:: OSHO SPEAKS ::

ZORBA : THE BUDDHA

In the past the mystic would work on his growth in consciousness by focusing on his inner world and withdrawing from the unconscious and materialistic society. The New Dawn calls for integration of society and spiritual development.This can happen through the marriage of Buddha and Zorba. Zorba the Buddha is the new man. Zorba is passion for life and all its worldly pleasures. Buddha is awareness.

Sharing His vision of 'Zorba the Buddha' - the ultimate man, Osho says that the ultimate man is one who is capable of enjoying life and its offerings like Zorba. And also, a man who is capable of understanding the highest truth of existence like Buddha. Rich in both. Zorba the Buddha is in fact a complete and united man. Often He describes the new, ultimate and unfragmented man as "Zorba the Buddha", able to enjoy both the earthly pleasures, like a Zorba the Greek, as well as the silent serenity of a Gautama Buddha. He is the combination of the meditation of the East and the materialism of the West. Zorba the Buddha is a totally new human being who is aware, life-affirmative and free.

"If we want a whole man - and to me a whole man is the only holy man - then Zorba has to be absorbed into Buddha. They have to be accepted totally as one. And I don't see where the trouble is. In fact, Zorba plus Buddha will be a tremendous enrichment.
Buddha cannot laugh, cannot dance, cannot sing, cannot love. Now what kind of life will it be? Hollow!

Zorba can sing, dance, enjoy food, drink, love. He will have a life, but he will not know who he is. He will not know the meaning of existence. He will never come to experience the deathlessness of life, the eternity of his existence - that he has been here always, and will be always; only forms change. He will never enter into his own center. He will always remain in the cyclone, very busy, concerned with everything except himself. And the center of the cyclone is the most ecstatic experience, the ultimate experience of human consciousness. Beyond that there is nothing; you have arrived home. But I don't see that there is any problem, there is no contradiction. You can arrive home, you can be at your center - what prevents you from laughing? In fact, you should be the only one who can really laugh, can become laughter; who can really love, can become love itself - where the lover disappears and only love remains; one who can dance and dance to such abandon that the dancer is completely gone, there is only dance.

This is my effort:
To bring Zorba the Buddha into the world.
That will create a unity in you; your body and soul will have a unity. You will not have to fight against your nature, you can use it as a stepping stone. There is no need to fight, there is no need to repress.
All psychological diseases are out of repression. All psychopathological people are just incurable unless they accept their nature totally, without any grudge. You have to use your natural energies to grow. It will bring man into a totality.
All religions have made you schizophrenic, split. They have created guilt in you by creating a split; it is their whole business. Only a guilty man will go to church, will go to the synagogue, will go to the temple; otherwise there is no need.
If you are one, you would like to dance in the open air under the sun. That will be your real prayer. Nothing is said, nothing is asked, but you are showing your gratitude to existence.
Zorba the Buddha will not only destroy the split in man, it will destroy the split in society."

Osho
From Bondage to Freedom