Spirituality
What is Manifestation ?
Book of the Month – October 2023 : Freedom: The Courage to Be Yourself by Osho
In Freedom, Osho outlines three stages of freedom. The first is “freedom from,” which is a freedom that comes from breaking out of what he calls the “psychological slavery” imposed by outside forces such as parents, society, or religion. The next stage is “freedom for,” a positive freedom that comes from embracing and creating something—a fulfilling relationship, for example, or an artistic or humanitarian vision. And lastly there is “just freedom,” the highest and ultimate freedom. This last freedom is more than being for or against something; it is the freedom of simply being oneself and responding truthfully to each moment.
This book helps readers to identify the obstacles to their freedom, both circumstantial and self-imposed, to choose their battles wisely, and to find the courage to be true to themselves.
Will I be Happy in the Future?
Art and Science of Getting Happier
Happiness is here Now…
Today we tackle some of the biggest questions in enlightenment practice, like what are we at our essence? What is consciousness? What does it mean to say that you are the same person that you were 20 years ago? What are we referring to when we say “I”? What happens if you take away everything that we identify with?
Freedom
Osho, can you speak on the difference between freedom for and freedom from?
Freedom from is ordinary, mundane. Man has always tried to be free from things. It is not creative. It is the negative aspect of freedom. Freedom for is creativity. You have a certain vision that you would like to materialize and you want freedom for it. Freedom from is always from the past, and freedom for is always for the future. Freedom for is a spiritual dimension because you are moving into the unknown and perhaps, one day, into the unknowable. It will give you wings. Freedom from, at the most, can take away your handcuffs. It is not necessarily beneficial—and the whole of history is proof of it. People have never thought of the second freedom that I am insisting on; they have only thought of the first— because they don’t have the insight to see the second. The first is visible: chains on their feet, handcuffs on their hands. They want to be free from them, but then what? What are you going to do with your hands? You may even repent that you asked for freedom from…..
….There are two parts to revolution, from and for; and there should be two kinds of revolutionaries: those who are working for the first—that is freedom from—and those who will work when the work of the first is finished, for freedom for. But it is difficult to manage. Who will manage it?……
….That is why I don’t teach revolution; I teach you rebellion. Revolution is of the crowd; rebellion is of the individual. The individual changes himself. He does not care about the power structure; he simply manages to change his own being, gives birth to a new man in himself. And if the whole country is rebellious…
– Osho from Freedom: The Courage to Be Yourself
Way to Self Realisation
No way to self-realization is short or long, but some people are more in earnest and some are less.
I can tell you about myself.
I was a simple man, but I trusted my Guru. What he told me to do, I did.
He told me to concentrate on ‘I am’
He told me that I am beyond all perceivables and conceivables
– I believed.
I gave my heart and soul, my entire attention and the whole of my spare time (I had to work to keep my family alive).
As a result of faith and earnest application, I realized my Self within three years. You may choose any way that suits you; your earnestness will determine the rate of progress.
Establish yourself firmly in the awarenessof ‘I am’.
This is the beginning and also the end of all endeavour.
– Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
Stillness Speaks
If you cannot love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?
Vedanta is to know man as he really is, and this is its message, that if you cannot worship your brother man, the manifested God, how can you worship a God who is unmanifested?
Do you not remember what the Bible says, “If you cannot love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?” If you cannot see God in the human face, how can you see him in the clouds, or in images made of dull, dead matter, or in mere fictitious stories of our brain? I shall call you religious from the day you begin to see God in men and women, and then you will understand what is meant by turning the left cheek to the man who strikes you on the right. When you see man as God, everything, even the tiger, will be welcome. Whatever comes to you is but the Lord, the Eternal, the Blessed One, appearing to us in various forms, as our father, and mother, and friend, and child — they are our own soul playing with us.
Swami Vivekananda from Practical Vedanta
ONE TUSK 