the experience of bliss is not something arduous it is not something upstream on the contrary it is a question of relaxing, resting it is not something to be achieved and cultivated so those who want to be with the crowd it is already there, it has only to be tasted hence the only thing that is preventing people from being blissful is a courageous heart
people are being very cowardly they are being taught to be cowardly their whole pattern of life is underlined with a current of fear this is our politics, religion, culture, society it depends on fear and exploitation of fear hence the moment somebody decides to be blissful nobody can prevent him no force, no power can prevent him just a little courage courage to risk, courage to be alone courage to go against the crowd, the mob courage not to follow and imitate the fools
they are all miserable and they would like you also to be just like them and they will create every kind of hindrance if you start being different the crowd never likes anybody who is different from it he looks like a foreigner, he is suspicious, suspected he cannot be trusted -- he is not one of us that is the logic of the crowd
so those who want to be with the crowd can never be blissful then their destiny is closed they will live in misery and die in misery it is our decision, it is our life it is nobody else's business and one should not lose one's life just for the sheer sake of conformity convention, respectability
once you are ready to drop all that nonsense the dawn has come suddenly the light bursts forth and life becomes a beautiful dance there is only one religion and that is the religion of bliss the moment you are blissful you are religious if you are not blissful you are irreligious that is my definition simple but of immense implications
you need not be a christian or a hindu or a mohammedan to be religious the whole earth is full of these people and there is no religious quality anywhere all these religions have been quarrelling fighting, killing each other in the name of god in the name of love in the name of peace this is such a ridiculous situation that it seems unbelievable that for thousands of years we have lived with this situation and we have not yet been able to change it it is so illogical, irrational, so absurd my message is very simple
just be blissful and don't bother about dogmas, creeds whether there is a god or not whether there is an after-life or not these are all irrelevant questions what matters is: right now are you blissful or not? if you are blissful then everything that is true is going to happen to you there is no need to search for it it will come of its own accord
if you are miserable you can go on gathering knowledge esoteric, occult and all kinds of bullshit but it is of no use you remain miserable all the same you talk about chakras and kundalini and the rising energy and the planes and all the kinds of rubbish people go on talking about these are just diversions somehow they are trying to distract themselves from their misery
i am against all occultism all so-called hidden esoteric secrets i teach the open secret be blissful that is the only true religion and the person who is blissful cannot harm anybody the blissful person is a benediction to the whole existence bliss is our very nature, it is our eternal law in fact we cannot lose it at the most we can only forget about it so the only question is to remember nothing has to be achieved but only remembered ... a forgotten language
each child is born in deep bliss and then we start teaching him the language of misery
and we burden him with so many things that slowly slowly his natural, spontaneous being is covered with thousands of layers he forgets all about it he forgets about himself
the function of the master is to remind you that you may have forgotten it, but it is still there just a little digging is needed
just as there are vicious circles there are blissful circles too in a vicious circle one wrong leads to another wrong in a blissful circle one bliss leads to another bliss it is only a question of choosing the right circle for your life
people are living in vicious circles for example, if somebody finds it difficult to fall asleep he tries hard to go into sleep he tosses, turns, repeats mantras counts sheep, from one to hundred and then backwards but whatsoever he is doing will create more sleeplessness because sleep is not something that you can bring about by effort now he is getting into a vicious circle
the more he endeavours to bring about sleep the more he will feel himself awake the more he feels himself awake the more he will try new methods transcendental meditation, etcetera to fall asleep and this can go on ad nauseum
in the morning he will be far more tired than if he had simply accepted the fact that sleep is not there so it is not there and rested there was every possibility he may have fallen asleep because he would not have created the vicious circle
the same is true about bliss, about everything just a small beginning and then it triggers bigger phenomena
my own observation is that if you can be blissful about a single thing in your life that's enough and it will lead you into new dimensions, new peaks so whatsoever you love, whatsoever you like do it, enjoy it, enjoy it totally don't think about whether it is something great or not it doesn't matter
what really matters is your enjoyment if you can enjoy anything totally you are creating a circle of bliss it will lead to new points, new departures higher peaks and soon you will be surprised that a small beginning has brought you to the ultimate hence start with the immediate, whatsoever it is just sipping a cup of tea is enough if you can enjoy it totally it will lead you to the ultimate samadhi
there are not small things and big things in life only intelligent people and unintelligent people the intelligent person transforms everything into bliss and the unintelligent transforms everything into misery
blissfulness has never been thought of as a virtue although it is the fundamental virtue they have been talking about character truthfulness, sincerity humbleness, compassion service, non-violence and a thousand and one things as virtues but a very strange fact is they all drop one thing consistently blissfulness no religion counts it as a virtue because these so-called religions cannot allow people to be blissful they want you to be miserable and all their virtues create more misery in you than before
it is very obvious you can find ordinary people more joyous than your so-called religious people you will find sinners more innocent than your saints for the simple reason that the saint has been cultivating virtues he has cultivated a thick facade around himself like an iron wall, he lives behind it he is imprisoned in his own ideas he is a prisoner of his own stupidity
i don't teach any other virtue because to me the fundamental virtue is bliss everything else is just an aspect of it if one is blissful i cannot conceive that he can be untruthful that is impossible it is not in the very nature of things if one is blissful he cannot harm he cannot hurt if one is blissful he is bound to be compassionate inevitably
so to me all the virtues are by-products of blissfulness and blissfulness is the only virtue which is not a by-product of anything else
there are two kinds of discipline one that is imposed from the outside i am against it, it creates slaves and we have enough of slaves in the world we need a few free spirits to bring a little new breeze into existence to bring a few new insights new splendours, new dimensions
i teach the second kind of discipline which arises out of your own understanding
the first discipline has a set structure the second discipline is liquid it changes moment-to-moment because life changes how can you have ready-made answers to situations which are constantly changing? at this moment one thing may be true the next moment it may not be true at all in one situation it may be right in another situation the same thing may be wrong hence i say, be alert, be aware
be blissful and act out of your blissfulness awareness, alertness, meditativeness rather than acting out of fixed principles act out of spontaneity, naturally respond to the situation and then whatsoever you do is right and of course it is right not because it is written in some scripture it is right because it fits to the situation it is right because it is the adequate response and every adequate response gives tremendous contentment
whenever you can act in a totally alive way you will feel immense fulfilment following it and that is bliss
pleasure is momentary happiness is a little more than momentary but not much the difference is only of degrees it lasts a little longer than pleasure but sooner or later it ends bliss is eternal; it begins but it never ends to know bliss is to know the ultimate fabric of existence and that is our longest desire that is our search -- knowingly, unknowingly everybody is searching for it
unless we have found the eternal we will be homeless only the eternal can suffice less than that won't do so pleasures one can have but soon one becomes fed up, tired, bored they become repetitive happiness one can have but how long can one go on playing with toys? beautiful, but toys are toys one needs something more substantial more nourishing -- and that's what bliss is
and the miracle is that it is already within you you have not to go anywhere to find it in fact just the opposite has to be done you have to pull yourself from everywhere so for few moments at least you can be within yourself that's what i call meditation withdrawing yourself from the whole world for a few moments, just to rest and relax in the very pool of your consciousness
once you have started tasting the joy of that rest you are coming closer to home, to the eternal
life can either be a tale told by an idiot or it can be a tale told by a buddha it all depends on you if you remain asleep, unconscious your life will be just accidental like driftwood at the mercy of the winds and the waves meaningless drifting towards death, becoming every day more and more gloomy and dark but if you become a little alert and awakened the quality of life immediately changes then it is no more accidental it starts having a subtle meaning to it
that meaning is bliss and then life starts turning into a beautiful story a parable of immense dimensions then a single man's life contains all the scriptures of the world then one can read the whole story of existence within one's own heartbeat but for that, one condition has to be fulfilled one has to become a little more awake a little more conscious
blissfulness grows in the same proportion as consciousness it is always symmetrical to consciousness if one is miserable that shows he is unconscious if one is blissful that shows he is conscious if one is absolutely blissful that shows one has arrived the only thing that can be called divine is blissfulness the only thing that proves the existence of godliness is blissfulness no other argument can prove it
there have been many arguments for the existence of the divine but they can all be refuted, they have been refuted man has not been able to find a single argument which is irrefutable but there have been a few people in the world
the very salt of the earth whose existence cannot be refuted whose presence cannot be refuted, whose presence leaves such an impact of blissfulness that even if you want to deny it you cannot deny it in spite of yourself you have to accept
and that something more is what we are trying to impart here that something more, that quality, xyz i call it blissfulness -- it can only be imparted
hence the beauty of the love affair between a master and a disciple it is simply a love affair it is the coming together of two hearts in deep trust, in communion so close, so open and vulnerable that the flame from one heart can jump into the other heart and suddenly the unlit lamp is lit and the miracle has happened it happens suddenly it is not a gradual process at all pleasure needs two persons happiness also needs duality bliss does not need two persons or duality one is enough alone
it happens in one's deepest aloneness hence it is called
the Sound of one hand Clapping
in pleasure you will need a partner if you enjoy food you will need food if you enjoy music then music is needed you have to depend on something and any dependence hurts and any dependence becomes a bondage and one cannot forgive the person to whom one becomes dependent that's why lovers quarrel the basic cause of quarrel is that they feel they are encaged by each other that they cannot be happy without each other that hurts, that hurts very much that i have become dependent, addicted it is like drug addiction one feels the slavery and how can one be blissful in slavery we have to search and seek within ourselves a space where bliss happens but independently it needs nothing else for it to happen it happens as our own innermost source that's why bliss brings with it freedom, truth, and a sense of immense grandeur, splendour one never gets fed up with bliss and the blissful person becomes capable of living with other people also blissfully because now he is no longer dependent on anything he can enjoy pleasures, he can enjoy happinesses because he knows that he has reached to a state which is always available to him where he can always go leaving the whole world behind he has entered into that inner circle of his being where nobody can interfere where no bondage exists where there is only pure music and poetry and dance and celebration
anahato is one of the most beautiful names it is very significant only those who have known that state are the buddhas so try to hear
the Sound of one hand Clapping
it is there; one just has to become a little silent and it is heard once heard, it is forever yours
Osho's Commentary
it is not something upstream
on the contrary it is a question of relaxing, resting
it is not something to be achieved and cultivated
so those who want to be with the crowd
it is already there, it has only to be tasted
hence the only thing
that is preventing people from being blissful
is a courageous heart
people are being very cowardly
they are being taught to be cowardly
their whole pattern of life
is underlined with a current of fear
this is our politics, religion, culture, society
it depends on fear and exploitation of fear
hence the moment somebody decides to be blissful
nobody can prevent him
no force, no power can prevent him
just a little courage
courage to risk, courage to be alone
courage to go against the crowd, the mob
courage not to follow and imitate the fools
they are all miserable
and they would like you also to be just like them
and they will create every kind of hindrance
if you start being different
the crowd never likes anybody
who is different from it
he looks like a foreigner, he is suspicious, suspected
he cannot be trusted -- he is not one of us
that is the logic of the crowd
so those who want to be with the crowd
can never be blissful
then their destiny is closed
they will live in misery and die in misery
it is our decision, it is our life
it is nobody else's business
and one should not lose one's life
just for the sheer sake of conformity
convention, respectability
once you are ready to drop all that nonsense
the dawn has come
suddenly the light bursts forth
and life becomes a beautiful dance
there is only one religion
and that is the religion of bliss
the moment you are blissful you are religious
if you are not blissful you are irreligious
that is my definition
simple but of immense implications
you need not be a christian or a hindu
or a mohammedan to be religious
the whole earth is full of these people
and there is no religious quality anywhere
all these religions have been quarrelling
fighting, killing each other
in the name of god
in the name of love
in the name of peace
this is such a ridiculous situation
that it seems unbelievable
that for thousands of years
we have lived with this situation
and we have not yet been able to change it
it is so illogical, irrational, so absurd
my message is very simple
just be blissful
and don't bother about dogmas, creeds
whether there is a god or not
whether there is an after-life or not
these are all irrelevant questions
what matters is: right now are you blissful or not?
if you are blissful then everything that is true
is going to happen to you
there is no need to search for it
it will come of its own accord
if you are miserable
you can go on gathering knowledge
esoteric, occult and all kinds of bullshit
but it is of no use
you remain miserable all the same
you talk about chakras and kundalini
and the rising energy and the planes
and all the kinds of rubbish
people go on talking about
these are just diversions
somehow they are trying to distract themselves
from their misery
i am against all occultism
all so-called hidden esoteric secrets
i teach the open secret be blissful
that is the only true religion
and the person who is blissful cannot harm anybody
the blissful person is a benediction
to the whole existence
bliss is our very nature, it is our eternal law
in fact we cannot lose it
at the most we can only forget about it
so the only question is to remember
nothing has to be achieved but only remembered
... a forgotten language
each child is born in deep bliss
and then we start teaching him
the language of misery
and we burden him with so many things
that slowly slowly his natural, spontaneous being
is covered with thousands of layers
he forgets all about it
he forgets about himself
the function of the master is to remind you
that you may have forgotten it, but it is still there
just a little digging is needed
just as there are vicious circles
there are blissful circles too
in a vicious circle one wrong leads to another wrong
in a blissful circle one bliss leads to another bliss
it is only a question of choosing
the right circle for your life
people are living in vicious circles
for example, if somebody finds it difficult
to fall asleep
he tries hard to go into sleep
he tosses, turns, repeats mantras
counts sheep, from one to hundred
and then backwards
but whatsoever he is doing
will create more sleeplessness
because sleep is not something that you can bring
about by effort
now he is getting into a vicious circle
the more he endeavours to bring about sleep
the more he will feel himself awake
the more he feels himself awake
the more he will try new methods
transcendental meditation, etcetera
to fall asleep
and this can go on ad nauseum
in the morning he will be far more tired
than if he had simply accepted the fact
that sleep is not there
so it is not there and rested
there was every possibility
he may have fallen asleep
because he would not have created
the vicious circle
the same is true about bliss, about everything
just a small beginning
and then it triggers bigger phenomena
my own observation is that if you can be blissful
about a single thing in your life
that's enough
and it will lead you into new dimensions, new peaks
so whatsoever you love, whatsoever you like
do it, enjoy it, enjoy it totally
don't think about whether it is
something great or not
it doesn't matter
what really matters is your enjoyment
if you can enjoy anything totally
you are creating a circle of bliss
it will lead to new points, new departures
higher peaks
and soon you will be surprised
that a small beginning
has brought you to the ultimate
hence start with the immediate, whatsoever it is
just sipping a cup of tea is enough
if you can enjoy it totally
it will lead you to the ultimate samadhi
there are not small things and big things in life
only intelligent people and unintelligent people
the intelligent person
transforms everything into bliss
and the unintelligent
transforms everything into misery
blissfulness has never been thought of as a virtue
although it is the fundamental virtue
they have been talking about character
truthfulness, sincerity
humbleness, compassion
service, non-violence
and a thousand and one things as virtues
but a very strange fact is
they all drop one thing consistently
blissfulness
no religion counts it as a virtue
because these so-called religions
cannot allow people to be blissful
they want you to be miserable
and all their virtues
create more misery in you than before
it is very obvious
you can find ordinary people more joyous
than your so-called religious people
you will find sinners more innocent than your saints
for the simple reason that
the saint has been cultivating virtues
he has cultivated a thick facade around himself
like an iron wall, he lives behind it
he is imprisoned in his own ideas
he is a prisoner of his own stupidity
i don't teach any other virtue
because to me the fundamental virtue is bliss
everything else is just an aspect of it
if one is blissful
i cannot conceive that he can be untruthful
that is impossible
it is not in the very nature of things
if one is blissful he cannot harm he cannot hurt
if one is blissful he is bound to be compassionate
inevitably
so to me all the virtues
are by-products of blissfulness
and blissfulness is the only virtue
which is not a by-product of anything else
there are two kinds of discipline
one that is imposed from the outside
i am against it, it creates slaves
and we have enough of slaves in the world
we need a few free spirits to bring a little new breeze
into existence
to bring a few new insights
new splendours, new dimensions
i teach the second kind of discipline
which arises out of your own understanding
the first discipline has a set structure
the second discipline is liquid
it changes moment-to-moment
because life changes
how can you have ready-made answers
to situations which are constantly changing?
at this moment one thing may be true
the next moment it may not be true at all
in one situation it may be right
in another situation the same thing may be wrong
hence i say, be alert, be aware
be blissful and act out of your blissfulness
awareness, alertness, meditativeness
rather than acting out of fixed principles
act out of spontaneity, naturally
respond to the situation
and then whatsoever you do is right
and of course it is right not because
it is written in some scripture
it is right because it fits to the situation
it is right because it is the adequate response
and every adequate response
gives tremendous contentment
whenever you can act in a totally alive way
you will feel immense fulfilment following it
and that is bliss
pleasure is momentary
happiness is a little more than momentary
but not much
the difference is only of degrees
it lasts a little longer than pleasure
but sooner or later it ends
bliss is eternal; it begins but it never ends
to know bliss is to know
the ultimate fabric of existence
and that is our longest desire
that is our search -- knowingly, unknowingly
everybody is searching for it
unless we have found the eternal
we will be homeless
only the eternal can suffice
less than that won't do
so pleasures one can have but soon
one becomes fed up, tired, bored
they become repetitive
happiness one can have
but how long can one go on playing with toys?
beautiful, but toys are toys
one needs something more substantial
more nourishing -- and that's what bliss is
and the miracle is that it is already within you
you have not to go anywhere to find it
in fact just the opposite has to be done
you have to pull yourself from everywhere
so for few moments at least
you can be within yourself
that's what i call meditation
withdrawing yourself from the whole world
for a few moments, just to rest and relax
in the very pool of your consciousness
once you have started tasting the joy of that rest
you are coming closer to home, to the eternal
life can either be a tale told by an idiot
or it can be a tale told by a buddha
it all depends on you
if you remain asleep, unconscious
your life will be just accidental
like driftwood
at the mercy of the winds and the waves
meaningless
drifting towards death, becoming every day
more and more gloomy and dark
but if you become a little alert and awakened
the quality of life immediately changes
then it is no more accidental
it starts having a subtle meaning to it
that meaning is bliss and then
life starts turning into a beautiful story
a parable of immense dimensions
then a single man's life contains
all the scriptures of the world
then one can read the whole story of existence
within one's own heartbeat
but for that, one condition has to be fulfilled
one has to become a little more awake
a little more conscious
blissfulness grows
in the same proportion as consciousness
it is always symmetrical to consciousness
if one is miserable that shows he is unconscious
if one is blissful that shows he is conscious
if one is absolutely blissful
that shows one has arrived
the only thing that can be called divine
is blissfulness
the only thing that proves
the existence of godliness is blissfulness
no other argument can prove it
there have been many arguments
for the existence of the divine but
they can all be refuted, they have been refuted
man has not been able to find
a single argument which is irrefutable
but there have been a few people in the world
the very salt of the earth
whose existence cannot be refuted
whose presence cannot be refuted, whose presence
leaves such an impact of blissfulness
that even if you want to deny it
you cannot deny it
in spite of yourself you have to accept
and that something more
is what we are trying to impart here
that something more, that quality, xyz
i call it blissfulness -- it can only be imparted
hence the beauty of the love affair
between a master and a disciple
it is simply a love affair
it is the coming together of two hearts
in deep trust, in communion
so close, so open and vulnerable that
the flame from one heart
can jump into the other heart
and suddenly the unlit lamp is lit
and the miracle has happened
it happens suddenly
it is not a gradual process at all
pleasure needs two persons
happiness also needs duality
bliss does not need two persons or duality
one is enough alone
it happens in one's deepest aloneness
hence it is called
the Sound
of one hand
Clapping
in pleasure you will need a partner
if you enjoy food you will need food
if you enjoy music then music is needed
you have to depend on something
and any dependence hurts
and any dependence becomes a bondage
and one cannot forgive the person
to whom one becomes dependent
that's why lovers quarrel
the basic cause of quarrel is that
they feel they are encaged by each other
that they cannot be happy without each other
that hurts, that hurts very much that
i have become dependent, addicted
it is like drug addiction
one feels the slavery
and how can one be blissful in slavery
we have to search and seek within ourselves
a space where bliss happens but independently
it needs nothing else for it to happen
it happens as our own innermost source
that's why bliss brings with it
freedom, truth, and a sense
of immense grandeur, splendour
one never gets fed up with bliss
and the blissful person becomes capable
of living with other people also blissfully
because now he is no longer dependent on anything
he can enjoy pleasures, he can enjoy happinesses
because he knows that he has reached
to a state which is always available to him
where he can always go
leaving the whole world behind
he has entered
into that inner circle of his being
where nobody can interfere
where no bondage exists
where there is only pure music and poetry
and dance and celebration
anahato is one of the most beautiful names
it is very significant
only those who have known that state
are the buddhas
so try to hear
the Sound
of one hand
Clapping
it is there; one just has to become a little silent
and it is heard
once heard, it is forever yours