The Heart Sutra (Talks on Prajnaparamita Hridayam Sutra of Gautama the Buddha)

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This is a book about understanding nothingness and attaining to emptiness-not usually thought of as an everyday topic-yet it succeeds in being both fascinating and relevant to daily life.

The prajnaparamita Hridayam Sutra is the most important Sutra in Buddhist literature; it is at the very heart of the Buddhist message, and is chanted daily by millions across the world. But to understand the meaning, to recognize and absorb the concepts it contains is challenging, as the sutra is so succinct, so elementally direct.

In illuminating the verses, Osho uses simple, straight forward language that encourages the reader to search within for his own understanding. Osho’s clarity, preception and humor enable him to bring the significance of Buddha’s message to this very moment, here today. Osho lives the Sutras, and offers the reader the possibility to do the same.

Osho is in a category all of his own, and as he states: "I am nobody. I don't belong to any nation, I don't belong to any religion, I don't belong to any political party. I am simply an individual, the way existence created me. I have kept myself absolutely uninfluenced by any idiotic ideology - religious, political, social, financial. And the miracle is that because I am not burdened with all these glasses on my eyes, and curtains before me, I can see clearly."

Osho defies categorization. His thousands of talks cover everything from the individual quest for meaning to the most urgent social and political issues facing society today. Osho's books are not written but are transcribed from audio and video recordings of his extemporaneous talks to international audiences. As he puts it, "So remember: whatever I am saying is not just for you ... I am talking also for the future generations." Osho has been described by The Sunday Times in London as one of the" 1 000 Makers of the 20th Century" and by American author Tom Robbins as "the most dangerous man since Jesus Christ." Sunday Mid-Day (India) has selected Osho as one of ten people - along with Gandhi, Nehru and Buddha - who have changed the destiny of India.

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 often characterizes 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 Gautama the Buddha.

Running like a thread through all aspects of Osho's talks and meditations is a vision that encompasses both the timeless wisdom of all ages past and the highest potential of todays (and tomorrow's) science and technology.

Osho is 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 Osho Active Meditations are designed to first release the accumulated stresses of body and mind, so that it is then easier to take an experience of stillness and thought- free relaxation into daily life.

I have told you the story: in Buddha's time there was a blind man who was a great logician. There is no difficulty; eyes are not needed to be logician. And because he was a great logician, nobody could prove to him that light exists. He argued, and argued so clearly, "You are either just befooling yourself, or you want me to be humiliated as a blind man. But I say there is no light."

And his reasoning was very clear, crystal clear. He said, "I am ready for every experiment. I want to touch it - bring me to where there is light. I want to taste it. I am ready to smell it, I am ready to hear the sound of it."

Naturally the people were at a loss. What to do with this man? He is blind but he is a great debater. As far as arguments are concerned he is always a winner, because nobody can manage to make the sound of light; nothing like that exists the taste of light, or the touch of light.

Once Gautam Buddha was just on the way towards the capital city of Vaishali, and he passed the village where the blind man lived. People thought, "This is a good opportunity. Perhaps this is the last opportunity - if this man can even defeat Buddha through his argumentation, then we are finished! Perhaps light does not exist. Perhaps we are dreaming about light."

That's what he used to say to people, "You are dreaming. Just cool down, be alert: there is no light, all is darkness."

They brought the man to Buddha. They thought that Buddha would argue with him, but instead of arguing, Buddha said, "You have brought him to a wrong person. He does not need more argumentation, because no argumentation can prove light. He needs a physician, a surgeon." Buddha had his own personal physician, the best physician of those days, given to him by the king of Vaishali. The physician followed him continuously for forty-two years, till his last breath, just like a shadow taking care of him; he was fragile.

He said to his physician, "Take this case in your hands. I will be leaving tomorrow morning, but remain behind until you are finished with this case."

The physician looked into the man's eyes and he said, "It will not be long. I will soon catch up with you. His eyes are only covered with a thin layer which can be removed. Within a few weeks, he will be able to see light."

And after six weeks the physician came with the man to another village where Buddha had gone. The man came dancing. He fell unto the feet of Gautam Buddha and he said, "Just forgive me. I could not believe something which was not my experience; I am not a man of faith. But now that I can see light, a tremendous trust has arisen in me. In your compassion you did not argue about it but you simply diagnosed the case and handed me over to the physician."

Faith is for the blind; trust is for one who has tasted some- thing of the ultimate. The faithful are the followers. I don't want anybody to believe or to have faith. I want you to trust in yourself; that if Gautam Buddha can become an Everest of consciousness, he has proved the point that every human consciousness has the same potential. Trust in it, trust in yourself.

This distinction has to be remembered. Belief is always in somebody else's ideology, and faith is in somebody else's personality.

Trust is in your own potentiality.