Notes from some of Osho's discourses... Phone 07 5562 5718 or send an email to book a free 20 minute telephone or skype consultation. NLP Hypnotherapy and Meditation with an Osho Zen Sannyasin. Gold Coast, Robina, Australia.

Osho: Turning in Zen

	Discourses by Osho are available in book and MP3 form. The following notes were taken from the series of discourses: TURNING IN ZEN

#1: Excellent: The first 20 minutes is brilliant. The moon is reflected in a tiny dewdrop as perfectly as it is reflected in the largest ocean. There is nothing to renounce – understanding is all that is required. You have to deal with the real. The consciousness cannot deal with reality because it is just a mirror that reflects. The body has to create mind as an arbitrary tool so that it can function in the world. The mind cannot be used to understand the real hence philosophy cannot help.

#2: Put aside all fictions of the mind and allow your naturalness to express itself.

#3: Excellent: On Rinzai. Four states of consciousness, concentration, contemplation, meditation and the fourth word does not exist in English so it is translated as meditation. The fourth word is dhyana in Sanskrit, Chan in Chinese and Zen in Japanese. Concentration all thoughts on an object – this is the domain of scientific thought. Allow the mind to move only on a certain object and its nuances – this is contemplation and the domain of philosophy. In English meditation means to deepen the concentration and to go to the centre of an object. The fourth word Zen is introverted and is about going in with no object. The first three had an object. Zen is an effort not to know an object but to experience the subject and discover the centre of your consciousness. Zen goes beyond the mind. With no object there can be no subject either as object and subject are like two sides of a coin. The first three are mental activities. The only activity which is not mental is witnessing. Bodhidharma brought Zen from India to China. Rinzai brought Zen from China to Japan.
A man of consciousness drops all control and responsibility and becomes spontaneous. When the mind is dropped then you act out of spontaneity. The word responsible has been contaminated by the religions. Response – ability = spontaneity.

#4: The effort of Zen is to bring you to a space where you are a watcher without judgement. Seeking shelter in misery happens when no one loves you. Focus on the positive things in life and avoid the negative. Don’t give attention to the terrible people from history instead focus on the creative beautiful people from history. There have been thousands of enlightened masters. Give attention to people when they are happy, acknowledge their pain but do not reinforce it. Reinforce the positive states that people experience but don’t ask them why they are happy, rather just join in being happy with them. Avoid films, television, radio, magazines that depict violence and negative states of being.
Rejoice with no thought of attainment. When there is nothing to watch then the watcher disappears. Enlightenment gives ideas of attainment. Nirvana means literally to blow out the candle flame. Nirvana is about extinction of you. You are the problem hence extinction is the only way. It is not that you have problems which can be solved but that you are the problem.

#5: Sitting meditation is the method of great liberation. The ultimate reality is hidden in the seeker. Zen does not preach any discipline, doctrine or practise. The anecdote of Jesus and Lazarus contrasted with the anecdote of Buddha and the mother of the dead child who is given a task to bring mustard seed from a home in which no one has ever died.

#6: Excellent*: On the attitude of a Zen meditator. This section is well worth listening to. The search into your interiority must be as-if this is the last moment of your life. Zen is unique in that there is no doctrine or belief in anything. Truth has to be experienced, it can’t be believed. Good section on the structure of belief and doubt. Don’t believe in the work, look for the experience. Belief takes you away from your own individual enquiry, it takes you away from yourself. Belief just creates a crowd of believers. One starts the enquiry with doubt. Your attitude to the scriptures must be ruthless as in challenging a deadly enemy. “Zen wants you to be an individual seeker. Throw away all the scriptures, burn all the scriptures, never take anybody’s word as your truth. It is a great challenge and it needs strength, it needs integrity, it needs a love for truth at any cost. Only those who gamble everything for the truth are the blessed ones.”

#7: Short but good section on witnessing. If you are aware that you are angry then it is the silent witness that it is aware of the anger. Everyone witnesses to some degree but meditation strengthens the witness and quietens the mind. The identification with the mind becomes less and one spends more time in the pure witnessing consciousness. Neither accept praise nor accept anger – just remember to stay attuned to your simplicity. Live according to your own consciousness even if it goes against the whole world.

#8: Excellent: Zen is a device to discover yourself. Believing is only needed when something is not true. Oregon University survey comparing the intelligence of Sannyasins on the ranch in Oregon with that of the average Oregonian. The average Sannyasin scored 14 units while the average Oregonian scored 7 units. We project our ideas onto reality. There is only one life energy in existence which manifests itself in different forms.

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