Osho: The art of walking the tightrope

tightropeIn this series of Osho talks he examines stories from different ancient cultures. This is an excellent companion to what I teach. Enjoy!

ONCE, WHEN THE HASIDIM WERE SEATED TOGETHER
IN ALL BROTHERLINESS,
PIPE IN HAND, RABBI ISRAEL JOINED THEM.
BECAUSE HE WAS SO FRIENDLY THEY ASKED HIM,
‘TELL US, DEAR RABBI, HOW SHOULD WE SERVE GOD?’

HE WAS SURPRISED AT THE QUESTION,
AND REPLIED, ‘HOW SHOULD I KNOW?’

BUT THEN HE WENT ON TO TELL THEM THIS STORY..
THERE WERE TWO FRIENDS OF THE KING,
AND BOTH WERE PROVED GUILTY OF A CRIME.

SINCE HE LOVED THEM THE KING WANTED TO SHOW THEM MERCY,
BUT HE COULD NOT

Learning lessons the hard way… or the easy way… Part 2

thought experimentThe brilliance in the movie, “It’s a wonderful life” is that the angel creates a thought experiment what the world would be like if our hero hadn’t been born.

Thought experiments are uniquely human: animals don’t do thought experiments.

The minimum intelligence required to create a thought experiment is 70… and I am not talking about IQ measured intelligence, I am talking about overall intelligence.

The average intelligence in the world is 50… But all my site’s visitors qualify.

So let’s look at

Are mind movies and vision boards useful? Are they mental representation?

movie-mind-controlYes. Mind movies and vision boards are a mental representation of some fancy that you have… creative or not so creative visualization. Low vibration, low consciousness, wishful thinking stuff. ((It is created for people and bought by people who have no business to use it, because it only increases their misery, their sense of inferiority. Why? Because mind movies and vision boards are based on a false theory, that if you really really really want something, then it will move towards you. But as an empath, I can tell you with certainty, that exactly the opposite is true. The really wanting is actual

Life is a lot like traveling by train…

senior-man-traveling-train-15401290Life is like being in a train: you can look out on the left side, the right side, the back, the front… but it won’t change that you are on a train that will arrive to its destination, no matter where you look.

Most of us live this way most of the time.

We do our jobs, we do our relationships, we do our projects, we do our lives this way.

Fulfilling? No. Enjoyable? It depends…

Ultimately we are plagued by a nagging sense that we are out of control, that no matter what we do won’t change anything. Some of us feel doomed. Some of

What if you have something blocking you from growing? The Seven Boulders principle

BoulderSome ten years ago I learned a valuable way of looking at making life meaningful, or living a meaningful life. The teacher suggested that we pick a horizon, a direction, and then look what’s blocking the way of getting there.

Since then I saw that even seeing the horizon is blocked… Blocked by seven boulders, lined up one behind the other, blocking your view, blocking your movement.

So, in my coaching practice, when I ask people to set a direction, and they can’t see any, I am inclined to suggest that they choose the direction: living a meaningful live, or a fulfilled life… without specifying what it is.

Making choices: are you a rank amateur?

Risk-Management-2This may be the most important article you read this year, this decade… because this article may inspire you to become a professional at living, instead of remaining a rank amateur… aka bumbling idiot.

Risk Management

You have two options. You need to choose. You need to choose the option that has the lower cost to your reproductive success if it turns out to be wrong.

Now, I suspect, that almost none of us think about cost in terms of reproductive success, but according to evolutionary psychology, you are a mere vehicle to your genes, your genes are only inte

It’s hard to be silently brilliant. Lots of thoughts occur when you open your mouth.

eb3bf6d2bcf2ecaf1ee944306d115dd2Some days I have nothing to say. It doesn’t feel like there is anything to say that needs to be said.

Some people never have anything to say and they talk all the time. Others think that they have to first formulate it in their heads to say it, and it never comes together.

Professional thinkers, writers know that “it is hard to be silently brilliant. Lots of thoughts occur wen you open your mouth.”

Thinking is a lot like digging for gold. Someone or something has to hold the dirt, or you can’t get beneath it.

For something worth thinking, something worth saying

The feeling that you are insufficient for the task that is in front of you

3052758966_aff579c03d_zThis feeling can be colored by fear, dread, can feel like anxiety, but at the root of most fear is a sense that you are insufficient for the task that is in front of you.

Not big enough, not smart enough, not fast enough… Not enough = insufficient.

Now, for most people, feeling this is all they need to run for the hills.

For some people, they can hang in there, waiting for the feeling to subside.

For some people, unless they feel up to the task, they won’t even start.

For me: I know that unless I feel that and go beyond it, doing what I don’t feel I can, several times a

Growth is like a spiral… only when you have made a full circle… that you see it

taking-a-showerThe 67 steps spiral… second take… I am at step two… and can see the territory I have covered.

There are a few incredibly useful distinctions in the 67 step program.

Of course, if you listen to the audios through the filter: true/false, right/wrong, agree/don’t agree, you’ll miss them all.

And it’s a pity.

How do I listen? I have said it before: I listen in theta mode… i.e. as if I were taking a shower. I get wet.

I don’t pick and choose which water droplet is right or wrong, true or false, and I don’t evaluate everyth

As long as you are interested in the “what” and not the “how” you remain the same

winner-losers-whyIf you go about it the same way you have always gone, you’ll get the same results: not much.

I just got an insight I want to share.

There are all kinds of valid sayings that, as it turns out, only tell half truths.

If you do what you have always done… you’ll get what you have always gotten. Meaning: do something different.

But when you do something different, you get the same dismal result.

So what they are missing is the how.

The how, interestingly, points to your beingness. To your approach, not only to the task, but to life.

Because, please don’t forget, how you do anything is how you