bliss

1. Happiness at the second level is joy. Pleasure you cannot share with anybody. It is something so tiny, so fleeting, so small, there is no question of sharing; but joy you can share. At the third level, happiness becomes bliss. Joy you have to share; blissfulness you need not share — it simply surrounds you. Whoever is courageous enough to come close to you will have it. Bliss is not something that you have to do anything about; it is already there around you, it is your milieu. The blissful person — you can call him the awakened, the enlightened, you can give any name… the blissful person is simply showering his bliss continuously. Whoever is thirsty can drink of it.
2. Bliss has no counterpart to it. That is the first thing to understand. Pleasure has pain, happiness has unhappiness, but bliss has nothing as a counterpart; it is an organic whole. Gautam the Buddha used to say, “If you taste the ocean from anywhere, it is salty.” So is the case with the bliss: you can taste it from any corner, from any space, from any direction — -it is just blissfulness. There is nothing opposite to it. Bliss is the only experience in life which has no polar opposite to it. That’s why, once you are blissful, you cannot fall back. There is no way to be unblissful again. I have tried but nothing succeeds.
3. Bliss has some quality of pleasure in it, it has some quality of happiness in it; but it is much more. And the plus is that you feel absolutely fulfilled, contented, with no desire, no expectation. This very moment you are where everybody wants to be, and there is a tremendous feeling that more than this is not possible; there is no way. It is just as there can be nothing bigger than the sky; it is unbounded. It is inconceivable to the mind, because the mind can only conceive limited things. Here you can feel how limited the mind is. It cannot even conceive something unlimited.
4. Bliss is a taste, a feel, and so overwhelming and so intense, that once you have got it you cannot believe how you have been missing it all along: “i cannot figure it out because it is simply there. It was always there; how did I manage to miss it for so many lives?” Once you get it, that is the problem that arises: how have you been missing it? Bliss is just sitting at the very center of your being, ready to be remembered.
5. In the same reference I would like you to understand the original word for sin. The root from where it comes means forgetfulness. This is just strange: sin means forgetfulness. Then the whole of religion has only one meaning: Remembering. There is only one sin — to forget your being. And there is only one virtue — to remember it. And the moment you know who you are, instantly, immediately, all the bliss of the whole existence is yours. You are so full of bliss that you can bless everybody, the whole existence, without exhausting it ever.
6. The smallest blade of grass has an equal value to the greatest star in the sky. In existence there is no hierarchy, nobody is lower, nobody is higher. Everybody is just himself. Some tree is tall, some tree is not tall. That does not mean that the tall tree is greater, superior, and the small tree is not greater, not superior. No, in nature there is no hierarchy. The small tree has the potential of being a small tree. It has brought its potential to its completion; it is happy, blissful. It is not comparing itself with the tall tree. And the tall tree is not looking downwards with the eyes of a president looking at the ordinary people or a prime minister looking at the ordinary people. The tall tree is just a tall tree. It has fulfilled its potential. Both have done exactly the same; whatsoever was their potential, they have brought it to fulfillment… and fulfillment is bliss. What you fulfill does not matter. Fulfillment of your potential is bliss.
7. Only a creative person can know what bliss is. Paint, play music, compose poetry, do anything, not for any other purpose, just for your joy, for no other reason. If you can compose poetry just for your own joy, or a few friends may share it; if you can make a beautiful garden, just for the sheer joy of making it, and anybody who passes by may stand for a while and have a look — that’s enough reward. But this is my experience, that only creative people know what bliss is. Those who are not creative cannot know bliss.
8. Bliss is something totally different. It is not dependent on anybody. It is the joy of creating something; whether anybody appreciates it or not is irrelevant. You enjoyed it while you were making it — that’s enough, more than enough.
9. The last is my most precious request to you, and that is: In existence the most extraordinary thing is to be ordinary. Everybody wants to be extraordinary, that is very ordinary. But to be ordinary and just relax in being ordinary, that is superbly extraordinary. One who can accept his ordinariness without any grudge, any grumbling — with joy, because this is how the whole existence is — then nobody can destroy his bliss. Nobody can steal it, nobody can take it away. Then wherever you are you will be in bliss.
10. It makes me sad that you are not individuals. Somebody is a Christian, somebody is a Hindu, somebody is a Mohammedan, somebody is a Buddhist. You are not individuals. You are blind followers, programmed by other blind followers. But as far as I am concerned, there is no sadness in me. Day and night, I am in absolute bliss. That also makes me sad, that what is possible for me — an ordinary individual like me — why can’t it be possible for all? I do not claim any speciality. I do not claim that I am the only begotten son of God. I do not proclaim that I am the prophet bringing a fresh message from God.
11. I teach contentment. And the basic principle of contentment is to drop your ego. Don’t think for a single moment, “To be or not to be.” Just not to be is the rule. What have you gained by trying to be? Just for a change try not to be, and you will be amazed. The moment you are not, there is contentment, there is silence, there is beauty, there is bliss.
12. I am here, available. If you are thirsty, move closer to me. And soon you will know that light, that insight, that explosion of bliss in which there is no choice. Enlightenment is choicelessness. But don’t misunderstand me. Before that, you will have to move very cautiously, choosing the right against the wrong, choosing the truer so that you can reach to the ultimate truth.