Inhoud van The Sword and the Lotus

Het Boek The Sword and The Lotus bevat het zes weken durende verblijf dat Osho in hoog tempo in Nepal, de geboorteplaats van Boeddha, had. Hij beantwoordt ’s morgens vragen van zijn sannyasins in zijn hotel suite en van de pers iedere avond in het conferentievertrek van het hotel.

Er komen vragen op hem af als: Wat is uw boodschap voor de Boeddhisten in Nepal? Wat is uw boodschap voor de Paus die nu in India is? wat is uw mening over de New Age beweging? U leert ons om dankbaar te zijn, maar hoe kan ik dankbaar zijn ten opzichte van de mensen zijn die uw werk teniet doen? Volkomen oprecht en zonder omwegen, algemeenheden of verfraaiing van woorden, zuivert Osho’s waarheid met de bekwaamheid van een meester schermer en met de compassie gesymboliseerd door de lotus.

Het boek is niet gemakkelijk meer verkrijgbaar, mogelijk antiquarisch bij de boekhandel. Verder is het beschikbaar als audiobook.

The Sword and the Lotus

What is your message to the modern Nepalese Buddhists? What is your message for the Pope who is in India now? What do you think about the New Age movement? You teach us to be thankful to existence, but how can I be thankful to those who speak against you and try to destroy your work? With no white lies, no beating around the bush, no platitudes and no mincing of words, Osho′s truth cuts clean with the skill of a master swordsman and the compassion symbolized in the lotus.

Excerpt from: The Sword and the Lotus, Chapter 1

“I am not a messiah, nor a prophet, nor a savior. I am simply a human being, with a little difference that you are not awake and I am awake. You can call me the awakened one. I emphatically deny the role of the messiah, the prophet, the savior, for specific reasons.

“My understanding is that nobody can save anybody else – the very idea is insulting. And if somebody can save somebody, he can also drown him, because both the capacities come together. I am not a prophet, representing God, his message. As far as I am concerned existence is divine, but there is no God as a person. It is a quality of creativity, but not a creator. So the people who are creative are more religious than the people who go on praying in the churches, in the temples, in the synagogues to a God above in the heaven which does not exist. They are simply befooling themselves.”I am not a messiah especially sent by God. In the first place there is no God to send anyone. In the second place, for the argument’s sake, if there is a God who can create the whole creation, he need not have these mediocre messiahs to change people. He can do it himself. All these people who have been trying to be messengers of God, incarnations of God, the only begotten son of God, may not be bad people. They may be good people; their intention may not be bad. I never suspect their intention, but they are utterly wrong. And because of these people, humanity has suffered tremendously.”I want human beings to understand that they have the capacity to fall in their consciousness to the lowest level or they can rise to the highest pinnacle of consciousness.” Osho