Osho on Courage: Part 1

Reading Different Teachers

I find I get a better understanding of spirituality when I explore different points of view. I've read books on spirituality by a number of different authors, with a variety of disciplines and terminology. I think doing this kind of study helps locate the direction I should be exploring. It's pretty difficult to explain true spirituality in words, and most teachers will say that their teachings are only pointing to the truth. They don't contain the truth, nothing can contain the truth.

Every time I read a new author I feel like I get a bit more of an idea of where these teachers are all pointing. Each teacher has their own approach to explaining it to get us thinking in the right direction, so reading different authors and even different books by the same author can help us start looking in the right direction in our own practices.

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Osho

I started reading "Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously," by Osho on the plane yesterday, and so far it's been excellent. His concept is simple: We are all clinging to the past because we are afraid to embrace the present, the leading edge of change, because we fear the unknown. The past is completely known, so it's safe, but it's dissatisfying because it's known. But there is no security in the present so we are afraid. We don't have any clue what will happen in the next moment.

I'm about halfway through, and yesterday remaining in meditation during the day was much easier. Osho's words have been helping me to keep certain things "in mind" to remain present and in the moment. Here are some quotes from the book that stand out to me so far:

"Commit as many mistakes as possible, remembering only one thing: don't commit the same mistake again. And you will be growing."

We all know we learn from our mistakes, I always see successful people talking about taking shots and being willing to fail. The real challenge is taking the chances to fail, putting ourselves on the line. We all have dreams and goals, sometimes the only thing that holds us back from trying to reach them is our own fear of failure. We have to take those chances to grow.

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"Science is the murder of mystery."

Our culture is sometimes obsessed with knowing how things are working. We love data, all of our sciences are attempting to help us grasp our world, and while they have been extremely useful in creating new technologies and products and comforts, they've killed the mystery in our lives. We walk around assuming we know how things are working, and what everything is. Teachers always say something along the lines of being open, but when we approach something scientifically we are trying to close things off, we are trying to label and define little parts of our world, which destroys the mystery and wonder in our lives. Sometimes experiencing things on their own terms - rather than the terms and concepts we have of them in our minds - allows us to see the deeper truths of the world.

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"A man really becomes a man when he accepts total responsibility - he is responsible for whatsoever he is. This is the first courage, the greatest courage."

It's so easy for us to blame others for our actions and lives. The truth is, no one else is responsible for our happiness or misery. We create our own reality, we gain true freedom when we take full responsibility of our life. Every moment we are deciding who we are

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"The man of understanding dies every moment to the past and is reborn again to the future. His present is always a transformation, a rebirth, a resurrection."

The one thing that never changes is change. Life is always shifting, we must remain open to, and aware of the present moment. When we approach life in this way we enable our growth and transformation. When we cling to the past, the known factors and events of our life, we stagnate.

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"Utterly abandon yourself to the moment - and you will find every day new openings, new light, new insight."

Approach the present moment as if you had no clue what anything was. Instead of dissecting and defining life, or pushing our beliefs of life, we can wonder at it, remain open to the changing flow of life. We can never truly know what will come next, but we can remain innocent and aware and ready to respond spontaneously.

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Sometimes we need some help finding the way. (Photo by jens johnsson on Unsplash)

This is my first Osho book and so far I've really enjoyed it. When I was growing up I was so afraid of taking chances and getting hurt. Lately I've become more secure in exploring the unknown and embracing myself. I've started to really own my life and not worry about messing up and failing. It's more fun to approach life as something to be experienced rather than solved. Overall, I've enjoyed the book so far and gotten quite a bit of understanding from it in a short time. I can recommend it without having read the whole thing, Part 2 of my take on Osho's book will be coming once I finish reading.

What do you guys think of courage and it's role in spirituality? Have you read any of Osho's other work? Let me know in the comments below, and if you enjoyed the article upvote, resteem and follow along!