Zorba's golden gems 1

"Think in terms of optimism, don’t be a pessimist

Even if you come across a negative, find something positive in it. You will always be able to find something. And the day you become skillful at finding the positive in the negative, you will dance with joy.

Try it, try the new vision of life. Think in terms of optimism, don’t be a pessimist. The pessimist creates hell around himself and lives in it — you live in the world you create. Remember, there is not only one world, there are as many worlds as there are minds in the world. I live in my world, you live in your own world. They are not only different, they never overlap. They are utterly different, they exist on different planes.

Then you start turning each opportunity into a challenge for growth. For example, somebody insults you. Now it is so clear that you have been insulted, how can you practice a happy frame of mind now? Yes, it can be practiced.

This is how one should use situations, this is how a sannyasin should use negative opportunities for inner growth, for inner understanding, for meditativeness, for love, for compassion. And once you have learned this happy frame of mind, this positive vision of life, you will be surprised that the whole existence starts functioning in a totally different way. It starts mothering you. It starts helping you in every possible way, it becomes a great friend.

~ Osho - Book “The Book of Wisdom”

The essence of bhagwat geeta

When Lord Chaitanya was traveling in South India, in a big temple, Ranganatha temple, He went to see the Deity, and He saw one brahmana was reading Bhagavad-gita. And people were joking with him, ‘Oh, Mr. Brahmana, how you are reading Bhagavad-gita?’ Because they were neighbors, they knew that this brahmana was illiterate, and he was studying Bhagavad-gita. So they were joking. But the brahmana did not care about them. He was taking the book and in his own way he was reading. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw this incident. He came to the brahmana. He asked the brahmana, ‘My dear brahmana, what you are reading?’ The brahmana could understand, ‘This person is not joking with me; he is serious.’ So he explained, ‘My dear sir, I am reading Bhagavad-gita. Unfortunately, I am illiterate. I do not know even the alphabet.’ ‘Why you are reading Bhagavad-gita?’ So he said, ‘My spiritual master knows that I am illiterate, but still, he has asked me to read Bhagavad-gita. What can I do? Therefore I have taken this book. I am simply seeing. I do not know how to read.’ ‘Oh, that’s all right. You cannot read. But I see that you are crying. How you are crying, if you are not reading?’ ‘Yes, I am crying. Of course, there is cause.’ ‘What is that?’ ‘As soon as I take this Bhagavad-gita, I remember Krishna. Krishna is sitting as driver and Arjuna is hearing. I have heard the story. I know something of the instruction but cannot read. So as soon as I take this book, this picture comes before me and I simply think how Krishna is nice that He has become a charioteer of His devotee. He is so great. Still, He has accepted a menial service of His devotee. This gives me so much pleasure that I cry.’ Chaitanya Mahaprabhu embraced him, ‘Your Bhagavad-gita reading is perfect. You have taken the essence.’
“If you simply remember how Krishna is teaching Arjuna and Arjuna is hearing—if you simply remember the picture—that is sufficient. Even if you think that you cannot read. Because after all, we have to become Krishna conscious. We don’t have to become a learned man to argue with another learned man. If it is possible, we can do that. But it does not make any difference if I cannot argue with others or if I cannot teach very nicely Bhagavad-gita to others. Simply if I remember this picture, that is perfection. Because we have to become Krishna conscious. We have to simply think of Krishna. You think in any way. That is your perfection. Smartavyah satatam visnuh [Padma Purana]. This is the injunction. You have to think of Visnu always. This is samadhi; this is meditation; this is yoga siddhi, perfection of yoga.
“One who has learned to think of Krishna always, he is already on the perfectional stage. Aradhito yadi haris tapasa tatah kim [Narada Pancaratra]. If one has come to this stage, just to understand Krishna to be the great, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and he’s a surrendered soul: ‘Krishna, whatever You like You do. I am surrendered.’ This is aradhana. Then he isn’t required to undergo any austerities or penance. His everything is finished. And naradhito yadi haris tapasa tatah kim. And if he does not come to this stage, his so-called scholarship, learned argument, this or that—all nonsense, finished. Useless. One has to come to this stage. Therefore Lord Chaitanya embraced the brahmana: ‘Yes, your study of Bhagavad-gita is perfect.’ Because one has to come to this stage, thinking of Krishna always.

Silence ~

Spiritual knowledge is nothing but this: that there is a constant longing in the heart of man to have something of its origin, to experience something of its original state, the state of peace and joy which has been disturbed, and yet is sought after throughout its whole life, and never can cease to be sought after until the real source has at length been realized. What was it in the wilderness that gave peace and joy? What was it that came to us in the forest, the solitude? In either case it was nothing else but the depth of our own life, which is silent like the depths of the great sea, so silent and still. It is the surface of the sea that makes waves and roaring breakers; the depth is silent. So the depth of our own being is silent also.

And this all-pervading, unbroken, inseparable, unlimited, ever-present, omnipotent silence unites with our silence like the meeting of flames. Something goes out from the depths of our being to receive something from there, which comes to meet us; our eyes cannot see and our ears cannot hear and our mind cannot perceive because it is beyond mind, thought, and comprehension. It is the meeting of the soul and the Spirit.

~from Volume VII, In an Eastern Rose Garden, Silence~

Kahlil Gibran says

Silence is painful, but in silence things take form, and we must wait and watch, In us, in our secret depth, lies the knowing element which sees and hears that which we do not see nor hear. All our perceptions, all the things we have done, all that we are today, dwelt once in that knowing, silent depth, that treasure chamber in the soul. And we are more than we think. We are more than we know. That which is more than we think and know is always seeking and adding to itself while we are doing nothing - or think we are doing nothing. But to be conscious of what is going in our depth is to help it along. When subconsciousness becomes consciousness, the seeds in our winter-clad-selves turn to flowers, and the silent life in us sings with all its might.

~Kahlil Gibran, Beloved Prophet: the love letters, p268~

OSHO QUOTES ON DEATH

Death Is the Most Misunderstood Phenomenon

“Death is the most misunderstood phenomenon. People have thought of death as the end of life. That is the first, basic misunderstanding.

“Death is not the end, but the beginning of a new life. Yes, it is an end of something that is already dead. It is also a crescendo of what we call life, although very few know what life is. They live, but they live in such ignorance that they never encounter their own life. And it is impossible for these people to know their own death, because death is the ultimate experience of this life, and the beginning experience of another. Death is the door between two lives; one is left behind, one is waiting ahead.

“There is nothing ugly about death; but man, out of his fear, has made even the word, death ugly and unutterable. People don’t like to talk about it. They won’t even listen to the word death.

“The fear has reasons. The fear arises because it is always somebody else who dies. You always see death from the outside, and death is an experience of the innermost being. It is just like watching love from the outside. You may watch for years, but you will not come to know anything of what love is. You may come to know the manifestations of love, but not love itself. We know the same about death. Just the manifestations on the surface – the breathing has stopped, the heart has stopped, the man as he used to talk and walk is no more there: just a corpse is lying there instead of a living body.

“These are only outer symptoms. Death is the transfer of the soul from one body to another body, or in cases when a man is fully awakened, from one body to the body of the whole universe. It is a great journey, but you cannot know it from the outside. From outside, only symptoms are available; and those symptoms have made people afraid.

“Those who have known death from inside lose all fear of death.”

【Osho, Zarathustra: A God That Can Dance, Talk 16】

Checklist of Self Development

1. Every thought I create whether I am
awake or asleep, creates my energy
field, and this is the energy I have to
offer in every interaction.
2. Check - Am I thinking too much?
What is the quality of my thoughts?
Whenever I want to change any
particular thought, am I able to do it
easily.
3. When the quality of thoughts is
right, the speed is slow. When it is
negative or waste thinking, the
quantity increases. The mind thinks
too much and we feel that it is not in
our control.
4. Let us start building a beautiful
relationship with our self. Check what
are the CRITICAL thoughts we have
about our self. Gently change the
quality of every critical thought to
acceptance and love.
5. The more we criticise ourselves, we
are reaffirming that part of our
personality. We want to change our
sanskars, and so our internal
conversation needs to be positive,
loving and empowering.
Soul Connections
🌻Sister Shivani🌻
      ~om shanti~

Excerpt from The Last Morning Star

Excerpt from: The Last Morning Star, Chapter 1
"Remembering the divine,
The serpent of time and the creepers of sorrow
Do not bother you.

"Daya says, if you remember the divine, then all of life’s sorrows, the whole conflagration of life’s sorrows, will be soothed. Then nothing will be able to burn you. Right now, everything burns you. Right now, what you call life is not life, it is a funeral pyre. You are burning in all sorts of ways. Sometimes you burn with fury, sometimes you burn in a funeral pyre, but you are burning the whole time. Sometimes the funeral pyre is obvious, sometimes it is hidden; sometimes it is visible, sometimes invisible – but you continue to burn. Have you ever known a taste of nectar in your life? Have you ever known a moment when your heart did not burn, when the burning was completely alleviated? Sometimes the burning is intense, sometimes it is less intense, sometimes the burn marks go away, sometimes not, but have you ever known a moment of peace, have you ever known a moment of bliss? Did the door ever open? Never!

"Remembering the divine,
The serpent of time and the creepers of sorrow
Do not bother you.

"But only he who remembers the divine attains to that supreme peace and goes beyond the raging flames of the world.

"What is meant by remembering the divine?

"If man considers himself to be the peak as he is, he will live in sorrow and then be finished – just as no flowers will ever blossom if a seed assumes itself to be the end of things. A seed has to transcend, it has to go beyond itself. It is when man also tries to go beyond himself that he remembers the divine.

"What does remembering the divine mean? It does not mean sitting down and saying "Rama-Rama, Rama-Rama," or covering yourself with a shawl which has the name of Rama printed on it. This matter is not so cheap! Remembrance of the divine means that you have begun to go beyond yourself, that you have begun to raise your eyes upwards, that the seed has begun to search for the flower… It is not a flower yet, but it can become one… The seed has begun to search for the flower, the flame of the lamp has begun to rise towards the sky, towards the sun. The journey has begun: the seed has burst, the sprout has emerged and has started its journey towards the sky."
~Osho~