In this audiobook on Zen, Osho takes the listener on an insightful journey into the ways of Zen masters: the master who refuses to discipline a monk caught stealing, despite protests from his other “honest” monks; the master who deceives his disciples into doing his bidding by using a two-headed coin; the master who would rather his disciples drank tea than listen to a discourse on truth... With masterly skill, Osho creates a beautiful exploration of Zen’s unique definition of truth, through his own understanding of the essence of truth and consciousness.

Zen is not a theology, it is a unique phenomenon. Not easy to understand for a Western mind. Most religions exist around the concept of God. For Zen, the individual human is the goal - an end unto himself. So there is no concept of God in Zen. Certainly those who have been brought up as Christians, Muslims, Hindus, or Jews, cannot conceive of what sort of religion Zen is. If there is no God, then it becomes atheism. It is not; it is theism to the very core - but without God. This is the first fundamental to be understood. Let it sink deep within you, then things will become clear.

"The World Is on Fire" is the title of the first chapter in this new fifth volume of The Dhammapada, Osho’s contemporary presentation of the sayings of Buddha. What does Buddha mean by fire? He means anguish, anxiety, despair, misery; that's what Buddha means by fire. It is a symbol. Everybody is on fire because everybody is divided, split, schizophrenic. Everybody is on fire because there is great anxiety in the world, the anxiety of: “Am I going to make it this time or not?” Does this sound familiar to you?

Wisdom, says Buddha, arises from within, and is the only true knowledge. In The Dhammapada Osho speaks on wisdom, which he calls knowing, and on the difference between knowing and knowledge. Knowing, he says, is spontaneous response: it comes from inner silence, it is our own truth, an existential experience. Knowledge is dependent on the past, it is mechanical, it is second-hand, it comes from another, and hides the truth from ourselves. Knowing gives us inner direction; knowledge only outer direction. And the key to the intuitive faculty of knowing is meditation.

The Dhammapada is a collection of sayings of the Gautama the Buddha in verse form and one of the best-known Buddhist scriptures. This is volume nine of a 12-volume series of Osho Talks, bringing Buddha's Dhammapada into the 21st century and opening them for a new understanding for contemporary people.