The Odyssey of Enlightenment

This book chronicles one man's burning quest as he searches for, and tirelessly questions, a total of twelve spiritual teachers who are widely recognized as enlightened. Spurred on by a passionate yearning for truth, Thompson's odyssey takes him to remote parts of India where he engages in dialogues of a quality and depth rarely found in the annals of religion.

The first chapter is about Osho, his first master.

From the Introduction:

(...) A few years later, I received a master ’ s degree in business management from the University of Karlsruhe and then began a professional career as an industrial executive in Japan.

Before long, I left Japan and found myself starting an import company with a partner in Germany. The venture was a success, and I also inherited property and money from my family. By the age of thirty, I was wealthy, secure, and in perfect health. By most measures, I was a worldly success.

As was natural for a well-off man of my age, I used my wealth to indulge myself in pursuits and pleasures that supposedly bring happiness. But I was not satisfied by these activities; just underneath the surface lurked an aching feeling that some thing was missing. And it was in those moments that my memories of the peaceful holy men of India would surface. The contentment I had tasted in India began to haunt me.

(...) I felt compelled to find answers to the burning questions that consumed my life:

What exactly is enlightenment? Could this awakening take me permanently out of my pain and restlessness and transform how I experienced every moment of my life?
How could I attain the enlightened state? What are the most effective methods and practices for quickening this transformation?
Who would be the best teacher to study with and what actually is the true function of a guru? How would a guru really help me?
What qualities did I need to develop in order to become a qualified student of enlightenment?
Was I really making any progress? What did my ongoing spiritual experiences indicate about how close I was to the goal of nirvana or moksha?

author: Berthold Madhukar Thompson (Sw Dhyan Bertl (22 July 1980), at the Ranch renamed to Sw Dhyan Hareesh (summer 1982) )

language: English

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