Customer Reviews

Tao: The Pathless Path

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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 writings. 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. Love is the gravity of metaphysics.

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.

In this book Osho discusses the essence of Taoism and how it is different from most religions in that it is not so much a religion, doctrine, 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, or whatever one wishes to call the ineffable Source of existence. Though we cannot know the ineffable with our heads, we can experience the ineffable in our hearts. "The tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao". Lao Tzu. The Source, God if you will, is ineffable. The "I AM THAT I AM" of Exodus 3:14. No one has a patent on existence, but we all share the same last name. We are each sons and daughters of reality. The Source is found within. "Be still, and know that I am God". Psalm 46:10. Meditate.

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.

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

I have read several books on the Tao but Osho has got to be the best of the best. I also have Everyday-365 Daily Meditations For The Here and Now and its a must have. Order both; you will be overjoyed.
Deborah

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

Tiziano

Each time, I open an OSHO book, I feel refreshed, learning something. It is especially true for this book. It opened a new door for me, I go back to read a lot of original Tao(Dao) books in Chinese.

I have been reading books on Taoism and Eastern philosophy for some time, so when I bought this book, my expectations were naturally high. I wanted to see some different or new views on Taoism, but the book completely failed to add anything new to my understanding. My impression is that the book is a rehash of the generally-known and mass-appealing views. The book even fails to present the generic views in a new light. The presentation of the unoriginal views should have been at least above the average to cover up the shallowness and superficiality of the views, but the writing is dull and mundane. In addition, the so-called anecdotes in the book are lame, not inspiring at all.

Having read Alan Watts', Joseph Campbell's, and other Taoism books, I find this book totally disappointing and void of any new insights into Taoism. I wish I could quote some sentences from the book to prove my points but as the wise man said, "those who know do not speak," I won't speak, not because I know something but because Tao is beyond words, which I believe.