Zorba the Buddha

by Osho

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Philosophy, Spirituality, Nonfiction

182 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1982

About the author

Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain, 11 December 1931 – 19 January 1990) and latter rebranded as Osho was leader of the Rajneesh movement. During his lifetime he was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader and mystic.

In the 1960s he traveled throughout India as a public speaker and was a vocal critic of socialism, Mahatma Gandhi, and Hindu religious orthodoxy.

Rajneesh emphasized the importance of meditation, mindfulness, love, celebration, courage, creativity and humor—qualities that he viewed as being suppressed by adherence to static belief systems, religious tradition and socialization.

In advocating a more open attitude to human sexuality he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s and became known as "the sex guru".

In 1970, Rajneesh spent time in Mumbai initiating followers known as "neo-sannyasins". During this period he expanded his spiritual teachings and commented extensively in discourses on the writings of religious traditions, mystics, and philosophers from around the world. In 1974 Rajneesh relocated to Pune, where an ashram was established and a variety of therapies, incorporating methods first developed by the Human Potential Movement, were offered to a growing Western following. By the late 1970s, the tension between the ruling Janata Party government of Morarji Desai and the movement led to a curbing of the ashram's development and a back taxes claim estimated at $5 million.

In 1981, the Rajneesh movement's efforts refocused on activities in the United States and Rajneesh relocated to a facility known as Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County, Oregon. Almost immediately the movement ran into conflict with county residents and the state government, and a succession of legal battles concerning the ashram's construction and continued development curtailed its success.

In 1985, in the wake of a series of serious crimes by his followers, including a mass food poisoning attack with Salmonella bacteria and an aborted assassination plot to murder U.S. Attorney Charles H. Turner, Rajneesh alleged that his personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and her close supporters had been responsible. He was later deported from the United States in accordance with an Alford plea bargain.[

After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry. He ultimately returned to India and a revived Pune ashram, where he died in 1990. Rajneesh's ashram, now known as OSHO International Meditation Resort and all associated intellectual property, is managed by the Zurich registered Osho International Foundation (formerly Rajneesh International Foundation). Rajneesh's teachings have had a notable impact on Western New Age thought, and their popularity has increased markedly since his death.

Reviews

[Nishant Saxena · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most intriguing books I have ever come across, that lays down the core of Osho’s philosophy.

Zorba was a pleasure loving Greek man – enjoying good food, dance, women, fun… He lived the epicurean life, always in today, very less worried about future or any other problems. Enjoying every moment.
Gautam Buddha is the polar opposite, living a life of meditation, reflection and introspection. Seeking the ultimate truth, enunciating the Golden Path, cautioning us against desire, and trying to uplift humanity.
The former symbolizes zest and life, while the latter epitomises serenity and enlightenment.

But are they really opposites? Osho forcefully emphasises that they are just two sides of the same coin: unless we have lived the Zorba life, we can never really become a Buddha! Physical desires are natural, they are part of what makes us humans. There is no use in fighting them. If we try to suppress them, the temptation will only increase and we would live a troubled, repressed life, which is hardly the recipe to become a Buddha. In glorifying Buddha, we ignore his formative years as the Royal Prince Gautam: His father, in trying to charm him into the material life, gave him all pleasures one could ask for: 3 palaces for each season, the best of food and luxury, beautiful girls chosen from across the kingdom, all sick and old people banished from his sight etc. He lived this life till he was 29 and only then, after years of living the Zorba way, started to find it hollow. Even the best of times were no longer keeping him satisfied. As an intelligent man, he starts realizing the utter futility of it all. There was a yearning to know if this was all life had to offer. And then, when he sees death, sickness and old age, he decides to seek the ultimate truth. Leaves the comfort of the palace, meditates for 6 years and finally achieves enlightenment.

Osho asks whether Buddha could have achieved all this without first living the Zorba life? One has to personally experience, grow tired, and crave for the larger meaning. As Herman Hesse also remarked in his Nobel prize winning book (Siddhartha): None of Buddha’s followers, following the same golden path for thousands of years, have become a Buddha. Unless you have fully lived, how can you renounce life?

Osho goes one step further – saying Buddha, while enlightened, is incomplete. He is wise but is dry, there is no fun in him. Similarly, Zorba is incomplete too, because he lacks the vision, the sense of purpose of a Buddha. Hence, Osho puts up his idea of the perfect man: Zorba The Buddha. Enjoying this world, while not losing sight of the larger reality.

Osho is not for everyone. His ideas are bold, perhaps too avant garde. No wonder Osho was villanified in his times, declared undesirable in various countries. Swami or scoundrel, you cannot call him a hypocrite. He openly lived the life he preached: 99 personal Rolls Royce, Rolex watches, surrounded by beautiful women. And, in the same commune, holding deep meditation lectures exploring the nature and purpose of life!

PS1: Only if you want more, you could read my views on 100 Books That Can Make Us Wise here (www.nishantsaxena.in). Personal blog maintained as a passion outside my day job. Totally free of course and most book suggestions include a detailed Book review/summary.

[Max Smirnoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before Osho’s ingenious book, humanity seemed trapped between two extremes: either indulging in biological pleasures and the accumulation of wealth, or rejecting them entirely in pursuit of spiritual purity—often through self-imposed suppression of natural desires and even physical suffering. Osho challenges both approaches, revealing their inherent imbalance.

He argues that neither path alone leads to wholeness. Just as a bird needs two wings to fly, a human being needs both the material and the spiritual to soar. Rejecting one in favor of the other creates fragmentation. Embracing both leads to integration and inner harmony.

Osho introduces the archetype of Zorba—the earthy, joyful, sensual man—as a symbol of humanity’s natural state. Zorba celebrates life, pleasure, and presence. But Osho doesn’t stop there. He pairs Zorba with Buddha, the enlightened one, to show that spiritual growth must be built on a foundation of lived experience. As he puts it:

“Zorba is the foundation and Buddha is the palace.”

This metaphor encapsulates the book’s core message: spirituality should not be an escape from life, but a deepening of it. Earthly pleasures and spiritual awakening are not enemies—they are partners. Together, they make a human whole again.

[Arun Datchan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind blowing 💚😁

[Sathish · Rating 4 out of 5]

something very insightful and meaningful. true that zorba alone can become Buddha that is what the world has seen but when zorba becomes a Buddha, Buddha say to renounce zorba... Osho in his own way explains why zorba alone can become Buddha and why zorba has not to be renounced....

[Balaji Asokan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a collection of lectures delivered by Osho all around the topic synthesis of Zorba and Buddha. The insight is good but it becomes very repetitive after about half of the book as the core content is same.

[JeffJefferson53 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zorba the Greek was written by Nikos Kazantzakis. I’ve yet to read the book. It was also made into a film.
Kazantzakis was a Christian who lived a life of a madman due to religious repressions. Zorba the Greek was written very beautifully out of his repressed subconscious for a life that he never lived. Simple joys that were religiously condemned.
Zorba the Greek is a materialist with the philosophy of ‘eat, drink and be merry’. Osho has connected this Zorba with Guatam the Buddha to share his view of the new humanity that is necessary for the survival of our species. Religions have divided materialism from spirituality when there really is no division. It is equivalent to separating the lotus seed from the mud and expecting it to flower. Guatam was Zorba before he was Buddha. Buddha is the center while Zorba is the circumference. If we deny the circumference, we cannot reach to the depth of the center. This has been a disservice by all religions conditionings.
Osho states that all monks are imitators of the words of an enlightened one, while denying the zorba foundation that the temple is built upon. To be just a materialist is missing something, so as much as Osho loves Zorba, he states that he is missing the Buddha that is within. He is missing his center. Osho talks about everything.. sex, love, psyche, religions... He states what no Buddha or intellect will say because he doesn’t speak for respectability. He connects that the west is objectively developed but missing the inner depths of humanity which has made the west subjectively poor (hard to connect with people deeply) while the east is subjectively rich (zen, mindfulness, meditation) but is objectively poor (poverty blamed on karma). Osho wants to connect east and west to break the subjective-objective barriers of division that is really a man-made illusion. This will allow the west subjective depth and the east objective growth.
Osho is, as always, on an entirely different level.

[Mateusz · Rating 5 out of 5]

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