Learning Happiness , livre ebook

OSHO

LEARNING HAPPINESS
The Discipline of Transcendence
PENGUIN BOOKS

PENGUIN BOOKS
CONTENTS
Preface
1 Desire Cannot Be Fulfilled
2 Aloneness Is Your Reality
3 The Passion for Truth
4 A Rich Man Is Very Poor
5 Godhood Is Your Nature
6 I Am Not a Perfectionist
7 Sex Is the Basic Problem
8 The Forbidden Path
9 The World Has Never Lacked Buddhas
10 Religion Is the Ultimate Luxury
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PENGUIN ANANDA
LEARNING HAPPINESS
Osho defies categorization. His talks, which run into thousands, cover everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. Osho s books are not written but are transcribed from audio and video recordings of his extemporaneous talks to international audiences. As he puts it, So remember: whatever I am saying is not just for you . . . I am talking also for the future generations.
Osho has been described by Sunday Times in London as one of the 1000 Makers of the 20th Century , and by American author Tom Robbins as the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ . Sunday Mid-Day (India) has selected Osho as one of ten people-along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha-who have changed the destiny of India.
About his own work Osho has said that he is helping to create the conditions for the birth of a new kind of human being. He often characterizes this new human being as Zorba the Buddha -capable both of enjoying the earthy pleasures of a Zorba the Greek and the silent serenity of a Gautama the Buddha.
Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho s talks and meditations is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of all ages past and the highest potential of today s (and tomorrow s) science and technology.
Osho is known for his revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation, with an approach to meditation that acknowledges the accelerated pace of contemporary life. His unique OSHO Active Meditations are designed to first release the accumulated stresses of body and mind, so that it is then easier to take an experience of stillness and thought-free relaxation into daily life.
Two autobiographical works by the author are available: Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic , St Martin s Press, New York (book and e-book), and Glimpses of a Golden Childhood , OSHO Media International, Pune, India.
Preface
H appiness and unhappiness are both present in your life. The happiness may be just a little, perhaps only a glimpse, a hope or even an illusion, but still it is there. And unhappiness is there as well. You want to get rid of the unhappiness, so you approach the one who knows because he offers you some possibility of relief from your unhappiness. But when you approach the man who knows, he tells you to cast off the happiness as well as the unhappiness because only then can knowing happen.
Really, this is where the difficulty lies. You don t want to cast off the happiness that is yours. You have only recently got married; the wife is beautiful, people have been congratulating you, expressing their delight that you are married and now you have the one you wanted. You want to preserve this happiness. The arrangement you are seeking is one in which the unhappiness of the world disappears, but the happiness remains - and this is impossible.
No one has ever been able to manage this, nor ever will, because the happiness and unhappiness of the world are two sides of the same coin. Either you retain the whole coin or you throw the whole coin away. You are trying the impossible, and that is why you are divided within yourself. You want to leave one half and keep the other. But this life cannot be divided. Life is whole; to divide it is impossible.
Osho
Nowhere to Go But In
1
DESIRE CANNOT BE FULFILLED
The Buddha said:
Moved by their selfish desires, people seek after fame and glory. But when they have acquired it, they are already stricken in years. If you hanker after worldly fame and practice not the way, your labors are wrongfully applied and your energy is wasted. It is like unto burning an incense stick. However much its pleasing odor be admired, the fire that consumes is steadily burning up the stick.
The Buddha said:
People cleave to their worldly possessions and selfish passions so blindly as to sacrifice their own lives for them. They are like a child who tries to eat a little honey smeared on the edge of a knife. The amount is by no means sufficient to appease his appetite, but he runs the risk of wounding his tongue.
The Buddha said:
Men are tied up to their families and possessions more helplessly than in a prison. There is an occasion for the prisoner to be released, but householders entertain no desire to be relieved from the ties of family. When a man s passion is aroused nothing prevents him from ruining himself. Even into the maws of a tiger will he jump. Those who are thus drowned in the filth of passion are called the ignorant. Those who are able to overcome it are saintly arhats.
T he way of Buddha is not a religion in the ordinary sense of the term because it has no belief system, no dogma, no scripture. It does not believe in God, it does not believe in the soul, it does not believe in any state of moksha . It is a tremendous non-belief, and yet it is a religion.
It is unique. Nothing like it had ever happened in the history of human consciousness, and nothing like it has happened since. Buddha remains utterly unique, incomparable.
He says that God is nothing but a search for security, a search for safety, a search for shelter. You believe in God not because God is there, but because without that belief you feel helpless. Even if there were no God, you would invent one. The temptation comes from your weakness. It is a projection.
Man feels very limited, very helpless, almost a victim of circumstances - not knowing where he comes from and not knowing where he is going, not knowing why he is here. If there is no God it is very difficult for ordinary man to have any meaning in life. The ordinary mind will go berserk without God.
God is a prop which helps you, consoles you, comforts you. It says, Don t be worried, the Almighty God knows everything about why you are here. He is the creator; he knows why he has created the world. You may not know but the Father knows, and you can trust in him. It is a great consolation.
The very idea of God gives you a sense of relief that you are not alone, that somebody is looking after affairs; that this cosmos is not just a chaos, it is really a cosmos, and that there is a system behind it, a logic behind it. It is not an illogical jumble of things, it is not anarchy. Somebody rules it; the sovereign king is there looking after each small detail, and not even a leaf moves without his moving it. Everything is planned. You are part of a great destiny. Maybe the meaning is not known to you, but the meaning is there because God is there.
God brings a tremendous relief. One starts feeling that life is not accidental; there is a certain undercurrent of significance, meaning, destiny. God brings a sense of destiny.
Buddha says: There is no God - it simply shows that man knows not why he is here. It simply shows man is helpless. It simply shows that man has no meaning available to him. By creating the idea of God he can believe in meaning, and he can live this futile life with the idea that somebody is looking after it.
Just think: you are on a flight and somebody comes and says, There is no pilot. Suddenly there will be a panic. No pilot? No pilot means you are doomed. Then somebody says, Believe the pilot is there, just invisible. We may not be able to see the pilot, but he is there; otherwise how is this beautiful mechanism functioning? Just think of it: everything is going so beautifully there must be a pilot. Maybe we are not capable of seeing him, maybe we are not yet prayerful enough to see him, maybe our eyes are closed, but the pilot is there. Otherwise, how is it possible? This airplane has taken off, it is flying perfectly well; the engines are humming. Everything is a proof that there is a pilot.
If somebody proves it, you relax again into your chair. You close your eyes, you start dreaming again, you can fall asleep. The pilot is there, you need not worry.
Buddha says that the pilot doesn t exist. It is a human creation. Man has created God in his own image. It is man s invention; God is not a discovery, it is an invention. God is not the truth; it is the greatest lie there is. That s why I say Buddhism is not a religion in the ordinary sense of the term. A God-less religion - can you imagine? When for the first time Western scholars became aware of Buddhism they were shocked. They could not comprehend that a religion can exist without God. They had known only Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All these three religions are in a way very immature compared to Buddhism.
Buddhism is religion come of age. Buddhism is the religion of a mature mind. Buddhism is not childish at all, and it doesn t help any childish desires in you. It is very merciless. Let me repeat it: There has never been a man more compassionate than Buddha, but his religion is merciless. In fact, in that mercilessness he is showing his compassion. He will not allow you to cling to any lie. Howsoever consoling, a lie is a lie, and those who have given you the lie are not your friends. They are enemies because under the impact of the lie you will live a life full of lies.
The truth has to be brought to you, howsoever hard, howsoever shattering, howsoever shocking. Even if you are annihilated by the impact of the truth, it is good. Buddha says that the truth is that man s religions are man s inventions. You are in a dark night surrounded by alien forces. You need someone to hang on to, someone to cling to.
Everything that you can see is changing. One day your father will