Choice
Avoid everything that makes you miserable. It is only a question of a little intelligence.
There are people who have become experts in finding causes to be miserable. They cannot be happy unless they are miserable. They know only one happiness and that is that of misery. And when such people talk about their misery you can see in their eyes, in their face, in the way they are talking about it -- everything shows -- that they are enjoying it, they are bragging about it. They must be magnifying their misery, making it look as big as possible. Now how can these people ever be blissful?
And each moment always has both alternatives; you can choose to be miserable or to be blissful. Start looking in this way: in each situation, first try to find out what will make you miserable and what will make you happy.
When I was a small child, my father, made a beautiful house. But the architect deceived him -- he was a simple man -- so the house collapsed in the first rains. We were just going to move into the house; just two or three days more and we would have been in the house and the house collapsed. My father was far away; I telegrammed him, "Come immediately -- the house has collapsed!" He never came, he never answered. He came when he was expected to come and the first thing that he told me was "You are a fool! That house is gone -- why did you waste ten rupees in giving me such a long telegram? Those ten rupees could have been saved! And thank god that the house collapsed at the right time. If it had waited just four or five then it would have killed the whole family!"
He invited the whole village for a feast. I loved that idea! The whole town laughed saying "This is sheer nonsense: your house has collapsed, everything is feeling miserable about it!" And he called all the people of the town -- it was a small town -- for a big feast, to thank god for helping us. Just four days more and the whole family would have died!
This is what I call choosing, in every situation, the blissful part.
One of my sisters died. I loved that sister the most and I was very miserable because of that sister's death, although I had ten other brothers and sisters. My father told me "You are unnecessarily getting disturbed about it. Thank god that you have ten brothers and sisters still alive! He could have taken all -- what can we do? Just as he has taken one he could have taken ALL. He has taken only one out of eleven. That is nothing, that much we can afford. We can give one child to god; if he needs her let him have the child. But you have ten brothers and sisters -- be happy that ten are still alive, rather than being unhappy for the one who has died."
This has to be the approach of every religious person, then your life naturally becomes a blessed phenomenon.
Meditate on bliss and go on finding the blissful part of every situation. Soon you will have so many flowers that you will be surprised it is the same life and where has all the sadness and all the despair gone?
One can create hell, one can create heaven -- it is our own decision, it is our own responsibility.
-Osho, “The Miracle, #21“