression of enlightenment will be different." (79)






"That is how all religions are created: individuals imposing their experience on the whole of humanity, without taking into consideration the uniqueness of every individual... They cannot accept other enlightened people for small reasons, because they don't suit their ideas. They have to fit with a certain concept, and that concept is derived from their own founder. And nobody can fit with that, so everybody else is denounced as unenlightened." (81)






"the enlightened man has no answers, no scriptures, no quotations marks. He is simply available; just like the mirror he responds, and he responds with intensity and totality. So these are liquid qualities, not qualifications. Don't look at small things--what he eats, what he wears, where he lives--these are all irrelevant. Just watch for his love, for his compassion, for his trust. Even if you take advantage of his trust, he does not change his trust. Even if you misuse his compassion, cheat his love, that does not make any difference. That is your problem. His trust, his compassion, his love remain just the same. His only effort in life will be how to make people awake. Whatever he does, this is the only purpose behind every act: how to make more and more people awake, because through awakening he has come to know the ultimate bliss of life." (82)






"a man who has never gone in the rains, under the trees, cannot understand poetry." (85)






"Universities destroy most people's interest and love for poetry. They destroy your whole idea of how a life should be; they make it more and more a commodity. They teach you how to earn more, but they don't teach you how to live deeply, how to live totally--and these are where you can get glimpses. These are where small doors and windows open into the ultimate. You are told the value of money but not the value of a rose flower. You are told the value of being prime minister or a president but not the value of being a poet, a painter, a singer, a dancer. Those things are thought to be for crazy people." (85)






"The way you present your arguments is strange. It is sometimes so weird that I wonder...how did you manage to look at it from this angle? I have been thinking about a few problems myself, but I never looked from that aspect. It strikes me that perhaps you go on dropping any aspect that can occur to the ordinary mind, and you choose only the aspect that is unlikely to occur to anybody.






For four years you have been winning the [interuniversity debating] trophy for the simple reason that the argument is unique and there is nobody ready to answer it. They have not even thought about it, so they are simply in shock. Your opponents--you reduce them so badly, one feels pity for them, but what can we do?" (86)






"you have seen me only in the debate competitions. You don't know much about me; I may prove a trouble for you, a nuisance. I would like you to know everything about me before you decide.






Professor S.S. Roy said, 'I don't want to know anything about you. The little bit that I have come to know, just by seeing you, your eyes, your way of saying things, your way of approaching reality, is enough. And don't try to make me frightened about trouble and nuisance--you can do whatsoever you want." (87)






"The first day I joined his class, Professor S.S. Roy was explaining the concept of the Absolute. He was an authority on Bradley and Shankara. Both believe in the Absolute--that is their name for God.


I asked him one thing, which made me very intimate to him and he opened his whole heart to me in every possible way. I just asked, "Is your 'absolute' perfect? Has it come to a full stop


or is it still growing? If it is still growing, then it s not absolute, it is imperfect--only then can it grow. If something more is possible, some more branches, some more flowers--then it is alive.


If it is complete, entirely complete--that's the meaning of the word absolute; now there is no possibility for growth--then it is dead...Is your God alive or dead? You have to answer this question." (87)






"My whole life from the very beginning has been concerned with two things: never to allow any unintelligent thing to be imposed upon me, to fight against all kinds of stupidities, whatsoever the consequences, and to be rational, logical, to the very end. This was one side, which I was using with all those people with whom I was in contact. And the other was absolutely private, my own: to become more and more alert, so that I didn't end up just being an intellectual." (91)






"I was amazed to know that when you discuss something and discover the logical pattern, the whole fabric, you need not remember it. It is your own discovery; it remains with you. You cannot forget it." (94)






"When you trust someone, it is very difficult for him to deceive." (95)






"When I do something, I do it to the very end." (96)






"I have found throughout my life that if you are just a little ready to sacrifice respectability, you can have your way very easily. The society has played a game with you. It has put respectability on too high a pedestal in your mind, and opposite it, all those things that it wants you not to do. So if you do them, you lose respectability.


Once you are ready to say, 'I don't care about respectability,' then the society is absolutely impotent to do anything against your will." (97)






"Don't hesitate! Just move and get mixed. In my class you cannot sit separately. And I don't mind if you try to touch the girl or the girl tries to pull your shirt; whatever is natural is accepted by me. So I don't want you to sit there frozen, shrunken. That is not going to happen in my class. Enjoy being together. I know you have been throwing slips, stones, letters. There is no need. Just sit by her side, give the letter to the girl, or whatever you want to do--because in fact you are all sexually mature; you should do something. And you are just studying philosophy, you are absolutely insane! Is this the time to study philosophy? This is the time to go out and make love. Philosophy is for the old age when you cannot do anything else--you can study philosophy then." (98) (less)


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Anda


Oct 13, 2019Anda rated it really liked it


Shelves: 50book-2019


Silence has its vibe; it is infectious, particularly a child's silence, which is not forced, which is not because you are saying, "I will beat you if you create a nuisance or noise." No, that is not silence. That will not create the joyous vibrations I am talking about, when a child is silent on his own, enjoying for no reason; his happiness is uncaused. That creates great ripples all around. p 7






My grandfather loved me, but he could not help me much. He was loving, but to be of help more is needed - a certain kind of strength. p 9






Nobody should lie - to a child, at least, it is unforgivable. Children have been exploited for centuries just because they are willing to trust. ... That's how the whole of humanity lives in corruption, in a very slippery, thick mud of lies told to children for centuries. If we can do just one thing, a simple thing - not to lie to children and to confess to them our ignorance - then we will be religious and we will put them on the path of religion. Children are only innocence; leave them not your so-called knowledge. But you yourself must first be innocent, unlying, true. p 13






Knowledge makes you cunning. I was not cunning. I simply asked the question any child could have asked if he were not educated. Education is the greatest crime man has committed against poor children. Perhaps the last liberation in the world will be the libration of children. p 17






"It is never too late to change. If you see what you have chosen is not right, change it. In fact, be quick, because you are getting old. Don't say 'I am old, so I cannot change' A young man can afford not to change, but an old man-you are old enough." p 19






Whenever you are in love with flowing things, moving things, you have a different vision of life. Modern man lives with asphalt roads, cement and concrete buildings. These are nouns, remember, these are not verbs. The skyscrapers don't go on growing; the road remains the same whether it is night or day, wether it is a full-moon night or a night absolutely dark. It doesn't matter to the asphalt road, it does not matter to the cement and concrete buildings. / Man has created a world of nouns and he has become entangled in his own world. He has forgotten the world of trees, the world of the rivers, the world of the mountains and the stars. They don't know of any nouns, they have not heard about nouns; they know only verbs. Everything is a process. God is not a thing but a process. p 39






They were very happy seeing me there - but the same question: "would you like to become like Jesus/Hazrat Muhammad?" I was surprised to know that nobody was interested in my just being myself, helping me to be myself. / The whole existence is blissful because the rock is rock, the tree is tree, the river is river, the ocean is ocean. / You are being taught from the very childhood not to be yourself, but the way it is said is very clever, cunning. They say 'You have to become like Krishna, like Buddha,' and they paint Buddha and Krishna in such a way that a great desire arises in you to be a Buddha, to be a Jesus, to be a Krishna. This is the root cause of your misery. // Paradise is where your real being flowers. Hell is where you are crushed and something else is imposed on you. p 41






...our language is created by us. It consists of words like achievement, attainment, goals, improvement, progress, evolution. Our languages are not created by enlightened people; and in fact they cannot create language even if they want to, because enlightenment happens in silence. How can you bring that silence into words? And whatsoever you do, the words are going to destroy something of that silence. p 67






But right now whatsoever you see is not the truth, it is a projected lie. / You are using the real world as a screen and projecting your own ideas on it. p 77






- that was the reason for the nervous breakdown. But it was not harmful. It looked harmful at the moment, but soon the dark night was gone and the sunrise was there, the breakdown has become the breakthrough. // if I were to make a religion, then this would be a basic thing in it: that anybody who becomes enlightened will first have to go through a nervous breakdown, only then he will have a breakthrough. That is now all the religions are created: individuals imposing their experience on the whole of humanity, without taking into consideration the uniqueness of every individual. p 79






But the enlightened man has no answers, no scriptures, no quotation marks. He is simply available; just like a mirror he responds, and he responds with intensity and totality. // even if you take advantage of his trust, that does not change his trust. Even if you misuse his compassion, cheat his love, that does not make any difference. That is your problem. His trust, his compassion, his love remain just the same. p 82






So my whole life from the beginning has been concerned with two things: never to allow any unintelligent thing to be imposed upon me, to fight against all kinds of stupidities, whatsoever the consequences, and to be rational, logical, to the very end. // And the other was absolutely private, my own: to become more and more alert, so that I didn't end up just being an intellectual. p 91






And I was amazed to know that when you discuss something and discover the logical pattern, the whole fabric, you need not remember it. It is your own discovery; it remains with you. You cannot forget it. p 94






I have found throughout my life that if you are just a little ready to sacrifice respectability, you can have your way very easily. The society has played a game with you. It has put respectability on too high a pedestal in your mind, and opposite it, all those things that it wants you not to do. So if you don't do them, you lose respectability. Once you are ready to say, "I don't care about respectability," then the society is absolutely impotent to do anything against your will. p 97






Teachers are born as poets, it is a great art. Everybody cannot be a teacher, but because of universal education, millions of teachers are required. / Just think of a society that thinks everybody has to be taught poetry and poetry has to be taught by poets. Then millions of poets will be required. Of course, then there will be poets' training colleges. Those poets will be bogus, and then they will ask. "applaud us! Because we are poets. Why are you not respecting us?" This has happened with teachers. / In the past there were very few teachers. People used to travel thousands of miles to find a teacher, to be with him. There was tremendous respect, but the respect depended on the quality of the teacher. It was not demanded from the disciple of from the student or the pupil. It simple happened. p 101






Gautam Buddha, Lao Tzu in China, Socrates in Athens - they were all contemporaries but they had no idea of each other. p 102






The synthesis has to include all the artists and their insights-all the musicians, all the poets, all the dancers, their insights. All the creative people who have contributed to life, who have made humanity richer, have to be taken into account. Nobody has ever thought of the artistic people, that their contribution is also religious. // In my vision it is a triangle-science, religion, art. And they are such different dimensions-they speak different languages / unless you have a deep insight in which they can all melt and become one. p 103






The awakened man understands humanity so deeply. By understanding himself he has understood the miserable state of all human beings. // He does not return evil for evil, for the simple reason that he does not feel offended in the first place. Second he feels sorry for now, he does not feel antagonistic toward you. p 105






I would have loved not to be associated in any way with the word religion // and this is not about any one single religion, it is the same story repeated by all the religions of the world: man exploiting man in the name of God. // in my communing with people, those words-atheist, irreligious, amoral-functioned like impenetrable walls. The moment people heard that I was [] they were completely closed. p 106






"I have risked everything; I was rich, I renounced that to become a Jaina monk. Now I have renounced Jainism, the monkhood, just to be a nobody so that I can have total freedom to experiment." p 116






I simply became tired of the whole thing, because each day I would have to start from ABC. It was always ABC ABC ABC and it became absolutely clear that I would never be able to reach XYZ. p 116






[enlightened man sculpting sand sculptures p 118] These people will remain unrecognised. A dancer may be a buddha, a singer may be a buddha, but these people will not be recognised for the simple reason that their way of doing things cannot become a teaching. p 119






The question arises almost for everyone, that the way I talk is a little strange. No speaker in the world talks like me-technically it is wrong, it takes almost double the time // My speaking is really one of my devices for meditation; I do not speak to give you a message but to stop your mind functioning. // I am using words to create silent gaps. The words are not so important soI can say anything contradictory, anything absurd, anything unrelated, because my purpose is just to create silent gaps. The words are secondary; the silences between those words are primary. This is simply a device to give you a glimpse of meditation. And once you know that it is possible for you, you have traveled far in the direction of your own being. p 120






I cannot force you to be silent, but I can create a device in which spontaneously you are bound to be silent. I am speaking and in the middle of a sentence, when you were expecting another word to follow, nothing follows but a silent gap. And your mind was looking to listen, and waiting for something to follow, and does not want to miss it-naturally it becomes silent. p 121






You may be a sinner, you may be a saint-it does not matter. If the sinner can become silent, he will attain the same consciousness as the saint. p 121






The more you become confident, the more you will be able. without my speaking you will start finding devices yourself. For example, you can go on listening to the birds-they suddenly stop, and they suddenly start. Listen ... there is not reason why this crow should make noises and then stop. It is just giving you a chance. You can find these opportunities, once you know... p123






Pay more attention to it, to why you become silent. Don't make me wholly responsible for your silence, because that will create a difficulty for you. Alone, what are you going to do? Then it becomes a kind of addiction, and I don't want you to be addicted to me. I don't want to be a drug to you. p 125






I have been telling you it is possible to go 'from sex to superconsciousness' and you have been very happy-you hear only 'from sex' you don't hear 'to superconsciousness.' // sex is only a beginning-not the end. And nothing is wrong if you take it as a beginning. If you start clinging to it, then things start going wrong. p 131






And I am not afraid of brainwashing because I am not putting cockroaches in your mind. I am giving you an opportunity to experience a clean mind, and once you know a clean mind you will never allow anybody to throw rubbish and crap into your mind. // Dirtying other people's minds is a crime, but all over the world all the religions, all the political leaders, are using your mind as if it is a toilet. // I am a brainwasher. / And those who come to me should come with clear conception that they are going to a man who is bound to brainwash, to clean minds of all kinds of cockroaches. Hindu, Mohammedan, Christian-they are all against me for the simple reason that they go on putting their cockroaches, and I go on washing people's minds. / It is an up-to-date religious laundry. p 134






I am not saying, 'just follow me, I am the saviour. I will save you' All that is crap. Nobody can save you, except yourself. // The real and authentic independence is that you are not dependent on anybody for your inner growth. // This is a company, not of a master and disciples, this is a company of a master and potential masters. p 135






And by and by you will see-the master is coming. And it is not coming from the outside, it is coming from your inner most core, it is arising from your depths. I looked in, and found him there. My message is simple-that I have found the god within me. My whole effort is to persuade you to look within. The only question is of becoming a watcher on the hills. Become a witness-alert, observing-and you will be fulfilled.






You are here because you are frustrated with your money. You are here because you are frustrated with your success. You are here because you are frustrated with your life. A beggar cannot come because he is not yet frustrated. / Religion is a luxury-the ultimate luxury I call it, because it is the highest value. When a man is hungry, he does not bother about music-he cannot. And if you start playing the sitar before him, he will kill you! He will say 'You are insulting me! I am hungry and you are playing a sitar-is this the time to play the sitar? Feed me first! [] I am dying!' When a man is dying of hunger, what use is a can Gogh painting or a Buddha sermon or beautiful Upanishads or music? Meaningless, he needs bread. // When a man is happy with his body, has enough to eat, has a good house to live in, he starts becoming interested in music, poetry, literature, painting, art. Now a new hunger arises. The bodily needs are fulfilled, now psychological needs arise. There is a hierarchy in needs [...] // A Kabir becomes religious. He was not a millionaire, but he was tremendously intelligent. Buddha became religious because he was tremendously rich. Krishna and Ram and Mahavir became religious because they were tremendously rich. Dadu, Raidas, Farid-they became religious because they were tremendously intelligent. But a certain sort of richness is needed. p 147/148






Not a single exception! That's why I say meditation is a scientific thing. That's how science works: If you can find something without exception, then it becomes a rule. Meditation is a scientific method because in the whole of history nobody has said that it does not lead you to the ultimate blissfulness. p 154






A spiritual mind makes no distinctions between matter and spirit; it is undivided. The whole existence is one-that is the spiritual mind. The materialist, even if he loves a woman, reduces her to a thing. Then who is a spiritualist? A spiritualist is a person who, even if he touches a thing, transforms it into a person. p 156 . (less)


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Tom Stevens


Sep 25, 2016Tom Stevens rated it it was amazing


If you've read any of Osho's talks and want to know more about Osho, this book will give you some insight into Osho.






Or maybe not.






Osho was an enigma, and he liked it that way. He said things like "The answer you are seeking is that there is no answer." He told some great stories, including plenty of funny jokes, and he may have been a wonderful distraction for those who needed a coping mechanism, a way to distance themselves from the suffering of this existence. But Osho was a stirrer. He loved to stir things up. His clear headedness (according to him) was nothing short of brilliant in the most difficult of situations, which he managed to sometimes even turn into situational comedies.






I thoroughly enjoyed this book and just the fact that these stories purport to be true make them feel real and exciting, though it may be impossible to prove or disprove them.






Spoiler:


The end of the book points very strongly to a catholic/US government conspiracy to poison him. But the book is edited and published by Osho's adherents. Some internet articles about Osho's chief of staff give me the impression that his chief of staff stands out as a likely suspect. Not only did she have a penchant for poisoning people, it was known that she had her chemist/poisoner prepare an untraceable poison for Osho in case he wanted to end it all with minimal suffering. Any indication of Osho willingly taking poison has to my knowledge never surfaced.


(less)


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Eden


Oct 28, 2009Eden rated it it was amazing


Osho's life story. It puts his teachings in context.


Osho has become a real teacher for me in the last year. From his words, I am learning to be alive in each moment, as "the future" is illusory and unknown and "the past" has already come and gone. He emphasized the equal importance of silence and celebration in the balanced, whole person. That is a balance I find incredibly difficult to strike, but am continuing to understand as a truly healthy way of being. Further, I am working to balance the growth of my intellectual understanding of life with my direct experience of life - as both knowing and knowledge each have their place. (less)


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Michael Graber


Sep 26, 2011Michael Graber rated it it was amazing


This autobiography was weaved together from many talks given by OSHO over a long period of time. The 30+ year span enabled something too rare in Autobiography, which is the summary of life from one temporal vantage point. Osho was such a talented speaker, critical thinker, and had such a sharp wit that this book ranks highest among the many autobiographies I have read (others that rate as high are Mark Twain and Steve Martin's Born Standing Up). More important, OSHO's insistence on meditation as a path to integrate cultures, science and religion, and fuse the arts led to a universal vision that might, if we try and practice it, save humanity from itself. (less)


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오쇼 자서전 - 길은 내안에 있다
오쇼 (지은이),김현국 (옮긴이)태일출판사2013-07-10원제 : Autobiography Of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic





































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 9.0 100자평(2)리뷰(2)


이 책 어때요?


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- 품절 확인일 : 2017-03-09 





























이 도서는 <오쇼 라즈니쉬 자서전 - 길은 내안에 있다>의 개정판입니다. 


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기본정보

624쪽 
117*187mm 
624g 
ISBN : 9788981511975 



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신간알림 신청

국내도서 > 인문학 > 동양철학 > 인도철학 
국내도서 > 종교/역학 > 명상/선 
국내도서 > 종교/역학 > 종교일반 > 종교인물 






이벤트




인문ON 앱레터 수신 신청하면 추첨 적립금 



이 시간, 알라딘 굿즈 총집합! 










책소개


'길은 내안에 있다'. '나'라는 존재에 대한 인식과 진정한 자유에 대한 성찰을, 그리고 명상의 중요성을 가르쳤던 '오쇼 라즈니쉬' 자서전이다. 철학적인 질문으로 많은 나날을 보냈던 어린시절부터 성장하고 자라나는 과정속에서의 깨우침, 그리고 세계적인 명성을 얻은 후의 발자취를 담았다.




목차


편집자 서문
서문
1부 평범한 인간: 전설 뒤의 숨은 역사
평범한 인간: 전설 뒤의 숨은 역사
황금빛 어린 시절의 일별들
반역적인 영혼
불멸을 찾아서
깨달음: 과거와의 단절
칼날을 세우며
길 위에서
표현될 수 없는 것을 표현하다: 단어들 사이의 침묵들

2부 빈 거울에 비친 그림자들: 결코 존재하지 않았던 한 인간의 여러 얼굴
빈 거울에 비친 그림자들: 결코 존재하지 않았던 한 인간의 여러 얼굴
섹스 구루
컬트 교주
사기꾼
‘자칭 바그완’
부자들의 스승
농담꾼
롤스로이스 구루
스승

3부 유산
유산
종교 아닌 종교
21세기를 위한 명상
제3의 심리학: 붓다의 심리학
조르바 붓다: 완전한 인간

4부 오쇼의 일생과 그 주요 사건들
오쇼의 일생과 그 주요 사건들


접기





저자 및 역자소개


오쇼 (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) (지은이) 


저자파일




최고의 작품 투표




신간알림 신청






오쇼는 자신을 특정 영역으로 구분하는 것을 거부한다. 오쇼의 가르침은 삶의 의미를 묻는 개인적인 질문에서부터 현대사회가 직면한 정치 사회적 문제들까지 모든 분야를 망라하고 있다. 오쇼의 책들은 전 세계의 청중들과 나눈 즉석문답을 오디오와 비디오로 기록하여 책으로 엮어낸 것이다. 이에 대해 오쇼는 ‘이것을 명심하라. 지금 나는 그대들만을 위해 말하고 있는 것이 아니다. 내 말은 다가오는 미래 세대를 위한 것이기도 하다.’라고 말한 바 있다.
런던의 <선데이 타임즈>는 20세기를 일군 1천 명의 주요인물 가운데 한 명으로 오쇼를 선정했으며, 미국의 작가 탐 로빈스Tom Robbins는 오쇼를 예수 이후에 가장 위험한 인물로 평가했다. 인도의 <선데이 미드데이>는 인도의 운명을 바꾼 열 명의 위인들 중에 간디, 네루, 붓다와 더불어 오쇼를 선정했다.
오쇼는 자신의 일에 대해 새로운 인류가 탄생할 수 있는 환경을 조성하는 것이라고 설명했다. 그는 이 새로운 인류를 ‘조르바 붓다Zorba the Buddha’로 규정했는데, 이는 그리스인 조르바의 세속적인 기쁨과 고타마 붓다의 평온함이 조화를 이룬 인간상을 말한다.
그의 강의와 명상법들은 시간을 초월한 지혜와 함께, 현대 과학기술이 지닌 잠재성까지도 포괄하고 있다. 오쇼는 날로 가속화되는 현대인의 삶에 적합한 명상법을 고안해 냄으로써 내적 변형이라는 분야에 혁명적인 공헌을 한 것으로 알려져 있다. 그의 독창적인 액티브 명상법Active Meditation들은 우선적으로 신체에 쌓인 스트레스를 해소하기 위해 고안된 것이다.

오쇼의 자서전에는 <내 어린 시절의 황금빛 추억>이 있다. 접기

최근작 : <잠에서 깨어나라>,<감정을 초월하라>,<내부로부터의 행복> … 총 966종 (모두보기) 

김현국 (옮긴이) 

한국외국어대학교 인도어과를 졸업했다. 옮긴 책으로 <거위는 밖에 있다>, <누구도 죽지 않는다>가 있다.

최근작 : … 총 3종 (모두보기) 


출판사 제공 책소개

길은 내 안에 있다

나는 밤의 어둠 속에서 별들과 함께 강을 보며, 대양을 향해 흐르는 강물과 함께 춤을 추었다. 나는 이른 아침 떠오르는 태양과 함께 강을 보았다. 나는 보름달 속에서 강을 보았다. 나는 일몰과 함께 강을 보았다. 나는 강기슭에 홀로 앉아, 혹은 친구들과 함께, 혹은 피리를 불며, 혹은 강기슭에 서 춤을 추며, 혹은 강기슭에서 명상을 하며, 혹은 그 안에서 배를 저으며, 혹은 강을 가로질러 수영을 하며 그 강을 보았다. 빗속에서도, 겨울에도, 여름에도…….

어느 날은 성공하고, 어느 날은 실패한다.
어느 날은 정상에 있고, 또 어느 날은 밑바닥에 있다.
그러나 그대 안의 무엇인가는 언제나 그대로이다.
그리고 바로 그 무엇인가가 그대의 실체이다.
나는 나의 실체를 살 뿐이다.
나는 실체를 둘러싼 모든 꿈과 악몽들 속에 살지 않는다.


북플 bookple

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친구가 남긴 글 
내가 남긴 글 



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자서전을 읽을 정도라면 오쇼의 책을 어느 정도 섭렵하셨겠지요? 역시 이분은 탄생과 유년시절부터 남달랐던 분입니다. 두근거리며 읽었고, 그 아름다운 에너지에 넋을 잃었습니다. 아, 물론 제목만 '자서전'입니다^^   

白野 2015-09-16 공감 (0) 댓글 (0) 

마이리뷰

자신만을 믿어라   

오쇼 라즈니쉬, 나와 동시대를 겹치게 살았으면서도 오래 전에 사두었던 몇 권의 책이 그와 나의 인연의 전부였다. 그러나 이 분의 책을 좋아한 선배들이 있었고 그들과의 인연으로 이 책이 나에게로 왔다. 나는 오쇼 라즈니쉬를 몰랐다. 그런데 그의 인생 전기가 이토록 나에게 강렬한 인상을 남길 줄 그 누가 알았으랴! 아마 좀 더 이 존재에 대해 알았다면 더 많은 책들을 읽었을 것이고 그의 영향을 더 많이 받았으리라 생각한다. 모든 종교적 교리와 맹목적 믿음에 대해 비판하고 탈종교적 움직임의 진리추구에 그가 기여한 바가 크며 그래서 인간적이고 세속적인 면들과 영적이고 정신적인 면들을 모두 누리고 즐기고 살아간 존재, 그가 얘기한 조르바붓다와 같은 존재로서의 삶을 세상의 많은 젊은이들로 하여금 찾게 하였던 것이다. 

그는 정신적 성장을 위해 그 누구에게도 의지하지 말고 전적인 자신에 초점을 맞춘 삶을 살라고 한다. 스승을 모시고 배우는 것도 중요하지만 결국은 스스로의 체험에 이르기까지 자신의 책임으로 홀로 의지하지 않고 자신의 길에 우뚝 서 있으라고 한다. 그러나 이 세상에 스스로의 밝은 영혼의 길을 따라 바람부는 대지 위에 홀로 우뚝 서 있을 수 있는 사람이 과연 몇이나 되는가? 스승의 도움으로 스승같은 글의 도움으로 근근히 하루하루 벌어먹고 사는 존재인 우리들.....그러니 스스로 홀로 가는 이들은 그야말로 전생과 전전생 그 무수한 생을 통해 닦고 공부한 이들이 아닐까? 

그러나 공부의 길에 들어선 이라면 이러한 마음가짐은 필요하다고 생각한다. 사막 위에 홀로 우뚝 서서 길을 걷는 자세로 걸어야 한다. 스승에게 의지하되 홀로 걸음을 내디딜 수 있어야 한다. 스승이 비춘 길을 향해 스스로의 체험으로 스스로의 두 발로 고통을 겪어가며 직접 걸어가야 한다. 그리하여 비로소 홀로서 가는 길 위에서 정직하게 만나야 하는 체험들 속에서 더욱 성숙해져야 하리라. 그러기 위해서는 자신의 안으로 시선을 돌려야 한다. 스스로를 들여다보는 오랜 시간의 깊어짐을 겪은 후에야 비로소 그 길을 스스로 찾아갈 수 있다. 

눈이 밝아진 자는 스스로의 때를 알아 세상에 나서고 또 스스로의 때를 알아 공부한다. 밝지 못하면 때를 모르고 나서서 좌충우돌하고 때를 모르고 상을 쫒는다. 세상 모두가 자신의 마음이 빚어낸 어리석음으로 휩싸여 고통받고 놀림당한다. 스스로가 스스로를 속이고 스스로를 조롱한다. 그 상황에서 벗어나기 위해서는 바른 안목과 공부하는 자세가 필요하다. 눈이 밝은 자라야 비로소 사람을 만나도 온전하고 또 그 사람을 바른 공부의 길로 인도할 수 있다. 그러니 우리는 앞길을 못보는 장님이다. 바른 길을 가르쳐주는 이의 글을 길삼아 마음으로 난 길을 걸어야 한다. 오늘도 내 눈앞에는 그 길이 있다. 아니, 그 길을 만들어가야 한다. 한 걸음 한 걸음 내가 디딜 땅은 스스로가 만들어내어야 한다. 그럴 때에라야 비로소 나는 걸을 수 있고 제자리에서 벗어날 수 있다. 






온 세상의 음모와 권력이 그를 미워했을 때에도 그가 흔들리지 않을 수 있었던 힘은 어디에 있었을까? 그는 떳떳했고 부끄러워야 할 것은 세상이었다. 어떻게 하면 이렇듯 큰 사람이 될 수 있을까? 그의 인생 앞에서 나는, 작은 나는 좀 더 성장하기를 기원할 뿐이다. 




- 접기 


달팽이 2013-11-12 공감(3) 댓글(0) 


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깨어살아라 - 세상의 모든, 유일한 가르침   
이 책은 하나의 가르침을 담기위한 수많은 비유와 상징 그리고 일화들로 가득하다. 
설명할 수 없는 것을 설명하기 위한 오쇼의 많은 세월에 걸친 고민과 노력이 엿보인다. 
"깨어살아라" 

이 가르침은 동서고금의 모든 영적 스승들과 선각자들의 공통된 가르침이면서, 
그 자체로 수행과 그 결실을 아울러 담고있는 유일한 가르침이다. 
깨어사는 삶의 중요성은 요즘시대를 사는 사람이라면 누구나 공감하지만 
어떻게 깨어살 수 있는지와, 그것이 실생활 가운데 구체적으로 어떤 영향을 주는지, 
혹은 내가 고민하는 지금 이 상황에서 어떤 도움을 주는지는 대다수는 잘 모르고있다. 

동서고금의 영적 스승들의 가르침이 이 하나의 문장을 상황에 맞게 적용, 변형, 확장한 내용이라는 작은 통찰을 이루었다면 이 책을 읽은 50%의 성과를 달성한 것이다. 

그러나 깨어산다는 결심이 실제 평상심으로 굳어지게 하기 위해서는, 
이 책을 반복적으로 읽을 필요가 있다. 
뼈에 새겨질 때까지 읽어야, 
정말로 깨어사는 것이 나의 일상생활이 될 것이다.

In the Eyes of the Wise : The Buddha’s Teachings on Honor & Shame

In the Eyes of the Wise : The Buddha’s Teachings on Honor & Shame



In the Eyes of the Wise

The Buddha’s Teachings on Honor & Shame

Several years back, I led a retreat in Santa Fe on the topic of karma. One of the readings was a passage in which the Buddha teaches his seven-year-old son, Rahula, how to examine his actions, as he would his face in a mirror, to make sure that he harms no one—neither himself nor anyone else. One of the retreatants was a therapist who, the day after the retreat, was scheduled to hold the final meeting of a therapy group she had organized for some of her clients. She decided to Xerox the Buddha’s teachings to Rahula and share them with the group, to get their opinion on the Buddha’s parenting skills. Their unanimous verdict: “If our parents had taught us like that, we wouldn’t be needing therapy groups like this.”
What was striking about their verdict was that they arrived at it even though the Buddha’s teaching emphasized the need for Rahula to develop a sense of shame around his actions: If he didn’t feel shame at telling a deliberate lie, he was as empty of goodness as an overturned dipper was empty of water. If he realized that he had engaged in thinking that had harmed himself—or could lead to harm to others—he was to feel ashamed of those thoughts and to resolve not to repeat them.
And the Buddha didn’t teach shame only to Rahula. In his more general teachings to the public, he called shame a bright guardian of the world, in that it kept people from betraying the trust of others. He also called shame a noble treasure, something more valuable than gold or silver in that it would protect you from doing things you’d later regret.
The high value that the Buddha placed on shame contrasts sharply with the way it’s regarded in many segments of our culture today. In business and in politics, shame is all too often viewed as weakness. Among therapists, it’s commonly seen as pathological—an unhealthy low opinion of yourself that prevents you from being all that you can. Book after book gives counsel on how to overcome feelings of shame and to affirm feelings of self-worth in their place.
It’s easy to understand this general reaction against shame. The emotion of shame—the sense that you don’t look good in the eyes of others—is a powerful one. It’s where we allow the opinion of other people into our psyches, and all too often unscrupulous people take advantage of that opening to trample our hearts: to bully us and force on us standards of judgment that are not in our genuine best interests. It’s bad enough when they try to make us ashamed of things over which we have little or no control: race, appearance, age, gender, sexual orientation, level of intelligence, or financial status. It’s even worse when they try to shame us into doing harm, like avenging old wrongs.
But efforts to avoid these problems by totally abolishing shame miss an important point: There are two kinds of shame—the unhealthy shame that’s the opposite of self-esteem, and the healthy shame that’s the opposite of shamelessness. This second kind of shame is the shame that the Buddha calls a bright guardian and a treasure. If, in our zeal to get rid of the first kind of shame, we also get rid of the second, we’ll create a society of sociopaths who care nothing for other people’s opinions of right or wrong—or who feel shame about all the wrong things. Businessmen and politicians who see no shame in lying, for instance, feel shame if they’re not at least as ruthless as their peers. And for all the general dismissal of shame, advertisers still find that shame over your body or ostensible wealth is a powerful tool for selling products. When all shame gets pathologized, it goes underground in the mind, where people can’t think clearly about it, and then sends out tentacles that spread harm all around us.
This is where the Buddha’s teachings on healthy shame can be a useful antidote, helping to bring the topic into the open and to show that, with proper training, shame can be a great force for good.
To begin with, the Buddha couples healthy shame with a healthy sense of honor: a sense that you deserve respect for holding to a high standard of conduct. In this sense, shame is a sign of high, rather than low, self esteem.
Honor, like shame, begins with the desire not only to be good, but also to look good in the eyes of others, which is why it, too, comes in both healthy and unhealthy varieties. Duels, feuds, gang wars, and honor killings—based on the belief that respect is earned by your ability to do violence—have given honor a bad name. But honor can be redefined and made healthy so that it’s earned through integrity. A society without this sense of honor would be as bad as a society without healthy shame.
The Buddha’s insights into healthy honor and shame came from his own experience in searching for, and finally finding, awakening. His initial search for the right path had taught him that honor and shame had to be treated with discernment, in that he couldn’t always trust the opinion of others. If he had been swayed by the honor shown him by his early teachers, he would have stayed stuck in the practice of concentration without developing discernment. If he had been swayed by the disdain shown by the five brethren when he abandoned his austerities, he would have died without ever finding the goal.
But as he realized after his awakening, the problem with shame and honor is not that you want to look good in the eyes of others. It’s just that you want to look good in the wrong people’s eyes. If you can focus on the right people, shame and honor can be an enormous help in developing what the Buddha identified as the most important external factor in gaining awakening: admirable friendship. He was now in a position to give others the guidance he had lacked in his own quest, and to teach his disciples to be admirable friends to others. This is why the Buddha set up the monastic sangha: to keep the lineage of admirable friends alive.
But admirable friendship involves more than just making friends with admirable people. You also need to emulate their good qualities. This is where a sense of shame and honor comes into the equation. Your desire for your admirable friends to think well of you is a crucial incentive to follow their good example.
The good qualities of admirable friends are four:
• conviction in the Buddha’s awakening and in the principle of karma;
• virtue, in the sense of not breaking the precepts or encouraging others to break them;
• generosity, and
• discernment.
The discernment of admirable friends can be seen in two things: the standards by which they judge you, and their purpose in judging you. If they’re really discerning, they’ll judge you by your actions—not by your appearance, wealth, or anything else over which you have no control. They’ll judge your actions both by the intentions on which you act and on the results of your actions. In both cases—and here’s where the Buddha’s sense of honor inverts the military sense of honor in which he was trained as a young prince—the standard of judgment is that you can find happiness in such a way that your intentions and actions harm no one: not you or anyone else.
The purpose for which admirable friends judge you is not simply to arrive at the judgment. They want to help you recognize why your mistakes are mistakes, so that you can learn not to repeat them. In this way, they’re encouraging you to develop the true source for your happiness: your ability to act with more and more skill.
If they judge you in these ways, your friends show that they’ve developed both of the discernment factors of the path: right view—in seeing the importance of action—and right resolve, in extending goodwill to you. If you internalize their standards, you’re internalizing the path as well.
This is why the Buddha taught Rahula how to internalize those standards by examining his own actions. That way, even if the society around him was falling apart and he was separated from his admirable friends, he could still live by their values. That would be for his long-term welfare and happiness.
The Buddha prefaced his instructions with the image of a mirror: Just as you use a mirror to see how you look to other people, Rahula was to look at his actions to see how he appeared in the eyes of the wise. And the wise would have him judge his actions like this:
Whatever he did in thought, word, and deed, he was first to examine his intentions: If he anticipated that the act he planned would cause any harm inside or out, he was not to act on that intention. If he didn’t anticipate harm, he could go ahead and act. While acting, he was to check the results of his action. If he was causing unanticipated harm, he should stop. If not, he could continue with the action. After the action was done, he should look at the long-term results of the action. If it turned out that he had caused harm in word or deed, he should talk it over with a trusted friend on the path who would advise him on how to avoid causing that harm again. Then he should resolve not to repeat that action. If his thoughts had caused harm, he should feel shame around that type of thinking and resolve not to repeat it. If he had caused no harm, though, he should take joy in his progress on the path, and keep on training.
In this way, the Buddha didn’t simply tell Rahula to cause no harm. Instead, he told him, in effect, “Try not to cause harm, but if you do cause harm, this is how you go about learning from your mistakes.” This shows the element of practical goodwill that pervades these teachings.
As does the Buddha’s recommendation for joy. After all, joy is what healthy shame and honor are for: to help you see for yourself the well-being that comes from mastering higher levels of skill and harmlessness in your actions. When this becomes your source of happiness, you grow up, with less need for the approval and affirmations of others. In seeing the power of your actions and really wanting to act in harmless ways, you make right view and right resolve your own.
One of the dangers that can come from shame and honor in admirable friendship is that, out of a desire to look good in your friends’ eyes, you might want to show off your good qualities. To counteract this tendency, though, the Buddha warned that if you do, your good qualities immediately get ruined. One of the signs of integrity, he said, is modesty—to speak as little as possible of your own good qualities, and never to exalt yourself over others who lack them.
The other danger of shame and honor is that you might want to hide your mistakes from your admirable friends. This is why the Buddha stressed that, if you’ve made mistakes in the past but have now learned not to repeat them, you brighten the world like the moon when released from a cloud. And it’s also why the Buddha prefaced his instructions to Rahula with a teaching on truthfulness, letting him know that making a mistake is much less shameful than making a mistake and not admitting it. If you hide your faults, you not only lose the trust of your friends, but you also close the way to making progress on the path. Or even worse: In the Buddha’s words, if a person feels no shame in telling a deliberate lie, there’s no evil that that person won’t do.
The Buddha illustrated this point with the image of elephants in battle. If an elephant goes into battle and uses his feet and tusks, but holds back his trunk, the elephant trainer knows that the elephant hasn’t given his life to the king. But if an elephant uses his feet and his tusks and his trunk, the elephant trainer knows that the elephant has given his life to his king. There’s nothing it won’t do.
This image is a good lesson in the Buddha’s revolutionary sense of honor. At first glance, it would seem that the elephant who doesn’t hold back would be the hero of the image—after all, that’s the kind of elephant a king would want to send into battle, and it represents the kind of honor often extolled in warrior cultures. But the Buddha is actually presenting the image in a negative light: The elephant’s willingness to risk its trunk is a sign of its servility to the king. In effect, the Buddha’s telling Rahula that if, like the elephant who protects his trunk, he’s heedful to protect his truthfulness, it’s a point of genuine honor: a sign that he’s a servant to no one, neither to anyone outside nor to his own defilements inside.
This inversion of the old military sense of honor is echoed in the Buddha’s comment that better than victory in battle over a thousand-thousand men is victory over one person: yourself.
The Buddha’s instructions in training Rahula to develop a healthy sense of honor and shame eventually bore fruit. Instead of taking pride in the fact that he was the Buddha’s son, Rahula showed a willingness to learn from all the monks. And after he gained awakening, the Buddha extolled him for being foremost among the monks in his desire to learn.
Of course, at that point Rahula didn’t need the Buddha’s praise. He had already found a deathless happiness that was beyond the reach of other people’s respect. Actually, the Buddha was praising Rahula for our sake, to let us know that shame and honor can be useful tools on the path. If you’re careful in choosing whose opinions you let into your psyche, and internalize the qualities that make shame and honor healthy, you’ll not only look good in the eyes of the wise. Your eyes will become wise as well.

All Winners, No Losers : The Buddha’s Teachings on Animosity & Forgiveness

All Winners, No Losers : The Buddha’s Teachings on Animosity & Forgiveness



All Winners, No Losers

The Buddha’s Teachings on Animosity & Forgiveness

by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu


When you forgive someone who’s wronged you, it doesn’t erase that person’s karma in having done wrong. This is why some people think that forgiveness has no place in the karmic universe of the Buddha’s teachings, and that it’s incompatible with the practice of what he taught. But that’s not so. Forgiveness may not be able to undo old bad kamma, but it can prevent new bad karma from being done. This is especially true with the bad kamma that in Pali is called vera. Vera is often translated as “hostility,” “animosity,” or “antagonism,” but it’s a particular instance of these attitudes: the vengeful animosity that wants to get back at someone for perceived wrongs. This attitude is what has no place in Buddhist practice. Patience can weaken it, but forgiveness is what clears it out of the way.
The Dhammapada, a popular collection of early Buddhist poems, speaks of vera in two contexts. The first is when someone has injured you, and you’d like to inflict some injury back. The second is when you’ve lost a contest—in the Buddha’s time, this referred primarily to military battles, but now it could be extended to any competition where loss entails harm, whether real or only perceived—and you want to get even.
In both cases, forgiveness is what puts an end to vera. You resolve not to settle the score, even if society grants you the right to do so, because you realize that, from the point of view of karma, the only real score in contests like this consists of more bad karma points for both sides. So, in forgiving the other side, you’re basically promising yourself to forego any opportunity to add to the score. You have no idea how many lifetimes this particular karmic mud fight has been going back and forth, but you do know that the only way to end it is to stop the vera, and if the end doesn’t first start with you, it may never arrive.
“He
insulted me,
hit me,
beat me,
robbed me”
—for those who brood on this,
vera isn’t stilled.
“He insulted me,
hit me,
beat me,
robbed me”—
for those who don’t brood on this,
vera is stilled.
Veras aren’t stilled
through vera,
regardless.
Veras are stilled
through non-vera:
this, an unending truth. — Dhp 3–5
Forgiveness is a stance you may have to make unilaterally, within yourself, but there is the possibility that the other side will be inspired by your example to stop slinging mud as well. That way, both sides will benefit. Yet even if the other side doesn’t immediately join in the cease-fire, there will come a time when they lose interest, and that particular back-and-forth will die.
The Buddha recommends three tactics to help you deal with any lingering feelings that this strategy might leave you on the losing side, victimized without recourse.
• The first is to remember that we’re all in the process of dying, and you don’t want thoughts of vera to get in the way of a skillful death. The narrative that “He wronged me, and I won’t feel at peace until I get back at him” is not one you want to focus on as death approaches—something it’s doing all the time. Otherwise, you may find yourself reborn with a vera mission, which is a miserable way to live a life. You’ve got other, better things to do with your time.
• The second tactic is to develop thoughts of infinite goodwill, “free from vera, free from ill will.” These thoughts lift your mind to the level of a brahma, a very high level of heavenly being, and from that heightened perspective the idea of trying to find satisfaction in settling old scores seems—as it actually is—petty and mean.
• The third tactic is to take on the five precepts: no killing, no stealing, no illicit sex, no lying, and no taking intoxicants. Ever. At all. As the Buddha notes, when you hold to these precepts in all your encounters with others, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done, you give universal safety from danger and vera—at least from your quarter—to all beings. And because that safety is universal, you enjoy a share of that safety yourself.
As for the case when you’ve lost out in a competition, the Buddha says that you can find peace and end vera only by putting winning and losing aside. To do this, you start by taking a good look at where you try to find happiness. If you look for it in terms of power or material possessions, there will always be winning and losing. If you gain power, for instance, others will have to lose. If others win, you lose. And as the Buddha says,
Winning gives birth to vera.
Losing, one lies down in pain. — Dhp 201
But if you define happiness in terms of the practice of merit—giving, virtue, and meditation—there’s no need to create losers. Everyone wins. When you give, other people naturally gain what you’ve shared with them; you gain a spacious sense of wealth within and the love and respect of others without. When you’re virtuous, abstaining from harming anyone, you gain freedom from remorse over your actions, while others gain safety. When you meditate, you give less rein to your greed, aversion, and delusion, so that you suffer less from their depredations, and other people are less victimized by their prowling around as well.
Then you further reflect:
Greater in battle
than the man who would conquer
a thousand-thousand men,
is he who would conquer
just one—
himself.
Better to conquer yourself
than others.
When you’ve trained yourself,
living in constant self-control,
neither a deva nor gandhabba,
nor a Mara banded with Brahmas,
could turn that triumph
back into defeat. — Dhp 103–105
Other victories can be undone—“settled” scores, in the light of karma and rebirth, are never really settled—but victory over your own greed, aversion, and delusion is something that lasts. It’s the only victory that creates no vera, so it’s the only victory that’s really safe and secure.
But this isn’t a victory you can hope to attain if you’re still harboring thoughts of vera. So in a world where we’ve all been harmed in one way or another, and where we could always find old scores to avenge if we wanted to, the only way to find a truly safe victory in life is to start with thoughts of forgiveness: that you want to pose no danger to anyone at all, regardless of the wrong they’ve done. This is why forgiveness is not only compatible with the practice of the Buddha’s teachings. It’s a necessary first step.

First Things First Thanissaro Bhikkhu in Misc Essays

First Things First



First Things First

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

If you were to ask people familiar with Buddhism to identify its two most important wisdom teachings, they’d probably say emptiness and the four noble truths. If you were to ask them further which of the two teachings was more fundamental, they might hesitate, but most of them would probably put emptiness first, on the grounds that the four noble truths deal with a mental problem, while emptiness describes the way things in general are.
It wasn’t always this way. The Buddha himself gave more importance to the four noble truths, and it’s important to understand why.
When he boiled his teaching down to its shortest formulation, he said that he taught just dukkha—suffering and stress—and the cessation of dukkha (MN 22SN 22:86). The four noble truths expand on this formulation, defining what suffering is—clinging; how it’s caused—craving and ignorance; the fact that it can be brought to an end by abandoning its cause; and the path of practice that leads to that end. Because part of the path of practice contains desire—the desire, in right effort, to act skillfully so as to go beyond suffering—the four noble truths also expand on one of the Buddha’s main observations about the phenomena of experience: that with the exception of nibbāna, they’re all rooted in desire (AN 10:58). People aren’t simply passive recipients of their experience. Starting from their desires, they play an active role in shaping it. The strategy implied by the four noble truths is that desire should be retrained so that, instead of causing suffering, it helps act toward suffering’s end.
As for emptiness, the Buddha mentioned it only rarely, but one of his definitions for emptiness (SN 35:85) closely relates it to another teaching that he mentioned a great deal. That’s the teaching popularly known as the three characteristics, and that the Buddha himself called, not “characteristics,” but “perceptions”: the perception of inconstancy, the perception of suffering/stress, and the perception of not-self. When explaining these perceptions, he taught that if you perceive fabricated things—all things conditioned by acts of intention—as inconstant, you’ll also see that they’re stressful and thus not worthy identifying as you or yours.
His purpose in teaching these perceptions was for them to be applied to suffering and its cause as a way of fostering dispassion for the objects of clinging and craving, and for the acts of clinging and craving themselves. In this way, these perceptions were aids in carrying out the duties appropriate to the four noble truths: to comprehend suffering, to abandon its cause, to realize its cessation by developing the path. In other words, the four noble truths and their duties supplied the context for the three perceptions and determined their role in the practice.
However, over the centuries, as the three perceptions were renamed the three characteristics, they morphed in two other ways as well. First, they turned into a metaphysical teaching, as the characteristics of what things are: All are devoid of essence because they’re impermanent and, since nothing has any essence, there is no self. Second, because these three characteristics were now metaphysical truths, they became the context within which the four noble truths were true.
This switch in roles meant that the four noble truths morphed as well. Whereas the Buddha had identified suffering with all types of clinging—even the act of clinging to the phenomenon of the deathless (amata-dhamma), the unchanging dimension touched at the first taste of awakening—the relationship between clinging and suffering was now explained by the metaphysical fact that all possible objects of clinging were impermanent. To cling to them as if they were permanent would thus bring sorrow and disappointment.
As for the ignorance that underlies craving: Whereas the Buddha had defined it as ignorance of the four noble truths, it was now defined as ignorance of the three characteristics. People cling and crave because they don’t realize that nothing has any essence and that there is no self. If they were to realize the truth of these teachings through direct experience—this became the purpose of mindfulness practice—they wouldn’t cling any more, and so wouldn’t suffer.
This is how this switch in context, giving priority to the three characteristics over the four noble truths, has come to dominate modern Buddhism. The common pattern is that when modern authors explain right view, which the Buddha equated with seeing things in terms of the four noble truths, the discussion quickly switches from the four noble truths to the three characteristics to explain why clinging leads to suffering. Clinging is no longer directly equated with suffering; instead, it causes suffering because it assumes permanence and essence in impermanent things.
Even teachers who deny the truth of the four noble truths—on the grounds that the principle of impermanence means that no statement can be true everywhere for everyone—still accept the principle of impermanence as a metaphysical truth accurately describing the way things everywhere are.
As these explanations have percolated through modern culture, both among people who identify themselves as Buddhist and among those who don’t, they’ve given rise to four widespread understandings of the Buddha’s teachings on clinging and how it’s best avoided so as to stop suffering:
1. Because there is no self, there is no agent. People are essentially on the receiving end of experience, and they suffer because they cling to the idea that they can resist or control change.
2. To cling means to hold on to something with the misunderstanding that it’s permanent. For this reason, as long as you understand that things are impermanent, you can embrace them briefly as they arise in the present moment and it doesn’t count as clinging. If you embrace experiences in full realization that you’ll have to let them go so as to embrace whatever comes next, you won’t suffer. As long as you’re fully in the moment with no expectations about the future, you’re fine.
3. Clinging comes from the mistaken view that there can be such a thing as long-term happiness. But because all things are fleeting, there is no such thing. Pleasures, like pains, simply come and go. When you can resign yourself to this fact, you can open to the spacious wisdom of non-clinging, equanimous and accepting, as you place no vain expectations on the fleeting show of life.
These three understandings are often illustrated with the image of a perfectly fluid dancer, happily responsive to changes in the music decided by the musicians, switching partners with ease.
A recent bestseller that devoted a few pages to the place of Buddhism in world history illustrated these three understandings of the Buddhist approach to suffering with another image: You’re sitting on the ocean shore, watching the waves come in. If you’re stupid enough to want to cling to “good” waves to make them permanent and to push “bad” waves away, you’ll suffer. But if you accept the fact that waves are just waves, fleeting and incessant, and that there’s no way you can either stop or keep them, you can be at peace as you simply watch, with full acceptance, as they do their thing.
4. The fourth widespread understanding about the Buddhist stance on clinging is closely related to the other three: Clinging means holding on to fixed views. If you have set ideas about what’s right or wrong, or about how things should be—even about how the Buddha’s teachings should be interpreted—you’ll suffer. But if you can let go of your fixed views and simply accept the fact that right and wrong keep changing along with everything else, you’ll be fine.
I recently saw a video clip of a French Buddhologist explaining this principle: When asked by a female interviewer to explain the practical applications of the teaching on impermanence in daily life, he replied, “It means that we have to accept that my love for you today will be different from my love for you yesterday.”
It’s been argued that these three understandings of the Buddha’s teachings on clinging don’t promote an attitude of unhealthy passivity, on the grounds that if you’re fully attuned to the present moment without clinging, you can be more freely active and creative in how you respond to change. But still, there’s something inherently defeatist in the picture they offer of life and of the possibilities of happiness that we as human beings can find. They allow for no dimension where we can be free from the unpredictability of waves or the self-righteous infidelity of lovers. It’s only within this narrow range of possibilities that our non-clinging creativity can eke out a little peace.
And when we compare these understandings with the Buddha’s actual teachings on clinging and the end of clinging—returning the three characteristics to their original role as three perceptions, and putting the four noble truths back in their rightful place as the context for the three perceptions—we’ll see not only how far the popular understandings of his teachings deviate from what he actually taught, but also what an impoverished view of the potentials for happiness those popular understandings provide.
To begin with, a lot can be learned from looking at the Pali word for clinging, upādāna. In addition to clinging, it also means sustenance and the act of taking sustenance: in other words, food and the act of feeding. The connection between feeding and suffering was one of the Buddha’s most radical and valuable insights, because it’s so counter-intuitive and at the same time so useful. Ordinarily, we find so much pleasure in the act of feeding, emotionally as well as physically, that we define ourselves by the way we feed off the world and the people around us. It took someone of the Buddha’s genius to see the suffering inherent in feeding, and that all suffering is a type of feeding. The fact that we feed off things that change simply adds an extra layer of stress on top of the stress intrinsic in the felt need always to feed.
And just as we feed off physical food without assuming that it’s going to be permanent, clinging to things doesn’t necessarily mean that we assume them to be permanent. We cling whenever we sense that the effort of clinging is repaid by some sort of satisfaction, permanent or not. We cling because there’s some pleasure in the things to which we cling (SN 22:60). When we can’t find what we’d like to cling to, our hunger forces us to take what we can get. For this reason, the act of embracing things in the present moment still counts as clinging. Even if we’re adept at moving from one changing thing to another, it simply means that we’re serial clingers, taking little bites out of every passing thing. We still suffer in the incessant drive to keep finding the next bite to eat.
This is why being constantly mindful of the truth of impermanence isn’t enough to solve the problem of suffering. To really solve it, we need to change our feeding habits—radically—so that we can strengthen the mind to the point where it no longer needs to feed. This requires a two-pronged strategy: (a) seeing the drawbacks of our ordinary ways of feeding, and (b) providing the mind with better food in the meantime until it has outgrown the need to feed on anything at all.
The first prong of the strategy is where the three perceptions come in. First you apply them to things to which you might cling or crave, to see that the benefits of holding on to those things are far outweighed by the drawbacks. You focus on the extent to which the happiness they provide is inconstant, and that because it’s inconstant, the effort to rest in it involves stress. When you see that the happiness isn’t worth the effort of the clinging, you realize that it’s not worthy to claim as you or yours. It’s not-self: in other words, not worth claiming as self. In this way, the perception of not-self isn’t a metaphysical assertion. It’s a value judgment, that the effort to define yourself around the act of feeding on those things simply isn’t worth it.
This analysis works, however, only if you have something better to feed on in the interim. Otherwise, you’ll simply go back to your old feeding habits. Nobody ever stopped eating simply through the realization that foods and stomachs are impermanent.
This is where the second prong of the Buddha’s strategy comes in. You develop the path as your interim nourishment, focusing in particular on the pleasure and rapture of right concentration as your alternative source of food (AN 7:63). When the path is fully developed, it opens to another dimension entirely: the deathless, a happiness beyond the reach of space, time, and all phenomena of the six senses.
But because the mind is such a habitual feeder, on its first encounter with the deathless it tries to feed on it—which turns the experience into a phenomenon, an object of the mind. Of course, that act of feeding stands in the way of full awakening. This is where the perception of not-self gets put to use once more, to counteract this last form of clinging: to the deathless. Even though the deathless in itself is neither stressful nor inconstant, any act of clinging to it has to involve stress. So the perception of not-self has to be applied here as well, to peel away this last obstacle to full awakening beyond all phenomena. When this perception has done its work, “not-self” gets put aside—just as everything else is let go—and the mind, free from hunger, gains full release.
A traditional image for this release is of a person standing on firm ground after taking the raft of the noble eightfold path over a river in flood. Safe from the waves and currents of the river, the person is totally free—even freer than the image can convey. There’s nothing intrinsically hunger-free about standing on a riverbank—it’s more a symbol of relief—but everyone who has experienced what the image is pointing to guarantees that, to the extent that you can call it a place, it’s a place of no hunger and so no need for desire.
If we compare this image with that of the person on the shore of the ocean watching the waves, we can get a sense of how limited the happiness that’s offered by understanding the four noble truths in the context of the three characteristics is, as opposed to the happiness offered by understanding the three perceptions in the context of the four noble truths.
To begin with, the Buddha’s image of crossing the river doesn’t put quotation marks around concepts of good and bad waves in the water. The flood is genuinely bad, and the ultimate goodness in life is when you can truly get beyond it.
Second, unlike the image of sitting on the shore, watching an ocean beyond your control, the Buddha’s image conveys the point that there’s something you can do to get to safety: You have within you the power to follow the duties of the four noble truths and develop the path that will take you to the other side. As he said, wisdom begins with the question, “What when I do it will lead to long-term welfare and happiness?” (MN 135) The wisdom here lies in seeing that there is such a thing as long-term happiness, that it’s preferable to short-term, and that it depends, not on conditions beyond your control, but on actions you can train yourself to do. This version of wisdom is a far cry from the “wisdom” that ends in resigned equanimity and reduced expectations. It honors your desire for long-term happiness, and shows how it can actually be found.
Third, to sit watching the ocean waves come ashore is peaceful and desirable only as long as you’re wealthy enough to be at a resort, with someone to bring you food, drink, and shelter on a regular basis. Otherwise, you have to keep searching for these things on your own. And even at the resort, you’re not safe from being swept away by tsunamis and storms.
The image of crossing the river to safety on the further shore also offers an enlightening perspective on the view that all fixed views should be abandoned. In the Canon’s own interpretation of the image (SN 35:197), the river stands for the fourfold flood of sensuality, becoming, views, and ignorance, while the raft of the noble eightfold path includes right view. Although it’s true that the raft is abandoned on reaching the further shore, you still have to hold on to it while you’re crossing the river. Otherwise, you’ll be swept downstream.
What’s rarely noticed is the paradox contained in the image. Right view, seeing things in terms of the four noble truths, is part of the raft needed to cross over the flood of views. As the Buddha saw, it’s the only view that can perform this function, taking you safely all the way across the river and delivering you to the further shore.
It can take you all the way across because it’s always true and relevant. Cultural changes may affect what we choose to feed on, but the fact of feeding is a constant, as is the connection between suffering and the need to feed. In that sense, right view counts as fixed. It can never be replaced by a more effective understanding of suffering. At the same time, it’s always relevant in that the framework of the four noble truths can be brought to bear on every choice you make at every stage of the practice. Here it differs from the three perceptions, for while the Buddha noted that they’re always true (AN 3:137), they’re not always relevant (MN 136). If, for instance, you perceive the results of all actions, skillful or not, as impermanent, stressful, and not-self, it can dissuade you from making the effort to be skillful in what you do, say, or think.
In addition to being always true and relevant, right view is responsible. It gives reliable guidance on what should and shouldn’t be taken as food for the mind. As the Buddha said, any teaching that can’t give trustworthy guidelines for determining what’s skillful and unskillful to do abdicates a teacher’s primary responsibility to his or her students (AN 3:62). The Buddhologist’s answer to the interviewer exemplifies how irresponsible the teaching to abandon fixed views can be. And the look she gave him showed that she wanted nothing of it.
After taking you responsibly all the way across the river, right view can deliver you to the further shore because it contains the seeds for its own transcendence, which—as you develop them—deliver you to a transcendent dimension (AN 10:93). Right view does this by focusing on the processes by which the mind creates stress for itself, at the same time encouraging you to abandon those processes when you sense that they’re causing stress. In the beginning, this involves clinging to right view as a tool to pry loose your attachments to gross causes of stress. Over time, as your taste for mental food becomes more refined through its exposure to right concentration, you become sensitive to causes of stress that are more and more subtle. These you abandon as you come to detect them, until eventually there’s nothing else to abandon aside from the path. That’s when right view encourages you to turn the analysis on the act of holding on to and feeding on right view itself. When you can abandon that, there’s nothing left for the mind to cling to, and so it’s freed.
The view that all fixed views should be abandoned, however, doesn’t contain this dynamic. It provides no grounds for deciding what should and shouldn’t be done. In itself, it can act as an object of craving and clinging, becoming as fixed as any other view. If you decide to drop it, for whatever reason, it delivers you nowhere. It offers no guidance on how to choose anything better, and as a result, you end up clinging to whatever passing view seems attractive. You’re still stuck in the river, grasping at pieces of flotsam and jetsam as the flood carries you away.
This is why it’s always important to remember that, in the practice to gain freedom from suffering, the four noble truths must always come first. They give guidance to the rest of the path, determining the role and function of all the Buddha’s other teachings—including emptiness and the three perceptions—so that, instead of lulling you into being satisfied with an exposed spot on the beach, they can take you all the way to the safety of full release, beyond the reach of any possible wave.