There is a famous Zen story about a disciple, Riko, who once asked his master, Nansen, to explain to him the old Zen koan of the goose in the bottle. Namely, if a man puts a gosling into a bottle and feeds the gosling through the bottle's neck until it grows and becomes a goose - and then there is simply no more room inside the bottle - how can the man get it out without killing the goose or breaking the bottle? In response, Nansen shouts, "Riko!" and gives a great clap with his hands.

I love the statement that the "man of Zen walks in Zen and sits in Zen" for the simple reason that meditation cannot be just a part of your life. You cannot make a fragment of your life meditative.

Being loose and natural will give you a spontaneous awareness, rather than making an effort to reach a certain goal. No effort is going to succeed because the cause of all misery is the doer, the ego, our idea of self. Osho only teaches awareness. Suppression is not the way to buddhahood. Simply relax and be whatsoever you are - and awareness will come by itself.

Moving beyond the usual interpretations of this classic Chinese text - that of using it as an indicator of what to do next or attempting to predict the future - Osho is using the Tao Te Ching as Lao Tzu intended: to ignite the flame of individual awareness and insight. His commentaries on these seven verses burn through every idea we may hold about ourselves until we can see with the same crystal-clear light as Lao Tzu.

Osho is known around the world for his pioneering contribution to meditation - the science of inner transformation - with the unique approach of his "Osho Active Meditations" acknowledging the accelerated pace of the contemporary world and bringing meditation into modern life. Based on the Seven Points of Mind Training by the 11th-century Buddhist mystic Atisha, The Book of Wisdom removes the dust of tradition that has gathered around meditation, conveying the essential science and methodology of the practice with a freshness and spontaneity that is rarely found in contemporary spiritual works.