The new Osho Life Essentials series focuses on the most important questions in the life of the individual.

Each volume contains timeless and always-contemporary investigations into questions vital to our personal search for meaning and purpose.

Destiny, Freedom, and the Soul: What Is the Meaning of Life? explores deeply human questions, such as: Is there really such a thing as "soul," and if so, what is it? Where does the concept of karma fit in? Does my life have a special meaning or purpose?

Content:

1 The Mystery of “Who Am I?”

2 In Search of Meaning

3 Self, No-Self, and Reincarnation

4 Destiny, Fate, and Karma

5 In Search of Freedom

Epilogue

 

Exerpt from chapter 2:

Now, a few things more which will make it more clear. I cannot say that you will understand it, but it will make it more clear.
You walk, you are walking, you have gone for a morning walk. The very language -- that we say 'you are walking' -- creates a problem; in our very language is the problem. The moment we say somebody is walking, we assume that somebody is there who is walking -- the walker. We ask, how is walking possible if there is no walker?
Buddha says there is no walker, only walking. Life does not consist of things. Buddha says life consists of events. And that is exactly what modern science is saying: there are only processes, not things -- events.
Even to say that life exists is not right. Only thousands and thousands of living processes exist. Life is just an idea. There is nothing like life.
In the sky one day you see black clouds have gathered and there is thunder and lightning. When there is lightning do you ask, 'Is there something behind lightning? Who is lightning? What is lightning?' You will say, 'Lightning is simply lightning -- there is nobody behind it; it is just a process. It is not that there is something which is lightning. It is simply lightning.'
The duality is brought by the language. You are walking -- Buddha says there is only walking. You are thinking -- Buddha says there is only thinking, no thinker. Thinker is just created by the language. Because we use a language which is based in duality, it divides everything into duality.
While you are thinking, there is a cluster of thoughts, all right -- but there is no thinker. If you really want to understand it you will have to meditate deeply and come to a point where thinking disappears. The moment thinking disappears you will be surprised -- the thinker is also gone. With thinking, the thinker also disappears. It was just an appearance of moving thoughts.
You see a river. Does a river really exist, or is it just a movement? If you take the movement out, will there be a river? Once the movement is taken out the river will disappear. It is not that the river is moving; the river is nothing but rivering.
Language creates the difficulty. Maybe because of this particular structure in certain languages, Buddha became important and significant and became rooted only in Japan, China, Burma -- because they have a totally different language. It is very significant to understand why he became so important in the chinese mind, why China could understand him and India could not. China has a different language which fits with buddhist ideology absolutely. The chinese language does not divide in two. In the chinese language, or in Korean, or in Japanese or Burmese, a totally different structure exists than in Sanskrit, Hindi, English, Greek, Latin, French, German -- a totally different structure.
When for the first time the Bible was being translated into Burmese there was much difficulty, because a few sentences could not be translated at all. The moment you translate, their whole meaning is lost. For example, a simple sentence, 'God is'; you cannot translate it into Burmese. If you translate it, it becomes 'God becomes'. 'God is' cannot be translated because there is no equivalent term for 'is', because 'is' shows staticness.
We can say 'the tree is', but in Burmese you have to say 'the tree is becoming', not 'is'. There is no equivalent for 'is'. The tree 'becomes'. By the time you say 'the tree is', it is no more the same, so why do you say 'is'? 'Is' gives a staticness. It is a riverlike phenomenon -- 'tree is becoming'. I have to say 'tree is becoming' but in Burmese it will be simply 'tree becoming', the 'is' will not be there. 'The river is' -- if you want to translate -- will be 'river moving'. 'River rivering' will be the exact translation in Burmese.
But to say 'God becoming' is very difficult, because Christians cannot say that. God is perfect, he cannot become. He is not a process, he has no growth possibility -- he has already arrived. He is the absolute -- what do you mean by 'becoming'? Becoming is possible if somebody is imperfect. God is perfect, he cannot become. So how to translate it? Very difficult.
But Buddha immediately penetrated the burmese, chinese, japanese, korean mind; immediately penetrated. The very structure of the language made it possible; they could understand Buddha very easily.
In life there are only events. Eating is there but there is no eater. Just watch eating. Is there really an eater? You feel hungry, right -- hunger is there, but there is nobody who is hungry. Then you eat -- eating is there, but there is nobody who is an eater. Then hunger is satisfied, then you feel satiation -- this satisfaction is there but there is nobody who is satisfied.
Buddha says life consists of events. Life means living. Life is not a noun, it is a verb. And everything is a verb. Watch and you will be able to see: everything is becoming, nothing is static.
Eddington has said that in the english language there are a few words that are absolutely false: for example, rest. Nothing is ever in rest, the very word is wrong, because there is no equivalent in reality. Have you ever.seen anything at rest? Even when you are at rest, it is resting, it is not rest. It is a process: something is happening, you are still breathing.
Lying down, relaxing -- but it is not rest; many things, a thousand things are happening. Have you ever seen anything at rest? It is impossible, rest does not exist. Even when a person is dead, then the body continues its processes.
Life is millions of processes. Even when your ego disappears from this base, takes off from this airport, and lands in some other womb, many processes continue still. All processes don't stop, because there are many processes which have nothing to do with your ego; nothing to do with your ego -- your ego can go and they will continue. Hairs growing, nails growing, have nothing to do....
And, immediately, the moment your ego leaves, millions of small microbes will become alive and they will start working and functioning. You will be almost like a marketplace. You will be fully alive in that way. Much will be happening: many microbes running, rushing here and there, making love, marriages, dying, and everything will be happening. The moment you leave the body, your body becomes a landing ground for many other people who were waiting and who were saying, 'Please leave! Let us come in.'
Life is a continuous process -- not only process but processes, a continuity.
Buddha says the very idea of self is because of language. You feel hungry: in language we say 'I am hungry'. Language creates the idea of I. How to say it? To be exactly right you can only say 'hunger'. 'I am hungry' is bringing something absolutely false in it. 'Hunger' -- that's enough.
Watch your processes and you will feel it. When you feel hungry today, just watch it. Is there really somebody who is hungry or is there just hunger? And is it just a language pattern that gives it a twist and divides it in two, and you start feeling 'I am hungry'?
Buddhism is the first religion which brought this message to the world -- that your religions, your philosophies, are more grounded in your linguistic patterns than in anything else. And if you can understand your language better, you will be able to understand your inner processes better. He was the first linguist, and his insight is tremendously meaningful.

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