Will this feeling of happiness last?

For the last ten days I have felt tremendously happy -- as I never did before. Just being myself and accepting me as I am feels great. Sometimes this incredibly good feeling is disturbed by two thoughts. First, will this stay that way? Can I keep this feeling in the future? And second, why did I have to become so old before I reached this point? I cannot forget and still I feel sorry for all those years that I did not live at all. Please explain how to get rid of these disturbances of my happiness.

I would like to tell you one of the most beautiful parables that has been written down the centuries. Parables have almost disappeared from the world because those beautiful people -- Jesus, Buddha, who created many parables -- have disappeared. A parable is not an ordinary story, a parable is a device -- a device to say something which cannot ordinarily be said, a device to hint at something which can be hinted at only very indirectly. This parable is written in this age; a very rare man, Franz Kafka, has written it. He was really a rare man. He struggled hard not to write because, he said, what he wanted to write could not be written. So he struggled hard but he could not control the temptation to write, so he wrote. And he wrote in one of his diaries,'I am writing because it is difficult not to write,…

Osho, in your satsang I am experiencing great joy and life appears to be a celebration. But isn’t the joy of this fleeting life also fleeting?

Naked in each other’s arms! At first they were delighted and rushed to embrace. But when ropes tied them to the post, how long does pleasure remain pleasure? Within a few minutes they began to panic: How to separate now? How to be apart? How to get free? But they remained bound. A few hours passed, and then another disturbance began. Evacuation of excreta and urine happened; filth spread. Each other’s mouths began to stink; sweat; such distress. And they had to remain bound for twenty-four hours. As soon as they were released, the story says, they ran away from each other so fast they never saw each other again. The young man even left the village. This proved a wondrous—yet very psychological—way to end love. You see in the West love is being uprooted, breaking. Why? There is no longer any obstacle between man and woman; therefore love is…

Osho, in intense moments of repentance at the feet of the Buddha, the golden fish remembered its past lives. In moments of grace, too, does one remember past lives? Please tell us.

It may be that happiness remains for years; it needn’t be momentary. You fall in love; the love can last for years, and you can be happy through it for years. Yet the statement remains true that happiness is momentary—the years will feel as if they passed like a moment. You’ve seen it in Hindi films: the dates on a calendar fly off in the wind! Just so, in happiness the dates fly by. Happiness is like a Hindi film. Days pass, months pass, years pass—but so swiftly! By its very nature happiness shortens time. Then bliss is another matter altogether; bliss means ultimate happiness. Happiness means: pain has left, but it stands waiting just around the corner, watching for when you are done with happiness so it can return. It never goes very far. Pain, during happiness, doesn’t go far; it stands at the door, saying, “All right, enjoy…

Osho, in your presence there is a taste of the depth of meditation, but that state does not remain permanent. Please guide us toward making it permanent!

If delay is your way, no harm; we will cultivate the habit of patience—what else! If you tarry, fine. However long you can delay, we will learn to wait longer still. We too will cultivate the habit of acceptance— Your aloofness may be your habit; so be it. Do not fall into haste. Haste breeds tension. It is haste that makes the mind restless. Walk with patience. Infinite time is available. There is no hurry anywhere. Time’s stream is endless—no near shore, no far shore; no beginning, no end. In this eternal, you are worrying needlessly. Why all this running about? Your running will not make anything come sooner. There is no need to hurry. Look at the trees—how languid they are. Look at the moon and stars—how silently they move. Do you see any hurry in existence to reach somewhere? Existence is so calm, as if it has already…

Why am I still not happy?

Start losing yourself. You must be too much after it, you must be continuously thinking about it, you must be planning how to attain to it -- then it is never going to happen. If you are too much after happiness, all that happens is hell. If you forget about it, it is a very natural phenomenon. The self-consciousness does not allow it, it makes you very narrow. When the self disappears, when self-consciousness disappears, you are vast like the sky. Suddenly it pours into you. So the art of being happy is the art of forgetfulness. And when I'm saying this, remember: now don't start planning about it how to forget, how not to think about happiness -- otherwise you are again in the same trap. It is not a question of 'how', you simply do it. And it is not a question of tomorrow, you do it right…