Description
This is the first of four volumes in which Osho comments on the 42 earliest-known teachings of Buddha. Here is Buddha alive, relevant, scientific in insight, and very human. Using Buddha’s wisdom as a springboard, Osho brings to life words that have the power to change the way we see the world, change the way we see religion, and above all, change the way we are. Far from being just a statue, here Buddha is an amazing human being so far ahead of his time that even now he is only just beginning to be more widely understood.
Chapter Titles
- Chapter 1: The Most Excellent Way
- Chapter 2: The Greatest Miracle
- Chapter 3: Only Nothing Is
- Chapter 4: Two Empty Skies Meeting
- Chapter 5: Real Repentance Is Remembering
- Chapter 6: Nothing Is Lacking
- Chapter 7: Living the Dhamma
- Chapter 8: Sincerity in the Search
- Chapter 9: The Truth beyond Magic
- Chapter 10: Thus Come, Thus Gone
Excerpt from Finding Your Own Way
Chapter 1
You need not be a religious person to be convinced by Buddha, that’s his rarity. You need not believe at all. You need not believe in God, you need not believe in the soul, you need not believe in anything – still you can be with Buddha, and by and by you will come to know about the soul and about God also. But those are not hypotheses.
No belief is required to travel with Buddha. You can come with all skepticism possible. He accepts, he welcomes, and he says, “Come with me.” First he convinces your mind, and once your mind is convinced and you start traveling with him, by and by you start feeling that he has a message which is beyond mind, he has a message which no reason can confine. But first he convinces your reason.
Buddha’s religion is suprarational, but not against reason. This has to be understood in the very beginning. It has something to do with the beyond: suprarational, but that suprarational is not against the rational. It is in tune with it. The rational and the suprarational are a continuity, continuous. This is the rarity of Buddha.
Krishna says to Arjuna, “Surrender to me.” Buddha never says that. He convinces you to surrender. Krishna says, “Surrender to me, then you will be convinced.” Buddha says, “Be convinced first, then surrender comes like a shadow. You need not worry about it, don’t talk about it at all.”
Because of this rational approach he never brings any concept which cannot be proved. He never talks about God. H. G. Wells has said about Buddha, “He is the most godly and the most godless man in the whole history of man.” Yes, it is so – the most godly and the most godless.
You cannot find a more godly person than Buddha. Every other personality simply fades before him. His luminosity is superb, his being has no comparison, but he does not talk about God.
Because he has never talked about God, many think that he is an atheist – he is not. He has not talked about God because there is no way to talk about God. All talk about God is nonsense. Whatsoever you can say about God is going to be false. It is something that cannot be said.
