Zen: Zest, Zip, Zap and Zing Living the Fire of Life

Zen is not a religion - drop that idea. Zen is not a church - drop that idea.
Zen is a totally different approach.
It is life; it is synonymous with life.
It is living life with such intensity that your ego disappears in it, is burnt out, that you dissolve into life, that you are consumed by the fire of life.
And only then can you know what a beautiful existence has been given to you as a gift.
It is a sheer joy then, each moment... Each moment then is paradise.
Paradise is now or never.

How to live Zen with a zip and a zap?
Osho responds to questions on everything from a child’s right to privacy to the purpose of life, from innocence, freedom, love, sex, compassion and what it is like to be a women. But as he answers each question, he keeps nudging the reader back to the essential point of Zen – living here and now with awareness.
Questioners concerns are always addressed, but at the same time Osho skilfully shows us how these preoccupations can keep us from simply being ourselves.

While these talks were being given one of Osho’s disciples died, Anand Vimalkirti, who attained enlightenment at the moment of his death. Osho speaks in this book on Vimalkirti’s life and death, encouraging those listening to accept, embrace and celebrate both of these existential phenomena of living and dying.

Chapter Titles
Chapter 1: Zen: The Koan of Life
Chapter 2: Innocence: Lost and Found Again
Chapter 3: Sex, Love and Compassion: Seed, Flower and Fragrance
Chapter 4: Mind: An Expert Coward
Chapter 5: Freedom and Love: The Center and the Circumference
Chapter 6: Osho: Perfectly at Ease, Totally at Home
Chapter 7: The True Master: The Ultimate Rebel
Chapter 8: Women: Free of All the Chains
Chapter 9: India: A New Present for a New Future
Chapter 10: Here and Now: The Only Time, The Only Place
Chapter 11: Man: The Call of the Eternal
Chapter 12: Life: Let It Have It’s Dance
Chapter 13: Godliness: An Experience of Immense Joy
Chapter 14: The Child: Father to the Man
Chapter 15: The Philousia

Osho,
Is there anything you can say about what is happening to Vimalkirti?

Nothing is happening to Vimalkirti - exactly nothing, because nothing is nirvana. The West has no idea of the beauty of nothingness. The whole Western attitude is extrovert, oriented towards things, oriented towards actions. 'Nothing' sound like emptiness - it is not so.
This is one of the greatest discoveries of the East: that nothing is not empty, on the contrary it is just the opposite of emptiness. It is fullness, it is overflowingness.

Break the word 'nothing' in two, make it 'no-thingness', and then suddenly its meaning changes, the gestalt changes.
Nothing is the goal of sannyas. One has to come to a space where nothing is happening; all happening has disappeared. The doing is gone, the doer is gone, the desire is gone, the goal is gone. One simply is -- not even a ripple in the lake of consciousness, no sound.

The Zen people call it 'the sound of one hand clapping'. Now, one hand clapping cannot create sound; it is soundless sound, the omkar, just silence. But silence is not empty, it is very full. The moment you are absolutely silent, absolutely attuned with nothingness, the whole descends in you, the beyond penetrates you.
But the Western mind has overpowered the whole world: we have become 'workaholics'. And my whole approach is to help you to become zeros. The zero is the most perfect experience in life; it is the experience of ecstasy.
…
These are the 'three L's' of my Philousia: life, love, laughter. Life is only a seed, love is a flower, laughter is fragrance. Just to be born is not enough, one has to learn the art of living; that is the A of meditation. Then one has to learn the art of loving; that is the B of meditation. And then one has to learn the art of laughing; that is the C of meditation. And meditation has only three letters: A,B,C.

So today you will have to give a beautiful send-off to Vimalkirti. Give it with great laughter. Of course, I know you will miss him -- even I will miss him. He has become such a part of the commune, so deeply involved with everybody. I will miss him more than you because he was the guard in front of my door, and it was always a joy to come out of the room and see Vimalkirti standing there always smiling. Now it will not be possible again.
But he will be around here in your smiles, in your laughter. He will be here in the flowers, in the sun, in the wind, in the rain, because nothing is ever lost -- nobody really dies, one becomes part of eternity.

So even though you will feel tears, let those tears be tears of joy - joy for what he has attained. Don't think of yourself, that you will be missing him, think of him, that he is fulfilled. And this is how you will learn, because sooner or later many more sannyasins will be going on the journey to the farther shore and you will have to learn to give them beautiful send-offs. Sooner or later I will have to go, and this is how you will also learn to give me a send-off with laughter, dance, song.

My whole approach is of celebration. Religion to me is nothing but the whole spectrum of celebration, the whole rainbow, all the colours of celebration. Make it a great opportunity for yourself, because in celebrating his departure many of you can reach to greater heights, to new dimensions of being, it will be possible. These are the moments which should not be missed; these are the moments which should be used to their fullest capacity.

I am happy with him... and many of you are getting ready in the same way. I am really happy with my people! I don't think there has ever been a Master who had so many beautiful disciples. Jesus was very poor in that sense -- not a single disciple became enlightened. Bud&a was the richest in the past, but I am determined to defeat Gautam the Buddha!

Osho, Zen: Zest, Zip, Zap & Zing / HC / 325 pages / euro 19.50 - order here
On no other subject Osho has talked more than on Zen.