The Buddha:The Emptiness of the Heart
In this particularly potent dose of Zen, Osho challenges the reader to know the \"empty heart,\" beyond thoughts, feelings and sentiment - the door to eternity that exists within everyone. Using stories and haikus from past Zen masters, Osho reveals the relevance of Zen for the contemporary world. He separates Zen from all the other religions in the world, stating that they are obsolete whereas the Zen he is presenting is an alive phenomenon.
Chapter Titles
Chapter 1: The Emptiness of the Heart
Chapter 2: Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Chapter 3: This Knowing Is a Transformation
Chapter 4: Enter the Door of Anatta
Chapter 5: In the Blink of an Eye
Chapter 6: To Take up a Koan
Chapter 7: From the Surface to the Center
Chapter 8: The Man of Enlightened Freedom
Excerpt from The Buddha:The Emptiness of the Heart
Chapter 2
\"No scriptures can give you the experience of your being. They are really the hindrances - your life spring is covered by those layers of prejudices and conceptions. Unless you throw them away, whether it is the Bible or Shrimad Bhagavadgita or the holy Koran or Dhammapada?it does not matter what it is. Whatever is covering your life spring, throw it away without a single moment of hesitation. Because all that is borrowed is just dust, layers and layers of dust, and you are covered with that dust.
\"All the holy ones have turned within and sought in the self, and by this, went beyond all doubt.\"
He is saying, \"It is not only me, but all the buddhas have done the same. They have all burned the whole contents of the mind and cleared the space so that the life springs can flow directly and you can know for the first time your own eternity, your own splendor.\" It is a paradox to say it, but it is a fact that all your religious teaching is a barrier to your becoming religious. To know anything about God from others is dangerous. It will prevent you from knowing existence directly, and you will settle for cheap knowledge.
Zen?s whole revolution is: don?t settle for cheap knowledge; go for the costly experience. And anything that hinders the way, throw it out. Gautam Buddha has even said, \"If I come into your meditations, cut off my head immediately! Nobody is to be allowed to hinder your progress.\" These were real lions. Humanity can be proud of these people who did not desire to enslave you, as Catholics, as Hindus, as Mohammedans; whose whole effort was to liberate you from all \"isms,\" from all churches, and to help you penetrate your own reality. That is the only truth, the only space which is holy.\"
