Is Life Misery?

 

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Is Life Misery?

It depends on us what we make of our life – life by itself is like an empty canvas, it becomes whatever we decide to paint on it. We can paint misery; we can paint bliss. This freedom is our glory. We can use this freedom in such a way that our whole life becomes a hell, or in such a way that our life becomes a thing of beauty, bliss, something heavenly. It all depends on us; humans have all the freedom. That’s why there is so much agony, because people are foolish and they don’t know what to paint on the canvas.

It is left to us: that is the glory of man. That is one of the greatest gifts of God to us. No other animal has been given the gift of being free, every animal is given an already fixed program. All animals are programmed except humans. A dog is bound to be a dog, and forever a dog; nothing else is possible, there is no freedom. It is programmed, everything is built-in. The blueprint is there, it will simply follow the blueprint: it will be a dog. There is no choice for it, no alternatives are available.

Except for humans, everything is programmed. The rose has to be a rose, the lotus has to be a lotus, the bird will have wings, the animal will walk on four legs. Humans are utterly free: that is the beauty of humans, the glory. The immense gift of God is freedom. We are left unprogrammed, we don’t carry a blueprint. We have to create by ourselves, we have to be self-creative. So, it all depends on us: we can become a Saint, or we can become an Adolf Hitler. We can become a murderer or a meditator. We can allow ourselves to become a beautiful flowering of consciousness, or we can become a robot.

Just remember – we are responsible – us, and nobody else. An optimist is a person who goes to the window and says, “Good Morning, God”; and a pessimist goes to the window and says, “My God! It is morning?”

It all depends on us. It is the same morning, maybe the same window, maybe the pessimist and the optimist are staying in the same room — but it depends. And what a difference when we say, “Good morning, God” and when we say, “My God! It is morning?”

There is a Sufi story which Osho narrates. There were two friends who used to go to a Zen Master to learn meditation. Both loved their cigarettes. After a few days they decided to ask the Master for permission to smoke. Both of them went separately and when they met later, one of them was smoking and the other was not. The person who was not smoking became furious and wondered why he was denied permission. He was about to go to the Master, when the other person asked him how he posed his question! He said, “May I smoke while meditating?” The person given the permission laughed and said, “I know what the problem is. I framed the question as – May I meditate while smoking?”

So, it all depends. Just a little difference, and life is totally something else. Now, there is a great difference. Asking, “Can I smoke while meditating?” is just ugly. But asking, “May I meditate while smoking?” — it’s perfectly okay. Good! At least you will be meditating. Life is neither misery nor bliss. Life is an empty canvas, and one has to be very artistic about it.