According to Osho, there is only one misery: our isolation from God, forgetfulness of our source. All other sufferings are branches of this root. Man himself weaves the net of bondage and thus also holds the key to freedom. By decisively turning inward and reuniting with the divine—through awareness and love—we uproot the cause rather than trimming symptoms.
We hurt because we’re like fish out of water—cut off from our source; choose to return inside and reconnect, and the hurt fades.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Someone asked: what is the cause of our miseries?
Don't say miseries; say 'misery', since there is only one misery, i.e. isolation from God. We are not aware of this fact; surrounded by a multitude of miseries we forget the original misery. The one root misery creates the illusion of a number of miseries. We have to be radical, and deal with this root misery. If a tree is to be destroyed completely, one does not cut a branch here and a branch there, but either uproots the tree, if that is possible, or cuts the main trunk near the roots. Similarly, we have to destroy the root of all miseries. We certainly are like fish out of water, -- like the fish we saw dying on the sands. We can well imagine those around us and even ourselves as the dying fish on a river bank. Come to think of it, man is both the fish that is…
Beloved Osho, why don't we drop our miseries, our ignorance and unhappiness? How can a man be happy and blissful?
When you go outside in the sun your eyes become smaller, the window shrinks, because the sun is too much and there is no need to take that much light in. When you come home, slowly the eyes again open to their normal size. But when you see something beautiful, they become wider, wide open. It is not in your hands, it is not that you are doing it. Even a saint will have to do it because it is not a voluntary thing. It is non-voluntary, it happens on its own accord. It is biologically set up. You have this word in English, `respect'. People have destroyed its meaning. It does not mean `honor' -- or it means honor in a very different way than you understand. `Respect' means the desire to see again, re-spect -- spect means seeing. If it is honor, it is honor for beauty --…
It cannot happen in a state of misery. A miserable person is constantly distorting truth. He himself is in such a distortion. He himself is in so many pieces that whatsoever goes through him becomes something other than what is was. Just by passing through the distorted person, it becomes distorted. He is not empty; a miserable person is full of his misery. That is something tremendously significant to remember: a miserable person is very full -- of garbage, rubbish, but very full. The blissful person is very empty. He is just space. And through this emptiness god can flow into the world. Become empty, become blissful -- and they go together very well. If you are blissful you will become empty, if you are empty you will become blissful. It is impossible for the empty person to be miserable.
God is not a person, remember. God simply means the ultimate source of all. We come from it, the trees grow from it, and the stars and the whole world... God is like the ocean and we are all waves in the ocean. Not remaining rooted in the whole is the cause of man's misery; being rooted in the whole life immediately becomes blissful. We are not separate entities, but we go on believing that we are separate entities. That is just an illusion, but it has been perpetuated by the society, by education, by every method and means.
1. Kriya-yoga is a practical, preliminary yoga, and it is composed of austerity, self-study and surrender to god. 2. The practice of kriya-yoga reduces misery, and leads towards samadhi.
3. MISERIES ARE CAUSED BY: LACK OF AWARENESS, EGOISM, ATTRACTIONS, REPULSIONS, CLINGING TO LIFE AND FEAR OF DEATH. 4. WHETHER THEY BE IN THE STATES OF DORMANCY, ATTENUATION, ALTERATION OR EXPANSION, IT IS THROUGH LACK OF AWARENESS THAT THE OTHER CAUSES OF MISERY ARE ABLE TO OPERATE. What is the trouble with man? The trouble is that he thinks that for enjoyment certain conditions have to be fulfilled first; this is the trouble. To enjoy life in fact no conditions are to be fulfilled; it is an unconditional invitation. But man thinks that certain conditions have to be fulfilled first; only then can he en. joy life. This is the complex mind. The simple mind feels that one has to enjoy whatsoever is available. Enjoy it! No conditions are to be fulfilled. And the more you enjoy this moment, the more capable you become of enjoying the next. The capacity…