Love, Freedom, Aloneness: The Koan of Relationships

I have very recently been introduced to Osho. A Zen Buddhist Guru that was popular in the 1970s, Acharaya Rajneesh, popularly known as Osho, was an international Indian mystic, and spiritual teacher with an insight that could only be described as "enlightened". Although Osho penned hundreds of books before he died in 1990, "Love, Freedom, Aloneness: A Koan of Relationships" was my first experience getting to know him and his teachings. Within just a few pages my heart started racing and my own thoughts ran towards "WOW". Halfway through I was totally enamored, enthralled and excited, and soon jumped on the internet to purchase as many of his books I could afford in one fell swoop. Osho is simply amazing in his ability to make all people who have ever felt alienated from the people around them, finally feel at ease with themselves. The people they know who are being dragged down into the quagmire of "following the crowd" and that are "drowning in the ordinary", now become the examples of how not to live your life if you are one of the people like myself who have always colored outside the lines and felt proud to do so. This inspirational book is about "Love, God, Relationships, Freedom, the philosophy of Religion, Sex and about how imperative it is, and about how important it is to follow our own hearts and march to our own set of drums when walking each of these thought-provoking paths. Osho tells us, forget "them", and pay attention to yourself. Not in a selfish egotistical way, but in a way that can bring joy into our lives the way WE choose to live it. And to live not by the rules of the church, our parents, our kids, or our peers. Letting God let us live our own lives in our own way is an underlying theme here. Never in all the thousands of books I have read in my life has anyone spoke to me about God in a way I could accept or grasp. I loved his teachings of God, his philosophy of who or what God is or can be in each of our lives. He speaks of the church, of priests, of Gurus, Buddhas and other various deities from around the world in ways you can let seep in without fear of all of it threatening you to lean one way or the other, or to heaven forbid choose one at all. His open honest banter and non-preaching way of opening a reader up to God in ways one can understand or want to open up to, was a welcoming breath of fresh air for this reader! And, Osho has a wonderful sense of humor to keep a light air swirling around his wise words of wisdom! Osho's views on the importance of lust, sex, retaining our primitive selves as sensual beings, and how our normal hunger for sex can turn into a love relationship that is deeply rewarding and lasting, can be eye-opening as well as validating if you share his opinions on the topic. He tells us that without it we wither and die, we often let outside social views and religious dogma either stifle us, guilt trip us, or zoom us to the opposite direction bringing stress and chaos over this one simple human joy that should just be lived and cherished for what it is. Never denied or repressed by anyone in our lives. I truly loved his views and opinions on what works in love relationships and what does not. All of it was simple common sense, so easy to intake, so loving and joyful. Honesty, being open to feeling fear and getting beyond it, can give us the ability to shed the pre-ordained dos and dont's we learned as children growing up as to what is proper and not allowed, what was considered dirty and shameful. All of it fades into dust as you read this fabulous book and let it all fall away into what you yourself want out of life and how to accomplish it. There are not enough stars in the rating system on this book in my eyes. This one will sit on the nightstand to read over and over and over....Stay tuned for more Osho book reviews! I think I found a new hero!

I knew this book would be good, but I didn't know how good. I navigated through at wealth of emotions while reading Love, Freedom and Aloneness. Osho himself may have been lots of things, but that doesn't take away from the gems within this book. Just like with anything else, I'd suggest you take what fits and leave the rest. If you're super religious, this book is NOT for you. But if you're someone with an open mind for understanding and information, by all means...explore this book! I love how this book made me questions everything that I thought I knew about love. I really didn't know anything at all. Now I'm open to loving freely without constraints which is the best kind of love. One of my favorite takeaways is that Osho encourages us to be selfish. We're told that being selfish is a bad thing, but it is necessary in order to give of yourself to everyone else. Osho's beliefs tend to make us take a deep look inside of ourselves. It encourages the kind of reflection that you don't get from most books on this topic. This is just a great book. PERIOD! Buy the book!!!

First off the book came in perfect condition (the front page is bent because I folded it when reading the book) The book is very beautiful with the font being perfectly readable (no glasses needed) Osho speaks on topic of self-love, he talks about how for centuries we have been poisoned by thoughts of self-condemnation. He talks about the difference of ordinary love and real love. Just get this book and start reading it and you will understand.

This book has helped me gain a new perspective of love & relationships after the end of a long term partnership. Definitely a good read.

I was raised in a catholic household and this really helped me unlearn a lot of subconscious teachings I didn’t realize were ingrained in me about sex, relationships, and love. Completely changed my life after reading.. especially the relationship with myself.

This is perhaps one of the most important books ever written. If every person on the planet read and truly understood this book, the world would be a very different, peaceful and more beautiful, happy place. Alas, let's start with one reader at a time... Please, read it.

This book is worth reading. With an open mind, the reader can and will transcend to a better human being.

Desde la relación interna a la interacción con la sociedad. Buen libro para ampliar los puntos de vista y analizar los lazos.

In dieser Zusammenstellung aus Reden von Osho, früher Bhagwan, werden grundlegende Aspekte des menschlichen Lebens und Zusammenlebens besprochen. In einer ehrlichen und liebevollen Sprache werden die Wurzeln unserer Probleme aufgedeckt und aufgezeigt, wie wir zu einem authentischen und natürlichen Leben finden können. Osho erklärt uns anschaulich, wie wir durch unsere Sozialisation eine Persönlichkeit entwickelt haben, die uns daran hindert, mit dem Leben zu fließen. Erst wenn wir unsere gesellschaftlichen Prägungen erkennen und akzeptieren, können wir innerlich frei werden, und damit auch frei für andere und für die Liebe.

This book literally changed my life. Of course, a few things in my life were leading up to the point where I would finally be introduced to it, but once I started reading it, I could not stop and finished it faster than other book I have read in my life. While you must have an open mind to accept some of ideologies presented, keep in mind that the book is a transcription of speeches Osho held and therefore, some of the words are translated from his native tongue and sound almost rude when reading it in English. An absolute must read for any person interested in opening up their spiritual side and digging deeper within.

As everytime i am very happy with another book of Osho. Interesting and well written

Core Osho. All his fundamental philosophies are here. There are flaws, but they're surprisingly few. The thinking shows a deep understanding of human relations and religion, and his directions are compelling and powerfully expressed. We may not agree with everything, especially from a practical point of view, but I could relate to a lot of it and found it extremely valuable.

If you are new to Osho then you are in for the most beautiful period of your reading and seeking. Although this seems a bold statement, I feel it is understated. In this one book one will learn a lifestyle that is natural and flowing. There are no rules, no golden gems of a 10 point plan. What you get is how to balance a lifestyle of meditation and love. The polarities. Aloneness and relationships. To seemlessly dance between the two. The style is very flowing like a conversation. This is no accident. The book is put together from talks that Osho has given. Some 5000 hours of recordings have been taken. If you loved Eckhart Tolle's the power of now and wish for more reading of that quality, you will find Osho books equally as good. I've read the full 6 books of the insight series. All are brilliant. I recommend Sex matters highly as well. Osho Zen and Osho Tao are also brilliant. However, if I was asked to recommend one essential book for someone new to Osho it would be Love, Freedom and Aloneness. It's hard to really review Osho because you are not quite sure what's really going on. Just by reading you feel something is happening. That something is a resounding "A-ha" to it. I've read carlos Castaneda all of them, I've read most of Stuart Wilde's books which I thought could not be surpassed yet Osho has done this with ease. With Osho there is no fighting within. You start with were you are and remove things very gently. He loves to bring a gentleness to the way you treat life and especially yourself. I've never thought of brushing teeth violently. However, when you compare that to brushing teeth gently, you begin to understand how you treat yourself. A small violence, but still it is there. Osho takes you on a journey of Man, politics and religion, he unravels the contradictions and the subtle cunning under-current of our politicians and religious leaders. He cannot unravel the mystery of life, he embraces the mystery and uncertainty. What I have noticed when reading is the fluidity of the words, sentences and chapters. You know that there is no-one there. Osho stepped aside many years ago. The words are straight from the great unknown, without filters, pure and brilliant. He was a truely brilliant, intelligent man and yet highly evolved in his spirituality or religiousness[not in the sense that we normally associate with this word. Uncluttered with religious dogma.] as he liked to often use. Once you read his biography you will come to know why you perhaps have not heard much about this man. What he has to say in his books, if understood and applied, will make each person a tower of immortal strength that no force on earth will be able to control. That's why the man was banned from so many developed countries towards the end of his life. His words are all there to lead you to becoming enlightened without an intermediatory. This would be a state of such peace tranquility and blissfulness, that the thought of becoming enlightened doesn't scare me any more. Creator of the Beginner Tai Chi (DVD)