Osho: Zorba The Buddha

There are spiritual teachings of great quality waiting for you just around the corner and it seems that being ready for them is the only requirement that is needed before they get presented to you. They are just waiting for you to discover them. It was in 2007. or somewhere near that, when I got my hands on a very interesting book called “The Ultimate Alchemy”, and the author of the book was called “Osho” and with his long, white beard and a stare he looked to me as some Christian orthodox monk, who had spent his life completely out of society, maybe on some Greek mountains near the sea or dwelling in a desert in the middle East for his whole life – that was the impression he left on me at the first glimpse, before I got to know him better, but the first impression always stays within and in this case it was not completely wrong: Osho was a man not bound by society, though he had spent his whole life among people. This book was lent to me by my hairdresser, a simple old woman who leads a simple life but has strong and pure energy within and later on, talking to her, I have found out and truly felt the possibility of being an ordinary, simple man but enlightened too, contrary to college professor and erudite people who are at risk of being the furthest from enlightenment. So, my hairdresser did present me that book with such great joy everybody would think she had some use out of it, but she didn’t – it was just the joy of sharing something that you like, and amongst all the people that I was and am meeting personally thorough my life I think that she is the only being that achieved that state.

So, one after another, the books were circling in and out of my hands and I have been reading them with great enthusiasm.

Now, I should briefly explain what his teachings are about. First of all, there is no constant system of teaching and that links it to existentialist and absurdist philosophies (Kierkegaard and Camus) which have also denied “system” of thought. But, Osho likes to contradict himself constantly and on some very crucial questions he can give completely opposite answers today and tomorrow. I have been listening to his talks and it really is like that: today he says one thing and tomorrow completely the opposite, and so on it goes. Socrates was doing that in Ancient Greece – by engaging into conversation with him it would become necessary to you to contradict yourself at some point, and then the door to your true self, to your being that is not bound by the rigidity of thoughts, opens. If you can love you spiritual Master even if he does contradict himself – and he does that on purpose, to help you experience full love and trust – if you can love him then, his task is done.

Reading Osho books, especially those about Taoism, can open the flow in you. What does that mean? There is a term in positive psychology that is called “the flow” and it is very similar to the phrase “doing without doing”, it is when you feel absolutely light when doing some stuff that is above average difficulty, for example surfing the net for hours and reading Wikipedia articles while feeling very pleasant and hungry for more. That is one example of the flow.

He is one of those mystics who are highly spiritual but highly realistic. By being an educated man even for modern terms, Osho did not base his teachings on UFO’s, Atlantis, witchcraft or some other folk supernatural tales. His talks and books are concerned about reality as it is, not as we have made it up during past ages, but it doesn’t mean that he is scientifically restrictive like modern scientists are. He is just open, but real, and his method can be defined mostly as Buddhist but talks are not about Buddhism or any religion exclusively.

Existentialism is the philosophy that inspired him mostly. It cannot be said that any philosophy or religion had crucial role in his Enlightenment – because nothing of this world can help you make that final step – but there are things that can help you along the way. Philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Marcel and Jaspers are all mentioned in his talks, and he might have been the only man who had studied them in India at the time.

Humor is an element that is stated s the most important in his teachings. If a sentence is not followed by a laughter then there is no truth in it – and on some higher plane this is true, that’s why he liked jokes. But the very concept of joke had to be understood and lived consciously. Laughing pointlessly is not the thing we are asking for, it has the same value as reflexive laugh due to absorption of marijuana smoke.

One Method: Meditation. There is only one constant thought in Osho’s talks – meditation. The practice of meditation is the only way for you to not get his teachings the wrong way. Now, there are many ways to do meditation depending on your energy level – children like to run so running is meditation to them, older people are fatigued so sitting in the right posture is meditative to them. The practice of self awareness attitude is also emphasized, it is very important and is linked to meditation.

The Zorba and The Buddha concept is meeting of the opposites in one person. It is a kind of call to embrace our dual nature, earthly and divine, to understand them, accept ourselves as we are and transcend ourselves. Zorba the Greek is a character in Nikolas Kazantzakis’ novel, and it is a man who is so hedonistic it is sometimes unreal and even humorous – but he is a man who lives for the moment, the only thing is that he doesn’t see anything beyond that moment, and beyond this Earth. Gautama Siddhartha, or the Buddha, also lives for the moment, but his moment has the quality of eternity and he misses the beauty of the Earth because he is so high in the sky. In a common man of a present age, Zorba and Buddha are one, and should be one. We should not deny any of our two natures. If we embrace them both, fuse them, then the inner alchemical process will start, and that is the first step towards knowing the eternity.

Sincerely, many of Osho’s ideas cannot be talked about rightly, so I suggest that you start listening or reading the books and see the effects for yourself. I am very glad if this hub helped some of you to get inspired to read something more about life of an enlightened being known by the name of Osho.