Hammer On the Rock: Evening Talks with A Modern Buddha

From the Jacket

For over 35 years, Osho has inspired seekers the world over, addressing their essential questions and concerns. The international press calls him "an oracle of modern times." His books and audio talks are international bestsellers.

'Anything that can become a hindrance can become a help. The same stone or rock on the path can become an obstacle or a stepping stone. If you can struggle a little and climb the rock, you can reach a higher point of Vision

PREFACE

The goal of Freudian psychoanalysis is not very great. The goal is to keep people normal. But normality is not enough. Just to be normal is not of any significance. It means the normal routine of life and your capacity to cope with it.

It docs not give you meaning, it does not give you significance. It docs not give you insight into the reality of things. It does not take you beyond time, beyond death. It is at the most a helpful device for those who have gone so abnormal that they have become incapable of coping with their daily life — they cannot five with people, they cannot work, they have become shattered. Psychotherapy provides them a certain togetherness - not Integrity, mind you, but only a certain togetherness....

In a way, it is dangerous to their inner growth, because the inner growth happens only when there is a divine discontent When you are absolutely unsatisfied with things as they are, only then do you go in the search, only then do you start rising higher, only then do you make efforts to pull yourself out of the mud.

Jung went a little further into the unconscious. He went into the collective unconscious. This is getting more and more into muddy water, and this is not going to help.

Assagioli moved to the other extreme. Seeing the failure of psychoanalysis he invented psychosynthesis. But it is rooted in the same idea. Instead of analysis he emphasizes synthesis.

The Psychology of the Buddhas is neither analysis nor synthesis; it is transcendence, it is going beyond the mind. It is not work within the mind, it is work that takes you outside the mind. That's exactly the meaning of the English word ecstasy — to stand out.

When you are capable of standing out of your own mind, when you are capable of creating a distance between your mind and your being, then you have taken the first step of the Psychology of the Buddhas. And a miracle happens: when you are standing out of the mind all the problems of the mind disappear, because mind itself disappears; it loses its grip over you.

Osho

The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 10

INTRODUCTION

it is an Indian night, and the air is filled with the sounds of cicadas and frogs. Imagine being a fly on the wall, or in this case a gecko, and listening in to the wisdom and humor being shared by a mystic and an intimate assembly.

These talks happened at a time when Osho was beginning what is now known as OSHO Multiversity — a university dedicated to exploring the multidimensional aspects of growth. The first therapy groups were being introduced as an aid for people to go deeper into meditation—therapy as a bridge to meditation. At the end of each group the group leaders and participants would meet;

Osho to share insights and understandings.

The issues brought up are timeless, they are everyone's issues: sex, work, relationships, death and meditation. We see the same mind, the same jealousies, the same joy at discovering ways of living more consciously and with understanding.

This feeling of continuity particularly touches me: how the search for truth, for knowing oneself — whatever today's language calls it - how this search is eternal.

Back of the Book

This is a diary of intimate meetings between people of all ages and from all walks of life with a modern buddha, Osho.

Here is his response to their questions on everything from work and relationships to sex, death, and meditation.

This book is full of playful tools to heighten our awareness so that we can both deal with the challenges of everyday life and experience what lies beyond our questioning minds.