Osho: The art of walking the tightrope

tightropeIn this series of Osho talks he examines stories from different ancient cultures. This is an excellent companion to what I teach. Enjoy!

ONCE, WHEN THE HASIDIM WERE SEATED TOGETHER
IN ALL BROTHERLINESS,
PIPE IN HAND, RABBI ISRAEL JOINED THEM.
BECAUSE HE WAS SO FRIENDLY THEY ASKED HIM,
‘TELL US, DEAR RABBI, HOW SHOULD WE SERVE GOD?’

HE WAS SURPRISED AT THE QUESTION,
AND REPLIED, ‘HOW SHOULD I KNOW?’

BUT THEN HE WENT ON TO TELL THEM THIS STORY..
THERE WERE TWO FRIENDS OF THE KING,
AND BOTH WERE PROVED GUILTY OF A CRIME.

SINCE HE LOVED THEM THE KING WANTED TO SHOW THEM MERCY,
BUT HE COULD NOT

Life is a lot like traveling by train…

senior-man-traveling-train-15401290Life is like being in a train: you can look out on the left side, the right side, the back, the front… but it won’t change that you are on a train that will arrive to its destination, no matter where you look.

Most of us live this way most of the time.

We do our jobs, we do our relationships, we do our projects, we do our lives this way.

Fulfilling? No. Enjoyable? It depends…

Ultimately we are plagued by a nagging sense that we are out of control, that no matter what we do won’t change anything. Some of us feel doomed. Some of

More on toughening up… and an exercise

comradery-through-hardshipMore on toughening up…

When I first did the Landmark Forum (actually it was called The Forum in 1987) I remember, distinctly, experiencing, for the first time, that I am not alone.

There was so much misery shared in that room, that it caused a kind of comradery ((special friendship, or experience of being in battle together, that have experienced the crucible of combat together)), I wasn’t familiar with.

I remember thinking: If I am not alone, then it is not me… then it is something shared…

Then I didn’t have this experience until this after

Updated: A Time To Give Thanks. But To Who? For What? Mundane Or Significant? Habit And Duty Or Privilege?

Thanksgiving_bountyI wrote this article five years ago. Sometimes the way to get ahead is to go back five years and start from there.

Recently the readership of this blog has changed, not to my liking. I’d like to return to how it was five years ago, when people with sincere desire to change visited, and asked for help.

OK, here is the old article… hopefully all typos are corrected.

Thanksgiving: a time to give thanks. But to who? For What? Mundane or Significant? Habit and Duty or Privilege?

In searching what I am really thankful for, I went through all the things I could be thankful for.

The ai

Osho on the pathless path

osho-on-zenTHE ANCIENTS SAID:

“(SELF-)CULTIVATION TAKES AN UNIMAGINABLE TIME (WHILE) ENLIGHTENMENT IN AN INSTANT IS ATTAINED.”

IF THE TRAINING IS EFFICIENT, ENLIGHTENMENT WILL BE ATTAINED IN ONE FINGERSNAP.

IN DAYS GONE BY CH’AN MASTER HUI CHUEH OF LANG YEH MOUNTAIN, HAD A DISCIPLE WHO CALLED ON HIM FOR INSTRUCTION. THE MASTER TAUGHT HER TO EXAMINE INTO THE SENTENCE: “TAKE NO NOTICE.”

SHE FOLLOWED HIS INSTRUCTION STRICTLY WITHOUT BACKSLIDING.

ONE DAY HER HOUSE CAUGHT FIRE, BUT SHE SAID: “TAKE NO NOTICE.”

ANOTHER DAY, HER SON FELL INTO THE WATER AND WHEN A BYSTANDER CALLED HER, SHE

A short meditation to step out of your mind and the noise in your head

rejuvenating short meditationHere’s an awareness exercise (meditation) that I particularly like for rejuvenating yourself with silence:

Sit up straight.

Close your eyes.

Take a few deep breaths to settle down. (if you know how to center yourself, you can do it first)

Then here’s what to do with your awareness:

Eyes closed, get a sense of the end of your personal space in front of you. It’s an energetic phenomenon, mine is about three feet… You’ll feel it.

Is Sophie enlightened? Has Sophie attained to whatever people attain to?

St Sophie, lolOften (too often!) people write to me telling me that I am not supposed to get angry, not supposed to be stingy, not supposed to be on thing or another… Why? Because enlightened means, according to them, forever joyful, forever happy, and rich, rich, rich.

So, what is the truth about enlightenment? Is there such a thing at all?

The answer depends on who you ask, but whoever you ask: they are speaking from Tree of Knowledge.

Why? Because if you say “I am enlightened” according to scriptures you are lying.
And if you say “I am not enlightened” you don’t know what you are talking about…

Enlightened is a tr

Cinematherapy: what does it do? It teaches you to feel.

FeelingsMovies with good actors do it better…

American actors are mostly useless, but it may be because American directors have no empathy? And yet some of the most missing feelings I got from American TV series I have watched through Netflix. I have recently learned family love, and being able to choose, ultimately, what is win-win… in a series I am watching now, Blue Bloods about a Irish family of cops in New York City. I also had a peek at something I didn’t know I wanted to feel: how religion is for people who have faith…

I don’t know if it is the actors or the di

An Atlantic article: What does ISIS really want?

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What ISIS Really Wants

from the Atlantic

The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.

What is the Islamic State?

Where did it come from, and what are its intentions? The simplicity of these questions can be deceiving, and few Western leaders seem to know the answers. In December, The New York Times published confidential comme

Updated: Soul Correction: Fearless

Fear is an issue. It’s universal. You have it, I have it. You have to have it. It is the 200,000 year old hardware… where your life was lived out in an environment where everything was a threat to your survival.

Today’s fears are the same, except today the threats to your survival are missing… and yet, the fears continue.

Your path to the next level of evolution, Human Being, is the beingness of fearless… where you consider fear a necessary evil, and you take it with you wherever you go, big and small, safe or dangerous, like you would take a child with you who needs your support.

If you think you need to deal with the fear, you need to silence the fear, stop the fear, fix the fear BEFORE you can do anything, then you’ll never go anywhere… And that is the predictable place where you are, if this is your soul correction.

Here starts the original article:

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