Belief, Doubt, and Fanaticism

Belief, Doubt, and Fanaticism
Is It Essential to Have Something to Believe In?
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Osho Life Essentials Series. Osho brings his unique and often surprising perspective to the religious, political, social and economic forces that drive people into opposing camps, fanatical groups, and belief systems that depend on seeing every "other" as the "enemy."
The focus is first and foremost on the individual psyche and consciousness, to identify the root causes and hidden demons of our human need to belong and have something to "believe in" The Osho Life Essentials Series always focuses on the most important questions in the life of the individual. Each volume contains timeless and always–contemporary investigations, and discusses questions vital to our personal search for meaning and purpose.
Chapter Titles
    Introduction
    #1: Belief Is Not the Answer
    #2: In Search of Salvation
    #3: Moving into the Unknown
    #4: Doubt Is the Door to Trust
    #5: From Darkness to Light
    Epilogue: Peace Has to Dance, Silence Has to Sing

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Osho Life Essentials Series. Osho brings his unique and often surprising perspective to the religious, political, social and economic forces that drive people into opposing camps, fanatical groups, and belief systems that depend on seeing every "other" as the "enemy."

Excerpt from: Belief, Doubt, and Fanaticism, Chapter 1
Do you believe in God?

"I do not believe in believing. That has to be understood first. Nobody asks me, 'Do you believe in the sun? Do you believe in the moon?' Nobody asks me that question. Millions of people I have met, and for thirty years continuously I have answered thousands of questions. Nobody asks me, ‘Do you believe in the roseflower?’ There is no need, you can see that the rose flower is there, or it is not there. Only fictions, not facts, have to be believed.

"God is the greatest fiction that man has created; hence you have to believe in him. And why does man have to create this fiction of God? There must be some inner necessity. I don't have that necessity, so there is no question, but let me explain to you why people have believed in God.

"One of the significant things to understand about man's mind is that the mind is always seeking and searching some meaning in life. If there is no meaning, suddenly you feel… then what are you doing here? Then why go on living? Then why go on breathing? Then why tomorrow morning do you have to get up again and go through the same routine – the tea, the breakfast, the same wife, the same children, the same phony kiss to the wife. Then the same office, the same work, and the evening comes, and bored, utterly bored, you are back home – why go on doing all this? The mind has a question: Is there any meaning in all this, or are you just vegetating?

"So man has been searching for meaning. He created God as a fiction to fulfill his need for meaning. Without God, the world becomes accidental. It is no longer a creation of a wise God, the world becomes accidental. It is no longer a creation of a wise God who creates it for your growth, for your development, or for something. Remove God, and the world is accidental, meaningless. And the mind has an intrinsic incapacity to live with meaninglessness, so it creates all kinds of fictions – God, nirvana, heaven, paradise, another life beyond death – and makes a whole system. But it is a fiction to fulfill a certain psychological need.

“I cannot say, ‘There is a God,' and I cannot say, 'There is not God.' To me the question is irrelevant. It is a fictitious phenomenon. My work is totally different.

"My work is to make your mind so mature that you can live with meaningless life, and yet beautifully." Osho

In this title, Osho talks on the following topics:
belief... doubt... fanaticism... truth... light... spirit... religion.... politics.... social....individual...

 

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Publisher    St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN-13    978-0312595487
Dimensions (size)    140 x 210 mm
Number of Pages    192