The Fundamental Difference between Psychology, Therapy and Meditation

In this work, Osho deconstructs these misunderstandings and offers a radically different view of enlightenment, freed from all spiritual and religious beliefs – including the distortions of asceticism and renunciation that have arisen in Eastern and Western cultures both.
Taking the reader step by step through the history of how both East and West have approached the mysteries of the human mind and spirituality, Osho offers a simple science of consciousness that he calls “the psychology of the buddhas.”

Enlightenment is Your Nature: Het Fundamentele verschil tussen Psychologie, Therapie en Meditatie

Enlightenment is Your Nature: “Verlichting” is in de Westere culturen lange tijd geassocieerd met de 18e eeuwse beweging die een nieuwe “eeuw van de rede” bracht. Sinds Zen, het Boeddhisme en andere oosterse wijsgerige stromingen de ideeën van het Westen hebben veroverd, is “verlichting” bekend geworden als een specifieke staat van bewustzijn op een spiritueel of meditatief pad.
De joods-Christelijke context met het geloof in een goddelijke macht “ergens boven” en los van het individu, zit het vermogen van de meeste Westerlingen in de weg om “verlichting” in de Oosterse zin te begrijpen.
Onze theïstische conditionering leidt tot zulke algemene misverstanden zoals het opvatten van verlichting als het verkrijgen van bovennatuurlijke krachten of als iets dat alleen door hen die “speciaal” zijn, te bereiken is.
In dit boek ontmantelt Osho deze misverstanden en geeft hij een radicaal andere visie ten aanzien van Verlichting, ontdaan van alle religieuze en spirituele aannames – met inbegrip van het verwrongene van het ascetisme en de onthouding die in zowel de Oosterse als de Westerse cultuur ontstaan zijn.
Door de lezer stap voor stap door de geschiedenis te leiden van hoe zowel het Oosten als het Westen de mysteries van de menselijke mind en spiritualiteit benaderd hebben, biedt Osho een simpele wetenschap van het bewustzijn die hij de “psychologie van de boeddha’s” noemt. Het is een wetenschap die in zeer heldere termen uiteenzet hoe men, door ‘getuige zijn’ en volledige verantwoordelijkheid voor zijn leven te nemen, voorbij kan gaan aan ale beperkte geloofssystemen, gewoontes en bijgeloof van de mind. Dat proces, zo zegt hij, brengt ons terug bij onze natuur – en dat is verlichting.

Enlightenment is Your Nature: Menselijke Problemen zijn Symptomatisch voor een Revolutie in het Menselijk Bewustzijn

Osho neemt door zijn presentatie van de “Psychologie van de Boeddha’s” radicaal afstand van de Westerse therapeutische benaderingen die de problemen van de menselijke mind proberen op te lossen. In Osho’s visie zijn deze zogenaamde problemen symptomatisch voor een revolutie die er in het menselijk bewustzijn plaatsvindt, geboortepijn van hen die hun uiterste best doen om zich te ontworstelen aan de massa en individuen te worden die de verantwoordelijkheid voor hun leven nemen.

Het boek is in september 2017 verschenen en verkrijgbaar in de boekhandel.

Enlightenment is Your Nature: The Fundamental difference between Psychology, Therapy and Meditation

Enlightenment is Your Nature: “Enlightenment” in Western cultures has long been associated with the 18th century movement that brought about a new “age of reason.” As Zen, Buddhism, and other eastern wisdom traditions have captured the imagination of the West, “enlightenment” has come to be known as a specific state of consciousness attained by an individual on a spiritual or meditative path.
However, the Judeo-Christian context, with its belief in a divine power “out there” and separate from the individual, hinders most Westerners’ ability to comprehend “enlightenment” in the Eastern sense. Our theistic conditioning leads to such common misunderstandings as perceiving enlightenment as the attainment of supernatural powers, or as something achievable only by those who are somehow “special.”
In this work, Osho deconstructs these misunderstandings and offers a radically different view of enlightenment, freed from all spiritual and religious beliefs – including the distortions of asceticism and renunciation that have arisen in Eastern and Western cultures both.
Taking the reader step by step through the history of how both East and West have approached the mysteries of the human mind and spirituality, Osho offers a simple science of consciousness that he calls “the psychology of the buddhas.” It is a science that in very clear terms shows how one can, through awareness and taking full responsibility for one’s life, go beyond all limited belief systems, habits, and superstitions of the mind. That process, he says, brings us back to our nature – and that is enlightenment.

Enlightenment is Your Nature: Human Problems are Symptomatic for a Revolution in Human Consciousness

Osho’s radical wisdom led him to be dubbed as one of the 1000 Makers of the 20th Century and in this book, Osho introduces the psychology of the Buddha a sweeping departure from Western therapeutic approaches that attempt to fix the problems of the human mind. In Osho’s view, these so-called problems are symptomatic of a revolution taking place in human consciousness, birth pains of those who struggle to emerge from being apart of the crowds to becoming individuals who take responsibility for their own lives. Traditional Western religious and societal conditioning can lead to misinterpretations of the Eastern concept of enlightenment as some kind of supernatural power, achievable only by those who are somehow special. Here, Osho offers a view that is free from all religious beliefs a science of the inner that uses meditation and awareness to step outside the mind and its limited belief systems, habits and superstitions to discover the consciousness that exists beyond all beliefs and conditionings. A process that allows us to relax back into our own true nature that of enlightenment.

ENLIGHTENMENT IS YOUR NATURE

The Fundamental Difference Between Psychology, Therapy, and Meditation.

Soon after he first settled in Pune and a community of seekers had begun to gather around him, Osho began to integrate new Western therapeutic approaches into his work. Known broadly as ‘Humanistic Psychology Movement’ these methods had evolved in the West as a response to the limitations of Freudian “talk therapy” and B. F. Skinner’s behaviorism.

Osho combined a wide variety of these therapy groups and processes, as stepping stones, with his revolutionary ‘active meditation techniques’, which soon earned the community a reputation as “the world’s finest growth and therapy center.” It attracted those in search of personal transformation, some of the most innovative therapists and bodyworkers in the West, and people interested in meditation. Osho worked closely with both therapists and group participants to ensure that these offerings were in tune with his vision of a psychology that aims not to restore people to the functional neurosis society defines as “normal,” but to open the doors to a radical transformation of consciousness.

This book, Enlightenment is Your Nature, lays out Osho’s approach as he explains that therapy is used only as a cleansing process, that it is only a preparation for meditation. In his vision, therapy has a different function from that used in the “outside world” where therapists and counselors try to bring the person back into the mind so they can function efficiently in society. Instead, Osho uses therapy only to prepare the ground, cleaning out the weeds of neurosis in order to plant the flowers of meditation. Rather than trying to “fix” the neurotic mind, the person is supported to be courageous enough to take a step beyond the mind – and that happens through meditation.

Osho has often characterized this approach as the Psychology of the Buddhas. This approach understands the need to cut the very roots that create and feed our neuroses and psychoses, as the fragmented “personality” pulls us in opposing directions in a constant battleground of our “shoulds” versus our “wants,” our desires versus our genuine needs, our ambitions of the mind versus the longings of our heart. Where psychoanalysis takes years in trying to renovate the old structure, analyzing the past and dissecting the imprints it has inflicted, patching it up here and there, the psychology of the buddhas does not work within the mind at all. It has no interest in analyzing or synthesizing. It simply opens the door to being able to get out of the mind, to find the “switch” that allows us to step aside from it – to turn off all its chatter and worries and problems and plans, and just be.It is not against the mind, either.

It recognizes the mind as a useful tool in navigating through everyday life and many of its everyday challenges. But meditation is the key to being able to use the tool of the mind as a servant, rather than being a slave to all its moods and “problems” and tensions. Meditation is, according to Osho, a process of dropping from the outside into the inside, forgetting the world of objects, the world of thoughts, the world of feelings – and a moment comes when pure consciousness is there, without any content. To know this consciousness is to understand what the psychology of the buddhas is, to rest in the fullness of the inner being. That inner being knows no pathology, no neurosis, no fears no anxiety. And that natural state of our beings, Osho describes as enlightenment.

In Enlightenment is Your Nature Osho deconstructs all misunderstandings of what enlightenment is, and offers a view freed from all spiritual and religious beliefs – including the distortions of asceticism and renunciation that have arisen in Eastern and Western cultures both. Taking the reader step by step through the history of how both East and West have approached the mysteries of the human mind and spirituality, he offers a simple science of consciousness and how it works, how we have lost contact with it, how consciousness is related to the mind and the brain. In very clear and scientific terms he shows how one can, through awareness and taking full responsibility for one’s life, go beyond all the belief systems, habits, and superstitions that keep us tethered. That process of awareness and understanding, he says, brings us back to our nature – and that is enlightenment.“

Buddha never needed any psychotherapy for his sannyasins; those people were innocent. But in these twenty-five centuries, people have lost their innocence, they have become too knowledgeable. People have lost their contact with existence. They have become uprooted.

I am the first person who uses therapy, but whose interest is not therapy but meditation, just as it was with Chuang Tzu or Gautam Buddha. They never used therapy because there was no need. People were simply ready, and you could bring the rosebushes without clearing the ground. The ground was already clear.

In these twenty-five centuries man has become so burdened with rubbish, so many wild weeds have grown in his being that I am using therapy just to clean the ground, take away the wild weeds, the roots, so the difference between the ancient man and the modern man is destroyed.The modern man has to be made as innocent as the ancient man, as simple, as natural. He has lost all these great qualities. The therapist has to help him – but his work is only a preparation. It is not the end. The end part is going to be the meditation.” Osho