The true religion has no name, it cannot have any name. Buddha lived it, Jesus lived it - but remember, Jesus was not a Christian and Buddha was not a Buddhist, he had never heard of the word. The truly religious people have been simply religious, they have not been dogmatic. There are three hundred religions in the world — this is such an absurdity! If truth is one, how can there be three hundred religions? There is only one science, and three hundred religions?!If the science that is concerned with the objective truth is one, then religion is also one because it is concerned with the subjective truth, the other side of the truth.
I teach only that religion. Hence if somebody asks you what my teaching is, in short, you will not be able to say — because I don't teach principles, ideologies, dogmas, doctrines. I teach you a religionless religion, I teach you the taste of it. I give you the method to become receptive to the divine. I don't say anything about the divine, I simply tell you "This is the window - open it and you will see the starry night."
Now, that starry night is indefinable. Once you see it through the open window you will know it. Seeing is knowing - and seeing should be being, too. There should be no other belief.
So my whole effort is existential, not intellectual at all. And the true religion is existential. It has always happened to only a few people and then it disappears from the earth because the intellectuals immediately grab it and they start making beautiful ideologies out of it - neat and clean, logical. In that very effort they destroy its beauty. They create philosophies, and religion disappears. The pundit, the scholar, the theologian, is the enemy of religion.
Even the sky is not the limit, so open your wings without any fear. This whole existence belongs to us; this is our temple, this is our scripture. Less than that is manmade, manufactured by man. Where it is manufactured does not matter much - beware of manufactured religions so that you can know the true, which is not manmade. And it is available in the trees, in the mountains, in the rivers, in the stars - in you, in people that surround you - it is available everywhere.
There is no need to (blindly) believe in anything - that is the fundamental of science. That is the scientific approach to reality: do not (just blindly) believe, inquire. The moment you believe (blindly), inquiry stops. Keep your mind open - neither believe nor disbelieve. Just remain alert and search and doubt everything until you come to a point which is indubitable - that's what truth is. You cannot doubt it. It is not a question of believing in it, it is a totally different phenomenon. It is so much a certainty, overwhelming you so much, that there is no way to doubt it.
This is knowing. And this knowing transforms a man into a buddha, into an enlightened one. This is the goal of all human growth.
- Religionless Religion by Osho (1931-1990), one of the most provocative spiritual teachers of the twentieth century.
. excerpt from Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic by Osho. // . other books by Osho via google book
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.. Osho on Sufis of the New Age
.. Sufis: People of the Path
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