---
section: Library
booktitle: "The Sound of One Hand Clapping"
booktype: "Diaries"
bookcode: "CLAPP"
dategiven: "08 March 1981 pm"
place: " in Chuang Tzu Auditorium"
chapternum: "Chapter #8"
chaptertitle: "None"
acode: "8103085"
shorttitle: "CLAPP08"
audio: "No"
video: "No"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "The Sound of One Hand Clapping: Chapter #8"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
```
<!--This file is automatically generated. Do not edit!-->


the experience of bliss is not something arduous
it is not something upstream
on the contrary it is a question of relaxing, resting
it is not something to be achieved and cultivated
so those who want to be with the crowd
it is already there, it has only to be tasted
hence the only thing
that is preventing people from being blissful
is a courageous heart


people are being very cowardly
they are being taught to be cowardly
their whole pattern of life
is underlined with a current of fear
this is our politics, religion, culture, society
it depends on fear and exploitation of fear
hence the moment somebody decides to be blissful
nobody can prevent him
no force, no power can prevent him
just a little courage
courage to risk, courage to be alone
courage to go against the crowd, the mob
courage not to follow and imitate the fools


they are all miserable
and they would like you also to be just like them
and they will create every kind of hindrance
if you start being different
the crowd never likes anybody
who is different from it
he looks like a foreigner, he is suspicious, suspected
he cannot be trusted -- he is not one of us
that is the logic of the crowd


so those who want to be with the crowd
can never be blissful
then their destiny is closed
they will live in misery and die in misery
it is our decision, it is our life
it is nobody else's business
and one should not lose one's life
just for the sheer sake of conformity
convention, respectability


once you are ready to drop all that nonsense
the dawn has come
suddenly the light bursts forth
and life becomes a beautiful dance
there is only one religion
and that is the religion of bliss
the moment you are blissful you are religious
if you are not blissful you are irreligious
that is my definition
simple but of immense implications


you need not be a christian or a hindu
or a mohammedan to be religious
the whole earth is full of these people
and there is no religious quality anywhere
all these religions have been quarrelling
fighting, killing each other
in the name of god
in the name of love
in the name of peace
this is such a ridiculous situation
that it seems unbelievable
that for thousands of years
we have lived with this situation
and we have not yet been able to change it
it is so illogical, irrational, so absurd
my message is very simple


just be blissful
and don't bother about dogmas, creeds
whether there is a god or not
whether there is an after-life or not
these are all irrelevant questions
what matters is: right now are you blissful or not?
if you are blissful then everything that is true
is going to happen to you
there is no need to search for it
it will come of its own accord


if you are miserable
you can go on gathering knowledge
esoteric, occult and all kinds of bullshit
but it is of no use
you remain miserable all the same
you talk about chakras and kundalini
and the rising energy and the planes
and all the kinds of rubbish
people go on talking about
these are just diversions
somehow they are trying to distract themselves
from their misery


i am against all occultism
all so-called hidden esoteric secrets
i teach the open secret be blissful
that is the only true religion
and the person who is blissful cannot harm anybody
the blissful person is a benediction
to the whole existence
bliss is our very nature, it is our eternal law
in fact we cannot lose it
at the most we can only forget about it
so the only question is to remember
nothing has to be achieved but only remembered
... a forgotten language


each child is born in deep bliss
and then we start teaching him
the language of misery


and we burden him with so many things
that slowly slowly his natural, spontaneous being
is covered with thousands of layers
he forgets all about it
he forgets about himself


the function of the master is to remind you
that you may have forgotten it, but it is still there
just a little digging is needed


just as there are vicious circles
there are blissful circles too
in a vicious circle one wrong leads to another wrong
in a blissful circle one bliss leads to another bliss
it is only a question of choosing
the right circle for your life


people are living in vicious circles
for example, if somebody finds it difficult
to fall asleep
he tries hard to go into sleep
he tosses, turns, repeats mantras
counts sheep, from one to hundred
and then backwards
but whatsoever he is doing
will create more sleeplessness
because sleep is not something that you can bring
about by effort
now he is getting into a vicious circle


the more he endeavours to bring about sleep
the more he will feel himself awake
the more he feels himself awake
the more he will try new methods
transcendental meditation, etcetera
to fall asleep
and this can go on ad nauseum


in the morning he will be far more tired
than if he had simply accepted the fact
that sleep is not there
so it is not there and rested
there was every possibility
he may have fallen asleep
because he would not have created
the vicious circle


the same is true about bliss, about everything
just a small beginning
and then it triggers bigger phenomena


my own observation is that if you can be blissful
about a single thing in your life
that's enough
and it will lead you into new dimensions, new peaks
so whatsoever you love, whatsoever you like
do it, enjoy it, enjoy it totally
don't think about whether it is
something great or not
it doesn't matter


what really matters is your enjoyment
if you can enjoy anything totally
you are creating a circle of bliss
it will lead to new points, new departures
higher peaks
and soon you will be surprised
that a small beginning
has brought you to the ultimate
hence start with the immediate, whatsoever it is
just sipping a cup of tea is enough
if you can enjoy it totally
it will lead you to the ultimate samadhi


there are not small things and big things in life
only intelligent people and unintelligent people
the intelligent person
transforms everything into bliss
and the unintelligent
transforms everything into misery


blissfulness has never been thought of as a virtue
although it is the fundamental virtue
they have been talking about character
truthfulness, sincerity
humbleness, compassion
service, non-violence
and a thousand and one things as virtues
but a very strange fact is
they all drop one thing consistently
blissfulness
no religion counts it as a virtue
because these so-called religions
cannot allow people to be blissful
they want you to be miserable
and all their virtues
create more misery in you than before


it is very obvious
you can find ordinary people more joyous
than your so-called religious people
you will find sinners more innocent than your saints
for the simple reason that
the saint has been cultivating virtues
he has cultivated a thick facade around himself
like an iron wall, he lives behind it
he is imprisoned in his own ideas
he is a prisoner of his own stupidity


i don't teach any other virtue
because to me the fundamental virtue is bliss
everything else is just an aspect of it
if one is blissful
i cannot conceive that he can be untruthful
that is impossible
it is not in the very nature of things
if one is blissful he cannot harm he cannot hurt
if one is blissful he is bound to be compassionate
inevitably


so to me all the virtues
are by-products of blissfulness
and blissfulness is the only virtue
which is not a by-product of anything else


there are two kinds of discipline
one that is imposed from the outside
i am against it, it creates slaves
and we have enough of slaves in the world
we need a few free spirits to bring a little new breeze
into existence
to bring a few new insights
new splendours, new dimensions


i teach the second kind of discipline
which arises out of your own understanding


the first discipline has a set structure
the second discipline is liquid
it changes moment-to-moment
because life changes
how can you have ready-made answers
to situations which are constantly changing?
at this moment one thing may be true
the next moment it may not be true at all
in one situation it may be right
in another situation the same thing may be wrong
hence i say, be alert, be aware


be blissful and act out of your blissfulness
awareness, alertness, meditativeness
rather than acting out of fixed principles
act out of spontaneity, naturally
respond to the situation
and then whatsoever you do is right
and of course it is right not because
it is written in some scripture
it is right because it fits to the situation
it is right because it is the adequate response
and every adequate response
gives tremendous contentment


whenever you can act in a totally alive way
you will feel immense fulfilment following it
and that is bliss


pleasure is momentary
happiness is a little more than momentary
but not much
the difference is only of degrees
it lasts a little longer than pleasure
but sooner or later it ends
bliss is eternal; it begins but it never ends
to know bliss is to know
the ultimate fabric of existence
and that is our longest desire
that is our search -- knowingly, unknowingly
everybody is searching for it


unless we have found the eternal
we will be homeless
only the eternal can suffice
less than that won't do
so pleasures one can have but soon
one becomes fed up, tired, bored
they become repetitive
happiness one can have
but how long can one go on playing with toys?
beautiful, but toys are toys
one needs something more substantial
more nourishing -- and that's what bliss is


and the miracle is that it is already within you
you have not to go anywhere to find it
in fact just the opposite has to be done
you have to pull yourself from everywhere
so for few moments at least
you can be within yourself
that's what i call meditation
withdrawing yourself from the whole world
for a few moments, just to rest and relax
in the very pool of your consciousness


once you have started tasting the joy of that rest
you are coming closer to home, to the eternal


life can either be a tale told by an idiot
or it can be a tale told by a buddha
it all depends on you
if you remain asleep, unconscious
your life will be just accidental
like driftwood
at the mercy of the winds and the waves
meaningless
drifting towards death, becoming every day
more and more gloomy and dark
but if you become a little alert and awakened
the quality of life immediately changes
then it is no more accidental
it starts having a subtle meaning to it


that meaning is bliss and then
life starts turning into a beautiful story
a parable of immense dimensions
then a single man's life contains
all the scriptures of the world
then one can read the whole story of existence
within one's own heartbeat
but for that, one condition has to be fulfilled
one has to become a little more awake
a little more conscious


blissfulness grows
in the same proportion as consciousness
it is always symmetrical to consciousness
if one is miserable that shows he is unconscious
if one is blissful that shows he is conscious
if one is absolutely blissful
that shows one has arrived
the only thing that can be called divine
is blissfulness
the only thing that proves
the existence of godliness is blissfulness
no other argument can prove it


there have been many arguments
for the existence of the divine but
they can all be refuted, they have been refuted
man has not been able to find
a single argument which is irrefutable
but there have been a few people in the world


the very salt of the earth
whose existence cannot be refuted
whose presence cannot be refuted, whose presence
leaves such an impact of blissfulness
that even if you want to deny it
you cannot deny it
in spite of yourself you have to accept


and that something more
is what we are trying to impart here
that something more, that quality, xyz
i call it blissfulness -- it can only be imparted


hence the beauty of the love affair
between a master and a disciple
it is simply a love affair
it is the coming together of two hearts
in deep trust, in communion
so close, so open and vulnerable that
the flame from one heart
can jump into the other heart
and suddenly the unlit lamp is lit
and the miracle has happened
it happens suddenly
it is not a gradual process at all
pleasure needs two persons
happiness also needs duality
bliss does not need two persons or duality
one is enough alone


it happens in one's deepest aloneness
hence it is called


the Sound
of one hand
Clapping


in pleasure you will need a partner
if you enjoy food you will need food
if you enjoy music then music is needed
you have to depend on something
and any dependence hurts
and any dependence becomes a bondage
and one cannot forgive the person
to whom one becomes dependent
that's why lovers quarrel
the basic cause of quarrel is that
they feel they are encaged by each other
that they cannot be happy without each other
that hurts, that hurts very much that
i have become dependent, addicted
it is like drug addiction
one feels the slavery
and how can one be blissful in slavery
we have to search and seek within ourselves
a space where bliss happens but independently
it needs nothing else for it to happen
it happens as our own innermost source
that's why bliss brings with it
freedom, truth, and a sense
of immense grandeur, splendour
one never gets fed up with bliss
and the blissful person becomes capable
of living with other people also blissfully
because now he is no longer dependent on anything
he can enjoy pleasures, he can enjoy happinesses
because he knows that he has reached
to a state which is always available to him
where he can always go
leaving the whole world behind
he has entered
into that inner circle of his being
where nobody can interfere
where no bondage exists
where there is only pure music and poetry
and dance and celebration


anahato is one of the most beautiful names
it is very significant
only those who have known that state
are the buddhas
so try to hear


the Sound
of one hand
Clapping


it is there; one just has to become a little silent
and it is heard
once heard, it is forever yours
			

> [!info]
> Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
>