Emotional Wellness ~OSHO

I've often thought that the downfall of most people is that they are adversely affected by those sticky moments of conflict – those testing times that can push them out of their perfect job, relationship or friendship, and completely out of their comfort zone. Why doesn't school teach people the skills to adequately deal with their emotions? I came upon this book at my boyfriend’s place and began reading it out of curiosity. While it was an acquired taste, I ultimately really enjoyed its wisdom.
 
Here are some important points that resonated with me:
1.     Humans are like vinyl records. When we are provoked or triggered, we play specific grooves of behaviour based on our past emotional conditioning. While our emotional reactions are strong, they are not permanent and will go away. This also means that even the strongest emotional reaction can also be unlearned.
2.     Every child is born crying. Why? This is because a mother's womb represents mysterious Shambala, heaven, and paradise.
3.     Animals don’t react to images of other animals exhibiting sexual behavior, because they do not repress any of their natural urges.  Humans are a different story. Prisons, porn, and a host of other social constructs have taken shape from the domineering influence of moralist, saints and do-gooders.
4.     Emotions are parallel with the body hosting them. If you can learn to properly control your body, your emotions will also be controlled.
5.     Love is the greatest drug there is. Vatesyayana’s Kama Sutra says that if you make really wild love once a year, that is enough to sustain you!
6.     The man always talks from the head while the woman always talks from the heart. In fact, it is because of their differences from each other that they find attraction together. They are polar opposites - like positive and negative electrical charges. They are pulled together, but because they are opposite, communication is very difficult and almost impossible. The first step towards bridging the communication gap is to drop all rationalizations and all sentimentalities. The second
step is to drop reason and emotion.  Then, in that state of ecstasy and meditation, there is a communion of prayerfulness. When you say “thou”, there is no woman or man. There is just godliness.
7.     Everybody knows about Buddha's famous lotus posture. It has been discovered that gravitation will have the least effect on you if sit in the lotus posture with your spine absolutely straight and entire body relaxed. The more you are affected by gravitation, the more you are pulled toward the grave.
8.     Society does not want you to be a person of the heart.  Society needs heads, not hearts.
9.     The mind frequently lives in "the no". It is a no-sayer; its nourishment comes from saying no and maintaining an atheistic and negative existence. There is nothing like a positive mind. The heart is positive. Just as mind says no, the heart says yes. It is better to say yes than to say no, because one cannot really live by saying no.  The more you say no, the more you become shrunken and closed, the less alive you are. People may think you are a great thinker, but you are shrinking and dying; you are slowly committing suicide. If you say no to love, you are less than you were before; if you say no to beauty, you are less than you were before. If you go on saying no to each and everything, chunk by chunk you are disappearing. What's left is a very empty life, meaningless with no significance, no joy, no dance, and no celebration. This is what has happened to the modern mind.
10.   There are three types of love. The first is biological/physical which is sex. The second type is love - love of beauty of the mind and sensitivity of the heart. The last love is lovingness, which is non-possessive and does not allow anyone to possess you either. Most of the people are bored because their love has fallen into the trap of possession in marriage. Instead love should be free.
11.   The greatest desire in the world is for inner transformation. Transformation is possible only through unconditional self-acceptance and relaxing into a state of being aware of exactly what is.
12.   Anything that is in the moment is good. Anything that is carried from the past is diseased.
13.   Depression is a contemporary phenomenon and it has come into being because now there is no tomorrow.  Now there is no hope. Tomorrow will be dark, and the day after tomorrow will be even darker. Society's achievement of this dark goal is the cause of depression. When a man is poor, he has an appetite. A rich man has no appetite and no hunger. It is better to be poor and have an appetite than to be rich and have no appetite.
14.   The West urgently needs a great movement of meditation or else this depression will kill more people. These people will be the talented ones because they have achieved power and money, but have also achieved despair. To counter this depression, an individual inward journey is needed; a journey into the self to re-discover all that they had lost.
15.   Depression means that the anger inside you has been pressed into sadness.  Look deep inside you for the anger and let it come out.
16.   Watchfulness is the golden key to getting rid of anger and part of the mind.
17.   Possessiveness is the root of jealousy.
18.   Death is the disappearance of a false entity in you and your ego. You fall back into the original unity of existence and you become part of the Earth.  Death is not your enemy, but your greatest friend.
19.   Guilt means that you have an unnatural idea in your mind about how life should be and what should be done. Then one day, you find yourself following nature and doing the natural thing – going against the ideology you are carrying. Because you go against the ideology, guilt arises, which leaves you ashamed. You feel inferior and unworthy. Your conscience is not really your conscience; it is a deep hypnosis, created by your religion.
20.   When you learn not to repress, things will start moving out. When the unconscious is empty, the wall between the conscious and unconscious collapses, leaving you entirely filled with consciousness. 

Upcoming Events

Keeping Your Resolutions 2013

Saturday, Jan 12, 2012 from 12noon – 4pm
YWCA, 535 Hornby Street, 3rd Floor
Cost: $10
Register: http://resolutionvan.eventbrite.com/
•  Ready to make 2013 the year you improve your life?
•  Do you care about your physical and mental fitness?
•  Want to participate in a fun day with people just like you, who desire healthy living?

Then join us at this half day event where you will discover proven methods guaranteed to support you in achieving your goals in 2013!
21 million Canadians will make a resolution to change their behaviour in 2013. Only 8% of them will actually succeed in doing it! Take a few hours to make 2013 the year where you actually achieve your dreams and goals.
Join four inspiring leaders who will share very diverse approaches to keeping your resolutions in 2013.