Esoteric Science

OSHO: I AM THE GATE This is the book where Osho talks about himself — not as a man, not even as a mystic, but as a manifestation of existence itself. This book is a timeless classic that has served as an introduction for many people to Osho’s vision. Eight discourses to push the reader over the edge of the intellect into the mysterious, the esoteric and the transcendental. Osho talks on the meaning of initiation, disciplehood and meditation — a loving invitation to begin the journey toward the ultimate truth: “A sannyasin to me is a person who decides to live to the utmost, to the optimum, to the maximum; it is just like a flame burning from both the poles.”

Osho, I am the Gate, HC. 260 pages, - euro 18.50 - order here

Chapter Titles
Chapter 1: I Am Consciousness, I Am Freedom
Chapter 2: Living in Insecurity
Chapter 3: Occult Devices and the Spiritual Search
Chapter 4: Love, Grace and Divinity
Chapter 5: Meditation and the Paths to Inner Awakening
Chapter 6: The Secrets of Spiritual Explosion
Chapter 7: The Mysteries of Initiation
Chapter 8: I Am the Gate
Chapter 9: Even in a Single Moment

'Meditation is the only real alchemy. All else that goes on being written in the name of alchemy is just bullshit, occult nonsense, esoteric rubbish. The true science consists of only one thing -- that is meditation, because that is the bridge from the body to consciousness. Once you have reached your center of being and once you have known that you are consciousness, you are beyond birth, beyond death.
And when one is beyond time, great joy arises because all fears disappear, all darkness disappears.'

'Each age has to devise its own methods, no old method can be helpful to you. You have changed, your mind has changed. The key fit the old lock but the lock has changed. Esoteric groups can only be the preservers of keys, not of locks, because locks are with you. You understand it? Locks are with you - not with Buddha, not with Jesus. They have keys. They devise keys, keys that open many locks. These keys can be preserved by esoteric groups, but in the meantime the locks are changing.

You are not the same lock which Buddha opened. The same key exactly as it is will not do. If the same key can do as it is, then any ignorant person can use it. Then no wisdom is needed, anybody can use it. I can just give you the key, and you go and open the lock; you need no wisdom. This much is enough: that this is the key and that is the lock. But as the locks are changing constantly, the keys must be given to a group who is wise - to devise new keys that are always in tune with the locks.

The locks will go on changing. They will never be the same. So not only are dead keys to be preserved, but also the science for changing these keys whenever there is any change in the lock. That is preserved in esoteric groups. You cannot preserve it in books because the locks are not known. They will change, they will go on changing. No book can write about all these possibilities of locks, about all the combinations of locks. They will go on changing. The condition changes, education changes, culture changes, everything changes, so the locks become different. Howsoever the key is preserved, it will always be faulty in a way. It will not suit the lock. So the key must be handed over to a living group of wise ones who can always change the key also. That is the difference between esoteric knowledge and exoteric tradition.

Exoteric tradition always carried the key without any reference to the lock. It continues to talk about the old key; it never notices that no lock is being opened by it. But the exoteric tradition consists of ordinary people such as members of the Christian church. The church carries the key. They know that this is the key which opened many doors in Jesus' time. Their knowledge is right; their information is correct; of course this key has opened many locks. They carry the key, they worship the key, but now it opens no lock. They cannot devise other keys, they have no time to devise keys; they have only one key. They go on worshipping it, and if it cannot open a lock, then the lock is responsible. Then the lock must be faulty, then something is wrong with the lock, not with the key.

The exoteric tradition is always condemning the lock and worshipping the key. The esoteric group never condemns the lock, it always changes the key. The Vatican carries the key. They have the key, and they go on worshipping it. But Christianity also has inner esoteric groups. And this always happens - that the esoteric group will be in conflict with the exoteric, because the exoteric will insist that this key must do. This key is not for you, you are for this key. You must behave in such a way that this key can open the lock. The key cannot be changed; you must change. But if someone says, "We can change the key," he becomes an infidel, he becomes a heretic. Then he must be killed because of the nonsense he is speaking: "He changed the key - the key that Jesus gave us, Buddha gave us, Mahavira gave us. This key cannot be changed!"

So always, whenever there is a teacher, a real authentic teacher who discovers something, there are two currents from him: one becomes exoteric - the visible church with the pope, the shankaracharya, the orthodox. They always insist on the same key. They never think that a key means nothing if it cannot open any lock. But then it is not a key at all: a key only means that which opens.

If it is not opening any lock, then it is just fallacious to call it a key.'

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