Life is a dream.

Looks like a snoop dog.

lol

I have always felt a need for a small reward at the end of the day: a few mugs of beer, cigarettes, or drugs. None of these bring me satisfaction anymore, and yet the craving for some form of gratification remains. What is this craving, and what will satisfy it?

Nothing will satisfy it. One must understand the subtle mechanism of desire. Desire works in the following way: desire places conditions on your happiness. "I will be happy if I get this car, this woman, this house." The fulfillment of desire removes the conditions that obstruct your happiness. You feel relief and feel great. In essence, all you have done is removed unnecessary obstacles to your happiness, but soon you will start thinking: "If I can create such an obstacle again, and then completely remove it once more, I will experience the same relief I felt last time, and I will feel great again." And so, desires, even when fulfilled, lead again and again to the arising of new desires.

Are you following the thought? First, you set a condition. You say, "Until I get this woman, I will not be happy. I can only be happy with this woman." And you begin to strive for this woman. And the more difficult it is, the greater your delight, the more excited you become.

The more difficult it is, the more you feel challenged. The more difficult it is, the more you stake your entire being, you are ready to play. And of course, more hope arises, and a greater desire to possess this woman. It is so hard, so difficult. It must be something magnificent, that is why it is so hard, that is why it is so difficult. You pursue this woman, pursue, pursue, and finally, you get her. On the day you win this woman, the condition is removed: "If I get this woman, I will be happy" — you set this condition first. Now you have the woman, you feel relief. No need to pursue anyone anymore, you have achieved the goal, the result is in your hands, you feel good — good because of the relief.

One day I saw Mulla Nasreddin walking, cursing and in severe pain. I asked him, "What's the matter? Does your stomach hurt, or do you have a headache, or something else? What's wrong? You look like you're in great pain."

He replied, "Nothing serious. The shoes I am wearing are too small."

"But then why are you wearing them?" He replied, "This is the only relief I experience at the end of the day. It is my only joy, so I cannot throw these shoes away. They are one size too small, and it is sheer hell, but in the evening it gives me heaven. When I come home, I take off the shoes, collapse onto the sofa, and say I have arrived. It is so wonderful."

That is what they do. You create pain, you create suffering, pursuit, excitement, and then one fine day you come home, take off the shoes, and say, "Magnificent, this is magnificent. I have arrived!" But how long can this last? Relief lasts only a few moments. And then you will have desire again.

Now this woman is completely useless, because you have gotten her. You cannot set the condition again. You cannot say again, "If I get this woman, I will be happy." Because you are already with her. Now you start eyeing someone else's woman. "If I get this woman..." Now you have learned this trick: first you set a condition under which you will be happy, then you desperately strive to fulfill the condition, and then comes relief. Now this is useless.

An understanding person will realize there is no need to set conditions. You can be happy without any conditions. Why wear shoes that are too small and suffer just to feel relief at the end? Why not feel relief all the time? But then you will not feel it — that is the only problem. To feel, you need contrast. You will be happy, but you won't feel it. And here is the definition of a truly happy person: a truly happy person is one who knows nothing about happiness, who has never even heard of it, who is so happy, so happy without any conditions — how could they know they are happy? Only unhappy people say, "I am happy, everything is going great." These are unhappy people. A happy person knows nothing about happiness. It simply is, it is always there. It is like breathing.

You don't feel very happy about breathing. Then try this: pinch your nose. Do some yogic exercises and hold your breath inside, keep holding it and holding it. Then it becomes painful. And you keep holding. Be a true yoga student — keep holding. And then it bursts out, and you feel it, and there is such great joy. But this is foolish, yet this is what everyone does. That is why you wait for the result in the evening.

Happiness is here and now, it needs no conditions. Happiness is natural. Understand this. Do not place conditions on your happiness. Remain happy without any reason at all. There is no reason to seek a reason to be happy. Just be happy... If you cannot be happy, then do not set impossible conditions so that it is not difficult. Mulla is right — such a small thing. I understand. He is much smarter than you think. Such a small trick — wearing shoes one size too small — such a small trick, no one can stop you from doing it, and by evening you are happy. Just small tricks, make up small tricks and be as happy as you please.

And as you understand, there is no need to set conditions. Just understand what it is all about — these conditions do not create happiness, they only bring relief. But relief cannot be permanent, no relief can ever be permanent. It lasts only a few moments.

Have you not noticed this many times? You wanted to buy a new car, and there it is at your doorstep, and you stand there very, very happy. How long does it last? Tomorrow it will already be an old car, one day old. In two days, it will be two days old, and all the neighbors have already seen it and appreciated it, and of course, no one talks about it anymore. That is why car companies must release new models every year — so that you can have new conditions.

People keep craving things just to get relief, and relief awaits them. Have you heard the story?

A beggar was sitting under a tree, and a rich man's car broke down.

The driver started fixing it, and the rich man got out. The beggar was enjoying his rest under the tree. It was windy, sunny, and beautiful, and the rich man came over and sat next to the beggar and asked:

"Why don't you work?"

The beggar replied, "What for?"

The rich man felt somewhat irritated and said, "When you have money, you can have a big bank account."

But the beggar asked again, "What for?"

The rich man felt even more irritated. He said, "What for? Then in your old age you can retire and rest."

"But," said the beggar, "I am resting now! Why wait for old age? And go through all that nonsense — earning money, putting money in the bank, and resting at the end. And don't you see? I am already resting. So why wait?"

Why wait for the evening? And why wait for beer? Why not drink water and enjoy it while you drink it?

You have heard the story of how Jesus turned water into wine? Christians did not understand this story. They think he actually turned it into wine. That is not true. He must have taught his disciples the secret that I am teaching you. He must have said to them, "Drink it so joyfully that water becomes wine."

We can drink water so joyfully that it will almost intoxicate us. Try it! You can get drunk on plain water. It depends on you. It does not depend on beer or wine. And if you do not believe this, ask a hypnotist — he knows. If a hypnotized person is given water and told it is wine, they will get drunk — on water.

Now doctors know about placebos, and the results sometimes puzzle them greatly. Experiments were conducted in one hospital. A group of twenty patients suffering from the same illness were given medicine, and another group of patients with the same illness were given just water — just to see how water would work. Neither the doctors nor the patients knew which was water and which was medicine, because if the doctor knows, his behavior will change. Giving water, he would not give it as seriously, and this might arouse suspicion in the patient. So neither the doctor nor the patient knew. The information was kept under lock and key.

And the miracle was that water helped the same number of patients as the medicine. From both groups, seventeen patients recovered by the second week. But the most miraculous thing was that those who took water remained healthy longer than those who took the medicine. People who took the real medicine started returning after just a few weeks.

What happened? Why did water help so much? The point is that medicine helps, not the drug. And because water is pure water, it cannot cause harm, while medicine can cause harm. That is why people who were given the real medicine started returning. They started creating new desires, new illnesses, new problems, because there are no medicines that do not affect your body in some way. And the body will react in its own way. Water causes no reaction; it is pure hypnosis.

You can drink water with such enthusiasm, with such prayer, that it becomes wine. You see how Zen Buddhists drink tea with such ceremony and ritual, with such awareness. Then even tea becomes something phenomenal. Ordinary tea is transformed. Ordinary actions are transformed — a morning walk can be intoxicating. And if a morning walk does not intoxicate you, then something is wrong with you. Looking at a rose can be intoxicating. And if it cannot intoxicate you, then nothing can intoxicate you. A child's eyes can be intoxicating.

Learn how to experience a joyful moment. Do not wait for results; there are none. Life does not go somewhere; it has no goals. Life is not a means to achieve any goal. Life is simply here and now. Experience it. Experience it fully, experience it consciously, and you will be satisfied.

Satisfaction cannot be postponed, otherwise you will never be satisfied. Satisfaction must be achieved now — now or never.
Osho