Osho: Pleasure & Bliss

 

What is the difference between bliss and pleasure?

		Pleasure is physical, physiological.  Pleasure is the most superficial thing in life; it is titillation. It can be of the senses, it can become an obsession with food, but it is rooted in the body. The body is your periphery, your circumference; it is not your center. And to live on the circumference is to live on the mercy of all kinds of things that go on happening around you. The man who seeks pleasure remains at the mercy of accidents. It is like the waves in the ocean; they are at the mercy of the winds. When strong winds come, they are there; when winds disappear, they disappear. They don't have an independent existence; they are dependent, and anything that is dependent on the other brings bondage. Pleasure is dependent on the other. Then you have created a bondage for yourself. You have created a prison, you are no more in freedom. The more you demand, desire, the more you feel yourself lacking something, the more hollow, empty, you appear to yourself. It makes you a slave.  Pleasure is peripheral; hence it is bound to depend on the outer circumstances. And it is only titillation. The mind is always hankering for something new. That's how mind keeps you always tethered somewhere in the future. It keeps you hoping, but it never delivers the goods -- it cannot. It can only create new hopes, new desires. Just as leaves grow on the trees, desires and hopes grow in the mind. Once you have achieved your goal, your mind is no longer interested in it; it has already started spinning new webs of desire.  Pleasure keeps you in a neurotic state, restless, always in turmoil. So many desires, and every desire unquenchable, clamoring for attention. You remain a victim of a crowd of insane desires -- insane because they are unfulfillable -- and they go on dragging you into different directions. You become a contradiction. You feel a split, divided, torn apart, falling into pieces. Nobody is responsible. It is the whole stupidity of desiring pleasure that creates this.  A life which might have been a celebration becomes a long, drawn out, unnecessary struggle. Happiness is psychological and pleasure is physiological. Happiness is little more refined. You can say that pleasure is a lower kind of happiness and happiness is a little higher kind of pleasure -- two sides of the same coin. Pleasure is a little primitive, animal; happiness is a little more cultured, a little more human -- but it is the same game played in the world of the mind. You are not so much concerned with physiological sensations; you are much more concerned with psychological sensations. The third is joy and joy is spiritual. It is different, totally different from pleasure and happiness. It has nothing to do with the other; it is inner. It is not dependent on circumstances; it is your own. It is not a titillation produced by things; it is a state of peace, of silence, a meditative state. It is spiritual. There is still one thing that goes beyond joy, it is called bliss.  Bliss is total. It is neither physiological, nor psychological, nor spiritual. It knows no division, it is indivisible. It is total in one sense and transcendental in another sense. Bliss means you have reached to the very innermost core of your being. It belongs to the ultimate depth of your being where even the ego is no more, where only silence prevails; you have disappeared. In joy you are a little bit, but in bliss you are not. The ego has dissolved; it is a state of nonbeing. Buddha calls it nirvana. Nirvana means you are just an infinite emptiness like the sky. And the moment you are that infinity, you are reborn. Pleasure is momentary, of time, for the time being; bliss is non-temporal, timeless. Pleasure begins and ends; bliss abides forever. Pleasure comes and goes; bliss never comes, never goes -- it is already there in the innermost core of your being. Pleasure has to be snatched away from the other; you become either a beggar or a thief. Bliss makes you a master. This is the only misery of man: that he goes on looking outwards, seeking and searching. And you cannot find it in the outside because it is not there.
		..... By Osho - Excerpted from Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha Courtesy: Mrs. Sangeeta Hegde

Just Let Go!

It is said that, in Africa and in India, the natives use a technique to catch monkeys....

They hollow out one end of a coconut keeping a small opening at the top and put peanuts in there. When a monkey gets aroma of the peanuts, it immediately puts its hand in the coconut and grabs the peanuts in its fist.

Then the monkey tries to pull out its closed fist containing the peanuts, however, the closed fist gets trapped in the small opening of the coconut. The monkey does not want to open its fist or leave the peanuts, so it keeps trying to pull out the closed fist. It can not even run away with the coconut, as it is quite heavy ....And while this struggle is going on, the natives pull a string attached to the other end of the coconut and capture the monkey.

 

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, the truth is that the monkey was never trapped. All it had to do was open its fist and let go of the peanuts. But, greed is the nature of mind.

Mind is always greedy and wants to accumulate more and more. It may be food or money, it may be power or knowledge, whatsoever it is, mind means greed.

Clinging to the greed brings Bondage & Misery, ‘Let Go’ brings Liberation & Freedom !

Live a Blissful Day Friends !

De-Hypnotise yourself

There was once a rich magician who had many sheep. He did not want to hire shepherds, nor did he want to erect a fence about the pasture where his sheep were grazing, as he was a miser and mean. Consequently, the sheep very often wandered into the forest, fell into ravines, and above all, they used to run away, because they knew that the magician wanted their flesh and skins. The sheep used to be scared of all this.
                      

The magician had thus lost many of his sheep. Finally he had an idea, “Why don’t I use my expertise in the magic?” So, he hypnotized his sheep and suggested to them first of all that they were immortal, and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned .... on the contrary, it would be very good for them and even pleasant.
                              

Secondly, he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them. Further, the magician suggested to his sheep that they were not sheep at all. To some of them he suggested that they were lions, to some that they were eagles, to others that they were elephants.
                     

After this, all his worries about the sheep came to an end. They never ran away. No sheep went missing. From that day no sheep was behaving like a sheep. Some started roaring like a lion, some started behaving like a tiger, and some other like elephants. No sheep was afraid of being butchered …. the very question of getting killed became irrelevant to them. Thus, the magician kept butchering them every day for his food. They may have been roaring like lions, that did not matter … Thus the magician remained in absolute control.

 Moral of the Story …

Friends, this tale is a perfect  illustration of our position today.

We have been hypnotized and conditioned to remain in misery. The trick is very subtle. We have been told that happiness exists only in the future, but in reality happiness exists here-now. We all bring it with us .... Happiness is a part of our innermost core.
              

We have been conditioned that unless we have a big house, a car, much fame, a fat bank balance and successful career, etc., we will not be able to be happy. In fact Friends, happiness does not depend on any external factors, because each one of us is born happy.

Our conditioning goes on creating ambitions and ambitions never keep us happy, they create only misery. Once the mind becomes ambitious the seeds of misery are planted deeply in us. The hope keeps hanging in the tomorrow ...the tomorrow which never comes. This whole exploitation is possible because most of us almost live in sleep.
                                     

Friends, only a miserable man can be exploited, who thus becomes more miserable and the more miserable man can be exploited even more .... It is a vicious circle... Therefore, one needs to remember that, only a happy person is rebellious....Nobody can exploit such a person!

Live a Meaningful Day Friends !

Managing Ego

Once there lived a very venomous snake in a hole in a garden. Young boys who frequented the garden to play were virtually scared of the snake and were extremely cautious while playing in the garden.

One day the boys informed about the snake to a sadhu who was passing by. The sadhu went near the hole where the snake lived. The snake as usual tried to harm the sadhu. The sadhu with his powers, quelled the wrath of the snake and advised the snake to take up the path of rightful living. The snake also lived by the words of the sadhu and gave up its ego and anger.

The boys realised that the snake no longer was violent and recognised its calm disposition. A little boy even became bold to stone the snake, who calmly receded to its hole. One day, one of the boys caught the snake by its tail, whirled it aroung and dashed it to the ground. The snake was badly hurt, but quietly bore the assault and slithered into its hole. It avoided to come out of its hole during day time. It became customary for it to hunt for its food at night. The snake hence became weak and frail.
One day the sadhu was passing by and paid a visit to the snake. On seeing the hapless condition of the snake, he enquired about the cause. The snake who had become calmness personified, with great difficulty described the harm that the boys caused to it.

The sadhu said, “You are a fool to ignore your body, the temple of God! Don't you respect yourself? You should have ignored your body at any cost!”

The sage further advised, “I only asked you not to harm anybody. However, I never asked you to allow others to harm you. There should be no problem to scare the others who harm you. I only asked you not to bite, but never asked you not to hiss! One should remain cool within while on the surface it should appear that one is angry. The knowledge of one's true self brings about this calmness within!"

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, the ego may be put to use in different ways, so that one does not become a door mat. At the same time. one has to be more alert so that, one is not used by the ego.

Live a Meaningfull Day Friends !!

Mind Trap

It seems, once the gods were so pleased with a poor man’s prayers and devotion that, they gave him a magic conch shell that would fulfil any wish expressed by him. Even if the man asks for a palace, immediately a palace would appear for him. If he asks for food, there would be a great feast laid out before him. The poor man was very happy, as he started enjoying all the good things in life.

One day a priest who was passing through the town halted at this man’s palace for a night’s rest. He had heard about the magic shell and wanted to possess it. He too had a conch shell which he called “Maha-shankha”, the great conch shell. So, the priest told his host, ”Your shell is nothing compared to mine. I too practiced many austerities and the gods favored me with this Maha-shankha. You ask for a thing and it gives you two.”

Now as is human nature, the man’s greed was awakened. He said, ”Show me the magic of your conch shell.”

The shrewd priest took out the Maha-shankha and placing it before him said, ”I want a palace.” The conch said, ”Why one? I shall give you two?”

The host was impressed. He immediately gave his conch shell to the priest and took his Maha-shankha in return. The priest took the magic shell and soon left.

The man asked the conch, “I want Rs. one lac.” The shell said,”Why only one lac, I will give you 2 Lacs.” The man said, “O.K. Give me 2 Lacs.” The shell said, “Why 2 Lacs, I will give you 4 Lacs....” And this went on. The conch only promised, but never delivered anything. All it could do was talking without any results.

The poor man frantically searched for the priest, but he had already disappeared into thin air along with the magic conch....

Moral of the Story ....

Friends, our mind is just like the “Maha-shankha”. Whatever God gives us, our mind says, ”Why only this much, why not more?”

The mind is only a babble of words. It is all lies. It can produce nothing. But we let go of God and cling to the mind. For the mind talks in a duplicity that sets fire to our greed. Just think friends, has our mind ever given us anything? Have we ever attained anything through the mind? One need not fall a victim to one’s mind trap.

The mind can give neither knowledge nor existence, it can only give promises, untruth. Thus, one who listens to the mind falls into falsity.

Love the pricks in your life!

Fable of the porcupine

It was the coldest winter ever. - Many animals died because of the cold. 

 

The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together. 

This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded
their closest companions even though they gave off heat to each other. 

 

After a while, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they
began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept
the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they
decided to go back to being together. This way they learned to live with the
little wounds that were caused by the close relationship with their
companion, but the most important part of it, was the heat that came from
the others. This way they were able to survive.

The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people,
but the best is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections
of others and can admire the other person's good qualities
 

The Moral of the story..........LEARN TO LOVE THE PRICKS IN YOUR LIFE

OSHO on FRUSTRATION~Beautiful!

                                      

”Frustration is there because of your expectations. 

Expect, and there will be frustration. 

Don't expect, and there will be no frustration. 

Frustration is a by product: the more you expect, the more you create your own frustration. 

So frustration is not really the problem, it is the result. 

Expectation is the problem. 

Frustration is just a shadow which follows expectation. If you don't expect even for a single moment, if you are in a state of mind where there is no expectation, then it is simple. 

You ask a question and the answer comes; there is a fulfilment. 

But if you ask with any expectations you will be frustrated by the answer.

Everything we do, we do with expectations. If I love someone, an expectation enters without my even knowing it. I begin to expect love in return. I have not yet loved, I have not grown into love yet, but the expectation has come and now it will destroy the whole thing. 

Love creates more frustration than anything else in the world because, with love, you are in a utopia of expectation. You have not even been on the journey yet and already you have begun to think of the return home.

The same law applies to everything. 

There is so much frustration in the world that it is difficult to find someone who is not frustrated. 

It is very difficult to find a person who is not frustrated. 

And It makes no difference what the object, the cause, the source of frustration may be. 

One can be frustrated because of power, because of prestige, because of wealth. One can be frustrated because of love. One can even be frustrated because of God.  

Even in the search for the divine we have expectations. 

Expectation is the poison. 

That's why there is frustration; it has to be so. Realize the falsity, the poison in the expecting mind. If you can become aware of it, the expectations will drop and there will be no frustration. The world is frustrated -- that is a fact. But you go and try to find out why you are frustrated. You will find that it is because of your expectations. 

That is the seed, the root cause. 

Throw it out! 

Don't think about the world, think about yourself. You are the world and if you begin to be different the world begins to be different. A part of it, an intrinsic part, has begun to be different: the world has begun to change. We are always concerned with changing the world. That is just an escape. 

I have always felt that people who are concerned with others' changing are really escaping from their own frustrations, their own conflicts, their own anxieties, their own anguish. 

They are focusing their minds on something else, they are occupying their minds with something else, because they cannot change themselves. 

It is easier to try to change the world than to change oneself.... :)

...Remember to find out the cause of your own frustrations. And the sooner you do so, the better. 

Situations differ, but the source of frustration is always the same .... your expectations....”

                                          

                                                  

(sent by Mrs. Sangeeta Hegde).