Osho – Consciousness and Bliss are two aspects of one phenomenon

Osho – Consciousness and bliss are two aspects of one phenomenon: from one side it is consciousness, from the other side it is bliss. And exactly in the same way unconsciousness and misery are related, they are aspects of one phenomenon – from one side unconsciousness, from another side, misery.

It is impossible to be conscious and miserable, just as it is impossible to be unconscious and blissful. Seek one and the other follows; there is no need to seek both. And to you my suggestion is: seek consciousness, because that will be easier for you. Your involvement is with intelligence. Your involvement is not with feeling; your involvement is with thinking. You think too much.

The thinking person can easily become conscious; the feeling person can easily become blissful.
So for the feeling person the journey starts by being blissful; for the thinking type the journey starts by being conscious. So transform your energy that is involved in thinking into consciousness. Rather than becoming identified with the thoughts that come to you, watch them; don’t become identified. Just see them as a procession… separate from you.

They are separate. You are always a witness. Don’t get lost in the crowd of the thoughts. Remain aloof, standing by the side of the road, let the traffic pass, and slowly slowly become more and more detached, distant. The more detached you are, the more distant you are. Soon you will see that thoughts are still coming but the old rush is no more there.

Thoughts are still coming but their grip over you is lessening. They are still coming but they look pale, ill, not so healthy and strong as they used to be, because their health depends on your identification with them. When you become identified with thought, the thought becomes very strong. It is your energy that the thought lives on. A thought is a parasite: it exploits you, can possess your whole being.

The more detached, the more observing you are, the more you will see that thoughts are far away, distant noises. Slowly slowly they lose all meaning, and the day they lose all meaning they disappear. When you don’t give them any importance they disappear. They come only because they are welcomed guests. When they become unwelcome, ignored, they stop coming. And the day that the no-thought moves in the mind, the whole energy is available to be conscious; and then consciousness rises in a vertical direction.

Thoughts move horizontally: one thought followed by another, followed by another. They move
horizontally. Consciousness moves vertically: it goes higher and higher and higher. Thoughts move like a river… consciousness rises like a tree… but it can rise only if the energy is no more involved in thoughts.

So this is your work: you have to become more alert, conscious, aware of your thinking process,
detached and distant. And as you become distant you will start feeling a great blissfulness arising in you for no reason at all. Just in the same gap that was occupied by thoughts, bliss arises. In the same emptiness in which thoughts were continuously gathering and crowding, bliss arises.

Nature abhors vacuum – it is true for the outer nature, it is also true for the inner nature. When you create an emptiness in your mind, immediately something that has always been there inside you, waiting for some space to spread, starts spreading. And that phenomenon is bliss.

Source : from Osho Book “Hallelujah!”