What can I do to accept life and find joy within myself?

Question: OSHO, I HAVE DISCOVERED THAT I AM JUST BORED WITH MYSELF AND I FEEL NO JUICE. YOU HAVE SAID TO ACCEPT OURSELVES, WHATEVER WE ARE. I AM NOT ABLE TO ACCEPT LIFE -- KNOWING THAT I AM MISSING SOMETHING OF JOY INSIDE. WHAT TO DO? Bob Luka, we hear there is a new type of tranquilizer that doesn't relax you -- just makes you dig being tense. Try it! Try it and try it and try it again -- be an American! -- but not more than three times. Try it, try it, and try it again, and then stop because there is no point in being silly. You ask me: I HAVE DISCOVERED THAT I AM JUST BORED WITH MYSELF... This is a great discovery. Yes, I mean it! Very few people are aware that they are bored, and they are bored, utterly bored.

Question: OSHO, I HAVE NOT GOT ANY INTEREST IN ANYTHING. IT ALL SEEMS TO BE MEANINGLESS. NOTHING, EXCITES, PROVOKES OR CHALLENGES ME. THERE IS NO JUICE, NO ZEST. I HAVE FELT LIKE THIS ALL MY LIFE. WHY SHOULD I DO THIS OR THAT WHEN NOTHING FULFILLS ME ANYWAY? I AM ALWAYS TRYING TO BE JOYFUL -- PRETENDING TO FEEL, TO BE EXCITED, INTERESTED AND ALIVE. I AM ALWAYS TRYING TO BE COURAGEOUS, TO JUMP OVER SOME OF MY FEARS. BUT FOR WHAT? I AM TIRED I FEEL THAT "I AM NOT" -- AND EVEN THAT I DON'T REALLY FEEL. OSHO, WHERE AM I? That is the best way to kill joy forever. Trying to be joyful? And you say:I AM PRETENDING TO FEEL... These are the surest poisons to kill all feeling. YOU SAY: I AM TRYING TO BE EXCITED, INTERESTED AND ALIVE.

Question: OSHO, I FEEL LIFE IS VERY BORING. WHAT SHOULD I DO? Brij Mohan, AS IT IS, YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE ENOUGH. You have made life boring -- some achievement! Life is such a dance of ecstasy and you have reduced it to boredom. You have done a miracle! What else do you want to do? You can't do anything bigger than this. Life and boring? You must have a tremendous capacity to IGNORE life. Just the other day I was telling you that ignorance means the capacity to ignore. You must be ignoring the birds, the trees, the flowers, the people. Otherwise, life is so tremendously beautiful, so ABSURDLY beautiful, that if you can see it as it is you will never stop laughing. You will go on giggling -- at least inside. Life is not boring, but MIND is boring.

Question: OSHO, WHY IS LIFE SO BORING? LIFE AND BORING? Man, what are you talking about? You must be living in a kind of death. It is not life that is boring -- you must be dead! That's why you are feeling bored. Rather than taking responsibility on your own shoulders, you are throwing it on life. But that's how the human mind continuously goes on playing games. It always throws the responsibility on somebody else; it always finds a scapegoat. It is very irresponsible. And those who are irresponsible will never change. Don't say life is boring -- see that you don't know how to live. You must be living in a wrong way; you must be living in a negative way. You must be living at the minimum; your life must be a lukewarm life -- that's why it is boring.

Question: LAST NIGHT YOU TALKED ABOUT BOREDOM. HOW CAN WE HOPE FOR AN ENLIGHTENED SOCIETY WHEN IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN SOCIETY MOST PEOPLE MUST PERFORM BORING, MONOTONOUS AND REPETITIVE TASKS? If you are born in sin, how can you love yourself? If your very being is guilt, how can you love yourself? And if you cannot love yourself, you cannot love anybody. The love must happen at home first -- you are the home -- and only when it overflows can it reach to others. And when it overflows, it overflows into your acts, into whatsoever you do. Whether you paint or make a shoe or anything -- just cleaning the street -- whatsoever you do, if you are in deep love, if you are in deep love with yourself, it flows into everything you do. It flows even when you are not doing anything.