Love, Freedom, and Aloneness: The Koan of Relationships

by Osho

Overview

In today's world, freedom is our basic condition, and until we learn to live with that freedom, and learn to live by ourselves and with ourselves, we are denying ourselves the possibility of finding love and happiness with someone else.

Love can only happen through freedom and in conjunction with a deep respect for ourselves and the other. Is it possible to be alone and not lonely? Where are the boundaries that define "lust" versus "love"...and can lust ever grow into love? In Love, Freedom, Aloneness you will find unique, radical, and intelligent perspectives on these and other essential questions. In our post-ideological world, where old moralities are out of date, we have a golden opportunity to redefine and revitalize the very foundations of our lives. We have the chance to start afresh with ourselves, our relationships to others, and to find fulfillment and success for the individual and for society as a whole.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312291624
Publisher:	St. Martin's Press
Publication date:	12/13/2002
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	41,574
Product dimensions:	6.23(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Osho is one of the best-known and most provocative spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. Beginning in the 1970s he captured the attention of young people from the West who wanted to experience meditation and transformation. More than 20 years after his death, the influence of his teachings continues to grow, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
PART ONE: LOVE
Chapter One: Lovey-Dovey	3
Chapter Two: Real and Unreal—The First Step	6
Chapter Three: The Virtues of Selfishness	17
Chapter Four: Attached to Nothing	21
QUESTIONS
* Will you please speak about the difference between a
healthy love of oneself and egoistic pride?	28
* Why is love so painful?	32
* How is it that the inscription on the Greek temple of
Delphi says "Know Thyself" and not "Love	37
* How can I love better?	43
PART TWO: FROM RELATIONSHIP TO RELATING
Chapter Five: The Honeymoon that Never Ends	55
Chapter Six: From Lust to Love to Loving	59
Chapter Seven: Let There Be Spaces	63
Chapter Eight: The Koan of Relationship	68
QUESTIONS
* How can I know that a woman has fallen inlove in
reality, and not playing games?	71
* If the jealousies, the possessiveness, the attachment,
the needs and expectations and desires and illusions	77
* What is the difference between liking and loving, to
like and to love? And also, what is the difference	81
* There are many people I love but Idon't feel committed
to. How can I predict if I will love them tomorrow?	83
* Even if sometimes lovelike feelings arise in my heart,
immediately I start feeling this is not love, it is my	87
* In the East, it has been stressed that one should stay
with a person, one person, in a love relationship. In the	89
* Lately, I have begun to realize how even my lover is a
stranger to me. Still, there is an intense longing to	94
PART THREE: FREEDOM
Chapter Nine: Tabula Rasa	103
Chapter Ten: The Fundamental Slavery	109
Chapter Eleven: Beware of the Popes	121
Chapter Twelve: Is There Life After Sex?	128
Chapter Thirteen: It Takes a Village	137
QUESTIONS
* You said that love can make you free	But ordinarily we
see that love becomes attachment, and instead of freeing	148
* My boyfriend feels less and less like making love, and
this makes me upset and frustrated, even to the point	153
* My sex life has become very quiet lately—not that
I don't want sex or that I am not courageous enough to	155
* How can I know if detachment or indifference is growing
within?	159
* In your vision of a model society, would there be one
large commune or a series of communes? What would be	162
PART FOUR: ALONENESS
Chapter Fourteen: Aloneness Is Your Nature	171
Chapter Fifteen: Strangers to Ourselves	178
Chapter Sixteen: Solitary and Elect	180
Chapter Seventeen: The Lion and the Sheep	195
QUESTIONS
* Never belonged, never been on the "inside,"
never felt "at one" with another. Why such a	201
* Why does my sadness feel more real than my happiness? I
want so much to be real and authentic, not to wear any	204
* As I move deeper into meditation and looking into who I
really am, I am having trouble maintaining any	210
Caveat: Two Women and a Monk	213
Epilogue: Embracing the Paradox	233