Osho on Hassidism - Hassidism means the art of disciplehood

Osho on Hassidism - Hassid is a Jewish word; Hassidism comes from this word. Hassidism means the art of disciplehood. The master is called zaddick and the disciple is called hassid. But to give prominence to the disciple -- even more prominence than to the master -- the whole philosophy is called Hassidism, the path of the disciple. Because the master is just an excuse. He exists for the disciple, his whole function is to help the disciple. And what is the art of being a hassid? The most fundamental part of being a disciple is to rearrange your life around the master. Let him function as your centre -- you dissolve functioning as a centre of your own. The master's voice becomes your voice.

Source - Osho Book "The Madman's Guide to Enlightenment"

Osho on Hassidism - Judaism is a dead religion, just as Hinduism is. In fact, there have been only two source religions in the world: Hinduism and Judaism. Both are dead. Jainism and Buddhism are offshoots of Hinduism but because the root is dead the branches are dead too. And Christianity and Islam are branches of Judaism, and because the root is dead the branches are dead too. These are dead phenomena. I am not much concerned with the past.

Yes, something beautiful has happened in Judaism, too, and that is Hassidism -- and I have talked about it a lot. Just as I love Zen people in the tradition of the Buddha, I love Hassids in the tradition of Moses and I love Sufis in the tradition of Mohammed. These three are still alive in some small way because these three have never become established religions; they have always been anti-establishment, they have always been alternatives to the established religion, they have always been rebellious.

Hassidism is worth talking about, not Judaism -- and I have talked about Hassidism. I have been approaching Hassidism with my own experience. I have been bringing Hassidism up to date, trying to make it part of the twentieth century. Hassidism is the essence of Judaism, the very fragrance of it.

And I have something of the Hassids in me, that's why I sometimes call myself a Jew. The Hassids love life, they are life-affirmative. They don't believe in renunciation, they believe in rejoicing. They believe in dancing, singing, celebrating -- and that's exactly my approach too. My religion is something of a meeting of Zen, Sufism and Hassidism -- and something more thrown in.

Source - Osho Book "Walking in Zen, Sitting in Zen"

Osho on Hassidism

Osho on Hassidism - There is nothing in Christianity which is comparable to the Upanishads or to the teachings of Gautam Buddha. Christianity is a barren religion. It has not created anything like Zen or Sufism or Hassidism, for the simple reason that it has never allowed any rebellious spirit. It has been cutting the rebellious spirit from the roots.

Religion reaches to its heights only through the rebellious people, not through the mundane, the ordinary; not through the obedient; not through those who are satisfied just to believe that they will be saved, but only by those who make an effort to save themselves. Christianity has not allowed them.

It is the most out-of-date religion so there is great fear. It has nothing to offer, and the more it resists the mystic teachings coming to the West, the more it will be in trouble because the youth, the young people, are no longer interested in Christianity. It has nothing of interest. It is a sick religion. It stopped growing the day Jesus was crucified.

The Eastern religions have been growing because the rebellious people may not have been liked, may not have been accepted by the orthodox, but they were not killed. And when they blossomed, even the orthodox had to accept that they were wrong.
It is because of this quality that the highest peaks of Zen, Sufism and Hassidism became possible. These are the most rebellious elements in Buddhism, in Mohammedanism and in Judaism.

Hinduism has no future, just as Christianity has no future. Both have lost touch with reality, both are hanging only with empty words. You cannot deceive people for long. And other circumstances are helping. For example, Tibet has been taken over by China, so all the best Tibetan lamas had to leave Tibet. Now they are all over the world... and Tibet has one of the greatest disciplines to create a new man.

Hassidism is not accepted by the orthodox Jews, but it will be accepted by the new generation. My own people consist of forty percent Jews, and the reason is Hassidism. Listening to me and being with me, for the first time they recognized that Hassidism is the very cream of their religion, and whatever I am saying is purely Hassid.

It is not just a coincidence that in this big world where Jews are few, forty percent of my people should consist of Jews.
The Zen people are so much interested in me that there are many Zen masters in Japan -- they have big monasteries, and they are teaching Zen through my books.

Source - Osho Book "The Sword and The Lotus"

Osho on Hassidism - My whole effort is to create such a deep laughter in you that the laughter remains but you disappear. The dance remains but the dancer disappears. Then life is tremendously beautiful -- and only then life is beautiful.

So don't think about me like other religious people who are very serious. If they are serious they cannot be religious: that is my criterion. If your saints cannot laugh, they may be suppressed sinners at the most. Because a suppressed person cannot laugh, he is always afraid. With laughter many other things may escape. He has to suppress everything: the anger, the sex, the greed, the hatred, the love. Now he cannot allow only laughter to escape. And this is a deep secret: either you are totally expressive or you are not. You cannot be partially expressive.

Your so-called saints have to suppress themselves totally. And to me, a saint is one who has no suppression in his being. When he laughs, he laughs. His whole being is involved -- ripples of laughter.

Remember this -- and this will be very very meaningful to remember in reference to Hassidism. Hassidism has created the greatest tradition of laughing saints; that is one of the most beautiful contributions of Hassidism.

A Hassidic sage is not one who has renounced the world. He lives in the world, because to renounce it looks too serious. He does not go away from the marketplace -- he goes above. He lives where you live, but he lives in a different way. He exists by your side, but simultaneously exists somewhere else. He has joined the SANSAR, the world -- and sannyas, the renunciation.

When I give sannyas to you, I am doing a Hassidic work. I don't tell you to move to the Himalayas because that would be a choice, and a choice is always serious -- because you would have to leave something, you would have to cut a part of your being, you would have to cripple yourself.

When you choose you move in a certain direction -- then the whole is not accepted. If you live in the world, then you reject renunciation, sannyas, then you reject meditation. You say: 'They are not for us. We are worldly people.' Then one day you get fed up with the world, you leave the world. Now you are afraid to come into the world. Now you say: 'We are unworldly people. We live outside the world!' But in both the cases, you remain half-hearted, you are never total.

A Hassidic sage is total. He lives in the world, he lives as ordinarily as everybody else. He has no madness, no megalomania about his extraordinariness. A Hassidic rabbi is absolutely ordinary -- and that is his extraordinariness. He has no need to show it. He is!

There are other saints who have a need to show that they are special. That very need shows that deep down they are very ordinary, because this is part of the ordinary mind: to be always in need, always expecting, always wanting people to feel and think that you are not ordinary. This is a very ordinary need. Only somebody who is really extraordinary can be ordinary -- because he has no need to convince others: 'I am special.'

Source - Osho Book "The True Sage"

Osho on Hassidism

Osho on Hassidism - Once you move from the now and the here, you are in misery. Once you move in your desire you move from now and here, and you create a thousand and one miseries for yourself.

Be here-now. And forget about God. If you are here-now, you are in God, and God will reveal Himself to you. There is no need to search Him, because the very search is basically unsound. You cannot search Him because He is all. He cannot be sought in any direction because all directions are His.

You will not find Him anywhere, because He is everywhere. So from the very beginning, all search is bound to fail.

Don't seek and search. Just be here-now and He will search you, He will seek you. That's what Hassids say.

One of the greatest contributions of Hassidism is that you cannot seek Him; He seeks you.

How can YOU seek Him? You don't know the address. You don't know the face. You will not be able to recognize him. If He suddenly meets you on the street, you will not even say: 'Hello.' You will not recognize Him. He will be so strange that you may get scared. Or, you may not be able to see Him at all, because we tend to see only that which we know. That which we don't know, we tend not to see.

Scientists say that only two percent of impressions are delivered to the mind through the eyes. Ninety-eight percent are not delivered. If all hundred percent of the impressions are delivered, you will be in a mess, you will go mad. That will be too much. You will not be able to cope with it. So only a few selected informations are given to the mind. Ninety-eight percent are dropped out.

And I know well: if God meets you -- and I know that He meets you every day, millions of times....

But the mind drops because it is known, strange; you cannot fit Him anywhere with your mind. He will be a disturbance. So you simply don't see Him. How can you seek Him? Where you will seek Him?

Hassidism says: 'You cannot seek Him. He seeks you. You just be available and ready.'

I was reading an anecdote yesterday: A medical student failed in his final examination. He was very much afraid of his father, so he sent a telegram to his sister at home: 'I have failed. Prepare father. It may be too shocking to him.' The sister tried, but the father became very angry. Then she telegrammed to the brother: 'Father is ready. You prepare yourself.'

And that is the case: father is always ready; you prepare.

God is always ready to meet you; you prepare, you be ready wherever you are. He will seek you. He will rush from everywhere, from all directions. He will penetrate you in a thousand and one ways and reach to your heart.

Source - Osho Book "The True Sage"

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