Customer Reviews

Awareness: The Key to Living in Balance (Insights for a New Way of Living)

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The subject of awareness is the most trascendental, complex and profound in the field of spirituality. Awareness is the real direction of life evolutionary process on this planet. Today,only very few persons in the world can speak with authority about this subject. Osho is one of them. I do not know of others, except Krisnamurti and Gurdjieff in the past. I found Osho the most elocuent, clear and compassionate of all. Thanks to St. Martin Press for giving us this rare gem of practical insight.

Osho writes with astounding accuracy and illumination where you will be brought awareness to wake up from a life filled with mundane existence, and move into the present moment in order to re-create the life you deserve.

He uses many wonderful examples from Buddhist teachings, and puts them all into plain English, in modern 20th century language. He quotes psychologists, and Enlightened Masters alike. This book is more for a person who is trying to figure out what their life is all about, and who feels trapped in a life that feels almost empty or meaningless.

Osho's writings about people in America, being "asleep" and un-awakened may offend some readers in the USA. My suggestion is to take the great wisdom Osho brings in this book that applies to you in your life so that you can move forward in a positive way, and to simply let the more opinionated views of people in the West roll off your back. This book does have some great wisdom that many could use, and at the same time, some people may feel slighted from his judgmental tone.

His book is worth reading; just don't let your ego get in the way so you can take in the worthwhile wisdom he genuinely gives.

Osho has a very good logical sensibility and makes many wonderful and helpful points about developing awareness. Some of his points are simply those that have been repeated in many books on meditation and mindfulness, but others are helpful in their unique insight. I found his points on "Centering" and "Tension and Relaxation" to be very helpful, and enjoyed many of the thoughts scattered throughout the book, such as a beautiful passage on "rising in love" as opposed to "falling in love."

However, one of Osho's biggest character flaws was his sense of superiority, and the book's all-knowing and magnanimous tone can be grating, especially when Osho says things that are inaccurate and just plain false. Osho's knowledge about politics was fatally flawed; later in his life he expressed admiration for authoritarianism, even praising Hitler. A passage on how Russia and India would make more responsible decisions about nuclear weapons than America in this book is particularly absurd and calls to mind the man's very flawed political views.

Osho's constant harping about the East's superiority to the West is irritating as well, particularly because it adds no extra insight and really is not a necessary part of the text. Further, it contradicts Osho's encouragement for readers to learn to overcome the mind's need to evaluate and compare. Osho devalues the analytical and logical accomplishments of the West even as he utilizes such approaches throughout his book. "Witnessing" is not the cure to everything, as Osho's life so aptly demonstrated. Some of his authoritative pronouncements could be harmful to those who would not challenge Osho's stance on something like therapy, the process of which could actually help a person with problems of repression of past trauma move more toward a state of awareness.

Osho's knowledge of science is almost nonexistent, and yet he speaks of science with the same authoritative tone he uses in speaking of everything else. His inaccuracies on all of these topics would only be a minor irritation if he did not use inaccurate statements as the basis for many of his arguments about awareness. This book would have been much better if the editors had left out some of Osho's wildly false observations and edited out some of the parts where he repeats himself endlessly for pages. Osho was a flawed human being, but also had a deep knowledge of inner development. This book reflects that dichotomy.

I would not argue against reading or buying it, but would encourage readers to be aware as they read the book so that they can separate the wheat of Osho's insights about becoming more aware from the chaff of his flawed egotistical pronouncements, divisive statements, and inaccurate claims.

...that is typical of Osho. Awareness is the heart of all sincere effort, and nobody says it better. This book contains the elixir a confused, mind-addled world needs so very badly. Buy three...one for yourself, and two for friends, and ask them to do the same.

In the book "Awareness," Osho is pointing to the ultimate presence that is prior to every thought and every daily activity. The quality to which he is guiding is that of pure awareness.

Osho shares that when we wake up, that is to say, when we become conscious, and this awareness is realized, we are then able to live in balance and harmony. His prescription is to be acutely present with all that we are doing and alert to our thoughts as well as their underlying motivations. For when we are attentive to every movement and everything that we are sensing, we have an opportunity to awaken from the dream of form to realize conscious freedom. We are then able to live a meditative life that is filled with unconditional love and true compassion.

More than a decade after the death of form, Osho's essential teachings are still reaching seekers of all ages worldwide.

Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"

It is a new way of living. We haven't been taught how to live with awareness. We have been taught to live in fear. Osho is asking of us to become aware of how we percieve the world around us and how we react. We live from a reaction perspective rather than an awareness perspective. Osho is challenging us to address our fears, see them for what they are and understand why we are fearfull. With this awareness we can then start to explore our reactions, start to realize where they may have originated from and begin to slowly release them.
Dr Gunta Krumins-Caldwell author of On Silver Wings

In my humble opinion every book of Osho is a treasure and give you very important arguments for your personal growing.

Tiziano

Wake up my Beloved you are dreaming a nightmare and nothing is happening. What I love most about Osho is that he tells us the Truth, he doesn't mince words or try for your adoration, approval or appreciation. I also love his wit and sense of play. In the intro, Osho states that the first step to being Awake is for you to admit that you are asleep, dreaming and not aware of your being, your living, and what you are thinking, feeling and doing. Thank God, someone is being honest with us. Thank goodness, Consciousness is awake and that it has appeared as an Indian Man with a wry smile and twinkle in the eye. His seeming irreverence for traditional belief is sourced in the mere fact Osho is awake and our modern society is deeply asleep, which means that we are aware of everything in our worldly experience except our own Self.

Like all true spiritual teachings, Osho is calling for us to become conscious and aware of who we are inside the very core of our appearances as body, mind, emotion, activity and world. He asks us to become a witness to every sense of Being and all the diverse forms of life expression. Know thyself, Osho suggests. See what's going on within your mind. For example, are we re-acting from past conditioning or allowing what is Now to be? If we want to understand our life and self, we must witness this existence. In other words our real understandings come only from being Aware. If we are not aware of ourselves, we simply cannot realize who or what we are. Being self-aware is a step that cannot be skipped if we are to awaken to what is real. Osho shares his insight throughout this book and everything he shares is deeply penetrating and profound. He knows what he talking about simply because his life was all about being conscious and awake in every moment. We cannot help but be more awake if we take this teaching to heart, which is where this life arose in the first place. The title says it all, Awareness, The Key to Living in Balance. When you wake up, you'll find that you are the balancing act in this life.

Sundance Burke, Author Free Spirit: A Guide to Enlightened Being

Some books come into your hands into very right time. This book was one of such for me. Written carefully with a deep wisdom. I've read this book in Russian translation and found it valuable enough to order English version from Amazon as a gift to a friend in New York.

I like it. But it only tells you a little bit practicing principle or technique at the very end of the book. The book talks about more how important it is being aware than how to be aware.