Osho Quote on Bliss and How Effort is Required for Higher States of Mind

“To me, to be blissful is the greatest courage. To be miserable is very cowardly. In fact to be miserable, nothing is needed. Any coward can do it, any fool can do it. Everybody is capable of being miserable, but to be blissful, great courage is needed—it is an uphill task.”

Osho, Courage (Page 60)

Beyond the Quote (319/365)

In our entire history we have never been more comfortable, more connected, and more safe than we are today and yet, happiness seems to be as far away as it ever has been. Why is that? Shouldn’t the technological advances, ease of access, and revolutions in connection increase our levels of happiness exponentially—or at least place it significantly closer? Intuitively speaking, it feels like they should, right? What gives?

The reality, as far as I can see it, is that technological advances, ease of access, and connection correlate more directly to comfort than happiness. And happiness/ blissfulness does not have a linear relationship with comfort (i.e. as comfort goes up, happiness goes up proportionally). The relationship is only linear up until a certain comfort level is met, but after that, the increases in comfort have very little to no effect on happiness at all.

For example, if you aren’t sure how you’re going to feed yourself or your family, access to food that you can count on will undoubtedly bring an increase in your happiness level. And the same is true if you gain access to reliable shelter that you didn’t have access to before. And so on. But, once all of your basic needs for survival are met and you reach a basic threshold of comfort above that, happiness gets affected less and less.

This is why so many rich people are described as being miserable. They live more comfortably than most can ever imagine and yet, they are still unhappy. It’s a question that will drive someone who is fighting for survival mad—how?! It is because happiness/ blissfulness is an inside job, not an outside job. The job you do on the outside, for the outside world, requires you to give out what you have within. And you are compensated for that work with money and comfort. But, if you never work on what you have within, how can what’s within ever improve? To answer that question, it won’t.

Most people stop all of their “working” the second they leave their outside job. “It is now time to relax.” “It’s time to release all of this stress.” “It’s time for a drink, a smoke, a night out, a feast, a TV series binge, an expensive shopping spree, etc.” And so, rather than do their inside job, they carry on relieving themselves of the stress caused by their outside job. And how easy to do that in today’s lavish and hyper-comfortable world that we live in! Then, of course, right back to work the next day to repeat the cycle all over again.

This is the great contradiction with increasingly comfortable living—it puts us more and more into a state of check-out, shut-down, and disconnect when happiness requires conscious, deliberate, mindful effort in and of itself. With everything becoming more and more comfortable, checking out, shutting down, and disconnecting is just becoming more and more easy to do. But, if you’re serious about improving your happiness then you have to prioritize your inside work. Because as Osho mentions above, the pursuit of happiness as an uphill task.

…Or, in another example, an upstream task. It is as though you are rowing your boat upstream to a better state of mind as the current flows against you. How to row forward? By doing the inside work. The introspective work. Work that emphasizes self-analysis, greater understanding, and present mindedness. And what pushes you downstream? Anything and everything that stops you from doing that inside work—because the current is flowing against you.

Why self-analysis? Because you cannot live in contentment until you understand what’s causing you discontentment. The problems, issues, and traumas of the past should be properly dealt with and resolved (as far as they can be resolved) so that you can move forward clear-minded.

Why greater understanding? Because our human experience has been shared by billions of people and millions of them have shared the best of what they have learned from living their human life. That insight is worth seeking out and will undoubtedly help you understand (and move forward with) your human experience, too.

Why present mindedness? Because peace of mind is not possible with mind. Mind must be dropped. Thinking must be stopped. Total engagement with the present is the key to freeing yourself from your monkey mind.

And what stops you from doing all of the above mentioned things? Surprise, surprise—everything that was supposed to make us happier in the first place. Because most of these cutting edge, world renowned, revolutionary developments of the modern world are not moving most of us anymore from “survival” to “comfortable,” but rather are trying to move us from “comfortable” to “lavish.” And as we pointed out above, happiness doesn’t increase in that delta. In fact, many of the advances we may be experiencing may actually be having the opposite kind of effect.

They are preventing us from doing the inside work at all because we are getting hit with the increasingly powerful currents of distraction, luxury, and desire—and our boat continues to row downstream. And it’s not like being stuck in our boats is a drag—relaxing in our boats is a breeze! Most people think to themselves, “why go through the effort of rowing? It’s so comfortable here.” But, so long as we continue to only do our outside work, our inside work will continue to regress and suffer and comfort will only be a hallow shell.

Being miserable is just as easy now as it ever has been before—despite all of the advancements and progress we have made. And being happy requires just as much work as it ever has before—despite all of the advancements and progress we have made. So, rather than curse the stream for flowing against you with increasing power, how about you stick your oar into the water and start paddling? Fill that hallow shell with the inside work that is important to you. Do it before your outside work. Do it after your outside work. Or do it somehow in-between. But, don’t dismiss it or forget about it any longer. Better states await.

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