I just finished reading Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously and… you know that feeling when you’re in a firing squad — probably all those who may know this feeling are dead; but — you’re taking shots from all directions. The person giving the shots is you. The person receiving the shots is you. And your only mistake was to judge the people previously put in this firing squad? …thaaat’s how this book feels. I mean, I recommended the book to two of my friends without reading the book; I only saw quotes from the book before I did the recommendation. So I thought to read it for argumentation purposes and bruh…! It was like being the victim of a cross-fire instigated by your very self.

Osho is profound — this goes without saying — but profound in a unique way. Most people who have reached the clarity Osho has reached often get there through by putting in an insane amount of mental work. This mental work takes a toll on the psyche (imagine it as religiously going to the gym for a long time and finally getting that body you want OR practising yoga poses for so long and finally hitting it effortlessly OR practising a martial art skill for so long you can perform it without thinking; the focus here is on “so long”). Through this time, the mental work in-forms (“creates into a specific form”) said person’s world view. In order to last (“survive”) through this in-form-ation, the said person’s psyche has to shift in a unique manner, shape, structure. This uniqueness is a function of many things, of which three are: the said person’s psyche prior to the mental work, the environment in which the body remains through the mental work, and the time the mental work is done through. Thus every sage is unique. Nietzsche came out a battering ram. Nishitani came out stronger than a black hole. Hegel came out as one of the most beautiful complexities this world has ever seen. — just to name a few. Osho came out as the uncle which slaps you behind your head reminding you of what you already know, but fail to re-member. Osho, in this book, is The Great Rememberer.

Osho’s “Courage” teaches to refocus on the self — that the greatest bravery does not defeat nor deflect fear, but goes through it; embraces it like a son, like a daughter, like a reflection of your very self. Goes on to hint that… against fear, the ego puts up and clings to various psychological structures — think “a scaffold built horizontally outwards from a cliff, so one could experience the grandioseness of the abyss without experiencing it.” — One of such structures is… religion. Osho, in “Courage”, is somewhat a magician. Man would often take you on a banal relatable story, then… just as you’re getting comfortable… he drops you into a vast expanse of profundity and leaves you wondering “How the heck did we get here?!” In this sense, “Courage” is a page-turner; but not like fiction books where you only turn the pages only in one direction. It’s a fantastic read; …a fantastic meal, if I must say.

Some quotes I highlighted are

…brave people are nothing but cowards upside down.

If the young generation moves deeper and deeper in love, wars will disappear because you will not be able to find enough mad people to go to the war.

Illness has a few advantages that health cannot have; don’t become attached to those advantages. Hate also has a few advantages that love cannot have. And you have to be very watchful. The ill person gets sympathy from everybody else; nobody hurts him, everybody remains careful what they say to him, he is so ill. He remains the focus, the centre of everybody — the family, the friends — he becomes the central person, he becomes important. Now if he becomes too attached to this importance, to this ego fulfilment, he will never want to be healthy again. He himself will cling to the illness. And psychologists say there are many people who are clinging to illnesses because of the advantages illnesses have. And they have invested in their illness for so long that they have completely forgotten that they are clinging to those illnesses. They are afraid if they become healthy, they will be nobody again.

Mine is nothing but the accumulated past, the memory. The heart is the future; heart is always the hope, heart is always somewhere in the future. Head thinks about the past; heart dreams about the future.

These are only four of a wealth of knowledge Osho uses to encourage people to live more courageously through life. If any of these quotes — or anything I’ve written here — pulls a string, strikes a chord, or plays a note within you… pick up the book, a cup of your favourite drink, cozy clothing, and an evening. I’m looking forward to reading your own review.

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