Fun with Osho Book Titles

Exercises for a group – from Madhuri’s upcoming book, Techniques I Have Loved

I was once asked to create a seminar making use of the titles of Osho’s hundreds of published books. The seminar went really well, and I saved the notes from it… so here goes!

You will need

a printout of the lists of Osho’s books (you’ll be cutting it up into random lists) (PDF downloads see below)
the usual backjacks and cushions
dance music, and also some nice music to come in by (I used Bindu’s Plain Tales from Poona).
5 baskets, or bowls, with Osho book titles printed on many slips of paper in them – you’ve cut the printout into lengths of 1, 5, 10, 20, and 25 titles, with a basket for each. (Make sure that after each exercise the slips of paper are returned to the appropriate basket!)
Tibetan bells to mark beginnings and ends

The methods

Write a poem

Each participant dips in a hand and takes out of a basket a list of 5 book titles.
Write a poem, using all of the titles somewhere in the poem. Let it be very personal, or as personal as you wish; serious, or silly, or ranting – whatever comes. Words from the titles can be mixed around.
Then, assemble in small groups and each person reads their poem aloud – or, in the large group, whoever feels like reading theirs, can.
Alternatively: hand your poem to the person next to you, and they read it aloud.

Relevance in Your Life

Find a partner. Each person takes a list of 10 titles out of a basket. Choose one title, and take turns describing how the meaning represented by that title could be relevant in your life.

Soft Vision

Find a partner. Decide who’s A and who’s B. Each person takes a list of 10 titles out of a basket.
A gazes at B with soft vision (and soft meditation music) for 5 minutes. Then look at your list of titles and explain how one or more of them describe your partner.
Change over.

Title of Poem

Use an Osho book title as a title for a poem: Then write 5 lines, rhyming the first and the last.

Painting a Title

For this one you’ll need painting supplies: watercolour sets, brushes, paper, water in a glass, sponges.
Choose one title from a list of 10. Paint it with watercolours, as a picture.
Once it’s dried, sit with a partner, and each shares about their painting.

Whispering in Ear

Each person takes a list of 20 titles out of a basket.
Find a partner, preferably of the opposite sex. Decide who’s A and who’s B.
A whispers the titles into the ear of B as if B was the beloved and you were crooning sweet nothings to her.
Change over.
Share how it was for you.

Desert Island

If you could take one book – from a list of 10 titles – with you to a desert island, which one would it be? Why?
Share with a partner.

Childhood Memory

Find a partner. Each takes a list of 10 titles out of a basket.
Close your eyes and allow a childhood memory to surface. Which of the 10 titles would have been most relevant, and why?
Share with your partner.

Past Life

Find a partner. Each takes a list of 10 titles from a basket.
Close your eyes. Allow a scene from a past life to arise. Don’t worry about it, just invite one and trust what comes! No matter how mundane or outlandish!
Which title from the list would have been most relevant and why?
Share with your partner.

Circle Mime

This is best done when everyone is warmed up.
Make one big circle. A long list of titles is passed around. Each person reads aloud the next title on the list and assumes postures and body-movements to express it.
This is funny!

Medicine

Find a partner. Each is given a list of 10 titles.
Imagine you are unwell (trust whatever symptoms rise up in your mind to suffer from!) and you need medicine. (Or, if you really do have some illness, you can stay with that if you like.) Which title would you choose? How would it be applied? What happens?
Change over.

Ignorance and Wisdom

Find a partner. Each gets a list of 10 titles. Choose the word you least understand. Share with partner.
Change over.
Now, choose the word you most understand. Share about that.
Change over.

Naming a Pet

Find a partner. Each person gets 10 titles. (Note: I don’t think it matters whether people fish a list out of a basket or are given it; but it might be fun in a group to use both ways.)
If you were going to name a cat or dog or guinea pig or whatever, from the list, what word or words would you choose, and why?
Change over.

Telling a Story

Find a partner. Each person gets a list of 25 titles. Decide who’s A and who’s B.
A imagines living through a random day. It starts out as a normal day; but each thing she says to someone, is a book title. For example, her spouse says, “Did you sleep well?” and A responds with the title of a book. What happens? Just imagine it, and trust what comes!
Change over.

Understanding

Find a partner. Decide who’s A and who’s B. Each person chooses from a basket a piece of paper with one book title on it.
A says to herself: “If I really understood the title of this book, how would my life change? Specifically?”
Explain to partner.
Change over.

Cocktail

Find a partner. Each person is given a slip of paper with one title on it. Decide who is A and who is B.
If the title was a cocktail or mocktail, what would be in it? (Anything at all!) Tell your partner.
Change over.

Engraved Ring

Find a partner. Each is given a list of 10 titles. Decide who’s A and who’s B.
If you could have one title engraved inside a ring, what would it be? Why?
Change over.

Nickname

Find a partner. Each gets a list of 10 titles.
If you could choose a nickname for yourself out of the words, what would it be? Why?
And, if you had been asked to name a new rose, which title would you choose?
Change over.

Politician

Using a list of 10 titles, write a short letter to the politician you most dislike in the world, using 3 of the titles.
Share in small groups.

Admiration

Write a short letter to someone you admire, using a list of 3 titles.
Share in small groups.

Education

Find a partner. If you could teach a child the meaning of one title out of a list of 10, which one would it be?
Explain.
Change over.

Music

If you were shopping for a recording of meditation music, which title (out of 10) would you download? Why?
And if you were shopping for rock ‘n’ roll? Classical?
Share with partner.
Change over.

Thriller

Sit in small groups. Each person has a list of 10 titles. Imagine one title is the title of a thriller. Describe the plot.
Then the next person has their turn.

Life Story

Imagine your life story has been written. The last chapter has the title of one of the books. Which one, out of a list of 10? What happens in your life?
Share in small groups.

First Word in Line of Poem

Sit in small groups. Each person has a single title on a piece of paper.
Write a poem with the first word in each line being a word in the title.
Read aloud.

Which don’t/do you like?

Find a partner. Each gets a list of 10 titles. Decide who’s A and who’s B.
A goes first. A, from your list, which title do you like least?
What might that show about you or your life? Share about it with partner.
Change over. Now it’s B’s turn.
Now, B, which title do you like best? What does that say about you or your life?
Change over.

T-shirt

Out of a list of 25 titles, which one would you choose to have on a T-shirt? In whose company would you wear it?
On what occasions would you not wear it?
Share in small groups.

These techniques will also be part of Madhuri’s upcoming book, titled Techniques I Have Loved