Awareness: The Key to Living in Balance [Paperback]

He uses many wonderful examples from Buddhist teachings, and puts them all into plain English, in modern 20th century language. He quotes psychologists, and Enlightened Masters alike. This book is more for a person who is trying to figure out what their life is all about, and who feels trapped in a life that feels almost empty or meaningless.

Osho's writings about people in America, being "asleep" and un-awakened may offend some readers in the USA. My suggestion is to take the great wisdom Osho brings in this book that applies to you in your life so that you can move forward in a positive way, and to simply let the more opinionated views of people in the West roll off your back. This book does have some great wisdom that many could use, and at the same time, some people may feel slighted from his judgmental tone.

His book is worth reading; just don't let your ego get in the way so you can take in the worthwhile wisdom he genuinely gives.

However, one of Osho's biggest character flaws was his sense of superiority, and the book's all-knowing and magnanimous tone can be grating, especially when Osho says things that are inaccurate and just plain false. Osho's knowledge about politics was fatally flawed; later in his life he expressed admiration for authoritarianism, even praising Hitler. A passage on how Russia and India would make more responsible decisions about nuclear weapons than America in this book is particularly absurd and calls to mind the man's very flawed political views.

Osho's constant harping about the East's superiority to the West is irritating as well, particularly because it adds no extra insight and really is not a necessary part of the text. Further, it contradicts Osho's encouragement for readers to learn to overcome the mind's need to evaluate and compare. Osho devalues the analytical and logical accomplishments of the West even as he utilizes such approaches throughout his book. "Witnessing" is not the cure to everything, as Osho's life so aptly demonstrated. Some of his authoritative pronouncements could be harmful to those who would not challenge Osho's stance on something like therapy, the process of which could actually help a person with problems of repression of past trauma move more toward a state of awareness.

Osho's knowledge of science is almost nonexistent, and yet he speaks of science with the same authoritative tone he uses in speaking of everything else. His inaccuracies on all of these topics would only be a minor irritation if he did not use inaccurate statements as the basis for many of his arguments about awareness. This book would have been much better if the editors had left out some of Osho's wildly false observations and edited out some of the parts where he repeats himself endlessly for pages. Osho was a flawed human being, but also had a deep knowledge of inner development. This book reflects that dichotomy.

I would not argue against reading or buying it, but would encourage readers to be aware as they read the book so that they can separate the wheat of Osho's insights about becoming more aware from the chaff of his flawed egotistical pronouncements, divisive statements, and inaccurate claims.