Pleasure is of the body, the most superficial kind of bliss, very momentary, nothing of much value, just writing on the sand — the wind will come and all will be gone. The second thing is happiness. It is something deeper than pleasure. It is more psychological than physiological. For example, sex is pleasure, love is happiness. Love has a new dimension to it; it is more than sex. Sex may be a part of it, may not be a part of it — it is not necessary. Love may be just pure friendship with no sexuality involved in it — sensuous, very sensitive, but with no sexuality involved in it. Or sexuality may be a part of it, but when love is there it transforms even sexuality and its character; it gives it a psychological depth. It is a higher phenomenon than pleasure.

 

Animals know only pleasure, man is capable of knowing happiness — any man, without any meditation, is capable of knowing happiness. But bliss is a still higher phenomenon, the highest. It happens only through meditation. Unless a man passes through meditation he cannot experience bliss.

 

If sex is pleasure, love happiness, then prayer is bliss. In love there is a possibility of something of sex hanging around; in prayer there is no possibility at all. Prayer has no sexual dimension to it. It has completely gone beyond the body and beyond the mind. Because it happens only when you have gone beyond the mind, meditation is needed. Meditation is the science of going beyond the mind.

 

To know bliss is to know all — all that is valuable, all that is beautiful, all that is meaningful, all that is really significant. Without knowing bliss a man is just accidental, a driftwood, moving from one event to another event unconsciously. Meditation makes you conscious. Your life becomes intrinsic, no more accidental; you move consciously. A certain sense of clarity arises out of consciousness. You know where you are going, you know who you are, you know from where you are coming. Everything is clear. Life is no more zizag, now it is very straight.

 

Jesus says the bridge to god is very narrow but very straight. Certainly it is narrow because only you can pass through it. You cannot even take a friend with you, it is so narrow; each individual has to go alone. But it is very straight, no zigzagness in it, because you are moving very consciously. Attain to bliss, only then is sannyas fulfilled.

 

And Wolfgang means the walk of the wolf. Germans are really strange people! (laughter) I am really surprised how they find the names! (more laughter! They find such strange names… And they must be in deep love with the wolves because so many names contain ‘wolf’. Nothing is wrong with the wolf — something is wrong with the Germans! (much laughter) The wolf is perfectly beautiful and because I love the wolf, so I have to love the Germans!

 

The wolf is a simple animal, very courageous, and one of the greatest quality of the wolf is its loyalty. It is absolutely committed. If the wolf loves a man he is ready to sacrifice his life. He will never hesitate, he will never look back, he will never think twice. You can rely upon the wolf.

 

And of course, the walk of the wolf is also very graceful. All animals walk gracefully; only man has lost that grace. All animals, without exception — even animals like camels who cannot walk gracefully, who are not supposed to walk gracefully, who are not meant to walk gracefully — walk gracefully. Even centipedes with a hundred legs… Anybody can get puzzled: which leg to put down first and which to put down second, and the whole counting goes up to one hundred and by the time you reach the hundredth you may have forgotten the other legs. (laughter) But even centipedes walk very gracefully, for the simple reason that animals are total, out of their totality is their grace.

 

Grace is a by-product of totality. Both the animals and the Buddhas walk gracefully. Man is somewhere in between; he is no more animal and he is not yet a Buddha. He has lost something — the totality of the animal — and he has not yet gained the totality of a Christ or a Krishna or a Buddha, so he is a little divided, he is schizophrenic, he is in a conflict. He is always thinking of either/or, to do this or to do that. He is never decisive, and the indecisiveness brings the whole problem. When you are total there is grace. Then each small moment and each small movement is full of grace.

 

Be blissful and be graceful!

 

- Osho, “The Miracle, #9”