Tarot in the Spirit of Zen

by Osho

  9 of Rainbows: Ripeness

  The only ripeness that is possible is through living.

  My whole emphasis is to live the moment whatsoever it is, and live it with tremendous energy.

  If you are a young man while young, you will be an old man while old—very wise. You will have known all that is good and bad in life: the day and night, the summer and winter—all you will have known. By your own experience, wisdom will arise. And when you are dying, you will have enjoyed your life so tremendously that you will be able to enjoy your death also.

  Only a person who has enjoyed his life becomes capable of enjoying his death. And if you are capable of enjoying your death, you have defeated death. Then there is no more birth for you and no more death for you—you have learned the lesson.

  Once I took one of my professors—he was my teacher—I took him to a very beautiful place. Nothing like it exists anywhere in the world. I used to live in Jabalpur, and just thirteen miles away from there flows the beautiful river Narmada. For two miles amidst hills of marble, a two-mile stretch of marble hills … it is something not of this world. On a full-moon night it is unbelievable; you cannot believe that it is there. It is so unreal! It has such a hypnotic energy in it.

  I took my old professor on a full-moon night, just in the middle of the night when the moon is just overhead. He could not believe that such a beautiful thing is possible on this earth. He said, “What a beautiful place to die!”

  But why does this idea arise? “What a beautiful place to live!” would have been absolutely relevant. “What a beautiful place to love! What a beautiful place to dance and sing!” would have been relevant. But the idea arises: “What a beautiful place to die!”

  Why this death obsession? Can’t you enjoy anything? Can’t you delight in anything?

  Become aware of such tendencies. And next time when a beautiful moment passes by—dance! sing! paint! love! Death will take care of itself. It will come one day. Be ripe when it comes—and the only ripeness that is possible is through living.

  Live deeply, live totally, live wholly, so when death comes and knocks at your door you are ready—ready like a ripe fruit to drop. Just a small breeze comes and the fruit drops; sometimes even without the breeze the fruit drops from its own weight and ripeness. Death should be like that. And the readiness has to come through living.

  Everybody seeks, everybody has to seek, but nobody finds by seeking. One day seeking has to be dropped, but when I say “has to be dropped,” I simply mean one has to go to the very end of it where it drops of its own accord. That moment is really of great bliss—when there is no seeking, no longing, no desire, nowhere to go, nothing to achieve. One has come home; one has attained relaxation. One is in immense rest … not even a ripple in the mind. In that very state god happens.

  But that is going to come. Don’t be in a hurry. Don’t manage it; it is going to come. Seek a little more, and if you want to finish it quickly, run as fast as you can so it will be finished soon. If you go very slowly it can take much time. Right now it will be premature to think to stop it. Let it ripen, and when the fruit is ripe it falls.

  10 of Rainbows: We Are the World

  Once you understand yourself, you have understood the whole humanity.

  In that very understanding a great vision arises in which we are all brothers and sisters and we are all in the same boat.

  Why have people become walls? Because walls can be defined. They give you a boundary, a definite shape and form—what Hindus call nam roop, name and form.

  If you are melting and flowing you don’t have boundaries; you don’t know where you are and where you end and where the other begins. You go on being together with people so much that all the boundaries by and by become dreamlike. And one day they disappear.

  That is how reality is. Reality is unbounded. Where do you think you stop? At your skin? Ordinarily we think, “Of course, we are inside our skins and the skin is our wall, the boundary.” But your skin could not be alive if the air was not surrounding it. If your skin is not constantly breathing the oxygen that is being supplied by the surround, your skin cannot be alive. Take away the atmosphere and you will die immediately. Even if your skin has not been scratched you will die. So that cannot be your boundary. There are two hundred miles of atmosphere all around the earth—is that your boundary? That too cannot be your boundary. This oxygen and this atmosphere and the warmth and the life cannot exist without the sun. If the sun ceases to exist or drops dead … . One day it is going to happen. Scientists say that in four million years the sun will cool down and drop dead. Then suddenly this atmosphere will not be alive. Immediately you will be dead. So is the sun your boundary?

  But now physicists say this sun is connected to some central source of energy which we have not yet been able to find but is suspected—because nothing is unrelated.

  So where do we decide where our boundary is? An apple on the tree is not you. Then you eat it, it becomes you. So it is just waiting to become you. It is you potentially. It is your future you. Then you have defecated and you have dropped much rubbish out of the body. Just a moment before, it was you. So where do you decide?

  I am breathing. The breath inside me is me, but just a moment before it may have been your breath. It must have been because we are breathing in a common atmosphere. We are all breathing into each other; we are members of each other. You are breathing in me, I am breathing in you.

  And it is not only so with breathing, it is exactly so with life. Have you watched? With certain people you feel very alive, they come just bubbling with energy. And something happens in you, a response, and you are also bubbling. And then there are people … just their face and one feels one will flop down. Just their presence is enough poison. They must be pouring something into you that is poisonous. And when you come around a person and you become radiant and happy, and suddenly something starts throbbing in your heart, and your heart beats faster, this man must have poured something into you.

  We are pouring into each other. We are not separate islands. A cold person becomes like an island and it is a misfortune, it is a great misfortune because you could have become a vast continent and you decided to become an island. You decided to remain poor, when you could have become as rich as you wanted to be.

  Remember: each human being—maybe the human being is Alexander the Great or just a beggar on the roadside—each human being is as fragile as anybody else. Deep down he is the same—the same consciousness, the same fear, the same death, the same lust, the same love: all exists the same.

  Accept yourself, allow your unconscious to be revealed to you. This is how each human being is. By knowing it, you become a different kind of human being. By accepting it, cherishing it, you bring a revolution to your life. And when you look at others with that understanding, you will not find strangers; you will find all are friends.

  Everybody is looking for a friend. Everybody is hiding behind a wall and waiting for somebody to say hello, somebody to say, “Why are you there? Come out! I am waiting for you!” … somebody to hold hands with. Everybody is waiting for that—somebody to hug, somebody to love and be loved by … .

  There is nobody who is in any way different from you. Once you understand yourself you have understood the whole humanity. In that very understanding a great vision arises in which we are all brothers and sisters and we are all in the same boat. Then fear disappears; there is nobody to be afraid of. Nervousness disappears; what is there to be nervous about? We are all in the same boat.

  When thousands and thousands of people around the earth are celebrating, singing, dancing, ecstatic, drunk with the divine, there is no possibility of any global suicide. With such festivity and with such laughter, with such sanity and health, with such naturalness and spontaneity, how can there be a war?

  The third world war is not going to happen—I predict it! It is not going to happen, because of you, because of my people around the earth. They are the only hope. Only millions of buddha
s are capable of creating the atmosphere for peace, for love, for compassion, for celebration.

  Life is not given to you to murder, to destroy. Life has been given to you to create, and to rejoice, and to celebrate.

  When you cry and weep, when you are miserable, you are alone. When you celebrate, the whole existence participates with you. Only in celebration do we meet the ultimate, the eternal. Only in celebration do we go beyond the circle of birth and death.

  ALSO BY OSHO

  Osho Zen Tarot

  The Book of Secrets

  Meditation: The First and Last Freedom

  Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic

  Osho Transformation Tarot

  Art of Tea

  India My Love

  Tao: The Pathless Path

  Yoga: The Science of the Soul

  Zen: The Path of Paradox

  Love, Freedom, Aloneness

  Sex Matters

  Awareness

  Courage

  Creativity

  Intimacy

  Intuition

  Maturity

  TABLE OF CORRESPONDENCES

  About the Author

  Osho’s teachings defy categorization, covering everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. His books are not written but are transcribed from audio and video recordings of extemporaneous talks given to international audiences over a period of 35 years. Osho has been described by the Sunday Times in London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by American author Tom Robbins as “the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ.”

  About his own work Osho has said that he is helping to create the conditions for the birth of a new kind of human being. He has often characterized this new human being as “Zorba the Buddha”—capable both of enjoying the earthy pleasures of a Zorba the Greek and the silent serenity of a Gautam Buddha. Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho’s work is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of the East and the highest potential of Western science and technology.

  Osho is also known for his revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation, with an approach to meditation that acknowledges the accelerated pace of contemporary life. His unique “Active Meditations” are designed to first release the accumulated stresses of body and mind, so that it is easier to experience the thought-free and relaxed state of meditation.

  Osho Meditation ResortTM

  The Osho Meditation Resort is a place where people can have a direct personal experience of a new way of living with more alertness, relaxation, and fun. Located about 100 miles southeast of Mumbai in Pune, India, the resort offers a variety of programs to thousands of people who visit each year from more than 100 countries around the world.

  Originally developed as a summer retreat for maharajas and wealthy British colonialists, Pune is now a thriving modern city that is home to a number of universities and high-tech industries. The Meditation Resort spreads over 40 acres in a tree-lined suburb known as Koregaon Park. The resort campus provides accommodation for a limited number of guests, and there is a plentiful variety of nearby hotels and private apartments available for stays of a few days or up to several months.

  Resort programs are all based in the Osho vision of a qualitatively new kind of human being who is able both to participate creatively in everyday life and to relax into silence and meditation. Most programs take place in modern, air-conditioned facilities and include a variety of individual sessions, courses, and workshops covering everything from creative arts to holistic health treatments, personal transformation and therapy, esoteric sciences, the “Zen” approach to sports and recreation, relationship issues, and significant life transitions for men and women. Individual sessions and group workshops are offered throughout the year, alongside a full daily schedule of meditations.

  Outdoor cafes and restaurants within the resort grounds serve both traditional Indian fare and a choice of international dishes, all made with organically grown vegetables from the resort’s own farm. The campus has its own private supply of safe, filtered water.

  See www.osho.com/resort for more information, including travel tips, course schedules, and guest house bookings.

  For more information

  about Osho and his work, see:

  www.osho.com

  a comprehensive Web site in several languages that includes an on-line tour of the Meditation Resort and a calendar of its course offerings, catalogs of books and tapes, a list of Osho information centers worldwide, and selections from Osho’s talks.

  Or contact:

  Osho International

  New York

  email: oshointernational@oshointernational.com

  TAROT IN THE SPIRIT OF ZEN. Copyright © 2003 by Osho International Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  OSHO ® is a registered trademark of Osho International Foundation, used under license

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  Design by Kathryn Parise

  eISBN 9781429907705

  First eBook Edition : June 2011

  First Edition: June 2003