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@Hero in progress You're still chasing experiences and positive states. Enlightenment is not that. Pursue what is TRUE, not bliss and love. Everything else is experience. And all experience is impermanent, and thus an illusion.

@Huz The issue isn't the particular thing you're craving as it seems you'll always go round to some substance or another. The problem is in wanting to get stimulated and conditioning your brain to be satisfied with nothing else. It's a habit also known as the "bliss point" - the optimal amount of stimulus that causes happiness. The bliss point is subjective - an obese person can't get enough satisfaction from vegetables because of their taste buds are used to processed carbs, whereas a fitness enthusiast can love those same greens. This same principle applies to money, possessions, sex, comfort and so on. What's the solution? You have to just simply quit it coldly - that's the only way of liberating yourself from the attachment and cravings. Fasting is another great trick. That's what you essentially need to do to overcome any addiction - fast. @Joel3102 Damn, it's definitely a lot harder as an Aussie. They do love to drink with the mates if you know what I mean. @pluto Thanks! Yes, with increasing awareness you begin to do more of what's good for you effortlessly. Thanks!

@Key Elements I agree. Reverting to the ego self is fine. You start treating ego as a tool rather identifying with it. As you self-realize and become dis-illusioned about who/what you really are, that stays with you permanently after the shift. It doesn't mean you have to be in the state of bliss 24/7, but you abide as awareness, infinite being.

@Natasha When a person is in an 'enlightenment experience,' it's 'normal.' The person is it. The person is everything. The person has no doubts and doesn’t think it's 'abnormal.' It's just pure infinite peace. However, there is a revert back to the ego 'self,' and the person awakes from that infinite peace with a huge hint of 'bliss' and remembers it. Many times the person wishes to be back to that infinite nature, the true nature, because that's what we are. We are not the ego. It's all a fiction. So what happens when we wish we were back to our true nature? This: "Oh my god! It's absolutely infinite!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" "It's absolutely infinite!!!!!" -Leo We get too excited. But, that's ok. It'll pass. What we can do from that moment on is to realize that our true nature can be applied to real life, the illusional life. So, for example, the next time you feel lonely, or get an emotion other than peace, you could say to yourself that it's just an emotion (ego). It's not our infinite nature - which is peace. And, we could teach this to others in our own ways so that they will get a chance to become aware of it.

Or maybe its because people aren't allowed to express their true feelings about things, even if it is divisive, because the 'enlightened' left side of politics believes that demonizing and calling everyone who has a different opinion as them, as racist, and consequently forcing people to repress their true desires is somehow the best way to deal with the situation. That is synonymous. Levels of consciousness differ in the way you express your feelings and emotions. It can go something like this: Level 1: Repression Level 2: Unnecessarily vulgar expression Level 3: Less damaging expression (perhaps a little passive aggressive) Level 4: Controlled, inner expression and release Level 5: Acceptance and integration of all emotions, where expression has merged with nonexpression, and it becomes one beautiful flowing experience Level 6: Bliss (I Just made that up, please don´t teach this kids at school its not very well thought out =D)

Acceptance that doesn't mean bliss - remove shoulds for consciousness On my mind today: Accepting means not that you should feel really blissful when you're properly conscious and accepting. If you're pushing for that then you're not accepting how you are now. Properly accepting means that you are not latching on to any feeling (ie bliss) but that you are letting the change in emotion happen; you are letting change happen, you're allowing You to flow. If you feel depressed and you feel it then you are accepting and that's what you're after; bliss will be behind that, not replace it. It may replace it. But it doesn't matter what it becomes. All that matters is what it is and you letting it be what it wants to be, so letting it change. Change is the thing you have to be okay with. It's okay to feel those feelings that are "bad" and/or make you feel hurt because you're being "unconscious". The change into and out of these places are what you're being conscious of. You're not meant to be pushing yourself into what you think should be consciousness. Let go of holding onto feelings because naturally they're going to try to flow and you'll start suffering and trying to fight because you want to keep or resist a certain feeling or moment or piece of the manifested when really it's not the water of any of the sections of the river that really matters, but the constant turning of the mill. Let the constant fluctuation of feeling and experience happen. It's trying to buzz its life out of you and you can feel it but you keep resisting it and turning that energy into pain, so much pain. But it's your life. That fluctuation is the exact same place that creates the spontaneity that drives real humour. So to create that strong, amused, independent relationship with yourself (which is the main goal now) then working with this fluctuating, spontaneous, monkey mind* and making humour through it is (should be) actually your main focus. - I've been thinking of this relationship and basically: It's what your focus should mostly be on all the time, like in any situation your main goal is "how am I strengthening my relationship with myself here" (+how am I ruining it or disrespecting what it should be) ...this means it's the place to focus when in the face of external situations for your insecurities and (many) emotional triggers A way of looking at it is thinking of your life as a big adventure that you have no real proper goals in, externally, and you are having fun just going with the changing current, the change is your fun, not the making goals and achieving them, only the fun of the adventure, which means the pain in it is often gonna have to be the source of the fun than is the adventure of all the different experiences. The whole adventure is just about experiencing the change and flow from one experience to another, be it fear to bliss, or just fear to another fear. Never resist. (Basically Captain Jack Sparrow) Yeah like I said, no real external goal; they're just for fun. The real goal of focus is the inner goal of having that strong relationship with Self and feeling who you truly are and living and loving through it, even if that means feeling fear. - further, this is to also say that the mind shouldn't be made an enemy or that you resist feeling its despair- Feel its pain, feel its suffering. You really aren't allowing the change if you are properly suffering. When you let, then it's only 'suffering'; you still feel it. Yeah yeah like I said said: you don't actually want to get the cognitions of your mind to be the "perfection" that you imagine: a lOt of the humour and fun comes from watching its dysfunction. It would be boring if you were prefect. It's like the crazy girlfriend who's actually more fun than the sensible, sane one ?. Your relationship should have no shoulds... No forcing feelings. Like I said: if you feel bad then no trying to change the bad into good, but only dancing with the bad That's it for now ❤

If you can teach yourself (through meditation for example) to stop being a bliss junkie, that's when the magic happens: detached and loving/appreciating everything that arises in the present moment. Love reality in its totality

Follow your inner voice. Everybody in here is different and we all have our own struggle. What may come as way out to one is a doom to another. So far you have been following your bliss and look where it took you. At 21 you know your purpose and you are working on it, you are probably twice as developed already than most of your classmates and friends. They don't understand you because they only follow the herd. Don't judge them, they don't know any better. They don't know that there are other things out there. Having worked with many Spanish and Italian, I will be as cheeky to claim that your country is primarily focused on making impression and looking good than an actual growth. You being different makes you the black sheep and that's fine. Just keep doing what you are doing. Follow your values, they are the guiding light in the dark Utilize your strengths Give something back even if you do not get anything in return. Deep inside you already know what you want so go for it. When I re-joined the university at 27 to study Nutrition Science which is my passion, I felt a deep happiness inside near the heart. This was the sign that I made the right decision despite what others are telling me. The voice inside "was celebrating." Follow it and you will not be lost. If your friends don't understand you, cut them out. You don't need naysayers. Surround yourself with inspiring individuals. You only need few.

Try to get a samadhi experience after long hours of meditation. You can't really go back after that @electroBeam Peace, bliss, love. You don't need a goal to have/give that to people you meet/know. You'll most likely have a goal if you start to tap on that though.

In the direction of living in Truth, it is important to remember these two rules: (i) Life is a dream; (ii) We are the witness. There are very few fortunate ones who realize the truth of existence. The majority of us live and die in slumber. We have to awaken from this dream life, in order to realize That which is not a dream; we have to become aware of the drama in order to recognize that which is not a drama. Since all lies belong to the dream-world, they are false and untrue. Once this is experienced, one realizes that one was always free! What immeasurable bliss and joy this knowledge brings in its wake! There is no way of gauging its dimensions, nor can it be expressed in words, nor is there a method of conveying this joy. It can only be lived and experienced. As we proceed in this witness-state, so the path unfolds before us; and once the door opens, no matter how little, there is so much left to be done by ourselves. That lithe opening then, keeps calling the individual; it attracts him so that he cannot help but be drawn towards it. If a man jumps from a roof, he cannot stop to ask what he has to do next; the ground will do the needful – the gravitation of the earth will pull him down. His work is over as soon as he leaps; the earth then takes over and finishes the rest for him. Once a man leaps into the witness-state, he has nothing more to do himself. Then the pull of the Universal Spirit, the gravitation of God, does the rest. As long as we stand in the dream world, this power does not work, but as soon as we break through the dream world, and jump out of it, the pull of God begins to work. Then, when a man walks one step towards God, he walks a thousand step towards him. Then, a slight effort and the reward is a thousand-fold; one feeble call evokes a flood of response from Him! But we are such, we refuse to budge even an inch from our dream-state. Rather, we are forever occupied in strengthening its walls from all sides. He who is surrounded by lesser things, begins to dream of bigger things. The dream of living in a hut is a painful dream; the dream of living in a palace is an enjoyable dream; so all those whose dreams are painful, dream of more fulfilling dreams. And the more we dream, the further we are from Truth. Dreams are to be destroyed and not nurtured – but we are displeased and upset if anyone talks of destroying our dreams! Those that sleep are the losers; those that have awakened, they alone attain the wealth, the beauty, the prosperity of life. Please remember these two short rules: Life is a dream and man has to be only a witness thereof. As the witness-state develops, the dreams begin to break until only That remains in the end, which is the Reality, which is the Truth.

Sundayy, well actually i'ts monday. Ive been back in my hometown for some days, and Ive prioriticed hanging out with my friends when it's appropriate, over working so much on the LP course, since I think(logically) that it isnt that good too read all day etc. I also feel like meeting my friends and going out to meet new people, especially girls. I actually struggle to make real connections as friends with people, and then especially guys, well I like to say used to actually, because I am not struggling so much with it anymore. I dare to be myself and act out my opinions, and I look at failure as a means of learning now. (Socially, so Im dont limit myself) Im more playful and physical with my friends now, and I just am the way I am, and I then feel a bit more childish for being this way, and a bit afraid of these childish quarrels, but it had t ben a problem yet. I guess I am that childish, and I now make real connections I feel. At least more real. Its only been a week, and a few encounters. Im reading Psycho-Cybernetics in the course right now and I have totally changed how I live. I have been willpowering my way through life since I became a teenager, and it had invreased all the way up until now. Ive just started to do what I want, or what my body wants. Can probably say ego. I feel like it started with me realizing that failure in itself is good, because its how you work towards what you find as successfull. So I then just trust my subcobscious mechanism after reading the chapters on this, and I just do what I feel like. I voluntarily masturbated, even though I am on a NoFap streak, to see if it had any effect. If it didnt what would the point be. I want to learn things through experience and really change my subcobscious opinions. Not just understand it logically. Then I wont be living truly or be grounded in my "willpower" actions. So I think Im following my Bliss at the moment. After commiting to No Dopamine challennhe Ive gevrwallh staryed to be more creative in making riddles and drawing etc.(It's actually mostly socially motivated). So i just play as a kid more also. I explore ny surroundings and myself. I was looking at my face in the bathroom mirror the other day, and it's a double mirror so I can see from all angles. So I made a lot of fascial expressions, and tried to smile etc, so see how I actually look. I used to not find myself good looking, but after seeing myself in a more real and multisided way I found my face a lot mire attractive. It was really nice. I also discovered that when i felt kind of happy, but not so haooy that my face would propermy smile(when I find something kind of funny etc) I would rather have a fascial expression with slight disgust.(cant really find the rihy word, maybe superior is right). Anyways all of my fascial expressions when I felt weak emotion were not that charming. And I feel like I understand why most people dislike me. I dont really feel the way I look. When Im slightly depressed, and so people think Im an asshole, even though I dont mean to be that way, I just lack energy and emotion, and my un-enthusiastic doesnt really help. -But when i rather have a lot of emotion I looked so much better and when I smiled more, I looked a lot more attractive. So I feel like Im quite self-centered, but at the same time I dont spend all day on myself, and I just do what I feel is right, so I might learn through a failure here. So I picture myself as a talkative and energrtic, but grounded me, who smiles and is surrojnded by friends and is a leader. I do my meditaiton and other interests with others, and Im happy in the military. So thats what I visualize and meditate on at the moment. And its working with my friends. I just want to be happy. I think self-absorbed people, like me just are undeveloped and need time and maybe help to grow. -Me out

Northlane - Quantum Flux Set me free! Feeling all the love I swear that it’s in the air Leaving me, floating forever into infinity I can see the colors dance when I close my eyes Witnessing mysterious design I can feel my body rush From the love inside of me Can’t you see the joy of life is right before your eyes? Infinite bliss, infinite love Take a chance, close your eyes and just dream It sets me free Why can’t you see the joy of life is right before your eyes? Infinite bliss, infinite love Take a chance, close your eyes and just dream We walk around blinded like children in the dark So cold and so empty, how did this even start It’s time to remember what it’s like to feel alive Feel alive! Set me free! Set me free! Can’t you see the joy of life is right before your eyes? Infinite bliss, infinite love Take a chance, close your eyes and just dream It sets me free Why can’t you see the joy of life is right before your eyes? Infinite bliss, infinite love Take a chance, close your eyes and just dream Feeling all the love I swear that it’s in the air Leaving me, floating forever into infinity Quantum fluctuations project into the air Leaving me floating forever into infinity Infinite potential! Infinite potential!

@electroBeam why do you need to do work? If you're happy now you only do work because you think work will lead to happiness in the future, but it doesn't it just takes away the happiness you have. When echkart told first became enlightened he kept having thoughts of needing to do work. But if he did this he never would have continued with spiritually and written the power of now. He did more by spending several months in bliss sitting at a park bench which led him to write his book and help thiusands than he would have just working in same teaching job with minimal impact if he gave into his thoughts saying you should work. Also notice how when you feel good you bring yourself down by feeling guilty 'I shouldn't feel this way' or 'I'm worried something will happen'. Next time this happens why not replace t with a mantra like 'I'm becoming more and more ok with happiness every day'.

Just as Barna said. Love your fears and how it feels. Love you, the anxious one. Love the fear of fear and how it feels. You know what might help? Accepting we're all bliss junkies. Our cravings of overcoming negative states create more resistance. Once we become deeply aware of this and start seeing perfection in every negativite feeling... WOW! You can clearly see why that anxiety is so perfect. And how it is exactly the same feeling as the love you're wishing to feel. Anxiety does not need your intervention to be perfect. Just recognize its perfection. So forget about feeling good and appreciate every facet of reality. Really appreciate anxiety without wanting to overcome it. Life is very ordinary when the only thing we want to feel is bliss. That really really works for me.

@electroBeam that's perfectly normal and you may experience the same sort of thing for a long time (maybe forever). As time goes on you will probably accept these fluctuations more. The main issue your having is that you are desiring a particular state/outcome which is a illusion in your mind. Spiritual work is about being completely content with how you feel, regardless if it's bliss or aniexty.

This is actually your preceived paradigm breaking because some insight you have that challenges deep fundamental assumptions you hold to be true. Awakenings like these can turn into existantial crisis or to pure bliss and a glimpse of what enlightenment is like. The key is to understand that you move within a certain pressumed paradigm but you let everything that doesn't fit open for interpretation. No paradigm is perfect, all are flawed in someway, thats why there exist so many different views.

Thank you guys! Though I am still confused about the idea that all things are neutral. I cannot get moving because of this. I rationalize to myself that pain, laughter, suffering, boredom, excitement, joy, wonder (basically all possible emotions) are equal and that it doesn't matter what I get. I cannot make a decision about what to pursue. Should I pursue joy, or maybe pleasure? How about fulfillment or perhaps sadness? What about melancholy? Is there such a thing as an ultimate feeling (maybe it's bliss)? I'm at a standstill. I don't know where to go... I'm wondering whether I even want growth and self-actualization. I might've been pursuing those things just because I had faith that Leo and the self-help industry knew what they were talking about. But is this what life is all about? What's the problem with pain and all of the "negative" emotions? I don't know what I want...

No formal technique is necessary. Through intention alone you can cultivate all kinds of states - from the mundane to the exalted. Easier said than done though. Sometimes techniques and formal practices only work more easily because they bypass our held beliefs about what we can and can't do. We think we can't just simply relax and be happy for no reason other than because we want to, so we meditate because we believe that will do it for us, and then we reap some of the results. Bashar would call these 'permission slips'. It is possible to create a state inwardly and hold that identity or state firmly, and eventually that identity or reality will be reflected in your emotions, thoughts, physicality, and the rest of your experience allowing for a total transformation. One of the powers behind psychedelics is that they temporarily strip away lots of held limiting beliefs and so it's easier to access states of higher clarity, intuition or bliss - but this dynamic can reinforce the idea we need to do something (take something, do a certain kind of meditation, etc) to reach certain states of being. It is possible to, for example, work yourself into states of really high bliss comparable to MDMA, or to effortlessly receive answers to your questions. This can be done by consciously generating the reality of your desire inwardly. If you continue to look towards your external experience to determine how you aught to feel, think and behave, then you will continue to generate that same reality which is governed by unconscious patterns. If you can consciously hold your inward reality and choose to frame your entire experience as confirmation of the reality that you're now choosing to align with, then it's only a matter of time before it is reflected externally . The art comes in aligning in fulfillment of your chosen reality now. If you are expecting, waiting or hoping for a change in the external reality, then that change won't come because you're still associating with the old experience. If you know you can have anything you want right now by freely and consciously choosing to have it and so you rest in that fulfillment now, then reality will start to quickly align with that experience and generate it in your external experience, feeling, thoughts, synchronicities and whatever perceptions it takes to fulfill your desired state perfectly. It's a bit of an art and there are many different techniques, teachings and approaches on the subject. A lot of it is just removing the barriers and beliefs that say you can't generate your states from within - or that external reality governs in the internal. Experience says that the opposite is true - that the inward reality generates your entire experience. Discovery of this takes some dedication, openness, but most importantly the willingness to find out for yourself.

So this means that a person will experience freedom and bliss while his body continues to degenerate physically and there is no actual recovery from the specific health problems but a disconnection from the experience of pain. But this apparently looks similar to drinking your problems away but not actually eradicating or solving them. The problems continue to remain or even get worse. But the experience changes. How does this bring real benefits

So this means that a person will experience freedom and bliss while his body continues to degenerate physically and there is no actual recovery from the specific health problems but a disconnection from the experience of pain. But this apparently looks similar to drinking your problems away but not actually eradicating or solving them. The problems continue to remain or even get worse. But the experience changes. How does this bring real benefits.

@Loreena idk what EB's talking about but I'd recommend visualizations of type such as filling yourself with all kinds of light, exploding with energy, vibratinf with bliss etc. Also talking to other "light" beings, angels, guides...

I'm currently on my best meditation streak since I started practicing around 4 years ago. I was a dabbler for awhile and feel like I've finally settled in a groove that won't be broken. What changed is hard to exactly pin down because of the sheer volume of events happening in my life during that time. But I'll identify a few: -Having a few enlightenment / bliss experiences. This is probably hands down the most important because it showed me that meditation is not just sitting and wasting time. There are real, tangible results to be obtained and now I knew it for myself. -Taking a 10 Day Vipassana Retreat. Although I was initially worn out when I came back, overall this gave me a huge amount of macro momentum with my meditation habit -Just making the commitment to do it every day, no matter what. Even if that means I'm dead tired and fall asleep half way through, which has happened to me plenty of times -Not trying to jump ahead too fast. It took time to build up to my current habit of 1 hour a day. I did plenty of 20 mins a day, 30 mins a day, 45 mins a day, etc before I got here. So falling off the habit is part of the process. Nothing to do but get back on. God has all the time in the world...literally.

Thanks for the clarifications! In my own experiences with awareness/short periods of enlightenment, I have felt similar to what you experienced in a small way. I have felt at such ease at times and realized, we really are no thing we can see or feel we are just the energy behind or that which came before everything we are now aware of and it's such a clarity. Everything is beautiful and effortless and connected. Then because we are on this earth in a human body, I totally get what you said earlier that we need the illusion of separateness or consciousness would have no way of experiencing itself. The poor human being we are doesn't realize this and we live in turmoil when we forget who and what we truly are. I like what you say to just relax and let go fully and surrender....I can do that...but it never lasts and I go through a drop in consciousness and then I come back. I can see that you having these experiences that I have had multiplied by 1000, that the feeling when you come back into the body would make you feel like WTF do I do now!!! That's scary at times unless you can maintain what you KNOW through the ups and downs of living a human life. That seems to be the challenge we have set up. The old saying Bliss is ignorance seems to play here at times......All of us on here know elements of the truth to our existence and that can either be so beautiful and so enriching and peaceful and full of Love.....Yes.....but to me at times it can feel like a struggle because I always want to get back to the Bliss feeling and not have the human part that has struggle involved. The people that have not searched for answers or who only know life as a body seem to be in a blissful ignorant stage at times. It is really hard work at times to stay present and be aware of our divinity. That's a good thing that these things are not addictive. I do believe it can be a scary thing to experience and I would think that it isn't easy to go through dealing with all the stuff we have accumulated in our lives. It seems to be an ok thing as an eye opener but not something you keep repeating....or maybe it is something to repeat..... I don't know...

You can view 'subtitles/closed captions' in the video by clicking on "CC" button on the video. Transcript: SOMETIMES AS I WATCH PEOPLE PLAYING THE SAME OLD GAMES OVER AND OVER, MY EYES FEEL ANCIENT AND JADED AND MY HEART WEARY AND CYNICAL. I GUESS IT'S BECAUSE I'M SEEING MORE AND MORE MY OWN GAMES AND TRICKS AND I HEAR YOUR MADDENING VOICE BETWEEN MY EARS SAYING, 'THAT'S OKAY - JUST YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT AND LOVE YOURSELF; AND THERE IS NO PROBLEM.' JUST???! I THINK IF YOU SAY THIS WORD AGAIN I WILL SCREAM. WASN'T I HAPPIER WHEN I THOUGHT THERE WAS A GOAL? THE QUESTION IS FROM MA DEVA ANANDO. It is significant. The question can be that of almost everybody who is present. Listen to it. It simply shows a situation that every seeker has to pass. First, Anando says, "Sometimes as I watch people playing the same old games over and over, my eyes feel ancient and jaded and my heart weary and cynical." Please don't try to watch others - that is none of your business. If they have decided to play the old games, if they want to play the old games, if they are happy in playing their old games, who are you to interfere? Who are you even to judge? This constant hankering to judge others has to be dropped. It does not help others. It harms you, it only harms you. Why should you be bothered? That has nothing to do with you. It is others' joy if they want to remain the old and they want to move in the same rut, in the same routine. Good! It is their life and they have every right to live it their own way. Somehow we cannot allow others to have their own way. In some way or other we go on judging. Sometimes we say they are sinners, sometimes we say they are bound to go to hell, sometimes we say they are this and that - criminals. If all that has changed, now a new evaluation that they are playing old games and'I am tired'. Why should you be tired of their games? Let them be tired of their games if they want; or if they don't want, that too is their choice. Please don't watch others. Your whole energy has to be focussed on yourself. Maybe you are condemning others for their old games just as a trick because you don't want to condemn yourself. It always happens; it is a psychological trick: we project on others. A thief thinks everybody is a thief - that is very natural for him; that is a way to protect his ego. If he feels the whole world is bad, he feels good in comparison. A murderer thinks the whole world consists of murderers - that makes him feel good and at ease. It is convenient to think the whole world consists of murderers; then he can murder and there is no need to have any guilt feeling, there is no need to have any prick of conscience. So we go on projecting on others whatsoever we don't want to see in ourselves. Please stop that! If you are really tired of old games. then this is the old game - the OLDEST. For many lives you have been playing it: projecting YOUR defects onto others and then feeling good. And of course you have to exaggerate, you have to magnify. If you are a thief, you have to magnify others' images, that they are greater thieves than you. Then you feel good; in comparison, you are a far better person. That's why people go on reading the newspapers. Newspapers help you very much. Early in the morning, before you have even taken your tea. you are ready for the newspaper. And the newspaper brings nothing like news, because there is nothing new. It is the same old rotten thing. But you feel good: somewhere, somebody has been murdered, somewhere there has been a Watergate, and somewhere something else, and somewhere somebody has stolen, and somebody's wife has escaped with somebody else... and so on and so forth. Watching all that, you relax; you feel, "So, I am not so bad - the whole world is going to the dogs. I am a far better person. I have not yet escaped with the wife of the neighbor. I have not killed anybody yet - although I think of it, but thinking is not a crime where people are actually doing things." You feel good. And the moment you feel good, you remain the same. Please don't watch others. It is not going to help you. You use your energy, your observation, on yourself. And there is something tremendously transforming in observation. If you observe yourself, things will start changing. If you start observing your anger, one day you will suddenly find the anger has no more energy the way it used to have; it is no more so fiery. Something has gone dead in it. If you start watching yourself, you will see, by and by, the negative is dying and the positive is becoming more and more alive; that misery is disappearing and bliss is entering into your life; that you smile more, sometimes even for no reason; that a sense of humor is arising in you - if you start watching - that old depressed, long face is disappearing. A sense of humor is born. You start taking life more playfully, if you watch; seriousness becomes more and more irrelevant. More and more you become innocent, trusting, less and less doubtful. I am not saying that your trust will always be respected. No, that is not the point. You may be deceived more, because when you are trusting you can be deceived more. But even when you are deceived, your trust will not be destroyed by it - in fact, it may even be enhanced. You may start thinking that even if you are deceived - somebody has taken a little money and deceived you - you will be able to see that you have saved the far more valuable thing, that is trust; and something almost valueless, the money, is gone. You could have saved the money and the trust would have gone - that would have been a far greater loss, because nobody has ever been found to be happy just because of money. But because of trust, people have lived like gods on earth. Because of trust, people have enjoyed life so totally that they could feel grateful to God. Trust is a benediction. Money, at the most, can give you a little comfort, but no celebration. Trust may not give you much comfort, but will give you great celebration. Now, to choose comfort against celebration is simply stupid - because that comfortable life will be nothing but a comfortable death. Conveniently you can live and conveniently you can die, but the real taste of life is possible only when you are celebrating at the optimum, at the maximum, when your torch is burning from both ends together. Maybe only for a single moment... but the intensity of it, but the totality of it, but the wholeness of it! And this happens only through observation. Observation is one of the greatest forces of transformation. You start observing yourself. Don't waste your energy for observation on others - that is a sheer wastage! And nobody will ever thank you for it; it is a thankless job. And whomsoever you observe will feel offended - because NOBODY likes to be observed; everybody wants to have a private life. Good or bad, stupid or wise, but everybody wants to have his own private life. And who are you to interfere? So don't be a peeping tom, don't go to people's keyholes, and don't watch. It is THEIR life. If they want and if they love to play the old game, let them play! So the first thing: please stop watching other people; turn the whole energy on yourself. Second thing you say: "I guess it's because I'm seeing more and more my own games and tricks and I hear your maddening voice between my ears saying,'That's okay - just you have to accept and love yourself, and there is no problem.' " I have to repeat it: There is no problem. I have never come across a real problem - not up to now. And I must have listened to thousands of people and their thousands of problems. I have not come across a real problem yet. And I don't think that it is ever going to happen - because the real problem exists not.'Problem' is a created thing. Situations are there: problems are not there. Problems are your interpretations of situations. The same situation may not be a problem to one person and may be a problem to somebody else. So it depends on you whether you create a problem or you don't create a problem but problems are not there. Problems are not in existence: they are in the psychology of man. Just look next time you are having some trip and riding a problem just watch. Just stand aside and look at the problem. Is it really there? or have you created it? Look deeply into it, and you will suddenly see it is not increasing, it is decreasing; it is becoming smaller and smaller. The more you put your energy into observation, the smaller it becomes. And a moment comes when suddenly it is not there... and you will have a good laugh. Whenever you are having a problem, just look at it. Problems are fictitious, they don't exist. Just go around the problem, look from every angle - how can it be? It is a ghost! You wanted it, that's why it is there. You asked for it, that's why it is there. You invited it, that's why it is there. But people don't like it if you say their problem is not a problem - they don't like it. They feel very bad. If you listen to their problems they feel very good. And if you say, "Yes, this is a great problem," they are very happy. That's why psychoanalysis has become one of the most important things of this century. The psychoanalyst helps nobody - maybe he helps himself, but he helps nobody else. He cannot. But still people go and pay. They enjoy - he accepts their problems; whatsoever absurd problem you bring to the psychoanalyst, he listens to it very sincerely and seriously, as if it is there. He takes it for granted that you are suffering greatly, and he starts working on it and analyzing it. And it takes years! Even after years of psychoanalysis the problem is not solved-because in the first place the problem has never been there, so how can anybody solve it? But after years of psychoanalysis, you get tired; and you get finished with the old problem, you want some new problem now. So one day you suddenly say, "Yes, it is no more there, it is gone," and you thank the psychoanalyst. But it is simply time that has helped, that has healed. It is not psychoanalysis. But there are people who would not like simply to wait and watch. When you bring a mad person to a Zen monastery, they simply put him in a corner, in a small hut, far away from the monastery; they give him food and they tell him, "Just be there, quiet." Nobody goes to talk to him; food is supplied, his comforts are looked after, but nobody bothers about him. And what psychoanalysis does in three years, they do in three weeks. Within three weeks the person simply comes out and he says, "Yes, the problem is finished." For three weeks you are left with your problem - how can you avoid seeing it? And no analysis is given, so there is no diversion; you are not distracted. The psychoanalyst distracts you! The problem may have died on its own within three weeks, but it will not die now because with the support of the psychoanalyst it will live for three years, or even more. It depends how rich you are. If you are rich enough, the problem can continue for your whole life. That means it depends how much you can afford. Poor people don't suffer from many problems. Rich people suffer they can afford to. They can enjoy the game of having great problems. The poor person cannot afford and cannot enjoy that game. Next time you are having a problem, look into it, look HARD into it. No need for any analysis; don't analyze it, because analysis is a way of diversion. When you start analyzing, you don't look at the problem. You start asking why? from where? how did it come? - in your childhood, your mother's relationship with you, your father's relationship with you. You have gone astray. Now you are not looking into the problem itself. Freudian psychoanalysis is really a mind-game. and played with great expertise. Don't go into the causes! There is no need because there is no cause. Don't go into the past there is no need because that will be going away from the present problem. LOOK into it as a herenow thing, just enter into it. And don't think about causes, reasons. Just watch the problem as it is. And you will be surprised that looking hard into it, it starts dispersing. Go on looking into it and you will find it has gone. PROBLEMS ARE NOT THERE. We create them - because we cannot live without problems. That is the only reason why we create them. To have a problem is to have an occupation. One feels good; something is there to do. When there is no problem you are left alone, empty - what to do next? All problems finished. Just think: one day comes God and says, "No problems any more - finished! All problems gone." What will you do? Just think of that day. People will be stuck; people will start getting very angry about God. They will say, "This is not a blessing! Now what are we supposed to do? No problems?" Then suddenly the energy is not moving anywhere; then you will feel stagnant. The problem is a way for you to move, to go on, to carry on, to hope, to desire, to dream. The problem gives so many possibilities to remain occupied. And to be unoccupied, or to be capable of unoccupation, is what I call meditation: an unoccupied mind who enjoys a moment of unoccupation is a meditative mind. Start enjoying some unoccupied moments. Even if the problem is there - you feel it is there, I say it is not, but you feel it is there - put the problem aside and tell the problem, "Wait! Life is there, the whole life is there. I will solve you, but right now let me have a little space unoccupied by any problem." Start having a few moments unoccupied, and once you have enjoyed them you will see the fact that problems are created by you because you were not capable of enjoying the unoccupied moments. So problems fill the gap. Have you not watched yourself? Sitting in a room, if you have nothing to do you start feeling fidgety, you start feeling uncomfortable, you start feeling restless - you will turn the radio on, or you will, turn the TV on, or you will start reading the same newspaper you have read three times since the morning. Or, if there is only one way, you will fall asleep so that you can create dreams and again remain occupied. Or you will start smoking. Have you watched it? Whenever you are not having anything to do, it becomes very difficult to be, just to be. I will say again: There is no problem, Anando. Look into the fact of it that there is NO problem in life. If you want to have it, it is your pleasure - you enjoy with all my blessings But the truth is that there is no problem. Life is not a problem at all - it is a mystery to be lived and enjoyed. Problems are created by you because you are afraid to enjoy life and you are afraid to live life. Problems give you a protection - AGAINST life, against joy, against love. You can say to yourself, "HOW can I enjoy? - I am having so many problems. How can I enjoy? I am having so many problems, how can I love a man or a woman? I am having so many problems, how can I dance and sing? - impossible!" You can find some reasons not to sing, not to dance. Your problems give you a great opportunity to avoid. Look into the problems and you will find they are fictitious. And even if you are having a problem and you feel it is real, I say it is okay. Why do I say it is okay? Because the moment you start feeling it is okay, it will disappear. The moment you say to a problem that it is okay, you have stopped giving energy to it. You have accepted it! The moment you accept a problem, it is no more a problem. A problem can be a problem only when you go on rejecting it, when you say it should NOT be so... and it is. Then the problem is strengthened. That's why I say it. People come to me with their big problems and I say, "It is okay, it is very good, you accept it." And I say, "Just you have to accept and love yourself." And I understand, Anando says, "It is very maddening, your voice continuously saying, "That's okay... and there is no problem."' "JUST???!" And Anando says, "I think if you say this word again I will scream." You have been screaming your whole life - whether you scream or not is not the point - you have been screaming your whole life. You have not done anything else up to now. Sometimes loudly, sometimes silently, but you have been screaming. That's how I see people - screaming people, their heart is screaming, their being is screaming. But that will not help. You can scream but that will not help. Try to understand rather than screaming. Try to see what I am telling you. And what I am telling you is not a theory - it is a fact. And I am saying it because I have known it that way. If it can happen to me that there is no problem, why cannot it happen to you? Take the challenge of it! I am just as ordinary a man as you are; I don't claim any extraordinary miraculous powers. I am very ordinary, just as you are. The only difference between me and you is you don't say okay to yourself and I have said an absolute okay to myself - that is the only difference. You are continuously trying to improve yourself and I am not trying to improve myself. I have said: Incompletion is the way life is. You are trying to become perfect and I have accepted my imperfections. That is the only difference. So I don't have any problems. When you accept your imperfection, from where can the problem come? When whatsoever happens you say "It is okay," then from WHERE can the problem come? When you accept limitations, then from where can the problem come? The problem arises out of your non-acceptance. You cannot accept the way you are, hence the problem. And you will never accept the way you are, so the problem will always be there. Can you imagine yourself some day accepting, totally accepting the way you are? If you can imagine, then why don't you do it right now? Why wait? For whom? For what? I have accepted the way I am, and that very moment all problems disappeared. That very moment all worries disappeared. Not that I became perfect, but I started enjoying my imperfections. Nobody ever becomes perfect - because to become perfect means to become absolutely dead. Perfection is not possible because life is eternal. Perfection is not possible because life goes on and on and on - there is no end to it. So the ONLY way to get out of these so-called problems is to accept your life as you find it right this moment, and live it, enjoy, delight in it. The next moment will be of more joy because it will come out of this moment; and the next to that will be of even more joy because, by and by, you will become more and more joyous. Not that you will become joyous through improvement, but by living the moment. But you will remain imperfect. You will always have limitations, and you will always have situations where, if you want to crate problems, you can immediately create. If you don't want to create problems, there is no need to create. You can scream but that won't help. That's what you have been doing - that has not helped. Even primal therapy has not proved of much help. It allows people to scream - yes, it feels a little good, it is a tantrum therapy. It allows you to vomit. It feels a little good because you feel a little unloaded, unburdened, but then within a few days that euphoria disappears; again you are the same, again accumulating. Again go to the primal therapy - you will feel good for a few days... again the same. Unless you understand that one has to STOP creating problems, you will go on creating problems. You can go into an encounter group, you can do primal therapy, you can do thousands of other groups, and after each group you will feel tremendously beautiful, because you dropped something that was on your head - BUT YOU HAVE NOT DROPPED THE MECHANISM THAT CREATES IT. You have dropped something which you were having, but you have not dropped the very factory that goes on creating it. Again you will create. It will not be of much use. It will give you a respite, a rest. But if you REALLY understand the thing. the thing is that you have to stop creating problems - otherwise you can go from one group to another group, from one psychoanalyst to another psychoanalyst, from one psychiatrist to another psychiatrist, from one therapy to another therapy... and everybody will give you a little respite, a little rest, and again you are doing the same thing. My whole effort here is to cut the problem from the very roots. Please don't create problems - they are not, they exist not. And the last thing Anando says, "Wasn't I happier when I thought there was a goal?" Yes, you were happier and you were more miserable too - because your happiness was in the hope; it was not a true happiness. So I say you were happier and more miserable too. Miserable you were here in the present, and happy you were in the future - but how can you be in the future? The goal is in the future. Unhappy you were here; happy you were there.'There' exists not - it is all here. It is ALWAYS here. Everywhere it is here!'There' exists only in the dictionary. So it is with'then'. It is always now.'Then' exists not. Yes, you were happier in your dreams of thinking of a goal, of thinking of a beautiful future. But why does a person think about a beautiful future? - because he is miserable in the present. I don't think about a beautiful future. I cannot conceive how it can be more beautiful! How can it be more beautiful than it is right now this moment? How is existence going to be more happy and joyous than it is this moment? Have a look - how can it be more happy, more joyful? But that's a trick, again a trick of the mind: to avoid the present we go on thinking about the future so that we need not see the present. And the present is all there is. So you are right - you were happier, happier in your dreams. Now I have shattered all your dreams. Happier in your hopes - now I am trying in every way to create the state of hopelessness, so there is no hope left. I AM TRYING TO BRING YOU TO THE PRESENT. You have been wandering in the future; I am pulling you back to herenow. It is hard work. And to take goals away one feels very angry. You ARE sometimes very angry with me. I have taken your hope, your dreams, or I am trying you are clinging to them; you are so addicted to your hope that you even start hoping through me. You start hoping through me: "Osho will do this." This man is not going to do anything. You start hoping that "Now I am with Osho so there is no need to be afraid. Sooner or later I am going to become Enlightened." Forget all about it! ENLIGHTENMENT IS NOT A HOPE! It is not a desire and it is not in the future. If you start living right this moment, you are Enlightened. I am trying to make you Enlightened every day, and you say, "Tomorrow." Then as you will... but tomorrow it will never happen. Either it is now or never! Become Enlightened right now! And you can become because you are... simply deluded, simply thinking that you are not. So don't ask how. The moment you ask the how, you start hoping. So DON'T ask the how, and don't say, "Yes, we will become." I am not saying that. I am saying you are. Somendra!... the goose IS out. The goose has never been in. One just has to be alert in the moment. Just a single moment of alertness, a shock, and you are free. Every day I am trying to make you Enlightened, because I know you ARE Enlightened. But if you want to go on playing the game of Samsara, you can go on playing. Happier, certainly, you were - and miserable too. I have taken your happiness because you cannot hope any more. If you allow me a little more, I will take your misery too. But first the happiness has to go, because misery exists as a shadow to the hope of happiness. So first the hope of happiness has to go, only then will the shadow go. So you can scream if you want to scream, but I will repeat a thousand and one times: Anando, there is no problem. Just you have to accept and love yourself - yes, JUST.

Thank you @Shin I am in a very different place right now, that's right, it's all in our mind. Irritation disappeared right away since it was just masking sadness, then all the sensation was the pressure on my sinuses and throat, but when I was able put the attention on top of my head, I felt bliss