What do you think?
Rate this book
Beyond Osho: An Introduction to the Ideas of the Great Spiritual Master
This small – 7 x 5.5 ins. or 18 x 14 cms. – book is like a champagne bottle. It tempts you with its pink cover, title and design. As soon as you open it, there is a loud bang as when the bottle is uncorked. As you turn its pages to see what it is all about, sparkling images, intoxicating headings and provocative quotes from many different spiritual masters whet your taste.
When you start to savor and sip its contents, you begin to taste the bubbly contents. The contents cannot be gulped down like any wine but savored like an expensive treat. As you read the text, it becomes a special occasion being celebrated with bubbly.
The book promises you to reveal the ideas, teachings and the message of the great master. For this mission, the publishers claim to have sold over a million copies! Really? Well, if you read it, you can come to know why this staggering number has been sold.
The answer is not difficult to come by. First, it explains the total heritage of Osho to the West in the language in line with their thinking. It has taken a Spanish national award winning journalist, Jorge Blaschke, to get this credit despite millions of Osho’s Western disciples. He has worked for the prestigious El Pais newspaper in Spain, studies astronomy and paleontology, written scripts and directed shows for TV, has interest in sates of human consciousness and comparative religions.
Second, he brings a good number of other noted mystics, both from the East and the West, into his text and uses their quotes and photos all through the book. So he presents Osho in the context of other modern mystics, especially from the West, some of whom the reader may not have known before.
Third, he is perhaps the only author who has presented Osho’s diverse dimensions. Most books about Osho cover his myth shattering ideas, his unique insights and original views. So Osho comes over as a philosopher or a mystic at the most. Blaschke gives due recognition and importance to Osho’s unique meditation techniques, uplifting music and divine dancing.
Four, starting on a spiritual journey of profound learning, the author introduces you to Sri Aurobindo who was steeped in Western culture as he schooled in England and finished at Cambridge and knew Greek, Latin, Sanskrit and Bengali. Thus, Aurobindo is a scholarly guide for the Western reader to start with. J. Krishnamurthy and Ramakrishna follow until the author ends the opening chapter with Osho.
Five, the book design by Ladia Estany is eclectic. The imaginative selection of full page full colour photos makes it attractive. Every page has one or two short quotations from mystics to make the text sparkle.
The major concepts of Osho’s vision – master and disciple, ego, traps of success and power, violence, false conception of time, sex, Zen, happiness, enlightenment and the mind – are all tackled in brief chapters. The book ends with Osho’s insights contrasted with Western religions. He writes while many Eastern masters predicate non-violence and peace, Western spiritual leaders like the Popes used violence throughout the centuries as in Crusades. This is the substantial difference between the spirituality of the East and the West. Then there are different concepts of immortality, external or internal search; opposite visions of sex and sin.
This is not a book to be whizzed though. Like a glass of champagne, it has to be savored at leisure, its deeper meanings be allowed to sink in for maximum understanding and wisdom.
The title echoes Osho’s famous book, ‘I Am The Gate’ in which he exhorts to move on beyond him. Just like Blaschke. Widen your horizon with this book, go beyond Osho.
When you start to savor and sip its contents, you begin to taste the bubbly contents. The contents cannot be gulped down like any wine but savored like an expensive treat. As you read the text, it becomes a special occasion being celebrated with bubbly.
The book promises you to reveal the ideas, teachings and the message of the great master. For this mission, the publishers claim to have sold over a million copies! Really? Well, if you read it, you can come to know why this staggering number has been sold.
The answer is not difficult to come by. First, it explains the total heritage of Osho to the West in the language in line with their thinking. It has taken a Spanish national award winning journalist, Jorge Blaschke, to get this credit despite millions of Osho’s Western disciples. He has worked for the prestigious El Pais newspaper in Spain, studies astronomy and paleontology, written scripts and directed shows for TV, has interest in sates of human consciousness and comparative religions.
Second, he brings a good number of other noted mystics, both from the East and the West, into his text and uses their quotes and photos all through the book. So he presents Osho in the context of other modern mystics, especially from the West, some of whom the reader may not have known before.
Third, he is perhaps the only author who has presented Osho’s diverse dimensions. Most books about Osho cover his myth shattering ideas, his unique insights and original views. So Osho comes over as a philosopher or a mystic at the most. Blaschke gives due recognition and importance to Osho’s unique meditation techniques, uplifting music and divine dancing.
Four, starting on a spiritual journey of profound learning, the author introduces you to Sri Aurobindo who was steeped in Western culture as he schooled in England and finished at Cambridge and knew Greek, Latin, Sanskrit and Bengali. Thus, Aurobindo is a scholarly guide for the Western reader to start with. J. Krishnamurthy and Ramakrishna follow until the author ends the opening chapter with Osho.
Five, the book design by Ladia Estany is eclectic. The imaginative selection of full page full colour photos makes it attractive. Every page has one or two short quotations from mystics to make the text sparkle.
The major concepts of Osho’s vision – master and disciple, ego, traps of success and power, violence, false conception of time, sex, Zen, happiness, enlightenment and the mind – are all tackled in brief chapters. The book ends with Osho’s insights contrasted with Western religions. He writes while many Eastern masters predicate non-violence and peace, Western spiritual leaders like the Popes used violence throughout the centuries as in Crusades. This is the substantial difference between the spirituality of the East and the West. Then there are different concepts of immortality, external or internal search; opposite visions of sex and sin.
This is not a book to be whizzed though. Like a glass of champagne, it has to be savored at leisure, its deeper meanings be allowed to sink in for maximum understanding and wisdom.
The title echoes Osho’s famous book, ‘I Am The Gate’ in which he exhorts to move on beyond him. Just like Blaschke. Widen your horizon with this book, go beyond Osho.
220 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 26, 2018
Author has done good job in summarizing spiritual aspects of Osho's teaching. However, as with all the spirituality related books, this book too heavily uses Physics term e.g. power, energy, vacum, etc and as a students of physics I find it difficult to relate!
I find it interesting where the author compares/suggests physical experiences such as sex and drug are similar to spiritual experiences. In all the spiritual books I ever managed read, I find this book easiest to read.
I find it interesting where the author compares/suggests physical experiences such as sex and drug are similar to spiritual experiences. In all the spiritual books I ever managed read, I find this book easiest to read.
Displaying 1 of 1 review