Underlying all meditation techniques, including martial arts―and in fact underlying all great athletic performances―is a quality of being awake and present to the moment, a quality that Osho calls awareness. Once we can identify and understand what this quality of awareness is, we have the key to self-mastery in virtually every area of our lives.

According to great masters like Lao Tzu or Buddha, most of us move through our lives like sleepwalkers. Never really present in what we are doing, never fully alert to our environment, and not even aware of what motivates us to do and say the things we do.

At the same time, all of us have experienced moments of awareness―or awakening, to use another―in extraordinary circumstances. On the road, in a sudden and unexpected accident, time seems to stop and one is suddenly aware of every movement, every sound, every thought. Or in moments that touch us deeply―welcoming a new baby into the world for the first time, or being with someone at the moment of death.

Awareness, says Osho, is the key to being self-directed, centered, and free in every aspect of our lives. In this book, Osho teaches how to live life more attentively, mindfully, and meditatively, with love, caring and consciousness.