Lots of great information here from the lectures. Of course, some of it is repeated but that just helps drive the point home. I enjoyed these books.

I was curious about a new series featuring insights from Osho, the creator of the Osho Zen tarot deck, in part because I find that deck so intriguingly strange and wondered about the person who made it! Osho (a 20th-century Indian spiritual teacher) does not tie his approach to a religious tradition, but the feel of his writing is reminiscent of some Buddhist writers. These teachings are transcribed from conversations with retreat students, and they’re little oddly edited but still readable.

Osho uses parables, principles, and practices to prepare the reader to meditate. This volume focuses on Osho’s philosophies of the body and how to prepare it for meditation.

The body is described as a vehicle for divine, an instrument tuned through meditation. Osho argues that our minds are “too tight” with control and anxiety, while our hearts are “too loose” and not tuned in on love, and in general we’ve lost the idea of a connected bodymind. He offers ways to “tune” heart and mind and access the navel, the source of soul in his view. Basically: sleep, eat, and exercise in moderation (no extremes of indulgence or deprivation), but also use specific meditation techniques.

I resonated with “navel work” focused on deep engagement with life and moving past fear—extremely relevant to our current disconnection crisis. The idea that social conditioning and over-focus on the brain create restlessness over peace is obvious, and I love the suggestion of processing emotion by letting the body do what it wants—reminiscent of more recent writing on metabolizing “dirty pain” (Resmaa Menakem’s term) and collective embodied trauma.

The statistics seem offhand and unverified, though, and some of Osho’s statements I can’t accept. He lost me at the idea of some “strong” people having more stored potential energy they need to use towards creation. Theorizing around the nature of hate, love, and anger is confusing and overly binary. Some interesting ideas, but skippable.

This is a great resource for those looking to learn more about meditation. I will definitely be adding it to my physical shelves.

Osho presents his material in a logical way, step by step, with stories to illustrate his point. I can't say there's anything striking about any of the books, but readers will no doubt find something they can relate to.

I enjoy this series on meditation I find it helpful and calming. Would recommend regardless of level.

This review is of Aspects of Meditation Books 1 through 4. The books are short, and my comments apply to all of them.

After reading another book by Osho, I wanted to know a bit more about how this man thinks. This series satisfied my curiosity. His ideas must have been quite revolutionary when first presented to gain him such acclaim and recognition. I had never heard of him before last year.

He presents his material in a logical way, step by step, with stories to illustrate his point. I can't say there's anything striking about any of the books, but readers will no doubt find something they can relate to.

My thanks to St. Martin's Essentials who granted me access to an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley. The set is scheduled for publication in paperback on 2/22/22. All opinions stated in this review are my own and are freely given.

I have mixed feelings on this book on meditation. On the one hand it helped me focus on my brain-body connection in new ways that deepened my meditation practice, however there was some messaging in the book I found distasteful or even offensive. Telling readers their life is absolutely meaningless seems harmful and confusing. There were other comments that struck me as off. This is the kind of book where I will take what was of value to me but leave the rest behind.

This is a nice little book compiled from the talks given by Osho prior to a certain 3 day meditation program. From the anecdotes and the explanations, it is seen that this was during the early days of Osho, when he was conducting meditation camps in India.

This is a review for the Aspects of Meditation Books 1-4: These books are pretty short, and if you're familiar with Osho's many, many other works, you're used to his style which I think in many ways is quite logical while also being quite deep. He was very wise even though he was very flawed (as are many brilliant individuals). His take on meditation is a bit different than I read before, and I'm sure it will work for lots of readers. I certainly didn't find all of it useful, but found some helpful ideas here.

I really appreciate the free ARCs for review!!