Book of Women

Osho

Description

Find your own potential In this book, based on his discourses, Osho talks about woman not in his capacity as a man, but as a consciousness, an awareness . Osho talks about various issues like motherhood, relationships, family and birth control. Questioning the concept of marriage, he says it is the ugliest institution invented by man as its aim is to monopolize a woman. He is equally critical of the institution of family which corrupts the human mind . A woman, he says, should not imitate man: Rejoice in your feminine qualities, make a poetry out of them. The perfect state of being, according to Osho, is a synthesis between the head and the heart, with the heart remaining the master. The rare sensitivity of Osho s words will appeal to both men and women.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 07 mars 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9789351184119
• Langue: English

Extrait

Osho

THE BOOK OF WOMAN
Contents
About the Author
By the Same Author
Introduction
1: Female
2: His Story
3: Women s Liberation
4: Sexuality
5: Marriage
6: Love
7: Relating
8: Motherhood
9: Family and Birth Control
10: Creativity
11: The Body
12: The Mind
13: Meditation
14: Wholeness
Osho Commune International
Notes
Follow Penguin
Copyright
About the Author
Osho defies categorization. His talks, which run into thousands, cover everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. Osho s 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 Osho s talks and meditations is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of all ages past and the highest potential of today s (and tomorrow s) 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 (book and eBook)
Glimpses of a Golden Childhood, OSHO Media International, Pune, India
By the Same Author
OTHER BOOKS BY OSHO IN PENGUIN
Life s Mysteries: An Introduction to the Teaching of Osho
The Inner Journey: Spontaneous Talks Given by Osho to Disciples and Friends at a Meditation Camp in Ajol, Gujarat, in India
Osho: New Man for the New Millennium
Little Book of Osho
The Essence of Yoga
The Science of Living
Introduction
How can you, as a man, talk about the feminine psyche?
I AM NOT talking as a man, I am not talking as a woman. I am not talking as a mind at all. The mind is used, but I am talking as consciousness, as awareness. And awareness is neither he nor she, awareness is neither man nor woman. Your body has that division and your mind too, because your mind is your inner part of the body, and your body is the outer part of your mind. Your body and mind are not separate; they are one entity. In fact, to say body and mind is not right; and should not be used. You are bodymind-not even a hyphen between the two.
Hence, with the body, with the mind, masculine , feminine -these words are relevant, meaningful. But there is something beyond them both; there is something transcendental. That is your real core, your being. That being consists only of awareness, of witnessing, of watchfulness. It is pure consciousness.
I am not talking here as a man; otherwise it is impossible to talk about the woman. I am talking as awareness. I have lived in the feminine body many times and I have lived in the masculine body many times, and I have witnessed all. I have seen all the houses, I have seen all the garments. What I am saying to you is the conclusion of many, many lives; it has not to do with only this life. This life is only a culmination of a long, long pilgrimage.
So don t listen to me as a man or a woman; otherwise you will not be listening to me. Listen to me as awareness. 1
1
Female
It seems to me that you are truly the first man this planet has ever known who really understands women and accepts them. Please comment.
I HAVE TOLD you that a woman is to be loved, not understood. That is the first understanding.
Life is so mysterious that our hands cannot reach to its heights, our eyes cannot look into its deepest mystery. Understanding any expression of existence-men or women or trees or animals or birds-is the function of science, not of a mystic. I am not a scientist. To me, science itself is a mystery, and now scientists have started to recognize it. They are dropping their old stubborn, superstitious attitude that one day they will know all that is to be known.
With Albert Einstein the whole history of science has taken a very different route because the more he went into the deepest core of matter, the more he became puzzled. All logic was left behind, all rationality was left behind. You cannot dictate to existence because it does not follow your logic. Logic is man-made. There was a point in Albert Einstein s life when he remembers that he was wavering about whether to insist on being rational . . . but that would be foolish. It would be human, but not intelligent. Even if you insist on logic, on rationality, existence is not going to change according to your logic; your logic has to change according to existence. And the deeper you go, existence becomes more and more mysterious. A point comes when you have to leave logic and rationality and just listen to nature. I call it the ultimate understanding-but not in the ordinary sense of understanding. You know it, you feel it, but there is no way to say it.
Man is a mystery, woman is a mystery, everything that exists is a mystery-and all our efforts to figure it out are going to fail.
I am reminded of a man who was purchasing a present for his son for Christmas in a toy shop. He was a well-known mathematician, so naturally the shopkeeper brought out a jigsaw puzzle. The mathematician tried . . . it was a beautiful puzzle. He tried and tried and tried and started perspiring. It was becoming awkward. The customers and the salesmen and the shopkeeper were all watching, and he was not able to bring the puzzle to a solution. Finally, he dropped the idea and shouted at the shopkeeper: I am a mathematician and if I cannot solve this jigsaw puzzle, how do you think my small boy will be able to?
The shopkeeper said, You don t understand. It is made in such a way that nobody can solve it-mathematician or no mathematician.
The mathematician asked, But why is it made in this way?
The shopkeeper said, It is made in this way so that the boy from the very beginning starts learning that life cannot be solved, cannot be understood.

You can live it, you can rejoice in it, you can become one with the mystery, but the idea of understanding as an observer is not at all possible.
I don t understand myself. The greatest mystery to me is myself. But a few clues I can give to you:
A psychiatrist is a fellow who asks you a lot of expensive questions that your wife asks you for nothing.
The key to happiness: you may speak of love and tenderness and passion, but real ecstasy is discovering you haven t lost your keys after all.
Women begin by resisting a man s advances and end by blocking his retreat.
If you want to change a woman s mind, agree with her.
If you want to know what a woman really means, look at her-don t listen to her.
The lady walked up to the policeman and said, Officer, that man on the corner is annoying me.
I have been watching the whole time, said the cop, and that man wasn t even looking at you.
Well, said the woman, isn t that annoying?
The romantic young man turned to the beautiful young girl in his bed and asked, Am I the first man you ever made love to?
She thought for a moment and then said, You could be-I have a terrible memory for faces.
Everything is mysterious: it is better to enjoy it rather than trying to understand it. Ultimately, the man who goes on trying to understand life proves to be a fool, and the man who enjoys life becomes wise and goes on enjoying life, because he becomes more and more aware of the mysterious that surrounds us.
The greatest understanding is to know that nothing can be understood, that all is mysterious and miraculous. To me, this is the beginning of religion in your life. 1

Would you please explain what the real differences between men and women are?
Most of the differences between men and women are because of thousands of years of conditioning. They are not fundamental to nature, but there are a few differences which give them unique beauty, individuality. Those differences can be counted very easily.
One is that the woman is capable of producing life; man is not. In that way, he is inferior, and that inferiority has played a great role in the domination of women by men. The inferiority complex works in this way: it pretends to be superior-to deceive oneself and to deceive the whole world. So man down the ages has been destroying the woman s genius, talents, capacities, so that he can prove himself superior-to himself and to the world.
Because the woman gives birth, for nine months or more, she remains absolutely vulnerable, dependent on man. Men have exploited this in a very ugly way. And that is a physiological difference; it makes no difference at all.
The psychology of the woman is corrupted by man telling her things which are not true, making her a slave to man, reducing her to a secondary citizen of the world. And the reason for that was that he is muscularly more powerful. But the muscular power is part of animality. If that is going to decide the superiority, any animal is more muscular than a man.
But the real differences are certainly there, and we have to search for t