An Interview With Carol Neiman, Editor-in-Chief of Osho International - Page 4
© Elizabeth Bissette
As we become more attuned to our own bodies and senses, we begin to experience "energy" as something very tangible that flows through the body or, sometimes gets stuck and doesn't flow, or sometimes overflows and causes too much heat. The Asian martial arts, acupuncture and other forms of Chinese medicine, all these are based on an understanding of life energy and how it moves through the body-mind complex. It's a whole science of understanding that we in the West are very much lacking and, up till very recently, have had almost no respect for.
Q: Can you explain the concept of transcendence in Zen and how the Osho Zen Tarot reflects this concept?
A: Transcendence is finding the space where opposites are not against each other but complementary. Where things are not divided into higher and lower, superior and inferior, but are seen and experienced as a continuum where every point on the spectrum has its unique and valuable part to play. Ultimately, transcendence is being able to step outside the mind, to be able to use it when it's needed and switch it off when it's not needed.
Or think of it in this way -- we can see in children, up to around the age of three or so, how utterly innocent and spontaneous and authentic they are in every situation. That's what makes them so beautiful. They don't have a "mind" in the same sense as older children and adults do. As children we come into the world with a clean consciousness, a fresh slate without all the writing on it. Then gradually we all begin to learn to manipulate our behavior to get the approval of others, or to avoid their disapproval. Followed by a whole host of labels and judgments and rules and how-to's that are given to us by our parents, teachers, friends, religious and political leaders. We get "civilized." This is needed, in a way; otherwise we couldn't survive in a society with other people. Part of the gift and privilege of being human is the opportunity to "transcend" all this borrowed stuff once we've learned it, and regain the knack of looking at the world with the innocent eyes of childhood. To be "reborn" as it were; but this time with the accumulated wisdom of experience. All the text in the Osho Zen Tarot points the way to this quality of transcendence.
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