The Book of Understanding

The Book of Understanding
Creating Your Own Path to Freedom
Book — Also available in other formats: eBook

Osho speaks of breaking free from the antiquated belief systems and prejudices that prevent us from realizing our full potential. He offers the possibility of a new kind of human being, one where the material and the spiritual, the earthly and the transcendent, complement and enrich each other. Only this new kind of human being – one who is undivided and whole within – can respond creatively to religious, economic, cultural, and political divisions, and create a truly whole and harmonious world.

Chapter Titles
    #1: A New Spirituality for the 21st Century: Not a political revolution but an individual rebellion
    #2: Worldly vs. Otherworldly: Understanding the Great Divide
    #3: Zorba the Buddha: A meeting of earth and sky
    #4: Body and Soul: A brief history of religion
    #5: Rich Man, Poor Man: A look at the roots of poverty and greed
    #6: Belief vs. Experience: Understanding the Difference between Knowledge and Knowing
    #7: Learned and Natural: Reclaiming the self you were born with
    #8: Outer and Inner: In search of where the twain shall meet
    #9: Clever and wise: Untangling the knots of the mind
    #10: Leader vs. Follower: Understanding the Responsibility of Being Free
    #11: Shepherd and Sheep: Cutting yourself loose from the puppeteer
    #12: Power and Corruption: The roots of inner and outer politics
    #13: Lost and Found: In search of ordinariness#
    #14: Conscience vs. Consciousness: Understanding the Freedom of Responsibility
    #15: Good and Evil: Learning to live by your own commandments
    #16: Rules and Responsibilities: Walking the tightrope of freedom
    #17: Reaction and Response: The knack of rolling with the punches
    #18: Meaning and Significance: From the Known to the Unknown to the Unknowable
    #19: Energy and Understanding: The Journey from Lust to Loving
    #20: Camel, Lion and Child: The Journey of Becoming Human
    #21: Vertical and Horizontal: The Journey into the Depths of Now

Details
Osho calls for a new humanity that is both responsible and free, challenging us to understand our world and ourselves in a new and radical way. The first step is to question and doubt all that we have been taught to believe.

Excerpt from: The Book of Understanding, Chapter 8
"There have been many civilizations before ours that have reached high peaks, but destroyed themselves because they grew in a deep imbalance. They developed great technologies, but they forgot that even the greatest technological progress is not going to make people more blissful, more peaceful, more loving, more compassionate.

"Our consciousness has not grown at the same pace as our scientific progress, and that has been the cause of many civilizations destroying themselves. We have created monsters as far as machines are concerned, and at the same time we have remained retarded, unconscious, almost asleep. And it is very dangerous to give so much power to unconscious people.

"That’s what is happening now. Politicians are of the lowest kind as far as consciousness is concerned. They are clever, they are cunning. They are mean, too, and they make every effort for a single goal, which is to be more powerful. Their only desire is for more power – not for more peace, not for more being, not for more truth, not for more love.

"What do you need more power for  – to dominate others, to destroy others? All the power accumulates in the hands of unconscious people. So on the one hand, politicians in all the civilizations that have developed and died – it would be better to say committed suicide – had all the power in their hands. On the other hand, the genius of human intelligence was searching for more and more technology, scientific improvements, and all they discovered finally had to go into the hands of the politicians.

"The destruction of our earth will not come from some other planet – we are preparing our own graves. We may be aware, we may not be aware, but we are all gravediggers and we are digging our own graves. Right now there are only a few nations in possession of nuclear weapons. Soon many more nations will also be nuclear powers. It is going to be beyond control, with so many nations having so much destructiveness that a single nation could destroy the whole earth. A single crazy person, a single politician, just to show his power, can destroy the whole of civilization and you will have to begin from ABC. And the destruction is not only of humanity. With humanity will die all the companions of humanity – the animals, the trees, the birds, the flowers. Everything could disappear, everything that is alive.

“The reason is an imbalance in our evolution. We go on developing scientific technology without bothering at all that our consciousness should also evolve in the same proportion. In fact, our consciousness should be a little ahead of our technological progress.

"If our consciousness were in the state of enlightenment… In the hands of a Gautam Buddha nuclear power would no longer be dangerous. In the hands of a Gautam Buddha nuclear power would be turned towards some creative force, because force is always neutral – either you can destroy with it or you can find ways to create something.” Osho

In this title, Osho talks on the following topics:
humanity… new man… belief… potential… creativity… division… harmony… prejudice… technology… evolution…

Details
More Information
Type    Compilations
Publisher    Random House / Harmony
ISBN-13    307336948
Dimensions (size)    150 x 244 mm
Number of Pages    288