Warning: Osho's Being in Love contains wildly radical ideas about love, marriage and sex. If you prefer reading books that make you feel comfortable and safe, then don’t bother yourself with Being in Love because it will shock your socks off! The ideas expressed by Osho were revolutionary when he first said them more than 20 years ago. And even now, the reader continues to be refreshed by Osho because his ideas still haven’t reached mainstream thought. It’s exciting to read something new.

Osho was born in India in 1931 as Rajneesh Chandra Mohan Jain. In the 1960s he was known as Acharya Rajneesh. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s he became known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and finally in 1989 he took the name Osho. Osho established Rajneeshpuram, an “intentional community” located in Oregon, where he attracted considerable media attention for his Rolls Royce collection. The community collapsed in 1985 due to a variety of pressures and problems, and Osho returned to India where he died in 1990. This book is compiled by The Osho International Foundation from various lectures given by Osho to a live audience.

As I was reading Being In Love it occurred to me that in the 1980s I attended a program featuring Osho (then known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) in Boston, MA. It was a bit of a turn-off because Osho was almost three hours late for his own show. And when he finally showed up, instead of getting down to business, he chit-chatted and told jokes. I recall leaving before any of his real sharing of knowledge got started. Too bad for me that I didn’t stick around a little longer, because I would have definitely enjoyed hearing someone so very outside the box.

Message of Love

Osho says that “Love is the only religion, the only god, the only mystery that has to be lived, understood…It is not anything difficult.” His basic direction is that there’s nothing to learn. All that’s needed is to unlearn the ways of “un-love.”

The bottom line is that we are each responsible for the presence or absence of love in our own lives: “How can anybody help you? Nobody else can destroy your ego. If you cling to it, nobody can destroy it; if you have invested in it; nobody can destroy it. I can only share my understanding with you. The buddhas can only show the way; then you have to go, then you have to follow the way. Nobody can lead you, holding your hand.”

Inspiration

Can you imagine what love would be like without our false, fixed and rigid beliefs that love has to be experienced in a specific way with a specific person at a specific time in life? Osho invites us to take a peek. This is his great service to humanity. Consider these quotes:

“…never say to anybody that love is a duty. It is not. Duty is a false substitute for love.”