Tao: The Pathless Path (Paperback)

by Osho (Author) "I REJOICE in Lieh Tzu-he is one of the most perfect expressions for the inexpressible..." (more)
Key Phrases: Lao Tzu, Lieh Tzu, Tzu Kung (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In his commentaries on five parables from the Leih Tzu, Osho brings a fresh and contemporary interpretation to the ancient wisdom of Tao. Leih Tzu was a well-known Taoist master in the fourth century B.C., and his sly critiques of a Confucius provide abundant opportunities for the reader to explore the contrasts between the rational and irrational, the male and female, the structured and the spontaneous.

"Who Is Really Happy" uses the discovery of a human skull on the roadside to probe into the question of immortality and how misery arises out of the existence of the ego.

"A Man Who Knows How to Console Himself" looks beneath the apparent cheerfulness of a wandering monk and asks if there is really a happiness that endures through life's ups and downs.

"No Regrets" is a parable about the difference between the knowledge that is gathered from the outside and the "knowing" that arises from within.

"No Rest for the Living" uses a dialogue between a despondent seeker and his master to reveal the limits of philosophy and the crippling consequences of living for the sake of some future goal.

"Best Be Still, Best Be Empty" discusses the difference between the path of the will, the via affirmitiva of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, versus the path of the mystic, the via negativa of Buddha and Lao Tzu.

A Q&A section addresses how Taoist understanding applies to everyday life in concrete, practical terms.


About the Author
Osho is one of the best-known and most provacative spiritual teacher of the twentieth century. Beginning in the 1970s he captured the attention of young people from the West who wanted to experience meditation and transformation. More than a decade after this death in 1990, the influence of his teachings continues to expand, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Renaissance Books; 1 edition (February 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580632254
• ISBN-13: 978-1580632256
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #252,670 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Door opener, October 23, 2003

By	Ariel Tejera (Mexico City, D.F. Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It didn't seem strange to me that this little book had no other reviews at the time I started to write mine. Why, it's an excelent book and not so recently published. But my experience was, as I tried to express my sincere admiration for it, that the words simply became hard to find. I felt in a situation in which I had to "describe what can't be described".

I'm still reading the book, and from time to time, I just start it over again. There is so much in it. Definitely, the book is a door opener into our own insights. Into the unexpected, the unmanifest. Only a man of Osho's stature could bring us, westerners, the treasures of those ancient, pristine, unpartisan, unadorned revelations. Tao's. Or rather, only he could take us there, close to them: this is spiritual seeker's stuff, no joke. Food for meditators. And at the same time, it is a smart exposition to what I regard as Osho's core views of human development.

For anyone wishing to flex his/her insight and mediation skills, and then harvest handsomely, I highly recommend it.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Path without Beginning or End., November 6, 2005

By	Butch (From the American Heartland.) - See all my reviews

CAVEAT: Rajneesh was a rather polarizing guru. People seem to have either loved him or hated him. Personally, I am not the personality cult type. I don't mean that in a pejorative sense. It is just that I feel the Wizard, the Guru, the Priest, etc., can't give me anything I don't already have. A guru can tell me how to wake up, but only I can open my eyes. All I know for certain where Osho is concerned is that my awareness seems to increase every time I read one of his books. I have epiphanies. I do not believe a person has to be a saint before they can be of spiritual help to others.

In my opinion Osho's musings are a concentrated dose of reality, a lightning bolt of spiritual insight, a slap across the face of our group amnesia, and yet he usually manages to leave the reader with a word of encouragement where our place in reality is concerned. I may have read somewhere that Osho was a designated walker in a world full of sleepwalkers. Some people definitely loved him. It seems to me that we often find the best face of a person in their writtings. Writing tends to focus one's thoughts. Writing can be a window into a person's soul. Of course, the proof is in the pudding. We know a person's heart by their fruit, not by their words. The fruit of the spirit is love. I am not so spiritually gifted nor too proud to learn from others. Books on Philosophy and Religion can be a great help, they can also be a hindrance and a crutch. Moderation in all things. I digress.

A spiritual rebel Osho pulled no punches where orthodox thinking is concerned. I am reminded of Morpheus in the movie "The Matrix". He wanted us to take the "Red Pill". To wake up and disconnect ourselves from the Matrix of self-deception. To free us from the nightmare world of separation from the whole of existence. To realize that we, like "Neo", are the "One", an inseparable part of the whole. To trust in the Providence of Nature and not in the self-serving machinations of so-called leaders and experts who are themselves lost in a maze of their own devices. To be free to take responsibility for and control of our own lives by simply letting go and following the grain of reality. To be awake. Aware of the process of our awareness. Taoism can seem a bit paradoxical at times.

In this book Osho discusses the essence of Taoism and how it is distinguished from most religions in that it is not so much a religion as it is a way of life. The way of the "Watercourse Way" of Taoism. The path of least resistance. The path that is not a path for there is no place we need to go, no place we truly can go, other than where we already are. Like the eye of a storm our center is still. Our deepest center that is without a surface, the center that is the center of all centers. Osho discusses the "via negativa" way of meditation, of sitting silently and being empty, waiting for God. The way of the Mystics, East and West. He also discusses the "via positiva" approach to theology. The way of the Ascetics. The way of prayer and form. Osho leaves it to us to decide for ourselves which is our tendency. Osho wants us to examine our lives so that we can be true to our own inner natures, rather than merely true to our cultural milieu. (For a more in depth discussion of the Four Paths, the via "positiva", "negativa", "creativa", and the "transformativa", you may want to take a look at Matthew Fox's book "Original Blessing".)

Osho tells us that because the mature Taoist lives in the central still point of existence he or she is not controlled by the vacillations of the outside, but by the calm of the inside. The Taoist is a lover of Freedom. For the Taoist life is worth living. Death is as natural as life. Taoism is an Agnostic faith based upon experience as opposed to doctrine. Taoism is a Democratic way of life. He or she does not believe that ultimate reality can be absolutely known. That the mystery of life is not so much a problem to be solved as a reality to be experienced. Meditation is the art of dying to everything that separates us from the whole of existence, from the eternal Tao, from God. Though we cannot know God with our heads, we can experience God in our hearts. "The tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao". Lao Tzu. God is ineffable. The "I AM THAT I AM" of Exodus 3:14. No one has a patent on God, but we all share the same last name. We are each sons and daughters of reality. Both of the natural and the supernatural. The Kingdom of God is found within. "Be still, and know that I am God". Psalm 46:10.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book to get, May 25, 2005

By	Michael Wilson "nosliwekim" (New Englands Rising Star) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you ever wander into the eastern philosphy section of the bookstores in search of "the" tao book that is waiting to catch your eye....This is one of you. This book now follows me around my house and hates living on my bookshelf.

A word of warning to those very deeply rooted in other beliefs...this book could grate at your nerves. This is probably not a very good introduction book for you. Pick up the Tao of Pooh...I own it and love that one too. Tao: The Pathless Path speaks about other religions in a not so positive light. To me I understand completely where the author is coming from in saying these things. Some it has to do with other world religions being too strict as well as blood shed for their beliefs and comparing it to taoism being on the opposite end.

You be the judge. But hopefully you'll give it a chance.

PL&H