Osho uses the Tao Te Ching texts as Lao Tzu intended: to ignite the flame of individual awareness and insight. From the seven verses Osho selected to comment on, he moves deeply into his own understanding and burns through every idea we may hold about ourselves until we can see with the same crystal clear light as Lao Tzu.

Osho outlines how Yoga, when followed without austere practices and suppressed attitudes, can help people to become more natural and flowing, making it easier to move into meditation. Referring to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a logician, mystic and poet living in 400 AD, he introduces a form of Yoga evolved from ancient traditions that is of continuing relevance to contemporary life.

Step by step, Osho explains what he calls “the central teaching of Patanjali” – a path of eight steps that leads finally to transformation. Osho describes the significance and meaning of each of Patanjali's steps of self-exploration.