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Osho - Sleepy person knows only a few
sensations of the body food, sex
Question - Beloved
Master, What is Happiness?
Osho - Jayananda, it
depends. It depends on you, on your state of consciousness or
unconsciousness, whether you are asleep or awake. There is one famous
maxim of Murphy. He says there are two types of people: One, who always
divide humanity in two types, and the other, who don't divide humanity
at all. I belong to the first type.... Humanity can be divided in two
types: the sleeping ones and the awakened ones -- and, of course, a
small part in between.
Happiness will depend on where you are in your consciousness. If you are
asleep, then pleasure is happiness. Pleasure means sensation, trying to
achieve something through the body which is not possible to achieve
through the body, forcing the body to achieve something it is not
capable of. People are trying, in every possible way, to achieve
happiness through the body.
The body can give you only momentary pleasures, and
each pleasure is balanced by pain in the same amount, in the same
degree. Each pleasure is followed by its opposite because body exists in
the world of duality, just as the day is followed by night and death is
followed by life and life is followed by death. It is a vicious circle.
Your pleasure will be followed by pain, your pain will be followed by
pleasure.
But you will never be at ease. When you will be in a state of pleasure
you will be afraid that you are going to lose it, and that fear will
poison it. And when you will be lost in pain, of course, you will be in
suffering, and you will try every possible effort to get out of it --
just to fall again back into it. Buddha calls this the wheel of birth
and death. We go on moving in this wheel, clinging to the wheel... and
the wheel moves on. Sometimes pleasure comes up and sometimes pain comes
up, but we are crushed between these two rocks.
But the sleepy person knows nothing else. He knows only a few sensations
of the body -- food, sex. This is his world; he goes on moving between
these two. These are the two ends of his body: food and sex. If he
represses sex he becomes addicted to food: if he represses food he
becomes addicted to sex. Energy goes on moving like a pendulum. And
whatsoever you call pleasure is, at the most, just a relief of a tense
state. Sexual energy gathers, accumulates; you become tense and heavy
and you want to release it.
The man who is asleep, his sexuality is nothing but a relief, like a
good sneeze. It gives you nothing but a certain relief. A tension was
there, now it is no more there; but it will accumulate again. Food gives
you only a little taste on the tongue; it is not much to live for. But
many people are living only to eat; there are very few people who eat to
live.
The story of Columbus is well-known. It was a long trip. For three
months they saw nothing but water. Then one day Columbus looked out at
the horizon and saw trees. And if you think Columbus was happy to see
trees, you should have seen his dog! That's why the Siberian dogs are
the fastest in the world: because the trees are so far apart. But this
is the world of pleasure. The dog can be forgiven, but you cannot be
forgiven.
During their first date, the young man, looking for ways to have a good
time, asked the young lady if she would like to go bowling. She replied
that she did not care to go bowling. He then suggested a movie, but she
answered that she did not care for them. While trying to think of
something else he offered her a cigarette which she declined. He then
asked if she would like to dance and drink at the new disco. She again
declined by saying she did not care for those things. In desperation he
asked her to come to his apartment for a night of lovemaking. To his
surprise she happily agreed, kissed him passionately and said, "You see,
you don't need any of those things to have a good time!"
It depends on people what can be called happiness. To the sleeping,
pleasurable sensations are happiness. He lives from one pleasure to
another pleasure. He is just rushing from one sensation to another
sensation. He lives for small thrills. His life is very superficial; it
has no depth, it has no quality. He lives in the world of quantity.
Then the people who are in between, who are neither asleep nor awake,
who are just in a limbo, a little bit asleep, a little bit awake. You
sometimes have that experience in the early morning: still sleepy, but
you can't say you are asleep because you can hear the noise in the
house, your wife preparing tea, the noise of the samovar or the milkman
at the door or children getting ready to go to school. You can hear
these things, but still you are not awake. Vaguely, dimly these noises
reach to you, as if there is a great distance between you and all that
is happening around you.
It feels as if it is still a part of the dream. It is
not a part of the dream, but you are in a state of in-between. The same
happens when you start meditating. The nonmeditator sleeps, dreams; the
meditator starts moving away from his sleep towards awakening. He is in
a transitory state. Then happiness has a totally different meaning: it
becomes more of a quality, less of a quantity; it is more psychological,
less physiological.
He enjoys music more, he enjoys poetry more, he enjoys creating
something. He enjoys nature, its beauty. He enjoys silence. He enjoys
what he had never enjoyed before, and this is far more lasting. Even if
the music stops, something goes on lingering in you. And it is not a
relief.
The difference between pleasure and THIS happiness is: it is not a
relief, it is an enrichment. You become more full, you become a little
overflowing. Listening to good music, something is triggered in your
being, a harmony arises in you -- you become musical. Or dancing,
suddenly you forget your body; your body becomes weightless. The grip of
gravitation over you is lost. Suddenly you are in a different space: the
ego is not so solid, the dancer melts and merges into the dance. This is
far higher, far deeper
than the joy that you gain from food or sex. This has a depth. But this
is also not the ultimate. The ultimate happens only when you are fully
awake, when you are a
buddha, when all sleep is gone and all
dreaming is gone, when your whole being is full of light, when there is
no darkness within you. All darkness has disappeared and with that
darkness, the ego is gone. All tensions have disappeared, all anguish,
all anxiety. You are in a state of total contentment. You live in the
present; no past, no future anymore. You are utterly herenow.
This moment is all. Now is the only time and here is the only space. And
then suddenly the whole sky drops into you. This is bliss. This is REAL
happiness. Seek bliss, Jayananda; it is your birthright. Don't remain
lost in the jungle of pleasures; rise a little higher. Reach to
happiness and then to bliss.
Pleasure is animal, happiness is human, bliss is divine. Pleasure binds
you, it is a bondage, it chains you. Happiness gives you a little more
rope, a little bit of freedom, but only a little bit. Bliss is absolute
freedom. You start moving upwards; it gives you wings. You are no more
part of the gross earth; you become part of the sky. You become light,
you become joy. Pleasure is dependent on others. Happiness is not so
dependent on others, but still it is separate from you. Bliss is not
dependent, is not separate either; it is your very being, it is your
very nature. To attain it is to attain to God, to nirvana.
Source: from Osho Book "Dhammapada Vol 10"
Related articles in Counseling section:
Osho - Sex makes man a fool
Osho on Witnessing the Sex Act
Osho on Making Sex as Meditation
I want to Grab Girls &
Sexually enjoy
Shortcoming in Tantra Sex Teachings
Osho discourse on Repressed Sexuality
Importance of
Commitment in a Relationship
Osho on difference in Normal Sex
and tantric Sex
Osho on Relationship as Living Partners
and Growth
Osho - Sex is Stupid, Sex keeps you unconscious
Osho on Sexual
suppression and freedom from Sex
Transforming Lust with Awareness gives indescribable
Bliss
What is your attitude toward Sex,
and Sex outside of Marriage
It is because of a long, long repressive
society that the dirty old man exists
I Love my husband
but I hate Sex, that creates conflict. Isn't sex
Animalistic
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