Osho - Osho: Living Dangerously- Ordinary Enlightenment for Extraordinary Times

Osho defies categorization. His thousands of talks cover everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. Oshos 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 the 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 Oshos talks and meditations is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of all ages past and the highest potential of todays (and tomorrows) 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. Martins Press, New York

Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, Osho Media International, Pune
www.biography.osho.com

The Osho International Foundation maintains the Osho library and archives and administers the worldwide publishing rights of Oshos works in all media formats.

The foundations web site www.OSHO.com is available in multiple languages.

See also:

www.youtube.com/OSHO

www.facebook.com/pages/OSHO.International

http://OSHO.com/resort

http://OSHO.com/magazine

http://OSHO.com/shop

www.OSHObytes.blogspot.com

www.Twitter.com/OSHOtimes

OSHO books also published by Watkins Publishing Ltd

When the Shoe Fits

Inner War and Peace

The Buddha Said

Meetings With Remarkable People

WATKINS MASTERS OF WISDOM

Living Dangerously
Ordinary Enlightenment
for Extraordinary Times

This edition first published in the UK and USA 2011 by
Watkins Publishing, Sixth Floor, Castle House,
7576 Wells Street, London W1T 3QH

Text Copyright 2011 OSHO International Foundation
Design and typesetting Watkins Publishing 2011

Copyright 2011 OSHO International Foundation, Switzerland,
www.osho.com/copyrights

English original: Ordinary Enlightenment for Extraordinary Times, by Osho

The material in this book is selected from various talks by Osho given to a live audience. All of Oshos talks have been published in full as books, and are also available as original audio recordings. Audio recordings and the complete text archive can be found via the online OSHO Library at www.osho.com

OSHO is a registered trademark of Osho International Foundation,
www.osho.com/trademarks
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the Publishers.

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Designed and typeset by Jerry Goldie Graphic Design

Printed and bound by Imago in China

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

ISBN: 978-1-78028-007-3

www.watkinspublishing.co.uk

Distributed in the USA and Canada by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810

For information about custom editions, special sales, premium and corporate purchases, please contact Sterling Special Sales Department at 800-805-5489 or

Total revolution has to arise from your very center.

That is my work here. I want every individual to clean the past from his mind completely. All his prejudices, all his thoughts political, social, religious everything has to be dropped. Just a clean slate, and you have arrived to the space of no-mind. No-mind is meditation, and no-mind is the revelation, and no-mind is the greatest rebellion that has ever happened.

In the past only very few people... a Gautam Buddha here and there, thousands of years pass and then comes one person who blossoms into a Buddha. But now there is no more time. You cannot postpone for tomorrow. Whatever you want to do has to be done now! For the first time, the present is becoming more and more important. Each day you are coming closer to choosing the alternative: either move towards becoming a Buddha or move towards becoming a corpse.

I dont think anybody wants to die, particularly when all life is at risk. The third world war cannot happen. We are going to prevent it!

I dont have any weapons, I dont have any nuclear missiles, but I have something greater and something far more effective. It is not to kill, it is to bring life to those who are living almost as if they are dead. It is bringing awareness to those who are behaving like somnambulists, walking in their sleep, talking in their sleep, not knowing exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it.

I want people to be so awake that their whole consciousness goes to the deepest part of their being, and also to the highest peak. A vertical growth just like a tree grows. Its roots go down into the earth, and its branches spread towards the stars. Its blossoms flower into the sky, its nourishment comes from the deepest part of the earth. It is always balanced: the higher the tree goes, the deeper the roots. You cannot have a cedar of Lebanon tree, 400 or 500 years old, rising so high in the sky, with small roots. It will fall down immediately.

Life needs a balance between the depth and the height. I teach you both simultaneously. In your entering to the center in meditation, you are growing your roots deeper into the cosmos. And bringing the Buddha out from the hidden center is bringing your fragrance, bringing your grace, bringing your ecstasy higher, where it can blossom into the sky.

Your ecstasy is a movement towards the height and your meditation is a movement towards the depth. And once you have both, your life becomes a celebration.

That is my work, to transform your life from a sad affair into a celebration.

Relax into your being, whoever you are. Dont impose any ideals. Dont drive yourself crazy; there is no need. Be drop becoming. We are not going anywhere, we are just being here. And this moment is so beautiful, is such a benediction; dont bring any future into it, otherwise you will destroy it. Future is poisonous. Relax and enjoy. If I can help you to relax and enjoy, my work is done. If I can help you to drop your ideals, ideas about how you should be and how you should not be, if I can take away all the commandments that have been given to you, then my work is done. And when you are without any commandments, and when you live on the spur of the moment natural, spontaneous, simple, ordinary there is great celebration because you have arrived home.