Teachings of Osho - Seeking truth

The teachings of Osho is a regular feature of the UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appears on Tuesdays.

Osho - What is the price of bliss?

Articles on the teachings of Osho appear on the UU A Way Of Life ministries blog on Tuesdays.

What is the price of bliss? Some people don't understand the value of bliss unless there is a price for it.

Can Unitarian Universalism help people achieve bliss? What is the price?

Alexander The Great was willing to give his whole empire for a bottle of water when he was thirsty in the desert. Sometimes putting a price on things is done not out of greed but out of compassion.

Osho explains in 6 minutes.

Osho - Life is the art of living with purpose.

The teachings of Osho are a regular feature of the UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appear on Tuesdays.

Osho has said, "Life is an art. It is not just about living somehow or other. Only he who lives with a purpose actually lives."

And what is the purpose of life? It is individual and it is universal.

The universal purpose of life is to evolve in consciousness to the point wherein everybody loves everybody all the time which, of course, is heaven on earth. Humankind is evolving to this point, the omega, and it still has a way to go.

The individual purpose of life is to become aware of one's holiness and the holiness of all of God's creation by giving up grievances, resentments, anger, attack and fear, and embracing Unconditional Love. A person's life is a classroom which offers many forgiveness opportunities. Some forgiveness opportunities are overlooked, rejected, dismissed, and denied. Other forgiveness opportunties are recognized, accepted, acknowledged, and utilized.

The decision to utilize a forgiveness opportunity to become aware of one's own holiness and the holiness of others to sanctify the world, is the purpose of this classroom we call "life." Practicing the utilization of forgiveness opportunites to become aware of holiness is the art of Life.

Did God want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge?

Osho, in the book "What Now, Adam?: The Book of Men, " says that Christian priests and ministers peddle fear of hell and the greed of paradise to manipulate people to stay in the church.

Osho retells the story of Adam and Eve saying that God wanted Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge. Here's what Osho says:

"No, Adam has not committed any sin; Adam is the first saint. He disobeyed God, and God wanted it. That is exactly what God wanted - that Adam should disobey. Disobeying God, Adam will go far away into the world; he will lose his first childhood (of innocence). Then he will suffer many, many mistakes and from those mistakes he will learn.
     And one day he will come back - as Christ, as Buddha, as Mahavira, as Krishna, he will come back.
     This going away is a must for coming back. This is not against God, really, this is precisely what God wanted to happen. It was absolutely planned by God himself. So don't call it a sin. Why is Adam called a sinner? He is called a sinner because your religions depend on calling you sinners, on condemning you. "p.13

I was taught as a Roamin Catholic that God created human beings because God wanted a loving creature like God. In order to accomplish this, God had to give human beings free will.

What good is free will if it is not used?

To really love, human beings had to separate themselves from the Oneness of God so they could gain consciousness and activate their free will. This led, as it is taught in A Course In Miracles, to the "tiny mad idea" that human beings can totally separate themselves from God. Having gone far astray there is still the Divine Spark deep within.

After suffering on the path of the ego, it dawns on us that there must be a better way, and this better way triggers the search which in Unitarian Universalism is called the "free and responsible search for truth and meaning." The search takes us back to God voluntarily and feely. God wants us back because we want to be back. God does not force us, but quietly calls us. The choice to return to God is all ours.

Responding to this call is what Osho calls true religion which is based on Love and has nothing at all to do with fear and greed.

The God of religions is dead. The mainline religions around the world are dying. Nietzche declared that God is dead. Nietzche was referring to the God of fear and greed. The Tao, the Spirit of Life, the ground of existence, of course, cannot die because it animates all life.

We can't choose Life unless we wander away from it and reject it first. When we recognize our mistakes, it dawns on us that there is a better way, we begin our search for what is genuinely Life giving, and we go back home from whence we came, but now we are consciously aware and have chosen Love freely.

Osho - Choosing between truth and the self

"Osho" is a regular feature of the UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appears on Tuesdays.

"Choosing between truth and the self: If you choose truth, not only will you find truth, but you will also find your true self. And if you choose the self, you will lose both."

Osho teaches that the "I" is not real but a veil of the ego which covers the truth and the only way to the Truth is to dissolve the "I."

Osho says, "Only when a seed completely loses itself in the earth can it sprout and become a tree."

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. UUs come to understand that truth is not out there, external, but rather within and comes from an awareness of the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Osho - Truth is an inside job.

On Tuesdays, UU A Way Of Life ministries blog publishes an article on the teachings of Osho.

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote seven principles the fourth of which is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. That's it. That's all the principle tells us. It doesn't tell us where to search.

Many people search on the path of the ego thinking that more facts, more knowledge, more experiences of the external world will provide that truth and meaning. Even in the world of science, we are told that we know more about the natural world until the next quarterly journal comes out.

Osho, the mystic, tells us that "Truth exists in our very self. And it is not so difficult to find, but we have to travel inside to do so. When someone goes inside himself, he finds truth as well as himself, at the deepest core of his life's breath."

In A Course In Miracles we are told that human beings live in denial and denial obsures the light of Love. One of the hardest things to do in life is to learn to live with the truth of ourselves. The truth scares us because we are not what we think we are. We go through life pretending to be one social role after the other. We pretend to be something we think other people want us to be. Our lives unconsciously become a lie.

Osho tells us to cut through the bull shit, cut through the false fascade, cut through the pretense, cut though trying to be something we are not. At the bottom, if we travel far enough, we experience all encompassing Love from which we came and to which we will return.

Osho - "I" is an obstacle on the path of truth.

Every Tuesday, UU A Way Of Life publishes an article on the teachings of Osho.

Osho has said, "There is no bigger mistake that the idea of "I." It is the biggest obstacle on the path to truth. Those who don't overcome this obstacle never make any progess on the path of truth."

Why would Osho say such a thing? Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person and if, by this principle, they mean to exalt the ego they make a big mistake. If, on the other hand, they mean to exalt the part we all play in the interdependent web of existence, they may be on to something.

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning and where is the Truth to be found? The perennial psychology tells us clearly it is not to be found on the path of the ego.

There is no "I." The "I" is a social construction. It is an illusion which has been constructed from many identities none of which is permanent, all of which change, none of which is really real.

If  a person believes in the "I" that person can never find the truth which Unitarian Univeralists believes lies in the interdependent web, the Oneness, the Tao, of which we are just a part.

If there is no "I" it becomes apparent that the truth cannot be found on the path of the ego.

Can I just live in the moment?

Osho has said, "The eternal is hidden in the moment, and the vastness of infinity is contained in the atom. He who ignores the atom, thinking it is just an atom, loses the infinite itself. It is only done by digging in the lowest that you find the highest."

Osho said further, "The ocean is made up of many single drops. And life consists of many individual moments. He who becomes aware of the drop comes to know the whole ocean. And he who has experienced the moment has experienced the whole of life."

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the interdependent web of all existence and as such recognize the nondualistic Oneness. UUs, like people in twelve step programs, take things one step at a time, one day at a time, one moment at a time.

It is important to recognize that there is no time. It is a social construction that divides up our perceptions into before, now, and after. This is not true for all cultures and has become more pronounced in ours after the industrial revolution. In our modern era we have become mircromanagers where we have come to believe that we have to make each minute count. This is insanity and destroys our peace.

Osho tells us to live in the moment. Live in the moment because, in reality, that is all there is.

Should I clean my mind?

Osho has said, "Everyone is a mirror. From morning till evening, this mirror gathers dust. And those who allow this dust to settle are no longer a mirror. As your mirror is, so is your awareness. The truth reflected in it is only truth to the extent that it is a mirror."

The path of the ego is littered with detritus. It clings to ones clothing and body. We shower and bathe the body, and what of the mind, the psyche?

Osho recommends we cleanse our minds every morning and every evening before sleep. We do this this with a few minutes of meditation.

This routine of cleansing our minds centers us, reduces our reactivity, and helps us become holy.

UUAWOL quote worth noting - Growing old

“So first we have to understand what I mean by ‘life.’ It must not be simply growing old, it must be growing up. And these are two different things.”

Osho, Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself, p.ix