I'm miserable!

jettison · 03-23-2008, 08:22 PM

Ok, I'm not actually miserable. I'm actually tired, a little bit famished, and craving a toxic, sugar-laden, but quite delicious Mountain Dew. But there are an awful lot of people who are miserable, and Osho has a special place in his heart <his very dead heart, unfortunately> for all of you little cretins. This is long, but worth the read. Step up out of your easy chair, turn off CNN, and open your mind to the message:

>
We go on missing many things in life just because we lack courage. In fact, no effort is needed to achieve - just courage - and things start coming to you rather than you going to them...at least in the inner world it is so.

And 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.

Ordinarily, we don't think so - we think, "What is needed to be happy? Everybody wants to be happy." That is absolutely wrong. Very rarely does a person want to be happy - notwithstanding what they go on saying. Very rarely is a person ready to be happy - people have so much investment in their misery. They love to be unhappy... in fact they are happy in being unhappy.

There are many things to be understood - otherwise it is very difficult to get out of the rut of misery. The first thing: that nobody is holding you there; it is you who has decided to remain in that prison of misery. Nobody holds anybody. A man who is ready to get out of it, can get out if it right this very moment. Nobody is responsible. If one is miserable, one is responsible, but a miserable person never accepts responsibility - that is his way of remaining miserable. He says, "Somebody else is making me miserable."

If somebody else is making you miserable, naturally, what can you do? If you are making yourself miserable, something can be done... something can be done immediately. Then it is within your hands to be or not to be miserable. So people go on throwing the responsibility - sometimes on the wife, sometimes on the husband, sometimes on the family, sometimes on the conditioning, the childhood, the mother, the father... sometimes the society, the history, fate, God, but they always go on throwing. The names are different, but the trick is the same.

A man really becomes a man when he accepts total responsibility - he is responsible for whatsoever he is. This is the first courage, the greatest courage. Very difficult to accept it, because the mind goes on saying, "If you are responsible, why do you create it?" To avoid this we say that somebody else is responsible: "What can I do? I am helpless... I am a victim! I am being tossed from here and there by greater forces than me and I cannot do anything. So at the most I can cry about being miserable and become more miserable by crying." And everything grows - if you practice it, it grows. Then you go deeper and deeper... you sink in deeper and deeper.

Nobody, no other force, is doing anything to you. It is you and only you. This is the whole philosophy of karma - that it is your doing; karma means doing. You have done it and you can undo it. And there is no need to wait, to delay. Time is not needed - you can simply jump out of it!

But we have become habituated. We will feel very lonely if we stop being miserable, we will lose our closest companion. It has become our shadow - it follows us everywhere. When nobody is there at least your misery is with you - one is married to it. And it is a long, long marriage; you have remainded married to misery for many lives.

Now the time has come to divorce it. That I call the great courage - to divorce misery, to lose the oldest habit of the human mind, the longest companion.

- Osho

karvala · 03-23-2008, 08:33 PM

There's a lot of truth in it, but as with just about any other piece of similar advice, it lacks the "how".

Sometimes I think gurus, counsellors, religious officials, therapists, doctors, and anyone else inclined to give advice, should just say "get better" and leave it that, since always it seems variation on it, as if people choose to remain in their present state.

We need courage. Great. Now someone tell me how to get it, in a way that I can relate to, and that does not require me to do something beyond my true capabilities, which I only know.

Pardon my negativity. It's a nice sentiment, really.

jettison · 03-23-2008, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karvala

There's a lot of truth in it, but as with just about any other piece of similar advice, it lacks the "how".

Sometimes I think gurus, counsellors, religious officials, therapists, doctors, and anyone else inclined to give advice, should just say "get better" and leave it that, since always it seems variation on it, as if people choose to remain in their present state.

We need courage. Great. Now someone tell me how to get it, in a way that I can relate to, and that does not require me to do something beyond my true capabilities, which I only know.

Pardon my negativity. It's a nice sentiment, really.

This is a two page exerpt from a 191 page book. There is plenty of how.

karvala · 03-23-2008, 08:47 PM

But it'll cost me £9.99, right?

jettison · 03-23-2008, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karvala

But it'll cost me £9.99, right?

In pounds or euros? Not sure... in the rapidly sinking dollar? ... about 13 bones. Of course, who would want to pay for a chance to end their misery? People love their misery!!! They would probably pay someone so they wouldn't have to read the book and risk losing it.

karvala · 03-23-2008, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jettison

In pounds or euros? Not sure... in the rapidly sinking dollar? ... about 13 bones. Of course, who would want to pay for a chance to end their misery? People love their misery!!! They would probably pay someone so they wouldn't have to read the book and risk losing it.

Well if I had to part with £9.99 in pounds or Euros, I'm pretty sure I'd feel more miserable anyway, so then I'd need to read the sequel (Couarge and money-making: make your misery go away and master online poker!.

jettison · 03-23-2008, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karvala

Well if I had to part with £9.99 in pounds or Euros, I'm pretty sure I'd feel more miserable anyway, so then I'd need to read the sequel (Couarge and money-making: make your misery go away and master online poker!.

I think you should buy that book first, master poker, take everyone's money AND THEN end your misery.

karvala · 03-23-2008, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jettison

I think you should buy that book first, master poker, take everyone's money AND THEN end your misery.

Believe me, taking everyone's money would end my misery.

But I suspect you know another book that will tell me otherwise....

kuiks8 · 03-23-2008, 09:15 PM

Is the book called Osho?

jettison · 03-23-2008, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kuiks8

Is the book called Osho?

"Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously." Although I've been a broken record recommending this book, I don't know that anyone has actually read it yet.

03-23-2008, 08:22 PM	#1
jettison Online Platinum Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: West Bay Posts: 4,969	I'm miserable! Ok, I'm not actually miserable. I'm actually tired, a little bit famished, and craving a toxic, sugar-laden, but quite delicious Mountain Dew. But there are an awful lot of people who are miserable, and Osho has a special place in his heart <his very dead heart, unfortunately> for all of you little cretins. This is long, but worth the read. Step up out of your easy chair, turn off CNN, and open your mind to the message: > We go on missing many things in life just because we lack courage. In fact, no effort is needed to achieve - just courage - and things start coming to you rather than you going to them...at least in the inner world it is so. And 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. Ordinarily, we don't think so - we think, "What is needed to be happy? Everybody wants to be happy." That is absolutely wrong. Very rarely does a person want to be happy - notwithstanding what they go on saying. Very rarely is a person ready to be happy - people have so much investment in their misery. They love to be unhappy... in fact they are happy in being unhappy. There are many things to be understood - otherwise it is very difficult to get out of the rut of misery. The first thing: that nobody is holding you there; it is you who has decided to remain in that prison of misery. Nobody holds anybody. A man who is ready to get out of it, can get out if it right this very moment. Nobody is responsible. If one is miserable, one is responsible, but a miserable person never accepts responsibility - that is his way of remaining miserable. He says, "Somebody else is making me miserable." If somebody else is making you miserable, naturally, what can you do? If you are making yourself miserable, something can be done... something can be done immediately. Then it is within your hands to be or not to be miserable. So people go on throwing the responsibility - sometimes on the wife, sometimes on the husband, sometimes on the family, sometimes on the conditioning, the childhood, the mother, the father... sometimes the society, the history, fate, God, but they always go on throwing. The names are different, but the trick is the same. A man really becomes a man when he accepts total responsibility - he is responsible for whatsoever he is. This is the first courage, the greatest courage. Very difficult to accept it, because the mind goes on saying, "If you are responsible, why do you create it?" To avoid this we say that somebody else is responsible: "What can I do? I am helpless... I am a victim! I am being tossed from here and there by greater forces than me and I cannot do anything. So at the most I can cry about being miserable and become more miserable by crying." And everything grows - if you practice it, it grows. Then you go deeper and deeper... you sink in deeper and deeper. Nobody, no other force, is doing anything to you. It is you and only you. This is the whole philosophy of karma - that it is your doing; karma means doing. You have done it and you can undo it. And there is no need to wait, to delay. Time is not needed - you can simply jump out of it! But we have become habituated. We will feel very lonely if we stop being miserable, we will lose our closest companion. It has become our shadow - it follows us everywhere. When nobody is there at least your misery is with you - one is married to it. And it is a long, long marriage; you have remainded married to misery for many lives. Now the time has come to divorce it. That I call the great courage - to divorce misery, to lose the oldest habit of the human mind, the longest companion. - Osho __________________ A unique opportunity... If you were at the deathbed of a woman you secretly loved all your life but whom you never had the courage to tell and then she tells you that she secretly loved you all these years, what a great opportunity that would be to practice your "poker face." "I wish someone knew me. I’d pick them apart and find out who I am." - Equestrian Dynamo

03-23-2008, 08:33 PM	#2
karvala Offline Platinum Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Gender: None Specified Posts: 2,331	There's a lot of truth in it, but as with just about any other piece of similar advice, it lacks the "how". Sometimes I think gurus, counsellors, religious officials, therapists, doctors, and anyone else inclined to give advice, should just say "get better" and leave it that, since always it seems variation on it, as if people choose to remain in their present state. We need courage. Great. Now someone tell me how to get it, in a way that I can relate to, and that does not require me to do something beyond my true capabilities, which I only know. Pardon my negativity. It's a nice sentiment, really. __________________ May you live all the days of your life Trying to heal from after a breakup? Perhaps you need Enhanced No Contact: http://www.enotalone.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1438257

03-23-2008, 08:47 PM	#4
karvala Offline Platinum Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Gender: None Specified Posts: 2,331	But it'll cost me £9.99, right? __________________ May you live all the days of your life Trying to heal from after a breakup? Perhaps you need Enhanced No Contact: http://www.enotalone.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1438257

03-23-2008, 09:15 PM	#9
kuiks8 Offline Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Vancouver Gender: Female Posts: 3,273	Is the book called Osho?