Notes from some of Osho's discourses... Phone 07 5562 5718 or send an email to book a free 20 minute telephone or skype consultation. NLP Hypnotherapy and Meditation with an Osho Zen Sannyasin. Gold Coast, Robina, Australia.

Osho: The Heart Sutra

	Discourses by Osho are available in book and MP3 form. The following notes were taken from the series of discourses: THE HEART SUTRA

#1: The term 'buddha' refers to the buddha nature and to the state of enlightenment. It does not refer to the man Gautama the Buddha. Buddha hood is not something to be attained. It already exists at the essential core of your being. Some teachers say the world is illusory and the soul is existential - the 'I' is true and all else is illusory. Buddha says the reverse: he says only the 'I' is untrue and everything else is real. The 'I' and the buddha nature can not coexist. Once the buddha nature reveals itself the "I' will disappear.

Meditation takes us on an inquiry into the self. The primary question to be asked of ourselves is, "Who am I?" Every answer we come up with is to be looked at with detachment (witnessed) and discarded. Eventually when everything has been witnessed and the answer is silence then the question will disappear.

A Buddha uses the mind as you would sit behind the wheel and drive a car. You never become the car and a Buddha never becomes the mind. The mind is just as utilitarian as the car.

Enlightenment is not a static thing but a process of unfolding, hence Hindus call it the one thousand petalled lotus. The mind and body die, but enlightenment can not be taken away by death.

What you think you are, is in fact nothing but an empty shell. Everything that you think you are is nothing but an idea. The 'I' is just a by product of a number of mechanisms that function together. If you search for the 'I' you will not find it. Life is empty. One needs to find the emptiness to find the fullness. Emptiness is the key.

#2: "What is truth?" is the ultimate question, but it has no intellectual answer. Truth is not a hypothesis nor a dogma and does belong to any particular religion. Hence there can be no Christian truth or Hindu truth. Truth is truth. Osho uses the analogy of looking at your reflection in a lake. If the surface is disturbed by wind then your reflection is distorted and may be impossible to see, but when there is no wind and the lake becomes mirror-like then you are reflected. Thoughts are like the wind disturbing the lake. It is not until all thoughts cease that you get to experience who you are.

#2: Surrender to the Master, or to existence, is not something that you do. It does not involve the 'I' doing some act of giving in but is an understanding. Surrender occurs when the 'I' is not there. Surrender is related to separation. It is the "I' creating the idea of separation that makes you feel as if you are separate from existence. It is impossible to exist separately from existence. Your body, mind and soul exist in relation to other people, animals, plants and so on. It is impossible to exist separately. The feeling of separation is generated by the mind. A tree for example, is naturally surrendered to existence. Because it has no mind, it does not experience a feeling of separation. When the mind is not, then you are surrendered.

Mind exists in the past and the future. Mind does not exist in the present. Reflecting on the past and planning for the future are functions of the mind. When time enters you become separate from the whole. Here is the only space and now is the only time. In the here and now, you see that you are not coming from anywhere, not going anywhere but in actual fact have always existed and always will.
Develop understanding rather than trying to achieve goals.

The mind has the capacity to divide itself into parts. So as meditators we develop a meditation part. We can have a part we call the witness. If 'I' am witnessing, then who is this 'I''? Is this 'I' a part of the mind? It is like a dog chasing its tail, except that we can see the absurdity of our mind chasing itself. Osho says that if you can see the absurdity of chasing the mind, that in the actual seeing you can be free from the mind. Osho says, "Relax. In relaxation -- when there is nothing to be watched and nobody as a watcher, when you are not divided into a duality -- there arises a different quality of witnessing. It is not a watching, it is just passive awareness." It is a matter of learning how to just be and let life live itself through you. Osho uses the analogy of being a wave in the ocean. One day you are here, the next you are gone, and the ocean continues. So he says to not be burdened with worries and responsibilities.

The Zen masters have a saying, "Eat when hungry and sleep when tired." Osho says not to get caught up in doing. Not that you stop doing things but that the doer should not be there. So you can still be involved in business and set goals for the business but the doer is not there. It is as if the business runs by itself. When you are hungry, the body eats but 'you' are not there.

Drop the nouns and pronouns from your language and change the nouns into verbs. Then a river becomes a rivering, and a dancer becomes a dancing. "When you see a smile, there is nobody who is smiling, there is only smile, smiling. When you see love, there is nobody who is a lover but only loving. Life is a process."

Enlightenment is not an attainment but a revelation of the here and now, in the total absence of the mind.

"Shunya means emptiness; but not negative, very positive emptiness. It means nothingness, but it does not mean simply nothingness; it means no-thing-ness. Shunya means void, void of everything. But the void itself is there, with utter presence, so it is not just void. It is like the sky which is empty, which is pure space, but which is. Everything comes in it and goes, and it remains.

Shunya is like the sky - pure presence. You cannot touch it although you live in it. You cannot see it although you can never be without it. You exist in it; just as a fish exists in the ocean, you exist in space, in shunya. Shunyavada means that everything arises out of nothing" Osho page 48 The Heart Sutra.

#3: Meditation is not knowing. The gap between the thoughts. Content and consciousness. Consciousness and meditation is half empty. No consciousness is samadhi (enlightenment).

# 10: Qualities of a sannyasin.

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Copyright © Abby Eagle

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