Using the Upanishadic vision, Osho contrasts the teachings of Buddha, J. Krishnamurti, and the Vedas, and explains how these different teachings have relevance to the way we live today.

The word Christ came into existence 300 years after Jesus; and out of the word Christ developed Christian and Christianity. While Friedrich Nietzsche stated that Christ was the last Christian, according to Osho, Jesus was not only the last Christian, but he was also the first Christian–the first and the last Christian, because in this world no individual is ever repeated.

Patanjali the founder of ancient yoga has laid out a fascinating understanding of body and mind. Osho brings this ancient system into a contemporary understanding, creating a holistic approach to health and meditation.

In Osho’s understanding Zen is the approach to religion that has not put fetters on mankind. These four talks pay homage to Zen’s reverence for life and its celebration of the everyday. He sees in Zen a seed, pregnant with infinite potential. Interspersed with his comments on anecdotes about the Zen masters Rinzai and Fuketsu, Osho addresses current issues. With characteristic forthrightness he shows how society diverges from what it preaches and how it lives. This beautifully designed volume of talks also features commentaries on haikus, and a great selection of jokes!

A Zen story about grief provides a jumping off point for more stories about how to live.

Osho speaks about the great harm that all organized religions have done to humanity by dividing man against himself, by creating a division between head and heart. Man has become a split personality fighting with himself and projecting his fight onto the outside world. Osho's meditations are designed to heal these wounds and bring about a return to a natural state of self-integration.

On finding the “original man” within yourself, says Osho, you will find everything worth discovering. In these talks, Osho traces Zen from its early days with Bodhidharma in China through a succession of masters and poets. He tells anecdotes about the Zen masters, showing how their seemingly absurd statements and actions are actually devices to jolt people out of their spiritual sleep. And he asks you not to take his word for it, but to experience it for yourself - these talks are not about Zen, they are Zen.

Everybody wants change, everybody wants "the situation" to change, because now even the most stupid person can see that something is going off track on our planet and with humanity; whether people personally want to change is a different question. In this series, The Rebellious Spirit, Osho provides a blueprint for a revolution, but a different one than we have known from history. Osho is the first to connect and combine a personal spiritual revolution with a social, global and political revolution. This series intends to trigger "the rebellious spirit" in all of us.

Every morning when you wake up, you become aware and your dreams disappear. You can do the same thing with the endless dreaming of your mind - the dreams that nourish your ego. This capacity to be aware, to witness, is already yours. It is nourished by celebration. Celebration helps you become more sensitive and more alert to life. Don't invest in misery, invest in celebration.

The organized religions have exploited humanity’s insecurity in the face of life’s mysteries by providing readymade sets of beliefs. But in an increasingly sophisticated, globalized society, the consolation of belief has been losing its appeal. And a purely materialistic science that denies consciousness, or that makes it merely a byproduct of matter, has nothing to offer as an alternative.

When he is asked how to be happy, Osho responds by questioning the very logic of the question. How can wanting to be happy ever lead to happiness? Osho springs back and forth between exploring the neurotic American dream of happiness, and describing what it actually takes to be happy.

“To be a buddha is not a difficult job. It is not some achievement for which you need a Nobel Prize”. Commenting on anecdotes and haikus by the Zen masters, Osho explains that being a buddha is the easiest thing in the world - it has already happened without you knowing. The empty heart, a place beyond thoughts and feelings, is within everyone. Meditation, and becoming truly thoughtless, is the key. Osho presents Zen as potent, alive, and relevant to the modern world.

The Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters is a succinct summary doctrine by which Buddhism was introduced to China. Each of the 42 sutras begins with "the Buddha said" This particular sutra deals with The 20 Difficult Things to Accomplish in this World and Osho takes us through each verse, and dissects it line by line, never omitting to explain - in clear modern terms - the real meaning of the verses.

This series of talks is on one of the most esoteric treatises in the world. It will show you the way to become more than the body and the way to bloom - how not to remain a seed but to become a golden flower. What, in India, they call the one thousand-petalled lotus, in China they call the golden flower. It is a symbol that represents perfection, totality. Moreover, the flower represents the actualization of the potential - the beauty, the grandeur, the splendor of being.

Being loose and natural will give you a spontaneous awareness, rather than making an effort to reach a certain goal. No effort is going to succeed because the cause of all misery is the doer, the ego, our idea of self. Osho only teaches awareness. Suppression is not the way to buddhahood. Simply relax and be whatsoever you are - and awareness will come by itself.

Written more than 25 centuries ago, the Diamond Sutra is the first text to record the Buddha's own teachings, and it remains one of the most popular. Osho comments in a series of talks on these sutras and brings Buddha's teachings into the 21st century. One day, after the Buddha finishes his daily walk to collect alms, a senior monk steps forth to ask how he can best help humanity. Buddha responds, and thus begins a dialogue regarding the nature of perception.

The Heart Sutra, originally a very short set of verses, was given in privacy as a message to one of Buddha's close disciples, Sariputra, specifically addressed to him. Over time the Heart Sutra became one of Buddhism's core teachings. In these 10 talks, Osho presents the powerful message of these ancient words and brings them to a modern audience - one with different minds and needs than the original audiences of Buddha more than 2,500 years ago.

Moving beyond the usual interpretations of this classic Chinese text - that of using it as an indicator of what to do next or attempting to predict the future - Osho is using the Tao Te Ching as Lao Tzu intended: to ignite the flame of individual awareness and insight. His commentaries on these seven verses burn through every idea we may hold about ourselves until we can see with the same crystal-clear light as Lao Tzu.

Nirvana has become an idealized word associated with the juxtaposition of a cult rock celebrity who died before his time and a vague new age version of Eastern religion. An altered state to be hoped for but likely unattainable, reinforcing that all too familiar uneasiness associated with never being able to have what we truly desire in life.

At the beginning of his career, Joseph Campbell developed a lasting fascination with the cultures of the Far East, and explorations of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy later became recurring motifs in his vast body of work. However, Campbell had to wait until middle age to visit the lands that inspired him so deeply. In 1954, he took a sabbatical from his teaching position and embarked on a year-long voyage through India, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and finally Japan.

“Question your assumptions; lean far into the unknown. Question it all.” So says Adyashanti in The Most Important Thing, Volume 1 - an invitation to look past the surface of our personal stories to discover the timeless truths within. Across eight hours of intimate talks, Adyashanti encourages you to open to the possibility of grace, embrace those aspects of life that call you to serve, and discover the innate vitality in every single moment.

An exhilarating journey into the mind and spirit of a remarkable man, a legendary teacher, and a masterful storyteller, conducted by TV journalist Bill Moyers for their acclaimed PBS series.

On the surface, this is a biography of an accomplished seeker who mastered the practices of yoga and brought a system for understanding the mysteries of body, mind, and spirit to students in the West. But, like the life of Swami Rama, this audiobook offers more than a sequence of astonishing events. As you read the stories of authentic guru-disciple relationships Swami Rama had both with his master and with his own students, you will see how the spiritual wisdom is transmitted through generations. This book also serves as a guide to advanced practices of yoga and tantra not commonly understood in modern times.

A 15-year-old boy is walking through a swirling fog on his way to school when a voice calls out, "Come here. We need to talk." Out of the mist emerges an old man with a white beard. He is a fantastic figure, as wizardly as Merlin, as wise as Socrates, as peaceful as Buddha. Whoever he is, the old man has appeared on that very day to change the boy's life. "You are old enough to learn about things," he says mysteriously. "And who is going to teach you but me?" The old man gives the boy four days of "soul training", a time of riddles, tricks, parables, and incredible twists.

Hermann Hesse’s classic novel Siddhartha, takes place in ancient India around the time of the Buddha (6th century BC). Siddhartha and his companion Govinda set out in search of enlightenment. Siddhartha goes through a series of changes and realizations as he attempts to achieve this goal. Siddhartha joins the ascetics, visits Gotama, embraces his earthly desires, and finally communes with nature, all in an attempt to attain Nirvana.

According to legend, when the founder of Zen Buddhism was asked about the main principle of his holy teaching, he replied that there was "nothing holy about it!" Now, a millennium and a half later, Tim Burkett reveals how and why the wisdom of nonholiness is the key to a joyful heart. You don't need to go looking for something sacred - the happiness you seek is right where you are.

Adyashanti asks us to let go of our struggles with life and open to the full promise of spiritual awakening: the end of delusion and the discovery and expression of our essential being. After 15 years as a spiritual teacher, Adyashanti has found that the simpler the teaching, the greater its power to initiate this awakening. On Falling into Grace, he shares what he considers fundamental insights to "open ourselves to that mysterious element that enters in the hidden and quiet moments and sparks a revolution in the way that we perceive life."

Growing Big Dreams is a passionate yet practical call to step through the gates of dreams and imagination to weather tough times, embark on travel adventures without leaving home, and grow a vision of a life so rich and strong it wants to take root in the world. Vitally relevant today more than ever, dreams are a tool available to all.

Spring Washam is a founder of the East Bay Meditation Center, the most diverse and accessible meditation center in the United States. In A Fierce Heart, she shares her contemporary, unique interpretation of the Buddha's 2,500-year-old teachings that get to the heart of mindfulness, wisdom, and compassion. Woven throughout the book are stories from her life, family, and community, along with soulful and unexpected stories of compassion in action from all over the world.

Now, in a fascinating series of reflections, anecdotes, stories, and exercises, Ram Dass gives us a unique and accessible road map for experiencing divinity in everyday life. In the engaging, conversational style that has made his teachings so popular for decades, Ram Dass traces our journey of consciousness as it is reflected in one of Hinduism's most sacred texts. The Gita teaches a system of yogas, or "paths for coming to union with God."