Absolute Tao: Subtle Is the Way to Love, Happiness and Truth

Osho comments in this book on Lao Tzu’s ‘Tao Te Ching’, which is considered as one of the significant treatises in Chinese philosophy. Lao Tzu who lived for ninety years refusing to say anything or to write anything is believed to have lived in between 6th and 4th century BC. Some historians are doubtful about his existence. Lao Tzu means “the old guy.” The basic attitude of Lao Tzu is that “the moment you say something about truth, it is no longer true, the very saying falsifies it.”Lao Tzu, at the age of ninety, took leave of his disciples saying good-bye to them and left towards the Himalayas. Alone he was crossing the border and the guard who was also a disciple of Lao Tzu imprisoned him and forced him to write a book. So for three days Lao Tzu was imprisoned by his own disciple and made him write this small book, the book of Lao Tzu, ‘Tao Te Ching’. Lao Tzu had to write the book, which he finished in three days, because the disciple wouldn’t allow him to cross. The book begins with this sentence: “The Tao that can be told of is not the Absolute Tao.”Lao Tzu believes in interdependence. He believes that everything exists with everything else and everything is interconnected and nothing exists without any purpose in life. He says: “Take everything as it is, don’t choose.” Lao Tzu also believes that when everything is too much, it is bound to be taken away. For him too much is the only sin, either be it too much richness or be it too much poverty. So don’t do too much, don’t overdo; be balanced and remain in the limits and then life is a flow.Lao Tzu’s concept of the house is the space within, not the walls; one lives in the emptiness and not in the walls. He says: “Look at the inner, don’t look at the outer.” According to Osho “Tao is a vast hollowness, a vast space, emptiness.”Osho says that Lao Tzu goes the deepest that anybody has ever gone; he is the greatest key, the master key to open all the locks that exist in life and existence. This book consists of ten chapters of which five chapters are set apart for Osho’s responses to questions from seekers and disciples on different topics which include love, hate and ambition; independence, dependence and interdependence; inner silence and emptiness; growth and spirituality; wisdom and understanding etc.etc. Also, the jokes, parables and anecdotes scattered elsewhere in this book are highly interesting and thought provoking. Following are some of Osho’s observations:People always talk about things which they don’t know.The moment you create a God, you immediately create a Devil.When you try to be somebody, you cannot love. An ambitious mind cannot love.You cannot love a person twenty-four hours a day; if you try, the love will become dead.

This was the book I was long searching for ! It gave me the much needed clarity on how the life has to be lived in ABSOLUTE NOTHINGNESS .

Definitely one of the better Osho books. Really insightful and deep. I also recommend hidden mysteries and his commentaries on Pythagoras' golden verses.

Keep your options of E book and Paperback etc selection mode in bold and dark letter... Font size must be bigger than the rest of the page... Book is just fantastic..

Always OSHO books for reading is top priority. He gives insight us and teach balancing in life.

Best book to understand Taoism....read multiple times

I love it. Must read often and often this book.

Lao Tzu in itself is a very, very loveable person. Very true, straight to the point and wise. Osho is the same thing with added ability to talk A LOT. I forgot how many books of Osho I already read, but this one is the one that I would recommend to any person who approach me asking anything related to enlightenment, Osho, Taoism or self-discovery.

Osho está sublime neste livro. O Tao - o caminho - é um santo remédio para a vida obsessiva do mundo contemporâneo.

Got to love Osho, out of all the religions he teaches . This is the one he seemed the most attracted too. Yet he bring across the meaning that life should be lived. For we each are the Tao experiencing it as self. Each up and down in life should be enjoyed, for we are the magnanimous energy .That is the unhidden gift we are unaware of we are Source or TAO.

Osho's clarity comes thru in this in depth talk about TAO. The truth that he came to know, manifests in his words. And while his words are not the thing itself, his words can prepare the soil of our inner selves to come to that point of transcendence. Namaste.

Despite having read a considerable amount of Osho, this book took me to yet another level of transcendental delight and helped me overcome so many places in which I was stuck in my personal and professional growth, Since buying this book, I have recommended it so strongly to my friends that I know at least four of them bought it and have enjoyed it immensely.