though the happiness does not come with any dates of the calendar. It comes as a fresh breeze whenever it comes. Most of the time it depends on our acceptability and receptivity--how we receive and perceive it. And the real source is within us--eternally there, waiting to express itself. It is our own negative attitude towards life which is mostly the cause of blocking it.
Happiness is intrinsic to our purity of our being--the more alive we are, the more happier we are. Aliveness is the exuberance of life, pulsation of our heart, a childlike quality, being thrilled without any reason--only with this gift of life that we have got it, whether we deserve it not. This existence is so generous that it gives life also to those people who may not seemingly deserve it--it does not discriminate or judge people. We do judge and discriminate, fret and fume, keep complaining all the time--making ourselves unhappy. Unhappiness or misery is our own creations--our own doing. In such a state of being, only the desire for happiness won't work--what really works is the conscious approach towards life --to live it happily moment to moment.
Osho says: Whatever you have to do, wherever you may be, don’t do anything unhappily, because then, even if you enter heaven, you will enter unhappily; there too you will always manage to find reasons for being unhappy. You will be always looking for unhappiness, and there too you will generate darkness. Even if God himself is present, you will find that something or other is wrong, so that you can remain unhappy. Whatever you are doing, do it happily. Don’t ask for happiness.
Happiness is not to be purchased from somewhere or to be asked from somebody. The enlightened master says: Live happily, don’t ask for happiness. Whatever may be happening, seek out where and how you can find happiness in it. Then even a dry crust of bread can give you happiness - if you know how to find it. If you know how to be happy, even ordinary water can quench you deeply. If you know how to be happy then even the shade from an ordinary tree will put palaces to shame. If you know how to be happy then just the song of the birds in the morning or the sun rising, or the beauty of the stars at night, or even a small breeze, can shower you with happiness.
He emphasizes: Don’t ever ask for happiness - live happily. The moment you ask, you have already begun to live in unhappiness. Seek in everything around you to find where happiness lies. Happiness is there. And drink so deeply from it that not a moment goes to waste, not a moment is without it. Squeeze it. Whatever the source of happiness, squeeze it! When you drink water, when you take your food, when you walk on the road or sit under a tree and just take a breath, even then, live in happiness. Make being happy the art of living, and not asking for and desiring happiness.
For a meditator, happiness is certainly an art of living. If one knows this art, he will be able to share it all around, as the flower shares its fragrance to anybody who comes close to it. A happy person keeps blooming like a flower.
Osho says: Happiness, joy begins to share of its own accord. It begins to spread all around you. Waves of happiness will arise in you, and songs of joy will emanate from you. But happiness is not a demand; happiness is a way of living. Please understand this difference correctly. Happiness is not a wish, happiness is the art of living. The moment you demand it, you have missed. Learn the art, start with this very moment. What is lacking in this moment? Everywhere around you birds are singing, the sun’s rays are showering on you, life is blooming, you are alive. At this moment where is the shortage of joy? This moment is full of joy.
