Osho – Misery makes you more and more impotent, hollow, it is a kind of negative emptiness. One simply feels useless, meaningless; one does not live, but only vegetates. But that is the story of millions of people: they all live in misery, and to live in misery is to live in hell.
Hell is not somewhere else — it depends on you. You can live in it right now or you can transcend it. It is our choice; but the choice is such that you cannot make it once for ever, you have to make it every moment. You cannot make it once and then go to sleep. You have to be alert, watchful, because each moment these two alternatives are present: to be miserable or to be blissful. And you become whatsoever you choose.
Choosing blissfulness brings strength, rootedness, centeredness, gives you an inner plentitude, a fullness. Not that misery disappears — the world goes on living in misery, and you are in the world and you are surrounded by miserable people and they are all like dark clouds, not even a silver line in them — but it no more touches you, it no more influences you. It no more has any impact on you. You remain in the world of misery and miserable people and yet you are above it.
Life can never be just a bed of roses. The roses come with thorns, because life is a duality. It is night and day, birth and death, summer and winter; it is happiness, unhappiness. Remember, by being blissful I don’t mean being happy. Happiness is another polarity of unhappiness. The happy person is bound to become unhappy sooner or later; the unhappy person will become happy again — it is a vicious circle. It is like a wheel: you go on moving in the same circle again and again.
Blissfulness is a transcendence: seeing the duality of life, seeing the constant conflict of polarities in life, one becomes only a witness. The world remains the same but you are no more the same; you live in the same world but you are a totally different person. You are reborn. That’s exactly the definition of sannyas: a rebirth.
Source – Osho Book “Even Bein’ Gawd Ain’t A Bed of Roses”