ob-thebuddhasaid

Note:

Originally published in four volumes as

The

Discipline of

Transcendence

this book

combines

just the

22 "sutra

chapters"

of that

series into this

one volume,

The

Buddha Said

The

alternating

chapters that

included Osho's

responses to

questions in the

original

publications are

edited out

of this new

book.

This sutra,

The Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters

has

never existed in India. It never existed in

Sanskrit

or in

Pali, but only in Chinese.

A certain Emperor Ming of the Han dynasty,

AD 67,

invited a few Buddhist masters to

China to bring

the

message of Buddha there.

Nobody knows the

names of

those Buddhist

masters, but a group

went to China. And

the

emperor wanted a small

anthology of

Buddhist

sayings to be compiled as a

first

introduction to the

Chinese people.

Buddhist scriptures are very extensive, the

Buddhist

literature is a world in itself –

thousands

of scriptures

exist. And they go

into very great

detail, because Buddha

believes in logical

analysis. He goes to the

very root of

everything.

His analysis is

profound and perfect, so he

goes

very

deeply into details. It was difficult. What to

translate in a totally new country where

nothing like

Buddha has ever existed? So

these Buddhist

masters

composed a small

anthology of forty-two

chapters. They

collected sayings from here and

there, from

this scripture

and that, from this

sermon and

that.

This book was compiled in the fashion of

Confucian

analects because it was going to

introduced to a

Confucian country –

people who

had become very well

acquainted

with the way

Confucius talks, with the way

Confucian scriptures

were made and

compiled. People

were familiar with

Confucius, so the Buddhist masters

composed this

sutra exactly along the same

lines. The

analects of

Confucius start every

sentence, every

paragraph

with the phrase

“The master said…” This

sutra

starts in a

similar way – every saying starts with

“The

Buddha said….”

In the beginning of the 20th century scholars

used

think that the original must have

existed in

Sanskrit or

Pali; then it

disappeared or was lost,

and this sutra in

Chinese was a translation. That is

wrong.

This sutra

never existed in India. As it is, it

never existed. Of course,

each saying comes

from

Buddha, but the whole work is a

new

work, a new

anthology. So that should be

remembered.

And that’s what makes it such a good basic

introduction

to the Buddha’s world. It is very

simple;

it contains

everything in a very simple

way. It is

very direct. It is, in

essence, the

whole of Buddha’s

message but very

succinct, not very long and

wordy as other

Buddhist

scriptures are...

–

Osho

The Buddha Said

Here is a page on this site with the

original

Chinese

text

in simplified

Chinese characters

of the

The Sutra of

42 Chapters

, which is the

basis of this

book by

Osho.

An English

translation is

also included.

These sutras were kept at what is

considered

the first Buddhist Temple in

China, the

White

Horse Temple

, near

Luoyang, Henan, China.

See

this page

for photos of this famous temple, still in

existence in China today. The story

goes that

these sutras were carried

back to China

from India

on the

back of

a white

horse, and the emperor had

this

temple

constructed as a place to keep

them.

Buddhist master that Osho talks

about in this book:

Gautam Buddha

The Buddha Said

talks on the 1st century
Chinese text – The 42 Sutras of Buddha
《佛说四十二章经》

(edited book from Osho's
The Discipline of Transcendence,
Vol. 1-4)

by Osho

22 talks given live 1976
Pune, India

print book

The Buddha Said

Chinese pinyin:

Fo yan

Chinese traditional:

佛言

Chinese simplified:

佛言

Audio mp3's – Discourses complete from
The Buddha Said
aka The Discipline of Transcendence, v.1-4 (DOT)
Osho talks in English
Click on play buttons below to hear

Discourse 1 (DOT, v1, #1)
The Most Excellent Way 1:31:55

Discourse 2 (DOT, v1, #3)
Only Nothing Is

Discourse 3 (DOT, v1, #5)
Be Therefore Mindful

Discourse 4 (DOT, v1, #7)
Living the Dhamma

Discourse 5 (DOT, v1, #9)
The Truth beyond Magic

Discourse 6 (DOT, v2, #1)
The Challenge of the Buddha 1:58:04

Discourse 7 (DOT, v2, #3)
In Accord with the Way

Discourse 8 (DOT, v2, #5)
Be a Light unto Yourself

Discourse 9 (DOT, v2, #7)
Reflections of Emptiness

Discourse 10 (DOT, v2, #9)
The Discipline beyond Discipline

Discourse 12 (DOT, v3, #1)
You Are Always on the Funeral Pyre 1:37:42

Discourse 13 (DOT, v3, #3)
There Is Nothing Like Lust

Discourse 14 (DOT, v3, #5)
Flowing with the Stream

Discourse 15 (DOT, v3, #7)
Just Working for Peanuts

Discourse 16 (DOT, v3, #9)
Away with the Passions!

Discourse 17 (DOT, v4, #1)
The Eightfold Way 1:33:19

Discourse 18 (DOT, v4, #3)
Truth Is in the Middle

Discourse 19 (DOT, v4, #5)
The Discipline of Transcendence

Discourse 20 (DOT, v4, #7)
The Ten Grounds of the Way

Discourse 21 (DOT, v4, #9)
Provisions for the Journey

Discourse 22 (DOT, v4, #11)
Collecting Pebbles on the Seashore of Life

Discourse 11 (DOT, v2, #11)
Spiritual Enlightenment