Eisha Sarkar
Posted On Times Wellness on Sunday, April 26, 2009
Book Review: Awareness - The Key to Living in Balance
Posted On Times Wellness on Sunday, April 26, 2009
Book Review: Awareness - The Key to Living in Balance
Author: Osho
Publisher: St Martin's Griffin
Like all other Osho books (which are usually a compilation of all his speeches at lectures and seminars), Awareness also is not a systematic guide to attain enlightenment. In fact, it just strays from one topic to another, interspersed with anecdotes by Osho and references to the ancient Persian folk character Mulla Nasruddin's spiritual experiences to enable the reader to understand the need for awareness – the quality of being awake and present to the moment.
Osho quotes philosophies of Lao Tzu, Zen and Buddha, who believed that most humans simply sleepwalk through their lives and are never present in what they are doing. Osho notes that George Gurdjieff said that man, as he exists, is a machine and it is only by creating awareness from within us, will we become human. “Awareness is the difference between life and death... Physiologically you can be kept alive in a hospital, without any consciousness. Your heart can go on beating and you will be able to breathe... If this is life, you can be kept alive... but just to vegetate is not life at all.”
He delves into the mind – the conscious, the unconscious, the superconscious and the super superconscious – and how it can never be silent and how there is a state called the ‘No-mind’ that can be attained through meditation. He talks of how you should be ‘awake’ even while you sleep and do away with you dreams. He tells you to be conscious of your activities – “when you eat you should just eat, not talk”. He spells out how shirshasan or standing on your head as a form of exercise can harm your brain due to the increased blood flow. He says that religion works like drugs and can be addictive as well as destructive. “If people are taking marijuana, LSD, and more refined drugs, naturally they're not going to be religious as religion is a very primitive drug. Hence all religions are against drugs.”
He talks a lot on many subjects, almost randomly, making you feel like you are heading in no particular direction. However, it is only after reading the book and assessing it in total, do you find that he is actually directing you to go inward. Through all the randomness, that he presents in the form of words, he stresses on only one thing – awareness – of who you are (without the baggage, the past you carry and the future you believe in), and what you are doing at this moment and how conscious are you of that. “The first step in awareness is to be watchful of your body. And, as you become aware, a miracle starts happening: many things that you used to do before simply disappear. Your body becomes more relaxed, your body becomes more attuned.”
Osho quotes philosophies of Lao Tzu, Zen and Buddha, who believed that most humans simply sleepwalk through their lives and are never present in what they are doing. Osho notes that George Gurdjieff said that man, as he exists, is a machine and it is only by creating awareness from within us, will we become human. “Awareness is the difference between life and death... Physiologically you can be kept alive in a hospital, without any consciousness. Your heart can go on beating and you will be able to breathe... If this is life, you can be kept alive... but just to vegetate is not life at all.”
He delves into the mind – the conscious, the unconscious, the superconscious and the super superconscious – and how it can never be silent and how there is a state called the ‘No-mind’ that can be attained through meditation. He talks of how you should be ‘awake’ even while you sleep and do away with you dreams. He tells you to be conscious of your activities – “when you eat you should just eat, not talk”. He spells out how shirshasan or standing on your head as a form of exercise can harm your brain due to the increased blood flow. He says that religion works like drugs and can be addictive as well as destructive. “If people are taking marijuana, LSD, and more refined drugs, naturally they're not going to be religious as religion is a very primitive drug. Hence all religions are against drugs.”He talks a lot on many subjects, almost randomly, making you feel like you are heading in no particular direction. However, it is only after reading the book and assessing it in total, do you find that he is actually directing you to go inward. Through all the randomness, that he presents in the form of words, he stresses on only one thing – awareness – of who you are (without the baggage, the past you carry and the future you believe in), and what you are doing at this moment and how conscious are you of that. “The first step in awareness is to be watchful of your body. And, as you become aware, a miracle starts happening: many things that you used to do before simply disappear. Your body becomes more relaxed, your body becomes more attuned.”
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