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Earthen Lamps: 60 Parables and Anecdotes to Light Up Your Heart
One needs a very sympathetic ear and a very sympathetic heart to understand these beautiful parables, which are a rarity in Osho's work because they don't come from the talks that have made him so famous — the parables are actually written by him. Mystics like Buddha and Jesus talked in parables — and in his book Osho provides us with sixty parables, anecdotes, and stories that speak directly to us — contemporary people of the modern age. These parables and their metaphors are all very simple, and because they are so simple they have a purity, they are unpolluted by complicated rationalizations of the modern mind. They are straightforward and direct, aimed to the heart like an arrow.
In these parables Osho says in a poetic way things that cannot be said in prose. He is expressing things from the heart, things that cannot be expressed by the head. Each parable is a lesson to bring insights into one of the most important issues we face in life.
As he points out, a parable is a way to talk in pictures and not in words. And in our dreams, we are again living in parables because the unconscious understands only pictures. Your conscious has become trained for language, words, but the unconscious is still that of a child.
When a mystic like Osho wants to communicate something from his innermost depth to your innermost depth — he uses parables. They function like a seed, hovering around the consciousness and emerging into sharp focus when our everyday life experiences bring an opportunity to apply their lessons. It is very easy to remember them.
In the preface to this book, Osho "What do I find when I look deeply into man? I find that man, too, is an earthen lamp! But he is not just a lamp made of clay; in him there is also a flame of light that is constantly rising towards the sun. Only his body is made of earth, his soul is that very flame."
In these parables Osho says in a poetic way things that cannot be said in prose. He is expressing things from the heart, things that cannot be expressed by the head. Each parable is a lesson to bring insights into one of the most important issues we face in life.
As he points out, a parable is a way to talk in pictures and not in words. And in our dreams, we are again living in parables because the unconscious understands only pictures. Your conscious has become trained for language, words, but the unconscious is still that of a child.
When a mystic like Osho wants to communicate something from his innermost depth to your innermost depth — he uses parables. They function like a seed, hovering around the consciousness and emerging into sharp focus when our everyday life experiences bring an opportunity to apply their lessons. It is very easy to remember them.
In the preface to this book, Osho "What do I find when I look deeply into man? I find that man, too, is an earthen lamp! But he is not just a lamp made of clay; in him there is also a flame of light that is constantly rising towards the sun. Only his body is made of earth, his soul is that very flame."
- GenresSpirituality
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
9 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Osho
4,353 books6,777 followersRajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain, 11 December 1931 – 19 January 1990) and latter rebranded as Osho was leader of the Rajneesh movement. During his lifetime he was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader and mystic.
In the 1960s he traveled throughout India as a public speaker and was a vocal critic of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi, and Hindu religious orthodoxy.
Rajneesh emphasized the importance of meditation, mindfulness, love, celebration, courage, creativity and humor—qualities that he viewed as being suppressed by adherence to static belief systems, religious tradition and socialization.
In advocating a more open attitude to human sexuality he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s and became known as "the sex guru".
In 1970, Rajneesh spent time in Mumbai initiating followers known as "neo-sannyasins". During this period he expanded his spiritual teachings and commented extensively in discourses on the writings of religious traditions, mystics, and philosophers from around the world. In 1974 Rajneesh relocated to Pune, where an ashram was established and a variety of therapies, incorporating methods first developed by the Human Potential Movement, were offered to a growing Western following. By the late 1970s, the tension between the ruling Janata Party government of Morarji Desai and the movement led to a curbing of the ashram's development and a back taxes claim estimated at $5 million.
In 1981, the Rajneesh movement's efforts refocused on activities in the United States and Rajneesh relocated to a facility known as Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County, Oregon. Almost immediately the movement ran into conflict with county residents and the state government, and a succession of legal battles concerning the ashram's construction and continued development curtailed its success.
In 1985, in the wake of a series of serious crimes by his followers, including a mass food poisoning attack with Salmonella bacteria and an aborted assassination plot to murder U.S. Attorney Charles H. Turner, Rajneesh alleged that his personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and her close supporters had been responsible. He was later deported from the United States in accordance with an Alford plea bargain.[
After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry. He ultimately returned to India and a revived Pune ashram, where he died in 1990. Rajneesh's ashram, now known as OSHO International Meditation Resort and all associated intellectual property, is managed by the Zurich registered Osho International Foundation (formerly Rajneesh International Foundation). Rajneesh's teachings have had a notable impact on Western New Age thought, and their popularity has increased markedly since his death.
In the 1960s he traveled throughout India as a public speaker and was a vocal critic of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi, and Hindu religious orthodoxy.
Rajneesh emphasized the importance of meditation, mindfulness, love, celebration, courage, creativity and humor—qualities that he viewed as being suppressed by adherence to static belief systems, religious tradition and socialization.
In advocating a more open attitude to human sexuality he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s and became known as "the sex guru".
In 1970, Rajneesh spent time in Mumbai initiating followers known as "neo-sannyasins". During this period he expanded his spiritual teachings and commented extensively in discourses on the writings of religious traditions, mystics, and philosophers from around the world. In 1974 Rajneesh relocated to Pune, where an ashram was established and a variety of therapies, incorporating methods first developed by the Human Potential Movement, were offered to a growing Western following. By the late 1970s, the tension between the ruling Janata Party government of Morarji Desai and the movement led to a curbing of the ashram's development and a back taxes claim estimated at $5 million.
In 1981, the Rajneesh movement's efforts refocused on activities in the United States and Rajneesh relocated to a facility known as Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County, Oregon. Almost immediately the movement ran into conflict with county residents and the state government, and a succession of legal battles concerning the ashram's construction and continued development curtailed its success.
In 1985, in the wake of a series of serious crimes by his followers, including a mass food poisoning attack with Salmonella bacteria and an aborted assassination plot to murder U.S. Attorney Charles H. Turner, Rajneesh alleged that his personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and her close supporters had been responsible. He was later deported from the United States in accordance with an Alford plea bargain.[
After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry. He ultimately returned to India and a revived Pune ashram, where he died in 1990. Rajneesh's ashram, now known as OSHO International Meditation Resort and all associated intellectual property, is managed by the Zurich registered Osho International Foundation (formerly Rajneesh International Foundation). Rajneesh's teachings have had a notable impact on Western New Age thought, and their popularity has increased markedly since his death.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 30, 2018
I recommend this book for people who want to understand Dharma which is very well illustrated with short stories
February 13, 2023
60 stories each of them with a wise message that will open your mind and soul - and also lead you to constantly reflect on the philosophies of the daily things that we usually overlook.
October 9, 2016
I am not such a fan from Osho but now and then it is interesting to read his teachings.
Sometimes it is just "too much" of religion and God. Still, we can always let us stop for some minutes and keep in mind little "truths" that one tend to forget.
"O segredo para chegar a algum lado na vida é seguir em direcção à existência. Fora isso, nenhuma outra direcção, nenhuma estrada, leva a lado algum. Nadem em direcção à existência. Nadar no sentido contrário só fará com que a pessoa se despedace e se destrua".
"Não é também verdade que ao irmos contra nós mesmos não chegamos a lado nenhum? Na vida, a felicidade pertence a quem vive em si mesmo, se conhece a si mesmo e alcança a si mesmo."
Parábola - Nadar com a existência
Nota: infelizmente a tradução portuguesa não é de se lhe tirar o chapéu
Sometimes it is just "too much" of religion and God. Still, we can always let us stop for some minutes and keep in mind little "truths" that one tend to forget.
"O segredo para chegar a algum lado na vida é seguir em direcção à existência. Fora isso, nenhuma outra direcção, nenhuma estrada, leva a lado algum. Nadem em direcção à existência. Nadar no sentido contrário só fará com que a pessoa se despedace e se destrua".
"Não é também verdade que ao irmos contra nós mesmos não chegamos a lado nenhum? Na vida, a felicidade pertence a quem vive em si mesmo, se conhece a si mesmo e alcança a si mesmo."
Parábola - Nadar com a existência
Nota: infelizmente a tradução portuguesa não é de se lhe tirar o chapéu
May 6, 2014
When you get too much, you often under value it. You become bored. Mind wavers for new, yet you are sewing the same cloth. what have you found ? why are you still tangled ? That which comes from earth goes to earth... that which comes from sky goes back to sky. the earthen lamp.... Lamp is earthen... Flame is from sky... Just observe...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews