Bhagwan Shree Rajnish, better known as Osho was an Indian mystic, guru, and spiritual teacher who garnered an international following. Osho’s ideas have been believed to widen the horizons of one’s mind and provide a positive outlook in today’s dizzying stress filled pace of life. One thing is for certain, Osho’s techniques and views did not conform to the general norm set out for spiritual teachers. However, this very uniqueness is what’s special about him. Here are some teachings of Osho that we think are worth adhering to.

1) Your heart is just a blood pumping station

Your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your sentiments, all are centered in your head. It is just a fallacy to think that your feelings are in the heart. Your heart is just a blood pumping station. The truth is you can call it empty mind or you can call it empty heart it is the same.

2) Rebellion is individual

Rebellion is individual action. It has nothing to do with the crowd. Rebellion has nothing to do with politics, power and violence. Rebellion has something to do with changing your consciousness, your silence and your being. It is a spiritual metamorphosis. Each individual passing through a rebellion is not fighting with anybody else, but is only fighting with his own darkness. Swords are not needed, bombs are not needed. What is needed is more alertness, more meditation, more love, more prayerfulness, and more gratitude. Surrounded by all these qualities you are born anew.

3) Relaxation is only a beginning

Relaxation is good and just a beginning. It prepares the ground for meditation. But meditation is totally a different affair. One must be aware of their mind stuff. Whatever goes on in your mind you have to become a watcher, and the watcher has to be so deep-rooted that slowly, slowly your mind disappears and only the watcher remains. Then all possibilities of tension, anxiety, anguish, disappear and you will not find even the conflict.

4) The ego is a puzzle

The ego is a puzzle. It is something like darkness which you can see, which you can feel, which can obstruct your way but which does not exist. It has no positivity. It is simply an absence, an absence of light. The ego does not exist – how can you surrender it? The ego is only an absence of awareness. You cannot surrender ego, because it does not exist. You can bring a little awareness, a little consciousness and a little light. Forget completely about ego and concentrate on bringing alertness into your being. The moment your consciousness has become a flame, concentrated, you will not be able to find the ego.

5) Nobody really wants to be free because freedom brings responsibility

Everybody wants freedom as far as talking is concerned but nobody really is free and nobody really wants to be free, because freedom brings responsibility. It does not come alone and to be dependent is simple as the responsibility is not on you. A person who really wants to be free has to accept immense responsibilities. They cannot dump their responsibilities on anybody else. Whatever they do, whatever they are, they must be responsible.

6) Possessiveness Destroys Love

“In my vision, marriages in the commune should be dissolved. People can live together their whole life if they want, but that is not a legal necessity. People should be moving, having as many experiences of love as possible. They should not be possessive. Possessiveness destroys love. And they should not be possessed, because that again destroys your love.

7) The cyclone is the world

There is no center to a cyclone, the cyclone is the center. We have a chronic habit of dividing things into two, God and the world, body and soul, the lower and the higher, the good and bad. Once you understand this oneness of life then all tension, anxiety, anguish, disappears. The anxiety is created because you are always dividing.

8) The Seeker Is the Sought

Man is almost mad because he is seeking something which he posses. Mad because he’s not aware of his self being, mad because he hopes, desires and then ultimately, feels frustrated. The problem is that you have something and you are seeking it. Now, how can you find it? You are too occupied with seeking, and you cannot see the thing that you already have. Unless all seeking stops, you will not be able to see it. Seeking makes your mind focus somewhere in the future, and the thing that you are seeking is already here, now, this very moment.